Chapter 4 - A False Goodbye
A bell rang downstairs.
The night Ann transferred to the tower room, Jonas rang his bell. Perhaps he
was in a hurry because Ann arrived. She heard someone immediately come to
his room and then leave.
What would she do if Duke Philax acknowledged Jonas's sculpture that was
completed first? She was anxious. But morning came with no further
movement downstairs, and the order for Ann to cease working and leave in
light of Jonas's sculpture being acknowledged didn't come.
So Ann continued working since morning, and by then, the sun was already
high up in the sky. While working together with Mythrill, the sound of a bell
coming from downstairs surprised her, and she raised her head.
"That's Jonas's bell, right? He's ringing it again after he completed his work
and rang it last night? Is it that he fixed some parts that were pointed out to
him or something? Or maybe he just got ahead of himself..."
At that point, Ann was considering ringing the bell to signal her work's
completion soon. Naturally, she was in a hurry.
Seeing Ann so anxious, Mythrill stood up.
"Alright! I'll help out!"
"What will you do?"
"I'm going to go peep."
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
Contrary to gallantry, Mythrill tied a handkerchief he took out of his pocket
around his head, and sneakily left the room.
Ann wondered how it would turn out. Wanting to know soon, she was
impatiently waiting for Mythrill when Shall returned from taking a walk. In
his right hand dangled a violently wriggling Mythrill.
"Let me go! Let go! Shall Fen Shall!"
"Shall, why are you holding Mythrill...?"
Ann stared wide-eyed as Shall released the nape of Mythrill's neck. Mythrill
fell to the floor with a flump, letting out a screech.
"When I returned from my walk, I came across this guy trying to sneak into
Jonas's room. He looked like he was going to do something weird and cause
trouble, so I caught him."
"I wasn't thinking of doing anything weird! I just thought I'd pull a little prank
by ringing the signal bell!"
Mythrill snorted and looked away from Shall while sitting cross-armed on the
floor.
"When you said you were going to peep, you were going to go play pranks!?"
She raised her voice. Jonas may be a despicable person, but she didn't agree
with getting back at him. Mythrill stood up somewhat in a hurry.
"No, wait, Ann! Don't get the wrong idea! I really was just going to peep, but I
got happy seeing that guy so depressed, I thought I'd just give him the final
blow."
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
"'Got happy,' 'final blow'... That's even worse, isn't it..."
As Ann murmured, Shall spoke from behind her.
"Right. Rather than such a prank, if you're gonna do something, you should be
more aggressive."
"What do you mean 'be more aggressive'!? Though the same goes for pranks,
as people, isn't being more aggressive an even greater wrong?!"
Mythrill and Shall exchanged looks. "We're not people," they said
simultaneously.
Heartbroken, Ann held her hand against her forehead.
"Ah, that's right... That's enough..."
She gave up on admonishing the two fairies.
"But Jonas being depressed means the Duke must have not liked his sugar
sculpture," said Ann, to which Mythrill nodded with folded arms.
"I'm positive that's what happened. Also, that guy had a bruise showing on his
face. Guess he had a lover's quarrel with Kathy or something. That's quite the
wonderful situation."
Hearing Mythrill's words, Shall made a dubious expression. Ann too, tilted her
head.
"Would Kathy do something like that?"
She didn't think Kathy, who considered Jonas her number one priority, would
lay a hand on him. Perhaps he’d fallen down the stairs or bumped into
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
something in the room.
"So, is your sugar sculpture finished?" asked Shall. Ann looked at the
sculpture behind her.
"Yeah. I think it's good enough."
"Shall I ring the signal?" Mythrill grabbed the string cheerfully.
Truth was, she felt that she didn't quite understand the meaning of the Duke's
words when he said, ‘Increase the accuracy.’ She was captured by the notion
of making the workmanship more detailed, and increased the drape of the
fairy's dress, and added a watermark pattern to the hem.
"Please."
Mythrill pulled the string and the sound of a bell rang in conjunction inside
Ann's room, out in the corridor, and then somewhere far away.
