TFCF 06

Chapter 06…

Eila waited anxiously for permission to be received by the Crown Princess.

How long had she paced back and forth in the waiting room?

At last the permission came, and Eila hurried toward the Crown Princess.

Around the Crown Princess stood her close handmaidens, the guard knights, and several nobles who had already been received.

Still, Eila did not hesitate and dropped to her knees before the Crown Princess.

“Oh my, Miss Eila. Whatever is this about?” the Crown Princess asked.

“Your Highness. I have a request.” Eila said.

“What is it?”

“Please cancel the dispatch orders for Luka Ioran and Sada Ult. If Your Highness calls them, I’m sure both will return.”

“My goodness.” The Crown Princess smiled brightly.

Eila clasped her hands tightly and looked up at the Crown Princess.

“Please, I beg you.”

“But, Eila—” The Crown Princess opened her fan with a soft rustle, hid her mouth, turned her head, and spoke as if inconvenienced. “Those two are your childhood friends, aren’t they? I heard you’ve known them for over ten years. If a childhood friend won’t listen to her friend, do you really think they’ll listen to me?”

At that, Eila felt her ears burn.

Everyone chuckled and watched the scene with great interest.

“They’d listen to Your Highness more than to me…” Eila’s voice came out thin as if squeezed.

“Oh, Eila. There doesn’t seem to be much trust between friends.” The Crown Princess fluttered her fan and said.

Eila could only plead again, “Please, Your Highness.”

Just then a servant hurried over and handed a paper to the Crown Princess.

“Oh my.” The Crown Princess opened the paper and smiled.

“Eila, come closer for a moment. I think I can ease your worry.” She patted her armrest. “Come here. Between us.”

Eila, nervous, stepped slowly and stood very close.

The Crown Princess nodded with her finger. When Eila leaned in, understanding it was a whisper, the Crown Princess covered her mouth with the fan and whispered,

“Luka Ioran has died in battle.”

Everything went white—no, black—no, it felt like nothing at all; everything went utterly blank as if sound itself had vanished.

“…What?” Eila’s question fell out like a deflated thing, and the Crown Princess spoke as if pleased.

“That’s good, Eila. You can worry less now.”

For a moment nothing could be seen.

Eila lunged at the Crown Princess. Instead of grabbing her by the throat, her hand caught a pearl necklace and it snapped; pearls scattered everywhere.

Eila was then seized by the hair by a guard knight and thrown down.

“How could you! How dare you say such things!” she cried from the floor, but everyone only worried about the Crown Princess.

“Goodness, she must be mad.”

“Your Highness, are you all right?” The Crown Princess’s pupils changed color as she looked down at Eila.

Red and pink.

The two-colored eyes were the mark of the demon race.

Eila gasped for breath. The world around her darkened.

“Once we get the notice of Sada Ult’s death, there’ll be nothing more to worry about.”

Fish Ornament

“!!”

Eila sat bolt upright, tossing off the covers, and opened her eyes wide.

‘A dream? It was a dream…’ Her heart pounded. Eila trembled and hugged the bundle of blankets.

‘It’s okay. It was just a dream.’

She looked at her hands and touched her face.

She was still ten years old.

That hadn’t happened yet.

Not yet.

Eila took a deep breath and sat up.

A candle burned on the nightstand for Eila, who disliked sleeping in the dark.

From the flat wooden wick came the faint crackling of burning wood.

Eila tidied up the vivid images from the dream in her head.

‘It’s true that I was caught, but the Crown Princess revealed herself as a demon after that.’

Back then, Eila had screamed as the knights dragged her away, and as the first noble girl to be imprisoned in the palace dungeon, she’d been locked up.

While Eila was imprisoned, the Crown Princess had come alone and revealed her true nature, saying those words.

At the time, Eila had cursed at the top of her lungs and shaken the bars with all her might….

Because of that she’d stayed in that cell for two more days.

‘Then Helen applied for bail and I was released.’

Now that she thought about it, Eila felt sorry for the trouble Helen had suffered because of her.

But then, as soon as she met Helen, she’d blurted out, “Helen, the Crown Princess is a demon!” and received a slap from her sister.

“…….”

Eila let out a deep sigh not befitting her age and buried her face in her hands.

Oh, really, Eila. You idiot.

There were other people around, so saying something like that was asking to be slapped.

At the time she’d been so worked up because of the Crown Princess that she’d seen nothing else, but thinking about it objectively now, she must have looked like a mad girl.

She’d attacked the Crown Princess in broad daylight and even claimed she was a demon.

‘And after the Crown Princess took away the man I cared about.’

It was obvious how others would see her.

Even Helen didn’t believe her.

‘Helen didn’t trust me either.’

Back then Eila had been sulking over being slapped, biting her lip hard, and refusing to try to persuade anyone.

“Tell me what happened,” Helen had pressed, but Eila kept her mouth tightly shut and said nothing.

After that, Eila was put under something like confinement at the Solarun villa and spent her time planning how to assassinate the Crown Princess.

She was convinced she had to get rid of her.

Her sister and brother had taken turns visiting. They’d offered some consolation about Luka and Sada, but…

‘I ignored it all.’

In truth, that week left her with only memories of plotting assassination.

“…….”

How pathetic I was.

Eila felt like crying.

At that time she’d thought of herself like this:

When everyone had fallen headlong for the demons, the one to resist—a hero.

That would be me, Eila Solarun.

If I killed the Crown Princess, everything would return to normal.

Then everyone would wail and thank me, “Eila, thank you. You saved us,” and I’d smile modestly and say, “It was the duty Solarun had to bear.”

But killing the Crown Princess wouldn’t solve everything.

Besides, I was the one who ended up killed….

She didn’t even want to think about what happened afterward.

Eila rose from bed and wrapped a robe around herself.

She wanted to get some air.

She opened the balcony door and stepped outside.

She leaned briefly on the railing and stared at the lake that stretched out below.

Moonshadow Lake was beautiful even at night.

If she listened closely she thought she could hear the faint sound of water.

Soon the migratory birds would come down in droves when autumn arrived.

Then Eila caught the smell of smoke on the breeze.

It wasn’t ordinary cigarette smoke but scented tobacco.

Eila sniffed and pulled her body back a little.

‘Who would be smoking scented tobacco at this hour? Oh…? Sister? Helen smokes?!’

Eila’s room was on the second floor and looked down on the terrace of the reception room below.

There stood Helen wrapped in a shawl, smoking. She exhaled a long stream of smoke and stubbed the cigarette into the nearby ashtray, then wiped at her eyes with the shawl.

‘Did she cry?’

Eila could hardly imagine Helen crying.

She suddenly felt as if she had somehow become someone who had seen someone else crying by accident.

While Eila stood there frozen, Helen suddenly spun around.

Even though she knew Helen couldn’t see up to where she was, Eila crouched reflexively.

“Ha, it’s okay. Let’s go.” Helen muttered, then went inside.

Eila reminded herself once again that she didn’t really know her sister well.

Helen always seemed perfect—so perfect that there seemed to be not even a sliver of sorrow or suffering in her life.

But if Helen could be moved to tears, she must have had hardships or sadness too.

Suddenly Helen felt closer to Eila.

After confirming Helen had gone entirely inside, Eila crawled back into her room.

The bed was still warm and that felt comforting.

‘I don’t know so many things. There were so many things I didn’t know.’

Eila buried her face in the soft pillow and closed her eyes.

‘I can learn from now on. I can do it. No—I must. I’ll protect everyone.’