I could hear the sudden ruffling of something by my side, while Regolius' ears perked up, we both turned around to the sound and there Krus was standing, rubbing her eyes while she stood up lazily.

She stretched her arms upward, yawning while her eyes closed. “Big brother Krux!” She exclaimed out all the sudden before walking towards the dining table with a small smile on her face. But it was immediately gone when her eyes went wide as a plate. “Pops!?”

“My daughter!” Regolius stood up, heavily jumping into the air before embracing his own daughter in a hug, I only watched with a small smile on my face, while the two of them embraced each other.

“Why is dad here?” Krus asked innocently, her head seemed to tilt a bit, while her eyes were shining like jewelry. I only gazed at the interaction of the two of them.

“Dad is here to take you out. Where do you want to go?” Regolius asked while scratching the ears of Krus, the two of them smiling while they continued to indulge in both of their familiar love. Though right now, I feel a little jealous.

“Really!? Ah, there’s a place I want to go!” Krus ecstatically exclaimed, before hopping a bit on her position. Regolius’ huge smile on his face didn’t die down.

“Of course. Though your big brother here-” He pointed at me above his shoulders while still staring at Krus. “Has something to take care of first, so we need to get him there.” He must be talking about the florist. I smiled before pushing my body up.

“Yeah.” I said before placing two of my fingers in my lips, before whistling, the wind made a sound that called out to Arthur. The said wolf suddenly came rushing into my side within seconds. A very swift wolf. I placed my palm in the wolf’s fur and started scratching it.

“Right, so let’s go.”

“Yay!”

…

I entered the florist’s shop, the sudden smell of earth and fragrant flowers entered my nose while I looked around the shop. There decorated multiple flowers, and even bags of seeds. My eyes scanned the shop around.

While I took another step forward, “Welcome!” A high-pitched voice from the counter said, and then there stood right behind the counter was a woman with grayish-brown hair, she had a bright smile on her face while she gazed upon me.

As soon as I took note of her figure, one thing that stood out was the fact that she didn’t have any animal ears at all, instead just poking out of her long hair, which was spiky long ears. An elf. Specifically a half-elf. The ear is quite shorter than normal ears of elves.

“Hello.” I greeted back, before averting my eyes once more to the flowers that the shop had while slowly walking towards the counter. “There’s a flower I'm looking for, actually.” I said a bit hesitant, this flower was certainly one that was only present in the regions of humans.

You could see it on elven forest sometimes, but they would simply be harvested, for they are not too fragrant. Elven flowers are extremely fragrant, they make great presents to your destined partner for life.

“Is it… snow lilies?” The shopkeeper’s eyes narrowed down to look at my own eyes, we locked eyes into each other while she broke eye contact with a smile. Bingo I guess.

“Magic eyes?” Those eyes, I narrowed my eyes towards her eyes, they were unusually dull. Magic eyes, eyes that are compatible with magic, it’s a rare mutation in people that forms itself as an ability.

The girl at the counter giggled, her dull, light gray eyes smiled at me. “Nice to meet you. I’m Shermaine.” She introduced herself while placing a hand weakly on her chest, closing her eyes making her seem approachable.

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“I’m Krux.” I also introduced myself while I fully approached the counter. And gazed at her light-gray dull eyes.

“I can arrange the flowers, but if you want the seeds then that’ll cost… err…” She made a pause before pulling out a paper, she stared at it for a while, her eyes moving quite fast. “Ah right, 6 bronze coins for one bag.” 6? Well it’s not really that much, but usually won’t they be like 14 - 15?

“Snow lilies often grow here because they like cold climates, they're basically like white lilies, just that they grow in cold forests.” Shermaine then started to continue as if reading my train of thoughts.

“Well, seems understandable, just a bag pls.”

“Alright!” She happily exclaimed before turning around and walking towards the door just right behind her, she opened it before entering said room.

After a few seconds, she finally came out of the room with the sack in her hands, a small sack while she raised it and brought it up to the counter. “That was oddly hard to find.” She muttered to herself, but I acted like I heard nothing.

I reached out to my pockets and pulled out 6 bronze coins before placing them right above the counter. “6 bronze coins.” I muttered, while Shermaine took a look at them before collecting them.

“Thank you for your purchase, is there anything you need?” Shermaine asked while putting both of her arms at her back, intertwining them.

“I have a question.” I said while my eyes fell towards the ground. “In the flower language, what does red rose mean?” It was a weird question, red rose probably has the most common meaning of all, the purest meaning of all.

Yet I don’t know of it, Bedivere really never told me much about it, she taught me a lot about flowers, their meaning, and how to grow them. An answer? Huh, I guess I’ll give you an answer tomorrow in that grave that we made.

“Huh?” She’s probably perplexed, “Ah it means love. If somebody gives you a red rose., it’s indirectly saying "I love you.”

…

Shermaine’s voice continued to echo in my head, love? I held the bag of snow lily seeds while staring at the two which is Regolius and Krus having some daughter-father moment, while they had fun. I only leaned on a wall, Arthur right beside me sat obediently.

Love? By love, she meant… this really gets me nowhere, it was quite true Bedivere usually expressed her emotions in different ways, like giving flowers to somebody, but love?

“Krux, I’ve never given somebody a red rose.”

Those words entered my mind, never given a red rose. Was I the first one that received a red rose from her? Was I truly that dense? I could only sigh, yeah I was quite dense at the time.

Dense even to myself, I knew from a long time that I somehow had liked Bedivere, yet we kept it to ourselves. I think it was one of the main reasons why I naturally described Bedivere as the most beautiful flower I’ve ever seen.

…

A girl with white hair stood before me, right across the field of flowers while I sat lonely in the middle of it. A beautiful white flower decorated her hair while her face was with great concern. Her soft gaze at me was like a thousand roses.

“What are you doing here?” She asked while slowly approaching me, yet I paid no attention to her, the rambling and continuing flowing thoughts in my head started to slowly consume me.

“That should be my question…” I said without much thought, while Bedivere then crouched down to look at me straight in the eyes, her soft eyes, piercing my very soul.

“Did you know? Krux, I’ve never given somebody a red rose.” She said before averting her eyes towards the fortress of the Kingdom, while although the two of them were here, they were sure there were no enemies.

“Is that so? I haven’t found the meaning of red rose yet.”

“You don’t have to, right now. I just want you to know that what I gave you was sincere.” You say that, yet, all you ever leave me is in confusion of whatever you mean.

She stopped crouching and pulled herself up to look at me.

…

…

…

Shermaine Veks

Level 2

Age: 18

Titles: Florist In The Mist

Race: Elf

Blessing: None

Occupation: Florist

Affinity: None

Special Abilities:

Lotus Eye: The ability to see what the heart desires, in flower language that is.