The Free-Spirited Prelsi

"Hello, who are you?"

"My name is Jane, and I'm a maid at the castle."

She begins the conversation with the same self-introduction for what might be the hundredth time.

The brown-haired beauty before her has no idea she had this exact conversation yesterday.

"Aha, what a lovely name."

"......What's your name, Unnie?"

Since she had to pretend not to know who Prelsi was, Jane asked her name.

Holding a flower, she smiled with her eyes and said:

"Prelsi!"

Her slightly clouded blue eyes lit up with a bright smile — and that alone was truly more beautiful than any flower here.

Jane opened the conversation with her usual questions.

"What's your dream, Unnie?"

Somewhere in a forest where beautiful pink petals flutter.

Jane, a castle maid who envies the lord's wealthy and pampered daughter, and Prelsi, a self-proclaimed traveler who teaches her about freedom while roaming the world — today, once again, they talk about dreams.

"My dream is to travel the entire world!"

"I see......."

"My dream is to live like our young lady! Rich, with lots of maids, eating whatever I want, and having fun with handsome princes!"

"Jane, but if you live like that, you'll get bored of it soon. You'd just be living like those beautiful flowers, waiting for someone to pluck you. Wouldn't it be better to fly free like a bird?"

"Then are you flying free, Unnie?"

"Of course! This is my first time seeing such a beautiful flower field! When you travel, you get to see things like this, and meet wonderful people like you. How great is that?"

A lie. She was not seeing this flower field for the first time today.

Yesterday, the day before, and the day before that — she had come to this flower field and talked with Jane.

Through their conversations, Jane had discovered that Prelsi could only remember 'a single day.'

On their second and third meetings, Jane had tried to tell her they had met before in this flower field, but Prelsi firmly believed Jane was the one misremembering and stubbornly insisted it couldn't be true.

Eventually, tired of trying to convince her, Jane gave up and simply talked about dreams each day with Prelsi, who always marveled at how beautiful the flowers were while basking in her own brand of freedom.

Exhausted by the repeating topics, she asked Prelsi a different question than usual.

"Unnie, why do you have your name carved into everything you own?"

"In case I forget! My memory's been bad lately and I keep forgetting my own name. If I carve it like this, I can always know who I am!"

She's aware that she forgets who she is, but doesn't realize she's forgotten that she's been here before?

This was the first time Jane learned just how abnormal her memory really was.

Tired of hearing Prelsi's daily monologue about 'freedom,' Jane decided that today, instead of listening, she would vent about her own difficulties at the castle.

Before she knew it, time had flown by. As the sun began to dip behind the castle walls, she stood up, afraid the head maid would scold her.

"I'd better stop here for today. It's almost time for the young lady to come looking for us."

"Really? That's a shame. You're the first person in this village who actually listens to me. Everyone else avoids me for some reason."

"It must be because a traveler like you is a first for them."

The villagers must have gotten tired of pretending to meet her for the first time every day too.

Rumors were also starting to spread in the village that she was under some strange curse that erased her memory of yesterday.

Jane had worried the curse might be contagious, but since they'd been meeting for a long time and talking up close every day with no effect on Jane's memory, it apparently wasn't transmissible.

Leaving the brightly smiling, flower-sniffing Prelsi behind, Jane walked toward the castle and reaffirmed her resolve.

She would polish herself into someone worthy, marry a handsome prince, and live a life as enviable as the young lady she served.

A 'real' free life — unlike this fool who remembered nothing and believed she was traveling.

"You went to see that person again, Jane?"

"Oh, that idiot?"

"Stop meeting her. You'll catch her disease."

Back at the castle, about to do dishes in the kitchen, her close maid friends gathered around, worried about her.

Their well-meaning fussing about possibly catching some strange illness from Prelsi helped restore the mental energy Jane had drained talking about the same topics every day.

"Thanks. But she's not that weird, really."

"Really? I overheard her talking to someone the other day and she was going on about how great it is to be free."

"Free? To me she just looks like a drifter stuck in this village who can't remember anything."

"Well, she was probably wandering some other village before she came here. If she stays a while and then wanders off, you could technically call that freedom, I suppose."

"Ahahaha! What is that, Jane!"

If that happened, she'd lose the conversation partner she'd been sneaking out to see and be bored — but it might be better than having her energy drained by Prelsi's absurd notion of freedom every day.

Jane vowed she would never live as crazily as Prelsi.

Such a stupid life was absolutely out of the question.

'I should stop going to the flower field. What if her stupidity rubs off on me?'

She should stay away from the flower field for a while. Prelsi wandered the village market before heading into the forest anyway, so if Jane didn't go near the forest, they wouldn't cross paths.

"Oh, Jane. Did you see him? Some man came as the lord's guest and he's incredibly handsome!"

"I know, I know! I caught a glimpse from far away while cleaning the castle — even blurry he looked stunning. Totally different from our lord!"

"Really? Now I'm curious too!"

"From what I heard, he's of much higher status than our lord. Maybe a count?"

