Me Too!
“Me too!”
“Ah, aaah…!”
Too late, Marian finally grasped the root of the problem, and emergency alarms blared wildly in her mind. If Marian's head were a fairy forest from a storybook, tiny fairy Marians the size of her palm would have swarmed in, holding a grave council meeting amid a serious atmosphere. Something like this.
“Have we been neglecting Chloe all this time? What do we do? Huh?”
“The problem was getting obsessed with artifacts from the start. We were making them to get praise from Chloe, not pushing her away because of the artifacts.”
“If I'd known it'd turn out like this, I would've just snuck into Chloe's bed like always and slept comfortably!”
As Fairy Marian Number One demanded countermeasures, Numbers Two and Three resorted to hindsight, spewing complaints without any real solutions.
“Can't we just go see Chloe since we miss her?”
“I want Chloe to hug me after so long.”
Numbers Four and Five, ever faithful to their desires, babbled nonsense without any strategy.
“Wait…!”
Then, Fairy Marian Number Six, wearing glasses, slammed the round table with a resounding thud. She looked intellectual at a glance, and it seemed she had a plan. Her compromise proposal was this.
“It's all Viola's fault!”
A blame game.
“No, think about it. Viola's the one who told us to make artifacts.”
“But wasn't it our fault for abandoning Chloe while making them?”
“That's not the point. The point is that Viola suggested that method to us.”
Fairy Marian Number One nailed the core issue, but Number Six pushed up her glasses and twisted the argument. Indeed, those glasses weren't for show.
“I'm not saying she should take full responsibility. Can't she at least worry with us? I can't live without Chloe! Help us!”
But Marian was Marian, after all. Number Six flung off her glasses and burst into sobs, wailing that she missed Chloe. Number Seven, who hadn't spoken a word yet, sidled over and patted her back.
And so.
“Viola…!”
Accepting the advice from the fairy Marians in her head, Marian bolted out of the bedroom toward Viola's quarters. She needed an ally, and dashing straight out, she reached Viola's room in no time. She'd been there a few days ago anyway, and compared to her years cooped up in one room, her sense of direction was sharp—she didn't get lost.
“She's not here….”
Entering Viola's bedroom, Marian stepped inside slowly and sat on the stiff bed. Come to think of it, Viola was probably working her usual shift right now. Unless she was slacking off, there was no reason to return to her quarters early.
So what should Marian do? The answer was already clear.
If she couldn't get help from an ally, she'd have to think for herself.
“Chloe….”
Chloe, Chloe, Chloe. Warmer by far than her blood father she'd never met, her unknown birth mother, or the stepmother who'd eyed her with disgust—Marian murmured the name endlessly, slowly sorting her thoughts.
When she couldn't rely on others, the only one she could trust was herself, after all.
# Once again, the roundtable council convened in Marian's mind. Adorable fairy Marians with tiny wings gathered around the table one by one, while Number Six was still sniffling, unable to pull herself together.
“Wh-what… do we do?”
It was Number One who haltingly spoke up again.
“What if Chloe's grown cold toward us?”
“N-no, that can't happen!”
Numbers Two and Three screamed. They had no solutions before or now.
“F-first, let's stay calm. Number Six, stop crying. Got any good ideas?”
“I don't know! What if Chloe hates us? What do we do?!”
In the end, these fairy Marians—extensions of Marian herself—could never devise a better plan than the real Marian. It was a structural, fundamental limitation, and a gloomy mood settled over the group.
“I want to bathe with Chloe.”
“I want to see Chloe's face.”
“Dancing was fun too.”
“Dancing while seeing her face and then bathing would be perfect.”
Unlike the serious atmosphere, Numbers Four and Five—the most desire-driven types—giggled and chattered among themselves. They embodied Marian's worldly cravings, so it wasn't strange.
But.
“Face…?”
Change begins with the obvious.
“I-I want to see Chloe's face too.”
Number Six, the intellect of the group, pushed up her glasses, shot to her feet, and shouted.
“Seeing Chloe's face should calm us down—hurry!”
“B-but… what if Chloe sees our face and grows cold, looking at us with contempt…?”
“U-ugh….”
“I couldn't bear it….”
“You idiots—1, 2, 3! Viola's sketchbook of Chloe! Tell her to bring it quick!”
“““Ah…!”””
Thus, the utterly broken Marian gained a firm goal and began to move slowly.
“Sk-sketchbook.”
To Marian, Chloe was the spark of life itself.
Chloe was the stabilizer for her heart.
She had to see that sketchbook filled with drawings just like Chloe.
In truth, just going to Chloe would solve it, but…
“I-I'm scared…. Hurry….”
Marian lacked the courage to face Chloe, terrified she might wear that expression. Rosetta and her five children, who despised Marian—they'd looked at her with such faces. If Chloe did the same, she might just… want to die.
For now, stabilizing her heart with the Chloe in the drawings came first.
“Where… is it…?”
Hands trembling, Marian searched for the sketchbook with Chloe's images. She opened and closed drawers, checked the desk, even looked under the bed. Rummaging through Viola's quarters like this, she finally…
“Ah…!”
…spotted the sketchbook neatly hidden in the underwear drawer of Viola's wardrobe.
There wasn't just one—several volumes—but that didn't matter. Marian grabbed the top one, returned to the bed, and sat down. Praying Chloe would be there, she slowly turned the pages.
“Th-this is it….”
The first page: an apple.
Second: a cat.
Third: Chloe in her Evergreen Guard uniform.
“Haa….”
Seeing the familiar Chloe, Marian's trembling hands quickly steadied, and she flipped to the next page eagerly.
Fourth: Chloe sitting on the bed.
“She's here. Hehe….”
The expression on the drawn Chloe was the same as always—a touch vacant, yet brimming with gentle warmth. It was why Marian loved her. Chloe never looked at her with cold eyes like others.
Chloe's blue eyes seemed chilly at first glance, but Marian knew they viewed the world with warmer gaze than anyone's.
“Don't hate me….”
Marian placed her hand briefly on the drawing of Chloe and felt herself calming rapidly. Like the Chloe in the picture, the real one wouldn't go anywhere. She could apologize, return to their usual relationship.
Emboldened, Marian clenched her fist and stood. Time to put the sketchbook back and tidy the room…
“J-just one more page?”
She wanted to savor Viola's beautiful rendering of Chloe a bit longer. Giggling with a sly smile, Marian turned to the eagerly awaited fifth page.
And there, on the fifth page.
“Chlo…e?”
Chloe was there.
Chloe was there, but…
“Why… with the teddy bear…?”
In the drawing, Chloe was kissing a teddy bear as big as herself.
Kissing it…!
And the drawings Marian knew were recreations of real things—most portraits in the Grand Duke's castle depicted actual people.
Which meant…
“She never did it with me…!”
Marian mistook Viola's fantasy sketch of Chloe kissing the teddy bear for something born from hours of Chloe hugging the bear in front of Viola.
“Eek…!”
A stinging sense of betrayal made her tremble.
“Me too!”
Soon, desire overtook her.
She'd decided what to wish for with her coupon.
The near-miss of Chloe hating her? Utterly forgotten.