-...Transfer to Akansis?
- Right.
The department head, faced with a clearly gloomy clerk, continued with an indifferent expression.
- Clerk Ambrose, your whole family is in Akansis, and you even graduated from the academy there. It looks like you are the best candidate.
-...May I know why the transfer notice appeared so suddenly?
- How should I know? The order came from above.
Alma Martin yawned widely, as if nothing interested her, then looked displeasedly at Tilia standing in front of her desk.
- And what? Don't want to go? Then maybe it would be better for me, who actually has family here, to go to Akansis?
- No, that’s not the point...
- If that's not the case, Clerk Ambrose, this is a great opportunity for you, isn't it? You can return to your hometown. It's not a promotion, but it's not a demotion either. You'll probably even get a small increase in your salary. Why are you hesitating?
Alma, as if too irritated to continue speaking, tossed the transfer papers at her.
- Fill it out and bring it to me by the end of the week. You can also take this chance to tidy up your workspace.
Tilia awkwardly accepted the transfer form thrown by her boss, hesitated for a moment, and then bowed slightly.
- Yes. I will inform you of my decision within a week.
- Stubborn, as always...
Even without looking, she could tell. Alma Martin stares at her back.
But, as always, Tilia completely ignored her and returned to her desk.
Phew. The moment she sat down, a sigh escaped from somewhere deep inside.
Translation? To Akansis?
For a moment, memories of everything she had experienced in that place came flooding back to her, and Tilia felt a sudden wave of dizziness.
But it was not only despair or anxiety that caused this feeling. There was a strange heaviness of anticipation and an unfamiliar fluttering pressing on my chest.
With her face contorted with mixed emotions, Tilia fiddled with the transfer form, then looked slightly to the side.
The adjacent table, which belonged to Norbert Karel, had been empty for a week.
This meant that a week had passed since Ilex Davenport had suddenly appeared only to disappear again.
Norbert Karel has not been seen since the day she returned from the palace.
Whether it was an unauthorized vacation or a business trip - since their boss didn't say anything, no one knew the reason for his absence. But Tilia didn't care enough to be curious. All she felt was a vague sense of how much time had passed.
It seemed like it was just an hour ago. But a week has already passed.
Remembering that night, Tilia instinctively crumpled up the corner of the paper, but then belatedly realized that she was holding an official document in her hands and quickly put it aside.
It's time to get to work. The main thing is to get through the day without incident.
Because she left without permission, Tilia had to work overtime for the past week as punishment. She wet her dry lips with cold water and calmly picked up the letter opener.
***
But no matter how hard she tried, Tilia could not avoid another long day of work.
Her boss, who had already decided that she was transferring to Akansis, demanded that she finish all her business before leaving.
“Well, if I transfer, then at least I won’t have to see the head of the department anymore.”
Exercising her tense shoulders, Tilia hurried through the night streets.
At that moment, the light of a brightly burning gas lamp fell on the soiled toe of her shoe.
She silently looked at the mark that stained her new shoes, and then spoke her thoughts out loud.
- Return to Akansis...
The main reason why she had to leave her hometown has long been eliminated.
She learned the truth back when she was buying all the Acansis messengers she could find in Ontario.
The story of the tragic fall of her father and brother.
The article appeared in a tiny corner of one of the issues.
Baron Ambrose, who had recklessly defrauded noble investors in a mining business, was desperate to avoid prison by even selling the family mansion. But since he was also accused of smuggling, he could not escape punishment.
Without even the money to bribe him to persuade the guards, he ended up in one of the most notorious northern prisons in the kingdom. There he became seriously ill and, according to rumors, is now bedridden in a squalid hospital.
The article also said that the Ambrose heir, who fled with what little wealth remained before the family's collapse, fared little better.
George Ambrose was found in a gambling den, looking like a wreck, no different from his father.
The police who found him initially decided that he was just another drug addict or tramp. But miraculously, they found the name he kept muttering on the list of missing persons and rescued him. Thus, the heir to the house of Ambrose, who had nearly frozen to death on the street, now lived in an almshouse.
The reporter, who explained the tragic fall of the Ambrose house in an accessible way, gave the article a simple headline:
[Complete collapse of the speculator]
Not the fall of the house of Ambrose and not the fall of the noble house - just "the complete collapse of the speculator."
“What name could suit my father better than this?”
Tilia pursed her lips, feeling a strange desire to sponsor a journalist who wrote such a wonderful article.
Thus, the most compelling reason why she did not return home had long since disappeared.
Now she was completely free to go wherever she wanted. Tilia wasn't stupid enough to ignore her father or brother, who were apparently going crazy.
Then... is it really a big deal if she comes back?
It was at this moment, while she was still slowly walking towards the house, that her steps suddenly changed direction.
The stained toe of her shoe was pointed not towards a quiet residential area, but towards a busy square.
Tilia walked blindly following her subconscious, holding tightly to the strap of her bag.
At some point, she relaxed and again remembered the article she saw at the fountain last week.
[Cecilia Clayton breaks off her engagement to the Duke of Davenport!
Cecilia Clayton, eldest daughter of the Marquess of Clayton, has announced the end of her engagement to Duke Ilex Davenport.
An aide to the Clayton family, who had last month dismissed rumors of the engagement being called off as unfounded, suddenly announced just a month later that "Miss Cecilia will soon be married to the Marquis of Doyer." Doyer, an allied kingdom of Ontario, has no other means of transport to Acansis except by sea. Why such a noble young lady settled in such a remote country remains unclear...]
Unlike her vague memories of the article about the Ambroses, the passage about the Duke of Davenport's broken engagement was imprinted in her memory so clearly that she could reproduce every punctuation mark.
Broken engagement. Broken engagement between Ilex Davenport and Cecelia Clayton.
Tilia quickened her steps, remembering again the article that had been troubling her thoughts all week, and which had popped into her head the moment she let her guard down.
It was obvious where she was going. To this fountain. To the fountain in the square where she had eaten ice cream with Ilex Davenport a week ago.
She thought she was just walking quickly, but before she knew it, she was already running.
Only out of breath did Tillia realize what was happening and stopped before reaching her destination.
The bench she and Ilex were sitting on was already occupied by another couple.
She frantically turned her head from side to side, but did not see anyone who even remotely resembled Ilex Davenport, not even a man of about the same height.
But Tilia still remained in the same place for a long time. Only after the couple who had been chatting on the bench left did she awkwardly approach her.
The place where they had thrown the ice cream was now perfectly clean. The only stain left was on her own shoe.
Sitting down carefully on the bench, Tilia stared at her yellowed toe, which she had put off for too long to clean, then looked towards the fountain, which had long since stopped working.
Unlike the still scene in front of her, the flow of water in her memory was bright and strong.
Intense shades that seemed to hold the sunset, drops that bounced with a refreshing coolness - both came to life in her. Along with them came the voice again that she could never forget.
“You always make me unhappy. It’s in those moments when I expect more from you.”
What the hell were you waiting for!?
Hearing his invisible voice again, Tilia unconsciously turned her foot inward, as if trying to hide the stain on her shoe.
It was he, not she, who made people wait to the point where it became pathetic.
After watching the motionless fountain for a long time in silence, Tilia realized that no matter how long she waited, the ripples in her heart would never subside like water.
So she left.
But her steps as she walked back late to her tall apartment building were comically light, unlike usual.