Lily and I walked down the dark corridor hand in hand. The place felt like it was barren of any life. Every now and then we would pass by some soldiers on patrol, but every single time they emerged from the shadows without making a peep, and it almost gave me a heart attack each goddamn time.
“This place used to be where they kept the royal treasury. After the royal family had its resources relocated somewhere else, they opened this area up so nobles could share the facility. Security is perfect. When the king himself used to keep his riches here, any effort to steal something would be the same as resolving yourself to steal from the royal family themselves.”
“I-…. I suppose.”
“Let me tell you a funny story. What do you think this place was used for before it became the royal treasury?”
A treasure house is basically a suped up warehouse, so what could become that? Definitely not a living room. I’d go mad if I spent a whole day down here.
“I guess…. a prison or something?”
“Good guess. They did use it like a prison, but the more accurate label would be the torture chamber.”
“Torture?”
“It’s when you inflict pain and suffering onto others to make them obey. Royal torturers will do whatever it takes to captured spies to make them reveal everything they know…. although some nobles take to it and will subject innocent people to it as a hobby. Apparently it was quite the common thing many generations ago.”
I bet the descendant or reincarnation of one of those nobles is standing right in front of me too. I don’t know exactly what torturing someone would consist of, but I’m willing to bet it’s a little more severe than just spanking someone’s butt. In that sense, I could say Lily is still kind.
“What would the fun in something like that be?”
“Oh? Are you interested? Would you like me to test something out on you?”
Lily pulled me to the side, giving me a real serious look, and I was at a loss for words at how I was supposed to answer that. After a few seconds passed, she burst into a round of laughter, saying, “It was just a joke,” while lightly swinging our hands together. I guess she was trying to give me a scare for a bit of fun, but it’s hard to tell when someone is joking about something you believe they might actually do.
Lily started up a small chat with me to take my mind off the scare she just gave me, but after we turned a few corners, Lily dropped the conversation and came to a stop.
“Number 1742. This is it.”
Lily turned her face towards me while still holding my hand.
“This is my past. I would hope you would have guessed this since I brought you here, but I trust you quite a bit. I am also admittedly a little attracted to you. That conversation will wait until after you pass the first screening though.”
Since there were only a few fires to act as a source of light, the shadows on Lily’s face were more well defined than usual, pronouncing the beauty of her face.
“I trust you too Lily. That’s why I’m okay entrusting this ring with you.”
“Fair enough. Then shall we go in?”
When Lily set the palm of her hand on the door, a dim glow grew around Lily’s ears. I had to squint to see through the light, but it looks like it is coming from her earrings. I don’t know how it works, but they look beautiful. I’m jealous.
There was a dull dragging noise as the heavy door slowly slid away. You would need more than a couple weapons to break through something like that. What kind of place is the royal family’s new treasury like for them to give this place up?
The room inside was pitch black, but there was something inside that reflected back the tiny bit of light coming in with us from the corridor. I didn’t figure out what it was until Lily lit a candle.
I used to hear all kinds of fairy tales when I was little. I remember all the kings, queens, and dragons that kept piles of gold and silver treasures that someone could swim through if they wanted. This is that fairy tale. Lily is life’s main character, and she has a vault filled with gold ornaments and fancy gems that would make pirate crews weep.
I could tell the effort Lily put into her hoard with everything meticulously arranged. Each of the jewels are grouped together with gems of a similar color, and the whole ensemble organized in a way to make it feel like you are looking at a work of art.
“This is amazing…. how many noble families could have this much here….”
“This is all my personal property actually. My father and brothers have their own, separate room. I have never seen what the inside looks like just as they cannot enter here.”
“I…. this…. all of it…. YOURS!?”
My voice echoed off the walls of the room again and again. Lily frowned and motioned for me to keep it down.
“Don’t act so surprised. Your ring is worth more than all this junk.”
“M-Maybe, but….”
The stronger the light, the bigger the object, the higher the value. It’s hard to believe that the tiny ring in my hand is worth more than all the precious metals that now fill my vision.
