The Return of Lilietta

Episode 13

“Miss……she disappeared.”

“I woke up from a scary dream. Did Hannah wake up from her sleep too?”

“yes…….”

The yellow light from the lamp flickered over Hannah’s face as she answered slowly. Lilietta thought her eyes were strange. They seemed unfocused and stared into space.

“If you’re scared… come with me… together.”

“Do you want to sleep together?”

Lilietta smiled and grabbed the hem of her dress. Hanna shook her head.

“Together, together.”

“huh?”

“Together…… ugh…….”

The girl who had been repeating the same words suddenly grabbed her head and groaned, then raised her head again.

The blank expression disappeared without a trace, and he smiled with strangely shining eyes.

“Come and look at the stars with me, miss.”

“Star…? Suddenly?”

“I woke up too, wondering what to do… I thought I should go stargazing since it’s rare for me to be up in the middle of the night like this. I thought it would be better if I did it with you, young lady, so I came here.”

“With me?”

“I’ve already brought milk and cookies to the lakeside. There’s also a blanket and a book of constellations. Miss, you learned about constellations from your tutor a while ago. Don’t you want to see them in person? If you drink warm milk and look at the stars together, you’ll fall asleep right away!”

Hannah grinned and chattered.

Lilietta, who had just recently learned about constellations, was tempted by the suggestion.

I was scared to fall asleep alone, and I was excited to have milk and cookies with my peers in the middle of the night.

“good!”

Lilietta answered with a big smile.

As a child who grew up loved and surrounded by good people, she had no doubts.

How did Hanna, who was unable to enter the main castle and stayed in the outer castle where the servants lived, enter the princess’s bedroom located deep within the main castle?

How does a child who has barely been in the castle for a month and hasn’t even had a playmate yet know that Lilietta recently learned about constellations?

How could a young maid without any particular authority have made such preparations on the shore of a birch forest lake?

What does it mean to drag a 10-year-old princess out of a mansion with all kinds of safety measures in the middle of the night?

Lilietta was just glad to have a special game with her peers who were supposed to be her friends, and not have to sleep alone in the bedroom where she had just had a nightmare.

The young princesses were led out of the mansion by Hannah’s hand. Despite the presence of guards and servants on duty, the girls did not encounter anyone on their way out.

As they passed the guard post and entered the birch forest, Lilietta finally felt something strange.

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

Hannah, a healthy twelve-year-old girl, was a handful taller than Lilietta, a frail ten-year-old.

Hannah was dragging her away, almost by force, without looking back or saying a word.

When Lilietta, who was feeling uneasy, tried to stop rather than being dragged along, Hanna looked back at her.

A face without any expression, like a doll.

“……Hannah?”

“Yes, Miss?”

The girl answered with only the corners of her mouth raised and a smile. Her eyes did not smile at all. It was a very strange feeling. Lilietta was so frightened that she took a step back without realizing it.

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

Hannah grabbed her hand and pulled it tightly. Lilietta struggled to break free, dragging her feet.

“Oh, no, I don’t want to go.”

“yes?”

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

“Then it won’t work.”

The forced smile disappeared. Hannah, who had become expressionless, grabbed Lilietta with a strangely strong force.

“Come here.”

The tone and intonation of the words were similar to those she had heard in her nightmare. Lilietta screamed in fear and tried to run away.

“Ah, uh!”

Hannah quickly covered her mouth, then held her with her whole body, suppressing her struggles as she muttered something rapidly in a strange voice.

“〈I want…….〉”

Lilietta didn’t hear those words clearly. She didn’t have the presence of mind to listen. She was frantically struggling to get away from Hannah.

Then, the hem of her nightgown got caught on a branch of a bush. The tip of the branch cut into her thigh, drawing blood and tearing the hem of her clothes. The bloody hem of her nightgown was left hanging on the bush.

And then Hannah’s strange voice stopped. At the same time, all the strength left Lilietta’s body and she sagged like a doll.

