Episode 149
Side Story 7. Small and Precious things (3)
After a long time, all my Academia colleagues except Rayl gathered.
Fortunately, even Eugene, who was busy, gathered to hold a tea party at the palace.
When unfamiliar people came, Caerine, clenched her mouth and clung to Yssius.
However, Yssius was at the height of his speech, so he grabbed anyone and talked to them.
Currently, his target was Eugene.
“I said my Mother is The Red Eye Archmage, isn’t she cool?”
Yssius bragged about me using honorifics that he doesn’t usually use.
It seemed to be because he recognized Eugene as a stranger, while actually he already saw him a few times before, but he didn’t seem to remember well because he was too young.
“Ri, right.”
Eugene answered awkwardly.
“Have you seen my Mother use the fire magic? Fire comes out of my Mother’s hand too!”
Eugene seemed to be out of his mind in the stormy story of Yssius.
He didn’t seem to know how to react.
“Right right, fire comes out of Yerine’s hand. A really cool fire.”
“Aunt Erie!”
When Erica replied, Eugene sighed with relief at the thought that he was off target.
As expected, since Erica is familiar to them, the children didn’t mind her at all.
“Yes! Aunt Erie is the best! Aunt Erie knows what I’m talking about!”
Erica naturally took Yssius to the other side of the table, who was talking about Yerine.
I took the time and spoke to Eugene.
“Why are you so awkward?”
“I’ve never taken care of a child. I don’t know what to say.”
Eugene said, scratching his forehead with his right hand as if he was in trouble.
“It’s okay if you just match up with ‘I see’ or ‘Really?’, that much.”
Then Astra started laughing beside him.
“There are some things that Eugene Ace can’t do.”
“Shu…… Be quiet.”
As Eugene frowned back, Rachel smiled softly and teased him.
“Oh, why would you kill your temper all of a sudden, it doesn’t suit you.”
“There are kids here, so, just in case.”
“Oh, you’re so delicate. The sun will rise from the west.”
Ignoring the giggling Astra and Rachel, Eugene swept off the sides of his head without saying a word.
Today, he had half his bangs turned sideways.
“By the way, Yerine, did you tell Yssius that nickname ‘The Red Eye Archmage’?”
Rachel asked with an unexpected look.
“I know. Didn’t you say that nickname was too cheesy last time? You hated it so much.”
Astra also tilted her head when Rachel said so.
“Oh, someone wrote an article on their own.”
On the other side of the table, I looked at Yssius, in Erica arms, who is looking at Caerine, in Cassius’ arms.
“The kids saw it and read it.”
“Oh, no wonder.”
Erica, who was looking at Caerine, was seen putting her index finger on her lips as if to be quiet in front of Yssius.
Nodding his head, Yssius moved toward the cheek of Caerine, who was asleep in Cassius’s arms, kissed her and ran toward me.
I held Yssius in my arms, who smiled brightly as I opened my arms.
“Mom, I think Kael is sleepy.”
“It’s because Kael is still young. That’s what Yssi did when Yssi was a kid.”
I said, tidying up Yssius’s dishevelled bangs.
Yssius smiled at me and started talking again looking at Eugene, Astra, and Rachel.
“My mother, she’s the Red Eye Archmage!”
I thought I had gotten used to it to some extent, but when Yssius mentioned the nickname again in front of my other colleagues except Erica, my face slowly began to heat up.
“That means my mother is a mighty wizard with red eyes. My mother knows how to use water, soil and air, not only fire!”
Astra managed to hold back her laughter, and Eugene hardened again into an ice sculpture.
Only Rachel clapped her hands and greeted Yssius.
“Wow, that’s really cool.”
“Yes!”
“Yeah, seriously, I’m so jealous of Yssius’s mother.”
In Rachel’s response, Yssius glowed his eyes and dyed his cheeks red.
At a glance, it seemed very exciting.
“Yes, I think it’s a wonderful nickname.”
Astra stepped in and said.
“I wish someone would call me the Blue-Eyed Archmage.”
The first person to respond to Astra’s silly jokes while stretching was surprisingly Eugene.
“No.”
Astra exclaimed in disarray at the immediate response.
“What, why? Even so, are you looking down on me?”
Then Eugene answered in a quiet voice to turn his head.
“If it’s that, you overlap with me.”
“Wow, I didn’t see it like that, but mine is surprisingly weak.”
Astra said with a dumb face.
Listening to the conversation next to me, I couldn’t stand it and laughed out loud.
“Then Astra is The Red Hair Archmage.”
“Well, that’s good, but it overlaps with you, Yerine, but it’s only one letter apart.”
Eugene refuted Astra’s comments again.
“That’s the same for The Blue Eyed Archmage.”
Yssius, who was watching the two fighting, asked with a face that he did not understand.
“Mom, what’s wrong with those two?”
“Yeah, that’s the way it is, it’s kind of like Dad making fun of Yssi and Kael.”
