Violet Evergarden

”It’s gotten dark, huh?” Misha muttered curtly and Silene nodded.

The village would normally be calm at sunset, but today, it had been rather noisy. Everyone is was on festive spirits. Just when he was thinking that everything was for his and Misha’s sake, Silene had come to understand that a wedding ceremony was not only for two people. He then took hold of Misha’s hand in a natural manner.

”Fufu.” She let out a shy giggle. ”The people of this village… are kind.” Perhaps feeling at ease when speaking only to Silene, she started talking. ”My brother, who had raised me in place of our parents, passed away in the Great War. I’m glad I’m able to marry you. I was able to… have a family again.” She smiled bashfully. ”Miss Delit is great at cooking. She has taught me what foods you like. Mother’s house… is big. It’s grandiose, and makes me think… that everyone can live in it.”

Although it was a peaceful chatter, Silene wound up coldly spitting out, ”You don’t have to be so cautious.”

Misha’s stopped walking. Her hand, still connected with his, was pulled as he continued going ahead, causing her to stumble. ”I’m sorry.”

”No, I’m… sorry too.”

”No, I’m the one who’s sorry… I said something… uncalled for. I… even… know… that you left that house because you hate it and your mother.”

What Silene had become enamored with in Misha was exactly that. She was honest, caring and kind.

”But, I haven’t properly asked why you hate them. It’s better to cherish your parents.”

And she had principles.

Sweat beaded in the hand he was using to hold hers. Silene wanted to let go to wipe it but did not do so, instead tightening his grip even more. He did not wish to instigate disgust in the person that would always be by his side from then on.

”Nothing… gets through Mom.”

Unlike Silene, who would not meet her eyes, Misha directed her gaze straight at him. ”Yes.”

”It’s been that way since I was little. She isn’t like that because of her age. I used to have a father too, and… an older brother… but one day, my father took my brother and left.”

”Why…?”

”I was too small so I don’t remember it well. It was probably… the usual… their relationship as a married couple was bad. They… fought very often. I had seen either of them stomp out of home a lot. That’s why I thought he would surely be back soon that time too…”

But he had not returned.

——Back then, why did Dad take Brother and not me?

Was it because his brother was the firstborn? Their age gap was of only three years, yet he had always felt that his father would prioritize his brother in whatever he did. For instance, in the order of giving away presents, frequency with which he would pat their heads, or the difference of the words he used to praise them. From others’ point of view, none those would be a big deal, but children are sensitive to such things.

——I’m sure… he took the one he was most attached to. That’s what I feel.

”From that point on, Mom started getting weird. Slowly, slowly… she broke, like a screw falling off a machine. First, she started calling me by my brother’s name. Whenever I would say, ’no, I’m not Jonah, I’m Silene’, she’d apologize and correct herself. But it didn’t stop at just saying the wrong name.”

Misha placed her other hand along the one that was joined with his. She was attempting to smolder the hardships that her lover had faced during his life. It was but a simple gesture, yet it made Silene unbearably contented. He was able to strongly reconfirm that it was something he had yearned for.

”Mom started to hallucinate that I’m either Dad or big brother Jonah.”

His past self did not have such joys.

”When she thinks I’m Dad, she scolds me while crying and hits me. When she thinks I’m Brother, she simply hugs me and asks where I’d been. This has continued on for several years.”

Silene did not think of himself as pitiful.

”But, see, when I got my growth spurt, I became taller. I actually don’t resemble Brother or Dad at all. I really… think that was… a good thing.”

However, he also did not think of himself as a happy one. In retrospect to his childhood, there was never anything enjoyable. He had to start working as his mother became unable to, and would be feeling miserable when coming home.

”I was free from being mistaken with someone else.”

It was a succession of occurrences.

”But then a new curse was cast on me.”

A sorrowful succession of occurrences.

”Now I’m the one that doesn’t know who I am.”

In order to put an end to them, he had to be apart from her.