CH 112

“Let’s think we start this earlier. This is a day that will come someday anyway.”

Although I never thought about the imperial academy, this might be a faster method to dig into the aristocrats’ circumstances.

Instead of refuting me, he spoke to me after a silence.

“In the place I can’t see. In the place I can’t touch. Don’t get in danger alone.”

“Stop being stubborn. How can I do that when we can’t stick together all day?”

“I told you to call me, anytime. No matter what kind of situation it is.”

“I called you, you see? I called you the moment I was out of others’ gaze, you see?”

It wasn’t my responsibility that the pendant went interrupted.

Zen still looked dissatisfied, but he softened down.

My figure inside the turquoise pupil looked very small.

I looked vacantly at his eyes, then asked.

“When this ends, what will happen to us?”

“…”

I was just absorbed in reaching my purpose and goal, but for the first time, I was curious about the next.

Zen, who had been silent, suddenly asked.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“Can’t I?”

We were just sixteen.

I couldn’t really imagine what the future would look like.

Would I be able to find out everything I wanted to know?

Would I be able to do everything I wanted to do?

Or perhaps, when would we be able to finish all of this?

Even if I couldn’t achieve my goal despite devoting my whole life, I thought it would not be bad to draw the next after this ended.

“Why are you curious about that now?”

Zen slowly stuck his face close to mine.

In the distance enough to hear his breath, he continued,

“You have never been curious about that until now. But why…”

His lips moved but stopped.

His face was so close that it was hard to look at his expression.

I was curious what kind of expression Zen made while talking, but he then reached out and covered my eyes.

The low voice tickled my ears.

“Why are you suddenly curious about that now?”

“That…”

I felt like I would get scolded if I said I was just getting curious.

Should there be a reason?

If I had to say it, the prince made me reminisce about Zen’s childhood and he grew up this much, and we were still together with that promise we made in the past.

And the promise was still strong, but I didn’t know when I could achieve it?

Without giving me time to consider if I should say that, his hand that was covering my eyes disappeared.

Soon, a heavy body fell on me.

“Zen?”

Zenin Arcadia slept with an angelic face and fell into my arms.

It was a natural outcome because he was tired of mana depletion.

With all my might, I rolled and laid him on the bed, then I sat next to him.

“Why are you asking ‘why,’ what kind of foolish question is that?”

As I slowly put my hand off my chest, I could feel my heart beating fast.

It was fortunate that the room was dark.

Otherwise, my burning cheeks would show clearly.

Everything was bound to change.

Nothing would stay the same as ever.

Sadly, that is the truth.

***

I kept dozing off while sitting and somehow fell asleep, and when it was morning, I lay alone on the bed.

Dana, who had opened the window, nagged me.

“I told you to sleep early. You read a book again and slept late, no?”

“No, I just…”

It was because a big puppy visited me and stirred my heart as he liked, and then ran away.

If I said it like that, it was clear her nagging would double, so I shut my mouth tight.

Dana let out a long sigh and stared at me.

“Don’t you have anything you want to tell me?”

“…”

Did she find out?

Since she had been working as my exclusive maid for years, she might have realized the trace of Zen’s visit.

As I made up my mind to tell her the truth out of guilty feelings, the words said by her were beyond my expectation.

“I heard the prince slept all night while hugging a shovel. That has a relation with you, right, My Lady?”

“Huh?”

“He returned to his room with dirty feet as if he had done something, then he slept while hugging the shovel tight. As soon as he woke up in the morning, he cherished the pot he looked at.”

“…”

Dana sent a glance at the shovel on top of the table.

Today, there was a deep regret that I should have hidden it in the closet or in the drawer.

She tilted her head next to me, who was still drunk with drowsiness while hugging the blanket without saying anything.

Then, her hands that were tidying the drawer stopped, then she asked me.

“My Lady, did you pierce your ears?”

I saw a familiar red earring on her hand.

Ah.

The item I forgot about was in her hand.

As I stared at the dangling red earring, she asked me again.

“But why is it only one side? Where is the other one?”

“I lost it.”

“Then you should have thrown this.”

“No.”

I firmly replied to Dana and added.

“Just leave it there. I picked it to find its owner,”

“Who is the owner?”

“Someone I don’t know.”

She looked at me with a dumbfounded face at my calm answer, but I didn’t say anything more.

The earring held by the dead Trevor was an important clue.

It was also the sole trace he left now that his body was missing.

The fact that the knight order that swept around the forest to fight the beast couldn’t find his body meant that the mastermind who took his body was a step ahead of the elite knights in that location.

“Maybe there’s an insider.”

My head became complicated.