Chapter 60: The Nightmare of Cherry Blossoms
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 60: The Nightmare of Cherry Blossoms
Cherry blossom petals drifted all around him.
The moment he opened his eyes, Herdin knew.
It's a dream.
It was the same dream he’d had countless times over the past decade—one so familiar he could recite the next scene by heart.
First would be his father's voice.
"Herdin."
It was a voice he once turned toward with a flutter of joy, but now, it was anything but welcome.
Since he had no power to resist within the dream, Herdin could only watch the scene unfold like a play following a script.
Before him stood Casion, his sword stained with the blood of a magical beast. Cowering on the ground in front of him was a much younger Herdin.
"Herdin..."
Casion had gone on a rampage while fighting off a swarm of beasts, and his own power was consuming him. His blue eyes, a perfect match to his son’s, were unfocused. Uncontrollable mana seeped from his body.
"...Father?"
His father, who would normally have offered a blunt yet warm smile, raised his sword in silence. The terrified boy could only stare up at him, frozen.
The present-day Herdin watched the scene he had already faced dozens, even hundreds, of times with indifferent eyes. He knew that no matter what he did, he could not change the past.
Next came his mother.
"No, Casion!"
Just as Casion swung his sword at the young Herdin, Eloise rushed in. She wrapped her arms around the child, taking the blow herself.
"...Mother?"
Holding Eloise's collapsing body, the young Herdin’s palms were drenched in blood. The cherry blossom petals, piled like snow on the ground, were stained crimson.
The boy's hands began to tremble violently. His eyes shook wildly.
The first thing to fill them was terror.
Next came a sense of loss.
And finally…
The young Herdin cast a spell. The boy's eyes, now fixed on his father, were no longer terrified.
What filled them was a blind, irrational rage.
Herdin attacked Casion with magic. Born with the power of the Divine Beast just like his father, the magic Herdin had practiced since childhood was by no means weak, and Casion knew this.
Yet, he did not dodge his son's attack. It seemed he didn't even have enough reason left to do so.
Taking advantage of the moment Casion staggered, Herdin snatched up a sword dropped by a fallen knight. When Casion swung his own sword, Herdin barely managed to block it, deflecting the attack. But a child's strength was no match for an adult's.
Herdin fought back, using both sword and magic. Casion didn’t use magic directly, but the razor-sharp mana swirling around him cut everything in close proximity.
Herdin charged, ignoring the growing number of cuts on his body. He, too, had lost all reason.
He instantly cast a powerful spell to deliver a final blow. In that moment, Casion hesitated.
In that split second, Herdin pierced Casion's heart with the very swordsmanship his father had taught him.
The menacing mana that had been surging around Casion subsided. He collapsed onto Herdin, his fading voice whispering into his young son's ear.
"Her... din..."
At the same time, light returned to the boy’s unfocused eyes. Only then did he realize what he had done, and his gaze began to shake violently.
"Father...?"
He often wondered.
On that day, did his father recognize him before he died? Or was it just a name he called out of habit?
Some days, he convinced himself that his father must have regained his senses at the very end. The empire's greatest magic swordsman, even on a rampage, could never lose to a mere child. Surely, his father had recognized him and let him win. He must have wanted Herdin to kill him. He must have thought it was a relief.
On other days, he thought that was just a self-serving rationalization. His father must have died without ever regaining his senses. Because knowing the reality—that he had nearly killed his own son, murdered his beloved wife, and was ultimately struck down by that same son—would have been a fate too cruel for him to bear.
After years of changing his mind to whatever brought him the most comfort, he eventually stopped thinking about it altogether.
What was the point?
The fact remained: he had killed his father with his own hands.
A handful of his closest confidants had buried the truth of that day to protect Delmark and secure his position as the young head of the house. To the outside world, it was known that Casion, driven mad by Eloise's death, had taken his own life. But no matter how he hid the truth from others, he could not deceive himself.
"Ah, ugh... Aaaah!"
Watching his past self wailing like a wounded animal in a pool of blood, Herdin slowly closed his dry, weary eyes. The terrible dream always forced him to watch until the very end before finally letting him go.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar ceiling. When he turned his head, he saw a familiar face—a woman softer and sweeter than a marshmallow.
