As Lily finally managed to shake off the mysterious sickly girl who had clung to her and returned to her room, Sion and Goldie were already there.
“Where did you go?”
“I followed a sweet scent and found a sickly beautiful girl. We played ‘sse-sse-sse’ together.”
Goldie was not well-acquainted with the specific circumstances of the Sitri household.
As it was a remote territory, information rarely reached the capital, and the lord had painstakingly concealed the incident involving Yuri Sitri, making it impossible for Goldie to know.
Consequently, her judgment was both the simplest and most rational.
She simply assumed Lily had been playing with one of the many maids in the mansion.
However, since she had been separated from Lily, engaged in an interview with the lord, she hadn’t been able to observe her, thus preventing a clear assessment.
She merely surmised that Lily hadn’t been harmed, given that no message had been sent to Adelia.
“So, you were playing with a maid? Anyway, we have to stay here for another week.”
“What is the matter?”
“You can come in as you please, but you can’t leave as you please!”
Goldie then explained to Lily what she had heard from the lord.
The festival currently underway in the Sitri earldom was a celebration honoring the dead.
Thus, while the inhabitants enjoyed the festivities, various types of spirits, including malevolent ones, would draw near the territory, and it was said that if anyone left the domain, these spirits would sneak in to take their place.
Such was the general gist of the matter.
The black-haired girl, recalling their original purpose for the journey, posed a question.
Their initial goal had been to meet Goldie’s mother dragon, Belita, and receive the tiara, and spending an entire week merely passing through a single territory felt like an excessive waste of time.
“What about going to Mount Belatia, then?”
“We’ll probably go next week. We could force our way there now, but if we go now, it’s kimchi-making season (TL Note: ‘Kimjangcheol’ refers to the season when Koreans traditionally make large quantities of kimchi to last through the winter) there, so we’d have to make kimchi.”
“Eh.”
It was an exceptionally rational decision.
****
The following day, Lily once again pursued the sweet aroma, opening the door to the most opulent room on the highest floor.
A sweet fragrance still wafted from Yuri’s room.
“You’ve visited again!”
“Lil…ly?”
In just a single day, Yuri Sitri appeared utterly on the verge of death.
The despair and frustration she had experienced in that solitary day were immeasurable, and she lay there, groaning in a hell where every second, which once seemed futile, now stretched endlessly, tedious and agonizing.
“We still have another week! We can play more! Hand over the snacks!”
Lily exclaimed, her voice still vibrant and full of life.
Due to that bright energy, Yuri Sitri felt such profound happiness that she couldn’t even recall what emotions she had felt or what pain she had endured.
‘My bluebird hasn’t left me yet.’
‘The gods who turned their backs on me in the past are finally looking upon me.’
‘The reason I’ve lived until now was for this very moment.’
“Thank goodness… thank goodness…”
“A-are you crying? I-I’m not trying to take your snacks, I-I’m sharing them!”
Mistaking Yuri’s tears of deep sorrow for tears of having her snacks stolen, Lily replied with a flustered tone.
Lily had no comprehension of the life Yuri Sitri had led.
It was precisely because of this that Lily could confront Yuri with her most honest self, reaching the innermost depths of her heart.
It was a feat achievable only by her, by the freest soul in this world.
Thus, only she could become the most potent medicine—or perhaps, the most dangerous poison—for Yuri Sitri.
“…Lily, do you truly not mind me looking at you like this?”
Yuri’s eyes were those that captivated souls ensnared by the world.
Those who met her gaze paid with their lives for the fleeting glimpse of an ideal.
“It’s a little embarrassing. Yuri, you’re staring too intently. I still don’t have immunity to the sickly beautiful girl trope.”
However, Lily possessed an alien soul, one not originally of this world, and thus Yuri Sitri’s eyes could not reflect her ideals.
On the contrary, Yuri Sitri found her own ideals reflected in Lily’s ordinary gaze, which was precisely why she was ceaselessly captivated by Lily.
With every trivial word Lily uttered, Yuri felt her heart constrict, and with every small action, her reason seemed to seize.
“Huh? Why are you suddenly staring again?”
“Oh, no, I was just lost in thought.”
Yuri Sitri was certain it was love.
****
A day passed, then another.
Yuri Sitri realized the day of Lily’s departure was drawing near, yet she tried her utmost to avert her gaze from that fact.
She yearned to return to her innocent, youthful self, like a child naively believing that such happy days would continue indefinitely.
However, the relentless march of time could not be halted, and the day of their parting slowly but surely approached.
Therefore, Yuri Sitri found even breathing to be a waste, even a momentary distraction too precious to afford, striving instead to fully capture Lily in every single moment they shared.
