CH 52

A scene of some kind of haze.

Where am I?

I’ll look around.

I was in a flower garden, surrounded by buildings made of stone bricks.

Probably a place that looks like the courtyard of some castle.

Such a beautiful flower garden, the girl who stands alone in the center of it lonely and lonely.

I slowly walk up to the girl.

Yes, I’ve been here before.

As I recall, I was an attendant at a previous meeting of the royal family by the surrounding countries.

Was it because we were the same age that I was brought in to play with the girl?

Eventually, the girl noticed me and ran up to me with a dazzling smile that made even the sun look inferior, swaying her lapis lazuli-colored hair tied in a side-tail.

“Rag!”

The girl calls me Rag.

Uh, that’s right. Did I tell her before that she should call me that?

Because all my close friends call it that way.

“Look. I’ve made friends with a new spirit again. ……”

Then she turns her left palm up and closes her eyes quickly.

Soon after, a lovely spirit clad in blue light popped out of her hand with a peacock.

“Nymph-chan, spirit of water.”.

She looks very happy to show me that spirit.

That hollow-eyed spirit was looking up at me very strangely.

She had shown me a spirit before, but I believe it was a wind spirit at the time.

I had never seen a spirit before, so I was very surprised.

“My goodness, Aerilusia-sama!”

I couldn’t help but yell that out loud.

Perhaps startled by this, the spirit named Nymph let out a cute little squeak and disappeared in her hands.

“Oh.”

I thought she’d lost it, but it was already too late.

I looked at her face fearfully, and she turned away with a mushy expression, her cheeks puffed out.

“Aerilusia-sama?”

I asked her again to check on her,s but he didn’t seem to be looking at me.

I regret that I did it.

“I told you to call me …….”

As I was thinking about what to do, she muttered something in a fading voice.

I told you to call me ……? Ah!

I remember when we met before, we decided to call each other by our first names.

Apparently, she wasn’t angry for me to surprise the spirit, but at me for not keeping that promise.

“No need a honorific for that…. And …… we’re friends, so ……”

And she says so shyly with a blush on her cheeks.

“No, I can’t do that.”

I hurried to shoot her down.

She is a princess of a country.

Even though I’m also a Marquess of Zweig, she’s royalty.

Even if I’m told to talk to such a person in an intimate manner, such a thing is not …… possible.

“Eh, …….”

Then she had tears in the corners of her eyes, as if to say she was shocked, and was about to cry.

“No, no, no, that’s not what I meant. ……”.

I was the first to notice her misunderstanding, and I hurriedly corrected her.

“I get it. We’re friends, right? So don’t be angry anymore, Lucy.”

Scratching my head I throw that at her and she stares into my eyes for a little while.

And then, when she slowly scrubbed his eyes, she smiled…

“Rag!”

A pale, sweet scent that rode the gentle breeze and caressed my cheeks.

I noticed that her face was right next to mine, and then the fact that she was holding me.

“Lu-, Lucy?”

“I like you!”

◇

“Rox-san? Rox-san?”

“Hmm?”

I slowly open my heavy eyelids.

In front of me is a girl with pale peach-colored hair.

Dream ……?

“You’re up at last. We’d better get ready.”

At the sound of her voice, I slowly lift my languid upper body.

And when I looked out the window, I could see that the sky was beginning to turn Akaneiro.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, you had to wake me up.”

“No problem, then I’ll go downstairs and ask for food to be prepared, so please come down when you’re done.

That’s all she told me, and then she left the room quickly.

I slowly got up from the floor and sat down on the bed.

“I missed …… that dream.”

It was a distant, distant memory.

I met her when she I was kid, when I was still happy.

She is no longer in this world now.

“Why am I dreaming about it now?”

The last time I saw her was when I was seven.

The following year she was swallowed up by the ravages of war and lost her life.

I cried all night when they told me that.

The number of times we saw each other was counted on one hand, but …….

But ……, because she was a very ……, very dear friend.

Maybe because “Lucy” may have resembled her.

I could see Lucy’s face in that horse that came up to me as soon as he spotted me.

That’s why when I was about to name her, her name popped into my head on the spur of the moment.

I thought I had already forgotten the name of my childhood friend.

“I must save her.”

Even if it is a non-life-threatening curse, it is certain that Lucy is being tormented.

For the sake of Lucy, who I couldn’t protect or save at that time, I’ll definitely save her this time.

I made up my mind and stood up.

“Wait for me at ……, Lucy!”

Not to anyone, I just mutter to the void.

I believe that these words, these thoughts, will reach her. ……