[Episode 105] - Promise, Promise, Promise (1)
Right after Titania and Vivian went outside to enjoy the festival, Veronica saw them off, then flung Catcy, whom she had been cradling in her arms, onto the bed and flopped down flat on her back.
Lying on the bed, she stretched both arms straight up, gave a big stretch, and stared at the ceiling with a blank expression. Now that she was actually alone keeping watch over the house, it was more boring than she had expected.
While she tossed and turned on the bed, fretting over what to do to pass the time until the two returned, Veronica’s gaze drifted toward Ainsel. Come to think of it, had she ever properly spoken with that mirror?
She didn’t think she had. Veronica found Ainsel oddly irritating for constantly avoiding her. Stealing the main body had been her fault, and she had clearly apologized for that.
Back then, she’d had no choice but to silence Ainsel to keep Vivian from noticing Aurora’s situation. Honestly, who could have predicted she would end up in this kind of relationship with Vivian?
Moreover, Ainsel had accepted her apology. Said she would forgive her, that she would consider it as if it had never happened. So it was only natural that Veronica felt frustrated by how Ainsel kept avoiding her ever since.
‘Besides… I think I know the reason she’s avoiding me… but since I’m not certain, I can’t say anything.’
Veronica sat up on the bed and glared at Ainsel. Yeah, if not now, when would she talk to her? She didn’t want things to stay awkward forever. Veronica rose and slowly approached Ainsel.
“Hah.”
Having approached Ainsel, who was hanging on the wall, Veronica couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh as she looked at the mirror that was Ainsel’s main body. Even if she was trying to avoid her, did she have to go this far?
“You… when Vivian comes back, I’m telling her all about this.”
Written on the mirror were exactly four characters.
[Away]
Veronica had never imagined Ainsel had such a function, so she could only let out a hollow laugh. This damned mirror—even if things were awkward, did she have to avoid her this blatantly?
Clicking her tongue in irritation, Veronica let out a deep sigh, skillfully picked out the romance novel Titania had hidden on the bookshelf behind Vivian’s back, and flopped down onto the bed with a thud.
To fill the emptiness at her side, Veronica pulled Catcy, who was lying sprawled on the bed, into her embrace, and began reading the romance novel as if nothing had happened. What could she do when it said it was away?
After flipping through several chapters of the romance novel, Veronica scrunched up her face in annoyance and whipped her head around to look at Ainsel again. She had thought Ainsel would be different since she was supposedly Titania’s friend here, but…
‘Whether as Vivian’s familiar or now, she’s just as frustrating.’
*
Had the day always been this short? Titania scrunched up her face with a scowl as she looked at the fading evening sunset. What on earth had she done for it to be this late already? She simply couldn’t understand.
At most, she had walked around holding hands with her mother, bought a few things from street stalls, and toured the festival streets while taking a walk with her mother to work up an appetite. And yet…
“Titania, I’m fine. Let’s just go into some empty-looking shop.”
“…I’m sorry, I should have looked into this more beforehand…”
“Don’t take it too hard. I didn’t expect there to be so many people even in the evening when the festival ends. Who would have thought most shops wouldn’t have any empty seats?”
Titania hung her head low, her face crumpling as if she were about to cry.
She had wanted to have dinner with her mother at a famous restaurant, but they couldn’t even get inside. It was famous, so people had flocked there. And besides, it was currently the festival period.
Because it was the festival period, people had gathered from everywhere, so not only the famous restaurants but even ordinary shops required waiting in line to enter. And lines far longer than she had imagined.
If she revealed she was a princess, the restaurant would make a seat for her right away, but then there would be no point in hiding her identity to enjoy the festival. Yet the lines were too long to wait in…
While Titania was at a loss, looking for a shop they could enter, Vivian tapped her on the shoulder and pointed somewhere with her finger.
“Titania, your legs must hurt too. Let’s just eat over there.”
“A-are you sure you’ll be alright? That place is…”
The place her mother pointed at was clearly not a nice restaurant. It was shabby and noisy. Far from what she considered a ‘place with good atmosphere.’ And besides, rather than a restaurant, it was more of a…
“That’s a place that sells alcohol…?”
“Just because it’s a tavern doesn’t mean they don’t sell meals. Fortunately, we can get in without waiting in line. Ah, of course, even if we go into a tavern, you’re not allowed to drink alcohol yet. Not that I would buy you any.”
“But I’m an adult now…”
“Still not allowed.”
Vivian gazed steadily at the tavern with intrigued eyes.
Indeed, as the sun set, people began flocking to that shop. A boy touting for customers locked eyes with her mother, then grinned brightly and gestured for them to come in quickly. Cheap, he said. Delicious, he said.
Now that she thought about it, her mother had liked alcohol. She had never shown Titania herself drinking, but that didn’t mean she didn’t drink. She occasionally drank with Grandmother.
‘Still… on a day like today, I wanted to eat just the two of us in a place with a nice atmosphere…’
Titania pouted her lips slightly.
It wasn’t that she disliked it. As long as she was with her mother, anywhere was fine. But no matter what, she had never expected to eat at a tavern, so Titania was a bit bewildered.
