Seraphina has spent three years building a quiet life in the lower district of the royal capital—running a tavern with four companions who feel like family, hiding the elven blood in her veins, and guarding a secret that would mean her execution if anyone discovered it.
She remembers a previous life. A life as a forty-year-old woman named Sarasa Seta.
In this world, those who carry memories of another life are called the "Inscribed"—and they are hunted by the Ring of Silence, a shadow organiza
Invitation Addressed to Sarasa Seta - I was a forty-year-old woman — come, break the silence.
Second floor of the tavern "Lamplight." The quiet of after-hours wrapped around the wooden building. From downstairs came the faint sound of water—Lazuli, cleaning up.
Seraphina stood before the counter.
Her long, pale-gold hair cascaded from her shoulders down her back. Her deep green eyes moved from one face to the next.
Gilda. Short-cropped auburn hair, sharp amber eyes. An old scar at the corner of her mouth. Her usual gauntlet on her left hand. A rough-looking, hard-faced warrior of twenty-seven.
Lazuli. Her blue-black hair worn loose and unkempt, three small piercings in her left ear. Her lapis-blue eyes had lost their usual easy grin; she was watching Seraphina quietly.
Marguerite. Black hair tied back, calm blue eyes. Her long fingers were folded in front of her apron. Thirty-one years old, with a quiet maternal warmth.
Iris. Long hair the color of deep indigo. Narrow violet eyes. The small gold ring in her left ear caught the candlelight and glinted. She stood with her back against the door.
Seraphina drew a breath.
The night air filled her lungs to the very bottom. Her heart pounded hard against the inside of her chest. Her fingertips trembled faintly.
(I decided. Tonight, I'll tell them.)
She'd told Marguerite that morning. That there was something she wanted to talk about tonight. Marguerite had said, "I'll be waiting." That was all.
And then, all day long, she'd thought of nothing but this moment.
Even while chopping vegetables. Even while shopping at the market. Even while tending to the regulars.
In a corner of her mind, she'd been searching for the words the whole time.
(How should I say it?)
(Where should I begin?)
She hadn't found an answer.
Seraphina drew another breath.
"There's something I need you all to hear tonight."
Her voice shook.
It was hoarse and frail—she could hear it herself.
The four of them moved.
Gilda lit the candle in the wall sconce. One more light. A corner of the tavern grew just a little brighter.
Lazuli pulled out a chair at the counter. No usual wisecrack. Just a quiet gesture that said, sit.
Marguerite lit the stove and set a kettle on. The sound of water coming to a boil began to fill the quiet tavern. She picked up a teapot packed with leaves.
Iris didn't move.
Still leaning against the door, arms crossed, her violet eyes fixed straight on Seraphina.
(She's not blocking my escape.)
Seraphina thought.
(They're all trying to receive what I have to say.)
Something hot spread slowly through her chest.
Marguerite poured the hot water. The scent of tea rose softly. She set a cup in front of Seraphina.
"Sit. I've made tea."
Seraphina nodded.
She lowered herself into the chair. The wood felt cold. She wrapped both hands around the cup. Warm.
The four of them took their places. Gilda in the seat diagonally across from Seraphina. Lazuli across the counter. Marguerite beside her. Iris still standing by the door.
Silence fell.
Steam drifted slowly toward the ceiling.
Seraphina stared into the tea.
The leaves swirled faintly at the bottom.
(There's no way forward but to speak.)
Seraphina lifted her head.
"I used to be a forty-year-old woman."
Her voice was still trembling.
But it came out clearer than before.
The four faces changed.
Gilda's amber eyes widened slightly. Lazuli's smile vanished from her blue eyes. Marguerite's fingers gripped her apron tight. Only Iris watched without changing expression.
Seraphina went on.
"My name in my past life was Sarasa Seta. A plain office worker in accounting. I never fell in love, just quietly grew older... and then I died in a traffic accident."
The words spilled from her mouth.
"I should have died, but when I came to, I was in this world. Inside this elf's body. ...Gilda found me collapsed in the street and picked me up."
