In the garden, there was no sign of Jack pretending to be a statue, nor Mari running out with a bright smile to greet me. Gold, who used to bark joyfully while opening the door, was nowhere to be seen. Even Butler Squawk, always nagging me not to stay out so late, was gone.
And Kalz… I wandered through the empty castle like a ghost, aimlessly searching for him, until a line from his letter came back to me. Right… the roses. If the roses are still here, maybe… maybe they are too.
But in the greenhouse, the roses had already withered all the way down to their stems. The once-vibrant place I remembered was now nothing but a barren wasteland, and it felt like I was drifting through a dream, my mind dazed and unfocused.
Was it all just a dream after all?
But when I reached the center of the greenhouse, I found something on the ground—familiar items, unmistakably mine.
“This is… the one I knitted.”
That too-bright red scarf—Kalz had hated it, made a face the moment he saw it. But when I handed it to him, he’d reluctantly worn it a few times. Beside it lay a flower, so dried out it barely held its shape. The flower ring I made for him. And near that, the novel we wrote together. The tiny vase I gave him, my very first gift.
Everything here—everything—was connected to me.
He’d vanished quietly, holding onto these pieces of me. Right here. In this exact spot.
I picked up the scarf with trembling hands. A faint warmth still lingered, and with it came Kalz’s scent. That familiar, beloved scent shattered what little composure I had left.
“How… how could you leave like this? How could we—how could I—not be there when it ended? How?!”
You bastard. Selfish to the very end. Always doing whatever made you feel better.
“You fucking lion-headed bastard!”
My scream, laced with grief, burst straight from my core and echoed through the greenhouse, loud enough to startle the birds in the mountains. But there was no answer.
I clutched the remnants of his final moments and sobbed, unable to move.
***
After that terrible winter passed, spring eventually came. But not much really changed. I still woke up, ate, worked, and slept. Cleaning, cooking, sewing, tending the garden—I did it all on my own. Thanks to the amazing teachers I’d had, I managed.
Sometimes the loneliness clawed deep, but I wasn’t completely alone. People still came to visit, and that helped me hang on.
“Bell, should I put this over here?”
“Yeah, just stack it there.”
Leon dropped by often—almost daily, really—to help out around the castle. Judging by how he didn’t question a thing when he saw how empty the place was, I figured Kalz must’ve told him everything when he handed over the ownership papers. Since he didn’t ask, I didn’t say anything either. I just made full use of his muscles whenever there was heavy lifting to do.
“Bell, are you… still mad at me?”
“Sorry, do I know you?”
“Ugh… I’m sorry, Bell.”
My eldest brother came every week, crying and apologizing before heading home. I guess he really did feel guilty—for believing Kalz’s lies and taking me back home without knowing the truth. The round trip between our house and the castle took six days, which meant he spent nearly all his time on the road.
When I told him he might as well just move nearby, he actually did—he relocated to Swalter village. So now, I was starting to consider forgiving him.
Lately, what bothered me more was the weird tension between Leon and my brother. After crossing paths during visits to the castle, something shifted. The way they looked at each other had definitely changed.
That little rascal Leon—he’d been chasing after people who looked like me from the start, and now he’s settled on my brother? The age gap gave me pause, but Leon was an adult now, so I figured it was fine. Besides, he seemed way more forward than my brother.
In the evenings, after the day’s work was done, I enjoyed some time to myself. I’d catch up on the latest novels I hadn’t had time to read, and if something was funny, I’d laugh out loud.
But sometimes, I’d stumble upon traces of him left in a forgotten corner of the castle—and the tightness in my chest would make it feel impossible to breathe.
Whenever that happened, I’d look at the small framed note in my room—the one I found above the bed in Mari’s old room. A crooked little scrap of paper with clumsy handwriting that said:
[Sorry, Bell. Thank you for everything.]
Strangely, it didn’t make me cry. Instead, it comforted me. Like Mari’s warm, tiny hand was gently wrapping around mine.
And so, I made it through another day.
***
As the weather warmed, weeds began sprouting all over the garden. One day, while cleaning up the flowerbeds, I noticed a plant I’d never seen before.
“What is this…? Wait, could it be…?”
