I returned home late after having dinner with the kids, they wouldn’t let me leave until they were dragged to their beds by Kent and others to let me leave.
"Reina, you’re late." Rune said as he stood up from the chair in my room.
"I’m sorry, were you waiting for me, big brother?" I asked and removed the earstud returning to my Reina’s form.
"You must have gotten used to being in that form, right?" He asked with a smile and I nodded.
"I hope you haven’t forgotten about our picnic tomorrow."
"Of course, I haven’t."
I absolutely forgot.
"Father has chosen a nice place, let’s go and have some fun before you decide to get busy again." He smiled and I chuckled.
"How many days have you taken off from school?"
He flinched a little and then gave me a smile, "This whole week."
"Do they allow their students to stay off campus for that long?"
"Well, I’m one of the honorary student and also have good grades so, it’s fine for me to take a few days off."
I smiled as I heard that, "Oh, my! What do I do? My brother is so intelligent and cute!"
I pinched his cheek making his face go slightly red.
"I-I’m not cute."
I laughed at his adorable reaction and he left after a few minutes.
I lay in my bed awake for a few more minutes before I fell asleep.
The next day early in morning, I was up and ready to go on a picnic trip with my father and brother.
"It’s a very nice place, you’ll love it, Reina." Dad smiled with his face practically looking as if it was competing against the sun.
"Yes, it’s an island in the middle of a lake." Rune prompt and the name of the place popped in my head.
"Are you talking about Isle Rosa?" I asked and Dad looked at Rune.
"Aw, I’m sorry, Father."
"Hm?" I tilted my head to the side and Father sighed.
"I thought I’d give you a surprise." He looked a little disappointed.
I smiled and said, "I don’t like surprises."
"What?"
"I’ll be happy if you tell me things instead of keeping them from me." I said and saw Rune’s fingers clench.
There was something about him that seemed off since last night. He was definitely hiding something from me, I couldn’t help but wonder he would come tell it himself.
"Since it’s spring there are a lot of flowers that have bloomed there and even the special purple roses."
There was a story surrounding the Isle, it was regarding the girl named Violecia who was a daughter of a man who was quite wealthy and also had a good position. Violecia was extremely beautiful but with a weak disposition since birth. But when she grew up enough she ended up falling in love with the knights who was assigned to protect her.
Violecia knew her father would never allow her to marry her lover so, they decided to elope. But the father got to know of this and before they could elope he captured them both and sent Violecia away and killed the knight.
It was said that before they were parted Violecia desperately tried to fight but her father wasn’t going to give in.
"I will wait for you forever!" It was said that she repeated these words over and over again to the knight’s dead body that lay in front of her before she was dragged away and locked up.
And the place that she was locked up was this Isle Rosa.
Violecia had a weak body so she couldn’t get out of the place which was practically an island surrounded by the deep lake. She wasn’t allowed to leave the isle at any cost and her father arranged everything that she would need over there.
Regardless, her condition started detriorting. One day when she left her room to got for a stroll and didn’t return the household servants went looking for her and found her lying in a small clearing, she had passed away. She was buried on the same Isle and originally, the name of the Isle was Violecia but later it changed.
And the reason was the purple roses that bloomed on her grave. These roses only bloomed on these isle annually during spring and anyone who watched those roses was filled with the deep feelings that Violecia probably had for her lover.
It was actually quite a sad story but soon it became a pilgrimage of sorts for runaway lovers or those who were having hardships in their love life.
I wondered why father chose the place with such a history for a picnic.
I noticed Rune looking slightly tensed as he kept twiddling his fingers as he looked out of the window.
Soon we reached at the place where the boat was arranged for us.
Father helped me and Rune to get on, the slight wobbling of the boat stopped as soon as we sat down and the man rowing started his job.
"Look Reina, this lake is so clear you could see the bottom." Father said as he pointed at the glittering blue water.
I peeked in and saw the clear rocks and the fishes darting through.
"Hm... It’s quite deep." I mumbled before I lifted my head to see the small Isle that was still quite far away.
The lake that surrounded this Isle was named Dubina, this was one of the largest and deepest lakes of the kingdom.
"It seems like a lot of people are here." Rune mumbled as there were other boats heading to the Isle.
"It’s spring and the speciality of this place, the purple roses are in full bloom that’s why a lot of people gather here at this time of the year." The boatman explained with a smile.
"We should have come at the end of spring," I muttered.
"But then, we could have missed this beautiful roses. I want you to see them, Reina."
I looked at Dad, he seemed especially excited at the prospect of visiting this place.
"Is this a special place for you, father?" I asked and his face flushed red before it went back to normal with a melancholic smile taking over.
"It’s the place where I often came with your Mother." He answered making me lean ahead.
"Tell us more,"
Father looked once at he Isle that was still at a distance before he started.
"It was around fifteen years ago, at that time my friends had dragged me here when I didn’t want to come because, first the story which about Lady Violecia was quite sad and I didn’t want to be on the Isle where the poor lady died and also because it was clear that there was going to be storm in the evening.
Still, my friends insisted that it will be fine but now that I think about it none of it would have mattered if I had known what was there for me."
There was a distant look on his face with his eyes glowing and his smile turning into something which I could only express with the word of love. He seemed to be reliving the memory.
"Even though my friends told me everything would be fine, nothing went as they said," he chuckled.
"The storm hit us earlier than expected so, we got trapped on the Isle and to make things worse, I had gotten separated from my friends and got lost in the woods."
"Whoa, that’s bad!" The boatman gasped.
Well, everyone seemed to like a good backstory. I placed my elbow on my thigh and cradled my chin into my palm as I listened to my father and mother’s love story.
"The lightning and the stormy winds were growing worse and I was scared that I would die but then, I stumbled upon her... It was a bit shameful as I was in trouble and she was the one who came for my rescue."
"But... I couldn’t forget that night, her long hair being whipped by the stormy winds and the way she reached out to me. After that day, I couldn’t forget about her, she had come to the Isle for her own work but after that tried to contact her. I don’t know if it was coincidence or not but the second time that I saw her was also here on this Isle."
"How romantic!" The boatman cried.
"After meeting for a few times, I proposed to her. I thought I would be rejected since she was so good at everything and I didn’t have anything to offer except for my position, my loyalty and..."
"Your looks." I prompted making him chuckle.
"I guess, I did look good enough back then,"
"You still do."
He smiled at me as he continued, "I was prepared to even get slapped at that time, but she accepted."
"Oh!" The boatman clapped.
"But even if we were in love we didn’t quite have the support of Marquis." He released a deep sigh, "He kept trying to stop us from meeting so, I and your mother got married off without his permission."
No wonder, they had such bad relationship, though it seemed like they were growing closer.
"After marriage when we came to know of Rune’s existence we came here to visit the Isle which was the place where our story started." He smiled looking as the isle was now quite close.
"Those were the days when I thought that I had everything in my life and that I could never be sad. But..." His smile turned melancholic again and he hung his head looking down at his hands.
"I... couldn’t do anything to save her and just like she had appeared in my life she... left..."
My father lifted his head and smiled at me and Rune taking our hands, "But I’m glad she gave me two reasons to be happy again. I’m... so glad that you are here, Rune, Reina. I... don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here..."
"Fa-"
"Waah!" We all flinched as the boatman suddenly started weeping, "What a sad story! My Lord, I’m so sorry to hear that My Lady isn’t with you anymore. God can be so cruel at times!"
We three looked at the boatman who was bawling his eyes out before we started chuckling and soon we reached at the shore of the Isle Rosa.