I timidly set my ring in one corner of a case near the entrance, but Lily didn’t seem to like how it fit in the arrangement. She reached over from beside me and adjusted its placement once, then twice, and then kept changing it until she was satisfied.
I had free time while she worked at it, so I restlessly looked around at all the surrounding money to see what was buried inside this vault. What ended up catching my eye was a box set at one end of the room.
If you want to hide a tree, place it in the forest. The reason why this specific box stood out to me was precisely because it didn’t look like it belonged here. It’s just an ordinary wooden box with no fine decorations on it.
I didn’t touch it at all because it belongs to Lily, but I did approach it and squatted down. It was covered in dust and looked like it hasn’t been opened in a while.
“That is my past. It would have been fine if you had never found it.”
Without my noticing, Lily had finished finding an appropriate place for my ring and was crouching down next to me.
“What’s inside? The doll you always played with when you were a baby?”
“No. A memento from my mother.”
I immediately regretted making a joke. She’s keeping it in a secure vault like this, of course it isn’t some old baby toy. I was at a loss for words, but Lily gently nudged my arm with her elbow to let me know she didn’t mind before continuing her story.
“I call her Mother, but she is not who the general public would think of when I say that. Publicly, my ‘mother’ is actually my step-mother and is a concubine for the Ruhuna family. The woman I am speaking of, my birth mother, was a live-in maid who worked at the Ruhuna family home. She worked there normally until the day Father and I came to a disagreement on certain matters. The next day she was gone, and this was all she left behind.”
Lily opened the box and pulled out a set of casual clothes and a few pieces of jewellery. She looked at them nostalgically before folding them back up and returning them to their resting place.
“You’ll be able to meet her again. Once you become a hero, you can travel the world and find out where she’s gone.”
“I doubt it. Most likely, she is dead. Whenever I ask Father about it, all he ever tells me is that she is gone.”
“Is that why you’re on bad terms with him?”
“There is that too, but he is also constantly challenging me because he does not wish for me to stand out too much. Even if my mother’s origins were not what they are, it is not a good look when the younger daughter is more popular with the people than the future head of the family. That is why my family was so against me joining the audition in the first place, and that is also why they wish to see me engaged and shipped off to a new family where I will no longer be compared to my brothers.”
Lily standing out means the impression the eldest son gives off becomes hazier, but since there is no chance of Lily ever inheriting the family because of her gender, it would be expected to just leave her be. That actually makes it harder for her family to handle things though. They want to do something because her skills make her brothers look worse by comparison, but doing anything more concrete when she poses no direct threat to the family would reflect badly in noble society.
I remember when I received my own invitation to the audition. Mom and Grandma were so happy for me they danced outside all day in the rain.
Reactions can change depending on a person’s circumstances.
“More importantly, you did not laugh when you learned I was born to a mistress. You surprised me.”
“Huh? What’s wrong with something like that?”
I don’t understand what Lily said that is supposed to be funny. Going by her story, Lily’s birth mother is not only not her current mother, but she was also never even taken as a legal wife. If pressed to say how I feel, I’d say I feel sorry for her.
However, seeing me not get the joke just made Lily laugh on her own.
“I forgot. You really are separate from that world. A mistress’s child ranks incredibly low in a noble family. As long as I have a living relative, I will never be able to inherit my house.”
“What a silly rule. But I’d say it isn’t me, but you who doesn’t understand how us commoners think.”
I might not know a noble’s common sense, but Lily doesn’t know how us commoners think either. It doesn’t matter which of us you’re focusing on. But my move to take up the superiority worked like I wanted, and Lily’s mood seemed to turn up a little as she laughed once again.
“Some mouth you seem to have”
Lily stroked my head with a smile. It was the softest touch I have ever felt. Is she trying to act nicer since we are in front of her mother’s memento, or is she feeling this relaxed while talking to me?
I can’t say what the reason for it was, but the result was a tremor I’ve never felt before in my life running through my heart. I don’t know how I’ll be able to manage if I stay here like this much longer.