After staring at Blair's peacefully sleeping face for a moment, Herdin looked out the window. Cherry blossoms were fluttering down like snow.
Just like that day in his dream.
It was because of those flowers. Every year, around this time, he had that dream.
Gazing at the terrible scenery with indifferent eyes, he slowly sat up. He got out of bed, threw on a robe, and headed toward the table where he kept his cigars. As he was about to pick one up, he paused, noticing something lying next to them.
It was the bowl that had held the marshmallows.
Three untoasted marshmallows remained. Last night, Blair had left them, saying she would eat them in the morning.
'If you want one, you can have two. Since you didn't eat any.'
His wife had spoken as if she were sharing precious rations, even though she was the one who had brought them. Recalling her voice, Herdin let out a soft chuckle. He popped one of the marshmallows she had generously allotted him into his mouth.
He didn't particularly care for the squishy texture, but the sweetness, which he hadn't tasted in a long time, wasn't bad. A faint smile touched his lips.
Savoring the sweetness his wife had yielded to him, Herdin slipped the cigar and lighter into his robe pocket and stepped out of the bedroom.
* * *
In the afternoon, long after lunch, Blair walked down the hallway, gazing out the window at the garden. It was filled with cherry blossoms in full bloom. Behind the central fountain stretched an artificial canal, its banks lined with the flowering trees.
According to Mason, the current landscape had been designed by Herdin's mother, Eloise. He had told her that since a new lady of the house had arrived, she could change it as she pleased, but Blair had no desire to do so. Partly because she didn't want to leave her mark on a mansion she would soon depart, but also because she genuinely liked it.
And above all…
'To Herdin, this must be one of the few traces of his mother he has left.'
She didn't want to erase those traces on a whim.
Having unconsciously thought of him again, Blair naturally recalled the moment last night when she had finally realized her feelings for him. She knew she could no longer avoid or deny this persistent, stubborn emotion.
Rather than running away, she decided to accept it.
'I still love Herdin.'
But admitting it didn't mean she intended to stay by his side. Once their mutual goals were achieved, she planned to leave, just as he wished. Still, even if their connection was destined to end, she wanted to properly conclude her relationship with him in this life—something she hadn't been able to do in the last.
I hope you don't become a painful memory for me. I don't want to hate and resent you as I did in my past life, bound to you all over again.
So, she decided to pour out all her remaining feelings. That way, they wouldn't curdle into lingering regrets.
"Pippi."
Entering the room where Pippi was playing, Blair called its name.
"Pee!"
The young sable popped out from somewhere. It was now close to its full adult size. Recognizing its owner, Pippi gave a wild welcome, jumping up and down.
When Blair smiled and held out her hand, Pippi responded by gently nibbling on her fingers.
"Were you playing hide-and-seek by yourself?"
"Pee."
"The flowers are in full bloom, and the weather is lovely. Shall we play outside?"
Blair brought out a walking harness from a drawer. She had asked Meli, who was good with her hands, to make it. But Pippi seemed to want to play more with Blair, dodging her approach and hiding in a corner of the room. For a sable with its long body, even a tiny gap was plenty of space.
"Hmm? You want to play hide-and-seek with me instead?"
A rustling sound came from the narrow gap.
Blair approached the corner where Pippi was hiding. Several frames covered with cloth were propped against the wall. Peering into the gap, she saw Pippi hiding between the frames.
"Found you!"
"Pee!"
Pippi slipped out from behind the frames. In the process, its paw caught the cloth covering one of them, pulling it to the floor. The sable ended up tangled in the fallen sheet.
"Pee?"
The cloth shook with Pippi's flustered movements. Blair burst into laughter at the sight. But then, her gaze fell upon the now-uncovered frame, and her laughter died.
Inside was a portrait of a boy she had never seen before. He had black hair like Herdin, but his eyes were green. Their faces didn't resemble each other, either. Herdin's father, Casion, also had black hair, but his eyes were blue like Herdin's, so it wasn't him.
'Who is this?'
Just as Blair was wondering, Mason entered with a knock.
"Madam."
As he approached, he paused, noticing the portrait she was staring at.