Rose Garden: Chapter 15

Previous TOC Next

The next morning, Kyle left the brothel early. The rain had completely stopped, and the morning sun peeking out from the eastern sky made the lingering droplets falling from the eaves shimmer with light. The alleyway, paved only with hardened dirt, was dotted with puddles. As he walked, weaving to the right and left to avoid them, the ground beneath his feet gradually changed to cobblestones.

Where there hadn’t been a single soul the day before, the square with the fountain now bustled with a morning market. A crowd had gathered, filling the space with noise and energy. Drawn by the liveliness, Kyle wandered through the market and soon came upon a flower stall. Roses were among the flowers for sale, but all of them were cut blooms. If that wounded angel were to get too close to those flowers, he might shorten their already fleeting lives even more… That thought made him keep his distance. And yet, the sweet little roses called out to him, “Rose angel, rose angel.”

“I’m injured, you see. If I come near you, I might drain your life,” he explained gently.

But still they called to him “Please, come closer. Touch me, adore me.”

He had no choice. With a resigned smile, he approached the lovely roses.

“My sweet, sweet children. Please, bloom beautifully until the very end.”

He murmured to them and reached out to gently touch one of the red roses swaying as if pleading for affection. The flower, which had only been half-bloomed, burst into full bloom with a soft pop, revealing a gorgeous, vibrant blossom. Even the buds along the same stem began to bloom one after another.

“My, my…”

The old man selling the flowers widened his eyes.

“Even the tight buds popped open just like that. What sort of magic did you use?”

“I… um…”

The old man peered into Kyle’s face and repeated, “Ah, would you look at that…”

“You look just like one of the angels from the church murals. So beautiful.”

Kyle offered him a vague smile.

“Maybe the flowers were so surprised by your beautiful face that they just had to bloom.”

With a chuckling fu fu laugh, the old man plucked one red rose from a wooden bucket.

“A thank-you for showing me such a lovely sight.”

Kyle accepted the flower and thanked him politely.

“You really do suit flowers,” the old man said with a warm smile.

He seemed kind and good-natured, so Kyle decided to ask him something.

“...Could you tell me how to get to Torney Village?”

“Torney Village?” the old man tilted his head.

“I want to visit someone I know, but I don’t know the way…”

“If it’s Torney, head south from the street beside the church and keep going straight. If you leave now, you should get there by late morning.”

Kyle bowed slightly in thanks and made his way to the street next to the church as instructed. He held the rose before his face and spoke to it softly.

“Seems like you're okay even when I touch you.”

The rose nuzzled his cheek as if overjoyed.

“Far from draining me, I feel wonderful thanks to the rose angel’s love. It fills me with strength.”

That was odd. He should still be weakened from his injury so why was this happening? Come to think of it, though he’d gone to bed hungry last night, he didn’t feel any hunger now. Could it be…?

Once he passed through the street and exited the town, the path narrowed into a single road just as the old man had said. Looking around, he spotted a small grove just beyond a nearby bridge. He stepped into the woods, confirmed that no one was around, and released the spell that concealed his wings. He stretched them slowly, no pain. Even when he flapped them a bit more forcefully, it still didn’t hurt.

He exhaled deeply and soared into the sky. I can fly, I can fly… higher and higher… He got carried away, but then a sharp pain shot through the injured wing. It wasn’t enough to stop him from flying, but it was clear he shouldn’t push himself too far, so he returned to the ground.

His recovery had been far faster than expected. Though some pain lingered, his strength had returned enough that he no longer needed to drain the roses' life energy after just one night. That meant he didn’t need to fear the arrival of monsters that night.

A sense of relief washed over him and with it, a troubling realization. Now that his wounds had almost completely healed, he no longer had a reason to go to the demon’s house. If there was no longer any danger of being attacked by monsters at night, then there was no longer any need for the demon to stay by his side. Even if he claimed, “It’s your fault I got hurt,” if the injuries were practically gone, the demon would likely just say, “I’m sorry,” and leave it at that.

