Ellie turned her head and looked around.
The first thing she did after confirming the absence of the vase was not to look for the broken pieces of the vase or to resent the maid who was said to have been caught hiding.
‘The flowers, the flowers?’
Have those been ruined too?
She rubbed her eyes and looked for them, but she couldn’t find even a single petal, let alone the flowers.
Ellie covered her face with both hands, her expression blank.
-What the heck…!”
She was fond of the vase, of course. She was.
But to be precise, the flowers that were in it were even more precious.
[Are you really sure about this?]
A young face, his lips pursed in a sullen pout as if he didn’t like it, came to mind.
He must have been in his mid-teens.
[Yup. I like it!]
At that time, when he was between boyhood and youth, Rutus was just beginning to make his talents known to the world in earnest.
Winning the swordsmanship tournament was also part of the reputation he had built up.
Rutus, who had slipped out from among the people who were busy cheering and bustling, stood in front of Ellie, not looking very excited.
[Aren’t you excited? You’re the youngest winner ever.]
[Well, it’s only a one-year difference.]
[Even so! They said that he wasn’t even a regular knight, was he? You should be proud of yourself.]
Rutus, you’re definitely going to grow up to be a very strong and cool knight.
Maybe you’ll even rise to the rank of head knight of the royal guard? Ellie was so proud, even though she hadn’t won.
Seeing Rutus straighten his back and puff out his chest, he finally let out a deflated laugh.
So, how was it?
[Let’s go to the boutique.]
[Why there all of a sudden?]
[You were singing about wanting to have it while looking at the catalog for this season.]
[How did you know that? I said it so quietly!]
[Yeah, you said it quietly. To my ear while I was reading a book.]
… Did I? Ellie feigned ignorance, tapping the tip of her low-heeled shoes on the floor.
The dress that the famous boutique had released that year was just her taste. She was sorry that she couldn’t afford it because she had already used up her allowance from her family to buy clothes and jewelry.
A whopping 200 gold for one dress.
She had snapped at the idea of buying her a dress that cost the equivalent of a year’s living expenses for a four-person family of commoners.
And to top it off, the source of the money was the prize money from the swordsmanship tournament.
[Are you crazy? Why are you spending your prize money on something like this?!]
[You said you wanted it.]
[I never asked you to buy it for me! And you earned that money with your own hard work, so you shouldn’t spend it on me!]
[…Then I’m using it.]
It’s the first time he’d earned money with his own strength, not his family’s. He wanted to give her his first gift if he won.
The handsome boy, who was embarrassed to admit that he had entered the competition for this reason in the first place, covered his mouth with the back of his hand, and a faint blush rose to his cheeks.
The boy, who was clearly embarrassed about his shyness, was not lacking in attracting attention, and so Ellie, who noticed the gathering glances, led Rutus out of the tournament hall.
[…Then how about that instead of a dress?]
She pointed to the street vendor selling various flowers near the entrance.
Since the competition is held only once every three years, many people were buying flowers to cheer on the participants.
Ellie dragged Rutus to the relatively deserted display stand of the street vendor after the winner was decided.
[If you want to receive flowers, …I can buy them somewhere else, not necessarily here.]
Rutus quickly scanned the display stand and carefully opened his mouth.
Even in the midst of this, the street vendor’s muttering into his ear, as if he was worried about being scolded, was quite impressive.
[It’s not that I don’t like it, but here, well… there are only wildflowers.]
[What’s wrong with that?]
[I mean, I can get you a prettier and more expensive kind of flower, not one that grows by the roadside. It’s too much to give wildflowers as a gift.]
[Wildflowers are pretty too?]
[That’s not what I’m saying…! ]
After arguing like that for a while, they finally chose flowers after receiving a call that their carriage was waiting.
Not me, but Rutus.
[…Then let’s go with this one. This one is in the best condition.]
[Yeah. Then I need to find a nice vase to put it in!]
That was it.
On their way back after successfully buying flowers that day, Ellie bought a small, delicate vase that would go well with the bouquet of short, small pansies.
It was more like a small bowl than a vase.
But she still liked it so much that she called a magician as soon as she got back to the mansion.
[Is this… what you’re talking about?]
[Yeah. Can you cast a preservation spell on it?]
She spent 300 gold, which was much more expensive than the dress she had wanted so badly, to cast a preservation spell on the bouquet of pansy flowers that she had bought for less than 10 gold coins.
What mattered was not the price of the object, but the memories it held.
The small bouquet of flowers that Rutus gave Ellie had that much meaning to her.
Wouldn’t this be better than a dress that would only last a year?
[Oh my, young lady! I told you not to touch the dirty rags! You’ll hurt your hands!]
Despite being a countess and the lady of the mansion, she personally cleaned the flower vase every day.
[Madam, would you like us to take care of it until you give birth, since you are pregnant?]
Even after becoming Duchess Ratcliffe, she brought it from her room in her parents’ house and managed it herself.
Even when she was confessed to by Rutus.
Even when they got engaged and married.
Even when her health was greatly impaired after giving birth.
There were no exceptions.
…And then it all disappeared.
