episode_0028

Even if I don’t say anything else, I was quite embarrassed.

Join, whose cheeks were pink and soft as freshly made glutinous rice cakes, wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Seeing that gesture that made me feel somewhat regretful, I took out another mooncake from my arms and held it out.

“Would you like one more?”

“···It is done.”

Two of them were rejected mercilessly, perhaps because he thought they were not good enough.

“Anyway, if you’re really that concerned, why not ask me straight.”

“Yes? Is today the day you leave?”

“There is a saying that when you think it’s too late, it’s the fastest time.”

“If you feel like it’s late, it’s just late, right?”

“Hmm, so what do you think? Sister.”

sister?

Now I see that Jo In was not looking at me. At first glance, it seemed like her eyes were on me, but the girl’s sky-blue eyes were looking over my shoulder, not at me.

Suddenly, I turned my head, which felt stiff as if I had rusted, and followed the direction Jo In was looking at, and what caught my eye was Jo Jo, dressed up beautifully for today.

However, what caught my attention even more than those things was the expression on Jojo’s face.

A very charming expression for a child who is only eight years old.

Jojo, who had something like that on his face, was looking at me and grinning.

“Were you that upset about that? So much so that I can’t even concentrate on training?”

“···What do you say.”

“Hmm, that’s right. I was disappointed.”

Don’t use strange voices that don’t suit the kid’s theme.

“Are you busy? Today is the day we leave for Luoyang.”

“No matter how busy you are, you still have time to say hello to Master.”

···I am?

I was a little embarrassed to ask him outright, so I asked him that question with my face and eyes instead of my voice, but Jojo just smiled and smiled. Then it turned around and started heading somewhere.

He moved after Jojo. It was an action that came out without me knowing. Whether he knew it or not, Jojo was busy wandering around our house as if it were his own.

Starting from my room to my laboratory and hideout located in the backyard.

Jojo, who had been looking carefully at all the scenery as if he had taken a camera into his head without me knowing, finally stood at the entrance to the manor. Like I really have to go now.

“Thank you so much. Master and wife.”

“Yes, you are a bright child. Even if you go to Luoyang, if you do not neglect to sharpen yourself, no one will be able to look down on you.”

“I will engrave the advice you gave me and look into it at all times.”

Jojo didn’t say a word to me until I greeted my father, mother, and even my maid, So-ah. Behind Jojo, there was a carriage that had come to pick her up.

You really don’t plan on leaving without saying hello to me, do you? Did I do something wrong?

It must have been a moment when I was frowning slightly at the kind of thoughts that had suddenly filled my head.

Jojo, who had finished greeting So-ah by saying that she had been through a lot because of him and turned towards the carriage standing behind him, turned around as if he had never done that before and quickly narrowed the distance between them.

“I won’t say hello to you.”

The scent of an unknown flower came to me.

“If you say ‘goodbye’, it feels like we’re breaking up forever.”

The voice whispering in my ear… was trembling slightly but uneasily. It was as if he was pressing something and holding it in.

“···If anyone sees it, they will think that you are going very far.”

” Luoyang is far enough away from the defeated country, you idiot. ”

“Still, it’s worth exchanging and receiving letters.”

The Yoonga Trading Company run by my family also supplies paper directly to Luoyang. I told them to take one more sheet with them while they were on their way to deliver it.

“When you arrive in Luoyang, send a letter first. Because I’ll be waiting.”

“···Yes.”

“If you don’t reply right away, I will come looking for you, so I know that.”

I leaned back slightly and stroked Jojo’s head, whose eyes had suddenly turned glassy. Did what he was barely able to endure under my touch finally explode?

“Definitely…! I will definitely come back to see you again…!”

Jojo declared, or rather made a promise, with his head down, as if he didn’t want me to see his messed up face.

“···Okay, I’ll be waiting.”

So I stood silently in front of the entrance to the manor and watched the carriage carrying Cao Cao moving away.

Before I knew it, I pressed the skip button that had started to flicker before my eyes.

Just like that, I went from 5 years old to 20 years old.

*****

184

It’s a pretty important time.

That’s because it’s a year where a lot of things happen.

What’s more important than that is that I’ve finally become an adult.

If this were really the world of the Three Kingdoms, I would have already been recognized as an adult about 5 years ago without having to wait until I was 20, but maybe that’s because it’s a world based on a drama that’s more of a secondary creation than a real one. They say you have to be over 20 to be recognized as an adult.

“I am so touched that you, who were so small, have become such a constitutional charter.”

“Now, if you find a true lover and marry her, there will be nothing more you can wish for…”

“Haha…”

Is it because it was the New Year when the skip ended?

There were so many places looking for me. Thanks to this, I had to go out in the morning and wander around frantically until evening, suffering from things I didn’t know whether they were compliments or nagging.

Nevertheless, no one felt any sense of discomfort or awkwardness from me… and the reason was simple.

I don’t know if it was because it was only 5 years, but unlike the last time where there was nothing special, in this case, it was 15 years, so the events that happened during those 15 years unfolded like a panorama before my eyes as I waited for the skip to end. .

The things I saw that way are still vivid in my mind, and even though I skipped over 15 years, there was nothing awkward about it, as if I had actually lived that time.

“Disciple.”

“Ah, join.”

“···I said it. It’s not Join, it’s Master.”

In a way, it was the same when dealing with Jo-in, the person with whom I spent the most time over the past 15 years.

“It looks like you stopped by the kitchen on your way there. There was moon cake powder on my lips.”

“Ah…!”

“Nong.”

After saying that and smiling lightly, Jo-in realized that he had been tricked by me, his face turned red and he made a strange noise.

“Mmmmm…!”

“Are you in any way unwell? Your face is red today.”

“You can’t respect your teacher after becoming a disciple, but you end up making fun of him…!”

“Isn’t it because Master is so cute that I can’t get enough of him without teasing him?”

“Ji, are you making fun of this teacher?!”

“I said it was harassment, but I meant it sincerely.”

“Jeongmaal…! I had a good eye when I was this small, but I don’t know how I grew up to be such a naughty child…”

“I remember that there wasn’t much difference in height when we first met.”

After pausing for a moment, he took a long step forward and stood in front of Jo In.

“And now I’m much taller.”

“Wow…!”

In that way, as I realized the height difference again, I wonder if I was momentarily at a loss for words.

Or… I don’t know if it was because their stomachs were tightly attached to each other, but Jo-in’s already red face turned red even more and he hurriedly took a step back. It was like looking at a cat that was startled when it saw a person suddenly pop out.

The hair color was also orange, so it seemed like a cheese cat that was sure to be found in every neighborhood.

“So, why did you walk all the way to the disciple’s place on this late night?”

“So speaking like that is the problem!”

“I just told it like it is.”

Is there any lie in what I just said?

When I asked him directly, Jo-in kept his mouth shut as if asking when he had protested.

With the help of time, I was teasing Jo-in, who had grown from a seven-year-old child into a great woman. I thought it would be enough to move on to the main topic, so I took a break.

“So what are you holding in your hand?”

“Maybe because it was the New Year, my sister sent me another letter.”

“Ah.”

“Originally, I was going to deliver it during the day…”

I couldn’t tell you because I looked busy.

Jo In added briefly and held out the letter he was holding towards me.

I opened the seal of the letter I received and checked the contents written inside… but the only thing written inside, which did not match the fact that the outside was decorated with silk, was a single line of sentences that seemed to have been hastily scrawled.

『I’ll come see you soon.』