Kyle plopped down in the forest. Now that it had come to this, he didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that his wing had healed. The red rose, sensing his silence, called out to him in concern: “Are you okay? Are you okay?”

Not knowing what to do, he slowly rose to his feet. Maybe he should get hurt again. But he didn’t want to go through that pain. Kyle hid his wings and stepped back onto the dust-colored path. If he headed south from here... he knew he’d reach the demon’s house.

He retraced his steps slightly and climbed down under the bridge. He dipped the cut end of the rose’s stem into the water. The rose let out a contented sigh, as if pleased.

I don’t love you anymore. I love a human now. Those were the demon’s words.

Staring down at the river muddied by last night’s storm, Kyle once again found himself lost in the maze of his heart, a labyrinth with no exit. If only I could become one with this water, drift away, and disappear... it would be easier that way.

“Kyle! Kyle!”

A voice calling his name. Someone was running toward him from across the bridge. Tousled light-brown hair, flushed red cheeks, it was Claudia.

She ran across the bridge and down to the riverbank, grabbed Kyle’s arm, and shouted in a hoarse voice, “Don’t do anything rash!”

“Don’t throw your life away. You mustn’t die over something like this. Maybe it was a precious love, but you still have a future. Even if it hurts now, one day you’ll look back and be glad you chose to live.”

Her desperation was almost laughable. There was no way an angel could die in a river like this. Kyle gave a self-deprecating smile, and Claudia’s expression softened with relief.

“Yes, that’s it smile, Kyle. When you smile, happy gods draw near. And your smile is truly beautiful.”

He wasn’t smiling because he was happy. So why did she think he was?

“There’s no point staying here. Come home with me.”

She took his right hand and started climbing the grassy slope with surprising determination. When they reached the dust path again, Kyle noticed something about the overly helpful prostitute.

“You’re barefoot?”

Her messy, fluffy hair bounced as she walked.

“They broke while I was running over the cobblestones. They were old wooden clogs, so I threw them away. Luckily it rained, my feet don’t even hurt.”

Despite her words, Claudia was clearly walking gingerly, trying not to put too much weight on her heels.

“Is that how you always walk?”

She gave an embarrassed, sheepish smile.

“I scraped the bottom of my foot a little when the clogs broke. But I’ll be fine like this.”

Kyle let go of her hand and knelt in front of the woman on tiptoe.

“I’ll carry you back to the inn.”

“It’s fine, I can walk.”

“What, you’re planning to parade through town like a circus act? How disgraceful.”

The same woman who had no problem scooping spilled soup off a tray with her bare hands now blushed with shame in front of Kyle. Timidly, she leaned against his back.

“Here this is for you.”

Kyle handed the red rose to Claudia as she clung to his back.

“I got it from a flower shop. It’s a cut flower, so it won’t last long, but it should bloom beautifully until the very end.”

“Thank you,” she murmured, her voice small, as she accepted the rose.

She was much lighter than she looked. Carrying her on his back, Kyle began the slow return along the path he had taken that morning.

“When I realized you’d gone out this morning, I thought you were going to die,” she said softly behind him, as if talking to herself.

“You didn’t eat anything because you were prepared to die, right? That’s why I had to find you no matter what to stop you. So I went looking, and the florist told me he’d seen a man so beautiful, he could have been mistaken for an angel... I knew it had to be you, Kyle.”

Her arms wrapped around his neck tightened.

“One day, I promise, you’ll be glad you lived.”

Kyle heard the words of encouragement, but they barely registered. It wasn’t as if he had been thinking as seriously about dying as he had the day before. He was heading toward the brothel with the woman on his back because he had nowhere else to go, and nothing left to do. And when she called out his name in that moment, it gave him something, anything to act on.

…That was all there was to it.

◇:-:◆:-:◇

Kyle began working at the brothel Luanlily. Claudia had strongly encouraged him, and on top of that, there was a self-destructive part of him that thought, I ended up in a place like this because the demon stopped loving me. It also helped that he felt he could leave anytime he wanted, there was no commitment holding him down.

