Chapter 16: Chapter 15 - Volume 1

Side Story 1 – Part 2

——What’s this all of a sudden?」

「I-I-I-I-I’m sorry my tongue just slipped it’s nothing!」

Agedilus spat out those words, his sunrise-colored eyes carrying a penetratingly cold light, his voice low enough to crawl over the ground.

Widnichol furiously shook his head. But the sharpness of Agedilus’s gaze didn’t change. A cold sweat trickled down his back. ‘Crap, he really is enraged.’

Now that he thought about it…… No, he didn’t even have to think about it. He knew that talking about ‘her’ would certainly enrage him, so why did his mouth carelessly ask a question like that? Alas, his teacher’s gaze on him really did hurt.

Since their return to the capital, men and women of all ages, no matter their social status, would prick their ears upon a certain subject. That subject that followed Agedilus around, and then Widnichol too, since he was attached to him.

Namely, it was about Agedilus Von Lancent’s marriage.

And then, the answer to that had been decided recently. Agedilus Von Lancent had gotten married to his former fiancée, Filmina Veer Adina, just a month ago. But there were still only a few people who actually knew that for sure.

Widnichol had met that Miss Filmina Veer Adina a few times until now. One was his first meeting with her, when his teacher took him along when visiting the Adina Estate. And then, the next time was at her and Agedilus’ wedding.

His teacher’s childhood friend, she wasn’t beautiful like his teacher or the princess. But she was a woman that wore a gentle smile and had a calm atmosphere about her. She knew Widnichol was an ex-merchant but her polite behavior was still the same, she was the kind of person that would make tea from medicinal plants for him herself.

When Agedilus talked with his sharp tongue to even his fiancée, she still smiled gently and brushed it off. Widnichol hadn’t even thought that there could be someone who could accomplish the feat of becoming the partner of his teacher.

And to him, she had softly whispered into his ear, 「Edi seems to have taken a liking to you, so please try not to abandon him if you can, okay?」 He really had no idea what to do then.

He’d told her that couldn’t be, and she laughed, 「If Edi really didn’t like you, he would have dismissed you long ago.」 And that was the first time he realized, that although his teacher told him things like 「Do that」 or 「Do this」 he had never unreasonably yelled at him like his classmates at the Academy of Magic.

It was none other than her who’d taught him that Agedilus was more than just a scary person.

If she and his teacher lined up together, his teacher was the one who was far more beautiful like usual – sorry to say. But they strangely looked picturesque together. The atmosphere between them was somehow calm.

Agedilus and Filmina’s wedding was very plain, considering he was one of the heroes who saved world. It was a small ceremony, with no attendants except for both families’ relatives and a few of his companions on the journey, including Widnichol. The two of them had wanted that. But there was a small problem with that.

If one of the heroes of the country got married, it was supposed to be a special event for everyone in the country. The kingdom hadn’t had a special event since the triumphal return parade after they defeated the demon king. It wasn’t strange that this would turn into a festival exciting the people, but the one that vehemently rejected that was the man himself. As he said, 「I can’t stand having a bigger spectacle than this!」

Thanks to that, there were a lot of people that still didn’t know Agedilus had gotten married. That’s why there were endless people who kept saying things like, ‘now we’ll make our daughter his bride!’ or ‘she’s been yearning for him for so long!’

Agedilus’s sharp tongue was well known in the royal palace, so once again, perhaps it was out of fear towards the Black-Haired One with such a spirit that there was no one brave enough to ask the person himself directly. Because of that, that question constantly flooded his disciple, Widnichol.

That was why Lord Dainan had stopped him before he came to this room. With a powerful person like that talking to him as if he was about to say, 「Of course he wants to be married so why don’t I be an intermediary for him?」 Widnichol almost spilled the beans, although he somehow managed to exhaust his words and excuse himself from there.

