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Side story 3 – Liloa’s Chapter 1: The Fruit

“Huh?”

‘Didn’t that young girl say her name was Philly?’

Igor absentmindedly opened the paper that was folded in half.

[ This is the disinfectant I made from the fruit you picked. It’s effective, so try it when you need it. ]

“Oh my…”

Immediately realising his mistake, Igor belatedly ran out the front door towards the streets, but the child was no longer in sight. Instead of chasing the child himself, he tried to think of a more effective way.

‘I should give the glass bottle to a servant who has been working around here for a long time. Malus is a small territory, so as long as I ask someone who has a wide foot*, they should be able to deliver this vial to Miss Philly and resolve any misunderstandings.’

***

Liloa’s autumn was boring. Her body felt strangely lethargic and nothing she did gave her joy. After she returned from Obernyu, her daily life remained flatly the same as before she left. Lord Malus still watched her as if wanting to check if she was doing anything naughty, but Autriche had made it a habit to emphasise to her the importance of being a “cultured lady”. Sure, Autriche still gave her the warm hugs she craved, but at the same time, Liloa was getting sick of Autriche’s parrot-like demeanour in her teachings.

Even though her daily routine didn’t change, it was now harder to endure than before summer.

In addition, her questions kept arising. Liloa simply couldn’t understand why people would criticise her whenever she tried to act outside of what she was told to do, even if she clearly knew how to do much more than only being a “cultured lady”. She noticed that she would be deemed greedy when she stepped outside the boundaries they set for her and dared to do anything not considered within the acceptable behaviours of a lady. And whenever Liloa expressed her frustrations, she would be treated like a difficult child.

The only person who intently listened to Liloa’s words was the boy she met briefly in early summer. Having experienced the joy of ‘possibility’, Liloa could never go back to her old days. However, she gradually lost motivation, and as her vitality drained from her body, people began praising her for becoming more and more like a true lady.

But, as expected, Liloa was not at all pleased by such praise. To make matters even worse, word was sent from Obernyu at the height of her distress.

It contained an obituary about Henrietta’s sudden death.

Liloa could only cry like a baby who didn’t know what to say, for no words could accurately describe her feelings. The same was true for Autriche, who could only shed tears and wrap Liloa in a tight embrace. But before her sorrow could even subside, she had to leave Malus.

The cold winter air filled her throat.

When Liloa recalled her mother during her summer vacation in Obernyu, Henrietta seemed already weak and depressed. On Liloa’s last day there, she clung to the hem of her mother’s skirt to express her sadness to part, but at that time, Henrietta said.

{ “You’re throwing a tantrum again. See, you’re still so young, you need more education.” }

Henrietta appeared annoyed by Liloa as she bit down on a long, thin cigarette. Slowly, her face started disappearing into the smoke she had puffed out and became fainter and whiter…

The winter sun was dazzling. Liloa stared at the bright sunlight shining against the window of her rattling carriage. The carriage passed by tall trees that occasionally block out the sparse sunlight.

“Miss, cheer up.”

When her only response was a faint whimper, Liloa was gently patted on her shoulders, but her eyes remained looking out of the window without answering.

The further she got from Malus, the colder the air and the more bitter the wind became. At some point, Liloa fell asleep and upon opening her eyes, a pure white snowy landscape greeted her. With the carriage pulling down a snowy road, her body naturally trembled from the cold emanating from the frozen ground…

End of side story 3 – Liloa’s Chapter 1: The Fruit

***

Lil, who was leaning against a wooden pole, opened her eyes. The sea breeze blew on the hill in front of the Retiro mansion, making the spot where she was standing the perfect spot to cool off after training.

Lil rotated her stiff right arm.

‘I can’t believe this is the shape I’m in after just firing a few shots…’

Ed and Levi had praised her for her amazing resilience, but Lil was nothing but impatient.

‘If I’m like this, it has no use asking for a real sword yet…’

She first had to withstand the recoil of her gun without difficulty, but that was already a challenge for her.

Lil sighed.

When she lifted her head, the maids, who were stealing glances at her, immediately lowered their eyes. Lil couldn’t help but mind them because their presence was so obvious. At Levi’s orders, three or four people followed her around at all times, carrying baskets filled with food and medicine bottles. In addition, instead of blending naturally into the background, they didn’t forget to blatantly observe her every move. At first, they saw Lil as a mistress, so they constantly flattered her looks and figure. This soon converted into silence when they became unhappy to serve a woman without a clear status or name. And now, more recently, their eyes had turned strange since Lil started to run around the backyard of the mansion, shooting a gun and sparring with Ed in light clothing.

