Chapter 121
Angela’s memories had vanished. A pure white face asking who she was. It was only natural that the Florence estate would be turned upside down.
“How can something so absurd happen?”
The estate’s head chef, while boiling a thin soup to feed Angela who had finally regained consciousness after so long, muttered in disbelief.
“I know, right?”
The maid beside him, decocting medicinal herbs prescribed by the doctor for Angela, chimed in.
“We thought she had finally opened her eyes, and then, oh dear.”
The maid kept letting out worried sighs throughout the process of brewing the herbal tea, as if to say there couldn’t be anything more preposterous.
The reactions of the other servants in the estate weren’t much different. They all sighed deeply, lamenting the indifference of the heavens, and clicked their tongues until their mouths went dry.
However, Angela herself, who was unwittingly burning them up inside with worry.
“You’re my fiancé?”
She was utterly carefree.
“Really?”
Leaning comfortably against the bed, accepting spoonfuls of soup from the man named Kalian Florence, Angela suddenly spoke up without even thinking that the situation felt familiar.
Kalian, who had been blowing on the steaming soup scooped onto the spoon and bringing it to Angela’s mouth, gently crinkled the corners of his eyes.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Along with the kind reply in his low voice, the spoon carrying the savory aroma tapped lightly against Angela’s lips.
Like a baby bird waiting for its mother to bring food, Angela parted her lips slightly and accepted another mouthful of soup, then let out a hum through her nose as she observed her fiancé.
Did she pick her lifelong partner based solely on his face?
Angela doubted her past self’s actions, which she had now completely forgotten. And understandably so—the man before her was handsome, but there had to be a limit to how strikingly handsome he was.
Even though she had lost her memories, it didn’t cause any issues in her immediate daily life. She clearly recognized the uses of objects. The same went for language. She had no trouble speaking, listening, reading, or writing.
The doctor had examined her condition meticulously and assured them that there would be no particular problems with her carrying on everyday activities before leaving.
So, the fact that the man claiming to be her fiancé appeared so dazzlingly radiant wasn’t due to some abnormality in her head.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Do you not believe me?”
Perhaps sensing the intensity of her gaze, her handsome fiancé asked as he refilled the empty spoon with more soup and brought it to her lips.
“It’s not that.”
Angela replied, her lips curving up into a long smile as she swiftly swallowed it, her face now full of satisfaction.
“It just seems like my past self did something truly commendable.”
The eyes, nose, and mouth that were undoubtedly crafted with all the gods’ effort formed an expression of confusion, unable to grasp what her words meant. But instead of adding more explanation, Angela simply responded with a contented smile.
* * *
That night.
“He’s not just handsome, either, is he?”
Lying in bed, lost in thought about Kalian Florence, Angela suddenly bolted upright and muttered to herself.
Having that sculptural face flitting before her eyes all day long had kept her mind entirely occupied with him, and now, as she lay down to sleep and reflected on the day, it seemed her fiancé possessed a gentle disposition as well.
Not only had he not let her lift a spoon once during meals, but when she first opened her eyes, he had come bearing flowers.
Angela pushed aside the neatly tucked blanket, got out of bed, and walked over to the table in the center of the room.
Then, propping her chin on her left hand, she sat and gazed endlessly at the yellow-hued flowers in the vase. Even after the man, startled upon seeing her, had dropped them and they tumbled across the floor, the petals were still brimming with vitality.
Angela lightly tapped one with her fingertip. The bell-like flower cluster trembled as if it might let out a cheerful sound.
“Strange, isn’t it?”
Angela murmured her solitary question as she watched the flower’s trembling gradually subside. Then, she tapped the cluster once more before standing up and heading toward the window draped with long curtains.
It wasn’t because she felt stifled.
“It’s too comfortable, isn’t it?”
For someone who had lost her memories, her mind and heart were as calm as a sea after the waves had settled.
Instead of drawing the curtains aside, Angela stepped right into them, pressed her forehead against the glass, and looked down outside.
It was easy to guess where the flowers on the table had come from. It seemed spring was approaching. The garden was fairly vibrant with colors.
Still, patches of unmelted snow were visible here and there. The flowers sprouting between them were struggling twice as hard as the others to unfurl their leaves.
“Hang in there.”
However, Angela whispered her encouragement as she gazed intently at those flowers. Then, in the next moment, she suddenly burst out from behind the curtains and began an unexpected sprint.
“M-Miss…? M-My lady! My lady!”
Was her name Mary? The young maid who had rushed to her and wailed dramatically when she first opened her eyes must have been guarding the door to her room.
The instant Angela flung the door open and dashed out, the young maid started chasing after her, shouting at the top of her lungs in a near uproar. She was small in stature, but her voice was no joke.
“Where are you going! My lady! My lady!”
Thanks to that, lights began flickering on here and there in the Florence estate, which had been shrouded in complete darkness, and soon it was as bright as midday.
“W-what? What’s going on?”
“Hey, that sounds like Mary’s voice?”
“Has something happened to Lady Angela?”
The servants who emerged carrying lanterns looked around in confusion, each muttering a word or two, before hurriedly heading toward the direction of Mary’s voice.
