Unedited
Just a moment ago, Kyle was talking seriously with Jaden Spencer near the baggage checkpoint. When I looked in that direction, I made eye contact with Jaden, who was unloading his luggage.
After a short nod, Jaden mouthed, ‘I’ll write to you.’ I smiled a little and nodded. Perhaps because Jaden was so huge, his suitcase looked like a children’s toy.
“Isn’t he heading to the train station too?”
“He’s going out the back door.”
Kyle responded indifferently, handing me my bags he had packed. Well, Jaden Spencer was Milua’s biggest celebrity. His doll (or rather, their knockoffs) has been the most popular Dalton Guild item for several months. From what I knew, even last semester, Jaden was harassed by his fans all the way from the immigration office to the train station.
“Hey, Villard! Why didn’t you bring mine?”
“How was I supposed to know which one’s yours?”
While Brianna fumed and went to the baggage checkpoint, I told Kyle about the person who had submitted a portrait made by Oriana Huntz on their entry permit. When that same person returned with their luggage, he tattled about how her humiliation had been exposed, which resulted in a handprint on my arm. Kyle, of course, found the whole situation highly amusing.
***
As the train traveled from the southern end of Milua to the northern end, Brianna Mosley had her nose pressed against the window the entire time, except when she was sleeping. I was worried that if she continued like this, by the time we got off, her head would be tilted to the left.
“Milua… is quite… idyllic.”
Bree used a roundabout way to say “countryside.”
“Compared to Illestia, it sure is.”
Kyle said, chewing on a sausage on a stick. Unlike Milua, which had a large land but was extremely underdeveloped, most of Illestia’s land was developed. Usually, it was difficult to create an ‘idyllic’ atmosphere in such a place.
“Why do you keep invading other people’s rooms instead of staying in your own room?”
“Camden Bowman is in there. I don’t like him. His feet stink. Why didn’t we just teleport instead of taking the train? You have money.”
Kyle grumbled again into my face and subtly placed his butt on the seat next to me. His elbow, which had landed on my shoulder out of habit, came off cleanly when I widened the distance between our seats. Even though it was a natural movement, like flowing water, I felt uneasy.
My heart twinged whenever I saw Kyle. I couldn’t help it. I’d kissed Keran less than a few days after I’d punched him in the face in order to fulfill the fantasy I have of my first kiss. What a great fantasy there is in a first kiss that took place while drunk.
I suddenly became very curious. What on earth do I want to do with Keran Illestia? And what about Keran? What made him give in to my demands? If he had just called Professor Humphreys, everything would have been resolved.
There were a lot of opportunities to seek answers to my questions—if only I hadn’t hidden like a rat. Kendra and Mia, whom I met at the train station, said they had seen Keran looking for me at least three times. In the girls’ dormitory, in the plaza, and in front of the teleportation magic circle going to Milua.
I felt regret and relief at the same time. I wondered if things would have been different if I had met Keran in the girls’ dormitory, in the plaza, or in front of the teleportation magic circle going to Milua. Maybe I wouldn’t have had to spend the rest of my vacation constantly feeling like I was on edge.
But honestly, it wasn’t easy to face Keran after that. Keran was the crown prince of Illestia and the student council president of Fitzsimmons. He was so handsome to the point of making me feel nauseous. To him, kissing a girl might feel a lot like eating a snack. If I found out that I was the only one attaching excessive meaning to that kiss, I would feel embarrassed to the point of wanting to die
No. Actually, it was all an excuse. It was my fault, not anyone else’s, that I couldn’t face Keran. Because I wasn’t brave enough to deal with our relationship, which has become so different from before, and the chaos it would cause. Because I’m not smart enough to think of a solution other than avoidance. Because I’m not strong enough to even have confidence in my own feelings. In other words, I was a cowardly and spineless fool.
A snack, huh. I snatched the sausage Kyle was raving about and shoved it into my mouth. It was salty.
Brianna was extremely excited about her first international trip and was interested in literally everything she could see outside the window. Answering the endless questions she asked with silly answers was fun at first, but it stopped being fun after half a day. Moreover, I had a lot to worry about besides my fake explanation of why mountain goats don’t fall off cliffs.
Because I was so preoccupied with Keran, Kyle, and others, I didn’t really hear the train conductor’s announcement. If Brianna Mosley, the question mark killer, hadn’t asked, ‘Where is Sancreek?’, we would have had to take the train for more than a day or pay a lot of money for teleportation.
I hastily gathered my things and got off the train. A group of redheads immediately caught my eye.
“Oh my gosh, Edith is in Sancreek!”
“Ariel, ladies don’t run with their skirts turned inside out.”
“This is not a skirt.”
As I lifted the hem of my skirt, which reached just below my thighs, to show the pants I was wearing underneath, Bree slapped the back of my hand. There was an annoying elegance in the way she held her dress lightly and bent her knees.
