Winter (1)
If human life is like the four seasons, the life of a spirit is probably a long winter.
Looking at everything that was dying, the great wolf of the wind was guarding the forest like that.
*
“You’re too good to be in trouble, Yenika.”
Laplace Bakery, located at the entrance of the living quarters, is a historic teahouse with a history with the Sylvania Academy.
A large-looking location on the road to the Ghakwon-dong, the taste of refreshments managed and managed by a former imperial pastry chef, and a terrace filled with the smell of flowers.
The appearance that seems to embody the romance of a girl is the secret to being able to maintain its realm even in the living dong commercial area, which is being encroached into the area of Elte Sanghoe one by one.
Yenica was also a girl of that age, so when Clara offered to shoot her at Laplace Bakery, she had no choice but to follow along.
The three-tiered dessert tray is filled with cakes of all kinds of dazzling colors. He was about to receive the tea with a dazzling light emitting from his eyes.
“It’s good to work hard, but it’s hard if you do too well. Do you know what I mean, Yenika?”
“Yes?”
“You have to know how to make a hole if you need it.”
Clara and Anise, Jenica’s best friends, looked the same as usual, but they look strangely more tragic today.
It was the exact opposite of the academic atmosphere that was gradually becoming more spacious ahead of the winter break.
“Uh, what’s going on… Clara? With such a stiff face.”
“Clara is going back to her hometown this vacation~. I’m worried about you while you’re away~.”
Anise sipped the tea with a nice expression on her face.
“okay? Seriously, last year, I went back to my hometown every vacation to help out with work… I feel anxious when I’m away from college. I know what it feels like.”
“It’s not like that, Yenika! I’m not worried about my academic calendar, it’s your love story!”
There is no hesitation in Clara’s tone of voice as she stabs straight ahead.
As if something had happened to Yenica, who was firm and swallowing her breath at those words, Clara went in further.
“To put it bluntly, you fell in love with that Ed Roth-Taylor.”
“Clara. It’s too direct.”
“I came here today with a firm resolution, Anise. Don’t you know what I’ve been squeezing out Laplace Bakery’s finest refreshments for? You have to spray this amount of bait to get through Yenika, who seems too busy these days.”
“Mi, the bait… It looks like I was fishing.”
Strictly speaking, the expression “fished” was the most accurate, but Anise did not dare to express it explicitly.
“He, and… my love story, what the hell…”
“Yenika, if you’ve come this far, let’s not leave. I think you’ve reached the danger line, Yenica.”
Yenika Tane would think that she had lived her life by hiding her love affair, but to her best friends Clara and Anise, it was meaningless. Yenika’s insides are nothing but transparent windows.
“Up, the danger line?”
“okay. Yenica. To put it bluntly, you are a good ‘friend’.”
Clara was talking naked with her arms crossed, and graceful Anise was sipping tea next to her, sipping tea.
“It’s difficult to give such a compliment… it’s difficult…”
“That’s a good thing… but not a compliment, Yenika.”
Clara shot Yenica at her with a serious face.
“When Yenika first fell in love with that person like Ed, she felt like she lost her country… But as time passed and her evaluation of that person turned around, it was accepted. So, how did things turn out like this?”
“Hey, Clara…”
“It doesn’t make any sense to blush and shake your head from now on, Yenika. I think if you’ve come this far, you can just leave. I have been patient enough.”
It was only then that Jenica realized that it was all Clara and Anis’ trap.
The reason for the reservation of the private terrace, which is the most expensive at Laplace Bakery, was also to induce Yenica to a closed space for fear of overheard.
“Yenika, you’re following the golden pattern of a loser in a relationship… as a good ‘friend’ is coming to an end.”
There was an auditory hallucination that sounded like a thunderbolt.
“Hey, what does that mean? Clara?”
“Have you recently been with him and your heart was pounding and you couldn’t speak, or did you say that you couldn’t see each other because your heart was pounding?”
