Chapter 36

I couldn’t bring myself to answer anything.

Just, with a bright smile, I led Alice to the floor.

Alice only skipped kindergarten for one day, and her steps were stiff as if she had become awkward again.

“Alice, I’ll show you a fun game.”

I took out the thick goose down cushion I had packed last night from my bag and put it on the floor, and I sat Alice on it. And again, I introduced gonggi.

Alice watched carefully to not miss any of the steps I was doing, and she soon looked at the stones I had handed over with a grim look, and slowly followed the moves one by one.

“Wow, Alice, you’re pretty good at it, aren’t you?”

I looked admiringly at Alice’s hand movements.

It wasn’t empty words, but sincere. I’m sorry to compare, but she was better than Jake, and compared to me, Alice, who was a beginner, was a genius!

“……Well, that’s true… I used to play with small stones once in a while when I was bored. I think that’s why. I’m not really good at it.”

Alice struck her hand as if she was ashamed of my compliment.

No, then you mean, this world’s first gonggi wasn’t my invention, but Alice’s?

She is also a character who will be the protagonist of the future, so it is different from the side characters.

“No. Alice is really good. In fact, I’ve only been able to do this much after a month.”

I giggled and told Alice the secret I had hidden.

So, we fell into gonggi while having a small conversation.

“Hey, why are you so close?”

Cedric comes up with a line like an extra bully, and the clean atmosphere gets shattered.

“Do gonggi with me.”

And Cedric said, taking his mysterious stones out of the pockets of his pants.

When I saw the stones, I was speechless.

My God, Cedric.

***

“Did you bring this as a gonggi stone?”

I opened my mouth in a slightly awkward manner.

The stones that fell out of Cedric’s pocket were all big sizes and even bumpy. There was not even a sign of grinding and rounding like I had done.

It must have been picked up from the garden or somewhere on the street.  Still, the good news is that there is no dirt on it?

“It’s right. Yesterday I also practiced with it.”

“……Oh my gosh.”

When I heard Cedric’s blatant answer, I found a number of stones that were not smooth and pointed at the end, making them perfect for piercing your hand. If you practice with these things, you must have a wound on your hand.

‘Come to think of it, Cedric’s clothes are long-sleeved today. Unlike the usual, uncontrollably rough unlike of a Grand House, it’s a shirt with elegant sleeves, as if wearing someone else’s clothes.’

I searched Cedric with narrowed eyes like a detective.

What I finally laid my eyes on, were the small scars on the palms underneath the frill sleeved shirt!

As long as it was already in my eyes, I couldn’t stand still, pretending not to know. Eventually I took the chair and put it in front of Cedric.

“Little Lord, let’s sit here for a while.”

“What? Why? Why do I have to sit?”

“Oh, don’t talk about the rest, let’s sit down. That’s right.”

Cedric threw words ending in elongated question marks to me, but he acted as if he was threatened, rather than following my requests. Even after sitting in the chair, Cedric was actually making an expression like he didn’t know why I asked him to sit here.

“Is this a self-reflection chair?  I haven’t done anything wrong, what this is. I want to get up.”

“Oh, wait a minute. Please wait. I’m going to go somewhere for a while, but don’t get up until then.”

“Go quickly. I’ll count to 1 minute. If you don’t come before it, I will get up.”

Cedric had already said ‘1, 2, 3……’ and was counting the numbers with his mouth.

What a temper! Eventually, I ran away with a quick pace and left the classroom.

‘I remember clearly when I put it in the locker. It was a medical kit.’

It’s still a long time before class starts, so there was neither a teacher teaching a subject nor Countess Edmons present.