Soon after, they heard hard footsteps climbing up the stairs.
Without a knock, the door to the room opened.
"Your grace...?"
It was Alban, Duke of Philax, in the flesh. Though a page came following
behind him, she never thought the man himself would suddenly come to such
a sorry room. Normally, that would be impossible.
Ann quickly knelt on the floor and bowed her head, but her figure didn't seem
to penetrate Alban's eyes. He advanced straight towards the worktable and
looked at the sugar sculpture.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
Trying to see his reaction, Ann slightly raised her eyes while keeping her head
low.
She saw the Duke's hands; they were tightly clenched, as if holding back
anger.
"It hasn't changed," Alban murmured.
"Eh..."
Ann raised her head, unable to comprehend his words.
Alban was looking at her with a hint of anger in his eyes.
"Were you not listening to me? I ordered you to give form to the fairy in the
portrait. And yesterday, I ordered you to increase the accuracy. This is the
same as yesterday. Nothing's changed. Both you and the craftsman downstairs
understand nothing," he said, and with that, quickly turned on his heel and left.
Ann was dumbfounded.
"What does that mean?"
―What is he not satisfied with?
Shall Fen Shall leaned against the wall, gazing at the sugar sculpture Ann
made.
Ann was worrying over what was wrong with her sculpture and had been
sitting in front of it since noon without moving. After barely having any
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
dinner, she once again sat down in front of it, and only seemed to come to
when Mythrill turned on a lamp for her when it became dark. She thanked
him, but then immediately returned to gazing at the sculpture.
Shall understood Ann's bafflement.
As far as he could tell, the first sugar sculpture Ann finished was of near
perfect workmanship. Its accuracy couldn't go any higher. It had a perfect
form. If you added or took anything from it, its balance would collapse.
He didn't understand what Alban was unhappy with.
Mythrill too, had been sitting on the windowsill with a serious expression,
patiently waiting for Ann to gather her thoughts. But it seemed he couldn't win
against his drowsiness and dozed off.
"Maybe I should try a different approach..."
It was past midnight when Ann murmured and stood straight up.
"Tinkering with this will make the whole thing break, meaning I can't increase
its accuracy. So making something else... Something more realistic..." she
muttered while grabbing a lamp from the table, and was about to leave
through the door.
"Do you want to get lost?"
He called out to her, and as though startled back into her senses, she turned
towards him.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go look at the portrait of that fairy again. If I remember
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
correctly, there should be one in the hall. So I'm going to go look at it again,
and then I'll make the sculpture in a more realistic approach."
"So, you can reach the hall safely?" he asked, and after looking surprised, Ann
hung her head.
"Right... I forgot..."
She looked at Shall apologetically.
"Though it's the middle of the night, will you go with me? Is it okay?"
"I'll go."
He pulled his back away from the wall and took up the lamp from Ann's hand.
Taking the lead, he headed towards the hall.
Naturally, the hall was pitch black, so he held the lamp's light over the
portrait.
The air was so cold; Ann embraced her shoulders in her arms and her breath
turned white.
As Shall gazed at the gently smiling fairy in the portrait, a thought occurred to
him.
"Maybe Duke Philax isn't looking for something extraordinary in a sugar
sculpture?" he said, and Ann looked up at him in wonder.
"What do you mean?"
"If he just wanted an extraordinary sugar sculpture, your sculpture should've
been enough to satisfy him."
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
"But the Duke isn't satisfied. What I made isn't what he wants."
Ann returned her gaze to the portrait, staring at it fixedly as if it were
challenging her. The profile of her face right then looked more mature than
usual.
Starting the next day, and for the next five days, she made a new sugar
sculpture.
Though the size was the same as the previous one, the representation changed
drastically.
She visited the portrait time and again, driving the face shape into her head
until she’d attained every detail, and sculpted it in a realistic representation as
though to solidify the portrait as it was.
