The tragedy that became the cause of the main conflict of the novel...
What exactly happened back then?
Honestly, even now, replaying in my head the events of "The Fragrant Flower Blooming with Dignity," I felt my fingers go cold.
It all started with the Summer Flower Festival.
It was a traditional festival held every year in the capital of the Paladia Empire. The streets were decorated with garlands of flowers, music played everywhere, merchants sold sweets, and children ran between the rows with ribbons in their hands. That day the city was drowning in bright colors and scents.
Back then Hazel and Amalia went to the festival together. Erica couldn't go with them due to circumstances, or more precisely, because of her fear of crowded places. She stayed in the orphanage, and in the end the girls went just the two of them.
They had fun. They laughed. They ate sweet pastries with berry filling. Amalia bought Hazel a wreath of white flowers and put it on her head, saying that she looked like a forest fairy.
And then everything broke off.
The crowd became too dense. The musicians played louder, people poured into the main square, and in that commotion Amalia let go of Hazel's hand for a moment.
Just for a moment.
But that was enough.
The stream of people picked Hazel up and carried her forward. Amalia screamed, tried to push through the crowd, called her by name, but her voice drowned in the festive noise. She searched for Hazel all day. Until the very evening. Until the streets were empty, and the flowers on the pavement turned into dirty petals.
Hazel disappeared.
And a few days later, news spread through the capital that made the blood freeze in the veins.
The girl became the victim of a maniac who hunted children. Her body was found in a dirty alley. Mutilated. Defiled. Terrible things were done to her before death.
When Amalia and Erica learned about this, their world collapsed.
Amalia blamed herself. She couldn't forgive herself for letting go of her friend's hand. For not holding on. That she managed to find her.
Erica, however, blamed Amalia for what happened.
"...It's you!" she shouted. "You lost her! If you had held her tighter, Hazel would be alive!"
Their friendship shattered in an instant. First, heavy resentment. Then, hatred. Two girls who had once shared one bread and one dream became enemies.
Some time after the tragedy, Amalia was found by her father, the Grand Duke Sirinix. She returned to her family, to a world of luxury and politics. But she did not forget that tragedy. After growing up, Amalia began her own investigation to punish those guilty of Hazel's death.
For this, she formed an alliance with the second prince of the empire, the main male character of the novel.
Their relationship, which began as a cold political calculation, gradually grew into true love. By the end of the story, Amalia restored justice, avenged her friend, and uncovered a conspiracy that shook the entire empire. The second prince became emperor, and Amalia his empress.
A happy ending for the female lead.
And what about the villainess?...
Erica also thirsted for revenge for Hazel. Some time after the tragedy, she ran away from the orphanage alone. Since the imperial police were inactive, she decided to find the killer by her own strength and punish him.
But fate instead led her to another person.
To Marquis Blackwell, the "king of the underworld." A person whom even the emperor was wary of. The one who controlled the entire shadow side of the empire.
The marquis adopted Erica for personal reasons and made her his heir. And since the Blackwell and Sirinix families were longtime enemies, this only worsened the conflict between Amalia and Erica.
After becoming adults, the heroine and the villainess continued the investigation, and in the end came to the same suspect.
But Erica reached him first.
Amalia wanted to punish the criminal according to the law, but Erica was not going to show him such mercy. She mercilessly killed both him and his entire inner circle.
The problem was that this person possessed enormous power. His death and the deaths of his people in one day sowed chaos in the empire. Amalia had to deal with the consequences of this chaos.
And Erica...
After completing her revenge, she did what shocked everyone.
Revenge for Hazel was the only meaning of her life. When the goal disappeared, the reason to live disappeared too. Immediately after killing the criminal, Erica also committed suicide.
This plot twist shocked readers. Including me.
Yes, it wasn't exactly a sweet romance novel. Rather, it was a dark story about revenge and politics.
And now I had ended up in Hazel's body.
The girl whose death set off this whole tragedy...
Is it worth saying how gloomy my near future seemed to me?
***
"...No," I muttered, looking at the crack in the infirmary ceiling. "I don't want to die!"
