The place of the seal was surprisingly easy to find.

“Is this… Fuuin?”

Young Emilia blinked her deep violet eyes in curiosity as she tilted her head, staring at the strange object before her.

What stood before Emilia was a bizarre door discovered deep in the forest, surrounded by towering trees in a secluded clearing.

Though it’s a door, it’s not connected to any building, and checking around back reveals nothing. Just a giant door standing alone, looking up at it from the forest floor.

“I wonder why it doesn’t fall over…”

Curious, she pushed against the door, but it didn’t budge at all. Naturally, the door remained steadfast against Emilia’s tiny frame, basking in a gentle breeze like it had nothing to worry about.

It felt wooden to the touch, yet the cold surface was reminiscent of ice. The texture was smooth, reminiscent of polished stone, creating an odd sensation upon contact.

In the center of the double door, a lock lay aged and rusty, with a keyhole large enough for Emilia’s palm to fit. What sort of key could possibly fit such a size, and who could carry it in their pocket?

“What a bizarre thing…”

Emilia tapped the door with her palm, confirming that it should be solid, yet it offered no echo in response. Although she had discovered it, she couldn’t grasp its meaning, and tilted her head in confusion.

“I wonder what this is. Hey!”

The gentle glow circled around Emilia’s head, seeking her agreement.

Ever since their meeting in the Princess Room, the fairies, who seemed to be everywhere in the forest, quickly led Emilia to this spot upon learning she was searching for the “seal.”

Following their guidance to reach this point, even the fairies seemed clueless as to what significance the seal held.

Even if they did know, they couldn’t communicate it to Emilia, as their ability to convey thoughts was limited.

“I don’t get it, so it’s boring. But, I found it! Clap, clap, clap!”

She clapped her hands, cheering for her own discovery, then nodded enthusiastically before leaving the seal behind.

With this, she had acquired a trump card in case her escape from the Princess Room was uncovered. Even if Fortuna and the others learned of Emilia’s great escape, saying she knew about this seal would probably lead to a somewhat equal argument, even if she didn’t fully understand it.

Why she thought that way was a bit of a mystery, though.

“Hmph! It’s all Mother Fortuna’s fault and Juice’s fault!”

Recalling the tall man in the black suit, Emilia stuck her tongue out at him, though he wasn’t here.

He was the one who could draw out her beloved Mother Fortuna’s secret expressions. She knew he wasn’t a bad person, but to Emilia, he was undoubtedly the enemy.

Although they hadn’t faced each other directly yet, if Fortuna ever gave her a chance to meet him, Emilia was determined to stomp on his feet.

“I’ll stomp on his feet while the fairies leap onto his face, and I’ll do it with both feet! No wait, that would hurt, so I’ll just use my toes.”

Even amid her merciless plan, she didn’t forget to inject a hint of kindness.

A strategy without mercy wouldn’t garner any allies. Keeping the fairies and her enemies in mind, Emilia stealthily made her way back toward the village from the depths of the forest.

Currently, outside of her escape from the Princess Room, it was just another one of Emilia’s free time. Fortuna was checking around the forest to ensure the barriers were still secure, leaving only elderly folk and children around her age in the village.

The elders couldn’t keep up with Emilia’s grand adventures, and for some reason, the children didn’t approach her much either. Sometimes, she felt lonely about it, but whenever she did, Mother Fortuna would play with her vigorously, making it not such a big deal that she couldn’t play with the other kids.

“And I’m probably the only one who knows about Fuuin, right?”

The thought of knowing something that everyone else didn’t gave Emilia a small sense of superiority, propping up her self-esteem. She walked proudly, leading the fairies as they moved deeper into the forest.

Her destination was her home. Today, Fortune had prepared a much larger white paper than usual, and Emilia planned to unleash her creativity as she painted upon it.

“Today’s artwork will feature a red sky and a white forest. —?”

As she envisioned the images to splash onto the canvas, Emilia suddenly noticed the fairies moving erratically. “Hmm?” she squinted one eye and followed their movements, only to find them heading off the path into a thicket.

“This feels like a premonition of trouble…!”

Typically, the fairies disappeared like particles of light, but this time they were meandering into the depths of the forest. Emilia decided this was either an incident or an invitation to follow them.

Stepping off the path, she trekked through the underbrush, easily vaulting over flowers and trees taller than her own head. Twigs snagged her long silver hair as she maneuvered through the woods, and then—

“Oh dear, this seems troublesome… I’ll be late for our appointment!”

