Whether I hit the mark, his handsome face suddenly crumpled.
‘This is it.’
Once I realized the cause, only then did the tension release. Even the artificially made smile naturally changed.
“After dinner, I’ll look into whether there are more income sources to get liquid cash. I can probably work out the commission fees from the southern resort area.”
But Cesare’s eyes grew a bit sharper.
‘Is this not enough? Crazy bastard. Just how many more troops is he trying to gather? Tsk. I shouldn’t hand over too much money.’
“It’s not a small amount of money! The income there is quite large, so the commission fees should be substantial too!”
I desperately protested, but his frown showed no signs of relaxing. Hic, hic, Mitche’s hiccups grew worse.
‘You handsome piece of trash. In the end, that’s what you don’t like?’
I let out a small sigh and raised my upper body to whisper softly in his ear.
“This time, instead of a kiss, I’ll do hand-holding with interlocked fingers 5 times.”
It’s a radical discount. At this level it’s practically free, so he won’t be able to resist accepting it right away. Thinking that, I watched his reaction.
“Phew. Forget it. What was I thinking trying to do something with you… Ha. I’m leaving.”
Cesare muttered while holding his forehead alone, then turned his back saying he was just going to leave. That wasn’t it either? Somehow letting him go felt unsettling, so I quickly grabbed his shirt collar.
“Wait. Y-you came all this way, don’t just leave, at least take this.”
“What. I’m busy.”
If you’re busy, why did you come? I flinched at his thorny voice, but quickly pulled out two or three caramels from my pocket. It was what I carried around to share with Mitche.
“Since you came first for once, this is all I have to give. Hehe. It might have melted a bit from the heat, sorry.”
“……”
“They say eating sweets helps with concentration. I hope it helps with your magic practice.”
“You really… sometimes I want to put you in my mouth and chew you up.”
Cesare left behind those creepy words, snatched the caramels, and hurriedly turned and left.
“Byo?”
Mitche looked at me with worried eyes as if asking what just happened. I couldn’t understand it either and looked in the direction Cesare disappeared.
“Am I so hateful that he wants to chew me up…?”
“Byot!”
As if saying absolutely not, Mitche comforted my drooping self by patting me. It was a strange afternoon with the smell of melted caramel lingering at the tip of my nose.
* * *
A quiet afternoon. I was writing letters to send to merchant guilds around Count Astol’s territory at Lucy’s room desk.
At the academy, there was nowhere to be when I needed time alone. My room had long become a room Cain freely came and went from, and every corner of the library and community hall was full of students.
William’s group and underclassmen would cling to me for a long time when they saw me, and even the chapel, which was relatively deserted, I was reluctant to go to since I’d already met Cedric there before. Plus, Mitche disliked the chapel too.
I was trying to secretly find out about the military base, but there was no place to be calm. Then I remembered Lucy’s dormitory. After Homecoming, she and I became even closer, and with Rossi’s permission, I often came and went.
As I guessed, Lucy was from a noble family in the principality and was secretly studying here with the academy’s permission. Rossi was supposedly an attendant disguised as her twin older brother. I wondered why she needed to come here to study, but I understood when I heard the Franceau family was pro-Empire.
It seemed her friendship with Princess Françoise was also because of that. Still, Rossi would glare vigilantly every time he saw me, but perhaps Lucy spoke well of me because he didn’t prevent me from coming.
“You know, Lionel. Isn’t it boring being with me? Why do you keep coming?”
“Huh? Do you dislike me?”
I made a flower cup with my palm and smiled using the aegyo skill I learned from Mitche. At times like this, it’s best to just get by with a smile. Lucy will understand because she’s kind. Sure enough, she smiled shyly and shook her head.
“There’s no way I’d dislike you.”
“Then let me impose a little. Maybe because your room is neat, I can concentrate well. I didn’t come for free.”
I showed her the small picnic basket I’d placed nearby. Inside were delicious waffles. I’d given some pocket money to underclassmen including Devier and even sent them on an errand to the downtown area to buy them.
“Huhu. I’ve been wanting to go to this cafe. Thanks to you, I get to try it like this. Thank you, Lionel.”
“Huh? You’ve never been there? It’s a famous place among students.”
Lucy was reading a book on the bed while biting into a waffle. Crumbs would fall, but she said anything was fine as long as she could read books on the bed.
