Arsene was lying in bed, thinking about her, until the two kids interrupted his thoughts. Maybe Mary doesn’t know. The secret of the garden where the flowers change every day. He chuckled to himself at the thought of her strolling through the garden with Demimore, unaware of the secret of the flowers that change every day.
It was pretty cute to see Mary and Demimore tease each other.
He wondered if this is what an older brother feels while watching his younger siblings fight.
Until she spoke up
“I don’t want any more people to be harmed by him.”
Her parents had also tragically lost their lives at the hands of the God of Death.
How could he love the daughter of those he considered as insignificant as flies. Arsene thought it was a terrible piece of karma from the God of Death.
The thought of taking her, who was left alone in the corner of the temple after losing her parents, was just a momentary sympathy.
A child who lost her parents like that might be used for the spell of the god of death again.
Arsene took her out of the God of death’s territory, and it was the God of earth who picked her up.
The God of earth gave her life, and she went to the temple closest to the sky and became a saint.
Called the Daughter of the God of Earth, she prayed for the good fortune of the continent.
It was Arsene who taught her how to pray, calling her the Saint of Prosperity.
Because he had brought her here, Arsene almost took care of her as if she was entrusted to him.
It was said that Aresene had brought her here because he missed his human mother.
His mother, who he can’t even remember the face, had nothing to do with it. Rather than that he felt more pity and sorry for her.
Even so, as a child who was brought here, the girl was nothing more than a little one who could be a nuisance at most until she grew up to his waist.
“Ah!”
“Arsene, are you okay?”
The pale-faced woman heard Arsene’s groan and came closer, more surprised than he was. She made a fuss and took Arsene’s index finger.
As it was summer, she said she wanted to decorate the area around the temple with red roses, and she got them by praying to the god of the earth.
While touching the rose without thinking, Arsene was stabbed by a rough thorn.
“It’s okay, It’ll heal soon.”
Feeling embarrassed that a child so much smaller than him was looking at his wound with a face that looked like she was about to cry, Arsene took his index finger out of her tiny hand and hid it behind his back.
Her cheeks flushed as she watched his behavior.
But Arsene’s words were not false. Even if he couldn’t match the resilience of a god, a wound like this would heal quickly.
“It still hurts, doesn’t it?”
“It hurts, but……. It’s okay. You should be careful with roses, too. The thorns are sharper than they look. Oh, and if you’re going to grow flowers, wouldn’t it be better to plant something else? I’m going to help too.”
“Arsene, you got pricked by a thorn and said, ‘Ah!'”
Arsene looked into the eyes of the child, who was mimicking the sound he had made when he was pricked by the thorn.
Her eyes were filled with concern for him. It felt awkward to receive this kind of concern just because he got pricked by a rose thorn.
Even his own father had been more inclined to urge Arsene to heal faster, rather than to worry if he came back with a wound.
“Well, It’s almost healed now, isn’t it? Even normal humans don’t think a wound like this is a big deal.”
Bending his waist, Arsene showed his index finger to the girl to assure her. The worry in her eyes seemed to fade a bit.
But the relief was soon replaced by a ferocious glare.
Her eyes, which were still curled up at the corners, looked like those of an angry cat.
She doesn’t usually get angry, so it was refreshing to see her with this expression on her face.
“Still, you can’t get hurt! Be careful!”
“Oh, okay.”
The child who had warned him so harshly turned around. For some reason, it looked like he could see a tail with fur sticking out.
Arsene felt like laughing uncontrollably, but he held it in. She had always been a child with many worries and adorable.
“What are you doing?”
As he watched her engraving symbols on a stone and set it up around the village as if possessed, Arsene felt fear for the first time since he met her.
As the son of a god, Arsene could see these spell patterns, but they would be invisible to ordinary people.
It was an ability granted to her by the God of the Earth, an ability that was essential as the Saint of Prosperity, who tended the temple closest to the sky.
“So that he can’t come in….”
He will find me again. Her words seemed as if she were talking to herself rather than answering Arsene’s question.
He watched her from afar, unable to stop her, unable to help her.
When she learned that her parents, whom she thought had abandoned her, had been killed by a prank by the God of Death, she began to avoid him, but he became madly obsessed with her.
He even went so far as to use anyone who happened to have a relationship with her as his sacrifice.
Arsene could only curse the God of death for destroying such a beautiful and loving child.
In the end, she closed her eyes, taking back the breath that the God of earth she loved so dearly had given her.
And that’s not all. She went through pains she should never have experienced, even after being reborn on the stars under the domain of the god of earth. And after enduring all that, she finally returned to this place….
‘Damn it’
Perhaps the gods watching her thought that the god of death’s obsession with her completely disappeared at this point.
But their judgment was just terrible arrogance. The God of Death’s unwavering obsession with her did not disappear, instead it kept growing like a madman.
He hoped that here, in this place where her past self was protecting her, Mary would realize something.
Mary still felt more awkward than happy to see her picture in charms that here people carry. He didn’t want Mary to hate her.
He didn’t want her to think that her past self had ruined her life. Because she did her best in this, too.
The garden was her gift to her future self, an atonement.
“Arsene!”
As Arsene’s eyes were about to tear up thinking about her and Mary, then someone banged on the door calling his name. It was Mary.
Did you come here to take Demimore home? She said she would give him time to think, but she came back in a hurry before he even thought about the real problem.
Arsene roughly wiped his eyes with his palm and opened the door.
“You’re here already?”
His voice sounded a little cracked. Arsene looked at the children under his gaze.
Demimore had a proud but somehow wistful expression as if he thought of something good…. Mary was just looking at him with sparkling eyes, holding her fist.
What is it? Did they come up with another good idea?
The look on their faces told him he didn’t need to ask why, and he leaned his head against the wall to listen.
“Just tell me the conclusion.”
“Let’s go home!”
“Um, no. Why don’t you explain it properly?”
Sensing that this was going to be a long story, Arsene led them into the house.
It had been quite some time since they came here, but Mary, who was seeing Arsene’s house for the first time, looked around with wide eyes.
Demimore flopped into a chair as if he was not interested.
‘Why is he…’
If Mary goes home, wouldn’t that be the best for him? He doesn’t understand why he feels subtly uneasy.
They had tea at Mary’s house earlier, but thinking that the story might take long he went to the kitchen but she hugged his waist and said.
“We have to go home and get some laminaicho!”
“Laminaicho?”
He turned around and tried to check Mary’s face holding his waist, but the small hand wrapped around his waist disappeared.
Instead, he saw Mary smiling brightly in Demimore’s arms, who was very wary of him.
He was sitting there, when did he come and take her off in such a hurry… Now that he thought about it, what he felt earlier was not an older brother sentiment…….
‘A father-in-law’s feelings?’
Demimore’s eyebrows went up, perhaps because Arsene, who snorted, got on his nerves again.
Arsen didn’t really want to pay attention to Demimore’s mood, but he urged Mary for an answer, thinking that if he didn’t, Demimore’s eyebrows might not come down again.
“Why laminaicho?”
“Demimore said it was an herb that blooms in the season of death.”
Arsene knew about Laminaicho.
A magical herb that sprouted in winter on branches that had lost all their leaves and were now gray and devoid of color. It blooms in the season of death.
But the look on Arsene’s face when he asked why she was suddenly looking for it made Mary’s chest tighten with frustration.
“Think about it. The god of death uses ‘similar’. So why don’t we use the opposite?”
