107. End of Summer Vacation (6)
The window, which had been stained black, began to light up little by little.
When I stopped my hands for a moment and looked out the window, the night had cleared before I knew it.
As if replacing darkness, the rising sunlight is lighting up this world.
I look around, feeling somewhat uncomfortable at the evidence that a new day has begun.
The wooden box is full of finished alchemy products.
Items that cannot be filled even with a wooden box are littering the floor and making a mess in the room.
Looking at the sight that seemed to reflect my heart, I then checked my watch and moved my hand again.
Sleep…… I didn’t sleep much
I think I slept for two hours. I woke up in the middle of my sleep.
Once I woke up, I could hardly go back to sleep.
“…Whether I like it or not, my head is full of thoughts of her on the day I confessed.”
These are lines from a famous love story.
I thought it was a line that had nothing to do with me.
-“I… Like Ariel.”
-“I’m not saying I like Ariel’s paintings… I’m saying that the person I like is Ariel…”
The words Mari said yesterday keep coming back to me incessantly.
Thanks to that, I had all kinds of delusions. Her relationship with Marie, what will happen to her in the future, even the distant future…… She had all kinds of fantasies.
You could call it a happy delusion, or you could call it a tired delusion.
If you keep repeating thoughts that you don’t know if they’re meaningful or not, you just don’t know what to do.
‘In the end, you’re thinking strange things because you’re still! So let’s move our hands to get rid of our thoughts, overwork our bodies and go to sleep!’
I thought.
From noble mtl dot com
Swallowing the night and welcoming the morning is the current situation.
“After…”
After making an unknown number of items, I sat down on the bed.
The first thing that came to my mind was that it didn’t suit me.
I am Ariel, but I used to be Kim Il-hwan.
I have been living as Ariel for half a year now, but I think that my fundamental consciousness is Kim Il-hwan.
It has no choice but to be. I have lived as Kim Il-hwan for 28 years.
However, Kim Il-hwan is a 28-year-old mother-of-pearl solo.
He was a man with no dating experience whatsoever.
To be honest…… I didn’t really want to be in a relationship.
I also didn’t like the culture in which the presence or absence of dating experience determines human superiority.
I also did not like the traditional idea of saying that marriage is the turning point in life.
Human relationships have always been tiring for me.
I hated having to force myself to fit in with someone and maintain the relationship.
If there was something I had to change in order to prioritize dating, I hated it.
Therefore, Kim Il-hwan did not seek romance.
I didn’t even have a chance in the first place.
To me, being a woman just felt like a ‘human being of a different race’.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have a s*xual desire for a woman, but before that, being a woman was always an uncomfortable dash for me.
Because the gender is different, the environment is different, and the environment is different, so the fundamental values are different.
Being a woman has been a difficult creature from beginning to end.
Sometimes I think.
Philea Academy, with only female students, might be a hell given to me like that.
“Marie…”
In that respect, Marie was different.
He is my friend with whom I have worked hand-to-hand for the longest time.
She was also the first benefactor who reached out to me when I was in a crisis.
I risked my life to save him…… She is also a precious person.
She didn’t feel as uncomfortable as Marie.
She never thought that if she was dating someone, she would like a woman like this…… She obviously was
You will probably meet many women at Philea Academy in the future,
Is there anyone as close to my ideal type as Marie?
If you think about it in that sense, this might be a genius opportunity.
In another sense…… That’s why, she wonders if it’s okay to accept Mari.
There must be a better life than choosing the same thing as me.
“…….”
I let out a sigh and stood up.
In Mari’s mind, the question of how to answer the question was constantly rising.
I couldn’t find that clear answer within myself.
The dazzling blazing sun also did not give an answer.
I changed my clothes.
Go outside.
It’s 7:00 in the morning.
It was also the time for me to exercise in the morning.
It was also the time to meet Marie, but today her existence is nowhere to be found.
“…As expected, it didn’t come out.”
Looking at the empty seat next to me, I murmured.
What comes to mind is the memory of yesterday.
-“…You like me?”
-“Uh, yes…”
-“Why…?”
-“Eh, because Ariel cherishes me…”
-“That, that, was special to me…”
Before I could answer that question, Marie ran away.
Just before leaving, she had a very shy expression on her face…… It must have been the limit.
It is easy to predict that he must have been scared. It must have been a very important thing for that cowardly Marie to muster up that much courage.
She was, to be honest, glad she got away.
Even if I meet Marie now, she doesn’t know what to say.
“Eh, Ariel…!”
… As I was thinking that, I heard a familiar voice from behind.
I slowly looked back.