“Luanlily” was the name of a delicate flower that bloomed just before winter, its petals alternating between soft green and pink. Inspired by the flower, the prostitutes who worked there all wore dresses in either pink or green.

Kyle’s duties included cleaning the shop before it opened, then during business hours, delivering drinks and food to the tables, and helping drunken customers who could no longer stand. As he cleaned up the messes, the spilled alcohol, the half-eaten food, he found himself crying more than once. If he were tending to someone doing noble work, maybe he could bear it. But why did he have to clean up after men bound for hell? It felt unbearable. But as the days passed, even that started to fade. He became numb, able to carry out the work without getting emotionally involved.

Though he stuck to serving during operating hours, some customers still asked, “How much for you?” Even when he coldly replied, “I’m just a server,” there were men who thought they could outwit him. One especially devious man so drunk he could barely walk waited until they stepped outside, then dragged Kyle into an alley and tried to force himself on him.

For such beast-like men, Kyle cast a mild sleep spell. Just enough for them to wake in an hour or two, and left them lying there in the alley. It was still warm enough that no one would freeze to death outside. They might get stripped by muggers, but…

There were six prostitutes working at Luanlily, and the madam, Claudia, was one of them. The men bought time with the women. Burly, hairy men would lead delicate, flower-like girls up to the rooms on the second floor, and each time, Kyle felt a wave of disgust. He pitied the men waiting at the tables, drinking until a woman became available waiting their turn like it was nothing. Men who so casually indulged in lust, a sin condemned by God, would be dragged to hell when they died. For the fleeting pleasures of the flesh, their souls would burn endlessly in fire, without losing consciousness, without escape only unrelenting, maddening pain. A living hell.

That day, Kyle ended up preaching to a customer out of genuine concern for the man’s future. Normally, he would never bother to share God’s teachings with those rushing headlong into sin. He’d just silently observe. But this customer had said it was his first time engaging in such indulgence. A young man, stout but still clearly in his youth, there was still time. He could still be saved. That’s why Kyle approached him and, with all sincerity, spoke of mortal sin, of lust, and of God’s commandments.

So desperate to save even a single soul from falling into the path of evil, Kyle had failed to notice when the young customer cheerful from drinking just moments ago gradually grew irritated, until finally glaring at him with thinly veiled hostility. And in the very moment Kyle sincerely offered the advice, “This isn’t a place you should be wasting your time in,” the man hurled his drink into Kyle’s face and struck him with his fist.

But the customer’s rage didn’t end there. Kyle was knocked down and landed hard on the floor, only for the man to pounce on top of him and rain down blows on his face and stomach. Kyle thought to defend himself with magic, but the pain was too intense to concentrate. Not a single other patron made any move to help him. On the contrary, they cheered the man on with cries of “Yeah, that’s it, get him!” The beating only stopped when Claudia, alerted by the commotion, rushed in and shoved herself between them. Even then, the man landed a punch on her, too hard enough to leave her face swollen and unsightly, forcing her to take the rest of the day off work.

Later, Kyle was summoned to the kitchen by Leda and subjected to an unrelenting lecture.

“You were preaching God’s word to a customer? What the hell is wrong with you? Nobody wants to hear that kind of crap in a brothel. You trying to ruin our business or something?”

Kyle could only hang his head.

“If it were just you getting your face smashed in, that’d be one thing but you got Claudia hurt too. Look at her! No way she can work with a face like that. Who the hell wants to screw a girl who looks like a ghost? And who’s gonna make up the money she’s losing while she’s off? You planning to cover for her yourself? What, gonna put on a frilly little dress and spread your legs for the guys in her place?”

Kyle clenched his back teeth. Leda narrowed her eyes, sunken deep in a face full of wrinkles and gave a grin.

“You’ve got a pretty enough face. There are plenty of freaks out there who’d go for a boy like you. How about we try selling you next?”

