Episode 199
- Creak...
The carriage that had been quickly cutting through the back alley gradually slowed down, then came to a stop.
"Please settle the payment!"
At that, Rozwin, who had been fidgeting restlessly inside the carriage, left the female employee who had been smoking a cigarette with hollow eyes behind and stepped outside.
"Never mind, wait here."
"...Yes?"
"I'll find it quickly and come out, so I said wait here."
"......."
Hearing those words, the female employee started staring blankly at Rozwin, forgetting even to exhale the cigarette smoke she was holding in her mouth.
"What... *cough, cough!*"
Before long, the female employee, who was about to ask her a question, ended up spewing out all the cigarette smoke she had been holding in her mouth.
"What do you mean what! A f-flower, of course!"
"...A flower?"
"W-well, there should be at least one left. After all, I received so many..."
Rozwin, who answered hesitantly while looking at such an employee.
"Surely... you didn't throw them all away, did you?"
She asked that question with a slightly frightened expression.
"...Why don't you check for yourself."
"You've been displeasing me lately."
At those words, the female employee, who had lost even the strength to retort and was leaning back in her chair, muttered in a low voice, and Rozwin, who had been glaring at her, turned her steps toward the guild.
"...I was always displeasing though."
The female employee, who had been watching her, muttered thus with a sullen expression and stuffed the cigarette into her mouth.
"Mmm."
Of course, Rozwin, who had no way of knowing that female employee's circumstances, began to worry after stepping inside her own guild.
'Right, let's check the reception room first.'
The first place she headed to was the reception room.
When she recalled the memories she shared with Frey, most of their meetings took place there. She thought that a few flowers would still remain.
"There we go."
Rozwin, after disabling the security system, stepped into the splendid reception room used only by the guild's VIPs.
"Hmm..."
True to her fastidious nature, the reception room was tidy to the point that not a speck of dust could be seen.
"Come to think of it... here..."
While examining such a room, Rozwin, who suddenly recalled the vase and golden flower that Frey had left as a gift, cautiously headed toward the desk.
- Swish...
Before long, Rozwin, who was looking at the vase that she had broken in anger back then but had restored with recovery magic, opened the trash can in front of her legs just in case.
- Thud...!
"...Ugh."
However, the trash can was completely empty.
It didn't make sense from the start that she, who couldn't tolerate anything dirty, wouldn't empty the trash can for a whole week.
The precious golden rose that Frey had prepared with all his might and gifted to her had already been mixed with other trash, burned, and scattered on the ground long ago.
"....."
She, who had just realized that fact and fell into silence while caressing the vase.
"That... it was pretty though."
She muttered slightly gloomily, then began to slowly look around the room.
"There are a lot of flowers..."
The reception room was filled with fragrant flowers.
"...But these are things I don't need right now."
Of course, half were flowers Rozwin had bought herself, and half were flowers Ruby had gifted her.
"...Let's go out."
After that, Rozwin, who searched thoroughly through drawers, bookshelves, and even behind coat hangers but couldn't find even a single petal let alone a flower, came out of the reception room with a sullen expression.
".....!"
Then, what came into her eyes were the fragrant flowers decorating the corridor walls. And...
A photo of herself and 'Hero Ruby' making V-signs.
Rozwin, who was looking at the items she had personally decorated with emotion just a few days ago, widened her eyes.
"W-what is this?"
Feeling a sense of incongruity for some reason, she began heading to her next destination, her own room.
"Let's see..."
Rozwin, who entered the room with a strange expression, began to search her room diligently this time.
Due to her serious fastidiousness, she always had difficulties with search missions, but since her room was surprisingly clean, there was no problem with the search itself.
".....Ugh."
However, the problem was the strange phenomenon that suddenly appeared to Rozwin.
"Ugh..."
For some reason, whenever she found the flowers she received from Ruby, or the photos she took with Ruby, she felt a headache.
"Grr..."
She thought it was an emotion she always felt.
She thought she was in a mood where her chest felt like it would burst, because she was able to serve the Hero, which was her lifelong wish.
But for some reason, today, she didn't feel happy at all.
The fact that 'something was wrong' was faintly but deeply embedded in her mind.
"...Hah, haaah."
Thanks to that, Rozwin, who stopped the search and rushed out of her room, began to breathe roughly.
