Episode 2. I Won't Forget You
August 2, 2023
A way to extend one's lifespan? At words that sounded like a miracle, Lowell scrunched up her face.
"......That's absurd. Stop."
"It's true. So just hold on until I come back. If you can endure until next spring—"
"I said stop!"
In the end, Lowell's patience reached its limit. She violently shook off Peter's grip on her wrist and shouted.
"You can say that because you're not in pain anymore! Because you're all better! Because you can do anything now!"
"......Lowell."
"Do you know what my doctor says? He says it wouldn't be strange if I lost consciousness tomorrow. The maids who watch over me every night in case I have a seizure are sick and tired of this. I don't want to be in pain either, you know?"
She had thought about it countless times. If she had a seizure during the night, and her life hung by a thread.
Would there really be anyone who wanted to save her?
Everyone was exhausted by her prolonged illness. Those who had been slowly shoveling dirt atop the living Lowell now only waited to strike the final spade. They could only lay the last of the earth once she drew her final breath—so when on earth would that last breath come?
The medicine she had to swallow every day was nauseating, and her body, which easily ran a fever, was painful. But the thing that tormented Lowell most was the countless gazes. It felt as though everyone watching her condition wasn't waiting for her recovery, but for her deterioration. The words telling her to get well soon, to live long, sounded like words telling her to hurry up and die.
"Peter, you're the same! You want me to die quickly too, don't you? You're only saying such things because you feel guilty about leaving me here! Once you leave, you'll forget me in no time anyway—"
Her breath stopped for an instant. It was because Peter's lips had overlapped with hers. The brief meeting of lips that touched and then parted was not much different from the sensation of holding a rose petal in her mouth.
Only then did Lowell realize she was crying. Her cheek was wet, and a salty taste lingered at the tip of her tongue.
Through her blurred vision, she saw the boy's face. A face contorted in agony despite feeling no pain himself. Blue irises that looked only at her, then and now, as if nailed in place.
"I won't forget you, Lowell."
Tears streamed down her cheek and dropped from her chin. Peter's face became a little clearer. Lowell had never once seen Peter cry, but perhaps because her own eyes were wet, he looked as though he was crying too.
"Wait for me. I will definitely come back to you...... and save you."
Could there be another confession as painful as that?
What Lowell knew about Peter was that he was of fairly high standing, and that Peter was a nickname.
And that the person he loved most in the world was Lowell.
The one who wished for Lowell's next year—a next year that no one expected—was Peter.
She would die before the magnolias even sprouted new leaves. She would rot and wither like magnolia petals fallen to the ground. It was also Lowell's own premonition.
'Are all people in love this foolish?'
Wishing for a next year that even she herself didn't hope for.
If he thought of Lowell at all, exhausted from her long illness, if he pitied her at all, he should have wished for her death. Just like everyone else, even her own family.
And yet Peter had asked Lowell to live. Could there be words more selfish and foolish than that? Could there be words as wretched yet as heart-swelling?
In the end, Lowell laughed through her tears.
"Alright. I'll wait. I'll try my hardest to live."
It was a lie.
Only then did Peter smile brightly. The boy's smile, with both cheeks flushed a rosy red, was as beautiful as a dandelion seed.
Had that day's conversation had some kind of effect?
Lowell, who had thought she would die that spring, did not die. She had been able to see Peter off when he left, and afterward she gradually showed signs of recovery, even spending the harvest festival that autumn.
And in the last month of that year, the Hessen estate caught fire.
There were no survivors.
* * *
When the Hessen estate caught fire, everyone inside the mansion died.
"The fire broke out while everyone was asleep. By the time they noticed, the mansion had nearly burned down, making escape impossible. It is presumed they died trapped in the flames."
It was the explanation of a royal knight dispatched to handle the situation. Not a single person in the mansion had escaped the burning house; the people of the Hessen estate had all died without exception.
Lowell sat down blankly and listened to that mechanical explanation.
The royal knight said that everyone at the Hessen estate was dead, but in truth, there was a survivor.
Lowell Hessen. The only person who had been outside at the time of the fire, visiting a famous clinic in a distant region.
She was on her way back from an examination at a renowned clinic in a distant province.
Had she encountered the burning house, she would have rushed inside, wandered through the flames, and tried to do something. But by the time Lowell arrived, everything was already over. The fire, and the deaths.