Hannah carried Lilietta around and picked up her slippers that had come off while she was struggling, then continued walking along the path.

Lilietta stared blankly at the approaching lake, her body unable to move.

There was no milk, no cookies, no blankets on the lakeside. There was no constellation book or anything like that. There was just an empty coffin.

Hannah laid Lilietta barefoot inside the coffin. Lilietta wanted to scream as she looked inside the coffin, which was full of bizarre patterns, but she couldn’t even move her lips.

The coffin lid was closed over her frozen body. Just before the lid closed, Lilietta saw Hannah looking down at her with a sad and bitter expression. It was an expression that was not childish.

Soon the lid closed and complete darkness came. Lilietta felt the coffin being dragged. Then she heard the sound of water sloshing.

‘Are you sure you’re not putting a coffin in the lake?’

Is this how I’m going to die?

Extreme fear took over my entire body. I wanted to howl and scream. If nothing else, I wanted to close my eyes tightly.

But Lilietta was just lying there with her eyes half open, like a doll.

Fortunately or unfortunately, no water leaked into the coffin. How much time passed in that state?

After what felt like an eternity to Lilietta, but was actually only a short time, she saw a strange light flowing along the bizarre patterns carved into the coffin.

Then I felt a stabbing pain in my brain. It hurt so much that I couldn’t think of anything and my vision became blurry.

He screamed incessantly, unable to get out of his mouth… … and at some point, the scream became real and reached his ears.

Lilietta screamed and writhed as someone grabbed her with great force, grabbing her head with large hands.

A jumble of dizzying thoughts flowed through my head. And then, after some time, the pain suddenly disappeared.

When I opened my eyes, blurry with tears, I saw a man with a hood pulled over his head.

He wiped away the tears in her eyes and stood her in front of a large mirror. A girl with reddish-brown hair and freckles was reflected in her. She looked strangely like Hannah.

‘Who…? Ah… Is this me?’

Was I originally like this?

The man said as she looked at herself in the mirror with a strange look on her face.

“You are ‘Rita’.”

Rita couldn’t question those words. The man’s words were engraved in her mind, which had been stripped of all memories and turned white.

“I am an orphan who was raised by me, and I have no parents or family.”

Rita looked up at him absentmindedly. The man placed his hand on her head. She felt the empty space being filled with something.

“Now, you will vividly remember how hungry and tired you were during that time.”

Suddenly vivid memories came to mind. Memories of searching through a pile of garbage while starving, the horrible stench, and the hand that reached out to me when I thought I would starve to death.

“If you become my child, I will make sure you never starve.”

I followed him, holding his hand, and ate the piece of bread he was given in a hurry, then did as I was told and lay down in the coffin filled with strange pictures, and then my head… … .

“No, no, you don’t need such specific memories. You must not become Dorothy. Even though your body is that of the insignificant orphan Dorothy, your soul has special qualities… It is an exceptional case, but it is certainly the greatest of all time….”

The man’s words became slurred and his memory became hazy again.

When she came to, Rita was looking up at the man stroking her head without any suspicion.

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

Thankfully, he was saved by the archmage Pascal when he was starving.

* * *

Lilietta opened her eyes.

The room I had become accustomed to after a few days. This time, I didn’t jump in surprise or look around in alarm.

She slowly got out of bed and looked out the window. Although some things had changed over the past ten years, it was still a familiar sight.

A well-kept garden, a hedge entwined with rose buds still in bloom, and beyond that a birch forest full of young, green leaves.

She grew up playing in that garden.

He would follow the Knight of the Flower Tree, or rather the Gardener, around, observing what he did, asking about the names of flowers and trees, and searching for Richard, who had been locked up after fighting with Leonhard.

We used to go on picnics along the paths in the birch forest, holding hands with Leonhard and Richard, or with Mom and Dad.

Rita then turned her gaze to the matchbox on the desk. She opened it and looked at the small card inside when she heard a knock.