DTBTHS Chapter 3

That had been three months ago.

'Mom left without even saying goodbye to me. And now she's been gone so long.'

What if Mom abandoned me? What if she never comes back?

Just imagining it made tears come. Ariadne clung to the window frame, burying her face in her arms as she sniffled.

Then suddenly something tickled her forearm.

"Hm?"

She lifted her head. Morning glory vines. Vines that had climbed up the tower from the ground clung to the window frame.

Pale purple elongated flowers moved on their own, gently brushing against her arm.

Ariadne was familiar with these morning glory vines.

"...Mom?"

Gloria had been a Spirit Mage.

Not strong enough to enter actual combat, but she had handled plants easily.

Sending signals through morning glory vines had been her specialty and hobby.

Ariadne had often woken from sleep to the sensation of morning glory flowers tickling her cheek.

Following the flower stems while nodding drowsily, she would arrive at her mother's greenhouse.

Inside the greenhouse flooded with sunlight, the image of her mother waiting at a table set for breakfast.

When her mother smiled brightly and beckoned, the morning glory vines would wrap around her half-awake body, supporting her, guiding her to the table.

Mornings surrounded by flowers and trees with her mother had been fragrant. The feeling of her head gradually clearing from that fragrance had been wonderfully refreshing.

Ariadne had loved those mornings so much.

"Are you back, Mom? Is your journey finished?"

She grasped the morning glory vine happily. The stem moved smoothly, wrapping around her arm and pulling.

Outside the window, down below the tower.

"You want me to come down? But I'm not supposed to leave the study... Dad will come soon."

Even when she shook her head, the morning glory was insistent. It kept pulling toward the dizzying drop below the tower.

"I'll... I'll fall..."

When the terrified Ariadne held onto the window frame and resisted, several more morning glory vines shot out.

They pushed her below the window, gently but firmly.

"Ah!"

Unable to resist that force, her body finally tilted precariously out the window.

She didn't fall. The vines immediately gathered and held her securely.

Then they tried to take her down the tower just like that.

"Mom...?"

"Ariadne!"

The Duke, who had entered at some point, saw her dangling outside the window and rushed over in alarm.

"Dad?"

He immediately drew his sword, cut away the vines, and seized his daughter.

The severed morning glory vines swayed fragilely. The flower blossoms looked at Ariadne. The stem ends crawled along the window sill, struggling to reach her.

Ariadne found that sight somehow heartbreaking.

It seemed just like her mother reaching out desperately, so she extended her hand toward the vines.

The Duke snatched her up, holding her, and slammed the window shut with a bang.

"...I didn't expect this much strength to remain."

"Dad, Mom..."

"Aria, those aren't your mother's morning glories. Your mother is traveling, remember?"

"But."

"Dad said they're not. You're mistaken."

Duke Eldier pushed her toward the chair while closing the curtains.

"Now, it's time to study."

Just before the curtains closed completely, Ariadne saw all the morning glories clinging to the glass window wither at once.

The shriveled flower blossoms dropped off plop, plop, and the leaves crumbled and scattered.

The dying morning glory vines somehow felt like her mother. Something inside her chest collapsed with a thud.

Without realizing it, she asked her father tearfully.

"Dad, what about Mom? When will she come back?"

"She's not too sick to come, is she? Can't I go see Mom?"

When she whined, the Duke looked down at her with an odd expression.

"...If you finish today's studies well, I'll tell you news about your mother, Ariadne."

"Really?"

"Of course. If you do very well, you might even get to go see your mother."

"I—I'll work hard. I can endure well."

"That's right, be strong."

The Duke smiled gently and seated Ariadne in the cloth-covered chair.

Shackles were attached to that chair's armrests.

He familiarly rolled up his daughter's sleeves and fixed her arms with the shackles.

Her exposed tender forearms were covered with bright red wounds. Wounds scratched and gouged with something sharp, now festering.

The Duke indifferently searched her arms for a less wounded spot.

"Open your mouth."

He made Ariadne bite down on a towel.

"Let's begin."

The Duke made a new wound with a dagger on her scarred forearm.

She flinched reflexively from the pain, but bound by shackles, she couldn't escape.

"How many times has Dad told you it's dangerous to move? I thought you said you could endure well."

The Duke whispered sternly. Ariadne bit down on the towel and endured the pain.

"That's right, you have to endure like that."