While Titania was at a loss in her confusion, Vivian intertwined her fingers with Titania’s and headed toward the tavern. Titania looked at her suddenly captured hand and nodded.
‘That’s right! What matters is going somewhere Mother likes!’
Squeezing their interlocked hands and giggling, Titania let herself be led by Vivian into the tavern. By the time Titania and Vivian entered the tavern, the sun had set and evening had fully arrived.
The interior, now darkened, was lit by faint candlelight, and between the voices of people chatting energetically while intoxicated, the tune played by a band could be heard merrily.
The inside of the shop was very different from what Titania had imagined. She had thought a tavern would be a bit dirty, noisy, a place where drunken vagabonds staggered about.
However, this was a large tavern with seats up to the second floor, and in the empty space at the center of the shop, a band was playing music. Rather than dirty, it felt aged; rather than noisy, it was vibrant.
“It’s quite different from what you imagined, isn’t it?”
As if her mind had been read, Titania laughed awkwardly. To hide her awkwardness, she unnecessarily looked at the tavern’s menu, pretending to choose food.
Rolling her eyes discreetly in her awkwardness to look at her mother, she saw her mother smiling as if she were somehow familiar with this, gazing at the band. At that sight, Titania tilted her head and asked.
“Mother, have you ever been to a place like this?”
“No? This ‘kind of place’ is my first time too. However…”
Vivian giggled as she watched the clamoring people.
“When I became an adult, I came to places like this a few times with friends.”
“Friends…?”
Mother shouldn’t have any friends her own age…?
At the word ‘friends’ from Vivian, Titania felt a sharp pang in her chest. Her mother’s face as she reminisced, seemingly longing for those times, somehow put her in a bad mood. Friends to her mother… just who were they?
No matter how much she thought about it, her mother had no friends her own age. It might be something she didn’t know, but most of the people who could be called friends that her mother had made recently were parents of young ladies she had met in high society.
In other words, Titania had a complete grasp of Vivian’s acquaintances. Most of the people her mother met privately were connected to her.
Therefore, the fact that Vivian had a friend her own age that Titania didn’t know made Titania feel uncomfortable. The thought that those ‘friends’ knew a side of her mother that she didn’t know crossed from discomfort into outright unpleasantness.
Whether she knew Titania’s feelings or not, Vivian looked at the menu and soon ordered several dishes from the server. Of course, including alcohol for herself to drink alone. Because Vivian refused to let her drink until the very end, Titania’s cheeks puffed up hugely.
“Mother… I’m an adult now who has had my debutante ball! I’m old enough to drink! Just how long are you going to treat me like a child?!”
“…Even so, fifteen is too young, isn’t it? At least—”
Before she could finish speaking, Titania’s cheeks swelled up more and more until they were puffed up like balloons. Seeing her determined attitude that she would drink today no matter what, Vivian burst into giggles and poked Titania’s puffed-up cheek with her finger.
Pshhh— With the sound of air escaping her mouth, Titania’s brow scrunched up fiercely. As Titania raised her hand high to call the server, Vivian stopped her and scolded her.
“Throwing a tantrum won’t work! Anyway… fifteen is too young to start learning to drink!”
“Then when am I allowed to drink? How old do I have to be…!”
For you to see me as an adult?
Swallowing back the words that had rushed up to her throat, Titania glared at Vivian with wide eyes. Just what age counted as an adult in her mother’s eyes? If she reached the age her mother considered an adult, would she see her as a grown-up then?
“That is…”
Vivian hesitated for a moment, then opened her lips.
“At least until you graduate from the Academy. By then, it should be fine.”
At the word ‘Academy,’ Titania’s eyes scrunched up even more. In this moment, the Academy felt like a wall. A huge wall blocking her life. A long wall that would take three years to cross.
‘Damn Academy, Academy, Academy! The reason I have to be separated from Mother for three years is the Academy! The reason Mother doesn’t see me as an adult is the Academy!’
She wanted to throw a tantrum and say she didn’t want to go to the Academy at all, but Titania endured it with patience. If her mother’s words were true, it meant that after graduating from the Academy, she would see her as an adult.
Not as a child anymore, but as an adult.
Titania cooled the boiling frustration inside her with a sigh, then raised her head and glared at Vivian. And then, as if issuing a declaration of war, she spoke clearly and deliberately.
“…My first drink… I’ll have it with Mother. When that time comes, don’t you dare go back on your word.”
“…Alright.”
“Then promise me.”
“Promise?”
Titania held out her pinky to Vivian. Vivian couldn’t help but smile bitterly as she looked at Titania’s pinky, now long and slender unlike when she was little. She hadn’t known Titania still remembered.
“…So you still remembered. We hadn’t done it even once since then.”
“Of course. How could I forget that promise?”
Titania wiggled her pinky, urging her to hook fingers quickly. Vivian let out a small hum as if briefly pondering, then let out a deep sigh and hooked her own finger around Titania’s pinky.
Shaking their intertwined pinkies up and down, Titania didn’t forget the final step.
“If you break the promise?”
“…A thousand needles.”