[Chapter 127] – Poisoned Apple (2)
Titania’s throat tightened with overwhelming emotion.
Unable to believe the feel and warmth of her mother beneath her fingertips, Titania grew bolder and ran her palm over her mother’s face, feeling her way across it. The sense of reality conveyed through her entire hand made Titania’s fingertips begin to tremble faintly with emotion.
Five years.
It was her mother, whom she was meeting for the first time in no less than five years.
As she felt the deep void carved into her heart slowly filling, Titania smiled bashfully and stroked Vivian’s cheek. Perhaps it was because they had been apart for so long? When she pressed herself against her mother and breathed in, the familiar scent of her body brushed against the tip of her nose.
As she inhaled the scent of the mother she had missed so dearly, Titania finally felt that she was alive. It was as though she had not truly been living during all the time her mother had been gone. Tears welled in her eyes at the sensation of her stopped heart beginning to beat once more.
‘I really, really missed you.’
Titania silently greeted Vivian as she looked down at her unconscious mother lying there. She had not originally intended to go this far, but she truly had no choice. If she did not do this much, her mother would run away again. To hold on to her mother for certain, this really was the best method.
If she released the royal knights and had them forcibly bring her mother back, her mother would be injured. And if she spread rumors that her mother was a witch, she did not know what the villagers might do to her. That was why Titania believed this was the only way to protect her mother.
“Let’s go home now, Mother.”
Titania slipped one hand beneath Vivian’s neck and supported both her knees with the other before lifting her up. She cradled her mother in her arms in what was commonly called a princess carry. Seeing her mother held full in her embrace, Titania smiled as though she were the happiest person in the world.
Just as she was about to leave with Vivian in her arms—
“W-wait, just a moment...!”
Katarina, who had been standing beside them in a daze, grabbed Titania by the ankle.
Titania turned her head slightly and looked coldly down at Katarina. Under that sharp gaze, which seemed to ask why she was interfering after Titania had already explained everything, Katarina swallowed nervously and continued speaking.
“U-um... Th-that is...”
Katarina was aghast at the sudden turn of events. Vivian had suddenly eaten an apple and collapsed. The guest from earlier had appeared as though she had been waiting for precisely this moment. On top of that, for some reason, she had even treated Katarina like a thief.
It was only thanks to Titania calling Vivian her “mother” that Katarina was able to regain her senses in this utterly incomprehensible situation. Katarina had heard about Titania a few times as well.
Vivian had said she was sorry for leaving the child without telling her anything. Even after coming here, she had always said she missed her. After seeing Titania last winter and returning, Vivian had cried so much that she was sick in bed for nearly a week.
Katarina had no intention of involving herself in the family relationship between Titania and Vivian. She was in no position to interfere. All she needed to do was uphold her “contract” with Vivian. But this, no matter how she looked at it...
Katarina stared up at Titania in horror. When Titania tried to shake off her hand as though she had nothing more to say, Katarina clung to her even more tightly and shouted.
“E-even if you’re her daughter, I-I don’t think this is right...!”
“What?”
“Eek! I-I mean... I-I made a ‘contract’ with Vivian...! Vivian works here in my place, and I-I protect Vivian in return...”
“P-protect?”
Titania let out a hollow laugh and shook off Katarina’s hand from her ankle. Then, glaring down at Katarina, who had fallen face-first onto the floor, she replied in a low, growling voice.
“If you truly intended to protect my mother, she never would have eaten the medicine I prepared. Am I wrong? You couldn’t even properly protect my mother, and now what? A contract? Don’t make me laugh.”
“Th-that, that’s...! A-anyway, I can’t let you take her! You can’t go...! I-I don’t want to use magic on people either...! So please put Vivian down...! I-I’m scary when I get angry too, you know...?!”
“...Ha.”
At the sight of Katarina clinging to her ankle and whimpering, Titania let out a hollow laugh. She pulled Vivian even more tightly into her arms and glared at Katarina as though she might kill her. The urge to shake her off immediately surged up inside her, but Titania soon restrained herself and continued speaking.
“...She’s my mother. My mother! My mother who left me on her own without saying a single word to me!! I only came to take her back, so who are you to interfere with me...? Do you have the right to stop me?! Is it only because of that ‘contract’?!”
“B-but... W-witches aren’t allowed to break contracts...”
...Now that she thought about it, there had been something like that.
Those were the words her mother had spoken when they had linked pinkies and made their first promise long ago. Witches could not lie. Titania had thought it might have been a lie, but seeing Katarina clutching her ankle and sobbing, she realized that perhaps it was not. Still...
