Chapter 7
While Baron and Baroness Corvas stepped away for a moment to speak with Priest Marceria, the children began chattering noisily among themselves.
Naturally, the main topic was the violet candies the Corvas couple had given to Prim.
“Hey, Prim. Can I just smell one?”
The children crowded around, gulping nervously as they asked.
Prim considered telling them that it wasn’t really such a great treat—that nobles didn’t even bother eating things like this—but decided against it. Instead, she opened the lid of the box and showed them.
“Woooow….”
“The purple color is so pretty.”
“It must be really sweet, right?”
“It looks like it smells nice.”
“It looks delicious.”
“I can’t even imagine what it tastes like.”
As they spoke, they kept sneaking glances at Prim. She knew that look well.
They wanted some, but couldn’t bring themselves to ask—hoping desperately that Prim would offer first.
Prim spoke up without hesitation.
“Let’s share.”
The children were beside themselves at the rare sweetness they were tasting for the first time.
There were many children in the orphanage, and the candies fit in a box barely the size of a palm, so it was gone in an instant.
The children strained to savor the lingering flavor in their mouths. Prim looked down at the now-empty box.
When I pass the perfumer’s exam, there’ll be prize money. I should buy really good candy then.
Luxury, after all, was her specialty.
Just then, she happened to look up and saw Rosien staring at her with a frown, lips stuck out in a sulk.
“Huh? Rosien, you—”
Come to think of it, she’d been so busy handing one candy to each child that she hadn’t even shown Rosien any.
Prim’s heart sank. But at that moment, Rosien snatched the empty box from her hands and shouted at the other kids.
“Hey, you brats! No matter how interesting it is, how could you eat all of hers?!”
“N-no, I only ate one….”
“Me too, just one….”
“And how many people does ‘one each’ make? She didn’t even get to eat a single one!”
The children fumbled for words. Someone apologized, saying they were sorry.
“It’s okay. I didn’t really want one that badly. Really.”
Prim said that, but no one looked convinced. Rosien crossed his arms and glared at the children.
“So what are you going to do about it, huh?”
“I’m really, really sorry….”
“Sorry? If you’re sorry, then let’s go pick wild raspberries.”
After acting like he was scolding them, Rosien suddenly broke into a mischievous grin. Just as they’d clung to the candy, the children now clung to Rosien.
“W-wild raspberries?”
“Where are there raspberries?”
“I saw them in that forest over there. Red and shiny.”
“Really? There was something like that?”
“Of course. Since you ate all her candy, we’ll pick raspberries for Prim. You’re all coming too, right?”
“Yes! Prim, wait for us! We’ll bring them back soon!”
Despite Rosien’s not-quite-a-request, the children’s faces lit up as if they’d found a lifeline, and they ran off toward the forest.
Rosien tidied up the mess on Prim’s desk that the kids had left behind, then leaned in and whispered with a grumpy expression.
“Idiot. If the kids ask, you don’t have to give them everything. You should eat some first.”
Prim’s lips twitched. Coming from someone who hadn’t eaten a single one himself.
“…I really was fine.”
“Yeah, yeah. Got it. We’ll bring back raspberries, so let’s stuff ourselves with those instead.”
Rosien said with a broad smile, his deep green eyes crinkling. As he turned to leave, Prim hurriedly grabbed his wrist.
“Let’s eat the raspberries together.”
“Of course we will!”
Rosien laughed cheerfully and headed outside.
But Prim knew. Even though he said they’d eat together, even though he said he’d eat a lot too, Rosien would give all the raspberries to her. He wouldn’t touch a single one.
Once the noisy crowd of children disappeared, the orphanage grew quiet, as if it had never been lively at all.
In that cool silence, a shadow fell over Prim. The shadow shoved the empty box across the floor and said,
“Is playing saint fun?”
Prim looked up.
“Bianna.”
Bianna’s pretty face was twisted coldly as she glared at her.
Prim thought she finally understood why Bianna was acting like this.
How many people could stay sane after having something they firmly believed was theirs taken away?
When Rosien died—when death stole him from her—she had tried to die herself, running straight toward death. And Bianna, too, was simply lashing out at someone she believed had taken what was hers.
In her previous life, Prim hadn’t understood Bianna at all and had kept her distance, and that had been the end of it. Bianna was adopted soon after.
“So you act all kind and share everything, then make people feel guilty afterward. Is that fun?”
“Did it look fun? Then you can share what you have too.”
At Prim’s calm reply, Bianna began trembling and shouted,
“T-that candy wasn’t even yours!”
Prim tilted her head.
“They gave it to me, and I accepted it. So it’s mine. Whose would it be otherwise?”
“Hey!”
Losing her temper, Bianna shoved Prim hard. Sitting on the chair, Prim tumbled off.
Crash!
At the loud noise, Bianna flinched and hurriedly looked around.
The other children had gone to pick raspberries, and Baron and Baroness Corvas were far away talking with Priest Marceria. The surroundings were utterly quiet.
Prim lay face-down on the floor, briefly knitting her brows. As she fell, her hand slipped on the wooden floor, and a splinter had lodged itself in her palm, stinging sharply.
When she looked up, Bianna stood there with her face flushed red—whether from rage or anxiety, it was hard to tell—her hands trembling as she pointed.
“Do you think you’ll get adopted looking like that?! W-who would like a kid who can’t even walk properly? Everyone hates you! Everyone hates someone like you!”
“Really? Then if I get adopted, that means you’re worse than a kid who can’t even walk, right?”
For a moment, Bianna’s face went pale. But having come this far, she couldn’t choose to run away.
“Refuse!”
Bianna shouted. At the absurd demand, Prim’s eyes widened. Bianna shouted again.
“If Baron Corvas says he’ll adopt you, refuse him!”
What was stranger was that Bianna didn’t know. Right up until Prim appeared, the Corvas couple had treated Bianna as if they’d found a long-lost daughter—then the moment they saw Prim, they completely changed, now treating Prim as that lost daughter instead.
Prim thought that changing one’s attitude so instantly was proof they weren’t good people, but she didn’t say it out loud.
In her past life, she would have agreed to Bianna’s demand without hesitation. She hadn’t wanted it either.
But now, she couldn’t do that. For Bianna’s sake—and for her own wishes.
Reading the resolve on Prim’s face, Bianna burst out,
“A horrible kid like you will be punished by heaven!”
“The one who shoved someone and threw things is worse, though. So would you get punished twice as much?”
Tears welled up in Bianna’s eyes.
Her face, glaring with clenched lips, was full of malice—but even that was already crumbling apart.
“Um, Bianna. I did say that, but I don’t actually think you’ll be punished twice as much. If we calculate it properly… maybe 1.2 times? Since you’re still young.”
“You—you’re the worst. You don’t know how I feel. Not at all!”
“You don’t know how I feel either.”
“I know everything! You—you—”
At that moment, Bianna’s blue eyes flashed sharply, honed into a weapon meant to wound. She whispered with a sneer,
“You’re going to abandon Rosien and leave.”
Prim’s expression froze.
