Kwagwagwang-!
Something inside my heart crumbled and fell apart.
There was a moment of silence.
“…….”
“…….”
My eyes moved busily in front of them who could not say anything and remained silent.
I was so shocked that I pinched my cheeks several times to see if it was a dream or reality.
It turned out to be the truth.
My cheeks felt sore and tingly from being pinched.
“This isn’t a dream!” I thought.
I thought to myself.
The tears I’d been holding back burst forth in an instant.
“I, too, am a lizard… Ugh!”
“Haah…….”
Calion stopped suddenly, holding the lizard in his arms and petting its head.
The lizard in his arms was just as still, looking down at me.
“Kiiiiing.”
It was as if the shock was his own.
* * *
The only men who entered her life were Grandpa Michael from next door and William, her youngest son, who lived in the shack across the street.
Sometimes, reminiscing about the past with Callion feels like a tasty snack.
[When Margosia bothers you, just punch him in the face.]
Did I dream about him every time I close my eyes?
[This time, cast your attacking spell first. Self-rescue, you know.]
That time, the place and time I know.
Moreover, seeing Kallion again in that place, under that green tree, in that memory, made me feel like I was going crazy.
[And don’t be frightened, the Bartlett family’s oil business has long since gone to the bottom].
[How do you know?]
[Because someone has developed an artifact that produces energy from horsepower instead of oil, and it’s free].
[……That’s awesome.]
Viscount Barchette’s business failures brought down his family around the same time I graduated from the Academy.
His heir, Magosia Bartlett, gambled away his fortune, declared bankruptcy, and sold his noble title.
The past was still in my dreams, but my mind was in the present.
I was about to nod when Callion sighed and said.
[You, come with me from now on].
[Huh?]
He smiled thinly and offered me a formal handshake.
[I like the magic you have, I think you’d be pretty good at it if I taught you].
I blinked slowly.
My head was starting to hurt.
Further in the time, the memory of what he told me flowed into my head.
When had that been?
I must have seen that smile dozens, maybe hundreds of times before.
‘What the…….’
I felt a strange sensation.
A warm sensation touched my fingertips, and Callion’s lips moved quickly past mine.
The wind picked up, and the ticking of the second hand rang in her ears as if time had gone backward.
Click.
Click.
Tick-tock-.
[Louise].
Fallen leaves scattered and flew into my eyes.
A light dusting of snow floated up, and the rain, which had been falling slowly, gushed down.
[Louise Bartlett.]
Callion’s lips moved even more restlessly.
When I blinked my eyelids once, it was all over.
Blackness rushed before my eyes, snapping them shut in an instant.
My breath caught in my throat when I saw Calion under a sky as clear as a mirror.
“Hmph……!”
The world felt like it was sinking into the ground.
A throbbing headache followed.
My vision twisted upside down and my mouth fell open in a grimace.
This was not a pain or memory I could handle.
All I wanted to do was run away.
[I like you].
Shhhhhh-.
Again, the wind blew.
When I woke up, the person in front of me had a completely different face.
The sudden change in weather made the green leaves turn red, and his blank face looked like a puffy teenage boy’s.
Calion shyly leaned in towards me again.
So that I had no choice but to listen.
[I like you, Louis].
It was an unbelievable moment.
I stared at him and felt a hot sensation running down my cheeks.
Was I crying?
I didn’t have time to guess, and I closed my eyes tightly when I saw two lips slowly, hesitantly, overlapping.
And when I opened them, hesitantly.
“What, you want me to kiss you?”
Sure enough, there was Calion, smiling down at me.
His lips moved closer together, as if in a dream, and he shook his head.
“If I kiss you, you won’t run away?”
“……what.”
“More than that, your magic flow is messed up. Did you time travel or something?
Calion smirked, tapping his lips together involuntarily.
Then she unconsciously slid her arms around his neck and lowered them to the bed, pulling the covers over them.
“You’ll get tired of that later.”
“…….”
“Just a little more sleep.”
He wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and looked bittersweet.
I blinked dazedly, feeling the warmth of his hand on my cheek.
After only half a day, I was feeling unsure.
‘Whose memory was that?’
* * *
Before Louis woke up from his sleep.
“I like…….”
“What?”
“Kiss me, Calion…….”
“What are you talking about, you’re talking in your sleep.”
But as Louise mumbled and stretched out her arms.
He stops to check on her, just before kissing her.
He turned his head, his patience wearing thin.
“……This is crazy.”
* * *
He’d lost his mind again.
Calion let the lizard in his arms, Dante, out of his arms and then went back into the bedroom to comfort her.
But She was already blacked out.
“Something must be wrong with your memory and your body. Maybe we should send the doctor back to …….”
“No, I don’t need it!”
“You weren’t always this weak. How did you end up in such an unstable state?”
Frowning, Calion handed her a cup of water.
He told her that he had been unconscious for another hour or so after being scared of the lizard, or rather, Dante.
Perhaps he hadn’t left the bedroom until now.
She accepted the cup of water he offered her and took a hesitant sip.
Though She spit it out immediately.
“you are good at confessing your love for me. In your sleep.”
“Phew.”
“You said you wanted to kiss me. Did you mean it?”
“Kollock, kollock!”
What, me? Uh, when?
She shook her head, trying to recall the blurry dream.
No, she remembered that he was confessing to her!
He even kissed me in person…… kolok, kolok!
Her face looked really red in the reflection on the water.
She covered her mouth and ducked her head to avoid splashing, but she could still hear Calion’s voice.
“You’re shy. You’ve already done everything you’re supposed to do.”
“…….”
“You grabbed me by the throat first, I saw it all.”
“Well, that’s not me…….”
“If not you, then who?”
“I’m just, I accidentally-.”
“Mistakes happen, and pretending doesn’t make the fact that we professed our love for each other never happen.”
Tilting his head loosely, Calion’s expression was blunt.
Though the corners of his mouth were still busy grinning.
I could only bite my lip in disbelief, unable to respond to the logic of the argument.
For some reason, the dream was so vivid.
I’d messed up.
I lay back in bed, avoiding Callion’s gaze.
My face was still hot and sweaty from the fever, and there wasn’t a rat hole I could run to.
“……I apologize.”
“Don’t apologize, but do me a favor.”
“What?”
“Eat with me. Ma’am.”
Huh?
She lifted her head, which was trembling, and Callion stood up from his chair.
“We have a lot to talk about, ma’am, and we can’t do it casually here.”
He took a step away toward me, grabbing his jacket from beside her.
He stared down at my face with a different kind of affection, and then spoke softly, as if soothing a child.
“I’m sure you’ve wondered a little, haven’t you, about how your relationship with me has changed to get to where it is today?”
“……A little.”
“Then you’d better take the time to find out. If you lose interest, I’ll send you back to your village.”
Seriously?
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