It seemed his teacher knew that his disciple was worried about it, but he was very inconsiderate, closing the book in his hands with a thud and glaring at Widnichol with those sunrise-colored eyes. He was used to this, but a scary thing is always going to be scary.

「Either way, it’s not something you should care about.」

「I’m sorry, my tongue just slipped…! But even so, there really are a lot of people lately asking if you’ve gotten married, or if you have a fiancée.」

「Ha, these are the same people that treated me just like a monster until now. Just think of these flies as annoying and leave it.”

In other words, he meant ‘don’t say unnecessary things.’ It was an awful way to put it, but thinking back on his treatment before the war, it wasn’t unreasonable for Agedilus to say that.

Even though Widnichol didn’t have hair as pure black as Agedilus’s, the looks he received from people around him certainly weren’t kind.

He didn’t even have to think about how cruel the words or looks Agedilus must have gotten, with his pure black hair, not mixed with a single other color.

Widnichol had gotten a taste of what thoughtless actions these people were capable of.

That’s why Widnichol wanted to do as much as he could, even if it was just a little, to be the breakwater defending Agedilus from the harsh ocean waves.

Although he did want to, the other person was rather obstinate. He didn’t know if his teacher just got angry because he didn’t speak much, but either way, he was obstinate. Whenever those eyes would press him further, 「Answer me clearly,」 showing him the flickering appetite within them, Widnichol would be at his wits’ end and want to run away. Celebrities were scary. His teacher was scary.

As Widnichol trembled, Agedilus leaned his elbow on his desk, letting out a sigh without even hiding how displeased he was. That sigh was not towards Widnichol, but to the people that had feared and despised him until now.

「They don’t want to be my wife, they just want to be the wife of a hero. Even talking to them is nothing but a waste of time.」

「That’s…」

He was about to say, ‘That might be true,’ but he held himself back for some reason. Of course he hesitated to say that. But it seemed that even if he didn’t say it, his teacher understood precisely what he wanted to say. Agedilus furrowed his neat eyebrows as if to say, ‘look here’.

「I think from now on, you’re not just going to be followed around with unnecessary stories about me but also about yourself too. If you don’t want to have painful experiences, just ignore them.」

「……Um, Master?」

「What?」

Tilting his head, Widnichol asked his teacher a question just as he’d finished the conversation and was about to open his book.

「Why do you not want to make your marriage with Miss Filmina known to the public?」

If he did that, then all these ‘unnecessary things’ would stop happening too. When Widnichol asked that, his sky-blue eyes blinking, a sour expression came on Agedilus’s beautiful face. It was an expression that said he’d touched a topic that Agedilus didn’t want to touch.

Widnichol instinctively drew back in fear that he’d enraged his teacher again. His teacher looked at him, and then reluctantly opened his mouth in a serious way.

「……She’s my wife.」

「Huh?」

「Although she understands herself what that means, there still isn’t a need to especially provoke unnecessary sparks, right? Since there’s always idiots thinking stupid things everywhere.」

Without thinking, Widnichol stared at his face at the unexpected answer, meeting the gaze of those sunrise-colored eyes. And then, his teacher averted his gaze, very uncharacteristically.

Widnichol tilted his neck in confusion. In other words, he meant.

「Umm, in other words, it’s because you want to protect Miss Filmina, right?」

「……Widnichol, I’m adding 20 more pages from the blue book for you to read.」

「Huuh?!」

「Be quiet. Start reading now!」

The subjects were already enough to dishearten him, and now he had even more to read. He couldn’t help but panic.

Even if he said, ‘Suddenly getting angry and abusing your authority isn’t good!’ his teacher had already set about reading the magical book in his hand for the second time, and it didn’t look like he was going to listen to whatever he said anymore. That was when Widnichol sat, dumbfounded at the magical books in front of him.

「Edi, are you bullying Sir Widnichol again?」

A calm voice forced its way into Agedilus’s laboratory. It was a voice Widnichol had heard too. The sunrise-colored eyes and sky-blue eyes both stared at the door it came from, both widening in surprise.