She kept it up for ages, throwing barbs laced with scorn and mockery. Kyle knew what was right and what was wrong, he had been taught so in heaven. But now, living in the human world, surrounded by people who sold their bodies to survive, who committed sin just to make it through the day, that certainty had begun to waver. The men who pawed at their bodies with such vulgar desperation were disgusting enough, but not one of the seven women working here did so by choice.

The next morning, unable to sleep, Kyle had gotten up early to sweep the floors. While he worked, Tosha emerged from one of the rooms on the second floor. With dull blond hair and blue eyes, she wasn’t particularly beautiful, but her open, easygoing nature made her one of the more popular prostitutes in the house.

“You’re up early.”

Still dressed in a thin robe, she yawned widely as she came down the stairs. All the women in the brothel got along well, but Claudia and Tosha seemed especially close.

“Heard Leda really laid into you yesterday.”

Kyle didn’t respond. He just kept sweeping the floor, which still reeked faintly of alcohol and dirt.

“You could at least answer. I know you’re in a bad mood, but that’s no excuse to be rude. Honestly, your face is the only thing you’ve got going for you.”

When he glared at her, Tosha feigned a shiver and said, “Ooh, scary.” Then, after looking around to make sure no one was nearby, she stepped closer to him.

“Usually I say just let Leda’s crap go in one ear and out the other, but this time, you were kind of in the wrong too. If someone wants to hear a preacher, they go to church. Nobody walks into a butcher’s shop asking for bread. What you were saying might’ve been right, but you were totally out of place.”

Kyle averted his eyes from the blue ones staring up at him and dropped his gaze to the floor.

“Well, it looks like you already understand, so I won’t say anything more. Prince of Claudia.”

Tosha put an exaggerated emphasis on the word “Prince.”

“P-Prince…?”

“That’s what we call you around here. I’ve read stories where the prince comes to fetch the princess, sure but a story where the princess picks up the prince? That only happens in this place.”

Whatever she found amusing about that, Tosha giggled to herself. After a round of chuckling, she placed a hand on Kyle’s shoulder and whispered near his ear.

“…Watch out for Leda.”

Wrinkled and aged, Leda had been at the brothel even longer than Claudia. She handled the cooking, the chores, and the money. While Claudia bore the title of "madam," her role was more that of a coordinator listening to the six working girls and stepping in to settle disputes when needed. She had nothing to do with the finances, which were entirely entrusted to Leda.

Claudia didn’t dislike Leda, but some of the prostitutes detested her, calling her a “money-hungry hag.” Tosha and Leda, in particular, didn’t get along. Kyle had never seen them exchange a single word.

“If she hates you, she’ll kill you. Leda knows her poisons better than any apothecary around. There was a girl who talked bad about her right in front of her, and she dropped dead the next day. They say the reason girls in this brothel don’t live long is because if they get sick, stop earning, or just fall out of favor, Leda poisons them.”

“…You can’t be serious.”

“Believe what you want, but you’d better be careful. Say, do you know how old Leda is?”

Kyle guessed, “Seventy or so?”

Tosha shook her head.

“She’s thirty.”

He was stunned. In farming villages, where people worked hard year-round, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to look older than their age. But thirty, looking like that, that couldn’t be right.

“They say she was born with wrinkles like that. So hideous, people said she was cursed by a demon and dumped at a church right after birth. Even as an adult, folks treated her like a devil’s child. No one would hire her, and she wandered from place to place until she finally settled here. She’s from a village up north.”

Tosha sighed.

“The only one who really talks to her here is Claudia. She even calls that greedy old woman kind. Apparently, when she was new here and fell sick, Leda gave her medicine. But come on, it’s obvious she only did that because losing a fresh new girl before she’s even made a profit would be a waste. Claudia doesn’t see that. For someone who's been here so long, that girl’s still too pure.”

