Editing City Series:Volume6e Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

Hazel came to.

…''Hwuh?

That noise came from her mind.

Her body sat up just fine, but her mind was still woozy.

She could see a bright light, she was wrapped in a light pink blanket, and a gentle milky scent came from the blanket.

Clarity gradually returned to her mind.

She was sitting atop a bed.

This was a small wooden room. It had little furniture and the bright morning light shined in through the window to her left.

“You seem to be doing well. You slept through the whole night, so are you feeling better now?”

The sudden female voice made Hazel jump.

Her mind was fully awake now.

She turned to the right, wondering who this was, and saw a woman standing in front of the sink on the wall. She held a baby and Hazel recognized her.

“Eryngium?”

“I thought I recognized you from our wedding last year. You were with the guest Lehrer invited.”

Eryngium narrowed her eyes below her long brown hair and the baby in her arms cooed.

“I’m getting this girl some breakfast right now, so give me a second. Sorry if it’s cold in here.”

That last comment made Hazel look down at herself.

She was naked.

She shrieked and pulled up the blanket. Eryngium laughed with her back turned.

“Don’t worry. I had my husband spend the night with the neighbors, so it’s just me and the kid here. Okay?”

Eryngium scooped a spoonful of steaming oatmeal from a pot sitting next to the sink. She put it in her mouth first, chewed a few times, and then fed it to the baby.

Hazel held her knees below the blanket while watching it all even if Eryngium had her back turned. And then…

“You’re with the Allies, aren’t you? You call yourselves the AIF, right? Lehrer suddenly disappeared about a month ago…so are you here to clean up after that? Or are you using our village as a shelter?”

“The latter. Sorry.”

And…

“Excuse me, but what day is it? You said I slept all night, right?”

“It’s the 23rd. Around 7 in the morning I think.”

“Thank you. I really did sleep all night, didn’t I?”

Hazel shrank down in the bed and thought to herself.

…''These villagers don’t know what we’re fighting for.

History would come to an end tomorrow, the 24th, at 4:42 AM.

Stopping the Wheel of Destiny and allowing history to continue would likely allow the damaged Spacetime Lives to reconnect to the future Spacetime Lives they still couldn’t see.

When that happened, the revolution carried out before the connection would be applied to the entire world, greatly rewriting the Spacetime Lives so everything fit together.

…''Without the Wheel of Destiny, the Messiah never would have appeared in Germany.

This would change her and those around her, but it would also change Eryngium and others like her.

…''But they won’t lose anything. Things will only change.

She shook her head at the word “only”. The AIF couldn’t think up a way to avoid that and the Allies had thrown it all out as made-up nonsense.

There was nothing she could do.

She sighed, lowered her knees, lifted up the blanket, and looked at her body.

When she touched between her breasts, she felt a twinge of pain and realized something.

“E-excuse me. Was I wearing a pendant?”

“Check the side table.”

She looked to her right as told.

A black string choker, the Wheel of Destiny card, and a pendant on a gold chain sat on the wooden bedside table.

The pendant’s locket sat partially open, giving a glimpse of the red stone ring inside.

Hazel breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the pendant. However…

“Oh.”

The pendant was broken.

The locket part opened and closed just fine, but the red stone that decorate the outside had broken. The stone now had a hole in the center and pieces had fallen out, revealing the locket portion below.

“Is that a good luck charm? Because it saved your life. You were fortunate, so you won’t even have a scar.”

Hazel nodded, assessed the damage she had taken, and shuddered.

She felt some tension and reached a hand to the brand on her shoulder.

Then she realized something else.

She knew something important about this woman.

…''Eryngium should have a scar. But not like this brand.

She didn’t know the details, but it had to be true. So she relaxed her tense body and sighed.

…''I can’t just sit here trembling.

Just then, she heard a quiet voice from Eryngium.

But it wasn’t Eryngium’s voice. It was a smaller voice that couldn’t even pronounce anything correctly.

She looked over to see a small round hand waving over Eryngium’s shoulder.

That was the baby’s hand. The small palm stuck up toward the ceiling and repeatedly closed and opened.

“There, there,” said Eryngium, turning toward Hazel and swaying gently side to side.

She began to hum a lullaby and Hazel breathed a sigh of relief.

…''I can’t keep fearing scars.

She had another thought while viewing Eryngium.

…''If possible, I hope this doesn’t change afterwards.

She knew that was only self-righteous selfishness, so she reached her right hand to the side table and grabbed the choker.

The black string was somewhat damp.

But that didn’t prevent her from tying it. She reached for her neck, placed the choker around it, and looked back to the side table.

If the Wheel of Destiny card was here…

“Excuse me. Do you have the clothes this card was in?”

“They’re hanging out to dry. It’s supposed to rain again starting this afternoon, so I wanted to get that done sooner rather than later.”

“Thank you. I would have liked some underwear sooner than this, though.”

Eryngium smiled bitterly.

Hazel looked up and saw the baby had calmed down at Eryngium’s chest.

That small face without a full head of hair was drifting off to sleep.

“Oh, sorry. I’m hogging the bed, aren’t I? Do you need to let that child sleep?”

“Don’t worry about it. Or were you planning to hang around the house in the nude?”

“N-no, I thought I could maybe borrow a shirt or something.”

“Unfortunately, my figure isn’t as nice as yours. I’ve been getting a little saggy of late.”

“Oh,” was all Hazel said, looking out the window and deciding not to press further.

It was the sunny period between two rainstorms and there was enough of a wind to occasionally rattle the window.

…''The laundry should dry quickly like this.

She heard the bed creak. Before she realized that meant Eryngium had sat next to her, she felt a small voice and a tickling sensation on her neck.

The touch to such a sensitive spot made her jump. She turned around in a hurry to find the baby in Eryngium’s arms reaching for the choker on her neck.

She managed to hide her surprise and noticed the baby had two feline eyes.

…''Eryngium said she’s a girl, didn’t she?

Hazel looked her in the eye and shook the end of the choker’s string that stuck out some.

The baby reached out, trying to catch it.

“My, my. You must have an unusual scent.”

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Eryngium pulled the baby a bit away from the choker and then commented on its black color.

“But plain black is unusual for a girl like you. Does your partner like black?”

Hazel held a hand to her throat and looked to Eryngium.

She knew the exact look on her face: brow furrowed and lips pressed firmly together.

…''Does she remember Berger?

She did not.

She hadn’t realized who he was at the wedding last year and Hazel had been able to make some good guesses from the way Berger acted and the things he said. Hazel looked the other woman in the eye.

“He…” She nodded and unfurrowed her brow. “Yes, he dresses all in black and I should see him later today.”

…''His Tune healing finished the other day, so his right leg has fully recovered.

She had ended up entering Germany before he came to, so she hadn’t spoken with him for about a month. She would be reunited with him…

“On the outskirts of Germania. He will have black wings and a black sword. And I…I will be wearing this choker, whether I’ve turned into a cat or turned back.”

“I see.” Eryngium gave a satisfied smile and casually stopped the baby from grabbing the black string and putting it in her mouth.

Hazel watched the exchange before asking a question of her own.

“Eryngium, do you not like black?”

“I know it is supposed to be bad luck. But at the same time, it can be used to hide so many things. Important things that you don’t want people to find.”

Eryngium’s gaze turned toward the bottom of the side table. The bottom of the table was a box with a glass door and several things were line up within.

Hazel realized what they were.

“Black disks.”