134 – EP.6 When spring comes when flowers bloom -5

***

What Imina asked for was two nights at the mansion.

On the condition that she stay at the mansion for two days, she promised to interpret In-ho’s writings.

While cleaning the mansion that had been neglected for a long time, Imina went around the house and swiped the traces left by the owner of the mansion.

She especially stayed in the library a lot, and the first glimpse of Emma, who was busy cleaning, was looking at the scenery outside, touching In-ho’s desk with her hands.

Soon after the first day, Emma provided Imina with a polished guest room.

On the last day at the mansion, Emma went grocery shopping for the first time in a while.

After In-ho died, Emma, who had suddenly disappeared, reappeared on the street, and people welcomed her.

It was because she finally overcame her owner’s death and thought she had come out of the world.

Whether or not she knew the feelings of such people, Emma hurriedly walked around the store and bought ingredients for dinner.

With an armful of ingredients bought, Emma cooked.

As she once served her master, she prepared various dishes.

Emma, who wanted to see the message left by the owner, hid her burning inside and treated the foreign lady with sincerity.

Imina was slim in appearance, but she ate so well that she emptied all of Emma’s food.

Like that, the last night at the mansion.

In the study, there were two women sitting facing each other.

“Okay, then I’ll read it.”

Imina said with a languid face.

Gulp, Emma swallowed.

“Summer is over…”

Lee Mi-na began to read the manuscript in a calm tone.

As the manuscript progressed, Emma’s expression changed as the manuscript progressed.

From surprise to question, from question to confusion, from confusion to sadness.

“……”

After reading the manuscript, Lee Mi-na looked at Emma who was sitting in front of her.

The maid kept her silence with her head bowed.

Imina woke up, and her clothes rustled.

“Have a good night.”

Lee Mi-na said as she left the door of the study.

Of course, she said this even though she knew that the maid in the mansion would not be able to spend a comfortable night.

Entering the guest room, Imina sat down on the bed.

The shadow of her reflected in the lamp lighting the room was cast like a mural, and soon it moved like a dance.

“Did you eat enough today, Mr. Kkumul?”

The shadow trembled at Mina’s words. It seemed to feel good.

“I’m sorry I always made you eat only the tasteless things.”

She reached out and stroked the shadow on the wall.

The part where Mina touched it went up and down.

“I think In-ho died of natural causes. I was wondering if a maid was involved…”

Mina looked at the shadow and talked.

“This is my first time in this dimension, so it took me a while to make up my mind on what to do.”

Slowly, a shadow moves on the wall.

“Ah, manuscript? It was just… capricious. It takes time to determine the dimension In-ho went to. Until then, there’s nothing to do… Yeah. Just a whim.”

smile very faintly

“……”

I lowered my hand against the wall and touched the bed.

“In-ho is…”

It was a voice full of worries.

“Inho is very kind. He writes like that for the future of a woman who has no one to know.”

Feeling the touch of the blanket between her fingers, Mina brought her legs together and buried her face in her lap.

“…Sometimes I wish that kindness was only for me.”

Imina muttered as she slightly lowered her eyes.

***

The next day, Mina packed up and Emma came out to see her off, standing at the gate.

“Thank you for giving me a place to stay.”

“No. I really appreciate it. If it wasn’t for Mina-nim, I wouldn’t have known what the master left for the rest of my life.”

Emma left the gate and locked it.

“Where are you going?”

Seeing Emma closing the door outside, Mina asked.

“I’m going to go to the owner. Originally, I was going to visit you on the day I came back…”

“Have a good trip.”

Mina smiled and said to Emma. Emma quietly bowed her head and saw her off.

“ah!”

Mina, who had been walking away, turned around.

As if she had something to say, Emma stopped and turned to Mina as she headed toward the cemetery.

“I don’t know… Emma’s master will want her to be happy.”

Emma stared blankly at Imina.

Emma, who had bitten her lower lip, forced the corner of her mouth up.

“Of course. Master cares about me.”

“It’s good. I know.”

Seeing Emma walking away, Imina muttered.

Imina entered a quiet alley.

In a dark alley where the early morning sunlight doesn’t reach, Mina stretched out her hand.

“Well then, shall we start again?”

Along her arm, a black shadow wriggled out.

The shadow holding onto something in the air struggled as if to forcefully open the gap.

– Euijijijik

A rupture was heard in the air, and each time the shadow opened something, the wind blew through the empty space.

Eventually, the shadow opened ‘something’ perfectly, and a blue swirling door appeared in the empty alley.

“This is the dimension In-ho crossed over to.”

As usual, Imina, who was about to pass through the dimensional door, stopped.

“Huh? What is this?”

Mina tilted her head, as if seeing a machine that did not work after following the instructions.

“Mr. Kkeumuli. Is this correct?”

She looked at the shadow and asked, and the shadow moved up and down as if it had done nothing wrong.

“It’s strange. Why…? Could it be that it’s a natural death error…?”