She looked at Gilda.
Gilda said nothing. She just held Seraphina's gaze, straight on.
"I started living with the four of you. This became my place. ...And the more I felt that, the more I couldn't say the truth."
Her voice cracked.
The back of her throat burned.
"I thought if I told you, it would break. This warm place. ...So I kept hiding it, all this time."
Seraphina hung her head.
The tea in her cup rippled.
She could see her own hands shaking.
"Minato... that girl was my kouhai in my past life. I knew how she felt about me. ...And yet I couldn't give her anything in return. She cared for me, and I was just a forty-year-old office worker. I didn't even have the courage to face her feelings."
A single tear traced down her cheek.
"She died. Because of me. Because I never faced her properly."
Her voice shook.
"So when she reincarnated into this world and came chasing after me... that's my fault too."
The tears wouldn't stop.
Her fingers tightened around the cup.
"It's all my fault. Hiding it from the four of you. Hurting her. ...All of it, my fault."
Her voice dissolved into sobs.
Seraphina couldn't lift her head anymore.
(I said it.)
(I said all of it.)
(I can't stay here anymore.)
(They'll despise me. They'll be disgusted. ...They'll cast me out.)
Terror churned in her chest.
But more than that—something had grown lighter.
(Ah. I finally said it.)
The tears wouldn't stop.
Silence filled the tavern.
A long, long silence.
Marguerite's tea steamed. Gilda's candle flame wavered. Lazuli's fingers lay still on the counter.
No one said anything.
Seraphina closed her eyes.
(Of course.)
(They don't know what to say.)
(Even if I tell them I was a forty-year-old woman—)
(It's just disgusting.)
A tear fell onto her lap.
That was when it came.
"Come here."
A low, quiet voice.
Seraphina raised her head.
Iris was walking over from the door. Her long indigo hair swayed. Her violet eyes looked straight at Seraphina.
She set her hand on the seat beside Seraphina.
"Come here."
She said it again.
And lightly tapped the seat next to her.
(What?)
Seraphina looked at Iris's face.
Iris wore her usual expressionless look. But deep in those violet eyes, something hot seemed to waver.
"...Iris?"
Seraphina called softly.
"Come here."
The third time.
This time, her voice was just a little softer.
Seraphina rose slowly.
Her legs were shaking.
She took a step.
She lowered herself into the seat beside Iris.
Without a word, Iris gently drew Seraphina's head onto her own shoulder.
"...Huh?"
Seraphina's vision filled with Iris's indigo hair.
Iris's hand came to rest on Seraphina's back.
Warm.
"You did well to tell us."
Iris's voice was at her ear.
Low, quiet, but certain.
Something inside Seraphina's chest burst open.
(These people—)
(They won't cast me out.)
The tears spilled over again.
Different tears from before.
Seraphina buried her face in Iris's shoulder.
She wept, choking back the sound.
Her shoulders shook.
"...nn... ngh..."
Soundless sounds escaped her.
Iris said nothing, only quietly stroking Seraphina's back.
That hand was warm.
Marguerite stood.
Softly, she came to stand behind Seraphina.
And gently drew Seraphina's shoulders into an embrace.
"You did so well to tell us."
Marguerite's voice reached Seraphina's ear, kind.
"You've been carrying this all alone, haven't you."
Seraphina nodded again and again.
(Yes. All alone, all this time.)
(I couldn't tell anyone.)
(Alone, in this world.)
Marguerite's hand stroked Seraphina's hair gently.
"You're not alone anymore."
The words seeped into her chest.
Lazuli came out from behind the counter.
"Finally got to hear it."
Lazuli's voice rang bright through the tavern.
Seraphina lifted her face.
Lazuli wore her usual easy grin.
"Man, that took forever. I've been dying to know your secret, you know. But I'd decided I wouldn't ask until you told me yourself."
Lazuli crouched down in front of Seraphina.
Her blue eyes peered into Seraphina's face.
