“Ker— lestia?”
Startled, I turned around, only to be greeted by Keran Illestia. It seemed that he had arrived at the courtyard while I was lost in thought. Moonlight gently graced his slightly wavy blond hair, making the dawn Keran look twice as handsome as the one during the day.
“Haha, are we that close already, ‘Ariel’?”
Keran laughed out loud and brushed off his pants. He sat down on his favorite bench, leaves of all shapes and sizes falling behind him.
Come to think of it, he suffered from a disease that required him to wait for someone in the courtyard at a certain time of day. But it certainly wasn’t at dawn.
Moreover, I don’t see Keran’s face every morning now when I pass by the courtyard. I wondered if he’d finally met the person he’d been waiting for, or if he’d simply changed the time of day. I was about to ask him a question when he turned to me and asked,
“What are you doing here at this hour?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be here, like, six hours later?”
It was at that moment that I mentioned his eccentric habit. His eyes, beneath lashes that glistened like crescent shards, clouded over in an instant. It was the same look I’d seen on him on the day Rosemary Blossom transferred, when I threw the note I wrote on the corner of the Magic science textbook to him.
Then he spoke quietly. ‘Is that so?’ His tone was too flat to have come from a vocal organ.
“That’s right, you’ve been doing it since March—”
“Is that so?”
Before I could even finish my sentence, an echo rang out. Something was strange. Confused, I changed the subject, and this time the conversation continued normally. For example, about the glory he had taken—’King of the Ball’ for this year’s ball—and the upcoming exams, as well as his pajamas looking more luxurious than Walsh’s evening outfit.
But when I talked about the early-morning courtyard, the old bench, “Patch Notes” and Rosemary Blossom, Keran once again replied, ‘Is that so?’
I quickly found a commonality between the early morning courtyard, the old bench, and <Patch Notes>. Then the inside of my throat suddenly felt gritty, as if I had swallowed sand. My stomach churned. This is what it would feel like if someone stuck their hand between my ribs and squeezed and shook its contents. I swallowed hard and focused on the toes poking out of my flip-flops instead of the horrifying thoughts surfacing in my mind.
“You know, Kyle says, you and I are characters in a ‘Game’… .”
I squeezed my eyes shut. As if that would lift the weight of helplessness that had settled on my eyelids.
“Is that so?”
The answer I had expected and hoped was not the same as that has come back. It was the exact same tone. Perhaps even the creepily smooth arc drawn by his lips, the way he straightened his back, how his right leg was slightly bent, or the angle of his head are the same.
“Please, Keran Illestia!”
So I was now practically clinging to Keran.
“You knew all about the ‘Witch’s Path’ and the ‘Spinning Wheel of Fate’ and Kaitlyn the Great! What happened to the letter you sent her?”
“… … .”
“You, too, until recently, remembered! The things that happened but did not at the same time!”
There was a somewhat bitter feeling settling in the corner of my mind at the thought of him recalling events like Kyle’s Banshee costume, ‘Adam Willy,’ and incidents where he called me by my nickname. I want to be free of the thought that the knot in his thread might have tied his tongue. I begged. Please don’t tell me it’s all because of me.
“Is that so?”
But the more desperately I tried, the more I realized how broken Keran Illestia was. In an instant, I was soaked with a deep sense of guilt.
I felt as if I had fallen into a well in an old ghost story. Deep, damp, filled with moss and mold, and the stench of stagnant water filled the air. When I reach out my hand, no one grabs it, and when I ask for help, no one listens.
***
[ ‘A. O’Brien, the ‘Ice Queen’ loses her title, and the secret rendezvous behind the bushes… ‘I love you, teacher♡’
The Love Month Banquet, which was full of surprises, has finally come to an end. For our reporting team, this was a story we couldn’t miss. The thrilling competition for the ‘Queen of the Ball’, the gazes full of love everywhere, and the magic ship that appeared in the sky over Fitzsimmons—it’s all so fascinating.
But more than anything else, there was another piece of news that made us enthusiastic. The one who has captivated us all for nearly five years seems to be ready to make her debut in the Fitzsimmons Times. Very properly, at that too.
That’s right. A. O’Brien. Who would have known that Illestia’s chaste rose would bloom first in the mill?
It was the third day of the Love Month banquet. The place where the reporting team found her was quite secluded. In the arms of a middle-aged man she called ‘teacher,’ Lady O’Brien looked even more delicate than the flowers she chose to cover her face with.
The heated atmosphere flowing between them seemed to make the somewhat significant age difference a non-issue. She even whispered about abandoning her life as a distinguished noblewoman of Illestia and becoming the wife of her tutor in the future.
