Spreading Like Flower-Stained Water
Helena, who had brought her attention back to Flam, let out a deep sigh.
“I don’t even know what the right choice is. Eugene, or Ian.”
This time, Flam didn’t offer comfort. Instead, he led Helena back out to the smithy.
“Where in the world is there such a thing as right or wrong choices?”
The place where Flam stopped, after casually uttering those words, was where he had been working just moments ago. On the workbench lay a newly completed sword. Flam gestured with his eyes as if telling her to hold it.
Helena reached out with a dubious expression, then jerked her hand back in surprise.
“Hot, isn’t it?”
Flam chuckled. Helena shot him a reproachful look, but he nonchalantly picked up the sword he had set down and waved it around.
“To make this, the fire needs to reach 900 degrees. That’s why I work the bellows all day. So did the fire do well, or did I do well?”
“……?”
“The result is the same sword either way, but it’s because the temperature rose to 900 degrees, and also because I raised it to 900 degrees.”
When Helena furrowed her brow, Flam chuckled again.
“Sounds like I’m talking nonsense, right? In the end, you just need to choose the reason that seems most vivid to you. I don’t know if it’s the right choice either. But I do know it’s a good choice.”
Flam then used the sword like a stick to point at his own body.
“For reference, look at my clothes. Two days ago, I asked Gelda on a date looking like this and got kicked in the shin. So I learned that was a bad choice. But then when I slipped a ring on her finger that I’d crafted for ten days and nights, she teared up, so I knew that was a good choice.”
Flam’s voice was as big as his build. Which meant everyone in the smithy could hear it.
Helena heard the surroundings suddenly fall silent before exploding into cheers. From here and there, people holding their various works in progress raised them and cheered.
“Good heavens, does this mean you finally proposed!”
“Hurry up and set a date!”
“You absolutely must invite all of us!”
Helena comforted the rarely flustered Flam.
“I think preparing plenty of food for the wedding day would be a good choice.”
Leaving him behind, she stepped out of the smithy as a cool breeze blew in. It carried a faint scent of cigars.
When she looked up, she saw Eugene approaching, waving his hand somewhat awkwardly. Helena alternately looked at him and the purple stain coloring her fingernails.
‘Love doesn’t require resolution. It’s natural.’
Helena waved back at Eugene. Though they were some distance apart, she could feel his smiling face. Her chest ached quite a bit.
‘You truly were like that. You came rushing in like a wave and spread through me like flower-stained water.’
Because he couldn’t be a good choice for her.
****
Wednesday morning at Spencer Castle began with battle cries and clanging metal sounds.
Helena arrived at the training grounds as usual and watched the knights training. The knights raising their swords in unison to precise commands were in the midst of sword practice.
Compared to the Grand Duchy’s knight order, their skills were by no means lacking. Gelda had quite a respectable private army.
[Flam provides the swords, and I create people who protect people.]
When she first showed her the Partren Knight Order, Gelda had said this proudly.
Helena suppressed her itching fingers and continued watching the sword practice. However, a chattering sound that didn’t match the resonant battle cries mixed in.
Not far away, Gelda and Lily were walking along the fence, bickering. Gelda was trying to pry Lily off, who was clinging to her neck like a monkey.
“I’ll play with you next time. Not now.”
“Always next time, next time! And you still call yourself my mother?”
“You always whine ‘today, today’! And you still call yourself my daughter?”
“How can you not give in to your daughter even once?”
“Who says I can’t win even one argument?”
Eventually, Lily pouted and jumped down from Gelda, running off without looking. Gelda shouted after her.
“Do you think it’s easy to run this castle? I’m really busy, I tell you.”
Helena stepped in at that timing and blocked Lily’s path.
“That’s right, Lily. A new bride really has a lot to do.”
“Sister!”
“You……!”
Gelda’s face reddened at the mention of “new bride,” and she was about to lose her temper but changed tactics and swallowed it back. Instead, she pulled Lily’s hand over and placed it in Helena’s.
“Perfect timing, take care of this one for me. Your body’s itching for action anyway. This is harder to train than swordsmanship, you know?”
Gelda grinned wickedly and disappeared quickly. And for the rest of the day, Helena had no choice but to truly agree with her words.
It wasn’t until Lily’s bedtime that she could finally catch her breath.
Still not tired apparently, Lily brought over a large picture book.
“Sister, read this to me!”
Helena looked over the book with its garish cover colors with distaste.
Truth be told, picture books were what she most avoided. It was a preference ingrained from childhood.
No matter how hard she looked, not even a speck of happiness existed in her life, yet fairy tales spoke as if the ending “and they lived happily ever after” was the most natural thing in the world.
The impoverished viscounty that bore only the title, family members who lived drowning in alcohol and gambling, her younger brother Basil who was sickly from birth.
It was a weight she’d carried from the moment she began haltingly reading a worn, tattered picture book.
But what she was receiving now…….