"What is this... seriously..."
Rozwin, who had been confused by unknown emotions and strange phenomena for a while, began to move her steps somewhere again.
"Ugh... n-no."
Before long, the place she arrived at was a crude iron door that looked slightly shabby.
"...Ugh."
Rozwin, who closed her eyes and hesitated for a moment in front of it, carefully opened the door, revealing the guild's basement and warehouse.
"Ugh..."
Due to the characteristics and humidity unique to basements, this space, which would quickly become dirty and develop cobwebs no matter how well it was managed, was one of the spaces Rozwin hated the most.
That's why she usually made employees do it when she needed to take something out, but today she made up her mind and entered the warehouse.
"...Mmph."
Every time Rozwin took a step forward, an unpleasant feeling washed over her.
Unrefined hot air wrapped around her body, thick dust stimulated her nose, mouth, and eyes, and the cobwebs stretched out everywhere kept sticking to her face.
"Huulk, hiss..."
Rozwin, who was enduring by clenching her teeth in a situation where she would have normally screamed and run out immediately, while continuing the search.
"...Huh?"
Before long, she discovered a plant stem and widened her eyes.
"F-found it...!"
Before long, she picked it up with a bright smile.
"...That's it."
But soon her expression crumbled.
The flower, which she couldn't guess how long it had been stuck in the warehouse, was rotten and mushy.
The pink rose next to it, the tulip next to that, the lily below, and the daisy above were all the same.
It was an obvious fact that anyone knew that flowers would become like that if they didn't receive light, but it was a disaster caused by Rozwin, who was only busy removing the flower from her sight after receiving it from Frey.
"N-no... this can't be..."
Eventually, driven into a corner, Rozwin, who completely erased her earlier composure and nonchalant expression from her face and began to make an urgent expression.
- Shaaaa...
With a sliver of hope, she began to infuse her sun mana into the flower.
"W-with this, maybe..."
When the flower began to shine, Rozwin gulped and started to concentrate.
- Whoosh...!
"Ah..."
All too naturally, the withered flower turned to ash instead of coming back to life.
In the first place, there was no way a dried and dead flower would come back to life just by exposing it to sunlight.
"T-then..."
Thanks to that, Rozwin, who was breaking out in a cold sweat, grabbed the rose next to it and began to cast a restoration magic.
"...There's no way it would work."
But after a while, she muttered thus with a dumbfounded expression and put down the rose.
As Rozwin said, magic to resurrect already dead life forms did not exist. No, to be precise, it was forbidden.
Because reviving the dead violated the world's laws.
Even the great mage from a thousand years ago, and the Magic Tower Lord and Irina, who were great mages a thousand years later, could not even dare to perform such magic, nor attempt to.
"I-if I just take this... wouldn't it work...?"
So Rozwin picked up the canary flower, which at least had some color remaining.
- Pitter-patter...
At that moment, the petals attached to the stem fell off in clumps.
"........"
Rozwin, who looked down for a long time at something that no one could call a 'flower' anymore.
- Creak...
Leaving the dried, dead flowers behind, she quietly left the warehouse, covered in dust and cobwebs.
- Thud, thud...
And, unlike when she first came here, she walked weakly toward the bathroom.
- Whoosh...
Before long, arriving in front of the sink, she turned on the water and began to wash her hands with great force.
"W-who is she... to impose such conditions..."
She muttered while looking at her own reflection in the mirror.
"What? She'll tell a story if I bring flowers? Seriously, what kind of..."
Normally, she would have badmouthed Frey for tens of minutes, but strangely enough, her badmouthing didn't last long.
"...Did she really not leave a single flower?"
Rozwin, who was looking at herself in the mirror, lowered her head and muttered.
"Not even one?"
Of course, there was no answer.
- Whoosh...
Rozwin, who had been silently washing away the dust and cobwebs from herself for a while.
"...Ugh."
Recalling the photo she saw in the morning and the scene she saw in the carriage, she frowned deeply.
"Ugh..."
Lulu, who was chewing on Frey's ear with her eyes half-closed, and just a moment ago was definitely trying to jump him while calling him 'Master'.
Irina, who was clearly a haughty and proud mage as far as she knew, but for some reason was blushing at Frey's touch.