"What would someone like that be doing in this backwater?"

"Who knows. Maybe he got in trouble. Or maybe it's a spoiled young master running away from home?"

"Running away to a viscount's castle — nobles really are different."

Whatever the reason, a handsome, high-born young master had apparently arrived as a guest.

Jane, an avid romance novel reader, fantasized about a happy future with such a young master and hoped to cross paths with him in the castle.

Despite being a commoner, Jane was confident in her beauty — sparkling golden hair and blue eyes that she believed were enough to catch any young lord's wandering eye.

Then the head maid burst through the kitchen door where the maids were chatting.

"Jane. The lord is asking for you. Go up at once."

"Me?"

"Yes. No questions — just go."

The lord had never specifically summoned a maid by name before, so all the maids worried about what might have happened to Jane.

Carrying their collective concern, Jane went up to the lord's chambers. There she met someone she had wished for but never expected to actually encounter.

He was indeed of high rank — seated above the lord.

"Head maid, this is the one you said was quite pretty among the maids?"

"That's correct, my lord."

"Hmm, quite good indeed. Jane, this is the gentleman you'll be attending to today."

"Yes, my lord. I will serve him with all my heart."

The young master sitting beside the lord was, just as the other maid had said, strikingly handsome.

She couldn't lift her head and only glimpsed him from the corner of her eye, but even his silhouette radiated good looks.

"This one is deft and quite pleasing to the eye. Please enjoy yourself at ease tonight."

"I appreciate your consideration, Viscount."

"Then I shall take my leave to prepare her."

The lord and the young master seemed to discuss various things after that, but Jane couldn't hear them.

The head maid had taken her away to be 'prepared.'

After leaving the lord's room, Jane was placed in a luxurious bath she had never experienced, attended by other maids, and dressed in clothes far finer than her usual maid uniform.

After a flurry of treatment fit for the lord's own daughter, Jane entered the guest room in an exhilarated state — and there faced the young master, sitting on the bed.

"Come here, Jane. As I was told, you truly are splendid. Golden hair and blue eyes are rare among commoners."

"It's an honor to be called upon, my lord."

"Make yourself comfortable. I didn't summon you to give you some difficult task."

He gestured for her to sit beside him, and she naturally perched on the edge of the bed where he sat.

Unlike any nobleman she'd heard of, this young master didn't try anything untoward.

He simply asked about commoner life, the atmosphere of the village — trivial things — and treated her so kindly she felt genuinely cared for, making every effort to keep the conversation going.

He was exactly the kind of nobleman that appeared in novels, and she kept imagining how happy her future could be if she married someone like him.

'The young lady I serve is merely a viscount's daughter. But if I married this man, I'd become a countess.

From my station as a maid, there could be no better opportunity...!'

"Jane? Pardon me a moment. Something seems to have gotten on your dress."

"Oh? Ah, yes. Where is it...?"

After his hand reached toward her dress, she doesn't properly remember what happened next.

All she felt was that this was not what she had wanted.

What she had wanted was a beautiful, pure love. But the only thought that surfaced was:

'I want to run away.'

The moment she thought that, the handsome young master before her had at some point transformed into a black monster.

Consumed by the need to fight off the monster, she screamed, clawed, and hurled anything within reach at the creature approaching her.

Yet the monster kept coming, gripping her tightly, so she shoved it with all her might.

She heard something crash, shatter, and a heavy thud hitting the floor.

In the suddenly silent room, she sat on the floor, covered her face with her hands, and sobbed. Then, wanting to see what had become of the monster, she lowered her hands —

"......My lord?"

The black monster was gone. Before her lay a wooden nightstand with blood on its corner and a man collapsed face-down.

Approaching him, she stepped in something wet. When she touched it, a sharp metallic scent hit her.

Blood.

'Did I kill someone...?'

No — he might still be alive. She needed to call a doctor. But if she called a doctor, how would she explain this situation? Would she be thrown in prison?

The urge to save a life and the terror that reporting this would cost her own head for harming a nobleman battled in her mind, and she stood frozen, doing nothing.

She needed to do something. To save him, she had to go get a doctor now. To escape, she had to move now.

But her legs wouldn't move. Time passed — she had stood there foolishly too long.

The lord, sensing something was wrong from the silence, came to the room himself. He opened the door, saw the carnage, and was horrified.

"Wh-what is the meaning of this! Jane, did you do this?"

"My lord, I didn't...!"

"Someone! Come seize this insolent wretch and kill her!"

At his frantic shout, Jane instinctively shoved the lord.

He normally wouldn't have budged from a woman's push, but caught off guard, he lost his balance and struck his head against the window behind him. The sound of shattering glass drew others.

The sound of maids and soldiers rushing toward the guest room rang loud in Jane's ears.

'I have to run. Right now. If they catch me, I'm dead!'

In her panic, she spotted the oil lamp lighting the corridor outside.

She doesn't know what she was thinking.

She only saw fire, wanted this all to disappear,

and threw the lamp into the corridor.

Fire erupted everywhere in an instant. She escaped through the window the lord had cracked when he fell.

