Chapter 154 - <11>
A full day had passed since their return from the Fire Clan’s village.
Franz, who had woken up unusually early, was alone inside the big top. He’d just remembered that he’d left the additional receipts Marguerite had abruptly handed him backstage right before his turn on stage.
In the morning, the empty tent was dim. Several rays of transparent light streamed in through the gaps in the ceiling, just as they had when Ritz and Gemma fought, but they lacked their former brilliance. It was simply quiet.
He approached the orchestra pit at the corner of the stage and gently ran his hand over the railing that separated the musicians from the audience. All his anguish had begun here, when he heard Constanze’s song. The orchestra wasn’t there now. In its place sat a single basket filled with red stones.
Those must be the stones Ritz was holding during the Fire Clan’s festival. He’d heard on the oxcart ride back that they were called Crimson Fire Stones, unique objects that burned fiercely when thrown into a fire, exploding in a shower of sparks. The fact that stones managed by the Fire Clan were here must mean Marguerite was planning to use them for something.
As this thought crossed his mind, Franz sighed. This was no time to be reminiscing. It seemed he was trying to escape reality.
“...I wish time would just stop.”
He sighed again as he murmured the words. If it did, he could put a stop to this day’s worries right here. His whisper was swallowed by the silent space and vanished.
The morning after the festival, they had hurriedly left the Fire Clan’s village. By the time they reached the big top, it was already past noon. After confirming which circus members had yet to recover, Marguerite had them perform the clown comedy and their show again.
Since a few people had recovered, the cleanup after Anna and Constanze’s simple show was no longer necessary. Normally, he would have been happiest about the troublesome comedy being canceled, but for the current Franz, not having to listen to Constanze’s song was a greater relief.
Although Franz had been able to tell Ritz and Edward about his past, he still couldn’t bring himself to speak to Constanze alone. After doing such a terrible thing—and what’s more, forgetting it—he didn’t know how he could possibly face her.
In the past, Franz had tried to kill Constanze. Constanze, who was only three years old. Six years had passed since then.
Before he’d truly understood the world, Franz had adored his father, Ville Lucina. Back then, he had no idea why Ville was so revered, so he was simply proud of a father who was respected and esteemed by everyone.
And his beautiful mother, who always carried a faint shadow of darkness and drank constantly, was very kind to Franz. He had always waited in a state of bliss for her beautiful, white fingertips to stroke his hair.
Looking back now, it was a happiness built upon a delicate balance, ready to collapse at any moment.
And then, one day, it shattered all too easily.
His mother, who was also a dancer, left Franz behind and disappeared. There were rumors that she had run off with a man, or that his father had kicked her out, but what was true remained unclear. The only fact Franz could grasp was that he had been left all alone in this world of the rear palace, a swirling vortex of desire inhabited solely by women.
It didn’t take long for him to understand that every hand extended in kindness held poison. There was no one left to protect him. If he didn't become clever, someone would use him. Franz was only eight years old when he first realized this.
He silently closed off his heart. He sealed away his smiles, his childlike curiosity, all of his joy.
Immediately after, a beautiful woman appeared in the rear palace. Franz still remembered that gentle woman. She was a Diva with a magnificent voice. Among the women living in the rear palace, she was the youngest besides Franz's older sisters, not yet twenty. The Diva’s loneliness and Franz’s, having just lost his mother, found each other and intertwined before they knew it.
The Diva quietly stayed by the side of the expressionless Franz, who never showed his emotions. She would just sing him quiet, sorrowful songs. Through them, Franz came to know her solitude.
If Franz had been a little older, he might have tried to rescue his senior who had been brought into his father's rear palace and make her his own. But at not even ten years old, Franz was too young. So Franz spent his days acutely aware that his time with the Diva was short.
His father doted on Franz, his only son, but it was an affection filled with money and things, different from what a mother would give.
