Ch.100Hope (2)

“I’m going to the academy. All of us together.”

A calmly dropped bombshell statement.

Elise stared blankly at this, then soon looked at me with trembling pupils.

It seemed she had finally grasped the meaning behind my words.

Her returning voice was clearly tinged with bewilderment.

“Wait… what are you saying?”

“Exactly what you heard.”

“But the academy… this isn’t just sudden, it’s impossible.”

“Why are you so certain about that?”

I deliberately ask back with shameless confidence.

The rose wears a confused expression.

As I stroke her red hair splayed across the bed, her gaze, filled with incomprehension, pokes at my cheeks.

I smile calmly.

My whispered voice disperses softly.

“You don’t need to worry about anything. Everything is already part of the plan.”

“……”

My tongue flickers cunningly.

I lean my head closer.

As the distance between us narrows, our inextinguishable breaths mingle in the empty air.

Timing it perfectly, I gently stroke the rose’s stomach.

“Your Highness.”

Swish-

As I slip between her nightclothes, the sensation of snow-white skin spreads across my fingertips.

I press down on it, feeling the subtle warmth.

Squeeze-

“Mmh…”

Her rosy lips add a plaintive moan.

Her breathing momentarily falters.

Perhaps due to the treatment she’s received over the past few days, now just placing my hand on her elicits an automatic response.

The explicit contact kneads a specific area stickily.

“Wa-wait…”

Squeeze-

Squeeze-

The red petals crumble beautifully.

She bites her lips as if trying to suppress her voice.

Above them, the pistil’s depravity glistens, impossible to hide.

The cool air melts away with her hot breaths, and the focus in her previously clear eyes gradually loosens.

The subtle heat created a fatal scenery.

“Haa… haah, ah…”

Her breathing had become rough.

Confirming the girl’s dazed state, I whisper in her ear like casting a suggestion.

It was a statement establishing our relationship going forward.

“Your Highness just needs to trust me.”

The snake’s tail coils around her delicate neck.

The flower petals repeatedly scatter endlessly, until finally stepping into a shadow they cannot escape.

Not even realizing she’s being devoured.

“…I understand.”

Elise nods.

I stroke her head as if to say she’s done well.

The gaze that had been full of killing intent until a few days ago now seemed much more subdued, showing a gentle brightness.

Of course, her characteristically fierce atmosphere still remained.

“Hehe.”

This was enough.

The distance I wanted from the rose was just enough gap to fully intervene in her life.

It was enough to prevent her suicide.

I smiled with slight relief.

It felt like I had finally taken the first step in changing the tragedy.

“Everything will be fine.”

“I said I understand… don’t make me repeat myself.”

Elise pouts her lips.

We spent the coldest autumn night exchanging a few words.

On the verge of dramatic change.

***

The next day.

As soon as morning broke, I discussed the matter with Sharlotte.

Unlike with Elise, to whom I had practically just announced my decision, this conversation progressed quickly since I had given her prior notice.

Of course, she didn’t immediately nod in agreement.

Like her sister, she also showed skeptical reactions to my proposal.

Her blue eyes displayed slight doubt.

“Is it really possible?”

“Your Highness just needs to follow my instructions. It’s all for Princess Elise’s sake.”

“If that’s the case… alright.”

With her characteristically sleepy atmosphere.

The girl answers.

Though she seemed hesitant right after hearing the story, she nodded when told it was for her sister’s sake.

She left the room saying she would personally petition the Emperor.

Of course.

Valkaros did not meet with us.

His excuse was that he was busy.

Instead, he sent one secretary to us.

He was one of the Emperor’s close aides and one of the few who knew the secrets about the rose.

The man relays his master’s intentions in a stiff tone.

“His Majesty said he has no particular interest in the matter, so do as you wish.”

As expected.

Valkaros did not stop us.

He seemed to have not even the slightest lingering attachment.

When we mentioned Elise’s improved physical condition and the need to go outside for continued treatment, permission was granted in less than half a day.

He even offered to help with our enrollment in the academy.

While it appeared on the surface to be an attitude of throwing away trash, in a way it also resembled a father letting go of his daughter.

I gradually revised my assessment of him, which had been a jumble.

‘As expected.’

Cold-hearted Valkaros.

The fact that he was the worst father remained unchanged.

After all, he was trash who pushed his own daughters into hell.

However, if my hypothesis was correct… perhaps there might be some room for mitigating circumstances.

I set aside my thoughts with a momentary bitterness.

“Well… with this, we can proceed with the plan without any issues.”

I say with a grin.

“……”

Perhaps because of the unexpected permission?

Sharlotte wears a somewhat complicated expression.

The girl hesitates as if struggling with something, then finally asks a barely audible question.

Only slight agitation shines through her transparent pupils.

“…Will it really be okay?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m a bit worried.”

