The Sparrow’s Debt
Lillian suddenly opened her eyes, feeling the floor sway beneath her.
She was lying in a dark, unfamiliar room. A faint light filtered through a small window on the door, and she could hear a low, murmuring sound, though she couldn't tell if it was real.
It felt as if she had been having a long, horrific nightmare. Her whole body ached, and she felt a chill that made her shiver, yet she was drenched in sweat. Lillian closed her eyes again, thinking this, too, must be a dream. She felt the sensation of falling from a great height, sinking into the earth. It must be because she was unwell.
If she fell asleep again, would she wake up? Would she be able to return to a complete reality this time?
But Lillian couldn't immediately recall what that "complete reality" was. Was it waking up under the ornate, delicate canopy of the Empress’s palace? Or was it waking up beside the dirty wallpaper stained with fleas and mosquito spots in a rented room?
Or perhaps it was from even further back? The days when she would fall asleep and wake up beside the man she loved? The days when she worked as a maid, keeping things neatly organized even if the space was small? Or was the true reality the time she spent lying back-to-back with her sister in a musty room in a farmhouse, a memory now grown dim?
Just as Lillian thought she must still be dreaming, a low voice called out to her.
"Are you awake?"
"...Sion?"
She asked in a voice thick with sleep. A moment later, a lamp fixed to the wall was lit, brightening the room.
Lillian finally realized this was no dream. The floor was truly swaying gently.
'I'm on a ship.'
She remembered boarding the ship before she collapsed. And she remembered Sion’s cruel face.
That slightly troubled expression he wore while looking at a woman clinging to him was one Lillian knew well. Her first lover used to look at her with that same face. A face that seemed to insist that everything had been her own delusion, and that he had never once given her his heart.
"I was worried about what to do if you didn't wake up before the head maid returned, but I'm glad you did."
Sion approached her with slow, measured steps.
"Because I probably won't have another chance to talk to you like this."
"Sion..."
His voice was still so tender that Lillian trembled violently. She was so weak she couldn't move a finger, and only tears streamed down her face.
"Why... why did you do it...?"
It was one thing not to love her.
It was one thing to approach her to extract something while not loving her. He had seduced her with sweet words when he needed her, and discarded her when she was no longer useful. Lillian had experienced all of that before.
But he had approached her from the very beginning with the intent to destroy her. Wasn't that too cruel? Even digging up her precious old memories to do it.
Lillian was no fool. This incident would be a fatal blow to her.
"Did the enemies of the Schwaben Duchy send you...? Is that why you approached me to ruin me? Even lying to me, saying you were my 'sparrow'?"
"You are misunderstanding something. The politics of Sirach have nothing to do with me."
Sion said in a low voice. There was an unmistakable pleasure flowing through it, sounding as if he were reciting lyrics to a song.
"And it is no lie that I am your sparrow."
"Sion...!"
Lillian called out to him with a broken heart. She wondered if he intended to keep lying even now.
Sion smiled.
"The way selfish people think sometimes surprises me. Or should I say their way of thinking... or their minds... Anyway, they only ever think of themselves so conveniently."
"What are you... talking about?"
"I actually thought you would recognize me. That was what I worried about most. If you had recognized me, you would have naturally been on your guard."
Sion kept his eyes locked on Lillian’s, his eyes crinkling with a smile.
"When you didn't recognize me, I thought that was understandable. Well, my face changed as I grew up, and it was a long time ago. But, didn't I tell you? That I was that 'sparrow' who lived next door to you."
"Why does that... matter..."
"I even thought about what I would do if you begged for forgiveness back then. If my heart grew weak and I wanted to forgive you, it would be a nuisance to my partner. But you, truly..."
He whispered, mixing laughter with a sigh.
"You only ever remembered what was good for you."
"What, what did I...?"
She had taken care of the neighbor’s child. She had taught him how to dance and sing, and sometimes prepared lunch for him. She had even let the child in to sleep when he ran away to avoid being beaten by his father. The child had followed her closely, and it wouldn't have been strange if he had fallen in love with her. So...
"Don't you remember stealing money from our house? It would have been enough capital to run away in the middle of the night, wouldn't it?"
Sion said with a grin.
"I taught you, didn't I? You sighed in front of me, saying you didn't know where to save your money, so I taught you how to sew a pouch filled with money under the mattress. My mother always did that when she hid money from my father."
Lillian stiffened as if struck by lightning and stared at him.
"Not even a week after that conversation, you disappeared, and the money was gone. My father said he let you into the bedroom, but that’s not important, so let’s set that aside... That was money my mother had saved for three years because she wanted to go to the hospital."
Her frozen body began to tremble again. Lillian had truly forgotten it completely. But she had only pushed it to the back of her memory; it hadn't disappeared entirely.
She had stolen the money. It was a little over fifty silver coins, so it wasn't a huge sum. But at that time, she had desperately needed that money. To run away from the debts that were constantly piling up.
With that money, she had come to the Sirach Empire. When she arrived, she had about thirty silver coins left, and with that, she rented a room and bought a letter of introduction. It was then that the Schwaben Duchy chose her.
"You always said you had a stabbing pain throughout your body. Do you remember a Mr. Laurent? He told you that to treat that illness, you had to go to a large hospital in the capital, so my mother saved money desperately, even while being hounded by debt, even while enduring the pain and working. If she had run away alone, she might have gone much sooner, but she had to save money for me and my younger sibling before she left."
Sion leaned his face close to hers and said in a low voice.
"My mother hanged herself. The night before, she cried, saying it seemed to be her fate to live in such pain."
Lillian, terrified, crawled toward the edge of the bed as if to escape from him.
But Sion didn't approach her further; he took a step back. And he smiled brightly.
"Isn't it strange? You were the one who stole, but I was the one who suffered from the guilt."
"Si, Sion..."
"If I hadn't taught you how to hide money, you wouldn't have been able to steal it. If that hadn't happened, my mother might not have died. She might have cured her illness. My younger sibling might not have been sold off and died."
He continued calmly.
"But to you, that wasn't even something worth remembering. Well, I suppose we both lived in a world where petty theft wasn't such a big deal."
"H-hic, I, I'm sorry..."
"So, this is just something I did because I wanted to."
"I, I was wrong. I was wrong. I really... didn't know... that such a thing would happen..."
Lillian muttered, sobbing. Sion shook his head, cutting off her words.
"That’s enough. Honestly, it doesn't matter how great your fault is. You might think it’s unfair to be ruined by revenge just for stealing fifty silver coins. Just think of it as bad luck. Just like my mother and sibling did."
"Sion...!"
"However, if you ever feel like you want to die, I hope you choose the method of hanging."
Sion left the room after saying that.
Click. The door closed. Lillian felt her vision turn pitch black. And without even being able to cry, she gasped for air, trembling violently.