1. Regarding My Suspicious Family (1)

A very, very long time ago, Erta, the one true god, descended upon a peaceful world where blood and tears didn’t exist.

Erta met a human woman he loved in the human world and spent happy days with her.

But humans are humans.

The human woman, who bloomed more brightly than any flower and captivated everyone around her, withered away in vain at the hands of those who envied and resented her happy life.

Erta, the one true god, fell into a great rage and finally turned his back on the human world.

Not long after Erta left the human world, something happened to humans.

Each of them gained a special ability.

Some were born with luck far better than others, some recovered quickly even from severe injuries, and some gained the power to discern truth from lies in another person’s words.

Those powers didn’t distinguish between the wicked and the good. They were given to newborn infants and to the sick with barely any time left to live.

Great or small, the power of abilities was given to everyone, and no human without one could be found.

Some say those abilities are the merciful ‘blessings’ Erta, the one true god, bestowed upon frail humans while longing for the human woman he loved after she left the world.

Others say they’re an eternal ‘curse’ placed upon the foolish and arrogant beings who killed the woman he loved.

Then what do you think?

Are the abilities you possess truly blessings? Or are they curses?

◆

The words of the director, who always told the children old stories before bed, were enough to make their drooping eyes shine.

“Me, me! Miss! I definitely think they’re blessings!”

“No, idiot. Why do you think Miss is telling us this story? It’s because they aren’t blessings.”

“Gasp! Miss, is that really true?”

The children argued among themselves over whether abilities were blessings or curses, then eventually grabbed each other’s hair and fought while insisting they were right.

“Children, calm down. No one can say whose answer is right.”

The director gently soothed one of the children, who had been screaming that they were right, by holding the child in her arms.

Children abandoned by their parents or born as orphans treated the director like a mother.

Starved for affection, the young children gathered around her one by one.

I watched them laugh and chatter in little groups from two or three steps away.

‘A blessing……’

It would’ve been understandable to feel annoyed when so many children in the room, not just one, clung to her and begged for attention, but the director still wore a gentle smile.

‘Today it’s fresh pink armeria again.’

Among all those countless abilities, the power I had gained projected the flowers inside other people’s hearts.

And the armeria blooming in her chest……

It had never once changed from the first moment I remembered the director until now.

‘Was the meaning of armeria <sympathy> and <patience>?’

Maybe that was why. Everyone else treated the director as a kind and gentle mother, but I couldn’t see her as anything more than a teacher.

In the end, it felt like the reason she was kind to us wasn’t ‘love,’ but merely ‘sympathy’….

‘But lately the flower seems to be withering a little……’

The flower inside the director’s heart didn’t seem as vivid as before.

It wasn’t that noticeable, but maybe it would be more accurate to say it was withering little by little.

Why?

Could her sympathy for the children be fading?

“…Brilly.”

“……”

“Brilly?”

“Ah, yes! Miss!”

Oh no. I must’ve been thinking too deeply. I zoned out so hard I didn’t even hear her call me right away.

“What were you thinking about so intently?”

“Nothing. I was a little tired. Why did you call me?”

“Ash seems to have enjoyed the story just now. He said he wanted to know what you thought too.”

Once the director finished speaking, Ash appeared with both hands on his waist, looking triumphant, and shouted.

“Big sister Bee! You’re on my side, right? Then hurry up and tell Monte that abilities really are blessings! He won’t even pretend to listen to me.”

Ash, my little brother four years younger than me, glared fiercely and shouted that they were definitely blessings.

This tiny devil, who seemed like he’d only cause mischief if left alone, possessed an ability that let a person dream whatever dream they wished when they fell asleep.

‘Compared to him, Monte……’

Monte, my little brother three years younger than me, didn’t mingle with the other children and sat quietly in the corner even now.

Monte probably wouldn’t answer, but he’d definitely think they were curses.

He’d once mentioned in passing that whenever he used his ability, a splitting headache came over him.

‘If every use of your ability brought nothing but pain, I can see why you wouldn’t like it.’

I don’t know what ability Monte has. He’s never told me.

I can only guess that it might be related to the weather.

‘Because it always rained whenever Monte was bedridden with a severe illness.’

The director once told us that powerful abilities came with an equivalent price.

‘Ash talks about blessings and all that too, but on days he used his ability, he slept all day.’

Compared to the two of them, my ability……

All I could do was see the flowers inside people’s hearts.

“Big sister Bee? What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you think they’re curses too?”

“What? No, I…”

My ability was probably too insignificant to be either a blessing or a curse.

“I… don’t think they’re blessings or curses.”

“Huh? You’re talking like abilities aren’t a big deal…… Big sister Bee, are you stupid?”

That brat Ash.

The way he looked at me was beyond impudent.

Had he forgotten I was four years older than him?

“Only Erta would know the answer, so if we think of them as blessings, they become blessings, and if we think of them as curses, they become curses.”

The director stroked my head several times with a face that somehow looked proud.

Then clap, clap! She struck her palms together a few times.

“Now, now. Tonight’s story ends here. An important guest is scheduled to visit tomorrow, so everyone should sleep early so you don’t oversleep.”

An important guest.

The children’s eyes widened and their faces brightened.

“Yes, Miss!”

“They say good children sleep early and wake up early. Then they can be chosen.”

“Ah, I’m excited! Who’ll be chosen tomorrow? Ash, probably? Or Knox? Maybe even Monte!”

Almond flowers bloomed all at once in the chests of the children gathered in the wide room.

‘Ah. It’s already time for guests to visit.’

When I first understood what my ability was, the first flower meaning I looked up was the almond blossom’s.

After a winter spent sniffling because we couldn’t endure the cold, around the time plum blossoms began to bloom, the director told us.

An important guest would visit soon.

‘They call them guests, but they’re nobles coming to adopt children with prospects.’

Whether they recognized a child’s ability and became their patron, or simply liked a child and took them away as playmates for their own children.

Children chosen by guests put on fine clothes they’d never worn since birth, took the hand of the guest who chose them, and left the orphanage.

‘That was when it started. The children left behind began blooming almond blossoms whenever they heard about guests.’

Fortunately, there was a grand encyclopedia of plants inside the orphanage, and it included an explanation of almond blossoms.

Almond blossoms. Their meanings are…

‘<Hope> and <new beginning>.’

That was when I realized it.

My ability wasn’t simply seeing the flowers blooming in other people’s chests. It lets me guess their current circumstances and emotions through those flowers.

‘After that, I probably lived with a dictionary of flower meanings tucked under my arm all day.’

Anyway, the words ‘important guest’ held special meaning for the children at the orphanage.

They referred to someone who might adopt us as a guardian and also become our new family.

For nearly a year, guests had stopped coming entirely, so I thought they might never come again. Apparently not.

‘But it has nothing to do with me.’

I had grown up in this orphanage from birth until now, at thirteen years old.

I was the oldest child here, and important guests didn’t even glance at children over ten.

‘And it isn’t like I have an outstanding ability like my adorable, proud little siblings.’

The day I went to the distant, dazzling capital would probably be the day I became an adult and left on my own.

So I would stay here, help the director look after the younger children, and go to the capital to earn money once I grew up.

Who decided that?

I did!

‘Once I earn a lot of money, I’ll definitely come back to repay the director.’

I kept drawing out a distant future that hadn’t even arrived yet.

Aside from my ability, I liked flowers, so working at a flower shop would be nice.

‘Maybe my ability will be useful and I’ll become hugely successful!’