TPFR 07

Chapter 7

While Baron and Baroness Corvas briefly disappeared to speak with Priestess Marcellia, the children chattered noisily.

Naturally, the main topic was the violet candies that Baron and Baroness Corvas had given Prim.

“Hey, Prim. Can I just smell it?”

The children gathered around her, swallowing their saliva as they carefully asked.

Prim almost told them that it was not a very good thing and that nobles did not even eat such things, but she stopped herself. Instead, she opened the lid of the tin and showed it to them.

“Wooooow……”

“The purple color is so pretty.”

“It must be really sweet, right?”

“It looks like it smells nice.”

“It looks really delicious.”

“I can’t even imagine what it tastes like.”

As they said this, they kept sneaking glances at Prim.

She knew what those looks meant.

They wanted to eat it, but they could not bring themselves to ask her for some. They were desperately hoping that Prim would offer it first.

Prim readily opened her mouth.

“Let’s share it together.”

The children were completely overwhelmed by the precious sweetness they were tasting for the first time.

There were many children in the orphanage, while all the candies were contained in one small palm-sized tin, so they were gone in an instant.

The children tried their best to savor the taste that remained in their mouths. Prim looked down at the empty tin.

‘Once I pass the perfumer exam, I’ll get some prize money, so I should buy really good candy then.’

If luxury was a specialty, it was certainly her field of expertise.

Just then, when she happened to raise her head, Rosien was looking at her with a frown and pouting lips.

“Oh, Rosien. You……”

Come to think of it, she had been busy giving each of the children a candy, so she did not seem to have even shown the candy to Rosien.

Prim’s heart sank, but at that moment, Rosien suddenly snatched the empty tin from Prim’s hand and shouted at the children.

“Hey, you guys! I know it’s something you’ve never seen before, but how could you eat all of hers?”

“I-I only ate one……”

“I only ate one, too……”

“How many of you each ate one? She didn’t even get to eat one!”

Only embarrassed voices came from the children’s mouths. Someone apologized.

“No, I’m fine. I didn’t really want to eat it that much. Really.”

Prim said that, but none of them looked like they believed her.

Rosien crossed his arms and spoke to the children.

“What are you going to do about this?”

“I-I’m really, really sorry……”

“Sorry? If you’re sorry, then let’s go pick wild raspberries.”

Rosien acted as if he were scolding them, but suddenly he gave them a mischievous grin. Just as they had crowded around the candy, the children immediately crowded around Rosien.

“W-Wild raspberries?”

“Where are there wild raspberries?”

“I saw some growing in that forest. They’re red and shiny.”

“Really? There were some there?”

“Of course. Since you ate all her candy, we’ll pick wild raspberries for Prim. You’re all going to pick them together, right?”

“Yeah-! Prim, wait! We’ll pick a lot and come right back!”

Even though Rosien was not exactly forcing them, the children looked as bright as if they had found a lifeline and ran toward the forest.

Rosien briefly tidied up the things on Prim’s desk that had been messed up by the children crowding around it. Then, with an unnecessarily sulky expression, he whispered to Prim.

“You idiot. How can you give them everything just because they ask? You should eat some first.”

Prim only moved her lips slightly.

Even though he himself had not eaten a single one.

“……I really was okay with it.”

“Geez. Yes, yes. I understand. We’ll pick wild raspberries, so let’s eat lots of those instead.”

Rosien smiled, narrowing his deep green eyes.

Prim grabbed Rosien’s wrist as he was about to leave and hurriedly said,

“Eat the raspberries together.”

“Of course I’ll eat them with you!”

Rosien smiled cheerfully and went outside.

But Prim knew.

He had said they would eat lots of them and that he would eat them too, but Rosien would give all those wild raspberries to her.

He would not even touch them himself.

Once the children who had been gathered around noisily disappeared, the orphanage became quiet as if it had never been loud at all.

In that cold silence, a shadow fell over Prim.

The shadow pushed the empty tin forward, knocking it onto the floor, and said,

“Are you having fun playing saint?”

Prim raised her head.

“Bianna.”

Bianna’s pretty face was coldly twisted as she glared at her.

Prim thought she finally understood why Bianna was suddenly acting like this.

How many people could stay sane after having something they firmly believed belonged to them taken away?

When Rosien died, when death took him away from her, Prim had tried to die.

She had run toward death.

And Bianna was simply attacking the person she believed had taken her own thing away.

In her previous life, Prim had never understood why Bianna acted this way, so she had kept her distance from her until it all ended.

That was because Bianna had been adopted.

“You act all kind and share everything, and then you make people feel guilty afterward. Is that fun?”

“Did it look like I was having fun? Then you can share what you have, too.”

At Prim’s calm reply, Bianna trembled and shouted.

“T-That candy wasn’t even yours!”

Prim tilted her head.

“They gave it to me, and I accepted it. So it’s mine. Whose else would it be?”

“You!”

Unable to control her temper, Bianna suddenly shoved Prim.

Prim, who had been sitting on the chair, fell off it.

Crash!

At the loud noise, Bianna flinched and hurriedly looked around.

The other children had gone to pick wild raspberries, and Baron and Baroness Corvas were far away speaking with Priestess Marcellia, so everything around them was quiet.

Prim lay face-down on the floor and frowned for a moment.

As she fell, the hand she had placed against the wooden floor slipped, causing a splinter of wood to become stuck in her hand and sting.

When she raised her head, Bianna’s face was bright red, for a reason Prim could not tell whether it was anger or anxiety, and her hands were trembling.

Bianna pointed at her.

“Do you think you can get adopted looking like that?! W-Who would like a child who can’t even walk properly? Everyone hates you! People hate someone like you, too!”

“Really? Then if I get adopted, you’ll become someone even worse than a child who can’t walk?”

For a moment, Bianna’s face turned pale.

But even after coming this far, Bianna could not choose to run away.

“Refuse!”

Bianna shouted.

At the strange demand, Prim’s eyes widened.

Bianna shouted again.

“I mean, refuse even if Baron Corvas says he’s going to adopt you!”

It would have been stranger if Bianna did not know.

Until just before Prim appeared, Baron and Baroness Corvas had treated Bianna as if they had found their lost daughter.

But the moment they saw Prim, their attitude completely changed, and now they were treating Prim as if she were their lost daughter.

Prim thought that changing their attitude so suddenly was proof that they were not good people, but she did not say it aloud.

If this had been her previous life, she would have easily agreed to Bianna’s demand.

After all, she had not wanted it either.

But she could not do that now.

Not for Bianna’s sake.

And not for the sake of what Prim herself wanted.

Bianna read the determination on Prim’s face and suddenly shouted,

“A bad girl like you will be punished by heaven!”

“You’re worse for pushing someone and throwing things. Then will you be punished twice as much?”

Tears welled up in Bianna’s eyes.

Her face, as she glared at Prim while biting her lip hard, was filled with hostility, but even that hostility seemed shattered.

“Hmm, Bianna. I did say it that way, but I didn’t really mean that you’ll be punished twice as much. If we calculate it, maybe 1.2 times? You’re still young, so we’ll take that into consideration.”

“You’re like that, you…… You don’t know how I feel. You don’t know anything!”

“You don’t know how I feel either.”

“I know everything! You, you……!”

For a moment, Bianna’s blue eyes shone sharply.

It was hostility sharpened to pierce someone else.

Bianna whispered mockingly,

“You’re going to leave Rosien behind anyway.”

At that moment, Prim’s expression hardened.