‘How could they just vanish like that!’
She was so wronged that she was about to cry.
Ellie, who had been covering her face with her hands that had been clutching the floor in despair at the years of effort that had disappeared without a trace, suddenly raised her head.
-Wait, then what about the baby?
Rutus might have gone to work as the commander of the Imperial Knights, but where is the child?
As she recalled the conversation between the maids as she thought of the eerily silent corridor,
‘They said they wouldn’t let anyone in unless they were cleaning.’
But the newlyweds’ room and the baby’s room were all on this floor.
If not here, then where are they all?
Ellie quickly got up from her seat and headed towards the door on one side of the newlyweds’ room.
The room that she had been preparing with Rutus for a long time was right next door.
[Isn’t it too early for that when he won’t even be able to roll over yet?]
[Then we’ll just change it later when it’s time. How about it, Look. Isn’t it cute?]
[…It’s cute. You decorated it nicely.]
…How could she forget this room?
The lovely interior, the fluffy floor, and the dolls filling one side of the bed.
It looked just like she remembered it, though the things were faded in some places as if they hadn’t been used in a long time.
After confirming that the child was not in the room, Ellie immediately went out into the hallway and searched all over the mansion.
Surely they wouldn’t have sent away a child who was not even a year old yet, so he must be somewhere in the house.
-Let’s find the child first. Then…
…What should I do next?
Ellie’s steps, which had been hurrying around and had brought her to the entrance of the mansion, gradually slowed down.
She finally saw a few familiar servants in her sight.
Ellie turned and called out to one of the maids passing by.
-Hey, don’t you see me?
She just passed by.
It wasn’t just the maid.
You too?
-… Butler?
-Head maid?
-… Can you really not hear me?
No one answered my call.
A translucent body that couldn’t be seen, heard, nor touched, although no magic or curse had been cast.
It was something that couldn’t happen to an ordinary person.
‘… I guess it’s only natural since I’m already dead.’
Ellie quietly left the mansion. Light snowflakes were falling.
‘… What season is it supposed to be? In my memory, it was the end of summer.’
What was it like before I woke up today? Ellie tried to recall her memories.
She woke up in the late afternoon and went for a walk with the other two because she was feeling good. They had an early dinner.
She was about to put off taking her medicine because she was feeling lazy, but she ended up having to drink the problem carp juice as punishment because Rutus caught her.
Finally, they lay in bed for a while, rolling around, then kissed their child’s cheeks and fell asleep.
‘… But am I really dead?’
It didn’t feel real at all.
[Since the weather has cleared up a lot, should we go boating together tomorrow?]
She had thought such a thing before falling asleep.
I probably can’t do that anymore.
-If I had known this would happen, I would have suggested going out instead of taking a walk….
We should have gone boating after all. We should have gone to see the flowers and fish.
No, at least we should have drawn a family portrait together to leave a memory.
I should have written a letter. I should have said I love you. I should have gotten up early and done something, rather than sleeping in.
Sitting huddled against the outer wall of the building, snowflakes fell onto her insteps.
More accurately, they passed through her insteps and fell to the ground.
She was barefoot, without even a coat, dressed in a thin dress as if to prove that she wasn’t a living person, yet she didn’t feel cold at all.
‘What can I do to find my child with this kind of body?’
Even if I search, I won’t be seen or heard. Is there any point to that?
It was at that moment.
“Ah, it’s so cold. Why has it been snowing all day?”
A black edge of a cloak passed in front of Ellie, who was sitting huddled.
Although I couldn’t remember her name, she looked familiar because I had often seen her in her natural state.
Watching the maid, who seemed to have forgotten something and hurriedly headed somewhere, Ellie muttered under her breath.
-That way leads to the annex….
Why is she going that way?
As far as I know, the Ratcliffes were a family with almost no movement between the main house and the annex.
Therefore, unless it was a special case, it was unlikely that a maid from the main house would go to the annex.
Ellie, who had risen from her seat, followed the maid.
Since she had already searched everywhere in the main house except for the annex, she felt like she should check out the annex as well.
After Ellie followed the maid to the annex.
The place where the tray filled with soup, bread, meat, and salad was pulled from the kitchen with rough hands was an unexpected place.
‘…The top floor attic?’
It was a place that many of the servants were reluctant to go to because it was difficult to warm up even when the fireplace was on, and it was inconvenient to get to.
A literal garret that was hot in summer and cold in winter.
The maid, who had knocked on the old wooden door, said.
Knock knock-
“Young Master, I’m going to leave your dinner in front of you, so please make sure you eat it all today?”
“…….”
“Young Master? Did you hear what I said?”
…Oh, well. The maid sighed and turned her back after repeating herself several times without getting a response.
Ellie watched the maid go down the stairs and swallowed hard.
-Young Master?
There were no collateral relatives living in this house.
‘Surely it hasn’t changed since then?’
But that couldn’t be the case. It was then that she frowned slightly.
Creak-
Ellie turned her head to the door that had been carefully opened a crack and was shocked.
-…Oh my?
There stood a child with thick, unkempt black hair and sparkling purple eyes peeking through the door gap.
* * * *
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