Chapter 203

–

A faint scent came from the tea made with sweet hydrangeas.

Chase, who was quietly looking down at the car with the flower petals on it, smiled and said.

“You’re not going to drink it and fall asleep again, are you?”

I had no intention of blaming him for giving me a break that I had taken in an unfamiliar way that only remained in my memory. Because I knew better than anyone else that Arianne was not the type of person who would do anything that would harm Chase.

Arianne answered in a calm voice, talking about her daily life, as if she had no intention of hiding what was in the mint tea she personally handed her a moment ago.

“This is to wake you up. If you sleep like that, you have to go to work now.”

“Arianne.”

Chase, who was trying to lightly respond and ignore Arianne, looked deeply into Arianne’s eyes.

“do not do that.”

Arianne drank her tea with a look on her face as if she didn’t understand the words, which probably contained a lot of things she didn’t want to say. A deep sweetness, different from sugar, filled my mouth.

“Don’t overdo it. You don’t have to go any further and you don’t have to worry about me.”

His voice was soft, but his eyes showed a strong will.

“I’m not in as much danger as you think. I’m not going to avoid doing anything if necessary.”

All of the hydrangea petals in the teacup were white.

Chase knew it was the kind of flower that could turn purple, blue, or pink at any time.

Chase also changed.

Absolution for oneself was not important. Justification is something that is created, and justification is ultimately just another word for self-justification.

Even a flower like that changes color when the ground it stands on changes, so why can’t it change just because it’s human?

– His ears used to be long, but he cut them off, and although he can’t speak, he scolds in sign language and likes birds and dogs. I also enjoy eating ice cream. And… I laugh a lot.

A white petal floating in the teacup sank into the tea water. On the other hand, a story I once heard came to mind in a fragment of my memory.

– … He’s alive. So it’s okay.

What Bern has lost. That’s what I got.

The only thing that Bern, who had lost everything in his life, was able to gain instead of losing everything.

That was Hina.

That was justification and justification for Chase as well. It was thought that there was no need for indulgences. If Devlan even tries to bring Kalian and Hina to this land, I will do everything I can to stop him. Whatever you do, I will stop it.

That’s what I promised.

“So don’t hurt that kid.”

please.

Don’t push a child who is already in the abyss any further. please.

“no.”

Arianne’s answer was quick and straight.

He knew that he had been talking to Calian without Chase knowing. Arianne spoke again, meeting her violet eyes that were seeing through all the secrets she had told Calian and what he had requested.

“I trust you. I trust your story. I trust everything that happened, what will happen, and how we ended up. I don’t doubt it. I really do.”

As Arianne said that, her finger pointed somewhere outside the door.

“If that person stays alive longer, we will end up in the same situation. We will walk the same path, hide under the shadow created by your brother, and then die the same way. I believe everything he says. Even if I didn’t hear that, I “I can find a hundred reasons why people should disappear, but there’s only one reason I’m not taking Teilan over there right now. It’s because of you.”

Even if the color changes, a hydrangea is still a hydrangea.

Whether it’s white, pink, or blue, it’s ultimately a hydrangea. It doesn’t become Renieri or Adinia or Sinasta.

In the end, chase is chase.

“What’s wrong with hurting you right now? You won’t die for doing that. What’s wrong with playing a villain once? Everyone lives their lives doing bad things. Your brother isn’t that weak. He said there are a lot of good people next to your brother. Then why bother with you? “Don’t get caught up in it. Your younger brother can take care of that healer on his own. Don’t overextend yourself and protect yourself. I’ll protect mine when I often can’t sleep and get drunk.”

Chase, who was dazed after hearing those words, raised one hand and covered his face. A low, small laugh escaped.

Ah, it was a sound of laughter that completely reflected the feeling that I was truly unsatisfactory.

“Then who is protecting you, Arianne?”

“our mom.”

Chase’s laughter grew a little louder at the obvious answer. Instead of wondering how long it had been since she last heard laughter, Arianne just took another sip of tea. Chase, who stopped laughing, followed Arianne and said the same thing.

“Then who protects Marquis Lin?”

“Mom is someone who doesn’t need anyone to protect her.”

“ah.”

Hydrangea tea tastes just as good as mint tea.

It was less sweet than sugar, but I liked it because it was sweeter than sugar.

“But I don’t drink as much as I used to.”

“You drink more than before you went to Kairis.”

“At least you can drink it once…”

“Mouth.”

…… huh.

* * *

Lucy liked things she couldn’t get her hands on.

I liked the rain flowing past the window or the insubstantial light. I tried to catch it at all costs.

I had no idea who I had learned to be so greedy from. What was certain was that none of Lucy’s owner Kalian, Lucy’s caregiver Hina, or Lucy’s favorite Plants had ever told her that.

“Lucy.”

I called because I was having a hard time catching the sunlight coming through the window. I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed if I reach out for something I can’t grasp.

“Aeowong.”

It’s like asking why I can’t catch this, and it’s also like asking me to catch it. So Plantz once again opened his mouth to Lucy.

“Come on.”

“Aww.”

When he chases me around, he chases me around quite arbitrarily, and when I call him to come, he doesn’t come and cries from far away. Not knowing if he was being foolish or if he wanted to say something else, Plantz just walked over to Lucy and picked up the silver-white kitten.

Although he is young, he has grown a lot.

It has grown to the point where it cannot go in and out through the crack in the door. Thanks to this, an additional small door was created on every door from the 1st to 4th floors of the Chermil Palace. The Wilhelm Pavilion also completed one repair. I remember Relic telling us a story about how that one little child was so welcoming to everyone like spring that no one found it troublesome.

