The Place Where the Rose Bloomed
Camellia Rojer.
Grand epithets clung to my name like shadows—the Empire's greatest mage, the Iron-Blooded Head of the Rojer family. The world looked upon me with awe, but inside the one wearing that crown, I was turning to ash in real time.
Mana Burn. This cruel punishment, my entire soul engulfed in flames as the price for grasping power I didn't deserve, grew sharper by the day, testing every limit of my patience.
My mind was already like half-melted candle wax. My thoughts were fragmented, my composure long depleted. At this rate, I'd turn to dust by my own self-destruction before I could even protect the Empire.
While I clung to that fraying thread, just barely drawing breath, the Empress of this nation—my old friend—finally made a remark that scraped against my last nerve.
"Camellia, look at yourself. You'll be a pile of ash soon because of that Mana Burn. Why don't you just retire quickly and go recuperate?"
Normally, I would have thrown a teacup to shut her up, but this time, I didn't even have the energy for that.
Retirement….
Just as my mind grew dizzy at that sweet and distant word, she drove the point home.
"If you're going to do that, you'll need a shell to inherit the family right away. You don't have an heir. How about adopting a suitable bloodline or something?"
A piece of nonsense I would have normally snorted at managed to worm its way strangely into my worn-out neural network.
Was it because my reason was half-burned from suffering that terrible heat?
I had a sudden whim that if this bleak life was going to end in ashes anyway, it wouldn't be so bad to have a pretty ornamental flower by my side to please my eyes on my final path.
"…Suit yourself. But it had better be one beautiful enough to satisfy my eyes perfectly."
And so the collection began. One by one, I began gathering children who bore the crimson hair of the Rojers and were said to possess the Empire's greatest talents.
Evelyn and Irina. They certainly had enough talent to become the Rojer blades.
But the last one brought before me, that male, Rian—he was someone I brought in purely to satisfy my shallow aesthetic sense.
Talent? Magical affinity? Those were nothing but useless decorations for a male in this world.
Because the moment I saw his gaunt, fragile face, the excruciating heat of Mana Burn somehow subsided, just for an instant, as if by a miracle.
But it didn't take long for that petty, selfish whim of mine to shatter into pieces.
That little flower I thought would just stay quietly by my side and entertain my eyes turned out to be a walking calamity who ran around causing all sorts of trouble the moment he got a chance. He'd run up gambling debts in the family's name with so many zeros I couldn't be bothered to count, or throw my name around and act vulgarly.
Far from cooling the heat of the Mana Burn, I felt my own lifeline burning away in real-time as I cleaned up the messes he made.
And then finally, yesterday, my last thread of patience snapped.
I had no more mercy to give that piece of glittering trash. I had him dragged to the Head's Office to excommunicate him from the family and cast him out onto the streets along with his mountain of debt.
"I'm not playing tricks. I don't remember anything, I don't even know who I am right now. How can I be expected to accept being kicked out the moment I open my eyes?"
The words that came out of his mouth after he caused an accident, fainted, and barely opened his eyes were so absurd I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
Amnesia? So what, I'm shoving excommunication papers at a guy who doesn't even know who he is right now? He'd tried every trick in the book to weasel his way out of the situation, and now he was resorting to this cheap and disgusting tactic?
I rubbed my throbbing temple and stared down at him. Evelyn was yelling at him to sign, throwing a silver fountain pen onto the floor, but that male, trembling violently, stubbornly refused to pick it up.
A murderous intent surged up, ready to summon mana on the spot and wring that brazenly wring his neck.
But just as I was about to grab him by the collar, my fingertips faltered ever so slightly. It was because of those eyes looking up at me, trembling. They were bizarrely foreign and clear, the turbid, vulgar vanity that was always there completely evaporated.
I heard he hit his head. Had fear turned his brain into a blank slate?
Faced with a face so strangely alien I couldn't just dismiss it as a cheap trick, my vicious murderous intent transformed into a peculiar curiosity.
Fine. Instead of throwing him out right away, it wouldn't be so bad to see how far this incredible act goes.
That, at least, was my own—if limited—kind of mercy.
But just the very next day, a huge disaster struck, as if to mock that petty whim of mine.
My absolute sanctuary, where not even the Empire's Emperor dared set foot without my permission. The layered barriers surrounding that garden were pierced as easily as a rabbit burrow by an unknown force.
Wondering what bold assassin had broken in, I twisted space, intending to turn the intruder to ash immediately, and forcibly dragged him to my feet.