Today’s Lily feels really strange. She’s even been holding my hand almost the entire time since we came down here. Lily’s abuse always makes me weird too, but this felt different. I want to know everything there is to know about her.
“Ah…. just, I’m going to get some fresh air for a bit!”
“LIffy! Wait!”
I ignored Lily and rushed out of the room. I just need five minutes to cool myself off, and I will go back after I get my head screwed on straight. Then, once I’ve thanked her for giving me a place to store my ring, we can return to our respective teams.
I walked down the hallway while forming a plan of action in my mind. I haven’t seen a single soldier running on guard duty, so I had plenty of privacy to help me focus my feelings.
The hallway isn’t curved, and since there are no turns either, there was no chance of me ever getting lost. I just walk straight ahead.
That’s how it should be, but with how dim it is down here, I still feel like I could manage it somehow. Honestly, I can’t believe I forgot for even a second how creepy it is out here. It makes me uneasy, so I turned on my heels and returned to Lily’s vault. I hadn’t walked very far, so I should end up right in front of the room after a little bit.
I was just in there. Then why can’t I find it? Nothing is changing no matter how far I walk. I walked in a straight line to get where I am. There are no turns. Something’s wrong. My anxiety rapidly grew, and after a minute, I found it hard to breathe.
I screamed, but Lily’s voice never answered me. It feels like the lights are growing dimmer. Everything is going to go dark. Suddenly I found I couldn’t make myself walk anymore and squatted down on the ground with my head buried into my lap.
“Liffy, look at me”
After a few seconds, I heard a voice call out to me, and when I looked up, Lily was standing directly in front of me. Somehow she had made it right next to me without making a single sound.
“Oh…. sorry Lily, I got a little lost. I was just walking in a straight line, but I’m stupid, so….”
I stood up and tried apologizing right away, but Lily cut me off when she punched me directly in the stomach. I had the wind knocked out of me while a shroud of darkness immediately descended on my mind. Right before I passed out, in the corner of my eye, I could just make out the eery smile playing across her face.
Lily and I walked down the dark corridor hand in hand. The place felt like it was barren of any life. Every now and then we would pass by some soldiers on patrol, but every single time they emerged from the shadows without making a peep, and it almost gave me a heart attack each goddamn time.
“This place used to be where they kept the royal treasury. After the royal family had its resources relocated somewhere else, they opened this area up so nobles could share the facility. Security is perfect. When the king himself used to keep his riches here, any effort to steal something would be the same as resolving yourself to steal from the royal family themselves.”
“I-…. I suppose.”
“Let me tell you a funny story. What do you think this place was used for before it became the royal treasury?”
A treasure house is basically a suped up warehouse, so what could become that? Definitely not a living room. I’d go mad if I spent a whole day down here.
“I guess…. a prison or something?”
“Good guess. They did use it like a prison, but the more accurate label would be the torture chamber.”
“Torture?”
“It’s when you inflict pain and suffering onto others to make them obey. Royal torturers will do whatever it takes to captured spies to make them reveal everything they know…. although some nobles take to it and will subject innocent people to it as a hobby. Apparently it was quite the common thing many generations ago.”
I bet the descendant or reincarnation of one of those nobles is standing right in front of me too. I don’t know exactly what torturing someone would consist of, but I’m willing to bet it’s a little more severe than just spanking someone’s butt. In that sense, I could say Lily is still kind.
“What would the fun in something like that be?”
“Oh? Are you interested? Would you like me to test something out on you?”
Lily pulled me to the side, giving me a real serious look, and I was at a loss for words at how I was supposed to answer that. After a few seconds passed, she burst into a round of laughter, saying, “It was just a joke,” while lightly swinging our hands together. I guess she was trying to give me a scare for a bit of fun, but it’s hard to tell when someone is joking about something you believe they might actually do.
Lily started up a small chat with me to take my mind off the scare she just gave me, but after we turned a few corners, Lily dropped the conversation and came to a stop.
“Number 1742. This is it.”
Lily turned her face towards me while still holding my hand.