“Wait, wait, eh, Ariel…”
Her brown hair with a hint of purple dances.
Her sapphire-colored eyes tinged with the light of the sea trembled anxiously, and she ran in haste, gasping for breath.
When she saw that familiar figure, her heart sank for a moment, but it was only a fleeting moment.
Within seconds I was able to spit out my composure.
“Rose Eiffeltain.”
I called her name.
With the face of Marie, she opened her eyes wide in surprise.
“……Did you find out?”
“Yes.”
“Where did she get caught? I thought she acted well.”
“…….”
If you ask me that, I don’t know. I just intuitively sensed that it wasn’t Marie.
She shrugged her shoulders and threw off her Marie’s mask.
Then, she puts on the face of Rose Eiffeltain.
“Marie is still sleeping. She just fell asleep earlier.”
“…I see.”
“I was nervous, so I was talking all night last night. I said I couldn’t sleep.”
After saying that, Rose Eiffeltain made a strange expression.
It took me a while to understand what that expression meant. Are you sending a positive gaze or a negative gaze?
It might be neither, it might be both.
What is certain is that they are looking at me carefully.
Rose Eiffeltain looks at my face with an observing face.
“Would you like to talk to me, Prince Beheritt? While exercising with me this morning.”
“…….”
She noticed that tone. She knows that Marie confessed to me, Rose knows.
I let out a sigh and chin.
“I usually run, but if I’m going to talk, walking would be better.”
“It’s okay. Actually, I like to go for walks.”
“Is that so?”
She knew it was a lie.
I know that Rose has a setting that, contrary to her looks, she prefers sitting in one place and reading a book rather than wandering around outside.
But it wouldn’t mean much if I pointed it out.
I took the first step.
The hard texture of the floor radiates from the soles of your feet, leading your tired body.
Soon, Rose began to move her feet as well.
Keeps a stride similar to mine and walks side by side with me.
The distance is not very close.
A sense of distance to the extent that we are not close friends.
But it was a good distance to share secret stories.
“What will you do, Prince Beherit?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to accept it or reject it?”
“…I don’t know.”
Since the question was asked right from the main point, he answered honestly.
Rose looks at my side face again with an observant gaze.
“Why don’t you know?”
“…It’s complicated.”
“What’s complicated?”
“You’re a child… Why do you keep asking me questions?”
“Yes, I am the child’s older sister.”
“…I see.”
Rose must have come to see me this early in the morning because she thought I might hurt Marie.
That said, I probably won’t go back until I hear what decision I’ll make.
“I asked what was complicated. My situation is complicated.”
“As for the situation, you mean that you might be kicked out of the duchy.”
“There’s that, but there’s a lot more than that.”
What if it is a deceased figure of the Unknown Saga?
He is the ghost of an aspiring manga artist who couldn’t become a professional because he didn’t have the ability.
It’s a toothless tiger belonging to the duke’s family, called Mangnani.
He is even a possessor who knows the future of this world.
“I have a lot of things to do…, A lot of things to do. To be honest, I’m not in a situation where I’m in a relationship.”
You have to take care of your grades, and you also have to take care of your growth.
I have to check the situation of Lucius and the others from time to time. I don’t know if I have to intervene in the original story in case of emergency.
In the meantime, you must live an orderly life so as not to get caught in disorder.
If you think about it that way, dating is no different from risk.
Not only is it an act that increases the possibility of being referred to the disciplinary committee for being treated as a violation of public morals.
Even if it’s not like that, if you fall in love and neglect your main job, it’s also a time when you can’t eat or die.
“So is my future. Maybe I’ll be expelled from the Duke’s family, but then I’ll become a commoner.”
“Marie is also half a commoner, right? Because of the phoenix that dwells in her body, there is no place for her in the aristocratic society.”
“Rose Eiffeltain, do you know what that means?”
This time it was my turn to stare at Rose.
Rose puts on a calm expression even when I stare at her.
“Of course, if I become the lord of the author after Eiffel Tein, I will take care of her Marie. But there is also a possibility that I will not become the lord.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
Lucius will eventually defeat the Demon King.
Cooperating with Lucius, Rose becomes the lord who revives the Marquis Eiffeltain as a helper and supporter of the hero.
It is a predetermined future,
It is also the future that Lucius must achieve.
“Oh, you speak confidently. Do you have any evidence?”
“I heard that your party is going well. You would have bet all your bets on Lucius becoming the world’s greatest adventurer.”
“…It was also a situation that had no choice but to be. The faction has become that way.”
Rose looked down at her hands with her bitter face.
“I don’t regret bullying Tia in order to join the clique. I don’t even have the right to say I do.”
“…….”