–

Anyway, after that day, Lucy grew up and grew up, getting a lot of food from various places, and became very heavy. In the past, when I lifted, I felt like I was being lifted up, but now, I felt like I was being lifted up and my waist was stretched out.

Just as I was wondering how far she was going to stretch, Plantz, who was supporting Lucy’s buttocks as she lifted her hind legs off the floor, chuckled. In fact, I was wondering if it was not a cat but a white weasel.

“Meong!”

Lucy started to argue angrily, wondering how she could tell what was in that smile.

“I was laughing so hard, why?”

So Plantz, who is not the type of person to lose anywhere, also got annoyed. Meow! Even when people said things back to me, they also talked back to me.

Perhaps he knew that if Relic saw Plants like this, he would think back on his life and think that the world would be destroyed by tomorrow. Plantz spent a while fighting with Lucy.

It was one of those afternoons when Lucy, who had been sitting on Plantz’s lap and pressing her thighs and making strange gurgling noises for a while, dozed off and fell asleep.

‘I am Prince Calian’s cat, Lucy, who prefers Prince Planz.’

Planz, who had been looking down at the strange leash that had a name but had actually grown longer, followed Lucy and quietly closed his eyes.

– My older brother, who has never had anything and therefore has nothing to lose.

I said that I would probably still be unhappy. Suddenly a thought occurred to me.

That guy who had nothing and had so much to protect must have looked like that because he had more to protect. Or maybe he was making that expression because he had something to lose.

With that thought in mind, Plantz opened his eyes without a sound.

My younger brother never told me about forgotten names or past ages, and kept talking about whales I had never seen. I let out a long sigh as I wondered if I should now get beyond the generation gap and feel regional cultural differences at the national level.

I thought I might dislike the coffee because it smelled like Reneeri.

“I couldn’t drink it because of the fishy smell of the sea.”

Why did I end up not even touching the coffee that I had put in front of me because I wanted to drink it or because I needed to drink it, and ended up eating a ton of food? Suddenly curious about the reason, Plantz closed his eyes again.

* * *

I did not open the letter.

“I hope it’s not a resignation letter, is that correct?”

Calian looked down at the unopened envelope in front of Arsene, who kept him waiting as punishment while meeting Shatin, the costume manager, and asked this.

Arsene shook his head, looking like he wanted to go out through the small door he had made for Lucy if he had the chance.

“This is a statement of reflection, prince. I thought that if I brought my resignation letter, they would cut me off in this world, not in the Balkans, so I just reflected a lot.”

A resignation letter is said to be a resignation letter, but it is neither an apology nor an apology, but a statement of reflection. Even the choice of words was so wizard-like that Calian, who was very curious about the contents, looked down at the letter with a face full of anticipation.

“I’ll watch it when I’m bored.”

Then he put the letter down on one side of the table without opening it.

Looking at Calian’s attitude, it seemed like there was no need to worry about Annerusia floating on the Seine River for the time being, so Arsene was relieved for now.

After that, I realized that it was time to think about how to get rid of a letter that was destined to go into the magic safe placed in the bedroom of the wizard and swordmaster who stays on the third floor of the Chermil Palace, which is protected by Sispanian magic.

‘Should we get rid of the entire safe?’

While thinking about this, the crazy Takari, who was thinking about how to open the safe first without worrying about the infiltration process, remembered that thanks to the generous amount of pocket money that came out of the safe, he actually had richer pockets after his salary disappeared.

Didn’t Calian continue to give double the original salary in lieu of the reduced salary due to the explosion of the Heisia Palace? Therefore, the safe should not be removed.

“Can you just read it now or get rid of it?”

“Why? It sounds fun.”

Why am I already opening this, Arsene’s reflection?

Someday, when the day becomes a little more breathtaking than today, I’ll have to open it then. The letters of wizards have always been beyond imagination, so I should open them on days when I can’t breathe even when I go upstairs to the pea-buying room.

Thinking of this, Calian made a playful face.

“Lord Hertz.”

“Yes, my prince.”

The green-colored tea filled with dried pears had a cool but sweet scent. I think that suits Arsene very well.

It was a scent that reminded me of the ocean on a moonlit night in Secretia, and then of an artificial lake one night when red flames rose into the sky. Calian, who liked the car quite a bit, at least for today, smiled slightly.

“What does the Lord live by?”

After receiving the sudden question, Arsene looked at Calian for a while, looked down at the dried pear in the teacup, and then looked at the reflection he had written.

Arsene, who was wondering why he was asking such a question, answered in a light voice.

“I just live by following what happens.”

Arsene responded with a very adult smile towards Calian, who was wondering what that meant.

“I keep my teacher’s words, I keep my pride in front of the corps commander, I keep my convictions in front of the prince, who is the deputy corps commander, and I keep my cowardice in front of the association president.”

Arsene, who had been talking about the things he had protected one by one, ended his sentence.

“I will also protect the Balkans.”

Kalian was not the only one who had a lot to protect, so in this world where everyone lives with a lot of things to protect, Kalian drank tea once again in front of the second promise to protect me.

– Calian

put down his teacup and looked at Arsene with his bright red eyes.

“Then put one more in there.”

“What more can we protect from what?”

Whether it’s a force following Brisen, Zeon, or an unknown enemy.

Or the King of Secretia. From all of that.

“Where I will sit.”

Please use the power and power you have to clear away the things in my path and protect the path ahead of me. Please protect me.

If you do that, I will deal with Evan, protect Plants, enter Camilon, meet the elves to find out about Zeon, protect Randel, protect Lemaine, and maybe even protect the world.

That’s how I am.

“I will protect one Hina.”

That’s what Calian asked the wizard who pulled him down from the thing he had protected his whole life.