She was talking about Elise.

Although she had recovered over the past fortnight, she still had to spend all day in bed.

She seemed to be asking if it wasn’t too early to go outside.

It wasn’t wrong.

Given that even light walks were impossible without a wheelchair, heading out of the cage recklessly wasn’t really a good choice.

This was why the rose’s enrollment had been indefinitely postponed in the original story.

‘But.’

This time was different.

Because I was here.

To survive the turbulent flow ahead, staying by the snake’s side was wiser than anywhere else.

Being locked up like this would only worsen her depression.

“My… Your Highness.”

While I understood the older sister’s concerns, at this point I needed to be a bit firmer.

I needed to nail down her dependence on me.

So that she wouldn’t waver again when facing the numerous hardships ahead.

I erase the smile from my lips.

And look down at her with cool eyes.

“It’s troublesome if you continue to have such doubts.”

“……”

“I’m doing my best to help you, but if Your Highness doesn’t have the heart to follow, it’s disheartening.”

“That’s not what I…”

“If this continues, I’ll have no choice but to withdraw.”

“Please… I don’t want that.”

Sharlotte grabs my sleeve.

Her transparent pupils shake as if an earthquake has struck.

Her eyes trembled with particular desperation.

After repeated despair, she had finally grasped an opportunity, and the desperation not to lose it seemed to sparkle uniquely.

I carelessly reach out my hand to stroke her platinum blonde hair.

“I don’t ask for much. Just follow my words obediently.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Do you remember what I told you last time?”

“You said only Judas can help me.”

“Exactly. Ignore the voices of others. Only my voice will not betray your hope.”

“Judas won’t betray me… only Judas.”

Sharlotte repeats, fidgeting with her lips.

Only then do I erase my cold expression.

Afterwards, a fresh smile hangs on my lips as if nothing had happened.

I say:

“I’m glad you seem to have cleared your vision. Anyway, I’ll proceed with the cage matter according to my plan.”

“Yes… I don’t really know, so Judas, please take care of it…”

“Gladly.”

The conversation concludes by sinking deeper.

Even though the shadow is strangling her neck, the girl is cradled in my arms, being stroked.

As if slowly melting to the sweet whispers.

“I am by your side.”

The plan proceeded as scheduled.

***

Two days later.

After completing the minimal procedures, we were now preparing to head outside the cage.

Outside, a carriage was waiting for people.

It appeared to be the same vehicle we had ridden when entering.

“It’s time to depart.”

A brief notification.

The rose sitting in the wheelchair comes to her senses.

“Ah.”

“The others have already boarded.”

“We should get going too.”

“Hehe… I’ll escort you respectfully.”

I begin to gently push the wheelchair that had been leaning against the window.

Such a mode of transportation was essential when going outside.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t stand on her own, but her body would be burdened if she stood for long periods.

Being sickly, she required the care of a physician.

As the wheels roll quietly, the girl’s muttering voice reaches me.

A faint soliloquy.

“I never thought… I’d leave this place in my lifetime.”

That was true.

Originally, the rose’s fate was to never escape this lonely cage.

Until the moment she hanged herself.

The CG cut of her last breath flashes before my eyes.

Realizing how much had changed, I respond to her quiet voice.

Like gentle waves.

“Only good things await you from now on.”

“If that could really be true.”

“The world will be full of things you’ve never experienced. Full of things to see, hear, smell, feel, and touch… I think you can look forward to living rather than fearing it.”

“…I wasn’t particularly afraid, you know?”

A slightly defiant response.

But judging by the sparkle in her eyes, she didn’t seem to dislike it entirely.

It was a moment like the first fluttering of wings in her life.

Having been caged all this time.

How much she must have yearned for the blue sky.

I couldn’t know.

All I could do was:

Help a bird with broken wings fly in the sky again.

Add freshness to flower petals that had lost their vitality, so that their redness could once again share its fragrance with the world.

We walked through the fluttering garden.

“I don’t understand.”

“Pardon?”

“You. You’re being too nice to me and my sister. No matter how much I think about it, I don’t understand why.”

“Didn’t I tell you before?”

I display a gentle smile.

Those lips say:

That I want you both.

To be happy.

“That’s all there is to it.”

The gloomy story.

I wanted to overturn all those endings and gift a new world.

Perhaps it was a proof to myself.

Some realization of a self I had lost long ago.

A desire I wanted to fulfill despite being left with regret.

Various expressions mixed in my mouth, but what came out was still the simplest words.

I swallow the rest of the letters and burst into laughter.

“Pfft… I think that’s quite a moved expression.”

“N-no it’s not…?!”

The girl turns her head.

The weather remains in that instant.

If emotions were a Polaroid, it would be a photo that fell as a vivid season.

The wheelchair moved forward through the autumn wind.

And so.

Out of the cage.

Toward the world.