The cold moonlight softly spilled over the silent courtyard, draping the flowers and plants in a layer of silver.
Silvia sat quietly on the steps of the courtyard, gazing at the bright moon in the night sky, her dark purple eyes lost in thought.
Next to her, a small tree with tiny white blooms emitted a faint fragrance, lending a touch of tranquility to Silvia’s mood.
It was the sapling she and her mother had planted together in the courtyard, now grown lush and leafy.
Whenever Silvia’s mind was unsettled by dreams at midnight, she would co here, trying to endure the long night.
More than a month had passed since the winter night she fell into the Grant Sea.
The cold winter was over, and warm spring had arrived, bringing life anew.
And the youth nad Shiayar Egutt had not appeared again.
Even now, Silvia often wondered whether that encounter in the icy seawater was just a dream.
But the warmth lingering on the crystal hairpin told her that the encounter was not a fantasy, but reality.
"...I think—the you who carries that power is not innately evil."
"Whether you are good or evil is not determined by your birth, but by the choices you make."
The words of the black-haired youth before they parted seed to still echo in her ears.
"My... choice?" Silvia’s whisper dissipated with the evening breeze, unheard by anyone.
During this ti, she had been contemplating that question and also pondering the path of her future.
For the past sixteen years, she had been wallowing in despair, confining herself in the lightless Tower, then waiting in silence... for the dense Darkness to swallow her whole.
Or rather, she should have already drowned in the tides of Darkness.
But a month ago, soone opened a window atop that Tower for her.
And so, sunlight stread through the window, the tides of Darkness receded, igniting a faint longing for brightness in those eyes that had grown accustod to Darkness.
From that mont, Silvia felt anticipation for the first ti in her heart—not to live for the cold stares of others, but to harbor expectations for her own future.
Silvia took the crystal hairpin from her hair.
In the cool moonlight, the crystal hairpin reflected endless brilliance.
The girl uttered a silent soliloquy:
I still want to beco a Beastmaster, like Brother Shiayar.
「...」
"Why do you think so?"
A familiar voice suddenly reached Silvia’s ears.
She turned to look.
There stood a black-haired, black-eyed youth in the pale moonlight, his slender silhouette stretched long by the moonlight.
Just as when they first encountered each other, he appeared so quietly, inadvertently stepping into Silvia’s life, only to disappear like the wind.
"Brother Shiayar."
Although she had imagined countless tis what it would be like to et him again, Silvia still felt sowhat embarrassed at this mont.
After returning to the Duke’s Manor, she had looked up information on Shiayar Egutt, an external mber of the family.
Then Silvia discovered that his parents had perished in the disaster sixteen years ago, and Shiayar was an orphan taken in by the Duke’s family.
He, more than anyone else in the Duchy, should have had reason to hate her, detest her, curse her to die...
But he hadn’t.
Instead, on that winter night, he had pulled her up from the icy Abyss of the Grant Sea.
Seemingly noticing Silvia’s discomfort, Shiayar sat down on the step beside her.
Only then did Silvia notice Shiayar holding two paper cups of moderate size.
"Even though it’s early spring, the nights are still cold. Here, drink this to warm yourself."
He handed a paper cup to her. Silvia accepted it, thanking him quietly.
The paper cup was warm. Silvia took a small sip, her dark purple eyes widening in surprise, "This is delicious!"
"It is, isn’t it?" the youth replied, a hint of pride in his voice. "It’s a new drink I finally managed to create at the Alchemy Academy after hundreds of failures, just going by the mory of its taste. You can call it milk tea, or—my own little invention—’The Optimist.’"
"If others from my original world ever make it here, I hope they’ll ’get’ this age-old ."
He also took a sip from his cup, letting out a satisfied sigh. "But enough about that. Let’s talk about you. Why have you decided to beco a Beastmaster?"
Warmth spread through Silvia as she swallowed, a pleasant, lazy comfort enveloping her.
Sohow, whenever Shiayar was near, Silvia’s usual tension would simply lt away.
She thought for a mont before speaking in a calm voice, "I suppose it’s out of aspiration."
"When I was very young, I saw my father returning to the Royal Capital in triumph, riding a majestic Pet Beast."
"Half the Royal Capital ca out to welco him that day. The streets were filled with flowers, applause, and adoration."
"At that ti, I thought, if I could contract a powerful Pet Beast by my own strength and beco a powerful Beastmaster like my father..."
"Then... maybe everyone would start to look at differently, and they wouldn’t dislike so much anymore."
Reviews
All reviews (0)