「Filmina?!」

「Miss Filmina?!」

「Long time no see, Edi – since this morning. How do you do, Sir Widnichol?」

With a gentle smile on her face, the former Filmina Veer Adina, Filmina Von Lancent stood there.

「Filmina, why are you here?」

「Well, that’s a nice thing to say, even though I just came to give you something you forgot. You said you were going to use this tomorrow, so…」

She showed a magical book she had, entering the laboratory. Agedilus stood up from his chair and approached her.

「That’s just a book I was going to make Widnichol read, it wasn’t that urgent.」

「Oh my, then I guess I’m disturbing you, aren’t I?」

「……Not really, I wouldn’t call it ‘disturbing’.」

「Is that so?」

As Filmina giggled, his teacher made an embarrassed face and averted his gaze. Widnichol wondered, was he witnessing something so unexpected before his own two eyes?

To think that that teacher, that extraordinary wizard, that Black Haired One, Agedilus was reacting like that to his partner, a girl the same age as him?

On top of that, Widnichol witnessed something completely unbelievable then.

「——Filmina.」

「Yes?」

「There’s something stuck there.」

It just lasted a single moment.

——Uwaaaaaaah!

Widnichol instinctively screamed internally, averting his eyes. Why did he just have to avert his eyes? He ended up seeing something earth-shattering.

It wasn’t something that big of a deal. Agedilus’s white hand removed a pink petal stuck to Filmina’s hair. It was just a small, gesture, so delicately befitting.

But. But still, Widnichol had to hold back his thumping, soaring heartbeat.

Agedilus’s hand as he touched Filmina’s hair had been so endlessly careful and gentle. How sweet was that smile of his that instinctively rose to his face. That otherworldly beauty like a night elf had certainly changed for a second, to just a face of a man in love.

Widnichol internally thought that he wanted to show this to the people that had been trying to get close to his teacher recently. Who knew that this cool-headed, cold black-haired magician could do an action like that, make an expression like that, carry an air like that?

And yet, even though she was being touched with a hand as delicate as that, shown a smile like that, Filmina still murmured, 「I wonder if it got stuck when I was in the corridor?」 It seemed like she didn’t think it was that special.

Widnichol suddenly realized something when he saw how she didn’t look flustered at all, calm, not even blushing. He couldn’t have not realized it.

In other words, this action of his teacher was just something natural for her. Not even something to be surprised at, not something to have your heart throb at, just something very natural. If that’s how it was, then. That meant.

——No one else had a chance with him.

His teacher couldn’t see anyone except her. People could beg him all they liked for him to marry them, but it was all useless. Agedilus’s behavior was proof of this.

As Widnichol had his breath taken away, watching them, they continued their conversation in front of him.

「Well then, I’ll take my leave now. Will you come home late tonight?」

「No, I have no plans to do that.」

「Understood. Well then, good luck with your job, alright?」

「Wait. I’ll see you off until there.」

「Come on, it’s so close.」

「Never mind that.」

As his teacher said that, he put his hand very naturally on Filmina’s back, right in front of Widnichol’s eyes. Her eyes widened at his husband-like gesture, and then she finally smiled like a flower opening up. She certainly wasn’t beautiful in the showy way. She wasn’t even beautiful enough to plainly catch your eye. But she had a smiling face so innocent, that didn’t hide any of her delight or happiness at all.

As he witnessed that, Agedilus turned away his face like nothing happened, but his ears were a light pink like the petal from earlier.

「Widnichol. Keep reading properly.」

Widnichol reflexively answered, 「Yes!」 to his teacher, who still looked over his shoulder to tell him that.

And then, watching the retreating figures of the young Lancent husband and wife leave the room. Widnichol let out a sigh, wondering if they’d keep showing him spectacles like this until it got annoying. There was nothing else a boy could do but that.