"Ghk?!"
But what came into my view was that glittering piece of trash, collapsed like a sack of potatoes on the marble floor, trembling violently as if he had been trying to run away.
He must have completely lost his mind and was asking for death. Daring to crawl into my sanctuary.
I was just about to coldly reprimand him for testing my patience like this, when—
A blood-red rose, cruel and grotesquely beautiful, bloomed, tearing through his flesh.
"Kyaaah, aaaaaaaah—!!"
From his body, which had been normal until moments ago, a beast-like scream suddenly erupted. Along with that grotesque sound, a blood-red rose bloomed, ripping through his skin. His pristine white shirt was instantly soaked with viscous blood.
And in that instant, the terrible heat of the Mana Burn that had gnawed at me my entire life subsided as if by magic.
…What in the world….
I was lost in thought, wondering if it was an Overflow phenomenon, a temporary illusion created by the thrill of battle.
Evelyn, who had frozen in shock, rushed into the garden just as the boy fainted on the spot.
Up until then, I was thoroughly convinced that the sensation was just a mistake.
But today. The moment I called him back into this office.
My arrogant conviction shattered completely.
The moment the door opened and he stepped in, the stifling, acrid heat that weighed down the entire space was washed away by his faint scent. This overwhelming sensation.
It wasn't an illusion. It was perfect reality.
Which is why I was now coiling around that blue-lipped, terrified boy like a snake, relentlessly pressuring him.
"Prove it. Prove that the power you used isn't something profane that will harm this family."
I demanded he make that rose bloom again.
Under my cold pressure, his gaunt face twisted horribly in pain.
—Creak, creeeak!
Thorny vines burst forth on the back of his delicate hand, devouring his flesh.
Through the gushing, coppery blood, a pure white rose emerged—so clear and innocent it stung the eyes, completely different from yesterday's ominous blood-red hue.
It was that very moment.
"……!"
The acrid heat that bore down on the office was gently washed away by the faint fragrance of the white petals. An overwhelming coolness, like the forest air holding the cold morning dew, poured into my lungs that had been clogged with thick smog. In place of the hellish pain, a miraculous, crystalline calm filled my being.
I was frozen, unable to even breathe properly at this miraculous sensation, when…
"My, ability… urgh… it seems to have… the effect of… calming its target."
His voice, laced with the coppery taste of blood, came through his blue, trembling lips. Even as tears welled in his eyes from the pain, he forced himself to meet my gaze, pulling the corners of his mouth up until it formed an infinitely gentle and soft curve.
"This flower…."
Extending the pure white rose with a trembling hand, the final words he added ruthlessly struck my head.
"Did it… help… even a little… with your peace of mind, Lady Camellia?"
……Ah.
My hand, clad in a black leather glove, reached out towards him as if possessed. I carefully cupped both his injured hand holding the white rose and his blue, gaunt cheek.
"……Just what… are you."
My voice, uttered as I leaned in close enough to feel his breath, was trembling terribly. With a miserable and unfamiliar look, my ironclad reason—which I had worn my entire life and never shown anyone—completely crumbling.
My mind, washed clean of Mana Burn's madness, was chillingly clear and transparent. And through that clear reason, I could see too vividly what I had just done to that child.
I was the arrogant predator who radiated killing intent toward a boy who had lost his memory and was terrified, demanding his submission. I made him tear his own flesh to shreds to prove himself. I was that terrible monster.
What difference was there between me and that former trash, Rian Rojer? The one who only cared for his own safety and never gave a damn about anyone else's pain?
No. I was an even more terrible monster than he ever was.
"Rian, I…."
Just as I was barely squeezing out words that could have been an apology or self-flagellation…
"Ah… dizzy… gett… getting sleepy… ha, ha…."
He mumbled nonsense, then let his head fall weakly like a burned-out candle and collapsed into my arms.
I caught him, pulling his slender waist into my arms as if stifling a scream. The body in my arms was too light and terribly cold.
The white flower in his blood-soaked hand fell weakly to the marble floor with a soft thud.
Purity, respect. And a 'new beginning.'
The blind flower language of the white rose brushed through my mind, sharply carving into my heart.
The child who had completely shed the shell of his past and, against all odds, forced a new beginning into my terrible life.
"……I'm sorry."
Whispering a belated apology that wouldn't reach his unconscious ears, I held him tighter, as if afraid he would break.
Compared to the flames of Mana Burn that had tormented and burned my entire life, this pure and brutal guilt crushing my chest now felt far more painful.