She felt that, unlike the previous sculpture, the atmosphere had diminished
somewhat. Instead, she emphasized the vivid color scheme and the sharpness
of the lines as befitting a realistic representation. Otherwise, as a sugar
sculpture, it would just give a vague impression with no determined focus.
With that, she felt it was perfect. But in order to confirm one more time, she
decided to go see the portrait.
The past five days, she made round trips from the hall to the room dozens of
times. Thanks to that, she was able to come and go on that one path even
without Shall's escort.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
"I'm going to go look at the picture for a bit," she said to Mythrill, who was
cleaning up the table, and left the room.
Shall was out on a walk as always.
It was evening. There was a small window by the spiral-shaped stairway
circling the interior of the tower. From there, the sea breeze blew in, along
with the light of the setting sun and the smell of the tide.
As soon as she left the room, the chilly air stroked the nape of her neck and
she sneezed. Shivering, she began climbing up the stairs.
Then, as if predicting the moment Ann would pass by, the door to Jonas's
room opened.
Jonas's face peeked out with an exhausted expression.
She hasn't heard the sound of a bell coming from downstairs for the past five
days, so Ann assumed Jonas was busy fixing his sculpture as well.
"Ann."
He hailed her and she halted. Being hailed by him was surprising.
"What?"
"What are you doing?"
"What am I doing? I'm going to go see the portrait of that fairy."
At that, Jonas made an unbelieving expression.
"Are you perhaps making a sugar sculpture?"
"Of course I am. Aren't you?"
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
"I can't make one. I don't understand a single thing that guy says. I want to
quit already..."
Jonas's complaining surprised her.
"What are you saying? Well, it would help me if you quit though."
"You can only say that now!" he suddenly yelled in anger and shut the door.
The moment he did, she saw the blue bruise on his left cheek.
"Jonas?"
Jonas's cornered behavior concerned her. To purposely hail Ann as she walked
by despite her being hostile towards him and complain like that... Something
must have happened.
Was he perhaps turning to Ann for help? If that was the case, should she try to
hear him out and consult him? She thought to herself for a while.
But after remembering what he did to her in Lewiston, she thought herself to
be a complete softhearted fool. And with that, she headed towards the hall.
After confirming with the portrait one more time, she returned to the room and
rang the signal. The one who appeared was, as expected, Alban himself.
He scrutinized the sugar sculpture for a while, then glared at Ann.
"What is this you made?"
"It's the fairy painted in the picture."
"Wrong. This is completely wrong."
Those words surprised her. She never thought he'd go as far as saying it was
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
‘completely wrong.’
She made it more realistic than the previous sculpture. It couldn't be wrong.
―It can't be. I made it a spitting image of her. What are you saying is wrong?
She was baffled. Reflexively, she asked, "Then, what is wrong? Please tell
me."
"Everything."
"What do you mean? I confirmed with the painting over and over and made it
exactly the same. I increased the accuracy with fine workmanship while
adjusting its balance as a sugar sculpture."
"There is no meaning nor nothing! Everything is just wrong! This is just a
fake look-alike! I don't even want to look at something like this!" Alban
shouted, and all of a sudden, he beat the sugar sculpture off its stand to the
ground.
For a moment, she stopped breathing. The sugar sculpture shattered on the
floor.
Ann couldn't move. She was frozen by the shock of having the sculpture she
spent five days making break, and the terror of having caused Alban to burst
with anger.
"Give her form. You will give her form!"
Alban spoke as if spitting out the words, and with that, he left the room.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
Fatigued, Ann sank to the floor on the spot. The stone floor must have been
cold, but she couldn't feel it.
Mythrill quickly ran up to her and hit the dumbfounded girl's cheek.
"Ann, Ann! Are you alright? Pull yourself together, Ann!"
"...The sugar sculpture..."
Tears gradually welled in her eyes.
"What happened here?"
A voice came from the entrance of the room. She slowly turned her head to
see Shall, back from his walk. Seeing Ann slumped on the floor and the
shattered sugar sculpture, his expression turned grave.
