Chapter 82 – Sweet and Painful Memories

The handling of the accident had proceeded quicker than expected. The fire had set off an alarm in the botanical garden, which helped the nearby security forces and residents put it out. Luckily, the fire had not spread significantly, affecting only the garden and its surroundings and not the botanical gardens or nearby buildings.

Lucius, who helped rescue the children and extinguish the fire, took the lead in cleaning up the mess, while Director Lona Ezac and Viscount Grassell were busy following his orders. Officers were dispatched from a building not too far from the botanical garden to treat the rescued children, and Tiana helped Kenil and the officers to take care of them. There were about twenty children in the garden. Most of them were rescued, but sadly, three of them had not been able to escape from the center of the fierce fire.

To Tiana’s immense grief, among them was the little brother of the girl who had given her the blue roses.

“Tiana.”

Lucius approached Tiana who was standing in front of the corpses covered in white sheets. He wrapped her in his arms and tucked her head below his chin. She leaned back against his chest and stared down at the white cloth she couldn’t bear to pull down.

“If only I were a little faster…, would I have been able to save him?”

“Tiana…”

“She told me to save him… to save her brother…”

Tiana would never forget the image of the little girl’s face as she grabbed her hand while pleading her to search for her brother. The mournful voice hovering around in her ears was suffocating. In the end, Tiana hadn’t been able to save them all. This was her first time ever feeling so helpless. How could she look the girl in the eyes again? The girl who lost her brother…

“It is not your fault. It is nobody’s fault. So don’t blame yourself.”

“Lucius…”

“It is devastating that all of them couldn’t be saved. But didn’t we do all that we could? All that is left for us to do now is to pray for the children’s souls to rest in peace.”

“Alright.” She nodded, “I hope they live happily in a better place up above in heaven and are born happier in the next life. I pray that next time, they are born in a place where people don’t care about their status or origin and they live happily and normally.”

All they could do was pray, but that was the best they could do now. Alongside Lucius, she prayed so long for the children.

***

The funeral was held early the next morning. It had been a sudden accident, but more people came to pay their respect for the children than expected. Tiana and Lucius, after attending the children’s final burial behind the church, prepared to leave. The ones who’d been saved, still hadn’t woken up. The couple wanted to stay until they regained consciousness, but today was the day they had to leave, and because of something they’d previously planned they had no choice.

Viscount Grassell, Lona, and Kenil came to see them off when they were about to leave the accommodation.

“Have a safe trip, Lord Lucius and Lady Tiana.”

“We will. I will leave the rest to you, Viscount Grassel,” replied Lucius.

“Don’t worry, your Highness. I will be sure to send you the details in a letter later on.”

While Viscount Grassel and Lucius greeted each other, Lona and Kenil approached Tiana. Her condition looked better than yesterday, but Lona saw that she still wasn’t in a good mood.

“Thank you for everything, Your Highness,” she smiled at the anxious duchess.

Tiana mustered a bitter smile. “I didn’t do it for praise, Lona. Anyways, are you okay? You look defeated.”

“I am fine. It’s going to be hard for a while, but I have to fight through it, for the rest of the kids.”

“Right. I want to stay until they wake up but I’m so sorry that I can’t. I couldn’t help out much.”

“No need for apologies. Thanks to the help from you two, we were able to extinguish the fire quickly. Don’t worry about the children. I will take care of them.”

“The girl… when she wakes up, tell her that I’m terribly sorry. The blue flower… tell her I will take good care of it.”

“Will do. Don’t worry.”

Tiana nodded while struggling to smile while holding Lona’s bony hands tightly. Lucius, after finishing the conversation with the viscount, boarded the carriage with her.

With the three of them waving goodbye, the carriage soon departed. As they left the city, the appearance of the botanical garden through the window caught Tiana’s eyes.

“Lucius, this was a good trip. Let’s come here again soon.”

“Tiana…”

“Let’s come back again and have a delicious lunch with the kids.”

“I’ll make sure we do that.”

He smiled and looked at her with worry in his eyes while putting his arm around her shoulder. Feeling the gentle touch, Tiana slowly closed her eyes and rested against him.

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