When the moon has set and the sun has not yet risen.
It is the time when the bakeries and newsletter shops that greet the earliest morning in Naerangsha and Astrisha are just turning on their lights, hard-working people are waking up, making their beds, and crouching birds are spreading their wings and chirping.
However, most people and most animals have not yet woken up.
â â¦â¦ Sweet.
A very small sound came from the window.
A damp morning breeze blows gently.
The person who astutely noticed the change, which most people in the deepest sleep could not hear or feel, opened his eyes without a sound. Pale amethyst-like eyes in the middle of the darkness slowly moved toward the window that had just opened.
âItâs me. Donât throw knives.â
The content is bloody, but the voice sounds peaceful.
It was as if he already knew that no matter how quietly he came in, he would be caught right away.
âI know. Ayla.â
After giving a short answer, Calian stood up.
Ayla stopped for a moment when she realized that the voice was very different from usual. However, he soon came back with quiet steps and sat down next to the bed where Calian was lying.
Calianâs eyes move as he looks at Aela. I looked out the window at a time when the night had passed and yet it was getting darker. Long hair sways for a moment in the thin wind.
Aila, who had been looking at the cool and mysterious light purple eyes for a while at the blue-silver hair that looked as if it should have been stretched out over the night sky, not in this pure white room with all four sides closed, opened her mouth.
âDo I have to ask if you are the prince I know? He has changed more than I thought, but what if he is not the same person?â
âThen what answer should I give? Should I just say that I havenât bought the hairpin yet?â
Aila laughed, making a sound that resembled a midsummer wind, as the words naturally came back to her.
âYou are a prince.â
A bandage can be seen wrapped inside the collar around Ailaâs neck. Calian turned his head to see this and opened his mouth quietly.
âWhy did you come through the window instead of leaving the door open?â
âWhy? Are you excited when I come here like this?â
âIâm excited. Of course.â
Anyway, Iâm really bad at lying.
No matter how much the outside changes, one thing doesnât seem to change, so Aela, who laughed at Calianâs blatant lie, let out a light voice.
âI heard that no one was allowed in here. I was afraid that the princeâs knight would be standing in the way. If I had known it wasnât there, I would have just come through the door.â
âEven if you have it, just come to the door. The moment you grab the window, youâll get caught anyway, so donât use that arm to hold onto the wall.â
âOkay. But why isnât there that article? I thought there would be.â
âKiri. Likewise, people under me should at least call each other by their first names. Anyway, I sent you in to rest.â
As they said, Kirie was not there.
Since Plantz was not the only person who wandered around without resting for four days, they forcibly let him in by calling it an order.
âI couldnât sleep well, but I feel like my heart has become disturbed because of what Iâve become.â
âIs it because I get to see the prince in his true form?â
âhuh.â
I think he looks a lot like Chase.
Ayla muttered to herself and looked at Calian.
I looked at the sharp facial lines and eyes, the pale eyes, hair, and broad shoulders that I thought did not really fit my current name. I looked at hands that no one would have thought belonged to royalty.
âThatâs not the bracelet I lent you, but I think the prince was also upset.â
âDo you think my speed is noisy?â
âYes. I can see it clearly.â
A sound that might have been a sigh or a laugh escaped from Calianâs mouth.
âBecause itâs unfamiliar. Whatâs welcome is unfamiliar, whatâs familiar is unfamiliar, and whatâs unfamiliar is unfamiliar. Thatâs why.â
âI thought the prince wasnât the kind of person who would change things like that because he didnât know anything was unfamiliar.â
âI didnât know it would be like this.â
âWhy did you change it without even knowing it would be that bad?â
Aila had a lot of questions today.
I didnât like talking too much, so I kept talking.
It seems like he feels sorry that Calian got hurt like this because of him. It seems like he was trying to comfort Calian, who ended up looking like this thanks to him. Maybe I was just bored because I was stuck getting treatment.
A thought occurred to me, and my lips, as red as Kallianâs, drew a small line.
âIt just happened.â
âYou didnât do that because you wanted to go back?â
âCanât I do this because I want to go back?â
âRather than saying it canât be done. Itâs lonely. I guess.â
âWell, thatâs true.â
Just when I thought that the smile was getting a little deeper, Calian continued speaking.
âIt wasnât that I wanted to go back. It might have been the case before, but not anymore. Now⦠itâs become something Iâll lose if I go back.â
âAm I going to lose it?â
âRaven. My precious Raven. If I lose it, Iâll be in big trouble.â
In the end, it is not clearly stated that Aila left before Bern at the time and that this is not the case now.
