episode_0119
by fnovelpia
The Imperial afternoon was truly spectacular.
Smiles bloomed on the faces of the citizens enjoying the festival.
The streets were filled with lively laughter and bustling noise.
The sword walked down the street with a saintess wearing a robe turned inside out.
The streets were filled with stalls celebrating Christmas Eve, and with Alana’s help, I bought a ton of souvenirs and some freshly made food.
Alana looked very excited as she hummed and sang along to the music played by the street band to liven things up.
“Knife, I think I’ve almost seen the whole system. Should I take you to the academy soon?”
She held Karl’s hand tightly and said.
She lifted the end of the robe with her slender fingers, revealing her pink eyes that were hidden by the robe to Karl.
Carl smiled and answered.
“Okay, let’s go. But Alana, you know you can’t hold hands like this at the Academy, right?”
“…Why? Anyway, since I’m covering up everything, no one will know who I am. ”
“Not you, me… I’m a famous person. Officially, I’m Chloe Deminus’s fiancée. And it’s also interfering with the mission.”
“That damn mission, mission, mission!”
Alana puffed out her cheeks.
Carl saw in her not the appearance of a noble saint, but rather the friendly appearance of a woman he had seen on an old colonial island.
“I’m sorry.”
Carl smiled awkwardly.
And then, swoosh, he held out some cotton candy.
“This is a bribe.”
“chi- Are you bribing a priest now?”
“Yeah, so please take care of it.”
“What?”
“Today. And when we dance later.”
Alana pulled her robe back up so that her cheeks, which had been puffed out with air, would not be seen blushing.
The implications of the word ‘dance’ hit me so hard.
At this point, it’s practically a confession.
Because it meant to be together with the flowers of the Christmas Eve Festival.
“You… I see what you’re doing……”
I answered quietly and took the cotton candy that Carl had given me.
The pink cotton candy, the exact same color as her eyes, was clumped up larger than her small face.
Alana, who had been staring at the cotton candy for a moment, opened her perky lips to take a bite of the cotton candy.
“…?”
Alana suddenly noticed a small child standing much lower than her eye level.
The shabby-looking child was looking at the cotton candy Alana was holding with shining eyes.
“Hello, kid, do you want some cotton candy?”
She bent her knees and faced the child.
Nod nod-
“What about your family?”
Jjere jjere-
“Then are you alone?”
The child shook his head again and stretched out his hand to point somewhere.
There was a crowd of children running around.
Alana looked at the children’s shabby clothes with a loving and thoughtful expression.
“Are you out playing with your friends?”
When Alana asked, this time the child nodded.
It was sad to see the kids playing alone in the middle of the festival without any adults to guide them.
Judging by their behavior, I thought they might be children from an orphanage.
Alana took the child’s hand and walked towards where the child’s friends were.
She held a piece of pink cotton candy in her hand and began cutting it into pieces and handing it out to the children.
The children expressed their thanks in innocent voices to Alana, who handed out cotton candy with a warm face.
“Thank you!”
Some children happily ran down the street holding pieces of cotton candy, while others quietly walked away to share them with their friends.
Alana smiled awkwardly as she watched the cotton candy disappear in an instant.
Because there wasn’t enough to share with the children.
At that moment, Alana’s eyes began to fill with colorful cotton candy.
“Guys, call all your friends.”
“Knife?”
Carl appeared holding a handful of cotton candy sticks in each hand.
Alana had quickly bought some cotton candy while she was walking to the kids.
“This reminds me of the old days, right?”
“……”
Mung-mung-mung- A smiling knife was seen through the threads of cotton candy.
Alana could only stand there blankly for a moment, admiring his innocent smile.
Carl was surrounded by children, affectionately handing out cotton candy.
“Yeah, it really feels like I’m back in the old days.”
Alana muttered indifferently as she looked at the sight of the sword, but inside she was completely lost in thought.
She smiled as she recalled the days when they played together in the colonial orphanage.
The sound of children’s laughter is heard mixed with the music of the orchestra.
Saint Alana now looked at the street scene as a woman, not as a servant of God.
She wanted to continue to savor these little moments, these moments when an infinite spring of happiness welled up.
I knew it was an impossible wish, but I didn’t care.
*
Alana walked through the academy with a brisk stride.
The Academy during Christmas Eve is different than usual.
The school grounds, once closed to academy students, are now open to visitors.
Not only the citizens of the islands but also various people gathered to see the academy, which was like the heart of the continent.
Students were demonstrating extracurricular activities and events prepared by their clubs and classes.
They showed off their cooking skills that they had honed as a hobby, created magical tools that caught people’s attention, and even sold products of alchemy such as perfumes and magic potions.
Alana, with her features hidden by her flowing robes, walked around the academy, keeping a little distance from the sword, unlike outside.
When students occasionally approached Carl and asked about Alana’s true identity, Carl introduced her as his “distant cousin.”
Alana was a little sad about it, but she decided to accept it as inevitable since it was obvious what would happen if she, the saint, revealed herself.
As Alana walked through the middle of the academy with her backpack on her back, a stall caught her eye.
[Pure magic for a fresher juice!]
The stalls were filled with all kinds of fruits and vegetables.
There were also students holding wands and scrolls and casting spells.
They were literally grinding the ingredients together using various gravity and wind magic.
Alana approached the stall out of curiosity.
“Knife! I want to drink this.”
Then he motioned to Karl to come quickly.
As Carl walked slowly, a ponytailed girl standing at the stall greeted Alana.
“Welcome~ Your voice is really pretty. Then! How about a glass of kale juice, which is good for your skin?”