“Oh, I see.”
Yssius, convinced at once, rolled his transparent purple eyes and said.
“Mom, what is blue……?”
“Oh, it’s like blue but different blue.”
(T/N: they’ve been using a different term of blue but it’s blue anyway)
Of course, Astra was closer to sky blue than normal blue.
“Do they want to be Archmages too?”
Yssius seems to have been curious about Astra’s words that she hoped someone would call her The Blue Eyed Archmage.
I patted Yssius’s head looking at me and answered him.
“No, they’re already Archmages.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yeah.”
Hugging Yssius tightly in my arms, I said.
“Yssi too will be called that if you practice a lot while growing up.”
“Really?”
Yssius grabbed my arm and asked back in an excited voice.
“Can I be called The Archmage too?”
Glittering purple eyes were directed at me.
It was a colour that looked just like my right eye.
I thought I must have had those eyes when I first learned magic.
“Yeah.”
I replied with a calm smile.
“Yssi too could be called The Purple Eyed Archmage.”
After a while, Yssius looked back at me and asked.
“Purple Eyed?”
“Yeah. Because you have purple eyes.”
“Oh… yes!”
I kissed Yssius’s head lightly when he answered vigorously.
***
It was when Yerine and Cassius were eating with their colleagues.
Yssius was reading a fairy tale next to Caerine, who woke up and went to the playroom together.
The siblings, who used to play with toys or playhouse, as usual, started painting.
‘The Purple Eyed Archmage…….’
It seemed that the Archmage was a nickname only for a super-strong man like his mother.
Therefore, Yssius was grateful to his mother for telling him that he could become The Purple Eyed Archmage.
But there was still regret in the corner of his mind.
‘But I still prefer The Red Eyed Archmage.’
Yssius puffed up his cheeks and looked at the painting by Caerine.
A sigh came out of Yssius’s mouth when he saw his mother’s red eyes in the painting.
‘I want to do the same thing as my mom.’
Is there anyone who can teach me how to get the same red eyes as my mom?
Yssius, who was stroking Kaelin’s head, thought to himself.
“My Prince, My Princess.”
Yssius and Caerine, who were drawing on a large piece of paper at the sound of opening the door of the playroom, turned their heads.
“Please have some snacks.”
Yssius raised himself at the appearance of a kindly smiling nanny.
“Kael, let’s wash your hands with Oppa.”
“Yes.”
Caerine’s right hand, nodding, was full of purple dye.
Thinking it would be because she drew her mother so many times on the corner of the paper, Yssius thoroughly washed his sister’s hands and washed his hands before returning to the playroom.
“Today’s snack is delicious strawberries.”
Strawberries, cut into small pieces, were placed on a small golden plate.
On a slightly larger plate next to it were arranged pieces of strawberry cut in half.
“Come on, Princess. Ah.”
At the nanny’s words, Caerine opened her submissive little mouth.
Yssius, who was dipping the half-cut strawberries with a blunt fork, gazed at the scene.
“Nanny, can I feed Kael?”
“No, my prince.”
“Why…?”
The nanny answered, wiping Caerine’s mouth, who chews strawberries.
“Then my Prince won’t be able to eat properly because my Prince would only care about The Princess.”
At the nanny’s words, Yssius picked up the fork with a drooping face.
As the nanny said, Yssius intended to feed Caerine first and later eat his share.
“If you empty your plate first, then that’s fine.”
Upon hearing that, Yssius began to eat strawberries in a combative manner.
“But don’t eat too fast.”
Yssius, who had a bunch of strawberries in his mouth, lowered his eyebrows and said.
“That’s too much, Nanny.”
Then, someone knocked on the door outside.
“Nanny, there’s something you need to see!”
At the voice of another user from outside, the nanny cleared the tableware for Caerine and turned her head.
“My Prince and My Princess. I’ll be right back, so please wait. And My Prince, I’m so sorry, but could you take care of The Princess for a second?”
“Yes, nanny. See you!”
The nanny left in a hurry, and only brother and sister remained in the playroom again.
And Yssius, who still couldn’t give up his hopes of becoming The Red Eye Archmage, was inadvertently again drawn to the same agony.
Caerine, who knew nothing, was already putting her finger in her strawberry dish in that short time.
“Oh, Kael, you can’t mess with food.”
“Can not?”
“Yes, you can’t.”
She was the prettiest little sister in the world, but things that shouldn’t be done are things that must not be done.
Yssius took a handkerchief out of his pocket and skillfully rubbed Caerine’s fingers, which were dripping with red nectar.
“Now, it’s clean.”
“Clean, clean.”
Then Yssius, who was trying to fold the handkerchief back without thinking, paused.
‘Red…….’
A clear red stain on the white handkerchief caught his eye.
“This is it.”
As Yssius looked at the red stain, Yssius’ eyes began to sparkle.