Chapter 121

unedited

‘Why all of a sudden?’

I narrowed my eyes at the sudden question.

But Cedric looked very serious.

Isn’t it really strange that you tilted your head?

I shrugged my shoulders and responded.

“Hmm, it looks like my blood circulation is good. Then, you have cold hands.”

“I was down on the floor earlier.”

“……”

When I said nothing, Cedric grinned.

“But it’s amazing. Because I’m holding your hand like this…my hand is getting warmer too.”

“It’s because you’re taking the heat away from my hands!”

When I was furious, Cedric asked in a playful tone.

Even in the dark, Cedric’s amber eyes could be seen shining.

“Then can I keep taking it?”

“……Uhhh, do whatever you want. As you like.”

I paused for a moment, but then immediately nodded my head.

But Cedric looked good whether I was or not.

‘Well, it’s a little cold right now.’

It was early summer, but as the sun went down and I was on the grass with no lights, my body temperature dropped and it was cold.

You’re taking my heat away, Cedric, you bad guy.

It was then.

“Didn’t you just hear something from this side?”

“Well… let’s take a look.”

“……!”

We were startled at the same time as we heard someone’s voice from afar.

It was probably the guards who patrolled the Imperial Palace.

‘We have to hide!’

It was still quite a distance away, so luckily we didn’t get caught right away.

However, this place is wide open, so it was clear that we would immediately stand out as they turned that corner.

‘What do we do?’

The other children were also running around in confusion with bewildered eyes.

Then, as I looked around, something caught my eye.

‘What about that?’

It was a pile of tree branches in one corner.

It was as if the branches of the tree that had been trimmed were gathered.

Seeing that the leaves were still fresh, it was clear that they had just been cut.

“Let’s all take that and hide behind the bushes! Disguise yourself as a tree branch!”

I told the children standing around me in a small voice.

Then everyone ran and picked up branches the size of their palms.

“I like this!”

Cedric picked up a long branch that was as straight as a sword and ran to the bush.

Alice picked up a small branch with many leaves.

I picked up a branch and handed it to Jake, who seemed hesitant.

“Thank you, Mir.”

Jake thanked me.

Then, one by one, we hid behind the bushes, and then two guards trudged through from the other side.

“What sound did you hear?”

“Well, I don’t know whether it’s a human or an animal… it sounds like a rustling and moving sound.”

“Isn’t this an abandoned garden? It’s not a place for intruders.”

“Perhaps so, Captain?”

When we listened to the conversation between the two, it seemed that our existence had not been discovered.

I rolled up my body a little more.

Then, suddenly, from Jake’s side, there was a sound of stepping on leaves.

Crunch.

“……!”

It was a very small sound, but the guards did not miss the sound and paid attention to this side.

“What sound is that…!”

“Isn’t that right, Captain? There was a rustling sound.”

They slowly approached this way with a flashlight made of magic stone.

We were getting more and more anxious.

What if we got caught?

For a moment, I wondered if I should ask Alice to summon Sir Abish.

Meanwhile, all of a sudden, the light of the flashlight came close to our noses.

“…Hmm, there seems to be a tree branch sticking out of the top, is that an illusion?”

Among the two, the man who appeared to be the captain muttered to himself in a small voice.

Heup. I almost burst out laughing out that didn’t sync with the moment.

The branch he was referring to must have been the exceptionally long branch that Cedric had picked earlier.

“Um… it’s not?”

Taking a step closer, they tilted their heads, unable to find us hiding behind the bushes with branches hidden in the shadows.

Then, another rustling sound was heard nearby, and something ran away.

For a moment, I was startled, and goosebumps appeared on the back of my neck.

“What!”

The guards seemed to be surprised as well, so they pointed their flashlights toward the sound. And the identity of the one that ran away is revealed.

“Squeak?”

It was a squirrel.

The squirrel tilted its head as if surprised by the sudden flash of spotlight, and then ran away to the other side.

“Hey, what is that?”

“…it was a squirrel.”

As the intruder’s identity was a bit dwindling, the guards smiled sadly and sighed with relief.

“Let’s go, Captain. We wasted our time needlessly.”

“Alright then.”

Then they walked past the bushes in which we were hiding.

When time passed enough that even the shadows of the two of them disappeared, only then did we come out of the bushes one by one.