Flora looked at the hole and reached inside.
She caught hold of nothing.
She withdrew her hand again.
At a time like this-was she supposed to be afraid?
Flora tilted her head.
Perhaps. Losing her heart should have been a frightening thing.
Yet for some reason, all she felt was relief.
Flora had always cared deeply about how others saw her. She would spend a long time putting on makeup, dress in elaborate, complicated funeral attire, and cover the wounds on her face with black gauze. She was also willing to help others patiently and cook for her companions every day.
She had been born incomplete and needed so very many things to fill the emptiness in her heart, yet now that a piece was truly missing from her chest, she no longer cared much.
If she did not care, she would not suffer. Flora thought for a moment, then lay back down on the bed.
I'll keep sleeping. Nothing else matters.
"Can someone live without a heart?"
At the dining table, everyone stared at Flora's chest. No one spoke.
Everyone was there today, for once.
Allen had set his work aside and hurried back specifically for this, while Dorothea had stopped talking to herself and was biting her lip as she looked at Flora's chest.
Maeve sat beside Simon, some confusion in her eyes. She had been the one to ask the question.
"No." Flora untied her apron and sat down.
Dorothea had noticed something wrong while she was cooking that morning, and soon afterward, everyone had gathered.
The Flora of before would probably have been very happy, but now she simply did not care.
"But I'm different. I have the [Thing of Immortality]. It can fully replace my heart's function, so-"
She pointed at the hole in her