60 – Strategy Meeting – 5
“Who really did you call for a present?”
“It can’t be.”
Seol-A poked her elbow into my side.
“Wow, the excuse you came up with on the spot?”
“Yes. So don’t be suspicious, just stay close to Hestia.”
You’ve been telling a lot of lies. Seol-ah pushed me on the back. I naturally went and stood next to Hestia. Hestia asked me while standing close to me.
“So, whose present is it?”
“Huh?”
From nob le mt l dot com
My head went blank at Hestia’s question. Where is that I was just covering it up as it is. I closed my mouth.
You don’t know what kind of trouble will happen if I answer randomly. I waved and quickly sent a rescue request to Seol-ah.
Seol-ah answered her question as if she recognized my gaze right away.
“I didn’t even tell Mikhail. I don’t know either of you anyway.”
“Then why did you come with me?”
Sure. Why bring someone you don’t know to buy a present? Seol-ah responded naturally.
“He is because he is a man. I did it because I thought that a man would know better about a gift that a man would like.”
Hestia tilted her head. Seol-ah has the widest feet among us, but her male connections are virtually extinct. There are things that Seol-ah herself did not need, and they are also Wilhelm’s remnants. One always wonders who the man who is giving the gift is.
However, Hestia didn’t bother digging further into it and stepped back, saying that she was just going to do that. He doesn’t bother to know either of you, but it’s not a good idea to keep asking who it is.
“Then Mikhail. Is there a present you would like to receive?”
“A gift? Hmm….”
I thought about what I wanted right now. After thinking for a while, I came up with an answer.
“No.”
Because I am a person who has little desire for money. I just live my daily life and at some point, oh, there is nothing I wish for on a regular basis unless I wish I had this.
Besides, I am enjoying a life that lacks nothing in particular. Clothes? Originally, I have no greed, but when I open the closet, it is full of clothes brought from my hometown. Something to eat? I can just come out and buy it with my own money. Cash? It’s not a guy who doesn’t have a case enough to ask for something like that as a gift, and honestly, it’s a problem because he doesn’t have anywhere to spend money.
Bada Kang, a self-taught student, had an electric razor, auxiliary battery, diatomaceous earth mat, and such a list of trivial ‘items that would be a waste to buy with my own money, but would be appreciated as a gift’, but Mikhail von Sirius, the heir to the Grand Duke’s family, had none of those things. If you just need something, you already have it, or you just buy it.
“Please give me a more sincere answer.”
Seola looked at me with fierce eyes. No, it was an excuse for cotton anyway, but what a sincere answer. I just go into any store and buy a tie or a belt or something.
“Mikhail, is there anything you really want?”
But Hestia doesn’t seem to think so. She put her hands together and looked really worried about me.
“No, why is that? Because I don’t have anything I really want. Is that something to worry about?”
“If Cordelia had said she didn’t have the things she wanted, she would have thought that I did. But not you, Mikhail. Do you remember the last time we talked about hobbies?”
I nodded. Even then, when I told her that I had no hobbies, Hestia stepped forward, saying that she would find a hobby for me.
“I have no hobbies, no things I want. Come to think of it, I don’t have any favorite foods or songs. When I look at Mikhail, I feel like an empty person somewhere.”
I couldn’t answer anything. You are an empty person I remembered myself on Earth. Was I originally a person with no hobbies, no things I wanted, no likes and dislikes?
I read web novels diligently and made a list of things that are worth buying with my own money, but would be appreciated if they came as gifts. Like or dislike? Not to mention.
I don’t have anything special to say if there’s nothing special about those things in this world, but as Hestia said, there’s a bit of a sense of incongruity. I feel like I have a hole in my character.
“No, I don’t think there is a need to overthink it….”
Seol-ah made a mumbling sound, but she didn’t hear it. No matter how I think about it, it seems that there is something wrong with me. A time series that doesn’t fit with Seol-ah, personal problems that disappeared as if there were holes in them, and even hating going back to Earth for no particular reason.
Has my favorite thing really gone? I thought of something I originally liked, especially the kind that can be used as gifts and are common in this world.
“A gift. How about perfume?”
I don’t particularly like perfume, but I do have a favorite scent.
“It’s okay. I think it would be perfect for a gift.”
Seol-ah chimed in. On the way to her store, Seol-ah secretly talked to me.
“Do you have a favorite scent?”
“I’m going to check it now.”
“What are you talking about? You mean there anyway?”
“Why?”
“I’m going to do that.”
You’re not giving it to me. Why? Seol-ah sang her hum as if she had no intention of answering my questions, and she went ahead.
–
No matter how big and grand the shopping street in front of the academy was, there was no perfume shop. According to Hestia, you can find such specialty stores anywhere in the capital city.
The place we went to was a cosmetics store. Perfume is judged here as well. I stopped right at the entrance.
“Why is that?”
“Do I have to go in too?”
Seola asked in a puzzled voice.
“No Mikhail, if you don’t go in, who will go in? Why are you like this all of a sudden?”
But, this is a bit. Just entering it seems to cause an allergy. More specifically, it feels like walking into a women’s underwear store. It’s not that there’s a particular corner, but it’s not easy.
“Well, I wonder if this is a shop that is a little bit for men to enter.”
“Don’t say anything strange and follow me.”
Hestia, who was looking at me worriedly, made a pathetic expression on her face, then grabbed my arm and dragged me into her shop.
The inside of the store had a slightly different atmosphere than I thought. Is it closer to Olive Young? This is enough for you to breathe.
The three of us hurriedly headed in front of the perfume store. Fortunately, a demonstration was possible.
“What is your favorite scent?”