It didn’t take long for him to start despising his father as a philistine. Once that happened, the women of the rear palace, seeking to curry favor with Franz, the candidate for the next autonomous lord, began to pour poisoned information about his father into his ears. After confirming that the maliciously shared stories were true, Franz began to avoid seeing his father altogether.
By the time he came to completely despise his father, the Diva had vanished from the rear palace. Without showing any emotion, Franz inquired with the women and learned that the Diva had become the property of his father, Ville Lucina, and was now living in his chambers.
Fierce anger and jealousy were directed not only at his father, but at the Diva as well. So when she returned to the rear palace pregnant, Franz offered no help, nor did he protect her from the envy and scorn of the other women. He sealed his heart even further, convincing himself that she, too, was just another greedy soul flocking to money, the same as the rest of them in the rear palace.
It was into this world that Constanze was born.
But the Diva seemed unable to love Constanze. She neglected to care for her, and like a woman half-mad, did nothing but sing incessantly. Thinking about it now, the Diva, forced into an unwanted relationship and made to bear a child, might have been truly mentally ill.
But there was no way the ten-year-old Franz could have understood such things. Still, someone had to raise Constanze, and no one was willing to take on the role. As the current object of favor, she was a target of jealousy.
So it fell to Franz to look after Constanze. A sense of duty, or something like it, within him had made him do it.
Seeing Franz in this state, a few women began to help raise Constanze. It was perfectly clear to Franz that they would eventually form a faction centered around Constanze, but that was fine. They could do as they pleased in matters that didn't concern him.
By this time, Franz was already thinking of leaving home. He had noticed that the flames of candles and lamps would sometimes move in response to his anger, and he knew that life forms called spirits existed outside his window, near the water. He had realized that becoming a spirit user was the fastest way to live on his own.
But he didn’t want to abandon his young sister, who had no one else to rely on, to a miserable fate.
Then one day, the incident occurred.
Constanze, having grown up among adults, learned to speak early. Moreover, her words were mature, mimicking the women of the rear palace, and not at all childlike. It was probably inevitable, since her older brother Franz, who should have been the one to teach her, was taciturn.
One day, that very Constanze told him.
“Brother, why don’t you give up and make nice with Father already?”
It was the women's favorite line.
“And please become the lord. Conzie will help you, you know.”
If only he would get along with Lord Ville and take control of Saradio sooner.
Then our faction would be secure.
It does him no good to keep dwelling on the woman his father took from him.
Those words, when heard from the women, could pass from one ear to the other. They were words that flowed more naturally than the wind blowing outside his window.
But Constanze’s single phrase pierced Franz’s heart. In her young face, so similar to his own, he saw an overlapping image of his father, and his disgust surged.
The thing he had raised was a thing that inherited his father's blood. The same abominable blood that also flowed within him.
And in the next moment, Franz had struck Constanze, sending her flying. Constanze's small body was thrown back, hitting the wall with a thud. The women screamed.
As Conzie, on the verge of crying out in pain and shock, looked up, Franz roared.
“Whose fault is this?”
He advanced step by step and struck the terrified Conzie again. Unable to even scream, Constanze curled up to protect her small body. The frightened women backed away without trying to intervene.
“Whose fault is it that I have to feel this way?”
In his mind, his mother who abandoned him, the Diva who chose his father, and his father who trampled over everything and laughed, steeped in greed, flashed one after another. Without understanding why, he raised his hand to Constanze again and again.
When he came to, Franz was sitting on the floor, crying. The women were all gone. Frightened by his crazed violence, they had fled.
In the midst of it all, Constanze, covered in bruises with blood trickling from her lips and nose, reached out a small hand toward Franz, stroking his hair and singing a gentle song in a faltering voice.
My happiness lies only with you
Even should misfortune befall this world
Even should the sorrow you despise fill it
If only you return, I will be granted the greatest joy
My happiness is you, my only one
I want nothing but you
Franz looked up, and Constanze gazed back at him with a smile.
