episode_0100

“We’re going to the Academy. All of us.”

A bombshell dropped with a serene expression.

Elize looked blankly at first, then turned her wavering gaze towards him.

It seemed she had grasped the meaning belatedly.

Her voice, when it came, was clearly tinged with panic.

“Wait… What do you mean?”

“Just as you heard.”

“But the Academy… putting aside the suddenness of the issue, it’s impossible.”

“Why do you state that so definitively?”

I deliberately asked back brazenly.

Rose’s expression was confused.

As I gently stroked her red hair, splayed across the bed, her perplexed gaze prodded at my cheek.

I smiled calmly.

My whispered voice scattered softly.

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

“……”

A sly, flicking tongue.

I leaned my head closer.

As the distance between us narrowed, our intertwining breaths, impossible to erase, mingled in the air.

At that moment, I lightly stroked Rose’s stomach.

“Your Highness.”

*Slide.*

As my hand subtly slipped beneath her nightgown, the sensation of her pure white skin spread to my fingertips.

Feeling her subtle warmth, I pressed down on it.

*Press.*

“Ngh…”

Her rose-tinted lips added a pained moan.

Her breathing momentarily became unsteady.

Perhaps it was due to the treatment over the past few days, but now, merely placing my hand on her elicited a reflexive response.

The blatant contact intimately kneaded a certain area.

“W-wait…”

*Press.*

*Press.*

The red petals beautifully crumbled.

Lips bitten to stifle a sound.

Above them, the illicit gleam of her pistil, which she couldn’t hide, shone.

The cool air melted away with her hot breath, and the focus slowly blurred in her previously clear eyes.

The subtle heat created a fatal scene.

“Haa… Hah, ah…”

Her breathing had grown ragged.

Confirming that the girl was lost in a daze, I whispered to her, as if placing a suggestion in her ear.

It was a single phrase that would define the relationship to come.

“Your Highness simply needs to trust me.”

The serpent’s tail wrapped around her slender neck.

The petals endlessly scattered, eventually stepping into a shadow from which they could not escape.

Unaware that they themselves were being devoured.

“…Alright.”

Elize nodded.

I stroked her head, signifying my approval.

Her eyes, which had been filled with murderous intent just a few days ago, now held a gentle brightness, perhaps due to being considerably subdued.

Of course, her characteristic fierce demeanor remained.

“Heh.”

This was enough.

The distance I desired with Rose was a gap sufficient to fully intervene in her life.

It was enough if I could prevent her suicide.

I smiled with a slight sense of relief.

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

“Everything will be fine.”

“I said I get it… Don’t make me say it again.”

Elize pouted her lips unnecessarily.

We exchanged a few words and spent the coldest autumn night.

On the cusp of upheaval.

***

The next day.

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

Unlike Elize’s case, which had been closer to a notification, I had given Charlotte prior notice, so the conversation progressed quickly.

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

Just as her younger sister had, her older sister also reacted skeptically to my proposal.

Her blue eyes held a slight question.

“Is it really possible?”

“Your Highness only needs to follow the instructions I give you. It’s all for Princess Elize.”

“Then… Alright.”

Her characteristic sleepy demeanor.

The girl answered.

She seemed to hesitate right after hearing the story, but upon hearing that it was for her younger sister, she nodded.

She left the room, saying she would personally request it from the Emperor.

However.

Valkaros did not meet us.

A single word, ‘busy,’ was his reason.

Instead, he sent one of his secretaries.

He was a close aide who assisted the Emperor and one of the few who knew the secret about Rose.

The man conveyed his master’s will in a stiff tone.

“His Majesty stated that he has no particular interest and left only the words, ‘Do as you wish.’”

As expected.

Valkaros did not stop us.

It seemed he had no lingering attachment whatsoever.

Upon mentioning Elize’s recovery and her need to go outside for continued treatment, permission was granted in less than half a day.

It even seemed they would assist with her transfer to the academy.

Though his attitude seemed like he was discarding trash, in a way, it also resembled a father letting his daughter go.

I gradually revised my mixed evaluation of him.

*‘Indeed.’*

Valkaros, the cold-hearted.

The fact that he was the worst father remained unchanged.

He was trash who had pushed his daughters into hell.

However, if my hypothesis was correct… perhaps there was still some room for extenuating circumstances.

I pushed the thought aside with a fleeting bitterness.

“Well… If this is the case, the plan can proceed without a hitch.”

I said with a bright smile.

“……”

Perhaps it was because of the completely unexpected permission.

Charlotte wore a somewhat complicated expression.

The girl hesitated, her lips parting as if to speak, then threw a few questions at me, almost inaudibly.

Beyond her transparent pupils, only a slight tremor shone.

