* * *
“Flowers? One flower costs…”
The girl glanced at her basket, seemingly checking their condition.
Then, as she looked back at me and began counting on her fingers, she suddenly gasped.
“Ah!”
Her eyes lit up with recognition.
“You’re the one who bought a bouquet from me before, aren’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I finally smiled at the girl who had recognized me.
A bright, amused smile, lifting my lips and crinkling my eyes.
It was interesting how similar, yet different, the situation was from that day.
Back then, my mind had been a tangled mess because of Kaindel, weighed down by gloom, while the girl had been chasing a thief who had stolen her money, leaving her unable to sell her flowers.
We had met on one of the worst days of our lives.
But today was different.
“You’re still selling flowers, I see.”
“Yes! Today, I have roses—summer roses. Aren’t they pretty?”
“They’re frIsa. Truly beautiful.”
The girl proudly showed me her basket, filled with vibrant roses in various colors.
The flowers looked well-tended.
Didn’t she say before that she was helping her mother?
Her parents must be good at growing flowers.
I thought absentmindedly as I looked away from the basket.
Maybe I should buy one or two roses before leaving.
Beautiful flowers could lift anyone’s mood.
And right now, I needed that.
Just as I was about to ask the price again, the girl pouted as she glanced at my robe.
“You’re still wearing that?”
“Well… I feel uneasy without it.”
“But you’re so handsome! Why do you keep hiding your face?”
“Hmm.”
When did she even see my face properly?
Caught off guard by the unexpected compliment, I barely managed to suppress my embarrassment.
Then, I bent slightly, bringing myself to the girl’s eye level.
“Here. Can you see my hair color?”
“Wow, it’s such a beautiful silver color!”
“No, it’s ash-colored.”
“No, it’s silver. It looks like someone melted diamonds and poured them over your hair.”
“Diamonds?”
“Hmm… Actually, it feels more like moonlight than diamonds.”
At my remark, the girl hesitated for a moment before adding more.
For a brief second, I was at a loss for words.
Others had all called it a dirty, ashy color, as if they had smeared soot on it.
Only Kaindel ever described it as silver, even though it was a muddled, almost filthy shade.
It was like the stain left by black paint dropped on a white canvas.
But for someone to compare my ash-colored hair to diamonds—or even to moonlight?
I would never have imagined that.
“You’re making me shy by giving so many compliments.”
“It’s not a compliment; I’m just stating the truth. Your hair color is so beautiful.”
“…Nari? Are you calling me Nari?”
“Yes, aren’t you a noble?”
The girl looked at me with wide, innocent eyes, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
She was clearly convinced I was of noble birth.
I paused, considering the reasons why she might have thought I was a noble.
I couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
It was an endearing misunderstanding.
If she saw my outfit—loose, baggy shirts paired with a cheap robe—she would surely know how far I was from any noble.
Nobles are always dressed in perfectly tailored clothes, embellishing themselves to perfection, quite the opposite of how I dressed.
“I’m actually a commoner.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. I’m from Luther village.”
I almost added that I wasn’t entirely sure of my origins, but I decided against it.
It was irrelevant, and nothing good would come from sharing that I had been raised by the village elder after being left without parents.
It was information that would only make the situation awkward.
The girl stared at me in shock, her jaw dropping.
Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
Only an occasional breath escaped.
“No way.”
Then, slowly, she moved her mouth again.
“I honestly thought you were a kind noble.”
“Me?”
“Yes, the way you bought the sickly flowers… And paid such a high price… And the payment came from the noble house’s vault, right? And also…”
“Also?”
“A year ago, someone came to visit me, and he was a noble too.”
“A year ago?”
But we met two years ago, didn’t we?
A sense of doubt rose in me.
A noble visited her a year ago?
And I was somehow connected to it?
I couldn’t make sense of any of it.
I tilted my head, then asked.
“I was at the temple a year ago. Did you meet with me?”
“No. It was a different noble. And he was really handsome, but… his condition was… his eyes were red, and his lips were covered in blood.”
“In other words, he was a mess.”
“Not a total mess, though!” The girl quickly waved her hands, clearly concerned not to offend nobility.
“He suddenly showed up at my house one day and asked about the bouquet of flowers. When I told him I had sold it to you, he started crying.”
“…He cried?”
“I didn’t know someone could cry so quietly. He just sat on the floor, tears falling without a sound. And he even asked about the flower language of baby’s breath.”
“Flower language? What did it mean?”
“There are a lot of meanings.”
The girl began counting on her fingers as she recalled.
“Just off the top of my head, there’s ‘a pure heart,’ ‘a clean heart,’ ‘longing joy,’ ‘successful love’… Oh, and it also means ‘a bright heart.’”
“That’s a lot.”
“Yes, right?”
“So, you’re saying he cried after hearing these meanings? Just like that?”
Was he out of his mind?
Just as I was about to mutter under my breath, the girl slowly shook her head and replied.
“But I think the noble was crying over a different meaning. I’m not quite sure, though.”
“A different meaning?”
“Baby’s breath can symbolize death and sorrow, too.”
“Ah.”
“And the last one is ‘a promise.'”
“…”
The girl smiled brightly, seeming pleased that she remembered all the meanings of the white baby’s breath.
Her fingers were almost all folded as she looked at me, her eyes shining with expectation, as if waiting for me to react to her words.
I almost lost my smile, but I managed to hold it back.
The last flower meaning—‘a promise’—was one I knew well.
It was the only flower language I’d looked up when I left a bouquet of white baby’s breath for Kaindel.
The reason I was drawn to that particular meaning wasn’t significant, but it was partly because Kaindel had broken the promise he made to me.
In the end, leaving him behind meant breaking our promise to be together forever.
His departure felt like a betrayal of the very promise we had made to each other.
So it was Kaindel who had visited this girl.
I sighed, realizing this new revelation.
The person who cried quietly, sitting on the floor?
That was Kaindel, too. Just how much had he stirred things up while I was gone?
And then, as I was about to mutter something about the rumors of the mad hero, the girl suddenly clapped her hands as if she’d just remembered something important.
She tugged lightly at my robe.
“Ah, that’s right.”
“Yes?”
I snapped back to reality and turned my attention fully to her, eager to hear what she would say next.
Her hands gestured for me to lean in, and I couldn’t predict what would come out of her mouth next, so I listened intently.
She motioned for me to bring my ear closer, then, standing on her tiptoes as if to whisper a great secret, she leaned in and softly said, the thin breath tickling my ear:
“Actually, I know someone with the same hair color as you!”
* * *
