When Claire arrived outside the dormitory where Flora lived, she saw a group of girls in splendid attire looking around with sealed lips, hiding in the shadows of the corridor columns.
They had all heard the princess’s final words at the ball and had rushed over without even changing into ordinary clothes, wanting to personally witness the meeting between the princess and herself.
Yet it seemed Flora had not returned to the dormitory.
At this moment the night sky was covered by dark clouds, and the gradually strengthening sound of the wind wandered among the buildings of the campus.
These girls had waited bitterly outside the dormitory for more than an hour and were shivering in the evening wind of the autumn night.
The “old place” Flora had spoken of must be a location known only to herself and her, yet where was that?
In a daze Claire detected a faint, pure fragrance from the wind.
It was the scent of tulips.
Even a strong wind could not disperse its aroma.
And in the summer twelve years ago the two young girls had precisely met in that garden surrounded by tulips.
Following the guidance of the floral fragrance, Claire arrived at a greenhouse at the edge of the academy.
Under the night curtain the greenhouse garden that ought to have been silent now emitted waves of piano music.
Claire pushed open that glass main door.
The evening wind that blew into the greenhouse carried the smell of soil and dust and caused the tulips that filled the greenhouse to sway.
Tulips were among the most fragrant varieties of flowering plants; even from a great distance one could smell their scent.
Judging by the degree of attraction, Flora who sat quietly in the wooden pavilion at the center of the greenhouse was no different from the tulips that clustered around her.
At this moment Flora no longer wore that pure-white court formal dress.
She had changed into the uniform of Cité University, draped a black robe over herself, and the hem of the robe was embroidered with the sun emblem in gold thread.
Her soft golden long hair was tied into a single lock with a vermilion silk ribbon.
Her slender fingers leaped flexibly and calmly across the black and white keys, and the music poured from her fingertips like flowing clouds and water.
Claire approached her with a heart full of apprehension, hesitating over whether to break this tranquility.
She was like a crow quietly approaching a canary among the flowers, terrified that if she made a slightly larger noise the other would fly away and vanish.
Yet Flora had already noticed the visitor.
She stopped playing, walked before Claire, and gently grasped her hand to prove to her the reality before her eyes.
“Welcome back… eh?”
After confirming that the Flora before her eyes was not an illusion, Claire threw herself into her embrace as if seizing a life-saving straw.
And thanks to this straw, the tears that had been wandering in Claire’s eyes finally burst forth like a breached dike.
Claire, who had forgotten to control her strength, suddenly lunged forward.
Flora and the vampire embracing her thus heavily fell to the ground.
Claire desperately and tightly hugged the slender body before her eyes without regard for anything.
At this moment she had shed all strength and disguise and sobbed on Flora’s shoulder, pouring out the emotions she had suppressed for twelve years.
Thunder that came from the edge of the sky caused Claire to subconsciously tighten the arms that were gripping the delicate body in her embrace.
Flora gave a soft hum and in turn also embraced Claire, gently stroking her head with a soft hand and causing her involuntary trembling to begin to subside.
After an unknown length of time Claire finally reluctantly left Flora’s body, rose, and helped her sit on the edge of the flower bed, brushing the dust from her skirt for her.
Both of their cheeks were tinged with a flush.
Silence returned to the greenhouse, so quiet that it seemed one could hear each other’s heartbeats.
Claire broke this awkwardness.
“The piece… was played very beautifully.”
“The piano was something you taught me,” Flora responded softly.
“You have long since surpassed me.”
“I was only desperately working hard to imitate you… Whether knowledge or bearing, I have nothing. I am only an empty shell—an empty shell that has been imitating you for twelve years.”
The corner of Flora’s mouth forced out a bitter smile.
Claire understood that she was masking the sourness within her heart.
“I’m sorry for making you wait so long.”
The moment Claire sat down beside Flora, the princess’s hand stretched over and covered hers.
It seemed Flora had already been waiting in the greenhouse for a long time, waiting until her hands had grown ice-cold.
“Yes, far too long. Perhaps before you arrived I would already have frozen to death.”
Flora’s voice trembled a little.
“Do you still remember the promise we once made amid the tulip clusters? No matter what happened, we would never let go of each other.”
In the summer twelve years ago the tulip clusters beneath the palace walls had been their shelter and safe harbor.
Whenever they encountered unhappy matters the two of them would lie side by side in the flower clusters chatting about everything under the sun, leaving the servants outside searching high and low in vain.
It was also there that they had exchanged the vow that they would never let go of each other.
“You truly did not deceive me.” Flora rested her head on Claire’s shoulder.
“Welcome back.”
“Mm. I’ve returned. I will never leave you again.”
Claire half-closed her eyes and gently stroked Flora’s hair.
“Can you tell me about your experiences over these years?” Flora asked softly.
“Mm… that would be a long story.”
“I want to understand everything about you.” Flora raised her head and looked up into Claire’s eyes.
