Chapter 7

While Baron and Baroness Corvas were away talking with Priestess Marceria, the children chatted noisily among themselves.

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

“Hey, Prim. Can we just smell them?”

The children gathered around her, carefully asking while swallowing their saliva.

Prim almost told them that the candies were not very good and that nobles would not even eat something like this. But she decided not to.

Instead, she opened the box and showed them the candies.

“Wow……”

“They’re such a pretty purple color.”

“They must be really sweet, right?”

“They smell nice.”

“They look delicious.”

“I can’t even imagine what they taste like.”

As they spoke, they kept stealing glances at Prim.

Prim knew exactly what those looks meant.

They wanted to eat the candies, but they were too embarrassed to ask directly. They were desperately hoping that Prim would offer them some first.

So Prim readily said,

“Let’s all share them.”

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

There were many children in the orphanage, while the candies all fit inside a small box that could fit in the palm of a hand.

So they disappeared in an instant.

The children desperately tried to savor the taste that remained in their mouths.

Prim looked down at the empty box.

Once I pass the perfumer examination, I’ll get some prize money. I should buy them really good candy then.

Luxury was practically her specialty, after all.

Just then, Prim happened to look up.

Rozien was staring at her with a frown, his lips slightly pushed out.

“Oh, Rozien. You……”

Come to think of it, Prim had been so busy handing the candies to the children who asked that she had not even shown them to Rozien.

Her heart sank.

But at that moment, Rozien suddenly snatched the empty box from Prim’s hand and shouted at the children.

“Hey, you guys! I know they were something special, but how could you eat all of hers?”

“B-but I only ate one……”

“I only ate one too……”

“How many ‘one candies’ did you people eat? Prim didn’t even get one!”

The children could only mumble awkwardly.

Someone apologized.

“No, it’s okay. I really didn’t want them that badly. I’m serious.”

Prim said that, but no one looked like they believed her.

Rozien crossed his arms and looked at the children.

“So what are you going to do about this?”

“I’m really, really sorry……”

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

Rozien acted as though he were scolding them, but then suddenly gave them a mischievous grin.

The children immediately gathered around him just as they had gathered around the candy.

“W-wild raspberries?”

“Where are there wild raspberries?”

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

“Really? There were some there?”

“Of course. Since you ate all of Prim’s candy, we’ll pick some raspberries for her. You guys are coming too, right?”

“Yeah! Prim, wait! We’ll pick them and come right back!”

Even though Rozien had practically forced them into it, the children looked relieved as if they had found a rope to save themselves and ran toward the forest.

Rozien quickly tidied up the things on Prim’s desk that the children had messed up while crowding around her.

Then, wearing a strangely grumpy 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.

He was saying that even though he himself had not eaten a single piece.

“……I really was okay with it.”

“Geez. Yes, yes. I understand. We’ll pick some wild raspberries, so at least eat lots of those.”

Rozien smiled, his deep green eyes narrowing happily.

Prim grabbed his wrist as he was about to leave and quickly said,

“We’ll eat the raspberries together.”

“Of course I’ll eat them with you!”

Rozien laughed cheerfully and went outside.

But Prim knew.

Even though he had said they would eat lots of them and that he would eat too, Rozien would give all the raspberries to her.

He would not eat a single one himself.

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

In that cold silence, a shadow fell over Prim.

The shadow pushed the empty candy box off the table. It fell to the floor.

“Is it fun playing saint?”

Prim raised her head.

“Vianna.”

Vianna’s pretty face was twisted coldly as she glared at Prim.

Prim thought she finally understood why Vianna was acting like this.

How many people could stay calm after having something they believed completely belonged to them suddenly taken away?

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

She had run straight toward death.

Vianna was simply doing the same thing, attacking the person she believed had taken something that belonged to her.

In her previous life, Prim had never understood why Vianna acted this way. She had kept her distance from her, and things had eventually ended that way.

Because Vianna had been adopted.

“You give everything away while pretending to be so kind, and then you make everyone feel guilty about it afterward. Is that fun?”

“Did it look fun? Then you can share what you have too.”

At Prim’s calm reply, Vianna trembled and shouted,

“Th-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?”

“Hey!”

Unable to control her temper, Vianna shoved Prim hard.

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

Crash!

The loud noise startled Vianna.

She quickly looked around.

The other children had gone to pick wild raspberries, and Baron and Baroness Corvas were far away talking with Priestess Marceria.

There was no one else around.

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

When she fell, the hand she had used to break her fall slipped against the wooden floor.

A splinter had gotten stuck in her hand, making it sting.

When Prim raised her head, Vianna’s face was bright red for some reason, whether from anger or anxiety.

Her hands were trembling.

Vianna pointed at Prim.

“Do you really think anyone will adopt you looking like that?! Wh-who would like a girl who can’t even walk properly? Everyone hates you! People hate someone like you!”

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

Vianna’s face went pale.

But after coming this far, Vianna could not bring herself to run away.

“Refuse!”

Vianna shouted.

Prim’s eyes widened at the strange command.

Vianna shouted again.

“I mean it! Even if Baron Corvas says he wants to adopt you, refuse!”

It would have been stranger if Vianna did not know.

Until just before Prim appeared, Baron and Baroness Corvas had treated Vianna as though they had finally found a lost daughter.

But the moment they saw Prim, their attitude completely changed.

Now they treated Prim as though she were that lost daughter instead.

Prim thought that changing their attitude so completely in an instant was proof that they were not good people.

But she did not say it aloud.

If this had been her previous life, Prim would have easily agreed to Vianna’s request.

After all, she herself had not wanted to be adopted.

But this time, she could not do that.

Not if she wanted to protect Vianna.

And not if she wanted to achieve what she herself desired.

Vianna saw the determination on Prim’s face and suddenly shouted,

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

“The girl who pushes people and throws things is meaner, though. Does that mean you’ll be punished twice as much?”

Tears filled Vianna’s eyes.

She bit her lip hard and glared at Prim.

Her face was full of hostility, but even that hostility seemed shattered.

“Um, Vianna. I know I said it like that, but I didn’t really mean that you’d be punished twice as much. If we’re calculating it properly, maybe 1.2 times? You’re still young, so we should take that into consideration.”

“You…… You don’t know how I feel. You don’t understand anything about me!”

“You don’t understand how I feel either.”

“I know everything! You, you……!”

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

It was hostility sharpened like a blade, meant to hurt another person.

Vianna whispered with a mocking smile,

“You’re going to abandon Rozien anyway.”

For an instant, Prim’s expression froze.