Chapter 84
Autumn glanced at a slightly drunk Randel and playfully lifted the corner of her mouth.
“Then let go of my hand.”
“No, I don’t want to.”
It was quite amusing to watch his slightly dazed, flushed face.
“Oh? Your words have gotten shorter again?”
“……”
Pok.
Autumn quietly stood on her tiptoes and poked Randel’s reddened cheek with her index finger.
Then, with a teasing tone, she spoke to him.
“Do you get drunk after just one glass?”
“…It’s probably better if you don’t touch me.”
“Why? What if I want to keep going?”
Autumn playfully jabbed his side repeatedly.
Randel then lifted her up in his arms.
“Eek—!”
He carried her tucked under his arm as he walked up the hill.
Autumn flailed her legs in the air.
“P-Put me down!”
“You should’ve listened to me from the start.”
His lips curved into a mischievous smile.
“Alright, alright! I surrender! I was wrong!”
After Autumn tapped his broad back a few times, she was finally able to stand firmly on the ground again.
“Just so you know, if you touch me again, no matter what you say, I’ll do whatever I want.”
Autumn nodded repeatedly while looking at him cutely as he warned her.
“Although… it feels like you’re a bit heavier than last time I lifted you…”
“You’re… excessively honest, aren’t you?”
Autumn quickly shot him a look filled with playful menace.
Then she tried to pull out the unfinished bottle of wine from Randel’s bag.
“From now on, if I want to ask something, I’ll make you take a sip of wine before I start talking.”
“That’s really unnecessary. I always intend to answer you honestly, no matter what.”
As they exchanged these childish words, keeping a delicate balance between them, they gradually drew closer.
“Is it here?”
They arrived at the spot Herson had suggested—a place good for watching the lanterns from afar.
Behind the villa they usually visited, midway along the path to the lake, there was a small hill overlooking the village.
Cozy and deserted, it felt a world apart from the noisy village festival.
Standing on the slightly uneven ground, they looked up.
The sky, filled with floating lanterns, was a breathtaking spectacle.
“…It’s beautiful.”
“Over here.”
He took a small mat out of his bag and laid it on the ground.
Then, patting the spot beside him, he gestured for her to sit.
‘He’s cute again.’
Autumn quietly sat beside him, resting her head on his shoulder, watching the rising lanterns.
Earlier, seeing them from the crowded festival was impressive, but sitting quietly together and seeing the distant orange specks was just as enchanting.
“Where do you think those lanterns will end up?”
“That’s a difficult question.”
Watching the countless wishes vanish into the sky, Autumn asked,
“Do you like open-ended conclusions?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then I’ll answer accordingly. Eventually, when their flames die out, they’ll shrink back and fall to the ground…”
“Ahhh—I didn’t want to hear that. I’m not listening!”
Autumn covered her ears as Randel babbled on in his slightly drunk state.
“By the way… speaking of endings, do you have a rough idea for the finale of this play?”
“…Probably.”
Recently, he had been working on the final parts of the play.
“But I’m still thinking about different ways to end it, so I haven’t put it on paper yet.”
She remembered him saying before that the script would only be finalized once he went to the capital.
‘I guess finishing the ending takes a bit more time.’
She wondered how Rosalind and William’s story would conclude.
Naturally, she hoped for a neatly wrapped-up happy ending, like the protagonists in his previous plays.
“…By the way, how do you always decide the endings of your stories?”
Autumn’s curiosity surfaced.
“When you start a story, don’t the protagonists’ endings seem so far away?”
Thinking about it, he probably faced the same dilemma each time he wrote a new play.
“If you don’t stop writing, eventually you find yourself close to the ending.”
He calmly placed his clasped hands on his knees as he spoke.
Autumn admired how effortlessly he said that.
“I see.”
In fact, when she first came to Rosewood, the protagonists’ fresh stories had already begun heading toward their conclusion.
‘It feels a bit sad that Rosalind’s story I’ve been rooting for is ending too.’
Autumn compared herself with Rosalind, the character she was playing, now approaching her story’s climax.
When she first received his script, she thought Rosalind, pursuing a goal with all her heart, resembled her.
But had she truly achieved that goal…?
Seeing how far Rosalind had come compared to her own life left a hollow feeling she couldn’t hide.
“I have to become capable enough to fulfill my role until the ending comes.”
Autumn murmured as she wrapped her arms around Randel’s knees.
“To be honest, I’ve been pretty anxious until now.”
“Why…?”
This was the story of Autumn, once a rural aspiring actress who hadn’t even stepped inside a theater.
“I started this path, but it feels like the end is always out of sight.”
She had big dreams and seemed to be putting in effort, but she felt she wasn’t moving forward.
“So… I wonder if I’ve been running forward blindly, unable to see the end…”
In the bustling capital of the Bluetum Empire, multiple new plays premiered every day.
Even at Gloria Theater, the biggest competitor to Austin Theater on Stinghill Street, three plays had already been staged this year alone.
“…And I worry whether, like Rosalind, I’ll ever have a shining ending too.”
And each year, new actors gained attention.
But Autumn hadn’t been able to do that.
“The same goes for you.”
Randel spoke confidently to the slightly exhausted Autumn.
“If you don’t stop dreaming, you’ll eventually reach the end, wherever it is.”
Unlike her, he was like a sturdy tree standing tall, unmoved.
A tree whose roots were so deep they were impossible to gauge.
“If the ending doesn’t satisfy you, then seek a new path. Until you find the ending you want. That’s a privilege your protagonist has.”
He smiled proudly at her.
“Then, before taking the next step, pause and take a look around.”
He continued, his voice firm and certain.
“I’ll surely be nearby. You won’t miss me. Your eyes, like those rising lanterns, will sparkle everywhere.”
“…You’re here today, just as you always are.”
Feeling restless, Autumn reached into Randel’s bag and took out the half-finished wine bottle from earlier.
She gulped it down.
Though the wine was not strong, drinking it straight made her a little dizzy.
“I envy that. You…”
She wasn’t sure what she would say to him next, but staying sober felt difficult.
Autumn didn’t forget to leave some wine for him as well.
“Here, just one more sip. I feel like you should too.”