“Brother. It’s my fault. You’ve done nothing wrong. I’m sorry.”
He instinctively stood up and backed away. He had done something terrible to his little sister.
“...Conzie... I... I...”
“Brother?”
A trickle of blood ran down Conzie’s anxious forehead.
The thick, red blood slowly drew a line across her white skin.
“Ah, ah, ah... Aaaaaaaah!”
He didn't remember what happened after that.
When Franz, who had run out in a state of confusion, came to his senses, he was in an unfamiliar house with an unfamiliar person. The person smiled with a good-natured, somewhat vacant expression.
“Well, hello there. Pleased to meet you. You want to be a spirit user, right?”
It was a man in a robe with sleepy eyes, who introduced himself as Orphe. When Franz nodded slightly with his confused mind, Orphe smiled and said.
“Then you haven’t come to the wrong place.”
For some reason, hearing those words, he remembered the tension leaving his body in a wave of relief.
“Now, sleep. Then you can forget the unpleasant things. It's okay, you haven't done anything. You just ran away from home and came to my place. It’s okay.”
Franz, upon hearing this, was unable to resist and closed his eyes.
“I’ll store your memory deep in your heart. If you ever remember what triggered the event, we’ll let you remember everything.”
As if he had been given some kind of medicine, Franz couldn't even open his eyes and comfortably drifted off to sleep.
And from the time he woke up, he began to live as Orphe’s apprentice. By then, what he had done to Constanze was cleanly erased from his memory. Using some mysterious means, Orphe had erased the memory of Franz’s madness.
And Franz remembered everything upon hearing Constanze’s singing voice. The song she sang during the circus show was the very same one Constanze had sung after being injured by his violence.
After he had told them everything, Ritz and Edward remained silent. He thought they must have abandoned him for the heinous act he had committed against Constanze, but that wasn’t it.
Ritz, taking another red stone from his pocket, stood up silently and tossed it into the pillar of fire. The sparks scattered even more violently. The music and clamor of the festival reached Franz’s ears like a strange melody from a distant world, devoid of meaning.
“That must have been painful.”
Edward said this, smiling as he looked at Franz.
“It must have been painful, wouldn’t you agree? For you, and for Conzie.”
Suddenly, as if a dam had broken, tears began to stream down his face. Just that one sentence made him feel as if he had been forgiven, just a little, for the something he had been struggling and suffering with until now. The tears flowed one after another, refusing to stop.
“You should talk to Conzie, including about the painful parts. You two, brother and sister, will probably be able to understand each other deeply.”
“Do you think... she will forgive me?”
“I don’t know. But would she follow someone she can’t forgive with such devotion?”
“...If it were me... I wouldn’t.”
“Then there’s a chance you’ll be forgiven, Franz.”
Franz gave a small nod to Edward, whose words were powerful yet not completely definitive. There was no other way but for him to ask for Constanze’s forgiveness. Edward was indirectly showing him that. I might be able to change through my own power, he thought for the first time.
“There is none stronger than one who seeks to change themselves by their own will. What becomes of you from now on is all up to you.”
After declaring this forcefully, Edward turned his gaze to his right-hand man, Ritz, who was still standing, and offered a gentle smile.
“What do you think?”
“I’m... not really in a position to be saying anything profound. I’ve lived my life with my heart closed off, just like you.”
As Franz wiped away his unstoppable tears and stared intently at the flames, Ritz noticed his gaze, turned, and gave a bitter smile.
“Back in my clan’s village, I lived a life of scorn, you know? I was ‘The Nameless Tainted One.’ When I got close to the village, they’d throw stones at me, hurl abuse, and sometimes even set spirits on me. The words the spirits carried were always ‘disappear’ or ‘just die.’ Oh, I think there was ‘eyesore,’ too.”
For the first time, Ritz’s own words described the circumstances of his upbringing in Ciedena. Franz had never once heard it from him personally before.
