24 – Lily’s Shady Plan – 5
Hestia’s expression hardened. I tried to move my body, but I couldn’t move at all. Mikhail’s mouth didn’t come off as if it were glued on. It feels like me and Mikhail are separated. The feeling of going out of body and seeing it from the perspective of a third person.
Hestia and Mikhail both looked a little younger than they are now. It is still a period of growing up. A closer look reveals that she is exactly 15 years old. Somehow I could see that.
Hestia was eagerly telling Mikhail something, but Mikhail didn’t even pretend to hear it. In other words, complete ignorance. As Mikhail continued to ignore her, Hestia’s expression hardened a little more than before. She tried her best not to show off her, but she couldn’t fool my eyes.
After that, the same scene was repeated to the extent of being bizarre. Only the background changed little by little, and the same scene continued to flow before my eyes. Hestia talks hard and Mikhail eagerly ignores her. As the scene repeated, Mikhail and Hestia grew up. Hestia’s expression hardened, and Mikhail’s reaction grew colder and colder. From a certain point on, Hestia didn’t say anything either. Her expression didn’t change either.
The two just sat and quietly drank tea and parted ways. Without any conversation. And at the end of the repeated scene, Hestia finally opened her mouth.
“Let’s break off the marriage, us.”
I screamed.
“No!”
– Bang!
I fell off the bed. My back feels like it’s about to split.
Ah, a f*cking dream.
What dream place is so ferocious? It felt even worse because it was strangely realistic.
‘I have all these crazy dreams.’
I grabbed my waist and remembered the dream I had just had. Originally, dreams should volatilize and disappear in an instant after waking up, but the more strangely you think about them, the more vividly they remain in your head.
I don’t even respond to Hestia, who tries hard to have a conversation alone. And she finally got tired of her and declared her breakup. Except for the final announcement of the breakup, it feels like reminiscing about what actually happened rather than a dream. And if we guess from the facts we have learned so far, what actually happened will be correct. I ignore Hestia who tries to continue the conversation somehow. Perhaps, as Seol-ah said, she and I were destined to break up.
I felt very uncomfortable. I don’t know why I see this as a dream now. I had a good date with Hestia yesterday and came back in a good mood. I wonder if I was paying attention to Seol-Ah’s words.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing happened. Go back.”
The noise I made as I screamed and fell off the bed was louder than I thought. A maid ran over and asked how I was doing. I replied with a grunt.
I sent the maid back with a mixture of pain and shame. I barely got up and checked the time. It’s a little early to prepare to go out, but it’s an ambiguous time to go to bed again. Besides, I fell out of bed after this dream, and I didn’t even want to go back to sleep.
I woke up a little early, so I decided to go for a morning walk. Some of the students who exercised at dawn were already at the time, so there was no particular problem.
The dawn of the academy was livelier than I thought. The sun had not yet risen on the green campus, and there were quite a few employees preparing for the day and students coming out to exercise.
I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with the morning air. I had heard somewhere that the morning air was bad for the body because of the dust accumulated all night, but I didn’t really care. As long as I feel refreshed and clean, that’s fine. I took another deep breath.
I was enjoying the early morning air for a while when I heard a familiar voice from behind. I turned to the voice calling me.
“What, Mikhail? What are you doing at this hour?”
With Cordelia in her gym uniform, she spoke to me. She was sweating profusely even though it was still chilly, as if she was jogging. Her long hair was also gathered and tied up behind her. The last time she gave her a massage, she remembered her peeking at Hestia’s nape, and she stung for nothing. She separated her gaze as far as she could from the nape of her neck.
“I was taking a walk for a while because I strangely woke up early. Are you exercising?”
“Yes. I’ve been running at this time every day since I came here.”
“Awesome.”
Cordelia looks happy as if she really enjoys running in the morning. Getting up early in the morning and running is easy to say, but if you try to do it yourself, you will die. But she doesn’t show any distress at all.
“It seems that you enjoy moving around in classes and clubs.”
Cordelia is almost the only noble lady of hers who has grown up and is taking swordsmanship lessons. She doesn’t know exactly where she joined the club, but she was told that it was a club that moved her body, and she went around interviews all day. She’s been there and she’s been jogging since the dawn of it. I don’t know how the hell I hid that passion before. Or does she explode now as much as she suppressed before?
“Really? hehehe, how are you Are you a bit like a heretic?”
“Why are you a female knight all of a sudden?”
At my words, Cordelia laughed confidently, then she asked an out-of-the-box question. Are you here? What are you doing here all of a sudden?
When she asked if she was like a heroine, I hesitated, unable to find the words to answer. Also, I’ve never actually seen a female knight. Besides, her body was too slender to be a knight, and she was very thin. Even in empty words, she did not look like a female knight. However, I like it that way, but it’s a little hard to be honest with your face.
“I practice swordsmanship, exercise, and even ride a horse! Doesn’t it look like a heretic?”
She noticed my hesitant attitude and she began to appeal to her heroine. Appealing to a female knight, what a stupid looking word.
“Horse? Oh, did you decide to join the equestrian club?”
Cordelia seems to have been bouncing around and finally she decided to join the equestrian club. I pictured her wearing her riding clothes and riding her horse. She seems like a pretty match apart from her unstoppable nature and her fiery personality.
“Right! I thought about the sword dance club and horseback riding club until the end, but I thought riding a horse would be more fun.”
“Don’t you know how to ride a horse?”
Horse riding is a basic skill of nobles, and she is the daughter of a duke. But she spoke as if she had never ridden her horse.
“I know how to ride a horse, but it’s a little different from what you think.”
