Editing Clash of Hexennacht:Volume3 Preface (section)

===Groundwork of a Promise===
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“Mama, I’m not going to finish tending to the flowers. What should I do?”

The girl’s mother answered her question.

“Well, Fleur, when that happens…you need to call a florist.”

“You sure are direct, mama! But it’s the care you show the flowers that make them pretty!”

“Yes, but the care of a florist has got to be more thorough and consistent than that of a mother and her daughter, don’t you think, Fleur? You need to think these things through.”

Hearing that, the daughter stuck her hoe in the flower bed and thought.

…''What does thinking this through mean?

“Oh, I get it! We can stay in the flower garden longer than a florist, so we need to look after the buds!”

“No, we have spells for growing flowers, so we just have to use those. We are witches after all, Fleur. Not that I’m going to do anything.”

“Mama! I feel like you’re leaving all the work to me!”

“I’m allowed to do that, Fleur. I spent a long time taking care of the flowers back at the school that became this one. Everything is so much safer now, compared to when I had to protect the flowers night and day from idiots who drank too much and passed out or idiots who would announce they were revealing a new special attack, slice through space itself, and send around five hundred newly-planted tulips into another dimension.”

“Mama, do you actually hate flowers?”

“Fleur, you like flowers, don’t you? But do you like the bugs they attract?”

“Wow! Then are you saying you crushed those bugs!?”

The mother did not nod. She simply looked up to the sun that was beginning to sink into the west.

“Fleur, I love flowers, but I also love alcohol and sweets with plenty of cream on top.”

“…Are you saying you lost, mama?”

“No, I won. Because my hunger was under my control. Yes, I used it to my heart’s content.”

“Talk about positive thinking, mama!”

“Well, whatever,” said the mother. “The flower I am named after comes here without being picked, pierced, or sliced. Perhaps how difficult Cerisier is to pronounce gave me a divine protection. Sakura probably wouldn’t have been enough.”

“Mama, is that why my name is Fleur?”

“Oh? Would you have preferred Hana? I get the feeling you would have been called Hanako or Ohana-san.”

“Using that line of reasoning, being named Mitsuru or Man would be a real tragedy… But if I had to choose, I think I would have preferred a name with Hana directly in it.”

“That would have been nice.”

Her mother did not deny it. But…

“I am included in your name, Fleur. And I am more than just Cerisier.”

“Are you some other flower too, mama?”

“Yes. So treat those flowers with care so they will blossom, Fleur. Once you understand that, you will understand two more things.”

Which were…

“First, we are always with you. And second…the greatest spell for growing a flower is to never forget that flowers can bloom on their own. Okay?”
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