"Onee-sama…?"
A shadow appears over my head and the pouring rain ceases to fall down.
An umbrella.
"It looks as though you're lost, little miss abandoned kitten?"
With that, an odd woman with red hair comes into view, staring down at me.
It's not Onee-sama.
"Why."
What flashes though Dorothy's face is only a self-mocking despair, along with the explicable sadness she had towards reality.
"Why, aren't you my Onee-sama?"
The red-haired woman laughs at Dorothy's murmuring which symbolized nothing more than the vain hopes she had.
"Hmm~? That's because Maria-san isn't coming."
"Not… coming?"
"Yes. But speaking of that, wasn't Dorothy-san a 'little abandoned kitten' before?"
How does this woman know my name? Well, now that it's come to this, I won't worry about something as trivial as that. I don't care.
"Little, abandoned kitten?"
"Yes, you've been abandoned. It's probably because Dorothy-san isn't a Blackhazel or anything. Something like an old toy that's grown boring to play with; wouldn't it make more sense to throw something like that away?"
"I'm not a toy! I'm Maria-onee-sama's little sister, Dorothy Ivalice-"
Cackle cackle. In response to Dorothy's almost pitiful response, the red-haired woman laughs in amusement.
"Don't delude yourself. Dorothy-san is not a Blackhazel."
"Uu…!"
"Maybe Maria-san calls you a Blackhazel for the sake of this game of house she's playing; surely I don't think Maria-san remotely considered you a 'real Blackhazel'?"
No, Onee-sama is different!
The red-haired woman cuts across Dorothy's rebuttal and continues on her lecture.
"As proof, did Maria-san ever bring you along for any of the family meetings she attended? She even let that 'half-blood' come along with her!"
Dorothy's desperate cry scatters to pieces in her throat.
Stifling sense overwhelms her.
An illusion of falling into a trench of despair, deeper and darker than anything else in the world.
Yes.
The red-haired woman's words become a sharp blade to dig into Dorothy's chest.
I could be called Blackhazel all I want, but I can never become one in the end. I'm only a fake, a ready-made at best; it's because I'm only tool to be used.
The last spark of hope she had inside her heart disappears into nothing.
"But, there is still one way."
"Eh…?"
Atop the extinguished spark comes the glowing ember of temptation. That which feeds on despair and blazes with intensity.
"Yes, there is one way for Dorothy-san to become a 'real Blackhazel', that one way…♡ "
◇ ◆ ◇
"Most likely, there was a trade of seeds."
Maria starts the conversation with an unexpected beginning, in the Blackhazel mansion living room.
"A trade?"
Looking up in response to Maria's unexpected choice of words, I stare at her. As expected of her, Maria has already figured out what's been going on?
"It's because that child doesn't think of this place as somewhere she should be at."
My heart sinks.
"Somewhere… she should be at."
Why didn't I realize something obvious like that way before?
Dorothy herself had her own share of pain. The pain she felt when the place she thought she was entitled to was taken from her by my sudden appearance.
The place she should be at.
Her only respite.
「All I want is just to remain by Onee-sama's side.」
It's because I took that away from her.
"It's my fault."
I was too carefree.
"I made her like that."
I was stupid.
"Don't beat yourself up. Grieving like that will accomplish nothing but falling right into their hands."
"Into their hands…?"
"You must maintain your true self, Onii-sama. This is, ultimately, only a trap to shake us, using Dorothy's weakness as bait."
She knew everything.
Her twin-colored gaze had already figured out their dark schemes and their shallow tricks, right from the beginning.
"Then why can't we go rescue Dorothy right now?"
But, that's exactly why I can't understand her.
"Whatever the truth dictates, the situation is that this is packaged as what Dorothy did of her free will, even if it's only a formality."
"What?"
"Unless we have a reason to convince the rest of the Blackhazel family with, we cannot interfere with her choice here."
"Reason, you say…?"
Mutely continuing on her sentence, I don't even have the effort and energy to contradict Maria's calm pokerface.
"I am the master of the Blackhazel family. No matter how much I despise the rest of the Blackhazel, I cannot openly go against my own family and single them out as my enemies."
"You can't go against them?"
"Yes."
Those bastards treated her only little sister like some farm animal, much less as a human being, and still she can't 'go against them?'?
Just because they're part of the family?
"In that case, then are you trying to say that bringing me here was also because 'the family' wanted you to?"
"In their position, no matter how unreasonable I try to be, they have no choice but to follow though my decision as the family master. It's because that's the unanimous agreement the master and the members have agreed on.
You, what kind of gibberish are you talking about now?
"Then, if you try to be unreasonable again and bring Dorothy back, then they'll have no choice but to follow through with your decision!"
"That is impossible. I have already exceed the limit of unreasonable I could act as the master of Blackhazel."
'What are you talking about?"
"If I try to force my will onto them anymore, then the hierarchy of family we have established will crumble away."
Hierarchy of family.
At that point, I realized the point of what this philosophical and complicated story was about.
They could hate and disapprove on each other all they wanted, but they couldn't go against the basic shell of hierarchy that was laid out onto them.
Maria loathes her family members, but she doesn't deny the fact they're still a part of the family.
As it is with the members; they don't like the fact that Maria is the family master, but they have no choice but to comply with her orders as long as she's the master.
That is the reason: no, the source of power, as to how the Blackhazel family maintains its structure amidst the blood-stained conflicts and oppositions that whirls around them.
"And that child was more or less, kicked out from this mansion because of you, Onii-sama."
"!"
"The truth can be whatever it wants it to be, but that was what that child was thinking before."
So Maria knew about what happened before.
Not only that, she was unknowingly aware of the problems Dorothy started to have because of my place here in the mansion.
"It's because of me."
"Yes. But as the same time, all this happened because of that child's choice."
"What?"
"Whether that choice is a meaningless misfortune she called upon herself as sacrifice or not – Even then, I still respect the choices she has made for herself."
You say you respect her choice.
"Let me ask you one more thing."
"Ask away."
"In other words, you're saying that you won't save Dorothy?"
"I am merely approaching this problem as logically as I can possibly be."
"How can you even decide on something heartless like that?"
That girl's your only little sister you have.
She only longs to stay be your side, as she has until now, and until the end of time; that's the type of poor, delicate girl she is.
How can you ever snip away someone like her?
"That's-"
In response to my question, the"Princess of Pure Darkness"emotionlessly replies back, colder and more merciless than she have ever sounded:
"That is – the way of the Blackhazel."