Olivia spoke urgently. The moment she tried to look back at Edwin, something she saw beyond the window caught her eye.

“Can you stop the carriage for a moment?”

As soon as their eyes met, she was startled and saw a child pressing his robe deeply onto himself.

The child’s eyes were the same green as mine.

.

.

.

Bethany was right. This dress was comfortable to move in.

Descending from the carriage, Olivia looked around with wide eyes. She had not noticed that the scenery outside the window had changed, as she was preoccupied with thinking about Edwin.

The place where shabby houses were haphazardly attached together with patches. Here and there, the weirdsmelling alleys stretched in all directions.

Turningbell, it resembled the streets where I had lived as a vagrant.

Suddenly feeling choked up, Olivia tightly closed her lips. Edwin’s voice was heard from behind.

“This is Yenive. It’s the street of vagabonds and wanderers in Vicander Territory.”

Perhaps even the explanation resembled Turningbell so much. At the same time, the clear image of the green eyes she had seen earlier flashed in her mind.

Olivia’s heart became urgent.

It had been a very long time since she had seen green eyes, aside from her mother.

In this Franz Empire, green eyes were called the rare eyes of a vagabond performer.

They were called shameful green, but to Olivia, these green eyes were the only trace she had inherited from her mother.

In the social circles, green eyes were only mine, and even in the wide territory, she had never seen them.

Sometimes, Olivia thought that she might be the only one with green eyes.

But the eyes of the child she had briefly met were definitely green.

A sense of kinship flooded Olivia’s heart in an instant. She looked around the street from the corner but could not see the child who had quickly disappeared.

No, she couldn’t even feel a human presence.

That’s when it happened.

“……I. Miss.”

It was Dean. Every time our eyes met, he furrowed his brow, and for some reason, he called me first. But the greeneyed child was more urgent than feeling glad.

“Why are you suddenly here?”

Dean’s voice seemed uneasy, but Olivia, who did not notice it, just poured out her words.

“I thought I saw someone. But they disappeared. Will you help me look?”

“Dean, brother?”

A voice abruptly interrupted, sounding young. To her surprise, looking down, she found green eyes looking up at Dean.

Dean let out a faint sigh, as if defeated.

(This is a time separator.)

Waaaaah[Dash].

Children’s shrill voices filled the street. Dean, who had been cold to me, was faithfully playing the role of leader among the children.

Olivia watched the children running around.

Thirteen of them. In tattered clothes and tangled hair.

The children’s eyes, reminiscent of my young days, were mostly green.

I never saw green eyes in the territory, but they were here.

Olivia took in each one, one by one. Then, when she saw a very old yellow bruise under the children’s loose shirts as they ran around, Olivia unknowingly swallowed her breath.

That would have hurt quite a bit. But there was no shadow on the children’s faces. Rather, they were smiling brightly, familiarly roaming this street.

“Were you surprised?”

“Yes. I once thought I was the only one in the world with green eyes.”
Olivia’s trembling voice was met with Edwin’s soft laughter.

“How does it feel to see so many green eyes?”

“……It’s strange.”

It was indeed a strange thing. Besides mom and me, there were so many people with green eyes.

“How did all these people come to Vicander’s domain?”

“I don’t know how they came, but I know why they settled here.”

“What is it?”

Edwin slightly lifted the corners of his mouth as if embarrassed. As Edwin spoke, Olivia’s ears went numb.

“In Vicander, green eyes are considered beautiful. Like other eyes.”

Time seemed to flow slowly. Edwin once again smiled and whispered to Olivia as if telling a secret.

“In fact, I think Olivia’s green eyes are very special and pretty.”

Each syllable caused ripples deep in Olivia’s heart.

Olivia slowly blinked her eyes. Her uncontrollable lips moved on their own.

“Don’t you, dislike it?”

Olivia’s voice trembled.

Occasionally, Olivia would ask herself.

Wouldn’t I have fit better in the Madelleine Ducal family if I had purple amethyst eyes? Would Leopold have loved me if I didn’t have green eyes?

If I didn’t have green eyes. If I didn’t have the eyes of a despised dancer.

Eventually, she always bowed her head. It’s the last trace my mom left. I have to love my green eyes.

Hiding the wounds from sharp glances with superficial pride, repeated like a mantra.

When Olivia’s eyes seemed about to cry, Edwin nodded and looked at her affectionately.

“……Dislike it? How can I, when they shine so beautifully?”

What was it with that tender voice mixed with a sigh? Cracks began to form over Olivia’s longstanding memories.

“Green eyes, huh. To think that such lowly blood would mix with the noble Madelleine.”