Chapter 5

(Ah... It's already morning. Why does the sun have to rise? If the moon stayed out, I could sleep forever...)

My parents failed in their business.

They vanished and never returned home.

The enormous debt fell heavily on me, a child.

However, I had no time to despair.

I worked tirelessly, pursued by debt collectors, working and working and working...

The interest kept piling up, and the debt never decreased.

(...I'm hungry. But I have a part-time job at an izakaya today, so I can eat the staff meal.)

With that in mind, I tried to get up, despite my heavy body.

As my consciousness cleared, I saw an iron grate in front of me.

I realized I was inside it and slowly tilted my head.

Thinking it might be a hallucination, I rubbed my eyes, but the iron grate didn't disappear.

I wondered why I was in a cell when I hadn't committed any crime.

(Did the debt collectors set up some kind of prank...?)

Thinking it was a mistake, I looked around to seek help, but no one was there.

"Um... Is anyone here?"

The voice that echoed in the quiet cell wasn't mine.

"Eh...!? My throat doesn't hurt, and I'm not in my voice-changing period... That's impossible."

Looking at my hands, I saw not my rough, dry palms from part-time jobs like dishwashing and security, but long, white fingers with neatly trimmed nails.

(What, what's happening...?)

I tried clenching and unclenching my fists a few times, but the strange feeling of a body that wasn't mine moving at my will was unsettling.

After thinking for a few minutes...

I closed my eyes for a while and then opened them, but the scenery didn't change.

At this point, I even missed the dilapidated apartment.

To check my surroundings, I pressed my face against the iron grate and moved my head, but I saw nothing.

I heard the sound of water dripping from the ceiling behind me and peered into a puddle in the back.

I gasped at the beautiful face reflected there.

(The beautiful person from my dream...)

"Amaryllis Linoverta..."

When I called out the name, a severe headache hit me, and I vividly recalled Amaryllis's memories and the dream I had just seen.

I had secretly admired my fiancé, Harvey, but when I realized that Harvey and Sharon were in love, I tried to protect my position by intimidating Sharon.

Even though they cared for each other, Sharon and Harvey denied it in front of Amaryllis.

However, they continued to meet in secret.

(They were cheating, I guess...)

Gradually, Amaryllis's place was taken by Sharon.

But then, for some reason, Amaryllis was accused of pushing Sharon down the stairs.

Neither her family nor Harvey listened to her words.

- And so, Amaryllis was put in jail.

Amidst this, another memory inexplicably surfaced in my mind.

It was the memory that "Amaryllis would die in jail."

Sharon, Harvey's fiancée, would visit the cell and ask Amaryllis:

"If you sincerely apologize to Sharon, she says she might forgive you."

But Amaryllis quietly shook her head.

"I will never admit it."

Amaryllis, who had committed the crime, was disowned by the Linoverda family.

No one reached out to help her.

From that day on, no matter what was said to her, she never opened her mouth.

She just looked thoughtful with a sad expression in her eyes.

And without saying a word, she wasted away and died.

Such a future inexplicably surfaced in my mind.