Fleeing from the people inside the castle, running frantically, she collided with someone at the castle's edge.

"J-Jane. I saw. Did you set the fire...?"

"......Prelsi? What are you doing here?"

"I came closer to look at the castle and heard something breaking. When I looked, I saw you push some man and start a fire.

Did you kill someone, Jane?"

Fortunately, the only witness was the fool Prelsi — who couldn't remember a single day.

If she couldn't remember a single day, couldn't Jane just ignore her and move on?

But what if, before the day was over, Prelsi told the castle people that Jane had set the fire?

The instant that thought struck, without a second to think further, Jane shoved Prelsi into the inferno.

Prelsi, too weak from barely being fed by the villagers, couldn't even resist and vanished into the flames.

After pushing Prelsi in, Jane turned and fled far, far from the castle.

The next day, the fire had spread so fast that the people inside couldn't escape, and everything was reduced to ash.

Villagers desperately hauled water through the night to extinguish the fire, and by morning began recovering the charred remains from inside.

Some embraced the remains of their family members who had worked in the castle and wept. Others were busy secretly pocketing the lord's surviving valuables.

Among them, Jane — wearing a stolen robe pulled up to her head — dug at the spot outside the castle where she had pushed Prelsi.

'I wasn't thinking straight. Prelsi only needs one night's sleep to forget everything.

I should have just brought her along, put her to sleep quickly, and the next morning asked her to say she was with me all night.

Then I could have proved I didn't kill that terrible young master and the lord.

Pushing Prelsi was my mistake. The young master and the lord deserved to die, but Prelsi didn't. She hadn't done anything wrong.'

In the dug-up earth, she found a few pink petals that hadn't fully burned.

They must have been picked from the flower field where they used to meet.

Burned petals, and beside them the charred remnants of the clothes Prelsi had been wearing —

'Prelsi is dead.......'

Beneath the petals was a single blue gemstone inlaid with gold.

Jane took the gemstone and made her way to the room where the lord's daughter had stayed, gathering her unburned jewels and clothes.

She looked nothing like someone who had committed an atrocity just the night before.

Whatever reckoning she had done overnight, she packed everything worth taking from the lord's daughter's possessions and ran out of the village.

Jane didn't want to acknowledge that she had killed everyone in the castle. Still unable to properly grasp the situation, she felt only the urge to flee.

Over and over in her mind:

'I have to run. I can only survive if I run.......'

Repeating these words, she ran like mad to escape the territory.

But her speed was extraordinary.

Her feet moved as if flying. She could move freely through the air and through water.

When she wished to fly, she soared through the sky like a bird beating powerful wings. When she wished to cross water, she walked straight through raging currents without being swept away.

As if she had gained the 'freedom' Prelsi always spoke of, she fled very, very far.

The sun set and rose many times over,

and Jane ran and ran without stopping, so as not to be caught.

Then a thought suddenly struck her.

'Why am I running?'

'No — what was I doing before?'

'Where is this, and where am I supposed to go?'

Countless questions surfaced and vanished in an instant,

and as her mind spun searching for answers,

Jane realized she had forgotten something truly important.

'My name is......

......what was my name?'

The chilling realization that she had forgotten her own name —

Driven by the need to find her name, she desperately rummaged through her memories,

and within them, she recalled a flower field — unfamiliar yet somehow achingly familiar.

Brown hair, clouded blue eyes, a dark-colored robe, and a bouquet of pink flowers in hand.

She cried out brightly:

'Prelsi!'

Prelsi — my name is Prelsi!

The moment she recognized herself as 'Prelsi,' a strange blue stone sprouted on the back of her neck, hidden beneath her golden hair.

Unaware of this, she was so afraid of forgetting her newly recovered name again that she carved it into everything she owned.

[Prelsi's Dress]

[Prelsi's Hat]

[Prelsi's Compass]

[Prelsi's......]

Soaking wet, crouched on the sandy beach, frantically carving her name into everything she owned — to anyone watching, she was clearly not in her right mind.

Even after sitting there carving for a long time, it brought her no peace.

The fear of forgetting 'herself' again.

So she decided to carve it into herself.

[Prelsi, My Free Spirit]

The inscription on her arm would never fade until she died,

and she would run forever without forgetting that name.

Not even in her dreams — not tomorrow, not the day after.

Perhaps until the very day her life ends.

"Ahahaha, there's the fool Prelsi!"

"Where, where?"

"Fool Prelsi must have crossed the river again today!"

A small village, a little ways from the lord's castle.

Here lives a peculiar woman.

Beautiful golden hair, sky-blue eyes, and a nightingale's voice forever chasing freedom —

yet a fool, an idiot, a simpleton who can hold only a single day in her life.

The woman who calls herself 'Prelsi' wakes up each morning and walks around the village,

declares the village too small, and crosses the river when the sun sets.

When dawn breaks, she returns to the village soaking wet and revels in her own freedom.

Like a bird caged yet knowing nothing — today, too, she flies beautifully.