The Duke then took out a large syringe made of ivory.

The needle was so thick it could only be inserted after making an incision in the skin.

He inserted the syringe into the wound he'd made in his daughter's forearm and injected golden liquid.

Ariadne's entire body began trembling.

It felt like lightning flowing through her veins. Cold sweat beaded up.

"I put in more than usual but you're enduring it smoothly. Ariadne, you're doing well."

The Duke stroked her head affectionately, then put on gloves.

He opened a box sealed with magic circles and used long tongs to take out a small glass vial from inside.

Inside the glass vial, ominous dark red liquid sloshed.

With her feverish head, Ariadne watched her father load that liquid into another syringe.

"Let's move on with the lesson. This amount should be fine now, right?"

He approached with a smile.

'I don't want to. I'm scared. I don't want to do this.'

The first golden liquid, the injection Dad called "Elixir," had been endurable at least.

Though dizzy and hot, it had been bearable pain.

But the second injection, "Blighted Essence," was different.

That hurt terribly. She absolutely couldn't endure it.

The first time she received Blighted Essence, she'd vomited blood and fainted, then suffered for days.

Even after that, she lost consciousness every time the dark red liquid seeped into her body.

Dad clicked his tongue at her every time.

'If you can't endure even this, what will you do later? Dad thought our daughter was such a good, smart child. The progress is too slow. Try harder.'

It had taken months of repeating such things before she could endure without fainting.

Then the Duke increased the amount of dark red liquid.

It took over half a year before she could endure the increased amount of Blighted Essence. She'd only just gotten used to it recently.

And now he's increasing the amount again.

Ariadne turned pale.

"Are you scared?"

The Duke stroked his trembling daughter's cheek.

"Don't be scared. Dad would never do anything dangerous to you. Dad loves you so much."

His voice was gentle and sweet. She closed her eyes.

"That's right, you have to endure like that to be a good child."

The thick syringe dug into the wound on her forearm. It hurt and tears leaked out, but this level of pain was nothing.

Compared to the Blighted Essence seeping into her body.

In an instant, everything before her eyes turned stark white, then dyed pitch black.

When Ariadne writhed, the Duke held his daughter down with his gloved hands.

The towel covering her mouth turned bright red, then dropped with a thud.

"Ahhhhh!"

Blood and screams overflowed from her mouth. The white cloth covering the chair was dyed crimson.

"Tsk, she's enduring less than expected... Should I increase the Elixir?"

The Duke sighed before the child vomiting blood and brought back the syringe containing golden liquid.

"You have to be strong if you want to know about your mother, daughter."

More golden liquid was injected in larger quantities.

Her head felt hot, as if melting. Round and round—gold and dark red light spun filling her vision. Her breath choked as if her throat were being strangled.

Ariadne lost consciousness just like that.

She lay in darkness for a long time. Then suddenly she realized.

Ah, this is a dream.

I'm dreaming.

She'd realized it was a dream, but she couldn't wake from the dream. So she kept thinking.

What was my name?

'I am Ariadne Eldier. Seven years old this year.'

Seven years of memories, born and raised in Eldier Castle.

That should have been all, yet memories of another life circled in her head.

A place where science existed instead of magic, machines instead of spirits.

Twenty-eight years of memories lived in a world clearly different from this one.

'What are these memories?'

She looked up at the darkness with nothing in it, thinking repeatedly. The disparate memories organized themselves and settled into place.

Ariadne gradually realized.

'These are memories from my previous life.'

At that moment, the darkness disappeared as if a curtain had been drawn back, and the surrounding scenery changed.

The view of a room with golden bookshelves filling from floor to ceiling.

The floor was transparent glass, the ceiling and walls the same material.

And beyond those glass walls and glass ceiling were rooms similar to the room she was in, filled everywhere.

Above, below, beside—libraries with golden bookshelves extending endlessly.

The books neatly shelved had no titles written on them.

'Where is this? A library?'

It was a strangely familiar scene. As if she'd been to this strange place many times.

As if she'd been here?

'...That's right, I have been here. Many times.'

It seemed she'd often had dreams like this from when she was very young.

A library with glass rooms extending endlessly. Golden bookshelves filled with untitled books.

'I've seen it many times, but I could only look—I couldn't move inside.'

Now she could move.

Why? Was this time real instead of a dream?

Or was it because she'd recalled her previous life's memories?