Hortus Arcanus planēta

ACT 2

cenotaph

When Ella said that with such a sorrowful look on her face, I couldn’t help but wonder.

“Ella…?”

“Ah, no… I’m really fine. It’s just… something came back to me for a moment.”

“You know… Lumia, this is the first time I’ve ever told anyone this. Lumiia… would you come with me for a little while?”

Ella, who was usually so timid, said that so firmly that it caught me off guard.

“Y-Yes… I don’t mind. But won’t Surie, Rope, and Nepe find us?”

“I think it’ll be all right. Before you came, I used to slip away to this place at this time all the time.”

“Really? Then… okay.”

With that, we left the shabby attic room behind.

The place she led me to was the garden behind the mansion. The dim garden felt a little eerie to me, and my steps slowly began to falter as I followed her.

“E-Ella… is there something here?”

“Soon.”

At last, we stopped before a mound of earth rising gently from the ground, where something was stuck upright in the soil.

Then Ella spoke softly.

“This is the place.”

“Ella… what is this place?”

“This is my mother’s temporary grave. Her true grave lies elsewhere.”

I see…

So this was where Ella came to visit her mother.

I felt ashamed for thinking it was frightening.

Looking closer, I noticed something thrust into the soil.

A tree branch?

“Ella… what is that sticking out of the ground?”

“That… is a branch from a hazel tree. The last gift Father gave me before he passed away.”