He also has no intention of telling me what new I have gained from my new life or what I will lose if I return to this life.
Ayla laughed and opened her mouth again.
âIf people live, then of course they get something. Whether they want it or not.â
âYeah⦠thatâs right.â
âAnyway, Iâm glad you said it wasnât for the reason I thought.â
Calian nodded.
Due to the shaking movement, the blue-silver hair fell down as if scattered. Eila, who was looking at it, asked quietly.
âIf you canât tie your arms because you have trouble using them, can you tie them? Since you ended up like this while trying to save me, I can do at least that much.â
It wasnât that it was uncomfortable to use my arms. Itâs not like I forgot how to tie it.
Iâm afraid Iâll feel lonely if I tie it up.
So it was like that.
Calian looked at Aela for a moment and quietly opened his mouth.
âOkay. Please do me a favor, Ayla.â
Eila nodded and stood up, taking out a sea-green handkerchief that resembled that one. Without knowing what to do with it, I quietly gathered the hair I had left lying around.
âYour hair is really long.â
âIt suits you well.â
âIf itâs this long, wouldnât it be very inconvenient when using a knife?â
âInstead, itâs very cool.â
âThen letâs raise it now. Why donât you raise it?â
âIâm so good-looking. If I become prettier than now, Merlin will bring me frills again.â
âAh⦠thatâs unlucky.â
A small laugh came out of Calianâs mouth.
Then he came up with a slightly different answer.
âMy black hair was originally a little longer than it is now. It was just my bangs, but there are people with good memories who think of people other than me when they look at that, so Iâm not thinking about growing it out later. Iâll grow it out later, when itâs okay⦠Iâm thinking about that. sun.â
Instead of answering, Aila continued to move her hands. I donât know how she put it together, but she tied her long hair up high like Bern did. Then he returned to his original place and sat down.
Calian, who had been quiet until then, opened his mouth.
âAnd the way I was before was just like that. I met someone who was similar to me. I thought that if I was going to face that guy, I would have to bring in someone like him. Thatâs why I did that.â
Why did you bring up Bernâs face in front of Rashid? The proper answer to that question was given later.
âRashid Briesen?â
Ayla, who had finally heard what she had been hiding in the words âI just happened toâ, asked right away.
âYes. After encountering it, I realized it was a snake with a scent in its hand and poison in its mouth. I was thinking about how to deal with it, and thatâs what happened.â
âYou didnât do that when dealing with Devlan.â
âBecause he was on top of my head.â
âStill.â
As she looked into Calianâs light purple eyes, which had become brighter thanks to the slightly brighter window, Aela took out something. And he put it down on Calianâs lap.
A thin cursive with a subtle scrawl appearance.
A bundle of paper written by Eila herself.
âDid you come to give me this?â
âIf it wasnât for that, I wouldnât have come. Climbing walls isnât easy. Besides, I donât like being sick.â
â⦠A guy who hates pain, with a broken collarbone and a hole in his side, grabbed a sword, climbed the wall, and wrote letters. Anyway, you, me, and our Hina are people who will really hate it.â
âI canât help it. I told you, please kill Rashid Briesen. If youâre going to ask me to do that, I have to do this.â
Rashid Briesen.
Calian smiled slightly as he looked at the information filled with information about him and picked up the document.
âYou wouldnât have been able to go outside. How did you investigate?â
âBecause Jeon Seo-gu is also a bird. I asked you to buy me carbonated water.â
Oh right. carrier pigeon.
âIt was still there.â
âItâs still there. Just because His Highness Chase forgot to invite you, donât forget the prince.â
âOkay. I wonât forget.â
âAnd⦠donât forget that itâs not the snake that catches the snake. A snake catches a snake. A snake catches a mouse.â
âThen who catches the snake?â
âSnake.â
Aela stared at Calian.
Instead of looking at the light purple eyes, I looked at the red eyes that were closed for a moment.
âThe cat should catch it.â
Light purple eyes formed a thin curve with a clear light.
âI see⦠I see.â
Cats catch snakes.
That is so true.
The cat kept calling the snake without even knowing that it was catching it. There is no way they will win easily, as they are trying to sink their teeth into each otherâs bodies and are strangling each other. I canât help but catch my breath.
Calian, who had finally realized one thing, laughed in self-deprecation. After laughing for a while, I raised my head and looked at Aila.
âAila.â
âyes.â
When Aela answered the call, Calian gave something instead of words. Blue eyes, trained not to be disturbed by the thick darkness, looked down at what was placed in my hand.
A thin ring.