The joy she had felt at the examination results stating her condition had greatly improved collapsed with a rumble the moment she witnessed the burned-down mansion.
'It can't be.'
It's not our estate. It must be another estate.
No matter how much she denied it, nothing changed. Though the wooden mansion had burned, the iron fences and gate remained intact. The Hessen family crest was still clearly carved upon the gate.
Even after the fire was extinguished, the air remained acrid. Smelling the scent of death, Lowell sank down on the spot. Before she knew it, tears were endlessly streaming down her cheeks.
Over her frozen thoughts, the royal knight's voice echoed.
The mechanical verdict that her mother, father, brothers, and even the servants were all dead.
"......That's absurd."
Lowell, who had been shedding tears silently without moving as if frozen stiff, sprang to her feet. She didn't know where she had found the strength; for that moment alone, she forgot that her own body was in pain.
"Everyone is dead. Not a single survivor in that large mansion...... It doesn't make sense."
Lowell had grown up as a girl ignorant of the ways of the world because she was always confined to the house due to her illness. But even to Lowell's eyes, this situation was somehow strange.
"There was never a time when everyone was asleep in the first place. They took turns. Because they had to watch over me all night......"
Lowell often had seizures during the night. Because of that, even after the estate's lights were put out, Lowell's parents always stationed servants in rotating shifts to keep watch through the night.
It wasn't as if years of routine would suddenly vanish just because Lowell had been away for a few days.
"It's absurd that no one woke up while the mansion was nearly burning down. That not a single person could get out of this large mansion...... how......"
Lowell vividly remembered when a fire had broken out at the village mill. That had also been in the middle of the night. She had heard from the servants that people had soaked large towels in water, wrapped them around their bodies, and run out.
Even during the small mill fire, with so few residents, that had happened.
But from this large mansion, not a single person could run out? Not one?
That couldn't be. Shouldn't they at least say something that made sense? How could there not be a single survivor?
What if.
"If...... someone had locked the doors from the outside......"
At the voice that suddenly popped out of her confused mind, Lowell's thoughts ground to a halt.
That was the moment she finally found the answer to her doubts. An instant was enough for her murmur to turn into conviction.
'The royal knight is lying.'
The royal knight was preventing anyone from approaching the burned mansion. He said it was to preserve the scene so the truth could be investigated, but how could she believe that?
Who knew if they had stood guard like that during the fire to prevent anyone from escaping?
It took only that same brief instant for realization to erupt into rage.
Without a moment to think, Lowell sprang up and lunged at the royal knight. She intended to grab the liar by the collar and scream at him to spit out the truth immediately.
"Oh dear."
If not for the hand that suddenly blocked her way.
The rage directed at the royal knight instantly turned toward the owner of the hand that blocked her. Lowell glared at the owner of the hand with the intent to bite him if he didn't move it aside, but the moment she confirmed who he was, her rage subsided like a wildfire doused with water.
He was an acquaintance.
A middle-aged gentleman who occasionally came to visit her father. He blocked Lowell with one arm and spoke as if to soothe her.
"Calm yourself, Annette. I understand how you feel, but the fire is hardly that man's fault, is it?"
"......Annette?"
Lowell reflexively questioned the unfamiliar name, but the gentleman was quicker.
"I shall apologize to you on the child's behalf. Please forgive her rudeness."
"Ah, not at all, Your Grace. Do you know this child?"
"As you know, I was quite close with the Hessen family. This child's older sister worked as a servant at the Hessen estate. I wrote her a letter of introduction, so I am familiar with her. I happened to see her while passing by and couldn't simply look away. She seems to be grieving greatly over the loss of her family—would you forgive the child's rudeness?"
"I see. Of course I understand. Of course."
Understand what? Her insides were still churning, but Lowell didn't forget to sneer at the royal knight's servility.
He had frowned, ready to raise his gauntleted hand against a seemingly insignificant girl, yet before the Duke he became infinitely magnanimous.
The middle-aged gentleman who had stopped Lowell at the perfect moment was Duke Jürgen Martinek.
As Jürgen himself had said, he had frequent dealings with the Hessen family, and thanks to that, he was fairly well-acquainted with Lowell.
By this point in the conversation, Lowell had roughly caught on.
'Annette, and my sister being a servant......'
Jürgen was lying without batting an eye. She didn't know why, but he was trying to hide Lowell's identity.
Why on earth?
Her doubt was soon resolved.
"The fire at the Hessen estate was arson."