“Is it different?”
“You know what side saddles are? You sit down like this and ride.”
Cordelia went to a nearby bench to show me a demonstration of what are called side saddles. She tucked her legs together and sat on her side.
“Ah, I think I know what it is.”
It was the image of noble ladies riding horses in the movie.
“Usually, women from aristocratic families like us ride with side saddles. I did too.”
“Why is that?”
Cordelia blushed at my thoughtless question.
“There is such a thing! Are you a pervert?!”
She suddenly uttered abusive language. It is unfair. Why do I even have to hear that this question is perverted?
“Ah, it’s my first time riding a horse properly, so I decided to join the equestrian club.”
“Congratulations.”
She glossed over the side saddle and brought up the horse riding club again. I decided not to ask any more questions. If you dig further here, you will not hear the answer you want and will only listen to her life. It hasn’t even been 15 days since I haven’t seen her, but somehow I feel like I’m quickly learning how to treat her.
“So what? Are you like a heretic?”
What on earth is her obsession with female knights? I decided to suppress my curiosity and give a rough answer. I’ve never even seen you live here, and you’re too thin, so there’s no need to spoil her mood by saying the same thing.
“Yes, what. That’s right.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It’s like a heretic.”
“Hee hee. Good! I’m going to run a little more!”
Cordelia laughed, apparently satisfied with my answer, and ran out without looking back. I was taken aback by her sudden rash, but soon decided to turn her nerves off. Asking her out for nothing is not a very good option. Asking Hestia later would probably be a quicker and wiser choice.
I stared blankly at Cordelia’s back as she happily ran away, then she decided to go back to her room and slowly prepare herself.
–
“Ah, Hestia.”
“You came out quickly.”
Hestia’s morning is early. It seems to be faster than usual today.
Originally, I matched her, so she goes to school after joining her in front of the student cafeteria much earlier than her original start time. While I woke up early today, I finished preparations quickly and headed to the restaurant 15 minutes earlier than usual, but Hestia was waiting for me first.
“My eyes opened a little early today. Didn’t Hestia come out too soon?”
I don’t know how long I’ve been waiting.
“I’m kind of excited thinking about going to the academy after the weekend.”
“…… “
I don’t know how much I love studying. It’s the first time I’ve seen anyone who goes to school early because they’re excited about going to school on Monday. Unbeknownst to me, my expression hardened.
Hestia belatedly added an excuse as if she saw my expression.
“No, it’s not just because of studying…. I am a little excited at the thought of seeing Mikhail and Miss Cordelia.”
“I saw you yesterday too.”
She made her own excuses that she didn’t even become, so I refuted without knowing. Cordelia said she saw her on Saturday, and I had just had dinner with her the previous day.
“Eight! Anyway yes! A student wants to study in the first place, so why bother!”
Hestia cutely got angry at my rebuttal. In fact, her Hestia’s words are the right theory. She is, if I had to insist, an exemplary student, not an odd one.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“I don’t know how you look at me like that.”
“Okay. Okay. I won’t look at you like that.”
Hestia and I headed to the classroom while bickering.
-Drreuk
I opened the classroom door and entered.
“No one is there.”
“We came out too early.”
“I like this.”
As expected, no one was in the classroom. Hestia liked this empty classroom because it felt somehow reassuring. Studying is better than studying alone in a room.
She sat down and started preparing for today’s subjects. I wonder if I should prepare for the lesson, so she secretly took out the textbook and then put it back in again. When no one was around, she intended to ask about the relationship between Cordelia and the female knight.
“Hestia, does Lady Deneb have something to do with this love?”
“Yes? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
I relayed what happened at dawn to Hestia. The day when her eyes opened a little early and she went for a walk, the day when she met and chatted with Cordelia while she was exercising, and the day when she revealed a suspiciously strong obsession with her heroine. I didn’t bother to mention side birds and perverts. I’ll have to look into this myself later.
“Aha! Was Miss Cordelia like that?”
Hestia heard my story and laughed out loud. She seemed to be guessing something.
“What, do you know anything?”
“Well, I know….”
Hestia seemed to be contemplating whether or not to tell me this.
“Unlike what it looks like, Cordelia likes romance novels. I’m just going to tell you this far. Hear the rest for yourself.”
Hestia spoke to me in an unusually playful voice. Romance novel? It’s definitely surprising if it’s unexpected, but considering that she’s a woman of her age who would like it for a long time, it’s not that unusual.
“A romance novel? What does that have to do with love here?”
“Ask me directly.”
But what does that have to do with love here? I inquired a bit more, but Hestia’s mouth was motionless. She repeatedly told me to ask her directly, but she didn’t give me a proper answer.
I’ve been thinking about the love triangle between Cordelia, romance novels, and female knights for a long time, but I couldn’t come up with a plausible answer.
And one by one, other students began to enter the classroom. I looked at the clock and saw that the time was passing.
-Drreuk
After a while, the classroom door opened and I was nervous. She, who was concentrating hard on her preparations next to her, saw the person who opened her classroom door and entered, put down her pen and watched her quietly.
Seol Ada. It’s the first time I’ve seen her again since we parted ways on her Friday. I remembered her meaningful last words.
‘The original story has already begun.’
What did that mean?
Seola entered the classroom looking no different than usual. Immediately after her, Wilhelm followed. She came to my side very naturally.
I strained her body and waited for her next move. She came right next to me Then,
“… ?”
It just zipped past me. Then he went straight to his seat and sat down. Wilhelm, who followed her, looked at me and smiled mischievously.
What is it?
–