Chapter 129

“Next.”

When one person started, the others also rushed to confess their wrongdoings. But their insolent tone and rebellious eyes remained.

‘Have they never learned how to apologize in their whole lives?’

I clicked my tongue inwardly and turned to Palos.

“What do you think?”

“Do you have to forgive them?”

“Of course not. Do whatever you want.”

“Then I won’t. They harass everyone in the class who seems a bit younger than them, not just me.”

Palos spoke with a cold, hardened face, just like when I had secretly watched him.

To make this kind-hearted child so angry.

I indifferently asked the staff member.

“Did you hear that?”

“You ask a child such a thing?”

“That’s up to the creditor.”

The staff member’s face turned red and blue, and he finally exploded in anger.

“Didn’t you say you would write off the debt if we apologized!”

“I said I would think about it, I never gave a definite answer. And you haven’t even apologized.”

They say a person has no regard for anything when they’re angry.

He reached for my neck with a rough gesture, but he had to stop without a second’s allowance, feeling the sword at his throat.

I snorted.

“It seems you’re not angry enough, seeing as you value your life.”

However, I didn’t expect a student, who was truly enraged at his subjugated state, to cast magic on me.

Bang!

Palos, who was by my side, blocked it immediately.

“I told you not to underestimate a minor.”

“I apologize, milady.”

After speaking sternly to Clidane, I shook my head at the person who attacked me.

“If your family is in trouble, you should be thinking about becoming a wizard a year sooner, not attacking me? I thought you were rotten to the core, but you never fail to disappoint.”

This was enough.

I took Palos’s hand and turned away. The sounds of them resisting being dragged away by the knights grew distant.

“Are you okay, sister?”

“Of course. You cast the magic before I even had to react.”

But Palos wouldn’t stop worrying, so I was only released after showing him some fire juggling.

* * *

The Third Prince Esadien disappeared.

However, Minuelle, as if she hadn’t been affected at all, stayed quietly in her room, neither angry, disappointed, nor sad.

Her unexpected reaction made her family feel like they were walking on thin ice.

After a few days of this, Minuelle, who had suddenly gone out, returned after clearing all her buried debts.

As if that was the start, the days she was away from home gradually increased.

‘Where on earth is she going and what is she doing?’

But today, Minuelle was sitting on the terrace for the first time in a while, enjoying the still pale sunlight.

In the end, it was Ramande who sought her out first.

The moment he was about to knock on the glass door of the terrace, Esadien’s voice flashed through his mind.

‘I believed your words were sincere.’

It was a time when he had shut himself in his room out of jealousy for Esadien, who had stubbornly taken Minuelle’s side.

Ramande had openly expressed his frustration to him, who had broken down the doorknob and entered.

‘What are you talking about? Leave.’

‘Didn’t you say you would be there for Minuelle, no matter who she met or who she loved? But look at you now.’

‘…’

‘I respected you, Priest, for your convictions.’

‘I am a person too. Am I not allowed to express myself?’

‘I seized the opportunity before you let it go.’

Yes, so he tried to go back to being a good friend.

‘But… now that the Prince is gone.’

He shook his head, but the thought wouldn’t leave him.

In the end, Ramande knocked and went out onto the terrace.

“Ramande!”

“Minuelle, are you okay?”

“Huh? What about?”

Minuelle seemed to be in a very good mood today. As soon as Ramande sat down beside her, a warm warmth wafted towards him.

“You’ve seemed busy lately. I heard about the debts.”

“You only get one chance in life, and I gave them too many.”

Chewing on a mango and waving her fork in the air, she showed no hint of a shadow.

He wanted to just drop the subject of Esadien and never bring it up again, but Ramande didn’t.

“I mean… are you okay with the Third Prince disappearing?”

“Ah.”

He had steeled himself to ask, but Minuelle’s answer was fresh. No, the smile on her lips seemed to have deepened.

“I’m fine. He’ll come back. I’ve started tracking his movements, you know.”

She had not only deployed the Emperor’s investigators but also her father’s people. No matter how big the world was, there was nowhere for Esadien to hide.

‘He didn’t take a drug like last time. If he’s in human form, there’s no way we can’t find him.’

Besides, hadn’t she declared war?

That if he ran away secretly, she would find him even if she had to send people to the ends of the continent.

‘First, the priority is to find him. Then, I need to watch over him until the ointment is complete.’

She was trying to think as positively as possible, but she had a good feeling. As Minuelle hummed again, the transparent blue stones on her wrist clattered.

Seeing that bracelet, and the ring sparkling on her fourth finger, Ramande’s expression fell slightly.

“You’re going to wait? Until when?”