She tilted her head as she looked at the dimensions that continued in the alley.

***

“Master, I’m here. It’s been two months.”

Emma, who came to In-ho’s grave, cleaned up the weeds that grew around the tombstone.

“……”

She stood dumbfounded and looked at her master’s tombstone.

“Luckily, I met someone who could decipher the master’s writing. So I deciphered the manuscript as well.”

“You said it was a masterpiece. Why did you lie. hahahaha…”

Emma’s dry laugh floated over the graveyard.

“…Master, you know. I’ve tried everything the owner asked me to do.”

Emma crumpled the skirt.

“Inns in Rooney Village were expensive. They shamelessly charged me 20 darks for giving me a room inferior to mine in the mansion.”

“The Victory Tower was ignorantly large in size. The streets were crowded because the tourists around it didn’t keep order. It was very crazy.”

“It was clear that all the people who came to pray at Eleanor’s Cathedral would run away because of the musty smell and construction noise. It seems that all cathedrals are not great just because they are big.”

“And the food at El Pio was really bad. No wine, no steak…”

Tears ran down Emma’s cheeks.

“Master, I…”

“I prefer a single room in the mansion where I live with my master rather than the famous inn in Rowan Village.”

“The small stone pagoda built in the garden of the mansion is more beautiful than the Victory Pagoda.”

“The comfort of the Master’s study suits me more than the sanctity of Eleanor Cathedral.”

“And the dinner I had with the owner tasted better than any other restaurant in the world.”

Emma’s hands trembled.

She forcibly suppressed her rising breath and continued with a sigh.

“Master is kind. Master is thoughtful. Master is smart.”

“But… BUT!!!”

“There’s one thing you don’t know, Master.”

Emma smiled sadly.

“Ever since I was picked up by an unknown gentleman, my season has always been spring.”

Emma knelt down.

Her knees were wet with dew that had not yet dissipated.

She didn’t care, and hugged the tombstone.

Holding the hard stone seemed to bring back the same feeling I felt when I was hugged by my master one day.

“By the way… By the way!!”

“But… it’s winter now. A winter that never ends.”

she wept.

“Spring will never come when flowers bloom. I will be forever winter without my master.”

Read at noblemtl. com

Deep in her chest, as if a wound torn by a sharp claw welled up, she vomited out the words.

“No matter what I do, it’s not as good as being with my master!”

“No matter what I eat, it’s not as good as eating with my master!”

“No matter where I go, there’s nothing like seeing the scenery with my master!”

“No matter what I do, eat, listen, health, go… Life is not worth living to me. Not even a single thing.”

Her earnest cry was mixed with many emotions.

Emma pulled away and looked at the tombstone.

A gray stone with Inho’s name on it stood in front of her.

Emma carefully reached out and touched the side of the tombstone.

As if shaving the owner’s rough beard. carefully.

She got on her knees and got up.

Clinging to her wobbly legs, she struggled not to fall.

Emma politely bowed her head and greeted Inho.

“Master, but I’m a good maid. I’ll do as the master commands.”

“It’s cold winter, but it’s so cold that I want to close my eyes and go to sleep… but I’ll try to stay awake.”

“Even though I can’t see flowers in spring… there will be flowers that bloom in winter too.”

The slowly rising sun illuminated the face of Emma, who was crying brightly and smiling sadly.

***

10 years later.

People’s eyes gathered in one place in the crowded streets.

A girl was caught and held in the air, apparently a pickpocket, a street nuisance.

“Let this go!! Let go!!”

“You bastard! How dare you touch the teacher’s wallet?”

The man who lifted the girl up scolded her in a stern voice.

“Let it be.”

Next to the man stood a woman in a luxurious streetwear.

In her hand was a small purse, which she seemed to have retrieved from her child.

“But, sir.”

The man said that these children should be severely punished, but the woman called teacher shook her head.

Eventually, the man put the child down.

The woman called Teacher bent down and put her hand on the boy’s shoulder.

The scruffy girl, dripping with soup, naturally avoided her gaze at the elegant woman looking at her.

“Little boy. Do you need help?”

The woman opened her mouth.

At the woman’s question, the child’s face turned slightly teary-eyed, then relaxed.

It was as if he was trying to hold back his welling up tears.

“Oh, my brother is sick.”

A tear fell from the girl’s eye as she spoke.

“so?”

The woman paused for a moment, then spoke kindly again.

“If you don’t mind, can you take me to your brother? I’ll help you get to the doctor.”

“……”

The child looked at the woman for a long time.

There was, of course, distrust in the child’s eyes.

‘Would I have looked like that too?’

The woman lost her thoughts for a moment.

“Okay. Follow me.”

“Thank you. Kid, what’s your name by any chance?”

Following the kid, the woman asked.

“It’s Annie.”

At the child’s words, the woman widened her eyes, then smiled.

“Yes, Annie. Let’s go quickly to help my little brother.”