During the few days I spent here, I managed to carefully think over my situation.
First, I am Hazel Brown. Twelve years old. An orphan. The best friend of the future heroine and the future villainess.
Second, about three months remained until the Summer Flower Festival.
Three months.
Until that very day when I will get lost in the crowd. Until that very day when the maniac will find me. Until that very day when my death will destroy the lives of Amalia and Erica.
That was enough time to find a way to prevent the tragedy.
I didn't want to die. And I didn't want the heroine and the villainess to become enemies!
Can I turn a dark novel about revenge into a bright story about friendship?
At least, I really wanted to hope so...
After being discharged from the infirmary, I returned to ordinary life in the orphanage.
Every morning, classes were held here for the children, something like a school for orphans. Amalia and I attended them together. She always sat next to me, corrected my notes, whispered hints if I spaced out.
But something was missing.
Erica.
She didn't come to the general classes.
The reason was simple and cruel: her red eyes.
In this world, this rare eye color was considered a bad omen. Children with red eyes were called "devil's children." Erica was avoided, whispered about behind her back, and sometimes openly bullied.
A banal trope for a web novel? Yes. But this novel was already several years old, so I didn't blame the author too much for being old fashioned.
It was precisely because of this that Hazel and Erica once met.
One day Hazel saw several children surround Erica in the orphanage courtyard. They threw stones at her and called her "devil's spawn." Erica didn't cry. She only looked at them with her red eyes, coldly, as if she had long been used to it.
And then Hazel unexpectedly intervened.
She stood between them. Spread her arms. And said:
"If you touch her, I'll tell the director everything!"
The children got scared and ran away. And Erica looked at someone without hatred for the first time.
That was how they became friends. Hazel brought Erica to Amalia, and soon they were already an inseparable trio.
Only because of her complex, Erica still avoided crowded places. She didn't go to the general classes, rarely went out into the courtyard, and on holidays stayed in her room.
Now that I had occupied Hazel's body, some of her memories returned to me too.
And this only made me sadder.
Erica was my friend. Even if "my" in quotation marks. And I didn't want her to continue living in the shadows.
I thought about this during the whole class. I didn't even notice how the teacher finished explaining and the children began to gather their things.
"...Amalia."
"What is it?"
I turned to the female lead when we were already putting away our notebooks.
"If I ask, can you do something?"
Amalia smirked. Her blue eyes glistened.
"Of course. For you, anything!"
"Then..." I paused. "Could you help with studying?"
"Whom? You?"
"No. Not me... Erica."
Amalia frowned.
"What? And why?"
"Erica doesn't attend the general classes, and it worries me."
"Well... probably because she simply doesn't need it?"
"Possibly. But even so, a person should have basic knowledge about the world. In the future it will be useful to her. And if she doesn't learn everything now, later it will be difficult."
Amalia listened to me silently. Then she sighed.
"Yes, you're right..." she reluctantly agreed. "Even this lazybones should know at least something. But why me specifically? We could ask the teacher to conduct separate lessons."
I pressed my lips together.
"I'm not sure Erica would be comfortable in the teacher's presence. And comfort during lessons is the most important thing."
This wasn't just an excuse. Erica was subjected to discrimination not only from children, but also from adults. I didn't want her to be taught by a person who beforehand considered her "devil's spawn."
Besides, Amalia would have handled it no worse. She was the best student in the orphanage. Her knowledge was compared to the teachers'. A female lead buff, after all.
Amalia seemed to have thought the same. She sighed again.
"Fine... If you ask, I'll take care of it."
I smiled brightly.
"Thank you, Amalia. I knew I could always rely on you. Erica will be very happy too!"
The heroine only smirked crookedly.
Of course, I did this not only out of worry about Erica's education.
My real goal was much more important.
I hoped that these two would grow closer during their joint studies. That Amalia would see in Erica not only a "strange girl with red eyes," but a friend. That Erica would stop being afraid of people.
I was going to prevent their enmity.
And so that in this story, not revenge, but friendship would win!