“Why are you suddenly saying that?!”
“Is there! Answer me!”
Isn’t it too direct to prescribe Yenika, who has no immunity?
Anise, who was sitting quietly next to her listening to the story, was very concerned, but did not intervene right away.
“Oh, that’s…!”
Yenika swallowed a gasp.
Yes. Obviously, it’s because we’ve shared a lot more time than when we first met Ed Roth Taylor… Now, sitting next to him, I feel comfortable and warm rather than pounding and nervous, and I feel like I’m healing. Considering the first time I met him, it’s safe to say that it has changed dramatically.
It wasn’t really a negative emotion, so I didn’t think it was that dangerous. Rather, I thought it was an improvement.
“Do you know what we call such a comfortable and reliable relationship? They call it family or close friends. It’s just a relationship where Yenica helps you as much as you like!”
“Well, then… isn’t it…?”
“Hey, burn! What does it mean when emotional exchange is only one-way? You should make him think of you too! If I just follow you and say I like you, is that a romantic relationship? A follow-up relationship!”
A dagger-like needle flew into Yenika’s chest and pierced it.
Suddenly, a faint clap of applause or the cheers of animals resound. Clara couldn’t hear it at all, but Anis’s ears, which were hiding some of the spirits’ emotions, could hear faintly.
It must have been that the lower spirits who signed a master-slave contract with Yenika were not able to spit out the words. I just had to be cool.
“You’ve been thinking about the wrong approach for a while, Yenika. As long as you are always easygoing, bright, and kind, your charm is, so trying to be pushy and trying to get worse is going to hurt your charm. Surely… Belle’s opinion was more appropriate in this regard.”
“What kind of exchange of opinions happened without me…?”
“It’s okay, Yenika. Anyway, it’s winter vacation after all. That’s when you open your eyes and cut your nose. Anyway, the man has a flat face and strangely has a lot of women’s clothes, so we shouldn’t procrastinate any longer. You have to take it off slowly. But at a time like this, I have to go back to my hometown, wouldn’t I be anxious? yes?”
In front of Clara, who vomited in anger, Yenika had no choice but to sit still and listen to the story.
He couldn’t figure out why he felt like he was being scolded, but he seemed to be a criminal in the atmosphere, so he stayed still.
Above all else, Jenica trusts Clara.
“Hey, Clara is erudite. And because I’m good at human relationships like this… Is that correct…?”
“Yes, Yenika! Listen to me!”
Clara’s worries about returning home gradually reached their limit.
“Anyway… I’ve been thinking about Yenika lately… Yenika You’re desperately lacking in talent. Either way, we need to change our strategy.”
“Ugh…”
Yenika was speechless as she was not without a point.
Using love as a bait as a bait to provoke, tickle, and tease others… From the image, Lortel seems to be far more proficient than Yenica. From the beginning, she was a girl who made it her business to play with people’s hearts.
I was well aware of the fact that I couldn’t even find the original story if I had to follow along.
“In that sense, you have to change the direction… As I said at the beginning, you’re too good-looking, the problem is, Yenika.”
“What else do you mean…?”
“Listen, Yenika. You need to be a little ugly.”
When I first see Yenika, I often think that she will look young and full of life on the inside as well as her youthful and energetic appearance. Actually, there is that part. It’s like being terribly mischievous, or being timid in a strange way.
However, when it comes to important parts, it is surprisingly solid and flawless.
Despite this, he is confident in self-management, works hard, is altruistic, and is quite tolerant. A popular cutie with good looks, a senior in the grade, and strong brute force.
He’s the perfect person to be proud of being a best friend… But now, that doesn’t just work as an advantage!
“Listen and follow me, Yenika.”
Clara took on a serious mood and made eye contact with Yenica, pronouncing each letter one word at a time.
“The protective instinct.”
“Bo… protection…?”
“The protective instinct.”
Yenika swallowed her saliva and followed those words with difficulty.