“I’m sorry, but I have no intention of leaving my mother here any longer. Besides, the moment my mother drank the medicine I prepared, your ‘contract’ with her was effectively over. Isn’t that right? You failed to ‘protect’ my mother.”
“Ah, ngh...”
“So let go of me. Now.”
Titania shook the ankle Katarina was clinging to back and forth. But Katarina refused to let go to the very end, shaking her head with tears in her eyes. Just as Titania began wondering whether she would really have to resort to violence—
“Th-then... can’t I come with you too...?”
“...What?”
Katarina looked up at Titania with a silly grin.
“I-I don’t want to go back to living alone like before...! I-I can’t go back to those days anymore...! I don’t want to return to living alone in that garbage house...! I want someone to stay with me... I want a person, not a fairy...! If possible, I want to stay with Vivian...!”
“You...”
Katarina was no longer merely clutching Titania’s ankle; she had wrapped both arms around it and was desperately refusing to let go. Titania stared down at her in bewilderment. She looked much like an animal Titania had once seen in an illustrated animal encyclopedia as a child—a “koala.” A sigh escaped her before she could stop it.
Titania found the sight of Katarina clinging to her ankle frustrating, but it also brought her a little relief. After all, Katarina only liked her mother as someone she could help. Unlike Titania, she did not see Vivian as a woman. Besides...
‘Because I know the pain of having someone you rely on suddenly disappear.’
But even so...
—Why not just bring her along? Just make sure the ‘contract’ is firmly established.
“...Sister Veronica?”
—That girl may not look like much, but she’s a witch of the ‘coven.’ She’ll be useful someday. Besides, there are things I’d like to ask the other witches as well... Just make sure the ‘bondage’ imposed by the contract is firm. For my sake, too.
As Titania wondered what she should do, Veronica’s voice came from the mirror necklace. At Veronica’s tone, which sounded as though she were saying it was fine to take home an abandoned puppy, Titania let out a long sigh. Even so...
“...Haa, fine. But make a ‘contract’ with me. You are not to tell ‘anyone’ what happened after making the contract with me. From now on, you will obey my words above all else. If you agree to those terms, you may come with us.”
Titania had imposed the vow of silence for Veronica’s sake. Since Veronica was still being pursued by the archwitch, Titania had forbidden Katarina from speaking of her. Aside from that, there was nothing in particular she needed Katarina to do, so she roughly proposed the condition, “You will obey my words above all else.”
Katarina nodded frantically without a moment’s hesitation. Looking down at her, Titania wondered whether this was really all right, but what could she do when Katarina herself was willing? In the end, she had no choice but to resign herself to it.
Besides, Katarina was not what mattered.
As long as she could take her beloved mother with her, nothing else mattered. Looking down at her mother, who was sleeping peacefully in her arms, Titania smiled happily and walked out of the shop.
“Sister, I found my way here on my own, so open the ‘door’ for me on the way back, as you promised.”
—...All right. You know you have to begin preparing for your coronation as soon as you return, right?
“...I know. Thank you, Sister.”
Bang.
When the shop door opened, Titania saw her own room beyond it.
The room where she had lived with her mother all her life. Even after Vivian left, Titania had continued using that room, keeping it ready in case her mother ever returned, keeping it ready so that her mother could use it whenever she came back.
Titania took a step through the “door” Veronica had connected and returned to her own room. Then she gently laid her sleeping mother on the bed and quietly gazed down at her.
Mother truly belonged here more than anywhere else, Titania thought. With a sweet smile, she stroked the head of the sleeping Vivian. She wanted to wake her mother right away, but she could not do that yet.
Because—
“You’re back?”
“Yes, Sister.”
“Then hurry and get ready. The maids will be coming in soon to dress you for the coronation.”
Tomorrow, Titania had to attend the coronation ceremony at which she would become queen. Her reunion with her mother after five years would have to be postponed until after the coronation ceremony.
Veronica looked at Vivian lying on the bed, let out a small sigh, and asked Titania,
“...Are you going to leave Vivian like this?”
“Ah. Mother is...”
As though she had just thought of something truly wonderful, Titania looked at Veronica with an utterly blissful smile.
It was a smile Veronica had not seen on her younger sister’s face in a long time, but for some reason, a chill ran down her spine. After all...
“There’s a room upstairs with a good view, where you can watch the fireworks. Take her there and...”
Contrary to the expression on her face, which said she was the happiest person in the world—
The words that came from her mouth were steeped in dreadful obsession.
“Tie her securely to a chair. So she can enjoy watching tomorrow’s fireworks.”
“......All right.”