“Hmm… if he doesn’t come back by the time my preparations are finished, then I’ll have to go get him.”

“Preparations?”

To Ramande, who was bewildered by this new information, Minuelle explained calmly.

“An ointment that works on scars that even divine power can’t erase. I’m going to make that.”

“So… that’s why you’ve been going out so often lately.”

“That’s right.”

Minuelle smiled brightly. She casually brushed over the fact that she was being relentlessly hassled by Brassidas, trying to get everything done before the team was fully formed.

‘Just thinking about it makes me tired.’

“Actually, I was going to tell you when it was all done. As with anything, especially medicine, there will be countless failures.”

Minuelle chose that path without hesitation.

She had been charmed by Esadien’s beauty, but she loved the person, not the face. Besides, it was a scar caused by her, so she wouldn’t be put off by it.

However, if it was an obstacle preventing him from returning, she was prepared to invest everything to eliminate it.

“Well… while the medicine is being made, I also have to send Gabbie and the Spirit Stone back to their original places. I’m so busy that I don’t even have time to resent Esadien. It’s better to just remember the good times.”

The sight of the rigid Esadien gradually melting. The way he acted cute in his form as El. The way he said he loved her.

Minuelle’s smile, as she recalled him, became a little warmer and softer. Witnessing that change clearly, Ramande’s voice finally trembled.

“You… love him that much?”

The weight was different from when he had asked ‘Do you like the Prince that much?’ in the past, and Minuelle’s expression also became serious.

“Yes. I love him.”

“…”

“And I believe in him. That he can’t live without me.”

“…Why?”

“Because even after I pushed him away like that, he kept coming back to me.”

Because he said the place beside me was his.

Minuelle’s eyebrows, nose, and lips shone so brightly as she answered that Ramande could not look at her directly.

But his averted gaze was only for a moment, and his eyes returned to Minuelle. And as if enchanted, his lips moved.

“I said I would be your support, Minuelle.”

“You did.”

Hearing the answer, Ramande stood up.

“Where are you going?”

Ramande, who knew Minuelle would also stand up, immediately pulled her arm and embraced her.

“What’s wrong. Is something the matter?”

Minuelle didn’t find it strange and hugged Ramande back, patting him on the back with her hands to comfort him.

That naturalness clearly defined the distance between the two of them.

Closer and more comfortable than anyone, but also, for that very reason, a relationship that could never get any closer.

Ramande found it both unbearably wonderful and terribly awful. His face, resting on Minuelle’s shoulder, was distorted with anguish and sadness.

‘I… can’t.’

Ramande realized. His resolution was nothing short of arrogance.

The reason he had thought it would be okay for Minuelle to love someone else and form a family was that until then, she hadn’t had such a person.

Hadn’t Minuelle just said it? That you only get one chance in life.

When she had briefly separated from the Third Prince and contracted with a spirit, Ramande’s chance had briefly lingered and then disappeared.

“…Minuelle.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re my support too.”

“Oh. To hear you say that, I’m a little touched, you know?”

Hearing her words mixed with laughter, Ramande squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Can’t I be your only support?’

As if suppressing the words he really wanted to say.

“Honestly, I only have you.”

“Me too.”

Minuelle didn’t know that Ramande’s heart sank at her light answer. So she could say it with ease.

“You’re my lifesaver and closest friend, and you’ve been like both an older and a younger brother. There’s no one else like that for me.”

“…”

“And now, you’re really family.”

Ramande forced a laugh, his tear-filled eyes looking up at the sky.

“Haha. Yeah.”

He should have stopped here, but his lips stubbornly continued.

“So, if by any chance the Prince doesn’t return, Minuelle.”

“There’s no way he won’t…”

“Come to me.”

Minuelle’s eyes widened slightly at the abrupt words that cut off her denial.

“Come to you?”

“I’m planning on going back to Sermender soon.”

“Ah…”

Minuelle’s face clouded over a little. But that was it; she didn’t fuss and try to stop him like before.

“Are you really preparing to become the Archpriest?”

“…It’s not something that happens just because I want it to. I’m just content living as a regular priest.”

“You’re so kind-hearted, our Archpriest.”

Minuelle giggled and pulled on Ramande’s hand.

“Let’s go eat dinner. They said they’re grilling quails tonight.”

“Quails?”

“…”

“Minuelle?”

“Ah. If Esadien were here, he’d be nagging me to eat vegetables again.”

Seeing Minuelle, who was frowning but still looking happy, he couldn’t hear any other sounds.

‘I really can’t.’

I have to close the door on the time I loved.

‘But, Lord Plendena.’

If, by some miracle, you were to take pity on this servant and grant me another chance.

Then I would…