After finishing a glass of water in the kitchen, Tosha headed upstairs to her room. Kyle stayed behind to finish sweeping the floor, then made his way to Claudia’s room. Since leading her there yesterday with her face swollen, he hadn’t seen her once.

He knocked gently on the door.

“Who is it?” came her voice from inside.

“It’s me.”

“Kyle… Oh, wait just a moment.”

A clatter of hurried noises came from within. After a short wait outside, he was finally allowed in with a “Come in.” Claudia was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking sorrowful, her hands pressed to her cheeks.

“It doesn’t help even when I put on makeup… Please don’t laugh.”

Kyle looked down at her from where he stood, taking in her bruised face.

“I’m sorry… for what happened yesterday. It was my fault.”

Claudia gave a gentle smile and said, “Don’t worry about it. You only said what you did because you believe in the teachings of God. You were thinking of that man’s soul, weren’t you? I think that’s something noble. But… when we can’t get customers, we stop earning. And when that happens, we’re sent back to the countryside. Then the relatives who sold us off want their money back, and it all becomes a mess.”

“What I can’t stand,” Kyle said, “is that there are men who keep coming here even though they know it’s wrong. If only they’d change their hearts…”

Claudia quietly interrupted him. “Tosha says I’m strange for thinking this, but… I see the men who come to this place as gods.”

Kyle couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“We need money to survive, don’t we? The customers who come here, they leave behind what we need. I think of them as gods because without that money, none of us would be able to eat or live. So I try to be thankful.”

God would never do such a thing. Yet Kyle couldn’t bring himself to say her way of thinking was wrong. Somehow, he felt that Claudia understood that better than anyone.

“My body… my blood and flesh… they’re what feed my sister and uncles. Maybe it’s disgusting to you, Kyle. But please, turn a blind eye to what we do. Just for now.”

Before Kyle left the room, Claudia pressed her hand against her right cheek. It was more swollen than the left. Perhaps it hurt more.

Back in his own room, Kyle pulled a cloth pouch from beneath his desk. Inside was his weekly pay. Since he lived on-site and didn’t eat the food, a portion of it had been deducted without his say, and just as Claudia had once apologized “Sorry it’s so little” it really was a meager amount. But Kyle had no sense of what money was worth. He had never needed to know.

Money meant nothing to him. He had no use for anything that could be bought with it. And yet, he still saved it just in case, for some unknown future need.

With this meaningless money in hand, he stepped out into the town. He wanted to offer Claudia something tangible as an apology, something beyond words, for the injury she suffered in his place. If only he had more power he could have taken away her pain. Some angels possessed the ability to heal. But his own powers were meager: he could lull someone to sleep, or make flowers bloom, nothing more.

At the plaza, a market was underway. Kyle had never given a gift to a human woman before. Unsure of what to choose, he circled the fountain, scanning the stalls. Flowers might be a good idea, but cut flowers always felt a little sad to look at.

Leaving the market behind, he walked west from the plaza, onto the main boulevard. This area was lined with butcher shops, bakeries, cobblers, and general stores, places that sold the necessities of life. The street was crowded. As he walked, peering into shop windows through the glass, Kyle suddenly saw a man with long black hair approaching from the other side. His breath caught in his throat. It was as if he’d been put under a spell his body refused to move.

Frozen in front of the store, he watched as the black-haired man passed right by him. Black hair, black eyes… but it wasn’t Warren.

He began working at the brothel, hiding the fact that he was once an angel, at the start of summer when the worst of the heat was just beginning to ease. Ever since he’d been cast aside for loving a human, Kyle hadn’t seen the demon even once. He could fly to him in an instant if he truly wanted to, but there was no reason to go. During the day, he sometimes went to look at the rose garden on the edge of the forest, but he never approached the demon’s house.

…He couldn’t bring himself to.

Back when that monster had nearly eaten his wings, in the aftermath of it all, he’d been nearly mad with the desire to see the demon again. But now, the very thought of it terrified him. Because he knew if they met again, he would be the one left hurt.