So, by the time Angela reached the garden, nearly all the servants of the Florence estate, along with the guards and Kalian, were standing behind her.
However, much to her chagrin for those who had forsaken their night’s sleep to rush out because of her, Angela’s attention was entirely focused elsewhere.
“Angela?”
Kalian stepped forward and cautiously called out to Angela, who had caused this midnight commotion. Without even turning around, Angela beckoned him with her hand.
Come here. With that clear gesture, Kalian approached her side. One of the servants watching the two stand shoulder to shoulder inexplicably felt tense and swallowed hard.
“Woooaah!”
In that moment, screams of awe erupted from the others’ mouths. The servant who had been swallowing choked and coughed, only to join in the exclamation a beat later. It was because something unbelievable was unfolding right before their eyes.
Until just recently—no, even moments ago—the garden of the estate had still borne traces of the stark white winter in various spots.
Yet, as if by some magic, the tiny ice fragments clinging to the grass blades melted away with a soft sizzle, turning into droplets, and the grass blades that drank those droplets burst into buds in an instant.
The entire garden began to tint with green light, then in a flash, it started radiating a brilliant spectrum of colors. The change had originated from Angela at its center.
Angela herself seemed just as astonished, as she surveyed the garden’s landscape and then turned to Kalian with her mouth wide open.
“Did you see that? I made the flowers bloom!”
She had only whispered encouragement to hang in there from the window, but she could feel the petals coming alive. The flowers that had been trapped between the snow, struggling desperately, suddenly lifted their heads high and looked at Angela. As if to say they had done it.
Her heart pounded so fiercely that she had no choice but to burst out the door. But she hadn’t expected such a vivid response.
Amid the people’s gasps of admiration, Angela herself marveled and caressed the grass blades and stroked the flowers. The more she did, the stems seemed to grow sturdier, and the petals bloomed even more fully.
She turned to Kalian, wanting to ask if she had always possessed such an ability. He was shaking his head, as if denying something.
A moment later, Kalian gently pulled Angela into an embrace. He was her fiancé, yet being held by this unfamiliar man stirred no resistance in her. So she nestled quietly in his arms.
“No, this isn’t just making flowers bloom.”
His voice flowed into Angela’s eardrums.
“You’ve summoned spring itself.”
Angela felt a heaviness in her chest. It had merely seemed wondrous, but the moment she heard his words, tears threatened to spill without reason.
Unconsciously, Angela spread her arms and embraced Kalian in return. His warm hold fit her perfectly, as if she had found a shattered piece of herself.
But why? Unlike Angela, who felt a sense of peace, Kalian was trembling all over. As if he alone were facing winter.
* * *
“What else do I know how to do?”
Even without her memories, she could tell from people’s reactions that she possessed extraordinary abilities. Angela had returned to her room at Kalian’s insistence that she still needed rest, but the others were still out in the garden, enjoying the full bloom of spring that had arrived so suddenly.
“A rabbit….”
The young maid, carrying in a basin full of water, hesitated before speaking up.
“You made a rabbit freeze in place.”
She continued as she set the basin down by the bed to wash Angela’s feet, which had run out barefoot.
Why did she look like she was forcing out words she desperately didn’t want to say, especially about a rabbit? Did she have some bad memory involving rabbits? Angela couldn’t tell, but she chuckled and countered.
“You could do that too, couldn’t you?”
Making a little rabbit freeze in place—what’s the big deal about that?
At that, the young maid’s eyes widened, and she shook her head wildly from side to side. Her curly hair bounced tangly in front of Angela’s eyes.
“No, no, no! When you said come here, the rabbit would just hop right up to you, and when you said go wherever you want, it would bound away far off… like that….”
But as she continued, she seemed to realize something was off, because her confident head-shaking slowed to a stop, and her voice lost its assurance, growing smaller.
“Ah, so I must have raised an obedient rabbit.”
However, after Angela said that, the young maid’s voice immediately returned to its original volume.
“No way!”
Her head, which had stopped shaking, now joined her hands in wildly waving in front of Angela.
“You never raised anything like a brown rabbit! You only raised Mary! You absolutely never raised a rabbit! It’s true!”
“Only Mary?”
The young maid nodded her head vigorously up and down, having been shaking it only side to side before. It looked like it might fall off if she nodded any harder.
They said she was my most cherished maid, and seeing her act so adorably, it made sense why she was so loved. Being close to her made my ears ring from the noise, but it didn’t particularly bother me.
“So I did raise a rabbit after all.”
Angela murmured under her breath as she gazed at the creature with round eyes and fluffy fur.
At the maid’s ‘Huh?’ as she looked up at her, Angela lightly tapped the tip of her nose and dipped her feet into the warm water.
“Mary, I wish you could remember.”
It wasn’t said with any profound meaning, but Mary’s neck flushed bright red in an instant.
“…You cherished me so much, my lady.”
Mary said, her forehead turning red as well, as she carefully lifted Angela’s pale foot and sprinkled water over it. Watching the droplets tickle down the top of her foot, Angela spoke.
“I figured as much.”
Even now, for some reason, I want to soak your feet in this warm water too. As if it’s the most natural thing to do.