“Originally, all men are the same. If you’re reliable like Yenica, listen to your side, and just be positive, do you think she’ll like it? no. Rather, I have to constantly confirm the hardship and weakness of myself. Oh, I’m helping this woman. you are dependent on me You’re relying on me emotionally. By constantly confirming this, build your self-esteem and stimulate your protective instinct.”
Anise admired herself.
Clara doesn’t have much of a dating experience, but surprisingly, the story pierces the core…!
Is this the intuition of a person who ‘learned’ love affair…!
“This is more suitable for Yenica than the usual smut.”
“That… that’s a bit vague…”
It doesn’t suit Jenica’s opinion. When Clara asks what that means, Yenika narrows her eyes and fiddles with her fingers.
“That… poem… actually… I’m already leaning on a lot emotionally…?”
The reason why you can feel as if you are being healed after an hour of relaxation while living in a bachelor life walking on a thin ice sheet or living in a Dex tube is because Edgar always greets you in the same way by the bonfire when you go to camp.
When he withdrew the fact that Ed was coming to the Dex, on the one hand it was a pity, but on the other hand, it was still okay…
“But Ed Roth-Taylor doesn’t know that at all…?”
“Is that so… It certainly seems that Ed is struggling just by maintaining his camp life and college life at the same time…”
This was also one of the fundamental problems.
As he maintains a life like an iron man, he has no time to turn his attention to love. That’s exactly what Bell Maia pointed out.
To break through this part, you really have no choice but to grab a man named Ed and shake it.
“Then it’s just a lack of stimulation. Reveal your inner self and receive comfort! Aren’t you worried about the spectacle, Yenika? Wow, this would be really hard if I didn’t help… I’m worried!”
“There is no way such a worry can arise overnight…! Most of them have been resolved to some degree!”
“Then create your worries…! If you create a problem that didn’t exist, it’s bound to happen!”
“I’m so sorry if I bought you worry with a lie!”
When Ed apologized sincerely for being rude, he could not win and had a history of bowing his head.
Yenica’s conscience can’t stand the absurd lies. However, if there are sincere concerns, most of them solve them on their own due to their competence.
“Well, if there is something to worry about…”
“What if there is?”
Yenica thinks, “Umm…” and then confesses.
“These days, Ed was planning to make a contract with a high-ranking spirit by some expedient…”
“…”
“I also lay down groaning for a few days after signing a contract with Takan, but if Ed, who is still lacking in sensitivity, uses a shortcut to sign a contract, wouldn’t it rather ruin his body…? But Ed is a style that is greedy for self-growth… Because it can work out well… If you make a decision, it’s sometimes right to push it boldly… … Anyway, I’m a little worried about that…”
It was something he was talking about quite seriously, but Clara leaned back against the backrest, patting her forehead with both hands.
Anise took a deep breath and brought the teacup to her mouth. In the end, even if the story goes like this, this girl is like this. Heaven is like this, what do you do?
That innocent girl who tilts her head and looks at Clara and Anise. On the contrary, considering the fact that he and Yenika became best friends because he liked that aspect, it wasn’t that he didn’t like it again.
“I think soon.”
After eating a bunch of Laplace Bakery’s gourmet snacks and leaving Yenica with a satisfied face… Clara and Annis walked side by side in the living quarters.
Clara did not think that Anis’s words were out of the ordinary. It was because Clara had some intuition.
However, it is quite unnatural that Anise didn’t say a word properly in her conversation with Yenika.
When the three of us got together, we always chatted and chatted… Today, Anise was quietly drinking only black tea.
Anise, unlike Clara, has a knack for relationships between men and women, but she was the last to find out that the person Yenica’s love affair with was Ed.
It was because he was busy with his teaching job and his grades were sparse.
Clara with freckles and protruding hair looks full of vitality, but surprisingly, she comes from a wealthy family.
On the other hand, anise has an old-fashioned and elegant appearance, but is very poor in the environment. Therefore, he cannot neglect his teaching job.
