A Pure Princess (Part 3)

My eyes went wide and my mouth left agape. I stared at the garden before me. Numerous flowers sprouted on the ground, blooming in various colors. Pink, yellow, red, blue, purple, and white. There were also bushes decorated with tiny flowers.

Not only that, but this place was huge. I couldn’t believe it that they actually made a garden this large. But that was not the main attraction here.

The most eye-catching were the wisterias. It stole my breath the first time I saw them firsthand. A lot of them were scattered about. Their purple color beautified the scene, somehow making it magical to behold.

I excitedly entered the garden and crouched down before a pink flower. I plucked one and moved it closer to my nose and smelled it. I often saw people smell flowers and also on TV shows I caught a glimpse of. I tried smelling some flowers once, but it didn’t smell that good. I just copied what people did when there were flowers, also curious what flowers would smell like since people seem to enjoy sniffing them.

Well, I can’t say I was satisfied with the smell the first times I smelled flowers. In any case, not that great.

But, when I smelled this flower, I was awestruck. A pleasant fragrance came to my nose. This almost smelled like perfume. Were all flowers in this world smell this good?

“Milady! You shouldn’t pluck flowers in the garden.”

I suddenly heard Mera’s panicked voice beside me.

“Ah.”

I seemed to have been caught in the moment and picked up a flower without thinking anything else. I looked at the flower in my hand. It was too late now that I had plucked it.

I stood up and looked at Mera with a concerned face.

“I already plucked it off…”

Mera also had a troubled expression. I couldn’t just throw it around here, someone would still discover it. It may become one of those wasted and thrown away flowers. The gardener might get, well, angry. Well, I was not that worried about that person, I was more worried about my parents. They might scold me, that would be bothersome.

“Ah.”

I had an idea. I fixed back my hair, then placed the pink flower on my ear. With the flower on the side of my head, I smiled and waved my hand.

“What do you think, Mera?”

I said so as I spun around, the skirt of my dress fluttered in the air.

I displayed myself to Mera with a beautiful flower decorating my hair. I must have looked stunning, I can already tell it from the stunned expression from Mera. I was quite amused by this.

“Mera?”

“U-Um, yes! You look wonderful, milady!”

“That’s great! Hihihi.”

I chuckled as I turned around to look around the garden once more. Since I can’t just pull off a flower, I only lowered myself to smell the flowers. To my surprise, all of these flowers smelled wonderful, as I got closer to the center, I could already faintly smell their fragrance in the air.

Each different colored flower even had different aromas.

Then I reached a wisteria cluster. I could smell them.

Does every flower here smell this good?

I touched a wisteria. Which reminded me that my surname was wisteria. It was clearly based on the flower. I recalled the origin of this kingdom from Estelia’s memories.

There were basically two lovers. They loved flowers heartily. Thus, they planted different kinds of flowers by their home. But the most that caught their attention were the westerias. Captivated by their beauty as every flower illuminated under the moonlight, they fell in love with the flowers. And thus, they had their family name after the flower. Then in the flow of time, people gathered and the kingdom slowly formed.

Quite a sweet story, I think?

But that was legit the origin of this kingdom named Wisteria.

By the way, the wisteria here glow during the night. It was quite the beautiful sight in the memories.

Aaah, I should definitely see that during the night.

I decided to go out the night later.

I stared at the wisteria.

How wonderful.

The smell and the beauty. The peace and serenity.

I began to adore this place and this scene. These flowers. How could the world keep something hidden from me for such a long time...?

I felt something strange within my heart. Something that came from the realization that there were things like this that I had never experienced my entire life. It was a heavy realization. But, somehow, it made me happy to finally experience a glimpse of it.

“Milady?”

Mera called out to me from behind in a somewhat concerned tone. I turned around and saw her worried eyes. Did she sense my emotion somehow? Not good. I can’t just openly expose my emotions like that. That was a mistake.

“Ah, yes. This place is indeed wonderful, like always. Don’t you think?”

I smiled, erasing the emotions I just felt.

“... Yes, it’s wonderful.”

She looked baffled. But I didn’t think much of it. I am just going to move on.

“Say, let’s take a look around.”

I continued walking amidst the beautiful garden. Petals of flowers fell and flew in the air in the gentle wind. A serene moment for me. It was like the flowers were celebrating the day my freedom was granted.