The seed Kkamang brought me. The one we planted together. Judging by the location, it had to be the same one.
“So this is what it turned into. It’s got buds… must be a flower.”
It didn’t have vines, so it definitely wasn’t a gourd. Guess all that wishful thinking was for nothing.
‘See? Didn’t I tell you? Don’t get greedy for silly things,’ I could practically hear him saying. The thought made my throat tighten, but seeing the flower made me smile. It meant I had one more story to share with him when we met again someday.
From that day on, I visited the garden daily. The more care I gave it, the faster the flower grew.
“That bud’s bigger than I thought… what kind of flower is this?”
At some point, I became determined to witness its bloom with my own eyes. Once the bud looked ready to burst, I even set up a seat right in front of it—like a kid waiting for a chick to hatch.
“Oh! It’s opening! It’s opening!”
As the bud slowly unfurled, a soft light spilled out from within. A glowing flower—how magical. He should’ve seen this with me.
And then, when the flower fully bloomed, nestled inside… was a tiny child.
A baby, barely the size of a fingertip, born from a flower.
“Wait… Thumbelina?!”
Another fairytale crossover? Seriously?
I stood there, stunned, mouth agape. That’s when the tiny child opened their rice-grain-sized eyes, looked straight at me, and spoke.
“Mom…?”
“Why are we even doing this?”
“You know what they say—raising kids is like farming. Planting a seed, nurturing it… it’s the same as raising a child. And when it blooms, that’s love’s fruit, born into the world. Ta-da.”
That conversation we’d had on the day we planted the seed came rushing back to me.
Yes—we really did have one. Our very own fruit of love.
As the child reached their tiny hands toward me, I carefully gathered them into my arms. And the moment I did, a column of radiant light erupted and wrapped around the entire castle. The brightness blinded me, but even as I squinted against it, my body moved on instinct—I held the child close, shielding them within my arms.
When the light finally faded and I opened my eyes…
A young girl stood before me, staring in shock. She had brown hair and wore a maid outfit—a cute girl I’d never seen before, and yet… something about her felt familiar. Aside from the hair color and her adorable face, there wasn’t much to go on—but still, the name left my lips with absolute certainty.
“Mari.”
“…Yeah!”
Tears immediately welled up in her eyes as she dashed toward me and threw herself into my arms. I knew it. It really was you. The joy and relief overwhelmed me, and tears sprang to my eyes. But suddenly, another thought struck me—there was still someone else I had to find.
“Mari, I’m sorry, but there’s somewhere I need to—”
I turned to run, only to hesitate when I felt the child still resting in my arms. Mari stepped forward and gently took them from me without a word.
“Go, Bell.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry. And Mari… I missed you so much. I’m so glad I got to see you again. That we could meet again… it means the world to me.”
“Tch. Same here, you idiot.”
This time, I pulled her into a quick hug. Just a short squeeze—a welcome full of everything I couldn’t say.
Then I took off running. I sprinted with everything I had, heart pounding, until my legs nearly gave out—straight to the rose greenhouse.
“Woof woof!”
“Thanks, Gold.”
Gold stood by the entrance, and the moment he saw me, he barked and opened the door. He hadn’t changed a bit. I gave his head a quick ruffle and stepped inside.
And there he was.
Standing in the center of the greenhouse, with that familiar black hair—the man I’d been searching for.
“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!”
The second he turned around, I flew at him like a madman and threw myself into his arms. He caught me easily, and laughed under his breath with that stupid snort of his.
“That’s the first thing you say when we finally meet again? What, am I not a lion anymore?”
“Shut up, you asshole! How could you?! How could you disappear without a word?! You selfish son of a bitch! Are you even human?!”
“Technically, at the time, I was only half-human.”
“……”
I glared at him, eyes red and face a mess, sobbing and cursing him with everything I had. And still, the bastard laughed—and then pulled me into a tight embrace.
“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
“Of course you were. Now drop to your knees and beg.”
“God, you still haven’t gotten over that knee obsession, have you?”
“So? Are you going to kneel or not?”
“If you want me to, I will. Just… not right now.”
“Then when?”
“Probably… when the ring you like is ready.”
“……!”
