Chapter 20.1

I bit into the cotton candy Arkhan was feeding me in a daze. It was strangely sweeter than it had been last time.

“Whoops, you’ve got some there.”

Rubbing off the bit of cotton candy at the side of my mouth, Arkhan smiled a little. But cotton candy was stuck around Arkhan’s mouth, too.

“Ah, you’ve become uglier.”

But since he had a nice face, a small flaw like this should be fine.

Snickering, I pressed Arkhan’s lips together.

“Oh.”

Spinning the finished-off cotton candy stick in one hand with a red face, perhaps because he was embarrassed, Arkhan asked, “What do we do now?”

“Let’s go wherever you want to go.”

“Hm… I don’t know. If it’s you, Kate, you’d probably most likely want to go… to the bookstore?”

“Ooh… No, I said you can choose.”

Momentarily about to marvel in approval, I shoved Arkhan’s shoulder instead.

“Did you go to the bookstore with him too?”

“Um, yeah.”

I knew who he was referring to as ‘him,’ though I really didn’t know why Arkhan kept minding Noah so much.

“Stop comparing yourself to Noah. I didn’t do anything, so why are you acting like that?”

“Yeah, but I promised I’d make it so you don’t think of him at all.”

The glum expression on his face softened my heart.

“Fine, fine. Come on, let’s go.”

In the end, we wandered all the way to the outskirts of the city and bought dessert.

Arkhan kept feeding me cake and cookies and all sorts of sweets, but the way he didn’t eat anything himself and just watched me happily made me feel uncomfortable.

“Wow, I’m full.”

It was a relief that I’d at least been the one buying our meal.

Rubbing my bulging stomach, I stepped out of the restaurant. I was so full that I will most likely not be able to eat dinner.

Arkhan, this guy, since when did he know my tastes so well?

“Yo, you’re going to be such a good boyfriend one day.”

The words seemed to stun Arkhan for a moment before he fell silent.

Soon after, Arkhan gently smiled and answered, “I’m glad you think so, Kate.”

This guy was sure to meet someone great.

I gave him a proud look.

As we followed the road like that, a familiar building suddenly caught my eye and my feet paused. Eyeing my rather serious expression, Arkhan also did not say anything.

I peeked through the window of the old pharmacy.

“Not here today, too,” I murmured lowly before turning away.

“She never is when you come to visit.”

Arkhan patted my shoulder as if to tell me to brighten up.

“Still,” I said quietly, with a gloomy expression on my face.

I’d wanted to see her face just once during my summer vacation.

My grandmother on my mother’s side rarely stayed in the estate ever since Mom died.

Having contracted wanderlust or something, she closed the pharmacy and went from fief to fief. On her own, too, at that.

“Here.”

Seeing how depressed I’d become, Arkhan bought me some ice cream.

“You really… You’re a good kid, aren’t cha?” I said, feeling deeply moved. I took a bite out of the ice cream as the sweetness filled my mouth.

Only when the sky was starting to gain the scarlet tinge of the sunset did we head back home.

“Haven’t we been out for too long? Can you make it home?”

“Is that your way of inviting me to stay the night?”

“No.”

It was with some frivolous conversation that we passed Grania Forest but feeling uneasy despite myself, I pulled on Arkham’s arm sharply.

“Be careful. That forest’s barred from entry for a month.”

“I see.”

Nodding his head, Arkhan lowered his voice.

“Doesn’t it make you sad, Kate? It was a place of memories for us.”

“That’s true but stepping back in there is a little – you know.”

I did have memories of playing there as a child with Arkhan, picking apples off the trees but now whenever I thought of Grania Forest, those disgusting monsters would come to mind which made me shudder as a result.

How in the world had people survived living in the second century, when those monsters had been rife throughout the whole continent?

“It’s quite amazing,” I murmured, pulling my clothes tighter around me. Since it was summer, I’d thought I would be fine wearing thin clothes, but it was still a little chilly.

If Dad saw me, he’d nag so much.

“No, don’t take it off, stop right there,” I stammered when I saw Arkhan unbuttoning his coat. But Arkhan stubbornly took off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders, smiling at me.

“Here, milady.”

“Ooh… But you didn’t have to, Sir Knight.”

Even as I played along, I made troubled sounds before I began drawing magical runes on the ground.

We’d covered substantial ground walking, which meant we weren’t far off from the mansion. If it was at this distance, I could teleport the two of us home, even with my meager magical powers.

“I’m in a good mood. I’ll teleport us there so that we don’t have to walk through Grania Forest at night.”

“No, I’m okay. I’m not cold at all.”

“You listen to your elder. Just take what I give you,” I said sternly. In response, Arkhan took back his coat sheepishly.

Once the magic circle was completed, it flashed with brilliant green light and the world turned upside down.

“Ahh!”

Thanks to how rough my estimations were for coordinates, we teleported smack dab in the middle of the training grounds, frightening the knights who were in training there.

Once I was done apologizing to the knights and sending Arkhan off, it was already eight in the evening.