Hortus Arcanus planēta

ACT 2

Nepe

This time, I decided to visit Nepe’s room next to Lopé’s.

“Excuse me for intruding.”

Nepe was lying on her bed, clutching a pillow tightly in her arms. As she stared at the egg-shaped pendant hanging around her neck, she let out a long, deep sigh.

Inside the pendant were two photographs. One showed Surie, Lopé, Nepe, and another man I did not recognize standing together. overflowing with bright smiles.

As Nepe gazed at Lopé’s face in the photograph, her expression looked troubled, yet nostalgic at the same time—as though she were longing for those days long past. But in her eyes, I could also sense exhaustion and loneliness lingering quietly beneath the surface.

After releasing several heavy sighs, Nepe suddenly snapped the pendant shut with a sharp click and buried her face into the pillow she had been hugging.

Who was that unfamiliar man in the family photograph?

There had been a photograph in Guto’s study as well. But the man in Nepe’s pendant was not Guto.

I continued piecing together my thoughts, but I felt it would be dangerous to linger here any longer.

“Excuse me for intruding,” I whispered softly before leaving the room.

At that time, I still did not understand why Nepe had worn such an expression.

But there was one thing even I could understand back then.

Everyone was carrying something within themselves.

Surie, who treated Ella so harshly. Lopé, who bullied Ella. Even Nepe, who simply followed along with her older sister.

All of them were carrying some kind of pain.

Somehow, I could sense it from their actions… from the expressions on their faces.

I believed the true cause was different for each of them. I still did not know what had happened to them, but—

Before I realized it, I had returned to the attic room.

Until El recovered and returned to herself, I decided it would be better to leave her alone for now.

Instead, I would spend the time I usually spent talking with El exploring the mansion like I had today.

Thinking that to myself, I quietly closed my eyes.