“I know Clara well, but…”
“yes. I think Yenika is also very emotionally involved.”
Is life in the Dex tube a problem? Or is there some other reason?
Sometimes, Yenika feels like she’s overdoing it. If you think that the Glaskan incident was the cause of the explosion, it is highly likely that Yenica’s troubles have not been resolved yet.
It’s such a subtle difference that normal people can’t feel it, but Anise and Clara could.
The feeling that if there is an opportunity, I might reach my mental limit again… A feeling that some fundamental troubles are not resolved…
Still, I feel as if I am being healed periodically or being relieved of my emotional weight.
That opponent is probably Ed Roth Taylor.
It is savage that he confided such worries to his irreplaceable best friends and did not expect them psychologically. If you have caught up to the day like this and tried to sneak up on it, but you didn’t end up talking about your worries… that’s Yenika’s choice. You can’t say anything about it there.
However, Anise’s opinion was slightly different from Clara’s.
“Clara noticed Yenica’s love affair first, and it seems that she changed her opinion about the man by contacting Mr. Bell and the school staff, but… I have another opinion.”
Clara seemed to understand Anise’s thoughts at that moment.
The reason why Jenica and Clara didn’t say anything while drinking tea while they were arguing.
“I still don’t know if I can trust him completely.”
“okay…? Well, the fact that my reputation is improving a bit makes me uneasy.”
“It is so… but the decisive reason is also…”
Anise raised the thumbs and index fingers of both hands and interlocked them to form a square. And put the faces of passersby in it.
“Contemplation.”
“…”
“Looking at it, it’s just like a playboy. If you have to lean on a man who is obsessed with women, in the end, only Yenica will get hurt.”
It’s a bit too much to judge just by looking at the contemplation… I’d like to say, but it’s hard to refute it when you think of Ed Roth Taylor’s appearance. fact is true
“Still, it’s a bit too much to judge just by looking at it…”
As if she had even read Clara’s mind, Anise immediately said that.
“I wonder if verification work is necessary on my own. At least you have to make sure that he’s not a mean guy.”
“how?”
“What would be the best way?”
Anise untied the ribbon that was tying the back of her hair, and swept her gray brown hair to the side of her shoulder. She blinks her moderately long eyelashes and smiles naturally with a face full of shyness.
“Wow-. really? Isn’t that overkill? You’re not that thick-faced.”
“What kind of skill would it take? If you’re a really mean person, you’ll get over it with just a little bit of flirting, right?”
“What if you really jumped on it, and you’re convinced that you’re a bastard?”
Anise spoke naturally with her characteristic aristocratic smile.
“If that’s the case, then you’ll have to take responsibility and tear it apart with Yenica.”
…scary.
Clara and Anise weren’t always in agreement, but I didn’t expect them to come out this hard. Thoughts of Yenica were always the same, but the difference in method is another law.
“Anis doesn’t have much contact with that man. I heard that they don’t even live in a dormitory, so they’re out of work…”
“Well, there’s no law that says you can’t flirt just because you don’t see each other often… But if you share a lot of time, it’s also true that it’s easy to flirt. Don’t worry, Clara. Because I have an idea.”
When Anise has this certainty, I am most anxious.
Just by looking at your appearance, you should not be mistaken for a person who is always gentle and graceful.
“You know my supervisor, right?”
“Claire assistant professor?”
“yes. This time, because of the heavy workload, I decided to receive a lot of support for undergraduate scholarship students. Obviously, before that, the lab itself was very busy because there was not enough manpower.”
Anise is Claire’s chief assistant. It’s a relationship we’ve been together since the first semester of our freshman year, so Assistant Professor Claire had a lot of trust in Anise.
“I heard that the man also applied for a bachelor’s scholarship. If I recommend it to the professor, you might be drawn to our lab. These days, we tend to give our staff generously.”
