Growing Pains
An hour earlier, Charlotte had fallen into despair. Every ounce of effort she had poured into her project had ended in failure. She truly hadn’t expected the flowers to sell this badly. The blooms she had cultivated possessed a lovely fragrance, striking visual appeal, and could be displayed for years with only a touch of mana—flawless in every respect. Yet people showed zero interest. From the very beginning, they merely looked at her as she tried to peddle them and treated her like a beggar.
“W-would you care for some flowers…? Th-they smell wonderful…”
“Not interested.”
“A-and they last an incredibly long t-time…!”
“I said I’m not buying!”
“……”
After three straight days of rejection, her spirit finally began to crack. She had launched the flower-selling venture with a fluttering heart, thrilled at the thought that she could accomplish something by herself for the first time. The result, however, was utterly devastating. Worse, the three wasted days had only made her overdue assignments even more pressing.
-Gurgle…
Her stomach chose that moment to complain. She hadn’t eaten a proper meal in two days. For a fleeting second she considered using the reward money she had received before, but Charlotte shook her head. That sum was earmarked for her dormitory fees. The Imperial Academy boasted the finest facilities in the world; a single semester’s lodging cost a small fortune.
“Haa…”
In the end, the only remaining option was to sell the flowers somehow. With the last coins scraped from her ruined family now gone, Charlotte desperately needed to secure funds.
“F-flowers for sale! They have a l-lovely scent…!”
Even as her heart crumbled, she kept calling out. She wandered the bustling districts of the imperial capital, latching onto anyone who looked like they might buy and pleading with them to purchase her wares.
“How much?”
“T-two thousand orden! Th-thank you so much!”
She managed to sell a few stems. The money felt like alms given to a beggar, but a sale was still a sale.
-Whoosh…
Then the rain came without warning. The sky had been heavy with dark clouds, and now a sudden downpour hammered down, accompanied by rolling thunder. She would have to close up shop.
“Ah…”
A heartbreaking sight met Charlotte’s eyes. The moment the raindrops struck the flowers, the mana sealed inside them bled away and the fragrance vanished. The creation she had believed was rather good was nothing more than a failure whose greatest strength disappeared completely upon contact with water.
“I’ll have to develop them again…”
She felt terrible. People had actually bought them. Someone might have placed those flowers in a vase. To have sold something with such a fatal flaw…
“……”
But the guilt lasted only a moment. As she trudged along, her gaze fell on her own flowers lying discarded on the ground. It was clear proof that the buyers had simply taken pity on her. They hadn’t wanted the flowers; they had simply felt sorry for the pathetic girl pestering them, or found her persistence annoying and paid two thousand orden to make her go away.
“Ha… haha…”
Charlotte returned to her dormitory soaked to the bone, too numb to even consider changing. She stared into empty space with hollow eyes.
“I… I really am… not s-someone special… am I…”
She had been deluding herself. Just like the diamond gem Ed had given her as a gift, she had believed that if she kept refining herself, she could become something brilliant. But it had only been an illusion designed to drag her into even deeper despair. Like her flowers that lost their scent the instant they were struck by the storm, she was merely a dropout who, when faced with hardship and failure, revealed her own shabby true self.
“……”
Once the dream faded, cold reality stared back at her. If she could not earn money, she would be unable to pay next semester’s tuition. She would be expelled from the academy she had entered with such grand aspirations. It would mean betraying the father who had emptied his pockets to support her.
Now was the time to seize whatever money she could reach.
“That’s right… who was I kidding… someone plain and worthless like m-me…”
She should never have dreamed. Though she had entered the academy with lofty goals, she had only felt her own insignificance among the monstrous talents around her. This time she had tried to sell flowers so she could stand as Ed’s equal, yet it had all been pointless. The stable, comfortable path—simply drifting along with the current—was the only road meant for an ordinary person like her.
-Boom!
Amid the crashing thunder and driving rain, Charlotte made her way to Ed’s laboratory. She had given up on standing beside him as an equal. From now on she would simply accept the allowance he provided and graduate safely. What could someone as insignificant as her possibly do while standing between Enya and Isabella?