“It’s light.”
Despite its considerable thickness and size, it really was. They say when you’re ready to read about happiness, it feels light. Could that really be true?
Helena grabbed a blanket and settled on the bed.
“I haven’t seen this one before. Did Gelda buy it for you?”
“No, Grand Duke Eugene did!”
“……Eugene?”
“Yes, and besides this, he bought me pretty dolls and marshmallow cookies too! At first I thought he was a scary man, but he turned out to be a reeeeally nice big brother!”
Lily excitedly explained, pointing to various places in her room. Indeed, there was a bounty of charming items that made her appreciate Eugene’s taste anew.
She had wondered what he did on days when he wasn’t following her around, and it seemed he’d been doing things like this.
Helena patted the space beside her and opened the picture book.
“Come here. I hope this becomes a wonderful lullaby.”
Lily quickly changed into her pajamas and threw herself down in the spot next to her. The child’s eyes, sparkling with anticipation, glittered like stars.
Helena turned the pages one by one, mimicking the voices of the characters. The story soon reached its climax.
“The witch asked: Everything comes with a price. Luckily for you, you have what I need. So tell me your wish. Let’s exchange what we each want.”
When she turned to the next page, there was an illustration of a wooden doll opening a door in its chest and offering a heart-shaped piece to the witch.
“I want freedom. I don’t know exactly how to get it or what it is, but I know that’s what I want.”
After reading the wooden doll’s line, Helena stopped her hand from turning the next page. When the air grew quiet and she looked to the side, Lily had fallen fast asleep.
Helena pulled the blanket up to Lily’s chin and left the room.
As she walked down the quiet corridor, Eugene’s words came to mind.
[Reclaim your destiny, Helena.]
Helena raised her head toward the long window. Tonight, the moon embedded in the center of the night sky was especially bright. Bright enough to light the way even in the dark corridor without lamps.
‘I know what my path is.’
Helena hoped he was looking at the same scene as her.
‘You know it too. I need you for my freedom, Ian. That’s the only way it can be complete.’
****
Under the unusually clear full moon, acrid smoke spread in all directions like a lunar halo.
Ian rolled his body to avoid a landmine. A rebel soldier who had stepped where he’d been just moments ago screamed and was blown away.
Ian hid in a dark place where not even the moon’s shadow reached, looking to the side and panting.
“Even now, do you really think it was right not to bring Helena?”
Heidi removed Ian’s hand from his side where he was clutching it and grumbled.
“Who knows, maybe sister could have saved brother. Anyway, you fool, couldn’t you avoid just that one thing? You know Beelze is strong in close combat, so why did you rush in?”
Though she couldn’t see well, she could guess the amount of blood loss from the damp, slippery sensation.
As Heidi hastily stopped the bleeding, Ian raised the corner of his mouth.
“That bastard overextended himself today too. He’ll be pressuring Cheshire for a while, and it’ll become easier for us to find more of that person’s traces.”
“As if Cheshire would easily leave traces—”
“Have you forgotten how we first found out Cheshire was in Instantia?”
Cheshire never wagged her tail without reason. Perhaps it wasn’t luck that Cheshire happened to be in the same country as Helena.
Heidi, sharing the same thought, resigned herself and focused on treating the wound. The sounds of artillery and screams continued.
As she squeezed out weak healing magic, Heidi asked quietly.
“Don’t you miss sister?”
Instead of answering, Ian swallowed a hollow breath. Whether it was from the pain of the wound or from the question, he couldn’t tell.
Soon he exhaled his answer as if exhausted.
“We can’t be free, Heidi. Not until this war ends. Love can bloom on top of freedom, but there’s no love built by trampling on freedom.”
Heidi rolled her eyes even though she knew he couldn’t see her.
“Anyway, brother, your mouth is too alive. Try killing it a little.”
“I can’t. If I kill this, Helena will be sad. You wouldn’t know how much Helena loves my mouth— ugh!”
“Sorry, my hand slipped in the dark.”
My fate is truly strange, having to hear about my sibling’s bedroom matters on a battlefield. Heidi, having firmly tied the bandage knot, draped Ian’s limp arm over her neck and struggled to stand up.
“If you want to keep using your mouth or whatever, be quiet for now. Sister doesn’t only like your mouth, right?”
****
News came last night that the ship that had set sail last month had returned. Helena couldn’t sleep all night.
However, cruelly for her waiting, the carriage loaded with supplies from the port didn’t arrive at the castle until sunset.
Helena immediately ran over and peeked around. Understanding her feelings, Flam picked out what she was looking for from among the mountain of crates.
“Finally got it. It’s crowded here, so go look at it in your room. It’s not the original, but it was copied by a skilled painter, so it shouldn’t be much different.”
Helena clutched tightly the long, narrow wooden box he handed her.
Inside this was Emperor Rihalt’s portrait.
“I hope this becomes the last ‘Ian’ you’re searching for.”