Chapter 92: Plain and light.

Even if, for someone, today was a day that turned the world upside down.
Even if something happened that overturned every value they had ever held.
The sun still sets, the sun still rises. A day is still twenty-four hours long. Hunger comes, sleepiness comes.
No matter whose world changes, the greater world keeps turning, and everyday life flows on unchanged.
Surely, among the days Violet had lived through until yesterday, there had been cataclysms for someone else.
Change is always rolling around somewhere in the cycle of sleeping, waking, eating, moving, and sleeping again.

“Violet-sama, good morning.”

“…Good morning, Marin.”

Even though Violet’s world had been completely transformed,
the ordinary “today” still arrived.

Changes in the heart can affect the five senses.
“It’s all in your head” probably means exactly that.
The same vessel holds both heart and senses, so of course they are closely linked.

The moment someone falls in love, the beloved suddenly seems even more wonderful.
A single trigger can make everything related to it feel unpleasant before you realize it.

In the eyes of Violet, now aware of her love,
the same ordinary world as always was reflected.

There was no sudden burst of vivid color like in the romance novels she had once read.
Nor did storm clouds gather just because Yulan was not there.
It was simply an unremarkable field of vision that accepted things exactly as they were.
Peaceful, yes; but not a landscape free of even a fragment of melancholy.

Flat. Normal.
The same as yesterday morning; just the familiar weight of another day beginning.

“…Today…”

“Mmm…?”

Marin, holding the day’s clothes, hesitated for a moment, then smiled ever so slightly.

“I hope you’ll be able to talk with Yulan-sama today.”

“——”

Nothing had changed.
The world was not kind to Violet today either.
There was no change anywhere, for anyone.
Only the person looking, only the heart that looked, made it seem different.
It was nothing more than selfish, self-centered misunderstanding.

So this was Violet’s world alone.

“…Yes, I hope so too.”

Yet the moment she thought of him,
just for an instant,
the world looked a little softer.