They were clearly at a point where they couldn’t guess her identity anymore.

‘Seeing how curious the servants are, I’m starting to feel concerned about the possible loose lips of the vassals and officials who come and go… Ed is obviously too busy caring for me and the recovery of my stomach to pay close attention to it, and because medical equipment can be needed at any given time, we have no choice but to stay in his mansion… Then, maybe, rumours that not only Ed, but also an unidentified woman, are staying in Roahn are already making their way to Sesbron… What certainly isn’t helping is that the Duke of Mireille’s Garni business has branches throughout the Empire. Their communication network is well organised, so information is exchanged quickly within the top ranks… And even though Venua is still imprisoned in the villa, it will only be a matter of time until he escapes from his confinement with the help of a nobleman who will guarantee his identity… I can’t even guess how the Emperor will react to my sudden reappearance. Not to forget Ed’s lack of success in the South to top it all off, meaning that even the Admiral won’t leave a favoured impression on His Majesty… In that case, we have even less time…’

Lil stood up, clutching the barrel of her gun. Just as she was about to start again, Ed waved his arm from afar. She seemed to already hear him ask why she was holding her gun before her break was even over… and sure enough…

“I came just in time for your break, so why are you about to start practising again?”

Ed took the gun away.

“I’m in a hurry.”

“There’s no need.”

“Yes, there is…”

Lil turned her head curtly for no reason. Ed then took a basket from one of the maids and looked inside. Seeing the untouched fruits, he grabbed an apple and pushed it into Lil’s mouth. Lil, now familiar with the feeling of being taken care of, obediently took a bite of the apple.

“I was thinking about going out tonight.”

“Why?”contemporary romance

“It’s the eve of the harvest festival.”

Lil recalled what Levi told her earlier. Roahn was a seaside city that celebrated events since ancient times. The ancient locals used to pray and express their gratitude for a safe journey and a good catch. Now that it has become a trading city, such customs have been borrowed yet altered to pray for the city’s commercial revival.

“What are we going to do there?”

“We need to gauge the current public sentiment…”

“Cut the crap.”

“…and this method is the most fun.”

“Who has…”

Ed didn’t even have to hear the rest of her answer. Lil was about to say that she didn’t have the time to play around, but she shut her mouth, for Ed’s next words showed that he already knew what she was thinking.

“Just this once.”

As Ed pleaded with his index finger raised, his narrow-eyed smile was clearly a skilful act trying to charm her. Lil looked back on her dull love life inside the mansion and thought about Ed’s days of dealing with her as if she were a full-fledged sack of wheat, only concentrating on her rehabilitation. But when following her around, Lil often heard him whine…

{ “…Are you sure you really love me?…” }

…and asked her to confess again…

***

Lil lowered the hand mirror after seeing her face decorated with colourful wing patterns in all kinds of paint.

“So, why does your festival require your face to be painted like this?”

“It’s tradition.”

“What kind of tradition?”

“More than a hundred years ago, Roahn was still a humble fishing village. What do you think was the biggest fear of a fisherman hoping for a good catch?”

“Storm.”

“Right, so because the fishermen were most afraid of storms, they painted their faces like this. They thought that if they had scary faces when lightning struck the sea at night, it would scare the sky and it would take away the lightning or something.”

Footnote:

Having a wide foot: We already encountered this phrase once in vol1, but for the ones who forgot; To have a wide circle of acquaintances.

TN:

Now that the side story of Lil’s past is done, we think it’s a good idea to look back on some loose ends; (no spoilers)

• As far as we know at this point in the story, both leads have no idea that they met in the past. This is based on the fact that till now, none of the leads has even thought back on this. It started maybe as a bit of a cliché story arc, but it gave us a glimpse of the core personalities of Ed and Lil even as youngsters. We do, of course, have to wait and see if this will ever come up in a conversation between Ed and Liloa.

• The big adventure Ed was going on, was his expedition with his grandpa to the western continent.

• It’s safe to say that the disinfectant never made its way to Liloa.

• It sadly feels like Liloa’s mom knew that her end was near and that that was the reason why she brought Liloa back for the summer. The cold treatment Liloa received at the end of her vacation could have been a means for her mother to distance herself from her daughter in the hope it would hurt Liloa less in the end. But again, this is speculation.
• A few volumes ago we already did an estimation on the age difference between Ed and Lil. Now, with all the information gathered from this volume and the side story we can be a little more confident in this estimation. We know that Ed is 30 years old, that would make Liloa, with an age difference of 5-6 years, 24-25 years old.

done.co