Chapter 2: Lucy

The garden of the Varhen family.

Lucy, a maid of the family, found Philia deeper within the garden.

Philia was staring blankly at the flowerbed with a melancholic expression, unaware that Lucy had arrived.

“Young Lady Philia! Were you in the garden again?”

“Yes. I had a little something to think about…”

“Master Andrew is currently visiting, and the Head of the Family is looking for you urgently.”

Andrew, the second son of the Richard family, was Philia’s childhood friend and fiancé.

“Ah, Andrew. A name I miss.”

Her voice was filled with some kind of regret.

Philia closed her eyes as if tracing old memories.

‘That’s strange… Didn’t they meet just two weeks ago?’

Lucy was slightly puzzled but didn’t point it out.

If it were before, maybe not.

But recently, Philia felt very unfamiliar.

Before, whenever Andrew was mentioned, Philia would blush like a girl starting her first love, but her current reaction was completely different, too indifferent.

As if she was no longer bound by such emotions.

‘Has the young lady also matured?’

Seeing Philia, who had suddenly become like an old soul, Lucy was swept up in complex emotions.

Since the time she first became a maid, Philia had been especially kind to Lucy, so Lucy wished for her to remain a little more of a ‘child’.

Finishing her brief recollection, Philia opened her eyes, looked at Lucy, and after a slight hesitation, spoke.

“Lucy. By any chance… by any chance, if you made a really big mistake and the person involved didn’t know about it, would it be right to just let it go?”

‘What kind of mistake could the young lady have made?’

Lucy felt doubts, but seeing Philia contemplating seriously, she replied after some thought.

“Hmm, I suppose it depends on how big the mistake was? If it was a really big mistake, and you even hid that fact… wouldn’t that actually backfire?”

“Is that so? But what if the other person would absolutely never know unless you told them about the mistake? Would you hide that fact?”

A question that felt subtly pressing.

Lucy nodded unintentionally under Philia’s coercive demeanor and agreed.

“Um… Normally, you shouldn’t do that, but if they truly would never know for their ‘entire life’, wouldn’t it be okay to hide it?”

“Right?”

Philia, who wore a somewhat twisted smile, decided at this moment to hide all the truth.

The current him was too weak to bear the truth.

No, even if he were to realize the entire truth, he would act the same way.

It was clear he would volunteer to sacrifice himself to save those around him.

As long as she was alive, that would never happen again.

She would absolutely never let him achieve his life’s long-cherished desire.

‘This time, it’s my turn to embrace him.’

Philia began to execute her own plans, which she had set up previously, one by one.

Things were progressing steadily so far, so it wouldn’t be long until he became entirely her possession.

Philia glanced at the lilac flowers in the flowerbed and wore a strange smile.

“Let’s go soon. Andrew must be waiting a lot.”

***

‘Damn it.’

Currently, I was cleaning the reception room.

You ask what’s so hard about just cleaning?

In modern times, it would be over with just one ‘click’ of a vacuum cleaner, but isn’t this the barbaric Middle Ages?

Naturally, I was scrubbing every corner with a tattered cloth.

Because of the incident with Philia earlier, I had gotten on the butler’s bad side, and my duty had now changed to cleaning the reception room.

This reception room cleaning duty was truly terrible in difficulty.

Not only was I cleaning an excessively large room by myself, but the structure was such that if any guests using the reception room had even the slightest complaint, punishment would immediately fall upon the servant.

As an example, there’s an anecdote.

One servant who was in charge of the reception room duty had stayed up all night the day before, and couldn’t finish cleaning before receiving a guest.

And a certain noble, who eerily noticed that the cleaning was incomplete, immediately spoke.

–Haha, the Varhen family is truly magnificent. It’s so heartwarming to see the reception room like this, it feels as if time has stopped. It seems even the servants hesitated to touch this beauty.

As expected of a noble who had reached the pinnacle of art in indirect criticism, he gave a sarcastic reprimand implying it was dirty.

For your reference, this story is a true account I heard from a servant who was previously in charge of the reception room cleaning duty.

Naturally, after that day.

If even the slightest flaw was found in the reception room cleaning, strict punishment would follow accordingly.

At best, it ends with a salary reduction, but if you make a mistake when important guests visit, they say at least one wrist will be cut off.