She spotted a man leaning against a slender tree, looking utterly lost in the shadowy forest path.

“—Oh!”

She let out an involuntary sound, quickly covering her mouth with both hands. However, in the quiet woods, her childlike voice reached his ears and caught his attention.

“Who’s there?”

Tilting his head, the man turned toward the thicket where Emilia was hiding.

He had a gentle appearance, neatly trimmed green hair, and a slender build that, rather than being frail, seemed quite fit. He towered even taller than Fortuna, who Emilia had to look up to, making her jump desperately to peep out from behind the plants.

To Emilia, that man was none other than her dreaded enemy—Juice.

“———”

Staring silently in the thicket, Emilia steeled herself for the encounter, recognizing she couldn’t sneak past him.

In reality, with her back turned, her little bottom was sticking out of the bushes where Juice could clearly see it, but she remained oblivious to it, and Juice didn’t say anything.

She emerged slowly, her face marked by embarrassment.

“Well, well, a cute young lady has appeared…!”

Juice had nearly smiled warmly seeing Emilia, but his words were cut short by shock.

Eyes wide, he stared at her, lips trembling. The intensity of his gaze was unsettling. It was a mix of her animosity toward him and the confusion of the complicated emotions in his eyes.

“You are… no, you can’t possibly be…”

“———”

In a trembling voice, Juice shook his head as if he had witnessed something unbelievable. Emilia looked up at him hesitantly, feeling pity for his weak expression.

He looked like a lost child or someone who had wandered in darkness finally finding a light—an expression that combined both vulnerability and fragility made her forget all her prior feelings toward Juice.

“…Juice, are you okay?”

“——! Ah, ah, ah…!”

Emilia stepped closer, tugging at the hem of Juice’s black robe to speak to him.

In an instant, Juice’s expression cracked further, and he trembled as if he’d just received a jolt from Emilia’s grasp on his sleeve, sinking to his knees.

As she trembled at the sight, Emilia felt his warmth seep into her within at that moment.

She had aimed to stomp on him, yet here she was, cradling him.

What a troublesome person. An unavoidable enemy. There was no way she could be cruel to someone crying. Mother Fortuna would surely understand and forgive her.

“Being all alone and crying is just lonely.”

Once Juice stopped crying, she would take his hand and head back to the village.

She had to tell Mother Fortuna.

They had shared a stroll in the forest and the fact that he had cried despite being an adult.

The two, binding the shared secret, were no longer enemies, but rather something akin to friends.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

As Emilia leaned against the hard surface, she snapped back from a fleeting loss of consciousness.

Shaking her head and running fingers through her silver hair, she grimaced at the persistent ringing in her ears.

What had that brief dream been about?

In Emilia’s memory, there was no such scenery. There shouldn’t have been.

Yet, emerging memories poured forth scenes she didn’t recognize. The characters were all people she knew, yet it felt as if they were acting out a play she had never seen.

Fortuna, Juice, the fairies, even her younger self were familiar.

Yet, the scenes and conversations were utterly unknown.

Bits and pieces of unfamiliar images spilled forth.

The sealed door, the escape from the Princess Room, the guidance of the fairies, the true identity of Juice and the others in black clothes, and Fortuna’s final words to Emilia.

“—Ah, ugh!”

A particularly sharp pain pierced through her mind.

She roughly wiped away the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, leaving her white skin red and swollen as she exhaled.

Since the morning her contract with Pack was severed, an array of unknown memories began surfacing in Emilia’s mind. She was unsure what it all meant deep down.

However, she understood that this wasn’t merely meaningless delusion without basis.

Emilia’s heart, at its very core, neither rejected nor distanced itself from these memories.

She did know. Deep within her heart, she understood this scene.

If that’s the case, then could this truly have been a real moment? Why, then, was there no memory of it in Emilia’s mind?

The past she had seen during the “Trial” at the graveyard.

In that snowy forest, the memories filled with resentment and malice aimed at Fortuna left her wanting to scream. Her memory seemed to lack a vital connection to the decisive moment before all that.

Was there something tying back to that lost portion hidden in the sea of her current memories?

If so, diving deep into that sea to retrieve whatever had sunk would be something Emilia needed to do.

“I must hurry… I need to find it…”

Her head throbbed. Her body felt heavy. Her vision wavered, and strength drained from her body.

Yet despite that, she leaned against the wall, determined to stand and keep moving forward.

Dragging her heavy body step by step, Emilia pressed deeper into the darkness, alone, her face teetering on the edge of tears.

All alone.

 

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