It was a dark silver ring with black light in it.
Eila, who held it in her hand and stroked it several times, did not say anything empty, such as asking if the Prince broke off the engagement to the Duke because of me. Instead, he opened his mouth in a little surprise.
âThis is something you canât get even if you have money.â
âWhat? Do you recognize me?â
âI wonder if there was someone with a strange hobby of making new things out of dragon bones. I saw him once when he was buying and selling new things.â
Kalian nodded and opened his mouth.
âItâs for communication. Of course, you can use it even if you canât handle magic power. So if something happens, call it that instead of magic bullet. It wonât be noisy.â
âAre you going to save me again when I call?â
âI have to save him.â
âWhat if I sing a lot?â
âEven if you call me a lot.â
âWhat if I keep calling?â
âEven if you keep calling me.â
Communication supplies that Alan gave to Calian as soon as he returned to Wilhelm Pavilion. I handed one of them to Alan and the other one to Ayla. I thought of Aila without hesitation because she would continue to do dangerous work in the future.
âItâs good. Itâs reassuring.â
âAila.â
âyes.â
âDo you want to be a driver?â
Aila, who was immediately putting it on her hand as if she liked the ring without any fancy decorations, raised her head at the unexpected words.
âThey told me to gather information.â
âThat Jeon Seo-gu is also a knight. You can do both.
â âIf I get caught by someone after becoming a knight, the prince will be in trouble.â
âAm I the kind of person who would be in trouble for something like that?â
âIf I were to become a knight, it would be too cool for me to handle. âIâm so talented too.ân/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
âDo you think I canât handle it?â
âOf course. âYouâre not the type of person to have things you canât handle, prince.â
âI know.â
âIf you do. Prince knight? Or a Vulcan knight?â
âYou wonât give it to your brother, but I will.â
âWhy?â
âTell me how many times. âI said it was mine.â
âAnd then I bought you a cheap hairpin.â
âShall I buy you an expensive one?â
âI donât want to.â
âLook at this. âI said I would.â
âI will
. â
Aila answered.
âThe princeâs knight.â
âI heard you donât like expensive hairpins. The driver said he would do it.â
âHe said he would do it. Why are you saying that?â
âBecause I like it.â
Ayla smiled slightly. She
pointed to her sea-colored hair, which had flowed down like Calian a moment ago, and said,
âIf you donât like it, buy a new hairpin and find a new owner. Because it works. Both.â
âYes. Thatâll do it.â
Bern smiled and nodded.
âDo the knight. âAyla.â
This time.
Aila.
* * *
In general, I wasnât surprised.
Before I could even express my surprise at seeing something, my quick-thinking head moved first, so I didnât even have time to be surprised to find the cause of the situation at hand and hand it over. Thanks to that, I lived without any major surprises.
One day, Needlen asked me if it was inconvenient. Thatâs
why I answered. I donât know why itâs inconvenient because itâs always been the case since memory began. It was an honest answer.
If it were Arsene, it would have been like that. He must have said something, but Needlen didnât.
âI asked because I thought you might need to rest without thinking sometimes. Iâm glad you said it wasnât uncomfortable, Vice Commander.â
I said I was glad.
Now I know that it was not presumptuous meddling, but concern.
Anyway.
Even at this very moment, I canât tell you how many times I have been surprised, including the times I experienced that âsurpriseâ and the conversation I had with Needlen about the surprise. Plantz, who had carefully organized his thoughts, looked ahead. There was
only one reason such thoughts came into his head.
Because something surprising had happened.
â Clap, clap!
â Clap!
He wrote down the reason for rejection in good-looking handwriting. A pink sole passed over the tightly written documents, leaving dirt footprints. A slightly smaller dark purple sole left another darker dirt footprint. â¦â¦ Itâs okay. Itâs familiar. â Pudduk
!
â
Percussion
!
â Splatâ¦!
The bright yellow, large, and wide paws of something bigger and rounder than Lucy emerged noisily from under the desk, leaving another huge footprint on top of the two catsâ footprints.
This isnât that familiar.
But thatâs why. Itâs not surprising. This is something that often happens on days when the head of the Wizard Association, the duckâs co-caretaker, is away. Whatâs
surprising is:
âQuack quack!â
â Food duck!
âMeow!â
âNiaow⦠!â
Is this situation really something that could happen in the office of the leader of the most powerful army on the continent? The fact is that even this brilliant mind has not yet been able to come up with an answer to that question. â⦠Ha
. â
Planz quietly got up from his seat and put aside the paper on which the three animalsâ happy moments were recorded. Anyway, he wrote down the reason for returning the document. If it was like before, he would have Arsene or Needlen clean it so that only the footprints were erased
. I would have asked for it, but there were so many such documents that I just gave up.