"Did Duke Philax do this?" Shall asked Mythrill, and Mythrill nodded. From
that, he seemed to infer the situation.
He slowly walked up to Ann and got down on one knee.
"Did he lay a hand on you?"
His voice was monotonous, but his concern came across perfectly.
"...No."
"Duke Philax wasn't satisfied with that, was he?"
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
Ann nodded, and Shall heaved a light sigh. He began speaking quietly, "What
Duke Philax is looking for is likely something not you nor anyone can
understand. I don't think he can be pleased by having a sugar sculpture made.
You should withdraw."
"...Eh?"
"There's no need to obtain that one thousand Cress and the honor. You should
withdraw and leave this place."
"You mean, to quit this job midway?"
"Yes."
"But, I... I accepted it. I said I can do it."
"There are things you can't do."
Mythrill then agreed as well.
"That's right, Ann. I also think you should quit this job. It's a shame about the
one thousand Cress though..."
―Quit the job?
Saying she couldn’t do it and abandoning the job she'd accepted―that was
basically saying, 'I can't complete the sculpture because I don't really
understand what you're asking for, so it's your fault.'
―I don't want to.
Deep in her heart, contrary to reason, moaned something like obstinacy.
―I don't want to say I can't do it.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
"I'm the one at fault for not being able to do it. I'm the one at fault for not
understanding what the Duke is looking for. It's only natural to make what the
client desires after all. I'm being spoiled by not understanding that."
Strongly influenced by the shock, her voice was tearful.
"His wish may be something abnormal. It may be something that can't be
made into a sugar sculpture."
―Does he really desire something that can't be made?
She recalled Alban's words and expressions thus far. As she thought, her
feelings of agitation subsided, and for just a moment, Ann remembered an
expression Alban showed her.
"It can't be something that can't be made."
She suddenly raised her head.
"It has to be something that can be made into a sugar sculpture. Because when
the Duke first saw my sculpture, for just a moment, he looked happy. But after
looking at it closely, he said it was wrong. I don't think he would've have
made that face if it weren't something that could be represented in the extent
of a sugar sculpture."
Hearing those words, Mythrill said in amazement, "In short, you're saying
you'll keep working?"
"I don't want to quit. I know the two of you are worried about me... But..."
"You're the one making it. You're the one to decide," Shall said curtly while
standing up.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
"I'm sorry Shall, Mythrill Reed Pod, for making you tag along."
"You're the only one entertaining enough to kill time with by tagging along, so
I don't mind."
All the while saying hateful things, he took Ann's hand and pulled her to her
feet.
"Well, I know that Ann is an idiot, so I'm not surprised."
Mythrill too, nodded with an amazed expression.
She didn't want to abandon the job.
It was obstinacy. She didn't want to voluntarily raise a white flag and run
away. To Ann, there was nothing she wanted to do other than to make sugar
sculptures, nor did anything else have any value to her. For that reason, she
felt that if she abandoned something even just once, her weapon would slip
right out of her hand.
However, even if she decided to obstinately continue working this way, what
sort of sugar sculpture should she make? The fact that she didn't know still had
not changed.
For that night at least, she decided to get a good rest.
Her hands didn't touch the silver sugar. It was preparation for calming her
mind and grasping something new.
Having finished her supper, she sat by the table and drank some hot tea to
warm up her body before going to sleep.
She gave Shall some tea as well. With his one hand resting on the table, he
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Vol. 2 - Ginzatoushi to Ao no Koushaku.
placed his palm over the steaming cup to enjoy his tea. Shall seemed to like
the aroma of matured tea floating in the room. Occasionally, he'd partly close
his eyes, and at the same time, his wing would shine a light green color.
As for Mythrill, it seemed his exhaustion from working these past few days
had piled up. After dinner, he immediately crawled into bed. Seeing him
breathing so loudly in his sleep made her feel bad. She was so immersed in her
work that she didn't notice how tired he was.
Since moving to this room, Mythrill and Ann had been using the bed. Shall
would sleep on a leather mat on the floor, using a sheet for a blanket. That
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