“I would never have done such a thing if I had known it would turn out like this, but at that time it was for the best….But I sometimes question it. Should I find happiness in…”
Other nobles might normally find happiness in the glory of their family, but Rose was not from the Marquis of Eiffeltain in the first place.
That’s why you can’t be attached to the family of the Marquis of Eiffeltain, and you can’t find happiness there.
Maybe that’s why it appeared in front of me in the morning.
For the happiness of family.
“Both of them will become commoners anyway. How about if the two of them get married in a rural village? Let’s live a small life quietly cultivating the fields.”
“It’s not easy to return to the farm. It’s difficult even for me, who has been living in the city. Do you think Marie, who has lived as a noble lady, can live that kind of life?”
“Then, the two of them either join a mercenary group or become adventurers. Killing monsters day by day and making a living with it.”
“It’s just that we get tired of each other.”
“That’s exactly what Marie wants.”
“What?”
I blinked and Rose stopped her steps.
I follow her, stopping her steps, and Rose comes back to the front and peers into my face.
A sermon-like expression.
“I know because I’m the child’s sister. She doesn’t really want that child to have a good life. Don’t you know that she just wants to be with Prince Beheritt?”
“…It will be a life far from happiness. Various difficulties await.”
“Don’t arbitrarily decide the child’s happiness. Even if Prince Beheritt goes to hell, she’s looking for happiness in following it.”
-“Eh, as long as you’re with Ariel, anywhere is fine…! Gee, even hell…!”
“Hell…”
At that word, I laughed involuntarily. Then I said something like that.
At that time, I took it as a joke, but if you think about it, Marie said heavy things here and there.
Come to think of it, it was.
He followed me wherever I went, and he never once expressed that he was having a hard time.
Marie was that kind of guy.
“Don’t think too hard, Prince Beherit.”
If you glance at Rose, she is smiling.
“Taking care of Mari, the future… You seem to be thinking about things complicatedly, can’t you think more lightly?”
“Lightly?”
“Just date someone once, and if it doesn’t suit you, break up with them. If you don’t even want to date them, you can just refuse them from the beginning.”
“That’s… I think it’s too irresponsible.”
“Princess Beheritt is still 17 years old. I’m younger than him, so it’s a little harsh for me to say this, but… We’re still young, right? I think we’re at an age where we can fail and don’t have to take responsibility for ourselves.”
I know because I’ve been through failure, Rose added.
I’m 17 years old….
Come to think of it, how did 17-year-old Kim Il-hwan live?
At least he wouldn’t have lived as brilliantly as Rose.
From noble mtl dot com
“…I see.”
I casually nodded.
I didn’t expect the day to come when I could listen to a sermon from a younger person, but I didn’t feel too bad.
Maybe it’s because I confessed the feelings I was holding onto.
I felt a little more at ease.
“So, what does Prince Beheritt honestly think of Marie?”
Rose asked playfully.
I shrugged at that expression.
“That’s a secret. I’ll tell Marie herself, so listen later.”
“… What, that. You can tell me, her sister.”
“I’m sorry about that. Instead, I’d like to repay you for listening to me, but would you like to go with me from now on?”
“Yes? Where?”
Rose tilted her head.
Pointing at Rose like that, I say.
“I want to go on a date with you.”
“Ugh…”
What I felt as soon as I woke up was a headache.
Lack of sleep. Her head hurt from sleeping less than usual.
He wanted to keep his eyes closed and bury his face in the pillow, but once he woke up, the memories of yesterday came to haunt him.
Thoughts swirl around in her head, eventually making her sigh.
Why did I do that yesterday… I think.
Perhaps Ariel will accept it… I’m also looking forward to it a little.
What if Ariel refuses… I’m also worried about it.
With such various emotions, she realizes that it is not right to go back to sleep.
“Sister…, Give me some water…”
Marie, who couldn’t even open her eyes properly, was fooling around in bed…. It seemed that her spirit would not be able to hold on if she did not act childishly.
So she listened in the dark and heard the sound of water being poured into her cup.
“I brought water.”
“Thank you…… Huh?”
She accepted the cup, but felt something strange.
The way she handed things over was oddly different from her older sister.
In the first place, her voice was not her sister’s.
Only then did Marie open her eyes.
And there.
“Wake up, Marie.”
A cool yet harsh voice.
Her hair swayed like a drop of blue paint had been thrown on her cold steel.
Blue eyes that seem to touch the sky are looking straight at him.
This is Ariel.
“I came to tell you yesterday’s answer, Marie.”
Then he says so.
“Eh, eh…?”
So….
I-I didn’t know that it would come like this…….