The one who ignited such a fiery passion in the ‘Ice Queen,’ who relinquished her throne, was none other than her middle-aged home tutor. The reason she hadn’t had any rumours with any male students over the past five years was right here. Lady O’Brien was only thrilled by intimate affairs with fully mature men, so what chance did inexperienced young boys have?
An anonymous source who requested anonymity stated, ‘She has always dreamed of escaping…’ ]
(End)
My mind was distraught. The scene described by the Fitzsimmons Times was exactly the same as the one I witnessed a few days ago. That said, there was someone else in the place I was at the time.
Since I was trained as a knight, I could confidently say that my sense of sensing other people was more developed than others. But even in retrospect, I didn’t catch anything. I was seriously considering whether Edwards had the talent of an assassin.
“Crazy bastards!”
Brianna Mosley ran amok. Her fury surpassed the usual intensity triggered by the Fitzsimmons Times publishing a sensational or absurd story. I can understand it, though. I’ve read a lot more articles than she has, but I swear I’ve never seen anything this nasty.
“To attach such a scandal to such an innocent child? I will kill them all.”
“Oh, Bree, I hope what’s in your hand isn’t a dagger.”
When I recoiled in fear at the ominous object that came out from under my roommate’s pillow, Bree threw a sarcastic remark. It was a biting tone.
“You’re right, Ariel, this is a dagger. And a sharp one at that. Since my boyfriend slipped on the obstacle-free cafeteria floor and broke his nose, and since you’ve been in a life-and-death situation, I thought I should be able to handle any danger lurking in the academy.”
I drowned out about half of Brianna’s muttering, which was all about tearing apart the shit sprayed by the trashy media without mercy. She still didn’t seem to know that Walsh’s nose was broken because I tripped him. Thank goodness Walsh is a bastard who bluffs with his life for the sake of his pride.
Anyway, it turns out Brianna Mosley cares more about Anais O’Brien than I thought. I’d never seen her this pissed off, even on the days when we were at odds.
Perhaps the appearance of Anais at the 2nd Girls’ Salon was what struck a chord in Brianna’s heart. I remembered the conversation we’d had just before I fell asleep that night.
“I’ve been admiring her.”
Because the blanket was pulled up to her nose, I could only understand a fraction of what she said.
“What? Walsh is pathetic?”
Bree seemed slightly annoyed but didn’t express more anger.
“I mean Anais. In the social world of Illestia, she’s almost a princess. But today, I saw her as just a girl. A girl drowned in sorrow.”
“Are you disappointed then?” When I asked, Bree got really upset.
“Are you kidding me? I don’t think there’s anyone in Fitzsimmons who understands Anais’ sorrow more desperately than I do and wants to rescue her from it. I mean, I’ve realized that admiration can’t be friendship.”
She would no longer choose to be Anais’ admirer but to be her friend. I’ve had unmatched experience as Bree’s bestie, so I know full well how loyal she was to the people she kept within her elbow’s reach. And in the current situation, that meant only one thing.
How she’d found out about it was still a mystery, but Christa Edwards would soon have to deal with Brianna Mosley’s heavy anger. As a bonus, the wrath of Ariel Dalton, Elizabeth McCarthy, and Kelly Ramirez.
***
Since the midnight break-in case ended unclearly, Professor Stafford felt the need to strengthen the greenhouse security with something more than magical locks. She adopted a three-headed hound through Professor Monaghan and held a contest to name it.
Since the three-headed hound needed three names, I wrote down ‘Adam,’ ‘Manuel,’ and ‘Pedro,’ thinking about the Sharm twins and Walsh who were always together. Kelly was thoroughly disappointed in my one-dimensional way of thinking. She solemnly stated that names were factors that determined someone’s life direction.
“Because my name was ‘Kelly,’ not ‘Clara,’ my father got a spot in immigration.”
“It’s not a very Nadonian name.”
I moderately nodded and covered Torus* well with soil and mana. Then the root swayed in displeasure. Apparently, the amount of mana I injected was not appropriate. It should have been in a pot belonging to a student who was better at magic than I was. I poked at the fluttering leaves in exasperation and continued.
*(토룻/Torus- I’ve searched for this and all I found was: Torus, the receptacle of a flower. It might simply be a name for a fictional plant but since I’m not familiar with this term, I’ll just go with Torus.)
“So what kind of great name did you come up with?”
You can now sponsor an extra chapter by buying me a Ko-fi! 2 Ko-fi= 1extra chapter.
