1. LOSS
Lyla opened her eyes to the sound of birds chirping.
“Mmmm…….”
Since the drowsiness hadn’t completely faded, Lyla tossed and turned around in a dazed state.
A prickling pain emanated from her skin, accustomed to the soft pillows made of the finest silk used at the Tordell mansion. The excessive stimulation made Lyla open her eyes.
Her eyelids fluttered open, and light seeped into the pupils hidden beneath them.
“Uh……”
Instead of a familiar room, she saw a small, dilapidated, but neat and cozy space.
“Where…?”
Momentarily bewildered, Lyla soon realized where she was.
“Right. I came home…”
Home.
A place where her family resided.
A place where she can be herself, where she doesn’t have to fake it, where she’s comfortable being herself.
A smile naturally graced her lips. Lyla woke up completely, enjoying the feeling of happiness.
Stretching as she got out of bed, Lyla felt light, and her body felt refreshed in line with her lifted spirits.
“I guess I’m all better now.”
Lyla muttered as she checked her condition lightly.
Her voice was raspy from the cold she had been suffering from until yesterday.
Lyla cleared her throat, then walked to the door.
Since the room wasn’t well soundproofed, she had been hearing commotion going on outside her room for a while.
In the past, when she was more sensitive, she would have reacted nervously to such noises, but these days, with her newfound serenity, she was more open to outside stimuli and didn’t mind.
In fact, it was pleasant. The sounds of a harmonious family completed the house.
Upon opening the previously closed door and descending the stairs, she could see her family gathered in the living room.
Taking a deep breath, the comforting scent of home mixed with the savory aroma of food filled her lungs.
“Oh? Lyla, you are awake?”
A woman in her forties, busy moving dishes, noticed Lyla standing there in a daze. She was Lyla’s mother, Sophia Violet, who looked older than her age due to the hardships she had endured.
“How’s your body? Are you still feeling sick?”
Sophia, who had nursed her daughter late into the night, asked with concern.
Unlike the pale, sickly appearance from the previous night, Lyla now appeared full of life, but to Sophia, she still seemed like she might collapse at any moment.
“I’m fine. Thanks to your care, I’ve completely recovered. Thank you.”
Lyla responded with a slightly cheerful tone.
“Honey, you don’t need to use such formal language within the family”
Sophia added, with a hint of disappointment in her voice at Lyla’s reserved greeting.
“Alright.”
Lyla responded slowly to Sophia’s unusual warmth.
“Good girl.”
Sophia praised Lyla like she was praising a young child.
As the mother and daughter’s conversation spread throughout the house, a middle-aged man cooking in the kitchen peeked his face out with a sly grin.
Seeing Lyla, who seemed perfectly fine, he burst into a wide smile.
“Did you sleep well, Lyla?”
Despite his gruff exterior, the man’s voice was as soft as cotton. He was Lyla’s father, Luke Violet.
“Yes, Dad.”
“Your complexion looks good. It seems you’re all better now, but how about your body?”
“Just as you said, I’m all better. I feel great.”
“Thank goodness. Even so, to restore your weakened body, you need to eat well. Go ahead and have a seat. Breakfast will be ready soon.”
Sophia, who had been listening to the conversation between her husband and daughter, also joined in.
“Yes, yes, go ahead and sit.”
Although she wanted to help with meal preparations, Lyla found herself quietly sitting at the half-filled dining table, thanks to her parents’ insistence.
Lyla absentmindedly looked around the house, which was smaller and simpler compared to Tordell mansion but was filled with the marks of a family’s life. Despite not having lived here for long, she already felt a deep attachment to this place.
No, the reason she had quickly grown fond of this house was because it housed her real family. Not a fabricated family imposed on her or constructed through contracts, but a group of people who genuinely cared for each other.
As the bubbling sound of soup on the stove mixed with her parents’ lively conversation, a natural smile appeared on Lyla’s lips.
Living with her family was less luxurious and more inconvenient than life at Tordell Mansion. However, her heart was much more at ease here than it had ever been at the mansion.
“Lyla, try this.”
“Yes….Wow, it’s delicious.”
Happiness enveloped her in the company of her family, gradually brightening her and making her more endearing. This transformation was evident on her face.
Lyla smiled more often now. When she was at Tordell Mansion, she rarely showed any emotion, wearing either a blank or gloomy expression. But here, she easily wore a bright smile.
Her irritability and sensitivity to small things had disappeared.
Thanks to her newfound peace of mind, she is able to overlook things that would have bothered her before.
While she found herself a bit unfamiliar with the changes in herself from day to day, Lyla welcomed her transformation.
‘I’m fortunate to be here.’
The journey from Tordell Mansion to this place had been a long, difficult, and painful one.
Along the way, she wondered if she should have gone somewhere else.
She didn’t want to have any more regrets, so she thought about it a lot, hesitated, and came here.
‘It was the best choice’
Coming here has been the most fulfilling decision she’s ever made as Lyla Violet.
As Lyla Violet, she was immensely happy here.
‘I wonder how Aslan is doing…….’
Except for occasional moments when Aslan came to her mind…
Apart from those times, she tried not to think of him. She had left to forget him, but his memory lingered like a shadow.
She couldn’t help it. Aslan was once her world. She had been relying on him for a whopping three years, so it was impossible to forget him anytime soon.
It wasn’t her fault that he popped into her thoughts suddenly.
Lyla didn’t blame herself for feeling foolish and lingering on her emotions.
‘It’ll get better’ she would always reassure herself.
At first, she thought of him every hour and every minute, but as the days passed, the time she spent thinking about him decreased.
‘If he wanted to find me, he would have already.’
She knew the power of the Tordell family. They would have easily tracked the actions of a woman who left so carelessly like her.
Yet, despite all that, Aslan had not appeared before her. The reason she already knew.
‘He doesn’t care where I am.’
It had been a month since she left Tordell Mansion. If he wanted to find her, he would have done so by now. The thought that maybe he missed her absence and might come looking for her had disappeared around the time she settled here after a week.
Resignation had become familiar. Lyla had accepted that she was not a significant presence to him.
She hadn’t been melancholic for long. If she had been alone, she might have spent every day in tears, tormented by that fact.
But now, Lyla wasn’t alone.
“Come on, Lyla, try this special soup your dad made!”
“Hey, Aiden! Your sister is already up. What are you still doing lying around? Get up, have your meal, and go to work!”
“Ugh, I’m awake. Stop yelling. Oh, sis, are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks for worrying.”
Lyla naturally blended into the noisy family.
Being around them, she couldn’t hold onto any one thought for long. Even her worries about Aslan faded away.
Thud, thud, thud!
Hearing the fierce rain beating against the window, she no longer felt sad.
“With this kind of weather, can you go to work?”
“Well, the rain is quite heavy.”
There was a time when bad weather made her think of Aslan first. But now, she worried about her family before anything else.
“Even if you use an umbrella, you might still get drenched. What if you catch a cold?”
“Oh, our Lyla. You have such a big heart!”
“We’ll be fine sister. We’re pretty resilient, so we don’t get sick easily.”
“But still.”
Lyla’s brow furrowed in concern.
Her family assured her not to worry, their words comforting her.
Amidst them, Lyla had forgotten the thoughts of Aslan that had occupied her just moments ago.
Aslan was different.
Aslan, who had been thinking about Lyla all day, couldn’t take it anymore because of the content of the report he had just read.
Aslan summoned his subordinate and gave an order.
“We’re going to Eres now. Prepare the carriage.”