“Uh… I don’t have friends, so I’ve never been. It’s embarrassing to go alone.”
“You could go with Rossi.”
“Strictly speaking, Rossi isn’t a friend…”
“Then want to go with me?”
“Really?”
I nodded while finishing up the letter.
<I recently purchased several mines, but the iron ore production is higher than gemstones, making it difficult to handle. Could you possibly find out about clients with high demand?>
This should be enough to find out about the military base without being obvious, right?
“Let’s go together. I’m a regular so they give me a private room. The waffles and ice cream there are killer? Can’t be compared to the cafeteria ice cream. Even the milk ice cream sells out if you go late. Hmm, next week… how about Friday?”
“Lionel. That day is Rose Day! You should spend it with your lover!”
Rose Day is a day to ‘mutually’ share gifts. I do like Cesare, but we’re not in a mutually agreed upon lovey-dovey relationship, so it doesn’t matter.
Him preparing a gift for me? Not a chance. There’s no way a guy who’s lacking in everything would spend money and time on me. Ugh. The more I think about it, the sadder I get, so I should stop thinking about it.
“I’m single so I don’t have a lover. It’s fine.”
“B-but on that day, it’ll be hard to make a cafe reservation too.”
“Is that so? Just triple the reservation fee. It’s fine.”
“Is it okay not to spend it with Yanox?”
“Pfft! Lucy, there’s no way Cesare would want to spend such a special day with me.”
“I-I’ve always wanted to go to a cafe with an academy friend!”
“Geez. You too. Don’t waste your lifelong wish on something like that. What will you do if a real wish comes up later? But what about you, don’t you have a lover to spend that day with?”
“…I don’t.”
Tsk. Having only me as a friend, your life is quite precious too. Just what kind of pitiful loner life have you been living?
“Should I introduce you to someone decent? What’s your ideal type?”
“I-ideal type?”
Lucy’s face turned red as she stammered. At times like this, she’s not a nerdy bookworm but just like an adorably cute girl, making me naturally smile.
“Someone who accepts me as I am, likes books and is calm… What about you?”
“Me? Someone with black hair who’s handsome. Someone handsome even wearing rags. Someone handsome when crying. Someone handsome when sweating. Someone handsome even with a terrible personality.”
When I rattled it off without a moment’s hesitation or breathing, Lucy blinked. Then she soon burst into laughter and said.
“What’s that? That’s totally Cesare Yanox. Hehehe.”
That’s right. It’s Cesare. Maybe because she reads a lot of books, Lucy is quick-witted and smart.
However, since I, a guy, said I like handsome people, Lucy must have thought it was a joke. But it’s real.
“Good thing our ideal types don’t overlap.”
“There’s no way they’d overlap. Lionel, really.”
When I giggled, Lucy also laughed as if she couldn’t help it.
As I left Lucy’s room and headed to my dormitory, something whacked the back of my head.
“Ugh!”
My eyes nearly popped out. Crazy. When I turned around, a paper bird was flapping its wings and flying around me shamelessly.
“Byobyo!”
Mitche, sitting on my shoulder, seemed curious and reached out to touch the bird. Then the paper bird tilted its head as if observing Mitche, then pecked at him with its beak.
“Is this a messenger sent by Cesare?”
Sometimes Cesare would send these kinds of things with creation magic to deliver messages. But this one’s magic completion was at a different level—too high to be sent by Cesare. And if it were Cesare, he’d send it in the shape of an eagle or something, not such a cute bird shape.
“Who sent you?”
When I carefully held out my palm, the bird playing with Mitche came to its senses and hopped onto my palm. It felt quite heavy, as if there was something more inside.
The paper bird opened its beak wide.
– Woof!
‘A dog barking?’
Suddenly a puppy’s barking sound was heard, and the paper bird unfolded neatly, revealing the contents inside. What was there was.
“It’s an artifact!”
It was definitely the wing-shaped pendant Lampel had.
‘Lampel gave this to me? Really?’
I couldn’t believe it, so I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but it really was that artifact.
‘With just this, I can even release Addiction…!’
But the moment I thought I could break Addiction, strange emotions crossed over. Was I dazed, overwhelmed by various emotions, or was it a feeling of emptiness because things worked out more simply than I thought—I couldn’t define what emotion it was.
‘If I release Addiction now, what will happen to me?’