I don’t know what alternative voices and skin care have to do with anything, but Alana smiled broadly and asked for two drinks to share with Carl.
Then, the ponytailed schoolgirl gathered the materials together and casted magic with a serious expression.
Wind cutter.
Gravity.
Her magic ground and squeezed the ingredients.
Carl and Alana watched blankly as the drink was being made.
The sight of pure mana creating juice without any magic tools was both new and amazing.
On the other hand, I thought it was amazing how they could delicately control those strange and destructive magics to make juice.
“Ta-da! It’s done… gasp.”
The student who was about to hand me two glasses of juice with a smile on his face was shocked.
She looked at the knife with wide eyes.
Her brown hair, braided into a ponytail, sways.
Carl greeted me with an embarrassed expression.
“Nice to meet you too, Leticia.”
Leticia looked at the knife for a long time, then turned her gaze to Alana, who was wearing a robe.
I couldn’t tell who it was because the face was completely covered, but it was clearly a woman.
Finally, Leticia sighed and handed the juice to both of them.
“Be careful. This guy is a womanizer.”
“……”
She was confident that Karl would enjoy the festivities with Beatrice, but she couldn’t hide her disappointment when he brought another woman with him.
Carl quickly tilted his head and left the place, taking Alana with him as she looked embarrassed.
As we moved away from Leticia’s stall, Alana asked.
“Who is that kid? Do you know him?”
“Ah, Beatrice’s roommate. We just know each other.”
Alana frowned slightly as she took a sip of her juice.
“…again! Beatrice…”
She was reminded of a black-haired noble lady.
I think of a woman who was very elegant and dignified, but whose waist was thin but her butt was so big that it was annoying.
“Don’t worry about it. She’s probably just guessing things between me and Beatrice.”
Alana was about to get grumpy.
Of course, it’s obvious that the kid is thinking that way because the knife left room for it.
But I didn’t want to spoil the fun, festive atmosphere.
“I’ll let it go because the juice is delicious. That kid’s pretty good, huh?”
“Because you’re a second-class wizard. The fact that you entered the Imperial Academy is proof of your competence.”
“Then how great are you, a first class knight?”
“Are you curious?”
“Yeah!”
Alana’s eyes lit up as she tugged at Carl’s sleeve.
“Are there any events for the College of Journalism? Like a body showoff contest?! I’d like to see you participate in that.”
“…Alana.”
She unconsciously expressed her desire.
Because I was really curious about the physical beauty of the sword.
“Well, there will be a swordsmanship demonstration by a few first class members, including Chloe. Oh, and I heard there will be a horseback riding experience too.”
“Horseback riding?”
“Yeah, you can just go to the Academy Riding Club.”
“Kal, are you good at horse riding too?”
“First of all, since it’s first class, I know how to ride it to some extent.”
Alana said, taking a step forward.
“Then let’s go!”
“Alana, are you okay? I know you only chose polite words, but you’ve never ridden one before, right?”
“Of course it’s not okay! That’s why I’m going to ride with you, Carl.”
“What?”
“You have to hold on tight to me and ride from behind… Otherwise I might get scared and fall over.”
Karl was embarrassed by the bold suggestion.
Riding on the same horse and sitting in front and behind each other creates a very romantic atmosphere and is bound to create moments of connection.
The pose of holding the reins with your hand between your waists feels difficult to challenge unless you are fairly close.
That is why it was also a useful method for dating couples.
There must be many eyes watching, but Carl couldn’t disappoint the excited Alana, so he answered with an awkward smile.
“I’ll hold you tight so you don’t fall.”
“Ah, I might have gained some weight around my waist because I ate a lot today… My waist is usually thinner—”
“Okay, okay. Alana, I know you have a small waist. So don’t worry.”
It was cute to see Alana blushing as she felt her waist.
It seemed absurd that someone with such a perfect body would worry about gaining weight.
I thought it was nothing to worry about.
But Alana had something to be wary of and compare herself to, so she rubbed her waist and reminisced.
The smooth, soft curve of Beatrice’s waist that I had seen while changing her clothes at the Manor Mansion had felt threatening.
The woman’s intuition made her uneasy.
Jealousy welled up in me.
Because he had no idea how this noble young lady could have captured Karl’s heart without Alana seeing it, or what kind of relationship they had.
He was equally uneasy when Carl said that he had only treated it as a mission and that he would never see it again.
Alana quickly smiled so that Carl wouldn’t notice her worried expression.
“Then, will you take the lead? My knight.”
“Of course, Lady Alana.”
The sword clashed as he looked at Alana’s face, which seemed to be flowing with light.
The two began walking towards the riding arena.
Then he saw a group of students passing by in the distance. Alana, who was humming as she walked, didn’t notice it, but Carl’s gaze was momentarily stolen by the group.
‘Beatrice…’
Beatrice was there.
I was walking down the street with my fellow student council members, wearing the student council’s symbol, a blue sash, around my arm.
They each had their hands full of promotional materials for the Christmas Eve festival and were handing them out to people.
Beatrice, who was mixed in with the crowd, seemed distant. But it was no longer a situation where I could care about her anyway.
Beatrice straightened her back and the uniform suited her very well. She turned her head and met Karl’s eyes.
From a considerable distance away, the two stared at each other for a while.
The two stared blankly at each other without any change in expression, then turned their heads at the same time as if they had made a promise.
“Knife! Come quickly~”
Alana, who had been walking ahead, noticed that Carl had fallen behind and shouted.
“Ah, okay! I’ll go.”
The knife went straight towards Alana.
Beatrice looked back at Karl again, then confirmed that he was gone and slipped back into the student council group.
So the two went their separate ways, following different paths.
0 Comments