Book 12 Chapter 4
Side Story Part 2, Episode 2
Three years after the Ashiron Incident, July, year 1438 of the Common Era.
Around the time the summer blossoms one by one burst into vibrant colors, a letter arrived at the mansion.
Even before opening the letter, Setsnen wore an excited expression all day and was exuberant in everything she did.
Miria smiled gently.
“Mir sent it only to Nen. This makes me feel a pang of jealousy, doesn't it?”
The sender's name was Mirngardia.
The letter, which came with two thick books, was from her younger sibling who was training in the distant East.
Nen, who had received a letter for the first time in her life, seemed unable to control her excitement, even going around boasting to everyone in the mansion.
“A letter came for Nen!”
“A letter from Mir!”
“Letter! Letter!”
A child who can express excitement so honestly…
I chuckled softly, wondering what I was like when I received a letter from my master 300 years ago, before crossing the continent.
Only after finishing her boasts three times, Nen carefully tore open the envelope and began to read its contents.
[To Setsnen, who is undoubtedly still illiterate.]
“Such outrageous words are unjust! Nen is completely intelligent, not illiterate!”
[Heard you returned to the mansion. Thought, 'What a good life.' Someone's stuck here, you know. Just kidding.]
“……”
[Are you getting along well with Yonghyun? Yonghyun is clumsy at telling the truth, so I decided to do it instead.]
“A gift!”
[I compiled excerpts from various books and made two volumes. The title of the book is 『How to Master the Mind』.]
The books were filled to the brim with writings left by various scholars on the mind throughout long history.
[My only worry is that enlightenment comes late to the ignorant, so I've tried my best to select only good and easy-to-understand passages.]
As Nen turned the first page, a smile bloomed on her face.
Because there was a flower tucked inside.
It was a flower called 'Twilight Bloom,' named so because it emitted a twilight glow only briefly during the twilight hour.
The description of the flower didn't really matter.
The most significant explanation was that the flower was proof of the days the three of them spent together.
Perhaps it was meant to capture the memory of their childhood days, happily playing in that flower garden, with just this one preserved flower?
[A day will come when I, too, can temporarily return to the mansion once I have satisfactorily built up my academic knowledge.]
Why? The smile on Nen's face, which had been bright as she read the letter, gradually began to fade.
Strange.
Did Mir send strange contents in the letter? That couldn't be.
But then, she soon vanished somewhere, leaving the books behind and taking only the letter.
Should I have felt an eerie premonition then?
“Master, there's some kind of darkness from Miss Nen's room…!”