“Don’t be frightened.”
Claire stretched her hand before her eyes, lightly pinched something within the pupils, and slowly peeled it from the eyeballs with her fingertips.
What was revealed before the princess were a pair of crimson pupils that glittered under the night sky.
Flora widened her eyes and stared at her, yet did not move the head that rested upon her shoulder.
“On that night I was rescued by a vampire of the Northern Continent. As you can see, I am now also a vampire.”
Herta, the Vandro clan, the Intelligence Academy, Liz, the Cerberus Bureau, the hearing…
Beneath the moonlight Claire softly recounted her experiences, as calmly as if she were narrating someone else’s story.
The long story ended.
Flora remained silent for a good while and merely quietly gazed at Claire’s red eyes.
It was the same soft gaze as at the ball.
Only at this moment did Claire understand that that look was not pity or compassion, but deep guilt.
“I never expected you would become a spy…”
“After all, only a spy has the opportunity to leave the country.”
“I’m sorry. It is because I stole your name that you suffered so much…”
Flora’s voice trembled slightly.
Claire smiled faintly.
“I also stole your name. In that case the one who ought to apologize is me. I forced the identity of the princess upon you. I know how hard these years have been for you.”
“Your ability to return to my side is already enough… Thank the Lord for allowing fate to send you back to my side.”
Claire gently shook her head.
“It is not some god or fate that pushed me back to your side. I walked here myself.”
Upon hearing this Flora unfurrowed her tightly locked brows and could not help but laugh silently.
“Then what kind of mission did you receive? It is related to me, is it not?” Flora asked softly.
“Mm. Operation Changeling… No, never mind. I have already returned to your side. Let us run away together! Let us flee to a place that neither the United Kingdom nor the Empire can find, build a white little house by a lake, and we will stay there…”
Claire tightly grasped Flora’s hands and made up her mind.
“…No.”
“Eh?” Claire had never imagined she would meet with a refusal.
“If we simply flee like that, Aunt Herta and Miss Liz will be sad, will they not?”
“But I only need you!”
“How am I described in your materials?” Flora shifted the topic.
Seeing that Claire lowered her head and did not answer, Flora continued.
“Possessing no political resources, the least favored among the candidates for the imperial throne—something like that evaluation, is it not?”
Claire nodded slightly.
“Therefore let us escape these damned politics…”
Flora smiled bitterly and shook her head.
“As expected the Northern Continent is the same as the Southern Continent. When speaking of political power one only thinks of those nobles who color the map. Yet in reality many people have already chosen me to represent their interests. They come from fleets, workshops, farms or smelters. Although they still cannot yet voice themselves, I believe that what they are about to create will be more and greater than everything the nobles have created. Therefore I wish to become their empress and create a more enlightened nation for them. When that time comes we can also be together openly and righteously.”
“…Have you gone mad? That is impossible!” Claire said sternly.
“I understand. This matter will be very difficult.”
“You do not understand at all! No kind of reform can touch those deeply rooted things. Even a nation as strong as the one created by Queen Christine is now in a precarious state. In order to maintain the fragile system of the Northern Continent my hands are already stained with blood. I do not want you to become like that as well…”
“Even so I will become empress and eliminate the barrier between us!”
Flora looked toward Claire’s crimson pupils.
Her gaze was sharp and firm.
In the end it was Claire who averted her eyes and let out a long sigh.
“All right. Operation Changeling is precisely the Northern Continent helping you become the next empress. It seems the Water Goddess understood you earlier than I did.”
“Becoming empress with the help of the true princess sounds a little strange,” the corner of Flora’s mouth lifted lightly.
“You said you want to change this country. You are already the true princess.” Claire lowered her eyes and gazed at her.
Flora was slightly startled.
“…Thank you. Hearing you say that makes me very happy.”
Flora rose from the flower bed and returned once more to the front of the piano.
“Would you like to play together once more after so long?”
Claire shook her head.
“I have not played the piano for a long time. I cannot keep up with you.”
“That summer when you invited me to play together, do you still remember what you yourself said?”
“Playing so happily like this is the first time since I was born.”
Claire’s pale cheeks were tinged with a slight flush.
“Let me also experience this kind of happiness, all right?”
“Mm.”
The two of them sat side by side, just as in that summer twelve years ago in the summer palace surrounded by tulips, when two little girls first touched the keys together.
At this moment, although time had flowed and fate had been full of misfortune, that tacit understanding and emotion remained as they had been at the beginning.
Flora’s fingers leaped familiarly across the black and white keys.
Claire carefully followed her rhythm.
At first it appeared somewhat unpracticed, yet very soon that long-lost sense of familiarity surged back like a tide.
Her fingertips also began to dance flexibly and interwove with Flora’s melody, harmonious and beautiful.
In this moment the bitterness of the past and the worries of the future both melted away in the piano music, leaving only the rich fragrance of tulips that quietly bloomed through this sleepless night.