“I was an existence that shouldn’t have been alive. To them, my very existence was unnatural, deviant. Being told that constantly, I started to think my own existence was abnormal, too. That it was natural for me to disappear. That’s why I don’t have any firm convictions. I’m like a floating weed that can’t put down roots, always drifting unsteadily on the water’s surface. I couldn’t accept the fact that I was alive. That’s why I couldn’t save myself or grow mentally.”
The flames from the fire pillar illuminated the profile of Ritz, who usually wore an overly confident and cheerful smile, casting deep shadows. The faint darkness that had clung to Ritz since Ciedena was there.
“I’m completely lacking in the most fundamental part of human life: self-affirmation. I didn’t have the desire to live, no matter what anyone said.”
Ritz's gaze was drawn to Anna, who was laughing happily amidst the festival.
“Meeting Ed made things a bit better, but I still couldn't affirm my own self-worth. I think back then, I was incredibly dependent on Ed. Looking back, all I wanted was to be useful to him. That was the only meaning I found in life. Since I couldn’t affirm myself, being by Ed’s side, who did affirm me, was my happiness. That's why, when I was a mercenary, I was probably... empty.”
Ritz’s eyes didn’t meet Edward’s. Edward, too, gave a wry smile and didn’t look at Ritz. They both probably knew that all too well. Yet, it was clear they had trusted each other with their lives.
Franz could feel that their strong bond of trust was built on believing in and caring for each other.
“...I really don’t want to talk about this in front of Ed. It feels like I’ve been losing from the very start.”
“You fool. It was a self-evident truth from the beginning that I was superior to you.”
“Tch...”
Ritz and Edward were bantering lightly. Ritz was probably telling his own story as a friend to a deeply depressed Franz. Understanding that made him grateful.
After silently following Anna's figure with his eyes for a while, Ritz smiled faintly.
“The past is the past, but the roots I’ve finally started to grow are made from the existence of one woman named Anna. That girl, even if it hurts her, tries to accept everything as it is. She tries to accept not just me, but this entire world. Because she’s like that, I... I love Anna more than anyone.”
As if noticing his gaze, Anna spotted Ritz and waved with a smile. Ritz smiled back and waved. Constanze timidly waved at Franz. From those two, Ritz returned his gaze to them.
“I’m still a useless man who can’t stand on his own. It’s only by loving Anna that I’ve finally been able to connect my life to this land. Well, it’s one-sided, though.”
Anna gestured to Ritz, asking if she should come over. Ritz waved his arms widely, signaling for her to wait and that he was on his way.
“So, Franz, I respect you for trying to change your own way of life. You can properly put down roots in this world. You wished not to die, but to live, after all.”
With that, Ritz placed a hand on Franz's head. Just as he did with Anna, he rustled his hair messily with his large palm. The strong force made his head shake.
“Don’t lose to the past, or to your old man. You have a future with us.”
“Ritz...”
Those were not fabricated words; they were from Ritz’s heart. He could clearly feel that Ritz had truly accepted him as a comrade.
“I’m going to go raise some more hell. Why don’t you two come down, too?”
As if to hide his embarrassment, Ritz went down below. Watching him go, Edward laughed as if to say, what a handful. Edward’s gaze, watching over Ritz when he wasn’t present, was endlessly gentle. Ritz probably didn’t know that.
Still, Franz was envious of their trust in each other. He wanted to become someone who could be trusted, so that people would trust him. For that, he had to properly talk with Constanze and bring closure to their feelings for each other.
But since that time, Franz had been looking for an opportunity to talk to Constanze, but he hadn't found one. That comedy skit had become so popular that he had no time.
The time Constanze could be with them was running out. Her school would start in the fall. If he didn't apologize to Constanze by then, he would have to live with regret in his heart forever.
It wasn't that Franz's sin would be washed away, but an apology could be a positive beginning for both of their futures.