“This is my past. I would hope you would have guessed this since I brought you here, but I trust you quite a bit. I am also admittedly a little attracted to you. That conversation will wait until after you pass the first screening though.”
Since there were only a few fires to act as a source of light, the shadows on Lily’s face were more well defined than usual, pronouncing the beauty of her face.
“I trust you too Lily. That’s why I’m okay entrusting this ring with you.”
“Fair enough. Then shall we go in?”
When Lily set the palm of her hand on the door, a dim glow grew around Lily’s ears. I had to squint to see through the light, but it looks like it is coming from her earrings. I don’t know how it works, but they look beautiful. I’m jealous.
There was a dull dragging noise as the heavy door slowly slid away. You would need more than a couple weapons to break through something like that. What kind of place is the royal family’s new treasury like for them to give this place up?
The room inside was pitch black, but there was something inside that reflected back the tiny bit of light coming in with us from the corridor. I didn’t figure out what it was until Lily lit a candle.
I used to hear all kinds of fairy tales when I was little. I remember all the kings, queens, and dragons that kept piles of gold and silver treasures that someone could swim through if they wanted. This is that fairy tale. Lily is life’s main character, and she has a vault filled with gold ornaments and fancy gems that would make pirate crews weep.
I could tell the effort Lily put into her hoard with everything meticulously arranged. Each of the jewels are grouped together with gems of a similar color, and the whole ensemble organized in a way to make it feel like you are looking at a work of art.
“This is amazing…. how many noble families could have this much here….”
“This is all my personal property actually. My father and brothers have their own, separate room. I have never seen what the inside looks like just as they cannot enter here.”
“I…. this…. all of it…. YOURS!?”
My voice echoed off the walls of the room again and again. Lily frowned and motioned for me to keep it down.
“Don’t act so surprised. Your ring is worth more than all this junk.”
“M-Maybe, but….”
The stronger the light, the bigger the object, the higher the value. It’s hard to believe that the tiny ring in my hand is worth more than all the precious metals that now fill my vision.
I timidly set my ring in one corner of a case near the entrance, but Lily didn’t seem to like how it fit in the arrangement. She reached over from beside me and adjusted its placement once, then twice, and then kept changing it until she was satisfied.
I had free time while she worked at it, so I restlessly looked around at all the surrounding money to see what was buried inside this vault. What ended up catching my eye was a box set at one end of the room.
If you want to hide a tree, place it in the forest. The reason why this specific box stood out to me was precisely because it didn’t look like it belonged here. It’s just an ordinary wooden box with no fine decorations on it.
I didn’t touch it at all because it belongs to Lily, but I did approach it and squatted down. It was covered in dust and looked like it hasn’t been opened in a while.
“That is my past. It would have been fine if you had never found it.”
Without my noticing, Lily had finished finding an appropriate place for my ring and was crouching down next to me.
“What’s inside? The doll you always played with when you were a baby?”
“No. A memento from my mother.”
I immediately regretted making a joke. She’s keeping it in a secure vault like this, of course it isn’t some old baby toy. I was at a loss for words, but Lily gently nudged my arm with her elbow to let me know she didn’t mind before continuing her story.
“I call her Mother, but she is not who the general public would think of when I say that. Publicly, my ‘mother’ is actually my step-mother and is a concubine for the Ruhuna family. The woman I am speaking of, my birth mother, was a live-in maid who worked at the Ruhuna family home. She worked there normally until the day Father and I came to a disagreement on certain matters. The next day she was gone, and this was all she left behind.”
Lily opened the box and pulled out a set of casual clothes and a few pieces of jewellery. She looked at them nostalgically before folding them back up and returning them to their resting place.
“You’ll be able to meet her again. Once you become a hero, you can travel the world and find out where she’s gone.”
“I doubt it. Most likely, she is dead. Whenever I ask Father about it, all he ever tells me is that she is gone.”
“Is that why you’re on bad terms with him?”