“…”
“I still have to process the paperwork for the conference, and I didn’t have enough manpower to take charge of the job placement test for the freshman class that will be on vacation… One stone and two birds.”
Saying that, Anise nodded her head with a stern expression on her face.
Clara looked at Anise with a worried face.
Was it really a good thing I decided to go down to my hometown this vacation? When I came back from vacation, there must be no upheaval in human relationships.
Was it a good thing that Ed Roth-Taylor was brought into Claire’s lab for this nonsensical reason?
I couldn’t shake that thought.
*
[ New finished product ]
wooden wall
After making a groove on the wooden plywood and fixing it by interlocking it, I tied it once more with a rope and stood it upright.
It blocks wild animals from approaching the camp and blocks drafts to some extent.
Crafting Difficulty: ●●◐○○
[ Crafting proficiency has increased. ]
Winter has come.
It was a disaster to see the snow that looked cozy and piled up.
After waking up in the morning, removing all the snow from the campground, and putting up a wall to block drafts, the sun was already in the middle of the sky.
It’s been a while since I set up a policy not to overdo it just because I have a lot of work to do.
Until late in the afternoon, with the intention of lying down and resting, I turned off the heating and lay down in the hut.
It’ll be very cold at night… Let’s get up around sunset and finish the firewood work and food work. Still, the good news is that the preservation of food itself has improved thanks to the cold weather.
And tomorrow, I have to go to work as a bachelor’s scholarship student. Did you say that there is no physically demanding job, and that the task is entrusted to you so that it does not take too much time?
He said that he could take the paperwork with him back to the dormitory and take care of it… Well, in any case, as long as it can be combined with life in moderation.
There was a lot to do.
You have to go to the Elte Sanghoe branch in the living-dong side to find out how things are going with the engineering supplies, and you have to go to check the results of the end-of-semester exam.
There is no problem in living at the camp right now… but just cleaning the snow on a regular basis is hard work.
Even if the roof of the hut is the same, shelter tents and simple facilities placed outside may be crushed by the weight of snow and collapse. You need to constantly check the status.
Still… I got some tuition waiver through the undergraduate scholarship, and negotiated to receive tuition benefits instead of giving up the right to enter the dormitory for the remaining amount that was not exempted. It means that the tuition fee problem has been settled by the next semester.
I feel like a lot of parts of my mind have been liberated by that alone, so my shoulders are very light these days.
To some extent, I spent some money to supplement the supplies. I even had the opportunity to lead a leisurely camp life right away. It’s no longer to the point of splitting the day apart and living like a madman like in the beginning.
I stopped dividing the day into hours. I divided my work into five parts, morning, lunch, afternoon, evening, and night, and laid out my work schedule. I was still busy, but… it depends on how people adjust, and compared to before, she looks like a fairy.
When I woke up in the late afternoon, Lucy was lying on the blanket.
It was in the middle of sleeping with me in the shape of a cross, drawing an oblique line. I have no intention of waking up when I hear the sound of my breathing.
“…”
I was thinking of picking up Lucy as it is and throwing it back into the reserved seat, a wooden shelter…. I thought it would be a bit odd to throw it outside on such a cold winter day.
The cold wouldn’t be a problem for Lucy, who was wearing all kinds of protective magic anyway… but it’s still a matter of mood.
I just threw Lucy on the hut bed, opened the door and woke up to the cold air.
Take one deep breath and steam gushes out of your mouth. The fresh winter forest air awakened my consciousness at once.
“…I’ll do it soon.”
Anytime you do it, you have to take the risk.
If you hesitate and miss the time, it becomes more ambiguous.
There’s never been a better time than now.
I thought to myself, and took out a ring with a golden phoenix engraved on it from my arms.
Then he clenched his fists tightly and held them close to his chest.
“Are you listening?”
I don’t know if there will be or not. Still, I dare to call his name.
“…Merylda.”
The wind blew.
Despite the cold winter wind, it felt strangely warm.