In the silent big top, Franz sighed once more. If only time would stop, he thought, he would have a little more time to think. As someone handling both accounting and the comedy skit, Franz had very little time. Besides, the show would run for only two more days, and he wanted to finish tallying the documents by then. No matter how much the job was forced upon him, leaving things half-finished was not in his nature.
Just then, he heard something clatter and roll behind him.
“Who’s there?!”
He asked sharply, and a small figure peeking in from the entrance flinched.
“I’m sorry, Brother. I didn’t mean to disturb you...”
Constanze looked toward Franz with a timid gesture. He found himself staring at her. Since leaving the Saradio Guard Corps and spending time with the circus troupe, Constanze had stopped wearing overly flashy clothes and now dressed much like Anna.
Just the two of them in the empty big top. It was the perfect chance to talk, but he wasn't mentally prepared yet, so he panicked alone. Noticing Franz’s confusion, Constanze forced a smile. Even the dense Franz could see that her smile was strained.
“I did promise not to cause you any trouble, didn’t I? I’ll be going now.”
Her face crumpled, and Constanze turned to run away.
“Wait.”
He had called out reflexively. Constanze froze with her back still turned. Since he had stopped her, there was no choice but to talk. Franz made up his mind.
“Wait... Conzie. I want to talk.”
When she turned around, Constanze’s eyes were wavering with anxiety. Constanze, who wouldn’t back down an inch even against Anna, Ritz, or Edward, was always shrinking in front of Franz. Until his memories returned, Franz hadn't even considered the reason, but now he understood.
Constanze was afraid of him, who had been terribly violent to her in her early childhood, before she could even form lasting memories. And yet, the reason she followed him with such a happy face was a mystery.
“I don’t know where to start, but... right, the Diva... Katerina, how is she?”
Katerina was the Diva, Constanze’s mother.
“...She passed away.”
The delivery was curt, but the content shocked Franz.
That Diva was gone. That Diva, whose name he had never even spoken.
“...I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. Mother was happier that way.”
Constanze murmured this with a mature gaze, as if looking into the distance.
“Brother, may I ask you one thing?”
“Yes.”
“Am I... your child?”
“!”
For a moment, his mind went completely blank. There was no way that could be possible. True, looking back, the Diva was his first love. But considering Franz’s age back then, it was unthinkable. Yet Constanze was staring at him seriously.
“That’s what Mother said before she died.”
“Wait, Conzie. I was ten years old back then.”
“But... it’s not impossible, is it?”
“It is impossible!”
Constanze looked sadly at Franz, who had shouted without thinking.
“You’re right, of course. You are my brother, after all. But Mother must have loved you very much. After she went mad, she believed I was your daughter, not your sister, and because of that, she was able to be happy.”
Constanze’s words made him understand. The Diva had lived until her death trapped in her own fantasy. She had cherished the quiet time she spent with Franz.
“But I... I resented her.”
Just like his father, his mother who had abandoned him, and the women of the rear palace. That's why he had sealed away his days with her. All memories of betrayal, all pale and blurred. He never imagined that just changing his perspective could give them such vivid colors.
“Yes. I knew. That’s why I was happy.”
“Happy?”
“Yes. Because you were my brother, and mine alone.”
“...Conzie?”
“When no one else would hold me, you were the only one who picked me up. You were the only one who held my hand and walked with me. You were the only one who gave me warmth.”
Franz remembered the day he first took her small, plump hand out of a sense of obligation. He couldn't let her die. She was the child of the Diva who had betrayed him and the father he hated, but she was a miserable creature born into the same circumstances as him.
He had managed to have her raised by the women who tried to curry favor with him, but in the end, he had been violent towards her and abandoned her. How lonely and painful must her life have been after being left behind?
“I’m sorry, Conzie.”
He had wondered how to apologize, but the words of apology came out naturally. All he had to do was apologize honestly. How foolish he was for needing to rationalize such a simple thing.
