Lydia once again ran into Anna at the jewelry store.
Unlike their previous fleeting encounter, this time Lydia made sure to greet Anna properly.
“Hey.”
She gently patted Anna’s shoulder and followed Anna’s gaze to the window display.
Anna’s eyes lingered for a long time on a pair of Red and Blue Matching Rings.
Wow, those rings are expensive.
Lydia clicked her tongue inwardly.
But since they’re a matching set… that means she must have someone in mind to give them to, right?
Who could it be?
Could it be me? A wisp of smoky thought rose in Lydia’s heart.
She secretly observed Anna’s expression—tenderness, regret, all emotions Anna had never shown her before.
In the end, they were only teammates who had briefly worked together; they probably didn’t even count as friends.
Even the “Sister” she called her was something Lydia had decided on her own.
Anna had never acknowledged that relationship.
Her heart was probably already full of people. Lydia realized this in an instant.
There wouldn’t be a room left for her.
No matter how loudly she knocked, that door would probably never open for her.
Lydia suddenly remembered the Blackberries found everywhere in her hometown’s Black Forest.
A small, black fruit—bite into the first one and your mouth fills with sweetness. But by the second berry, the sweetness slowly turns sour.
The more you eat, in the end even the sourness fades, leaving only bitterness in your mouth. That’s why people also call them Bitter Fruit.
It felt like Lydia was tasting Bitter Fruit herself.
She understood deeply what the feelings buried in her heart were.
She couldn’t stop her gaze from drifting toward that Sister; the more she looked, the hotter it burned.
She wanted to carve every bit of Anna into her own eyes.
A bright Moon hung in her heart. But she knew the Moon shone for someone else.
“Lydia? Why are you just standing there?”
Snapping out of it, Lydia suddenly realized Anna was studying her face.
Her eyes were so close, Lydia could easily count her eyelashes.
“Are you alright?”
Anna’s hand gently pressed against Lydia’s forehead.
“I-I’m fine.”
Lydia hurriedly brushed Anna’s hand away and looked outside the shop.
“Your face is so red. Are you really okay?”
Anna took a step back, but Lydia instinctively followed.
“I just didn’t get enough rest… I’m fine.”
Locking her turbulent feelings back into their box, Lydia blinked and looked into Anna’s eyes.
Now they could meet each other’s gaze.
Suppressing her feelings for the moment and locking them away in a small box was Lydia’s unique talent.
It was with this skill that she’d managed to live until now.
“You came at just the right time… I wanted to ask you to join me on a commission, is that alright?”
Anna pulled a commission slip, folded into quarters, from her pocket and handed it to Lydia.
“Eliminate the Minotaur Chief, bounty is twelve gold coins? Whoa, why is it so high!”
Minotaurs were not unfamiliar to Lydia. Like goblins, they were among the most common of the demonkin.
Perhaps to ordinary people, tall and strong Minotaurs would be quite a problem, but for adventurers, Minotaurs were practically the perfect prey.
They weren’t hard to deal with and brought in plenty of loot. Their horns and hides were highly sought after materials, making the hunt a tidy side profit.
But usually, hunting Minotaurs never brought a high bounty.
What kind of Minotaur would be worth four whole gold coins?
Lydia turned the commission slip over and carefully read the additional details.
A tribe of Minotaurs had attacked a village under Albion’s jurisdiction, killing all the men and the old, and abducting all the young women.
Among them was a certain Noble’s Daughter.
That was why the noble was offering such a high reward.
Besides that, according to the Adventurers’ Guild investigation, the Minotaurs were leading the captured girls toward the Scarborough Ruins.
Time was of the essence—the closer they got to the Scarborough Ruins, the more difficult the mission would become.
“Besides me, there are plenty of other teams who have also accepted this job. Are you in, Lydia?”
There could only be one answer.
“Alright, Sister, when do we set off?”
Lydia patted her cheeks, full of spirit.
“There’s no need to rush that much.”
Anna smiled at her.
This was the first time Sister had ever smiled at her.
A tingling, numbing wind rose in Lydia’s heart.
Suddenly she felt that as long as she was with Sister, no hardship seemed too much.
She grew ever more certain of the nature of the feelings locked in her little box.
It must be budding Love.
Falling for another woman, especially her Sister—how absurd that sounded.
It was like something only the villainess in a storybook would do.
But Lydia knew clearly the feeling in her heart was Love.
A seed named “Love” she’d hidden for sixteen years was now growing wild.
But this… wouldn’t do.
Sister’s heart belonged to someone else; this love was destined to bear no fruit.
It would probably end quietly, never seeing the light.
Maybe it would be better to let it end here.
Lydia followed behind Anna, step by step.
Suddenly, the footsteps in front of her stopped.
Unable to react in time, Lydia crashed straight into Anna’s back.
A whiff of cedar fragrance rushed into her nose without warning—Lydia had smelled this northern scent before.
But she couldn’t remember where, or on whom, she had encountered it.
“What’s wrong, Lydia?”
Anna turned around. With a stumble, Lydia fell right into Anna’s embrace.
Thump, thump. Pressed against that flat chest, Lydia could hear the echo of Anna’s heartbeat.
“I’m fine…”
Lydia hastily pushed Anna away.
That was close.
Lydia felt her feelings were like a little beast that couldn’t be locked away, ready to break free at any moment.
“Let’s go, Sister.”
She walked off without looking back, heading toward the town gates.
“Wait, Lydia.”
Soft footsteps sounded behind her; Anna jogged to catch up.
“I want to go home for a bit first… would you mind waiting for me?”
Anna shook the basket in her hand, inside were fresh eggs.
Lydia’s head felt as if it had been struck by an explosion spell.
Basket, eggs, and the scent of cedar.
The person in Anna’s heart was all but obvious.
To think that…
Lydia’s teeth ached with sourness.
She could only resent that the Moon hung high yet did not shine on her.
She resented that her First Love was ending before it even began.
“Okay… I’ll wait for you at the gate.”
Lydia didn’t even know what kind of voice she used to say those words.
Her steps grew so quick they nearly broke into a run—farther, just a little farther away.
It was as if, the farther she got from Sister, the less her heart would ache.
The autumn wind brushed her face, carrying a chill, but it could not cool the fire surging in Lydia’s heart.
Leaning against a rough stone wall, Lydia slowly slid to the ground.
She buried her face deep in her knees, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
A few raindrops quietly fell on the flagstones.
So this is what it’s like to taste Bitter Fruit.
There was never any sweetness before the bitterness—it was all bitter from the very start.
The Moon in her heart, bright and cold, was destined to only revolve around the sun.
And she, the Star Cloud longing to draw close, could only gaze at the moonlight from afar.
She sat in silence for a long while before finally lifting her head and wiping her face hard.
Tears stung her eyes, burning with a sour pain in the wind.
She took a deep breath and snapped another, heavier lock onto the little box named “Sister.”
It’s alright, she told herself.
At least she could still stand by Sister’s side.
At least, for now, she was the only one at Sister’s side.
She stood up, gently brushed the dust from her clothes, hooked her finger against her cheek, and forced a smile.
She looked toward the road leading out of town, quietly waiting for the arrival of the Sister she could never truly have.
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