When the carriage door closed, the way those two looked at Frey was definitely love, and... lust.
If so.
"......"
What emotion is contained in those eyes and expression, which clearly look abnormal at a glance, that she is showing in the mirror right now?
Anger? Sadness? Regret?
Remorse? Despair? Powerlessness?
Anxiety? Fear? Tension?
Even she had no choice but to admit it to some extent now.
The reason why her condition had been terrible for the past few days.
The reason why she went out to greet visitors with an expectant expression every time they came to the guild, only to fail at managing her expression with a disappointed look.
Her mind reeling since Frey announced the breakup, the twisted feeling in her gut when she saw the women clinging around Frey giving him loving looks.
All of those things pointed to a single fact.
"I, I..."
She, for some reason. She didn't know why.
"I......"
Before she knew it, she was 'missing' Frey.
"Th-that's ridiculous."
As soon as she realized that fact, Rozwin, who muttered thus with a dumbfounded expression, splashed water on her face.
"Why would I... what is there to regret..."
She tried to escape from the situation somehow.
"......."
But in her mind, for some reason, memories of the past surfaced.
One day when she was in particularly bad condition, perhaps having caught a cold.
She was lying in bed groaning, and Frey, without even asking for her permission, broke down the door and came in with a pale face.
Thanks to that, when she looked at him with an absurd expression, he wiped away the flowing sweat and held out a flower.
"Rozwin, sorry I'm late. Here..."
"...Get out!! How rude!!"
Of course, she was already in a sensitive state, and seeing that her nightwear was shown to Frey, her anger exploded and she screamed and chased him out.
"...Hehe."
Frey left the room with a bright smile, as if something was so good about it.
It was such a memorable event that she, who was lying in bed suppressing her anger.
"Young miss."
"Yes?"
The female employee who always walked around smiling, whispered with a dark expression.
"Sometimes you have to lose something to know its value."
"What?"
"Before that happens... *cough!!"
"W-what's wrong with you?"
She remembered that after that day, she got up from her seat a few days later, and instead, the female employee was sick for a week.
"........"
Of course, she had ignored the words the female employee said that day with a snort, but why?
Now those words started to swirl in her head.
"Mmph..."
Suddenly, the memories she spent with Frey in the past started to feel plausible.
Frey, who brought her flower bouquets with a silly smile and handed them to her.
Frey, who granted any request and didn't want any compensation.
Frey, who was the only one to visit her when she was sick, when even her parents didn't come.
Frey, who even when he was always coldly rejected, would smile slyly and say he'd try again next time.
"Ugh..."
Those memories that made her blood boil just thinking about them, for some reason felt plausible now, and she started to think maybe they were even enjoyable.
No, they were trying to become precious memories.
"What the... seriously..."
Rozwin, who couldn't accept such a situation and was in chaos alone, left the bathroom.
"I, it's just a misunderstanding... I'm like this because I'm tired..."
She tried to deny reality one last time.
"But it's real..."
Before she knew it, she was hurrying her steps somewhere.
"E-excuse me!"
Before long, the place she arrived at was none other than in front of the carriage she had waiting outside the guild.
"...What is it?"
"W-well... get off the carriage. There's somewhere I need to go."
"Where?"
The female employee, who had been waiting for Rozwin for a long time, asked with a bewildered expression, and she, who was hesitating.
"T-there's a big flower shop nearby. You know, a really big one."
"A flower shop? Why there?"
"I-I need to buy some flowers. To apologize to Frey... no, to give as a gift. He seemed pretty upset, so I should cheer him up."
"A gift?"
When Rozwin said that, the employee tilted her head with a blank expression.
"Why are you doing this? Did he become precious to you now after all this time?"
Before long, the female employee, who asked that with a soulless expression.
"...I-I don't know. Anyway, follow me. I said I have a lot of places to go today. I need your help, so come on."
When Rozwin answered with a slightly flustered expression and turned around to walk away quickly.
"Haa......"
She exhaled a large amount of cigarette smoke outside.
- Crumple, crumple...
And after crumpling the envelope she was holding.
"Why bother being late to the party... it's already too late anyway."
She muttered in a dark voice and got off the carriage.
"Well, I'll watch though."
Before she knew it, the sun was high in the sky.
"Whatever happens, karma never disappears."