Broken Promises | Owari no Seraph

Special Chapter: Unrequited Feelings

I was an orphan.

I don't recall what my parents looked like, nor do I have any memories of them.

Whether they abandoned us or had circumstances that were beyond their control—it's meaningless to think about such things when I couldn't even remember them, much less miss them.  

I just know that my sister was always by my side. 

For as long as I could remember, we were confined in a dark room. Neither of us knew why or since when we were kept in there, but in that empty space, we could only talk among ourselves and hold our hands as a reminder of each other's presence. 

Those kinds of days seemed unending until one day, we came upon an opportunity to slip away. There was a commotion outside, and coincidentally, the door was left unlocked, so we managed to sneak out in the dead of winter. 

At first, we had no idea about where to go, but then again, it didn't matter as long as we were together.

By the time we rushed outside, some people already had noticed our absence and pursued us, so my sister and I desperately ran away to a nearby forest. 

To our luck, we could shake off our pursuers because of a sudden blizzard. Needless to say, our feet became numb, and the relentless cold drained our limbs of all energy, so eventually, we blacked out. 

I thought that was the end of us.

However, the next morning, I woke up in an unfamiliar room—even my ragged clothes had been changed. By my side, my sister was sleeping on a chair with a blanket. Then, a little girl came in with a man behind her.

"Ah, you woke up!" That girl walked over and held my hands out of a sudden. "I'm glad!"

"Hey, let go of him." The man reproved mildly and patted the girl on her head. "His sister was very worried, so let her see him first."

As soon as he said that, she drew back her hands and he directed his gaze to my side—my sister had stirred awake. She burst into tears upon seeing me and squeezed me in a hug. While I returned the gesture, I found myself staring at the unknown girl, who was smiling at us—strangely, I felt warm.

Then, she introduced herself as Tachibana Mikan. Apparently, we were in their territory, and after the snowstorm died down, she had found us and asked her father to take us in. If it weren't for them, we'd have frozen to death for sure.

Soon after that, they introduced us to the Mikami Clan, who were willing to adopt us and gave us the option to start a new life by being part of the Order of the Imperial Dawn. We had nowhere to go anyways, so my sister and I accepted their offer and began to live with them. In doing so, they taught us many things and even showered us with love. Eventually, we had livened up a bit and grew fond to them as well.

A year had passed, and we met that girl again. We were told to now look up to her as our master and become her attendants to carry out the duty of the clan to serve the Tachibanas—not that we minded, since the life we had was thanks to them. 

As her attendants, we had to undergo strict training. It was hard on us, but, despite her busy schedule, Mikan-sama would pass by our house and encourage us at times.

It was only a matter of time before I began to respect her. As the next head, she was always attentive to us and tried to meet up to every expectation by accomplishing the tasks that were imposed on her. Even though we were the same age, her talents were so overwhelming that I wondered if she would ever need help from us at all. When I brought it up to our parents, they simply smiled at me.