Although it was already nighttime when the two of them reached the city gate, Ireina had walked all the way through the streets with her teacher to this inn to eat, drink, and rest. Even so, she had noticed something strange about the city.
There wasn't a single flowering plant anywhere in town.
The ornamental trees and flowers that ought to have been planted in a city, the fragrant blooms that should have been in the street-side flower beds at this time of year, and the scattered flowers that ought to have been growing on the windowsills of the residents' homes—all of them were nowhere to be seen.
There were only trees, shrubs, and weeds that never flowered. Everywhere she looked, there was green, but she hadn't seen a single brightly colored flower. Not even the most common, harmless flower could be found!
Taking that together with what had happened at the city gate and the warning she'd received, it wasn't hard for Ireina to guess that the people living here had come to hate and fear flowers to an extreme, almost pathological degree.
"..."
Now, wearing a light, translucent nightgown, Ireina sat at the table by the window, writing in her travel journal by lamplight. As she watched the children playing in the street and the local residents sitting at tables by the roadside, drinking, chatting, and eating late-night snacks, she couldn't help falling into thought.
By now, she had figured it out. When she'd passed through the flower field during the day, she'd really been used by that horrible woman like a fool. Her good intentions had nearly led her to do something terrible!
And what was more...
That woman might not have been human at all. She might have been some other kind of thing.
Fortunately, the