TRL 13

Chapter 13

“Miss… she disappeared.”

“I woke up because I had a scary dream. Did you wake up too, Hannah?”

“Yes…”

Hannah answered slowly, the yellow glow of the lamp flickering across her face. Lillietta thought something was strange about her eyes—they looked as if they weren’t focused on anything, just staring into space.

“If you’re scared… maybe… together…”

“Sleep together?”

Lillietta brightened and grabbed onto Hannah’s sleeve. But Hannah shook her head.

“Together, together.”

“Hm?”

“Together… ugh…”

The girl kept repeating the same word until she suddenly grabbed her head and groaned. Then, she lifted her head again.

Her dazed expression vanished without a trace, replaced by a strange glow in her eyes and a smile.

“Let’s go stargazing together, miss.”

“Stars…? All of a sudden?”

“I couldn’t sleep either, and I thought… it’s rare to be awake this late at night, so we should do something special like stargazing. I thought it’d be even better with you, so I came to find you.”

“With me?”

“I already brought milk and cookies to the lakeside. There’s a blanket too, and a book about constellations. You learned about them from your tutor recently, didn’t you? Don’t you want to see them for real? If we drink warm milk and look at the stars together, you’ll sleep like a baby afterward!”

Hannah chatted cheerfully with a bright smile.

Lillietta, who really had learned about constellations not long ago, was tempted by the suggestion.

She was too scared to fall asleep alone anyway, and the idea of having milk and cookies at night with someone her age excited her.

“Okay!”

Lillietta responded with a big smile.

As a child who grew up loved by kind people, she didn’t think to doubt anything.

She didn’t wonder how Hannah—who wasn’t allowed inside the main estate and usually stayed in the outer quarters—had gotten so deep into the main mansion, all the way to the princess’s bedroom.

She didn’t question how a girl who had been at the castle for just over a month and hadn’t even become her playmate yet knew she had learned about constellations recently.

She didn’t think to ask how a low-ranking maid could have prepared all those things at the lake in the birch forest.

She didn’t realize what it meant to be lured out of a heavily protected mansion in the middle of the night at just ten years old.

All she felt was happiness—at the thought of playing with someone her age and not having to fall asleep alone in the room where she had just had a nightmare.

The young princess left the mansion, led by Hannah’s hand. Despite there being guards and servants on night duty, the girls didn’t encounter a single person on their way out.

It wasn’t until they passed the back garden and entered the birch forest that Lillietta started to sense something was wrong.

“Hannah, wait, you’re walking too fast…”

Twelve-year-old Hannah was a healthy girl, a head taller than the sickly ten-year-old Lillietta.

And Hannah was practically dragging her forward now, not looking back, not saying a word.

Lillietta, growing uneasy, tried to stop walking, but Hannah turned to look at her.

Her face was blank, expressionless like a doll.

“…Hannah?”

“Yes, miss?”

The girl replied with a smile tugging only at her lips. Her eyes didn’t smile at all. It felt deeply unsettling. Lillietta instinctively took a step back, frightened.

“Where are you going? The lake is this way.”

Hannah grabbed her hand tightly and pulled. Lillietta resisted, trying to drag her feet.

“N-no, I don’t want to go.”

“Hmm?”

“I changed my mind. Sorry, Hannah. I’m just going to sleep…”

“You can’t do that.”

The forced smile vanished. With an eerily blank face, Hannah pulled her with inhuman strength.

“Come here.”

The tone and inflection sounded just like the one from her nightmare. Lillietta, terrified, screamed and tried to run.

“Kya—mmph!”

Hannah quickly covered her mouth. She wrapped herself around Lillietta’s struggling body, whispering something strange and fast in an unnatural voice.

“〈I wish for…〉”

Lillietta couldn’t make out the words clearly—she was too panicked to focus. She thrashed wildly to escape Hannah.

Her nightgown caught on a branch in the bushes. The sharp edge tore her thigh and ripped her gown, leaving behind a blood-stained shred.

And then… Hannah’s chanting stopped. At the same moment, Lillietta’s body went limp, as if she had turned into a rag doll.

Hannah slung her over her back, picked up the slipper that had fallen during the struggle, and continued walking down the trail.

Lillietta, unable to move a muscle, could only stare blankly at the approaching lake.

There was no milk, no cookies, no blanket. No book about constellations. Only an empty coffin sat at the edge of the water.

Hannah laid the barefooted Lillietta inside. Lillietta stared at the coffin’s bizarre carvings, wanting to scream, but even her lips wouldn’t move.

The lid began to close. Just before it shut, she saw Hannah looking down at her with a gloomy, bitter expression. It didn’t look like the face of a child.

Then the lid sealed shut, plunging her into complete darkness. She felt the coffin being dragged. Then came the sound of splashing water.

‘Is she putting the coffin into the lake?’

Was this how she was going to die?

Terror overwhelmed her. She wanted to cry, to scream. At the very least, to close her eyes tightly.

But all Lillietta could do was lie there, eyes half-open like a lifeless doll.

Whether fortunately or not, no water seeped into the coffin. Time passed—how much, she didn’t know. It felt like an eternity.

Then, she saw a strange light flowing along the carvings inside the coffin.

A sharp, stabbing pain shot through her head. It hurt so much she couldn’t think; her vision blurred.

She screamed silently until suddenly, her scream became real—she could hear it with her own ears.

Lillietta screamed and twisted her body. Someone grabbed her with strong hands and cradled her head.

Her mind was in turmoil, images spinning and scattering. After a while, the pain suddenly disappeared.

Through tear-blurred eyes, she saw a man in a hood.

He wiped away her tears and brought her to stand in front of a large mirror. A girl with reddish-brown hair and freckles stared back. She looked vaguely like Hannah.

‘Who…? Oh… is that me?’

Was that what I originally looked like?

As she stared at the unfamiliar reflection, the man spoke.

“You are Rita.”

Rita didn’t question him. His words embedded themselves into her blank mind, emptied of all memory.

“You’re an orphan I took in. You don’t have any parents or family.”

Rita looked up at him vacantly. He placed a hand on her head. It felt like something was being filled inside her.

“Now, the memories of your hunger and suffering will come back to you vividly.”

Suddenly, memories flooded her mind. Starving, digging through trash, the horrid stench, a hand reaching out when she thought she might die…

“If you become my child, you won’t go hungry.”

She had taken that hand, eaten the offered bread ravenously, and, following his instructions, lay inside a coffin full of strange markings. And after that, her head…

“No, wait. You don’t need memories that specific. You mustn’t become Dorothy again. Even if your body once belonged to a worthless orphan named Dorothy, your soul has special qualities… An exceptional case, but certainly one of the most powerful ever…”

His words faded. The memories grew hazy again.

When she came to, Rita was looking up at the man who was stroking her hair, without a hint of doubt.

“…Be grateful to me for taking you in.”

Grateful to the great wizard Pascal, who had saved her from starvation.

* * *

Lillietta opened her eyes.

The now-familiar guest room. This time, she didn’t jump up in shock or scan her surroundings warily.

She slowly rose from bed and looked out the window. Though many things had changed over the past ten years, the scenery was still familiar.

The well-kept garden, the rose vines still budding, and beyond that, the birch forest filled with soft green leaves.

She had grown up playing in that garden.

She followed the gardener—once called the Knight of Flowers—asking about his work, learning the names of flowers and trees, getting into fights with Leonhardt, and dragging Richard out of hiding.

She used to go on picnics along the forest path, holding hands with Leonhardt and Richard—or with her mother and father.

Rita’s gaze moved to a matchbox on the desk. She opened it and looked at the small card inside—when suddenly, there was a knock at the door.