“I might have killed you back then. I couldn’t control myself.”
“Brother...”
“I hated everything, everything was filthy, and I thought everything was cornering me. By hating everything around me, I was only trying to protect myself. I was weak.”
He looked down and bit his lip. Unsure of what else to say, Franz fell silent. Constanze took a single step closer to him and declared in a strong tone.
“You’re wrong. It’s my fault. I was the one who accepted people’s slander as truth and then presumptuously told you about it. Because...”
Biting her lip as if holding back tears, Constanze lifted her head.
“Because if you became the lord, I thought we could be together forever. I believed that if you did, you would stay in Saradio and keep me by your side. At that time, I was told that by others, so I took it at face value and told you. But then I realized that wasn't right. I thought I should properly understand things for myself, and if I truly wanted you to become the lord, then I should follow you. And so I...”
As Constanze faltered, Franz groaned in her place.
“You came to Merite.”
“Yes. I couldn't allow you to live a miserable life as a wanderer. The lands of the Saradio Autonomous Region belong to you, Brother. That's why I came with the intention of rescuing you and bringing you back to Saradio.”
She declared this in the same strong, assertive tone she used in front of everyone, then took a breath and looked down sadly.
“But I realized it. After leaving Merite and watching you spend time with Anna, the old man, and Ritz-san, I realized your happiness wasn't in Saradio. So what should I do? If you don't need Saradio, then you don't need me either, right? On top of that, I put Anna through a terrible experience; it’s not something that can be forgiven.”
After saying all that in a rush, Constanze’s shoulders slumped.
“I suppose I haven't been forgiven since that day I said such impertinent things to you. Because all I ever do is things to make you hate me. I'm prepared for that. I know it's all my fault. I keep heading in the wrong direction. That's why I can't ask you to come back anymore. But Brother, I want you to forgive Conzie.”
Tears spilled from Constanze's eyes as she spoke.
“Conzie loves you very much, Brother. The only brother Conzie has is you, Franz-niisama. Even if you hate me, I love you.”
Golden hair, blue eyes. A figure that looked so much like his own. He deeply felt that he was Constanze's brother.
“No. I don’t hate you. I’m the one who needs to be forgiven. Conzie just happened to be born into the Lucina family, but that wasn’t your choice. Yet I conflated you with Ville Lucina and hated you simply because you were a Lucina, and I was violent. I was wrong, I’m the one who needs to be forgiven.”
Just as Ritz had been scorned in Ciedena, he had been the one to drive Constanze into a corner.
“No, it’s all my fault. I’m the one who wants to be forgiven. I’m sorry, Brother, I’m sorry.”
“It’s not Conzie’s fault, it’s mine...”
“No. It’s my fault. Please, don’t hate Conzie.”
“That's not what I'm saying.”
Even when he told her this, Constanze blamed herself and shook her head. Unsure how to make her understand and accept his apology, Franz stood frozen.
At that moment, he suddenly thought of Ritz. Ritz always pulled a dejected Anna into his arms with surprising naturalness. He couldn’t do something so skillful, but there was something he could do for the young Constanze who craved warmth.
Awkwardly, Franz reached out his arms to Constanze and embraced her small body. It was even younger and smaller than Anna’s, and he was surprised at how thin she was. The thought that he had pushed her to this point mentally brought on an unbearable regret and a poignant ache in the back of his nose.
As if returning to his childhood, Franz held Constanze tightly. There was a time when they were just a brother and sister, lonely with no one to offer them warmth, who had lived clinging to each other like this.
And then he suddenly remembered. Franz had thought he raised her simply because he didn't want to see her die, but perhaps that wasn't all there was to it.
Franz had been lonely.
That’s why he couldn’t help but feel sorry for his sister who was following the same fate. His pitiful sister was dear to him. Perhaps that’s why he had reached out his hand.
