A young girl in a village without protection - Chapter 84

Translator: NovelMultiverse | Editor: NovelMultiverse

They checked up foodstuffs in the kitchen as well as if there was some suspicious gas that leaked or came in from somewhere…, but everything seemed fine. 

“There seems nothing wrong. Besides, the head cook would notice if there was an unusual foodstuff.”

“You’re right.”

Selesina agreed to Hisui’s reasonable opinion.

Her father and brother also had tried to find the cause but they had been too busy to do so. 

She was about to give up when Toi barked sharply, “Arf!” 

 “Toi?” 

“Woof!” 

Selesina and Hisui looked at each other seeing Toi act as if he demanded to follow. Something must have been there since it was Toi who tried to tell them. 

Toi is a divine beast who is wearing a cute and fashionable ribbon around his neck. 

His pure white hair is so fluffy that it makes anyone want to bury their head in it. He lived with Hisui and had spent time with him and Selesina together lately. 

He was running swiftly as if to beckon them. Outside he went, and to the back of the mansion. It seemed that what Toi wanted to show them was on the back of the mansion. 

‘We’ve just checked up the back of the mansion…’

There was no foul smell – She was thinking when Toi stopped running in front of one tree. 

At that sight, her thought ceased to work. 

“—What?”

A chill came up her spine and made her take a backward step unintentionally. Her brain instantaneously told her that it was something baleful. Hisui seemed to feel the same way and gasped. 

‘Plants were a blind spot that we didn’t suspect.’ 

Or, more importantly—

“How on earth does a tree like this grow in the garden?”

The tree grew from the ground —– with black branches and black leaves, which everything was all black. It looked dreadful as if it had been out of the order of nature.  

It wasn’t tall and the height was as low as Selesina’s knee, but —— it undoubtedly stirred up unrest. 

“Toi, you were trying to tell us about this. Thanks.” 

“Arf!” 

Toi wagged his tail gleefully as Selesina thanked him. 

Since Toi was a divine beast, Selesina guessed that what he told was about good and evil. This time, the latter was the case, of course. [Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

Hisui touched a leaf hesitantly and uttered in distaste, “Yuck.” 

“This one… I think I’ve seen something similar before.” 

“The same kind?” 

“Not exactly the same… but rather similar in a feel like that.”

Hisui tried hard to remember when he saw it.

“What’s the matter?”, the gardener came up while Hisui still couldn’t manage to remember. He was a head gardener for the garden of her villa so that he should know about this black tree. 

Selesina asked him a question. 

“Could you tell me about this tree?” 

“Oh, that one. Isn’t that rare?” 

“Yes.” 

She nodded to him while laughing wryly in her sleeve because his words sounded like praise. It surely was rare, but being rare wasn’t necessarily a good thing. 

“To tell you the truth, it sprouted out of the blue.” 

“Eh…?” 

She opened her eyes wide as she thought the gardener must have brought and planted it here. If not so, there was no clue what kind of plant it was. 

Seeing her feel anxious, the gardener hurriedly continued. 

“I have looked up just in case how it sprouted.” 

“Did you… find out?” 

“It’s speculation, but…”

The gardener explained what happened after the black tree sprouted. 

It was when a black leaf came out that he noticed the existence of the black tree. Since then, it had been on his mind because he had never seen such an absolute black like that. 

Nevertheless, he had no idea where it came from and asked each one of the other gardeners to make sure if they had buried anything in the garden. 

“Was there anyone who had planted it?”

“No, there wasn’t. But… I heard something curious from Anna.”

“From Anna?”

Anna is Selesina’s maid who was sick and had taken a break from her work… Come to think of it, she was the first one that had fallen ill. 

The gardener pointed at the ground dubiously. 

“Just around here… She threw away a black petal, I heard.” 

“A black petal…?”

Selesina imagined that Anna had discarded withered flowers there —– and then her eyes flew open with a start. 

She looked at Hisui and saw him open his eyes wide as well. 

‘That black petal could be…’

Selesina clenched her fist. To think about it, she hadn’t checked out after that. That was why Anna had discarded the black petal. 

In place of Selesina who was at a loss for words, Hisui said what it was. 

“It’s… a black petal of the black flower that Lady Meria made bloom on Lady Sele’s great tree and then — withered away.”[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]