“…Will it really be alright?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m a little worried.”

She was speaking of Elize.

Although she had recovered physically over the past two weeks, she still had to spend the entire day in bed.

It was as if she was asking if it was too early to go outside.

It wasn’t entirely wrong.

Given that she couldn’t even take a light stroll without a wheelchair, venturing outside the cage without a plan was not a good option.

The indefinite postponement of Rose’s admission in the original story was for this very reason.

*‘But.’*

This time was different.

Because I was here.

To be safe in the coming maelstrom, it was wiser to stay by the serpent’s side than anywhere else.

Being trapped like this would only worsen her depression.

“My, Your Highness.”

I understood her sister’s feelings, but at this point, I needed to be a little firmer.

To firmly nail down her reliance on me.

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

I erased the smile from my lips.

Then, I looked down with cool eyes.

“It will be troublesome if you keep harboring such doubts.”

“……”

“I am doing my best to help you, but if Your Highness truly has no intention of following me, it saps my strength.”

“I’m not like that…”

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

“Please… I don’t want that.”

Charlotte grabbed my sleeve.

Her transparent pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck.

Her eyes trembled with peculiar urgency.

It was an opportunity she had barely grasped after repeated despair, and her desperation not to lose it seemed to shine brightly.

I indifferently stroked her platinum blonde hair with an outstretched hand.

“I don’t ask for much. You merely need to obey my words.”

“Sorry…”

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

“You said only Yuda could help me.”

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

“Yuda won’t betray me… Only Yuda.”

Charlotte repeated, mumbling the words with her lips.

Only then did she erase her cold expression.

Afterward, a refreshing smile appeared on her lips, as if nothing had happened.

I said,

“It’s good that your vision seems to have cleared. In any case, I will proceed with the matter concerning the cage as I see fit.”

“Okay… I don’t know much, so Yuda, you handle it…”

“Gladly.”

The conversation deepened and concluded.

Even as shadows choked her, the girl, held in my arms, received my strokes.

As if slowly melting into sweet whispers.

“I am by your side.”

The plan proceeded as scheduled.

***

Two days later.

Having completed the minimal procedures, we were now preparing to head outside the cage.

Outside, a carriage awaited us.

It seemed to be the same vehicle we had taken when we arrived.

“It’s time to depart.”

A brief, informing voice.

Rose, seated in the wheelchair, came to her senses.

“Ah.”

“The others have already boarded.”

“Then we should get going too.”

“Heh heh… I shall courteously escort you.”

I gently began pushing the wheelchair that had been leaning against the window.

Such means of transport were essential when going outside.

She wasn’t unable to stand on her own, but standing for long periods would still put a strain on her body.

Being sickly, she required the care of a primary physician.

As the wheels quietly rolled, the girl’s mumbling voice suddenly reached my ears.

It was a faint soliloquy.

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

It was true.

Originally, Rose’s fate was never to leave this lonely cage throughout her entire life.

Right up until the moment she hanged herself.

A CG cut of her final breath flashed before my eyes.

Realizing how much things had changed, I responded to her low voice as if it were a gentle wave.

“From now on, only good things will fill your life.”

“If only that were true.”

“The world will be full of things you’ve never experienced. Full of things to see, hear, smell, feel, and touch… You might as well harbor expectations rather than fear in life.”

“…I was never really afraid, you know?”

A slight retorting reaction.

However, seeing her eyes sparkle, it seemed she wasn’t entirely displeased.

It was like her first flap of wings in life.

Having lived confined in a cage all this time.

How much she must have longed for the blue sky.

It was something I couldn’t know.

All I could do was.

To let the bird with broken wings fly again in the sky.

To add freshness to the withered petals, to once again spread the scent of their crimson beauty to the world.

We walked through a garden of fluttering flowers.

“I don’t know.”

“Yes?”

“You, I mean. You’re too good to me and my sister. No matter how I think about it, I don’t know why.”

“Didn’t I tell you last time?”

I offered a serene smile.

My lips spoke.

That you.

I hope you are happy.

“That is all.”

A melancholic story.

I wanted to overturn all its endings and present a new world.

Perhaps a proof of myself.

A realization of a long-lost self.

A regret that lingered but a desire I wished to fulfill.

Various expressions swirled in my mouth, but what came out was, as expected, the simplest words.

I swallowed the remaining words and let out a soft laugh.

“Heh… I think your expression might be a little too moved.”

“N-no, it’s not…?!”

The girl turned her head.

The fleeting weather.

If emotions were a Polaroid, it would be a single photo dropped into a distinct season.

The wheelchair moved forward, cutting through the autumn wind.

And so.

Out of the cage.

Towards the world.