“Young Miss, Master forbade you from coming here!”
“Get out of my way!”
Inside a lavish Edron Mansion.
A girl in a white dress stormed angrily down the corridor.
The black twin-tails behind her swayed with every step, like two bundles of burning black flames, each swing making the flames burn even fiercer.
She stopped in front of a door, where a small plaque read: Head Maid’s Room.
“Young Miss, Master said you must not go inside!”
Bang!
Leonora paid no heed to the maid following her and kicked open the tightly closed door.
Once inside, she glanced around, her fists clenched so tightly that fresh blood seeped from her palms.
The maid, finally catching up, leaned breathlessly against the doorway. Looking at the dazed Leonora, she spoke with caution, “Young Miss, this is my room now. All of Eve’s old things have already been thrown out.”
“It’s not supposed to be like this…”
The maid, not quite understanding Leonora’s words, asked again, carefully, “Not supposed to be what?”
No sooner had she spoken than Leonora’s furious scream echoed through the room.
“I said it’s not supposed to be like this!!”
She began to smash everything in sight like a madwoman, muttering to herself as she did.
“The Silvergrad Flower pot should be right here!”
“There should be a sewing machine here!”
“No, it’s all wrong! None of it is right! It’s not supposed to smell like this!”
The flowerpot and glass were shattered to pieces, and every piece of clothing in the wardrobe was yanked out and thrown to the floor.
She knocked over the ink on the desk, black stains splattering across her face. She tried to wipe them away, but the more she wiped, the more the stains spread, until her fair cheeks were completely smeared with inky black that could not be wiped off.
The maid at her side wanted to stop her, but whenever she got close to the furious girl, those searing flames seemed to burn her too. Her arm had already been cut by Leonora’s rampage, and she dared not approach any closer.
“Young Miss, please calm down!”
The maid kept trying to soothe her with words, hoping to calm her even a little, but Leonora was already blinded by her anger—she could hear nothing.
She kept ‘restoring’ everything around her, trying to return the room to how it had once been, the way it was when Aurora was still here.
Seeing that her words were useless, the maid decided to go find Duke Edron; after all, only he could control this unruly Young Miss now.
By the time Leonora finally stopped, the room was already a complete mess.
But if you didn’t look at the floor, you’d find the room unexpectedly clean and tidy.
That pot of Silvergrad Flower was set by the window, the desktop cleared of everything except a single book, the wardrobe moved next to the door, with only three black-and-white maid uniforms left inside…
After doing all this, Leonora collapsed weakly to the floor, staring blankly at everything around her.
Suddenly, her gaze caught a flash of red on the ceiling where the wardrobe had been.
That red looked familiar, almost like the dress she was wearing.
She stood up and reached out, trying to pull down the fabric-like thing wedged tightly in a crack in the ceiling.
She tugged hard, and as she stepped back, her foot landed on one of the discarded dresses on the floor.
Thud.
The next moment, she toppled backward and fell to the floor, and the red item was yanked down with her.
“Damn it…”
She rubbed her head and, sitting up, looked at the red thing in her hand.
“This is…”
A red dress appeared in her hands, and to her shock, it was identical to the one she had worn as a child.
“Why is it here…”
She turned the dress over and found traces of mending on it.
But the one she had before clearly didn’t have these marks, so why…
She reached out and touched the mended spot, finding dried black bloodstains there.
A faint scent of Silvergrad Flower drifted over…
*****
“Young Miss, it’s too dangerous there, come back now!”
“No! I have to find medicine to save Mother! I won’t come back until I find it, don’t follow me anymore, Aurora!”
“Young Miss!”
In a lush green forest.
A little girl in a red dress wove her way through the trees, every step crunching leaves beneath her feet.
Behind her, the same sounds echoed…
“Young Miss, there are Magic Beasts ahead, you can’t go any further!”
“I’m not afraid of any Magic Beast! I’m going to save Mother!”
The little girl pressed onward into the depths of the Forest, and Aurora followed close behind.
She thought, maybe the Young Miss would turn back once she got tired, but until then, she had to protect her at all costs.
“The passing Witch said that bluebone grass in the Forest can cure Mother, so I have to find it, I must!”
“Young Miss…”
She said so, but in truth, Duke Edron had already sent people to search almost the entire Forest and still hadn’t found it, which meant that the so-called bluebone grass probably didn’t grow here—maybe it didn’t exist at all.
No one knew how long they walked. When they next looked up, sunset already hung in the sky.
By then, Leonora was utterly exhausted.
“Young Miss, why don’t we go back?”
“I…won’t!”
She was so tired she could barely move, her vision blurring.
Her steps grew unsteady, and Leonora felt her body becoming unbearably heavy.
Through her blurred vision, she saw a patch of blue by a bush, and instinctively thought it was the bluebone flower the Witch had mentioned.
“Bluebone flower, I found it!”
She ran over excitedly, crouched down, and reached out to touch the flower, but this ‘flower’ seemed odd—fuzzy, and twitching.
Rustle.
Suddenly, the bush in front of her rustled twice, and a low growl sounded in her ears.
Leonora slowly looked up, her eyes meeting a pair of terrifying red pupils.
“Ahhh!”
A piercing scream echoed through the Forest.
Whatever was in the bush was startled by the sound, leaping into the air—a black body flashed overhead.
It was a small Magic Beast, shaped like a black cat, but much faster than any cat.
It twisted midair and landed atop a tree.
Its red eyes fixed on Leonora below, and it seemed that with a single movement, its sharp claws would tear her to shreds.
“Young Miss, come to me, now!”
Leonora snapped out of her panic, shakily got to her feet, and ran toward Aurora.
But the Magic Beast on the tree wasn’t about to let her go. It flicked its long tail, and in a blink, vanished from the branch.
A flash of something sharp streaked through the dim Forest. The next moment, a tree beside Leonora cracked and toppled to the ground.
Leonora, running, was so frightened she collapsed to the ground.
She watched the Magic Beast approach, despair filling her heart like a swamp.
A flash of something sharp again—and at the same time, a streak of golden light brushed past the Magic Beast.
“Ha!”
A wound opened on the Magic Beast’s body, black blood oozing out.
It turned to look at Aurora, who stood with a golden longbow in her hands, and began to back away.
When Aurora nocked another arrow, the Magic Beast seemed to sense danger. It spun around and vanished on the spot.
“Young Miss!”
Aurora put away her bow and hurried to Leonora’s side.
“Are you hurt? Let me see.”
She checked Leonora over, her gaze settling on her shoulder.
The fabric there was torn, but there was no blood.
She gently pulled aside the ripped clothing and let out a deep breath.
Luckily, no wound.
It must have been Aurora’s arrow that disrupted its attack, otherwise it wouldn’t have been just torn clothes.
Seeing Leonora sitting on the ground, tears streaming down her face, Aurora reached out and pulled her tightly into her arms.
She stroked the girl’s hair, quietly soothing the sobbing child.
“I’m sorry, I should have been more careful. Please don’t cry, it’s all right now…”
“I’ll carry you back.”
Aurora was tall, and when she picked up the barely four-foot-tall Leonora, it was like cradling a little kitten.
As they walked back, she kept soothing the girl in her arms, as if holding her own daughter.
“My dress…”
Suddenly, the long-silent girl rasped out hoarsely, and Aurora stopped in her tracks.
As if she hadn’t heard clearly, she asked,
“Hmm? What is it?”
“The dress Mother made… it’s torn.”