In other words, you must never leave any room for error in cleaning.

‘···Now this is real dark fantasy.’

In a barbaric era where your arm is cut off for not even being able to clean, is having the mindset of a modern person a blessing or a curse?

Of course, even the time to worry about this was a luxury, so I repeated the cleaning like mad.

How much time had passed?

As I concentrated on wiping for a long time, the room eventually became clean.

‘Still, after doing it for a long time, I definitely developed a knack for it.’

To gain enlightenment not in swordsmanship or magic, but in cleaning.

Feeling a strange sensation where a sense of accomplishment and a reality check came at the same time, I quickly finished cleaning.

‘Just in case I run into Philia, I should leave right away.’

Coming out of the reception room, just as I was about to walk towards the exit.

“…Ian.”

A delicate voice heard from behind me.

‘No way.’

“Ah, Young Lady?”

“What are you talking about? Have you already forgotten my voice?”

“Whew, it was you, Lucy?”

For a moment I thought it was Philia, but thankfully, when I turned around, it was Lucy, a maid I knew well.

Lucy, with orange hair and clear-cut features, glared at me with a rather pretty face.

It seemed she was in a quite bad mood.

“Lucy. Did something happen?”

“Huh? Ah, no… Nothing happened.”

Anyone could see something had happened, but since she said she wouldn’t talk about it, I couldn’t just butt in.

“Ian, what have you been doing?”

“I just finished cleaning the reception room and am on my way back now.”

“Huh? The reception room, how come? Jane used to be in charge of that…”

Lucy frowned her forehead as if hearing the news for the first time.

“I got on the butler’s bad side… so I couldn’t help it.”

“Oh dear, I told you to stay friendly with Young Lady Philia.”

While listening to Lucy’s scolding, I sighed inwardly.

‘Haa, in the end, I have no choice but to aim for an opportunity at the ball.’

***

A week later.

A ‘Masked Ball’ is scheduled to be held in Katalvel.

“Oh, right. Did you clean the reception room properly? You didn’t do it carelessly, did you?”

Lucy looked at me with a worried expression.

“I cleaned it so thoroughly you could lick the floor, so don’t worry.”

When I replied slyly, Lucy seemed to imagine that scene for a moment and made a face that suggested she was about to gag.

“…Gross. Still, you worked hard.”

After saying that, she left.

Despite everything, Lucy was quite kind to me.

After getting on Philia’s bad side, the only person who would talk to me, besides the butler, was Lucy.

That’s why, even more so, I can’t let this world be destroyed.

***

The man, covered in blood from head to toe, now opened his mouth in the flowerbed that was truly ‘filled with corpses’.

“Lucy.”

He called out the name of his friend, who had already become a monster.

However, what returned was only the monster’s tearing scream.

Those who had already bloomed into flowers could not be reversed no matter what was done.

That was true even if the Demon of Flowers died.

All demons fundamentally possessed the nature of immortality.

The Demon of Flowers was the same.

Before long, using the corpses of the monsters as fertilizer, the Demon of Flowers would be resurrected again.

He stared directly at her body, which had changed so horribly.

Her entire body’s limbs and internal organs were grotesquely twisted and sculpted into ‘petals’; she had become a terrible monster long ago, but her face still retained its original form.

The orange hair, dry but still retaining its color.

The clear-cut features, stained with blood and pus, but still clean.

Seeing the familiar and longed-for face, the man bowed his head.

He had promised to protect her, but he could not.

“I’m sorry.”

He was terribly pained and sad, but strangely, no tears came out.

Was it because his emotions had already dried up amidst countless despairs?

Or perhaps…

The man, with his injured body, swung his sword, granting her rest.

Step- step-

Over the flowerbed of corpses, the man limped on his way.

How long had it been since the man left?

Drip-

A single drop of water fell.

Whoosh-

Countless raindrops fell.

As if mourning everyone in the city, the drops poured down in the form of heavy rain.

And someone who still had a breath left, opened their eyes as the rain fell on them.

She, using her last ounce of strength, smiled.

Forcing her facial muscles, it looked somewhat grotesque and pathetic, but it was a refreshing smile, enough to feel invigorating.

“…You worked hard.”

Her greeting did not reach the man until the very end.

However, that will was certainly conveyed.