THAT evening, Henrik invited Mia out to the festival again.
Since he’d asked her to go as friends, she had no reason to decline, and so Mia accepted.
It was a little embarrassing for it to be just the two of them, so she decided to invite Felix and Mathias as well. However, it turned out that Felix had already gone out on business of his own. So, in the end, only Mathias could join them.
Mathias had shot Henrik a look of mingled embarrassment and awkwardness at first, but once he realized that Henrik was acting like his ordinary self, he visibly relaxed.
Now she had a chance to look around calmly, she realized that the open-air market sold many things besides frogs. Delicious scents wafted on the cool air as Mia peered into a nearby shop. Immediately, her feet came to a stop.
“…Frog cakes?!”
This festival just couldn’t get away from frogs, it seemed. Even the cakes were baked in the shape of frogs. It looked like she would just have to get used to it.
Taking her eyes off the frog cakes, Mia turned to Henrik.
“How many days does this festival last for?”
“A week,” Henrik answered her casually.
“That’s a long time.”
“Well, everyone’s got free time on their hands. The workers are all home from the capital, and there’s not much else to do here.”
“Oh, I see…”
Henrik looked at Mia, concern showing on his face. Ever since the discovery in the examination room, he’d been troubled.
“What’s wrong?”
That was what his eyes were asking.
Mia knew he’d noticed her fallen expression when he’d turned to her with such joy on his face.
She told herself she should be happy they were making such progress. She meant to smile, she really did, only…
Only Henrik had seen through her. That’s why he was doing things like asking her to the festival and trying to be extra considerate of her.
The conversation petered out until Mathias spoke.
“So, have we found out anything yet? We came to discover if there were ever any Angel Tears patients here, right? We’d better hurry up, or winter break will be over before we know it.”
Mathias was almost babbling. He couldn’t stand awkward silences, being so awkward himself.
His words only made Mia feel even more despondent.
After that, they’d dropped all pretense and asked Rudolf straight up about prior patients, but he couldn’t recall ever having anyone afflicted with Angel Tears at the clinic. So it didn’t seem likely they’d find anything in the old patient charts.
Nevertheless, Mia pasted on a big smile.
“We didn’t find any Angel Tears patient charts, but Henrik’s father gave us a huge clue. He told us about all kinds of medicinal herbs that might make an effective medicine for treating Demon Claw!”
“What? That’s amazin’!”
“Right?”
Henrik raised an eyebrow at Mia, who tried hard to smile back.
The smile faded on her lips, however. Henrik sighed.
“Palliative treatments aren’t what you were hoping for, were they?”
Mia blinked. Somehow he’d identified the heart of her issue. He was right on the money, too.
“Mia, this is a huge step forward.”
“I know. I know that…”
Her voice lacked conviction. She felt ashamed of herself, felt like crying. She was grateful to Henrik and to Rudolf. But this was different from what she wanted. Very different.
Even if they used Rudolf’s medicinal herb index to create an effective medicine to treat Demon Claw, the patients would be reliant upon it for the rest of their lives. They would have to live under the shadow of their illness every day.
What Mia desperately wanted was a complete cure for the disease.
Perhaps that would never happen. She tried to tell herself that this was the best they could hope for. But she just couldn’t let go of her dream of a cure.
“If we could control the disease completely with a new drug, then the patients would be functionally healthy. What’s the difference?”
Henrik seemed angry, somehow. As if he couldn’t understand Mia’s logic.
Mia was being stubborn, and it irked him.
She knew she was being stubborn. She knew that as well as anyone.
She knew she often suffered from tunnel-vision. It was one of the things she disliked most about herself.
“We can’t lose sight of our objective. Our objective is to make it so your mom can live outside of the Sanatorium again, right?”
“Yes.”
Mia looked up at Henrik. I know, she thought.
“Then we know just what to do when winter break is over, right? Right?”
Mathias patted Mia encouragingly on the shoulder.
Mathias’s reassuring manner made Mia want to cry again. She could barely nod.
She hated herself for not being able to buck up.
I…I wish I could see Felix right now.
The thought popped into her head, unbidden. Why would Felix’s face come to mind at her moment of weakness? Probably because he was always the one who was there when she was at her darkest moments.
So why wasn’t he here now?
As the thought came to mind…
She suddenly spotted a flash of golden hair out of the corner of her eye.
Huh?
Mia blinked. She thought it was a mirage at first. Now she blushed. She was starting to realize something, something that was coming through late, like a delayed signal.
She looked closer, flustered. And thankful that it wasn’t a mirage.
They were passing the grounds of a fancy residence. Beyond the iron-wrought bars of the fence, she could see a garden party in full swing. It was all so glamorous, like something from another world. And there in the center of it all was Felix, walking through the garden.
Mia was captivated by the sight of him.
He was splendidly dressed in a jet-black evening coat. His true form.
That’s right…he really is a prince.
As she stood there staring, she had the feeling that he had somehow gone far away from her. She was filled with sudden panic, afraid that he would leave her for good. She opened her mouth to call out to him.
“Fe—”
At the same moment, Mia’s eyes widened.
Her voice faded to nothing on the cold winter air.
She noticed the long purple gown first. It looked like it was probably made of silk. It was so glamorous, she could only stare. But then she noticed something else.
The girl wearing the gown looked familiar.
It was Angelica, blushing prettily as Felix took her in his arms.