Three years have passed.
Lobelia, who has already turned three, woke up early in the morning and got out of bed.
Without even having ti to tidy her disheveled hair, she walked to the cabinet, took out an ointnt made from dicinal herbs, and opened the door on tiptoe.
She toddled along the corridor, stopping at her mother’s room.
Click.
As she opens the door and enters the room, she sees her mother sitting on the bed, welcoming her with a bright smile.
However, the bruises on her face were vivid, and even though it was a familiar sight, Lobelia made a sad face as always.
“Oh, Mom…”
With trembling hands, Lobelia scoops up the ointnt and slowly applies it to Lizzy’s face.
Every ti her father Ferzen slept with her mother Lizzy, it was like this, so Lobelia hated the days when she had to sleep separately in her own room.
“It’s okay.”
Her mother’s hand stroking her hair was very gentle, but nevertheless, Lobelia’s sad expression could hardly be lifted.
Because on the slender wrist revealed through the lowered sleeve, a rough handprint was engraved.
“Why does Dad hate Mom…?”
Even at the young age of three, Lobelia tries to understand the reason, not just the intuitive relationship inference that her father hates her mother.
It’s not so much that Lobelia is exceptional, but rather evidence that she is in an environnt that prematurely forces a maturity unsuitable for a three-year-old child.
“……”
And knowing that her mother always remained silent to such questions, Lobelia snuggled tightly into Lizzy’s arms.
The scent of her mother wafts over her when she nuzzles her small face against her soft breasts.
Through that, Lobelia barely cald her emotions and eventually had breakfast with Lizzy, which the maid brought to the room.
The detached house separated by the long corridor provided a clear sense of independence even in the not-so-large mansion, so Lobelia was increasingly tainted with loneliness and solitude, but at the sa ti, she developed a deep and strong bond with her mother Lizzy.
Afterward, Lizzy and Lobelia, who had finished bathing together, went outside to welco the short sumr that had co to Louerg.
This was the ti when even the piercingly cold wave subsided and vegetation sporadically hung down.
Lobelia had tried to make a snowman with the accumulated snow in the wide space spread out towards the corridor, but…
“……”
When her small feet stepped on the snow field, what caught her eyes were the happily placed snowman families in the distance—when they were made, she had no idea.
The footprints had already been neatly covered and disappeared, but how could she not know that her older sisters, who had co here, had made them together with their respective mothers and Ferzen?
But Lobelia, deliberately turning a blind eye to it, smiled brightly at Lizzy sitting in a wheelchair and began to make a snowman diligently.
Lizzy also used her corpse servants to make snown together with Lobelia, but for so reason, the two completed snown looked utterly shabby.
Disliking that, Lobelia moved her small feet to gather so branches and tried to make arms as well, but…
Compared to the snowman families in the distance that seed to show a harmonious family, the snown modeled after herself and her mother only looked lonely and solitary.
Crack!
When the head of the snowman placed on the body finally lost its balance and rolled off to the side, Lobelia couldn’t hold back and burst into tears, running to Lizzy.
“Waaah!”
The daughter buried her face in her mother’s lap and shed endless tears.
Looking at Lobelia like that, Lizzy felt a sharp pain in one corner of her heart, but she bit her lip and hugged her in her arms, patting her delicate back.
*****The ti when one can determine whether they have a talent for mana or not is one year after birth when mana has settled to so extent in the body.
Through that verification process, it was confird that both Carlea and Linea had a talent for mana—the qualities of an Elental Wizard, so they received very basic education from Yuriel or Ferzen.
Today, after receiving that education briefly after dinner, Carlea and Linea clumsily manipulated mana and received praise from Ferzen, grinning and stretching out their arms forward.
No, the one who stretched out first was Carlea.
Linea followed and stretched out her arms.
Unlike her mother Yuriel, Linea had a shy side, so she didn’t try to express affection well.
However, like this, whenever her older sister Carlea acted first, she would follow and reveal her emotions.
And Ferzen happily hugged such two daughters in his arms.
“Dad!”
“Yes.”
Carlea, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek, smiled brightly and buried her head.
At that, Linea also shyly kissed Ferzen’s cheek and carefully grabbed his collar.
After taking his daughters to their respective rooms, Ferzen unnecessarily fiddled with the warmth remaining in his arms.
His body clearly rembered the warmth of Carlea and Linea, but it hardly rembered the warmth of Lobelia to the point of unfamiliarity.
Walking along the corridor to get so air for a mont, he saw the snown they had made together a few days ago in the moonlit snowfield.
Why did Yuriel even use magic in front of Euphemia, who had no talent for mana, as if to show off?
That thoughtless action might have been jealousy towards Euphemia, who was pregnant with their second child.
Or it might have been an intention to compete as a better mother rather than a better wife.
And seeing the snowman modeled after Laura’s appearance, which stood out even there—in the form of a rabbit, an empty laugh escapes.
Laura, who reluctantly helped the children make her into a rabbit even though she was troubled because they liked it.
That embarrassed look had a very lovely aspect.
Yes.
It had been quite so ti since the children were born.
The mansion in Louerg was deeply steeped with vivid mories.
“……”
And while walking like that, Ferzen suddenly noticed two clumsily made snown and stopped.
He wasn’t clueless enough not to realize that these were the snown Lobelia and Lizzy made together…
Ferzen had to feel various emotions that were difficult to describe in words.
Three years had passed, but Lizzy’s malice had not faded, and Lobelia was growing steadily in the twisted direction that Lizzy wanted.
Perhaps it was because the ugly emotions he had instilled were that deep.
Thump.
Putting aside his thoughts, Ferzen stepped into the snow field and took out his gloves.
Then, he trimd the head of the snowman that had fallen to the side, placed it firmly on the body, and started making a new snowman next to it.
*****As the night deepened.
Before falling asleep with her mother Lizzy, Lobelia snuck out and walked along the dim corridor.
It was to put the head of the snowman modeled after herself, which she had forgotten for a mont, back on its body.
“……”
However, there was a guest who had arrived at the snow field first, so Lobelia unknowingly hid her small body behind a pillar and peeked out her head.
It was a particularly moonlit night, so it wasn’t difficult to notice that the man standing next to the snowman she made with her mother was her father, Ferzen.
What on earth was he doing?
Before that question deepened…
Clack.
As Ferzen disappeared, retracing the path he had co from far away, Lobelia, who had been hiding behind the pillar, toddled out and slowly approached the spot.
The head of the snowman modeled after herself, which had rolled off, was placed on top of the body.
And next to it stood a newly made snowman.
Since the one on the right was her mother, Lizzy, this must be her father Ferzen.
“……”
Lobelia disliked Ferzen, who always hurt her mother, but on the contrary, she also desperately wished for their relationship to improve.
Her older sisters Carlea and Linea, and Euphemia and Yuriel.
Ferzen, as a father and husband among them, looked very kind and embodied a happy family.
Even now, seeing this, Lobelia thought there must be a clear reason why their relationship was bad, but not knowing that, she took a few more steps with a gloomy expression and stood in front of the newly made snowman.
Then she stretched out her hands and tried hugging it once.
Just as Ferzen didn’t rember Lobelia’s warmth, Lobelia also didn’t know her father Ferzen’s embrace.
Was that why?
Surely, the embrace of her father made of snow was cold, but…
It felt very warm to Lobelia.
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