“There is that too, but he is also constantly challenging me because he does not wish for me to stand out too much. Even if my mother’s origins were not what they are, it is not a good look when the younger daughter is more popular with the people than the future head of the family. That is why my family was so against me joining the audition in the first place, and that is also why they wish to see me engaged and shipped off to a new family where I will no longer be compared to my brothers.”
Lily standing out means the impression the eldest son gives off becomes hazier, but since there is no chance of Lily ever inheriting the family because of her gender, it would be expected to just leave her be. That actually makes it harder for her family to handle things though. They want to do something because her skills make her brothers look worse by comparison, but doing anything more concrete when she poses no direct threat to the family would reflect badly in noble society.
I remember when I received my own invitation to the audition. Mom and Grandma were so happy for me they danced outside all day in the rain.
Reactions can change depending on a person’s circumstances.
“More importantly, you did not laugh when you learned I was born to a mistress. You surprised me.”
“Huh? What’s wrong with something like that?”
I don’t understand what Lily said that is supposed to be funny. Going by her story, Lily’s birth mother is not only not her current mother, but she was also never even taken as a legal wife. If pressed to say how I feel, I’d say I feel sorry for her.
However, seeing me not get the joke just made Lily laugh on her own.
“I forgot. You really are separate from that world. A mistress’s child ranks incredibly low in a noble family. As long as I have a living relative, I will never be able to inherit my house.”
“What a silly rule. But I’d say it isn’t me, but you who doesn’t understand how us commoners think.”
I might not know a noble’s common sense, but Lily doesn’t know how us commoners think either. It doesn’t matter which of us you’re focusing on. But my move to take up the superiority worked like I wanted, and Lily’s mood seemed to turn up a little as she laughed once again.
“Some mouth you seem to have”
Lily stroked my head with a smile. It was the softest touch I have ever felt. Is she trying to act nicer since we are in front of her mother’s memento, or is she feeling this relaxed while talking to me?
I can’t say what the reason for it was, but the result was a tremor I’ve never felt before in my life running through my heart. I don’t know how I’ll be able to manage if I stay here like this much longer.
Today’s Lily feels really strange. She’s even been holding my hand almost the entire time since we came down here. Lily’s abuse always makes me weird too, but this felt different. I want to know everything there is to know about her.
“Ah…. just, I’m going to get some fresh air for a bit!”
“LIffy! Wait!”
I ignored Lily and rushed out of the room. I just need five minutes to cool myself off, and I will go back after I get my head screwed on straight. Then, once I’ve thanked her for giving me a place to store my ring, we can return to our respective teams.
I walked down the hallway while forming a plan of action in my mind. I haven’t seen a single soldier running on guard duty, so I had plenty of privacy to help me focus my feelings.
The hallway isn’t curved, and since there are no turns either, there was no chance of me ever getting lost. I just walk straight ahead.
That’s how it should be, but with how dim it is down here, I still feel like I could manage it somehow. Honestly, I can’t believe I forgot for even a second how creepy it is out here. It makes me uneasy, so I turned on my heels and returned to Lily’s vault. I hadn’t walked very far, so I should end up right in front of the room after a little bit.
I was just in there. Then why can’t I find it? Nothing is changing no matter how far I walk. I walked in a straight line to get where I am. There are no turns. Something’s wrong. My anxiety rapidly grew, and after a minute, I found it hard to breathe.
I screamed, but Lily’s voice never answered me. It feels like the lights are growing dimmer. Everything is going to go dark. Suddenly I found I couldn’t make myself walk anymore and squatted down on the ground with my head buried into my lap.
“Liffy, look at me”
After a few seconds, I heard a voice call out to me, and when I looked up, Lily was standing directly in front of me. Somehow she had made it right next to me without making a single sound.
“Oh…. sorry Lily, I got a little lost. I was just walking in a straight line, but I’m stupid, so….”
I stood up and tried apologizing right away, but Lily cut me off when she punched me directly in the stomach. I had the wind knocked out of me while a shroud of darkness immediately descended on my mind. Right before I passed out, in the corner of my eye, I could just make out the eery smile playing across her face.
