“……Are you crying?”

“Yes.”

“Wh, why?”

“Because I’m so happy to have you as my guest.”

Alisa looked quietly at the man who was crying. The tears falling silently beneath his chin made her chest ache for some reason, and she stuck out her lower lip.

“I thought adults didn’t cry.”

“……”

“I’m the one who should be crying, so why are you the one in tears?”

The man wiped the tear from his chin and asked:

“Why do you want to cry?”

“You’re not asking because you don’t know, are you? You said you were leaving me behind!”

“I never said I was leaving you behind.”

More words she didn’t understand. Alisa felt a surge of emotion and snapped back:

“Sir, listen carefully. If you really do leave me behind and go, I’ll resent you for the rest of my life. I will never, ever forgive you.”

“My, that’s so frightening I might start crying again.”

“I’m not joking. I mean it. I really won’t forgive you. Until the day I die — no, even after I die, I’ll resent you.”

The man said nothing and gave her head a light pat.

“Rest for a bit. I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”

He picked up the blanket from the sofa and draped it over Alisa’s knees. Then, for reasons unknown, he made a hasty exit.

Watching the man disappear through the drawing room doorway in long, quick strides, Alisa pulled the blanket close.

The blanket had a polka-dot pattern, and the cocoa had no fewer than five marshmallows floating in it. Not a single one of the five was the same color. It was almost as though he had prepared in advance for a visit from a child her age.

“Strange man.”

Alisa wrapped herself in the new blanket and sipped her cocoa. She felt a little low.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

That day, Alisa left the man’s home just before the sun sank below the horizon. The early dinner he had prepared was remarkable. It was a level of meal she had never enjoyed even in the days when both her mother and father were still there.

“The gift box you left at the clothing shop two weeks ago — I received it safely. I’ll keep the clothes here, so come and collect them whenever you need them.”

“Yes, um…… thank you. Sir.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Alisa watched the sun go down and lingered. She tried to walk with purpose but her feet simply wouldn’t move faster. After seeing the man’s tears, she had felt too awkward to stay in the drawing room, but she didn’t want to go home either.

Mary and Hannah would be furious. She might get slapped again. Her great-aunt would be sitting right beside them, none the wiser, laughing and saying strange things.

Walking slowly, Alisa stopped on the hillside. Rather than heading straight toward the estate, she turned toward the coastal cliffs.

The sky deepened to blue, then sank into complete darkness. Alisa sat perched at the edge of the cliff and could now only feel the sea through her ears. She could hear the waves crashing below, but the ground beneath her feet was as black as an abyss.

‘I don’t want to go home.’

She wanted to turn around and leave for a city where no one knew her.

‘But you have to go back, Alisa.’

She had to be there for when her mother came home, to meet her right away. She couldn’t risk missing a letter if one arrived.

She dragged her heavy feet and finally made her way back to the front of the estate. That was when Alisa noticed a small light flickering from the direction of the attic.

“Eden?”

Could it be, could it be……

Alisa suppressed the hopeful thudding in her chest and broke into a run.

She opened the window and heard Mary and Hannah talking in one of the rooms. She climbed over the sill, tiptoed up the stairs, and took the ladder up to the attic.

“Eden……?”

The name she breathed aloud carried an excitement she couldn’t hide.

“Eden? Are you there? You’re there, aren’t you!”

Alisa climbed the last rung of the ladder and ran inside.

“I nearly fell asleep waiting.”

The Prince was lying sideways on the bed, dressed in a nightgown this time rather than his usual clothes. Alisa’s eyes went wide and she ran toward him. She ran so fast that Eden startled and tried to move out of the way.

“Eden!”

“Wh, what.”

“Why did you take so long to come!”

“How would I know how to get here on purpose. Today I just woke up and found myself here again…… ugh.”

“You did well!”

Alisa leapt onto the bed where Eden was lying. She grabbed both his hands and shook them up and down. Eden’s face went red as he tried to pull his hands free, but when it became clear Alisa had no intention of letting go, he gave up and closed his eyes, turning away.

“I can play with you in much more interesting ways now, Eden. I’ve got a new trick.”

“What do you……”

Alisa squeezed her eyes shut and wished with everything she had.

‘Stop! Stop!’

Something felt like it was floating around in her mind, drifting like threads. She felt like she just had to grab one, but it kept slipping just out of reach. Alisa squeezed her eyes shut and strained with a low groan, and Eden’s exasperated voice came from beside her.

“……What are you doing?”

“Just a moment, almost, almost there!”

Alisa gripped Eden’s hand in one fist like a talisman, then reached out with the other and grabbed the vase sitting on the table. Before the boy could say a word, she flipped it over.

Splash — the water from the vase spilled over both their hands. Eden’s eyes went wide with shock at the sudden dousing.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but that’s not going to……”

“Done!”

“……What?”

Eden, who had been holding onto every last scrap of his dignity, let his mouth fall open. It was a sight worth opening one’s mouth over. The water droplets that had been dripping from the mouth of the vase were floating in midair.

“How, how did you do that?”

“I have no idea!”

“Why are you so cheerful about it? And is there no side effect? It’s raining outside all of a sudden — is that connected to you?”

“Hmm, now that you mention it, it did rain last time too……”

“Isn’t this a power you shouldn’t be using?”

Eden frowned and tried to look out at the rain pouring down outside the window. But Alisa took his hand and headed toward the attic entrance.

“Think about that later — right now we need to move quickly. This could wear off any moment.”

Alisa remembered how time had started moving again the instant the box left Hannah’s hand. She couldn’t tell whether it had been because of the contact, or because the time limit had simply run out.

Eden gave up trying to say anything more and followed Alisa. She ran down the ladder and called out:

“I’ll make it fun for you, Eden!”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Alisa made good use of the little time they had. First she stopped by the kitchen and loaded up on bread and everything else she could carry, then grabbed a picnic mat to spread on the ground.

Eden, who had never carried a heavy bag in his life, scrunched up his face, but Alisa paid it no mind whatsoever. She walked on steadily through the pitch-black dark without hesitation.

Eden followed along without complaint at first, but paused when Alisa turned onto a forest path.

“This way, Eden.”

“Can you even see where you’re going? It’s dangerous to be wandering outside at this hour.”

“Why? Are you scared?”

“I didn’t say I was scared. But you said you’d make it fun……”

“We’re almost there. Just a little further…… ah, here!”

Alisa, who had been leading the way with an umbrella, came to a stop. She rested the umbrella casually on her shoulder and pointed up at the sky. Eden, rolling his stiff shoulder under the weight of the heavy bag, looked a beat later in the direction she was pointing.

All he could see was a black sky buried under thick, grey cloud.

“There’s nothing to see.”

“Just wait a moment. If this rain really is falling because of me, I think it’ll clear up soon.”

Alisa stared hard at the sky. The time it had taken to run from the estate to the footbridge was about the same as the time it had taken to get here from the estate. That meant the sky should be clearing right about now.

Sure enough, the fierce downpour began to thin little by little. Eden’s expression was flat — he had been pulled from a comfortable bed, transported without warning to an attic, and then dragged through the dark.

But when starlight began to glimmer through the gaps in the tangled trees overhead, something shifted in the boy’s eyes.