Despite believing he could go anywhere, anytime, Kyle chose to remain in a disreputable place like a brothel, simply because he hated being alone. Even a miserable job served as a distraction. And yet, the deep loneliness at the core of him refused to fade.

Life on Earth, like in Heaven, remained monotonous but on Earth, there was far more to think about. Back in Heaven, he’d never questioned his own existence or the teachings of God. But living on Earth, he came to see that life revolved around far too many messy, complicated things. Faith alone wasn’t enough to survive.

As Kyle resumed walking, he spotted a beautiful brooch behind the glass window of a shop that sold women’s accessories. Cut flowers were painful to look at and they always withered but a brooch shaped like a flower would never fade.

On a whim, he stepped into the store. It was a small shop, painted white inside, and filled with countless brooches. There were no other customers. When Kyle entered, the man behind the counter a young man in his mid-twenties looked up with an expression of startled awe. He had gray eyes and jet-black hair, dark as a night with no moon.

"Is there something in particular you’re looking for?"

Kyle was browsing through the shop when, before he knew it, the man had stepped up beside him. With a friendly face, he smiled warmly.

"I was hoping to see a floral brooch…"

"In that case, please come this way."

In the section where the man guided him, there were several intricately carved and colored brooches so detailed they looked almost like real woodwork. Among those beautiful pieces, one in particular gave off a demonic scent. It wasn’t just his imagination. Kyle’s hand reached straight for a pale pink rose brooch. He brought it close to his nose.

It smelled like Warren.

"You have a discerning eye. That’s one of our finest pieces. The craftsmanship is superb, and the coloring makes it look just like a real flower."

Ignoring the man’s words, Kyle stared intently at the brooch. The demon had always been skilled with hand-carving he was always whittling something from wood.

"How much is this one?"

He asked for the price.

"That one is twenty Kasoriks. It’s a little on the expensive side, but if you take care of it, it will last a lifetime."

Kyle pulled out his cloth pouch and poured all the money he had onto the counter.

"I cannot do arithmetic. Will this be enough?"

The man looked at the coins, visibly unsure how to respond.

"To purchase that brooch, you would need roughly ten times this amount."

Ten times. Kyle was stunned.

"It’s a very expensive piece, then."

He reluctantly placed the brooch back where it had been. But letting it go filled him with an unbearable sense of regret.

"Is there nothing in this shop I could afford with what I have?"

Hesitating a little, the man said, "Perhaps over here…" and led Kyle to a corner of the store. There, in a small box, a number of brooches were tossed together in a careless heap.

"If it's something from this section, you can afford it with the amount of money you have. That said, they're all slightly flawed chipped edges, poor craftsmanship so they're not really suitable as gifts..."

Even from the small box, Kyle could smell Warren. He searched feverishly through it until he found a tiny brooch that carried the devil’s scent. The delicate rose was lovely, though one of its petals was just slightly chipped.

Kyle bought the rose brooch. As the man placed the item into a bag, he asked, “Where are you from, if you don’t mind me asking?” His cheeks had taken on a faint flush.

“I only asked because I haven’t seen you around town before. I assumed you were from elsewhere.”

“I moved here before the summer.”

“I see… that explains it,” the man murmured as he handed Kyle the paper bag.

“Last year, I saw a play in the next town over. There was a stunningly beautiful actress in it, and I remember being struck by the realization that such beauty actually existed in the world. But you, you're even more beautiful than she was. You seem almost divine.”

As Kyle stared at him in silence, the man looked down. “…Sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble.”

On the way back to the brothel, Kyle realized that being called “beautiful” no longer brought him the same thrill it once did. Yes, beauty was a marvelous trait but no matter how much he possessed, it hadn’t been enough to bind the devil to him. If beauty were truly the deciding factor, then Warren would have chosen him over that human girl.

Using some of the tools from the shop, Kyle shaved down the chipped edge of the rose petal. After that, it looked just as elegant as the brooches sold for ten times the price.