Seola asked. As I said before, it’s about the original favorite scent.
“It smells like wood.”
She looked surprised at my answer and asked the clerk for a testimonial.
I’m not familiar with perfume either, but I liked the Woody perfume I was given as a gift, so I kept using it.
“Here.”
Seol-ah handed me the testimonial paper she had received from her clerk. I carefully brought her test paper to her nose. The winter scent of deep and hard wood enters through the nose…
“Khehehe. Coke. Cool.”
“Mikhail! Are you okay?”
Crazy. Why does it smell disgusting? I coughed violently at the moment of reluctance. Isn’t there something wrong with this perfume? I thought for a while, but considering that the two of them smelled the same scent with me from the side, it wasn’t really like that.
“Uh, uh. Are you okay. I suddenly heard a rumor.”
You can’t say that you just said you liked it and then coughed because the smell was disgusting. I tried a few other scents as well. Unfortunately or fortunately, I was perfectly fine. The thick smell made my head hurt a little, but I didn’t cough as strongly as before. It sounds like there is nothing wrong with my nose.
If there’s no problem with my nose or no problem with the perfume, it’s just that the smell doesn’t suit me. The smell that he liked in the days of the river sea is not to Mikhail’s taste.
Does your taste follow your body? No, if that was the case, I would have chosen Seol-ah, not Hestia. Mikhail’s taste is Lily, but mine is Hestia, so I guess I haven’t broken up with Hestia right now. A body is a body, and my personal likes are likes. That is a separate issue.
Then what is it? My taste has changed so drastically without even knowing it in just a few months now?
I was in a state of confusion, but Seol-ah brought me a new poetry fragrance paper.
“How about this?”
I put the perfume paper to my nose again without thinking. It’s probably the same scent anyway.
Huh? Why so…
“Isn’t it nice?”
Beside me, Seol-ah was smiling. As she said, it was a scent she liked very much because it made her feel good.
“Where did you bring something I like like a ghost?”
“It’s the smell Mikhail likes in the original novel.”
Seola secretly whispered. I was even more confused with the faint citrus scent that lingered in my nose. Am I a river or sea right now?
A college student who just returned to school, a proud son of his parents, a regular customer of gimbap heaven in front of his house, a typewriter addict who has been immersed in reading books for over 10 years, and an ordinary person who likes fried rice and Coke Zero and wonders whether or not to buy an electric razor.
Heir to the grand duke’s family, one of the best swordsmanship in the empire, Hestia von Gracia’s fiancée, freshman at the academy, a rich boy who doesn’t know about the existence of fried rice and Coke Zero, and doesn’t even have to worry about buying an electric razor.
Who is the real me? I think I’m a river sea, but if I’m slowly getting colored like this without even knowing a mouse or a bird, and in the end no element of the river sea remains, is that person really me?
There is a thing called Theseus’ ship conundrum. There is a large ship of Theseus. If the planks of this ship are replaced one by one and eventually all the planks are replaced so that none of the original planks remain, can the ship be called Theseus’ ship?
I don’t know the answer. Is that ship the ship of Theseus, or am I the river sea? How do I know that even brilliant philosophers pondered and failed to come up with an answer, leaving it as a conundrum?
Seol-ah sang her hum, whether she knew my troubles or not. She looks pretty good.
“Then I should just buy this.”
“There is no one to give it as a gift, and you are going to use it after all, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then you should buy the one you like.”
She didn’t pretend to hear what I was saying and called for Hestia, who was wandering in her corner because of the thick smell of her perfume.
“Ms. Hestia. I chose Hey, give me two of these.”
She called her clerk and pointed to her perfume she had shown me earlier.
“Two outlines?”
“I liked it. Two are better than one.”
What the hell are you talking about? Hestia and I looked at Seol-ah with puzzled expressions, but she did not change her mind. To be honest, it’s a little funny that we’re not going to buy two of them.
Seol-ah left the store with a big smile on what she liked so much.
After that, in the end, I couldn’t say anything and naturally broke up. She can’t help it now that she’s solved the problem of the gift she put up as an excuse.
“See you tomorrow.”
“Please enter carefully.”
Hestia returned to her joyful expression, where her first fearful expression had gone.
On the way back to my dorm after taking the two of them to the dormitory, someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind. I looked back.
“hehehehe…. Why are you walking so fast?”
The one who hit me on the shoulder was Seol-ah, who was breathing heavily as if she had hurriedly ran.
“What is it? Why are you here?”
“After seeing you take Hestia, I came out and followed you. I have something to give you.”
She put something in her hand.
“Perfume?”
“It’s yours. Gift.”
“What a gift.”
“Is there a rule to give gifts only on birthdays or special occasions? I just give because I want to give.”
It was the perfume I bought at the store earlier. Seol-ah was laughing mischievously.
“He said he didn’t know either me or Hestia earlier.”
She shrugged her shoulders at my words.
“It’s not Mikhail, it’s a gift from the river and the sea. Someone who doesn’t know Mikhail and doesn’t know Hestia. Right?”
I felt all the complicated worries that had been running through my head were washed away.
Yes. Whether it’s Theseus’ ship or Hercules’ ship, it doesn’t matter. If I think of myself as a river, it’s over.
“You….”
“Why, are you impressed?”
I was a little impressed, but when I asked him directly like that, I was blown away.
“Until you say that.”
“To be shy.”
That being said, I asked what I was curious about, though it was too much to ask. If it was a gift for me anyway, it’s okay to ask about this much.
“But if you bought it for me, why did you buy two?”
At my question, Seol-ah gave a mysterious smile.
“I plan to write one. They share the same smell. Not good?”
Wow, wow. Year of despair.
–