“!!!!!!”
Yet what she witnessed the moment she arrived was something she could scarcely believe.
That strong, beautiful Ed. Her radiant ideal, the very embodiment of perfection. The distant star she could never reach, the youthful daydream she should have left behind.
“Hic… ugh…!”
He was on the floor, weeping. And not just crying—sobbing his heart out.
-Whoosh!
Charlotte hastily ducked out of sight. Her heart hammered. Thump. Thump. Thump. For someone as perfect as Ed to shed tears like that…
“Goddamn, that’s spicy as hell.”
Ed muttered to himself, then broke into a fit of coughing. He pressed the air-intake device, sucking the CS gas that clung to his skin and lungs out of his body.
-Whoosh!
While Ed was bent over the floor vent, Charlotte cautiously peeked back into the laboratory. She wanted to know why he was crying.
“!!”
Her eyes landed on Ed’s research journal. Page after page was filled with nothing but failure. Charlotte’s chest tightened. She had been this devastated after only one setback; how much pain must he have endured after suffering so many?
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
“Haa…”
Ed exhaled deeply and rose to his feet. He had purged the last traces of CS gas from his face. The moment he stood, Charlotte ducked behind the wall again. While he went to wash up, she peeked out once more.
-Whoosh…
Ed was inside the attached bathroom, splashing water on his face. Charlotte hesitated. Should she greet him when he came out, or remain hidden?
…He wouldn’t want to be seen.
The decision was easy. Nothing could be more humiliating than having someone witness you at your lowest, sobbing in despair. Everyone wished to hide their weakest moments. Charlotte chose not to intrude on Ed’s.
…So even Ed has times like this…
Yet she could not tear her eyes away from the laboratory. The image of him weeping still burned behind her eyelids. What could have tormented him so badly? How many failures had he endured?
J-just a quick look…!
She slipped into the lab and opened the research journal. The pages she saw, however, were the automated experiments run by Fix—trials Ed had set to repeat via macro until the desired outcome appeared.
“…N-no way…”
To Charlotte, who knew none of this, the sight was devastating. Failure after failure after failure. No matter how many pages she turned, every line read the same. Had Ed truly endured this mountain of defeat without collapsing?
While I…
Shame flooded her. To think she had despaired after a single failure and considered clinging to Ed for support. How pathetic she was.
-Click.
Ed stepped out, drying his face with a towel. Charlotte bolted from the room in panic and pressed herself flat against the wall outside.
“Whew…”
While she hid, Ed took a long, steadying breath and walked to the table. He gazed at the chemical formula he had finally perfected, a satisfied smile curving his lips. This was the composition of the CS gas he would gift to those demon bastards.
“Thought I was going to die, but I succeeded.”
Ed muttered to himself, remembering the horrific pain of the CS gas. The thought that the same agony would soon be inflicted on the demons made his lips curl upward.
So Ed struggled too…
Charlotte, of course, completely misunderstood his words. She connected “thought I was going to die, but I succeeded” directly to the sobbing she had witnessed.
“Whirr~!”
At that moment, Fix cautiously approached Ed. The robot arm extended a manipulator and pointed toward the half-open laboratory door, trying to inform him that Charlotte was standing just outside.
“…Good boy. Well done, Fix.”
Ed, however, completely misinterpreted Fix’s gesture. He thought the assistant was being praised for quickly opening the door when the CS gas had spread, allowing the fumes to vent faster.
“Right, let’s finish the rest.”
Ed immediately began researching additional chemical weapons based on the newly completed CS gas. He had also gathered other rare toxic plants from the Forest of Death; perhaps further experimentation would yield even more formulas.
“Whirr!”
Yet Fix continued to hover insistently, circling him despite the earlier praise.
“Fix, I’m busy. Just a moment ago—”
When Ed finally turned, his eyes fell on the message glowing across Fix’s display.
Charlotte Outside