He placed the rose brooch in his palm and brought it close to his nose. On the back was a small engraved “W” perhaps the artist’s mark. Just imagining that Warren’s fingers had painstakingly carved this tiny flower made Kyle’s heart flutter.

Though he’d bought the brooch for Claudia, part of him wanted to keep it. With it, he could feel Warren close at all times. But what about Claudia? What would a visible apology mean to her…?

After some thought, he clenched the brooch tightly and made his way to Claudia’s room. Aside from the swelling on her face, she hadn’t suffered any other serious harm. She was sitting on the bed, mending one of her old work dresses.

“This is for you,” Kyle said, holding out the brooch crafted by the devil. Claudia accepted it with cautious hands, as if it might bite her, but then she smiled with her swollen cheek smiled like a flower blooming. She gently stroked the brooch with her fingers, visibly pleased.

“It’s beautiful. It looks like a real flower.”

“It’s for yesterday. An apology.”

Claudia shook her head.

“You didn’t have to go out of your way for me. But… I’m so happy. He hit me, sure, but in exchange, it feels like I’ve received the most wonderful gift.”

She seemed genuinely overjoyed and didn’t let go of the brooch.

“Ever since my parents died, this is the first gift I’ve received. I’ll treasure it.”

It was a beautiful brooch made by the devil. Truthfully, Kyle had wanted to keep it. But giving something he truly valued as an apology to someone else somehow, that felt deeply meaningful.

"Hey, Kyle."

His name was spoken in a gentle voice.

"You don't like the work here, do you?"

Claudia's expression was earnest. So he nodded honestly.

"If you ever want to do something else, or go somewhere different, you can leave anytime. Don't let anything hold you back."

It was something he often repeated to himself deep down. If I really hate it, I can leave this place anytime.

"I don't have anything I want to do, or anywhere I want to go."

And because the loneliness was unbearable, he stayed here, blending in with others.

Tears welled up in Claudia’s gray eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

"You're a free person, but your heart isn’t free to fly. It’s still trapped, isn’t it?"

Kyle asked, "My heart?"

"Yes. My body may not be free, but my heart is. It flies wherever it wants to go, to wherever it longs to be."

Claudia spread her arms wide. In that moment, the dark ceiling seemed to vanish, and the woman before him soared into the sky. Of course, it was only an illusion she remained seated on the bed, the mistress of a brothel.

"When autumn comes, my body will be free too."

Kyle tilted his head, not understanding what she meant.

"The contract lasts until my twenty-third birthday. All the girls who work at the brothel are weak in body, every one of them who came after me has already passed away. But I’ve been stronger, so I’ve managed to survive this long. When autumn comes, I’ll leave this place, get a job I wouldn’t be ashamed to tell God about, and call my little sister, who’s staying with our uncle, so we can live together."

Her gray eyes sparkled brightly.

"When I leave here in the autumn, I want you to come with me."

The sudden invitation took him by surprise. He had fantasized about living with a demon, but never once considered the idea of living with a human.

"Does that mean you love me, Claudia?"

Kyle asked plainly. Claudia didn’t answer right away; she fell silent for a while, thinking.

"Maybe I do. But at the same time, I feel like I shouldn’t. For someone like me to say I love someone as beautiful and noble-hearted as you... it feels like I’d be punished for it."

"I already have someone I love. Even if he told me his feelings were gone, I think I’d still love him for the rest of my life."

Claudia's gray eyes, which had been listening intently, murmured, "But..."

"Even if your love is eternal, being alone forever must be lonely."

It felt as if something struck him straight in the chest.

"...It is lonely."

The words of his heart slipped out. Then Claudia opened her arms wide.

"Let’s be family, Kyle. Not lovers or spouses just family. It was fate that brought you to me on that rainy day. I think God brought two lonely souls together."

Drawn in by her soft voice, Kyle found himself pulled into her embrace. Claudia gently cradled his head against her.

"When autumn comes, let’s rent a small house somewhere and live together, me, my little sister, and you..."

Previous TOC Next