"Thanks for telling us."
Seraphina looked at Lazuli through her tear-streaked face.
"...I haven't done anything to be thanked for."
Her voice came out nasal and clumsy.
"What're you talking about? We're your comrades. A comrade opened up to us about what she was hiding. Of course I'm happy."
Lazuli laughed.
That smile was dazzling.
Gilda stood.
Her rough-hewn frame drew slowly closer to Seraphina.
Seraphina looked up at Gilda.
Gilda's amber eyes gazed down at her.
"...No problem."
Gilda said.
"Whoever you are. However old you are. ...No problem."
That was all Gilda said—then she bowed deeply.
A single bow.
Rough, clumsy, but from the heart.
Seraphina's chest grew hot.
(These people—)
(My past and all—)
(They'll take me in.)
Seraphina cried aloud.
She couldn't hold it back anymore.
The tears of a forty-year-old woman.
The tears of a forty-year-old woman, housed in an elf's body.
Seraphina wept aloud like a child.
The four of them gathered around her.
Iris lending her shoulder. Marguerite stroking her back. Lazuli giving her head a light poke. Gilda simply standing quietly.
Five shadows huddled together in a corner of the tavern.
The night deepened.
Second floor of the tavern "Lamplight."
Seraphina lay on the bed.
She'd cried so much her eyes were swollen. Her head ached.
And yet her heart was astonishingly calm.
(I told them.)
(I told them everything.)
Seraphina stared at the grain of the wooden ceiling.
(The four of them didn't cast me out.)
(Even when I said I was a forty-year-old woman.)
(Even when I told them my past-life name.)
(Even when I talked about Minato.)
(They stayed beside me.)
Seraphina closed her eyes.
(That place is where I belong.)
(The place in this world where I'm allowed to live.)
(Together with the four of them.)
Another tear slipped free.
But it wasn't a sad tear.
Just before dawn.
The doorway of the tavern "Lamplight."
A single shadow stood there.
A white dress. Black hair. Large black eyes.
It was Minato.
The twelve-year-old girl was peering inside the tavern.
From the second floor, faintly, came the sound of Seraphina crying.
And the four gentle voices.
Minato stood still in the shadow of the doorway, listening.
Tears spilled from her black eyes.
"Senpai is... on that side now."
A small, hoarse voice.
"Senpai went over to where those people are."
Minato placed her hand on the tavern door.
But she didn't open it.
She couldn't.
"I said I'd protect her. I said it."
Tears fell onto her white dress.
"I said I'd protect senpai..."
Minato sank down where she stood.
She covered her face with both hands and cried.
The lower district, just before dawn.
No one passed by.
Only Minato's sobbing melted into the quiet cobblestones.
Morning came.
Morning sunlight streamed through the second-floor window of the tavern "Lamplight."
Seraphina woke.
Her body felt heavy.
But her heart was light.
(Morning.)
Seraphina rose from the bed.
She looked out the window.
Morning in the lower district.
The sound of wagons being readied for the market.
The smell of baking bread.
The usual morning.
And yet something was different.
(I have a place.)
Seraphina opened the window.
The morning breeze flowed in.
It stirred her hair.
On that breeze, a single sheet of paper rode in and slipped into the room.
Seraphina reached out.
The paper touched her fingers.
It was an invitation.
Addressed to: "Sarasa Seta."
Seraphina gazed at the invitation for a while.
(My past-life name.)
(In this world, the only one who calls me by this name—)
(Is that girl.)
Seraphina pressed the invitation to her chest.
(Minato.)
(I'm here.)
(I'm going to live in this world, with the four of them.)
(So someday, I have to face her properly, too.)
Seraphina lifted her head.
The morning sun was dazzling.
"...Thank you."
Seraphina murmured softly.
Not to anyone in particular.
To the four of them.
And to Minato.
The morning breeze gently plucked the invitation from her hand.
The paper fluttered up into the sky and vanished into the morning light of the lower district.
Seraphina watched it go.
(Let's go.)
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