“Yuri? Why are you staring like that again?”
“You said today was the last day, didn’t you?”
The festival was drawing to a close.
Never before had the sounds of the festival from outside, which she heard year after year, felt as regretful to Yuri Sitri as they did today.
Her heart, now earnestly wishing for the festival to continue endlessly and for time to freeze in this very moment, held a will and emotions she had never known before.
The Yuri Sitri who had been dead until now had already made a resolute decision, staking her very life and the earldom on it.
“Lily, would you like to go see the festival?”
“I’ve had my fill of festival viewing for a whole week! But I feel like it would be fun if I went with Yuri.”
“Hoho, yes, on the last day, there’s a truly grand parade. Everyone dresses up like the dead. It will be fun if we go together.”
The culmination of the festival was nearing.
Tales associated with the Festival of the Dead invariably concluded with the resurrection of the deceased.
Therefore, so as not to startle them, the living also donned disguises resembling the dead and ventured out into the streets.
By mingling naturally with the living and celebrating the festival together, the dead, freed from their demise, could release their resentments towards life and finally find peace.
“But Yuri, is it really alright for you to leave the mansion? Aren’t you sick?”
“Since it’s the festival today, even someone like me, who’s been as good as dead, can walk around.”
“Yuri is sick, but she’s not dead yet…”
The resurrection of the dead was drawing nigh.
The resentments of the departed, envious of the joy and happiness of all the living, were overflowing onto the land, and the time when they would finally rise with purpose was approaching.
And the resurrection of Yuri Sitri was drawing nigh.
Seven years of accumulated resentment from her confinement, coupled with jealousy and hatred for a normal life, were now overflowing.
The departed soul, awakened by the chirping of the small bird named Lily, was finally stirring its heavy body, preparing to venture outside.
All to claim her small bird for herself.
****
It was evening, with the sun barely clinging to the sky.
Dusk had not yet fully descended upon the lord’s manor, where a dim light still lingered.
In his office, the middle-aged lord, who had just faced two knights, was now racking his brain in distress.
His territory was in the furthest reaches of the kingdom, right on the border, and thus he was not fully aware of the happenings in the capital.
Consequently, he had absolutely no dealings with royalty, save for exceptions like birthdays.
Moreover, due to its proximity to the border, his territory was often excluded even from most of those exceptions.
Therefore, he could not fathom the true reason behind the Princess’s personal knights visiting his territory.
The knights he had met in person claimed their visit was for an ecological survey of the nearby Mount Belatia; however, there was no plausible reason to dispatch such high-ranking knights and a dragonkin for a mere ecological study.
“The problem is that I can’t discern their true intentions. It makes no sense for them to come all this way without any genuine reason.”
Sion, the former inquisitor of the Holy Kingdom and the Black Knight, known by his epithet of ‘Black’.
Goldie, the guardian dragon who upheld the covenant passed down from the first King Elijah.
Even if only one of them, symbols of the kingdom’s military might, were to move, it would constitute an emergency that all nations would closely monitor; yet, both had arrived simultaneously on the same day.
Their claim of merely being there for an ecological survey was as preposterous as having a gun barrel pointed at one’s face and being told there was no danger.
Rain Sitri, the middle-aged lord, had never encountered such a situation in his twenty years of governance, and consequently, he was in a state of profound bewilderment.
Furthermore, this visit came immediately after he had barely managed to stabilize the territory following the catastrophe of several years past; indeed, he had deliberately held a grand festival to revitalize the domain precisely for its future.
Given that even a minor disturbance could easily plunge the territory back into chaos and render it irreparable, Rain Sitri had no choice but to be wary of their visit.
“In any case, today is the last day of the festival, so I must conduct as much investigation as possible to uncover their intentions…”
On one hand, there was the Black Knight, who pressured him with a suspicious smile from beginning to end; on the other, the dragon, who spoke as if understanding his predicament all too well and being considerate.
If they had indeed come with the intention of ruining his territory, then as its lord, he would have to stop them, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.
One small mercy, however, was that they had brought along a young squire girl.
Even if an unforeseen situation were to arise, securing her person might prevent the circumstances from escalating to a point where the very existence of the territory was at stake.
“I must review their surveillance reports… This will lead to a great deal of work. And I’ll need to gather more information through my contacts in the capital.”
The office door opened, and an elderly butler with an impressive white beard entered.
“My Lord, a great calamity has occurred!”
“Is there a matter more grave than those knights?”
“Lady Yuri has disappeared!”
“What did you say?”
He furrowed his brow, pressing a hand to his throbbing, increasingly muddled head.
Yuri Sitri, the family’s secret shame and taboo, had vanished.