“I am Brianna Mosley, Marchioness Peterson.”
“I’ve heard about you from Kyle, Miss Mosley. You can call me Edith.”
“Then please call me Brianna, Edith.”
“Thank you, Brianna. You’re Ariel’s roommate, right? You must have had a hard time.”
“It’s fine.”
“‘Fine’?”
When I looked at her bewildered, Bree averted her eyes and pretended not to notice. Then she walked ahead, her arm linked with Edith in a friendly manner. She doesn’t even know the way to the carriage stop!
My evil childhood friend, who was always useless at times like this, laughed and pointed at me, who had become like an Ethereal River duck egg. I tightened my grip on my suitcase and swung it towards him. Though I failed to punish the quick-footed Villard due to my lack of blunt weapon training, fortunately, another Villard appeared soon to relieve my unbridled anger.
“What are you doing here, Maverick?”
“I came to carry your luggage; what else?”
Maverick added, taking the suitcase from me.
“And Cynthia said if I don’t bring you by 3 PM, she’ll be really upset.”
“We should hurry then.”
Kyle said solemnly. I, too, became solemn. Cynthia was already the kind of girl who easily sulks, but the fact that she was giving a warning meant she was really planning to sulk really badly. I once again felt that I was truly on vacation. I felt a sense of peace that had been difficult to come by recently.
***
The fun time went by quickly. Since Edith got married, it had been a really long time since we spent time together in Sancreek.
Edith, Cornelia, Bree, I, and Cynthia, who started calling herself a ‘lady’ this year, had tea time long after dinner. It was in the drawing room of the Villard mansion that I first learned that the second sister of Edith’s husband was my junior, Mia Peterson. (Edith had brought far more gifts for her family than her own luggage. She said it was requested by Mia and Mia’s brother. Henrich, where the Marquess of Peterson’s estate is located, is known for its handicrafts, so everyone was soon covered in accessories like they’d suddenly been hit with a fortune.)
The tea time was hosted by Cynthia. This cute ten-year-old lady seemed eager to show off that, unlike her younger brother Benjamin, she no longer used children’s tea cups—which have a protection spell on them, so they won’t break when dropped and won’t get hot beyond a certain point.
We took turns praising the prim and proper girl who proudly held up a steaming cup of tea. In hindsight, this was not a very good idea. This is because Cynthia, whose shoulders rose to the top of her head, drank too much black tea and could not fall asleep until late at night.
Cynthia’s inability to sleep until late at night meant that no one was allowed to leave the Villard Mansion until late at night. So, when Bree and I arrived at Dalton Manor in the Villard family’s carriage, it was already deep into dawn. My kind nanny, Madeleine, said, ‘When you get old, you don’t need as much sleep,’ even though she had drowsiness written all over her face. Then she hugged me tightly, reassuring my apologetic self.
Brianna Mosley had created a perfect two-month plan to fully enjoy her vacation. Naturally, the plan included my presence, but sadly, I wasn’t as free as Bree would have liked.
Baroness Dempsey, the managing agent of the Dalton estate, who had been under heavy workload for about 10 years, brought in all kinds of ledgers as if she had been waiting for the Viscount and his wife’s only daughter to return. I tried to explain that I was inheriting the merchant guild, not the estate, and that she would never succeed in retiring, but it didn’t work.
As soon as Bree realized that I didn’t have time to take her to Mount Stanick or Lake Fraswell, she cruelly abandoned me. As fate would have it, she had met Cornelia Villard. After the tea time, Brianna came to view Cornelia as a pretty cool and free-spirited senior, while Cornelia would have made friends with anyone who was willing to listen to the tales of the great detective Cornelius, even if it were a banshee.
From what I can see, the two are a good match. I asked Bree, who was getting dressed up for an outing with Cornelia, ‘But I’m still your best friend, right?’ and was told that clingy people are unattractive. I was disappointed.
“Hey, aren’t clingy people attractive?”
“Are you talking to me?”
Kyle pointed at his chest with his index finger as if he were dumbfounded. He was giving me a special lesson about the game and the targets to capture. ‘No.’ I threw away the quill in frustration.
“That’s not what we’re talking about.”
A lot of time had passed since the attempted kiss incident, and the guilt over the incident with Keran had left me feeling pretty shaken, so Kyle had been feeling quite down lately.
Information about the targets to capture was written on several sheets of paper spread out on the desk. It could be said to be a kind of genealogy compiled by Kyle. His unfortunate drawing skills were also put on full display, with portraits capturing facial features so unflatteringly that they looked about forty percent uglier than in real life. If Edgar Ramos saw this, he would probably want to burn it.
You can now sponsor an extra chapter by buying me a Ko-fi! 2 Ko-fi= 1extra chapter.