Far from hating documents with cat and duck paw prints, I guess this is a place where people gather and purposely send documents that might be rejected in order to collect them by type. That good brain
. They are Plants who remember who sends in which number of documents to be rejected, so even so, they see it up to three times, so they donât know that they are bastards who only do it three times, but they still watch it at least three times. is giving
â Jeopuk.
Plantz, who had somehow finished the urgent task, moved on.
âWhere are you going, Vice Commander, who looks like heâs really going to Camilon?â
âIâm not going. Outside.â
A crazy blue-haired wizard who seemed to have a bigger head for thinking than a working head interrupted Plantzâs outing.
âAre you going to see the prince?â
âmeal.â
âAre you going to eat with our prince?â
âwhy.â
âI want to go too.â
âwhy.â
âDo you know how many people are dying because they wonder who the Third Prince was disguised as and who was carried there because the hair of the man whom the Commander of the Manasil Corps carried on his mighty back was so soft?â
âhowever.â
âI am one of those guys.â
Seeing him talk like that, I guess he has completely forgotten about being stepped on by the feet of that great man.
Plantz slowly looked down at the blue-haired crazy wizard who had been blessed with oblivion, then turned his head. And, leaving behind the dog noises, cat calls, and duck flapping that I had just heard, I walked straight toward the door.
âIâm just as worried about our prince as Prince Siegfried.â
âMy brotherâs servant hasnât met my brother yet.â
âI know. I know why you never want to show yourself to Prince Siegfried, but wouldnât it be okay for me to see you anyway?â
âLook and see what to do.â
âInstead of being a talented, blue-haired mage whose life has been full of ups and downs, who ended up causing a war by meeting the person I wanted to meet and dream of quickly, I am doing it so that I can receive praise after reflecting once.â
Crazy guy.
Plantz barely swallowed his harsh words and placed his hand on the door. A voice full of frustration was heard from Arsene, who looked disappointed after hearing that as a rejection.
âLeave the duck behind.â
Arsene grinned and stood up.
âIf my brother says he doesnât like it, then.â
âIf the prince says no, I will come back without another word.â
Plantz nodded.
Then, I went with Arsene to the short-distance movement magic circle set up in the Wilhelm Pavilion building and went down three floors. There were so many injuries, big and small, that there were separate treatment rooms.
I walked inside, greeted by three therapists who, although unable to use healing arts, were fully capable of simple diagnosis and treatment. I walked a little further, passing Veronica and the pharmacists who were busy trying to check the ingredients of the sleeping pill that had put Calian to sleep.
The deepest part is the largest treatment room, where two knights are blocking the entrance and guarding it to prevent anyone from entering.
â Sweet.
I walked over, stretched out my hand, and opened the door.
You can see a huge amount of food that looks like it has just been prepared. It certainly didnât look like it was enough for two people, but I wasnât particularly surprised since Calian had never filled his stomach with a single personâs meal.
A thick white curtain can be seen on one side of the treatment room to prevent others entering the treatment room from being seen. I was not surprised by that, as it was probably done to hide the appearance of the servants who had just brought food here.
â Jeopuk.
Plantz took his gaze away and placed Arsene behind him.
âCalian.â
And I called Calian to let him know that Arsene had arrived.
Then suddenly I felt regret.
It didnât seem like it was a good decision for Planz and Arsene to come to Bern together.
â Tak.
Because of this, Plantz took a step back again.
When I opened my mouth to say that it probably wouldnât work so I should go back.
âAh, are you here?â
A bright, cheerful and upright voice as always.
A voice that seemed as if it had never been bent came from inside the curtain.
â Crap!
And just like the voice, a hand without any hesitation lifted the curtain.
Chocolate-colored, silky hair, eyes that reflect the golden light of the sunset, and even a confident smile that looks like it has never disappeared.
âItâs been a while. No. Itâs been a while, isnât it? Did I come too quickly?â
A person who smiles and shakes your hand.
I stopped being surprised when I discovered Arianne Lin.
Arianne, who had come here earlier than planned and was surprised to see that the face of an old friend whom she had no memory of looking very similar to her fiancé, smiled once again as she looked at the plants.
âNice to meet you, light green.â
Plantz looked at Arianne standing in front of him, my younger sister with blue and silver hair sitting on the bed behind her, the hand Arianne was offering to shake hands with, and my younger brotherâs large hand quietly covering his face, and then took a long breath.