Merrien, who had cooled down completely, lightly tugged on the butler’s ear.

“But how exactly do you know about that scene?”

Since he was being so brazen, she had nothing to be embarrassed about.

The butler not only dared to be curious about his master’s private life but had secretly read romance novels too. He was utterly shameless.

“Aaack! I’m sorry, Saint. We just hoped that you two would get engaged soon…”

Even while yelping and trying to pull away, he didn’t forget to chatter on.

Her hand, which had been pulling his ear in reproach, lost its strength.

“……”

Engagement. A word she shouldn’t even imagine.

Merrien’s mood sank with the sudden wave of depression.

This wasn’t the time to scold others. She turned away, not toward her room but in another direction.

“Saint, where are you going?”

“I’m going for a walk. Tell everyone not to follow me.”

“…Yes, Saint.”

The butler immediately understood her suddenly deflated mood.

He had intended to tease her a bit.

But the Saint became abruptly depressed and turned around, heading toward the outer garden.

He bowed toward her retreating figure. And simply watched.

“…Butler. What happened?”

Servants who were secretly curious about the situation began to gather again.

The butler spoke firmly.

“She said no one should follow her.”

His manner of taking control of the situation, telling everyone to get back to work, was befitting of someone who had become the Hartez family butler through sheer perceptiveness.

***

Merrien slowly headed toward the outer garden, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

Even so, anyone could see that her retreating figure was that of a tragic heroine with a story to tell.

When she realized that the gazes that had been secretly following her had completely disappeared, her steps became hurried.

She grabbed the hem of her dress and ran quickly.

Soon she entered the entrance to the outer garden.

The garden seemed much more lush than before, as if it had been better maintained, but nothing registered in her vision.

Right now, she wanted to empty all thoughts from her mind.

Merrien ran like that for a while before stopping.

“…Huff, haaah.”

She bent over with her hands on her knees, exhaling rough breaths.

The spot where she stood had an unusually large amount of grass growing.

She hadn’t been thinking of anything particular while running, but when she raised her head, the portal to the secret garden was right in front of her.

“Ah.”

She sighed. Even while still catching her breath, she had no thought of infusing herself with holy power.

She reached out as if entranced toward the portal of the secret garden, which she had been drawn to unconsciously.

As before, her body was easily transported to the secret garden.

Rustle-.

Merrien immediately lowered her head, startled by the sound of crushed grass.

Weeds that had grown sky-high. Countless nameless flowers and grasses had proliferated.

Woody vines not only covered the bench but also reached the walls.

This confirmed that it was a completely unmanaged space.

Merrien walked a bit further.

There was an area where flowers bloomed profusely.

No, looking closely, the center was empty in a rectangular shape, with flowers abundantly surrounding it.

“……It looks like a coffin.”

Merrien unconsciously murmured about the space, which seemed just the right size for a person to lie down in.

After standing and looking down at it for a while, a good idea soon came to her.

“I can stay here.”

A place no one could find. The secret garden, abandoned and unmanaged by anyone.

It bothered her that the only person who could come here happened to be Ariel, but it didn’t matter.

He wouldn’t think that Merrien had found the portal either.

“I can just lie down right here.”

She spoke to herself, though there was no one to hear.

This place, which seemed like it had been made for her to return to. It was better to depart from Ariel’s space than to secretly leave for somewhere else.

Merrien gently brushed the surrounding flowers with her hand.

How had they grown so much on their own, without anyone to care for them?

Suddenly feeling heat gathering in her eyes, she lifted her head.

An orange-tinted sky came into view.

“……It’s time to go back.”

She recited slowly.

It would be six in the evening soon.

She had no intention of hurrying back like before. She turned around slowly and walked leisurely.

Merrien placed her hand on the portal and returned to the outer garden.

Perhaps because she had decided on a place to return to, her mind felt more at ease, and she walked while looking at the outer garden that she hadn’t properly seen before.

The roses that Charlotte had also praised as beautiful. Yellow roses, pink roses…

As she was brushing them with her hand, she suddenly stopped.

“……!”

There, in a spot she hadn’t checked earlier, was a rose she had never seen before.

A blue rose.

She had once mentioned, just in passing, that there were very rarely blue ones, too.

“It’s beautiful.”

Merrien immediately bent down.

Yes, it was even more beautiful than she had expected.

Beautiful enough to remind her of Ariel’s blue eyes.

“Do you like roses?”

“They may be common, but that’s why everyone likes them. Look, there’s even a yellow rose. How fascinating.”

That day, when she hadn’t yet realized her feelings for him.

She had only brought up the rose garden with the intention of showing him around outside.

“From what I know, truly blue roses don’t exist in the world. I heard you have to dye white roses with blue pigment. I’ve never seen one, though.”

“A blue rose. Do you want to see one?”

“No thanks. It would be artificial. But if there were real blue roses, they would be beautiful.”

Come to think of it, she had said that while looking into Ariel’s blue eyes.

“So blue roses really do exist.”

The rose before her showed no sign of artificial coloring. She had thought they would be impossible to obtain, so she hadn’t even mentioned it to the butler.

Facing the perfectly blue rose, Merrien lowered her head.

Her whole body began to tremble slightly, and finally, she sank to the ground.

“……Huu.”

A sobbing sound escaped from her mouth involuntarily.

The tears she had been holding back finally burst forth. Rubbing her eyes with her sleeve did nothing to stem the flow.

Eventually, starting from her sleeve, the hem of her dress gradually became soaked.

With her face buried in her legs, she simply broke down and wept.

Merrien didn’t notice how much time had passed. She just poured out her tears.

A little later, though there had been no sign of anyone’s presence, a worried voice came from right beside her.

“…Sister. What’s wrong?”

There had clearly been no one in the outer garden.

However, Merrien was not in a mental state to consider this.

Slowly raising her head, she caught sight of a child slightly taller than her sitting height in her blurry vision.

It was Agnes.

“……Are you crying?”

Having simply followed the familiar person’s sobbing, he stepped back when he saw her tear-streaked face.

He averted his gaze for now.

‘What should I do?’

Agnes slowly stroked his chin.

He had seen countless crying people before. They all begged with tears and snot right before dying in front of him.

But this was the first time he had seen someone crying for a different reason, and he had never comforted anyone before.

While he was hesitating, covered in worry, Merrien began to mumble.

“…Soon, I have to go back. When the healing gauge is filled… I have to return to where I originally was……”

Her words were broken as she swallowed her tears.

Even after careful interpretation, it was incomprehensible.

Merrien didn’t seem to know what she was saying either.

She rambled on before burying her face between her legs again.

The hesitant Agnes approached closer.

“Don’t cry, Sister.”

He placed a small hand on her back.

Even while grumbling that this was too much emotion to handle and humans were difficult, he instinctively patted her back.

At that moment.

“!!!”

Merrien tightly hugged Agnes and, leaning into his much smaller frame, began to sob loudly.

Tears quickly soaked his clothes, but Agnes couldn’t move an inch.

Thump-. Thump-. Thump-. His heart pounded.

Afraid that Merrien might hear it, he stood straight, not even looking at the back of her lowered head.

Calm down, it’s just a surprise from her sudden embrace. Agnes repeated this to himself while continuing to pat Merrien’s back.

But his touch was somehow broken and jerky.

Just before six in the evening, Merrien, who had barely regained her composure, apologized to Agnes for showing him such a pitiful sight.

Looking at her swollen eyes that could barely open, Agnes felt like smiling.

She naturally thought it would be mockery, but no. The corners of his mouth tickled, and he ended up giving a shy smile.

And all he did was blankly stare at Merrien’s back as she hurriedly returned to her room.