“I’m sorry, Conzie. I...”
Holding his little sister tightly, he said to her firmly.
“I love you very much, Conzie.”
At those words, her body stiffened for a moment, then Constanze began to tremble slightly. Surprised, he let her go, and saw that Constanze’s eyes were brimming with tears.
“Conzie?”
“U-u-u, hic...”
“Conzie, are you okay?”
As he said that and peered at her, Conzie let out a huge sob, and the next moment she began to cry with an exceptionally loud wail.
“Waaaaaaaaah, Brother, aaaaaaaaah~”
“Co-Conzie?”
“Waaaaaaaaah, Conzie loves you very much too, Brotheeeeer~!”
“Conzie...”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah~”
When he held Constanze tightly again, she cast off the adult mask she had been wearing and sobbed even more loudly.
Even though she acted grown-up, Constanze was still only nine. And yet, he had made her feel so insecure. Constanze's bravado, her selfishness, that way she spoke—it all stemmed from loneliness, and he hadn't realized it.
Anna, Ritz, and Edward must have noticed, which is why they smiled gently no matter what Constanze said.
He was still so immature. If Ritz’s roots had only just begun to grow to anchor his existence in this world, then Franz was the same. The bud of his connection with others had only just sprouted.
After several tens of minutes of loud, intense crying, Constanze, who seemed to have finally calmed down, separated from Franz with her eyes bright red, still hiccuping.
Constanze, who had probably never cried out loud before, had developed a strange crying habit that was oddly childish.
“Hic... Brother, your shirt... hic... I got it all wet.”
Indeed, his shirt was a complete mess, soaked with Constanze's tears and snot, rendering it unusable.
“It’s fine, it’ll wash out.”
He said it curtly, as if it didn't matter, and Constanze was silent for a moment before looking up at Franz with serious eyes.
“Will you... hic... let me wash it?”
“You, Conzie?”
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. Constanze surely had never done laundry before.
“Hic... Please let me, Brother.”
“Ah, okay.”
Constanze seemed like she wouldn’t leave until he took it off, so Franz had no choice but to remove his shirt on the spot and hand it to her. Constanze took it happily. Whether this shirt would return safely was a mystery.
“Brother, hic... there is one thing I am grateful to Father for.”
Constanze said this, her eyes still on the shirt. When he didn't answer, she remained silent for a while before finally managing to stop her strange crying habit and said quietly.
“For making you my brother. And for making us look so much alike.”
“Eh?”
“Because if I’m not your child, then the fact that we look so alike means we resemble Father, doesn’t it?”
“Ah...”
Now that she mentioned it, that was true. Did that mean that toad used to have features similar to Franz and Constanze?
“We should be careful in the future, shouldn’t we, Brother?”
“You’re right.”
For now, he decided to avoid getting fat or mistreating his hair.
“But why are you happy that we look alike?”
“Because even if you’re not here, I can see your face and remember you.”
“...I see.”
Constanze already knew. That Franz would never return to Saradio. At that moment, someone came tumbling in from behind. Behind the two who had fallen stood Marguerite.
“Peeping is such a tasteless hobby. The name of the man who defeated the Chief of the Flame Warriors will be disgraced, you know?”
“I told you, we weren't peeping! Right?”
“That’s right, we were just worried...”
Ritz and Anna, who had tumbled down, were both grinning sheepishly and awkwardly. From behind Marguerite, Edward gave Franz a quick wave before leaving. It seemed he had been hiding and watching without even Ritz or Anna knowing.
What a troublesome bunch of friends, he thought, but he could only sigh without saying a word of complaint. Perhaps Franz was relieved. Because he was able to show them the self that no longer had anything to hide.
“Come on, come on, time to prepare for today’s show! Once you siblings are done bonding, hand over the tent!”
Urged on by a smiling Marguerite, they left the big top behind.
I can walk forward just a little more. The thought made Franz just a little bit happy.