Chapter 57
“Ah… oh, really?”
Autumn felt an inexplicable twinge of guilt at his firm reply.
‘I don’t want to deceive you either.’
But there was nothing she could do about it.
“…I don’t like coffee either.”
After a long pause, Autumn muttered this quietly toward him.
But Randel replied immediately, as if her words didn’t even faze him.
“Perhaps even coffee would dislike you.”
“Are you really going to act so childish?”
Autumn crossed her arms and turned her head, as if to avoid him.
“Ah… I really dislike you.”
“I’m not particularly fond of myself either.”
“Then…”
Autumn swallowed hard.
“What about me?”
“……”
And then, as if he had been waiting for that question, he tilted his chin toward Autumn with one hand.
“Hmm…”
“W-what…”
Her eyes couldn’t stay focused in one place.
She tensed under Randel’s quiet, unwavering gaze.
Autumn clenched the fists she had been resting on her knees.
-Whoooosh-
The wind blew strongly again.
Autumn’s pink hair fluttered along with the soft cherry blossom petals.
“…I think… that means he likes you.”
Finally, his answer came through.
Autumn, feeling oddly tickled and unwilling to reveal it, lowered her eyes and poked at her empty plate with a fork.
‘This is the problem with him.’
She muttered to herself while gently adjusting the strands of hair that had fallen across her face.
“…Really, don’t play games.”
“It’s not a game.”
Her tangled pink hair showed no signs of untangling quickly.
Autumn continued brushing it away with a flustered look.
Seeing this, Randel chuckled softly.
“…Don’t laugh.”
Feeling hot, Autumn fanned herself repeatedly.
Still, Randel’s laughter wouldn’t stop, and she finally snapped aloud.
“Grrrrk.”
“Ah! I said don’t laugh!”
Pouting, Autumn quickly got up.
“Enough. Don’t follow me.”
-Tap tap tap tap-
He quietly watched Autumn’s retreating figure, muttering under his breath so only he could hear.
“What is it that you’ve come to like now?”
Randel found himself increasingly curious about the world she lived in.
‘Hello, what’s your name?’
‘……’
As if a boy in the past had once wondered about a girl who suddenly appeared in his world.
It was that day.
The very day he first met her, jumping out from the bushes.
“Have you wiped your nose? But… I’ve never seen you before. What’s your name?”
“……”
Yet young Randel couldn’t take his eyes off the girl.
He lowered his gaze at her question and remained silent.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to answer—he simply couldn’t.
“Don’t want to talk to me?”
“…Hic.”
“Tell me your name! It’s not that hard.”
For a while, he moved his place several times to avoid her.
Afraid she might tear the book he was reading, he held it carefully to his chest as he shifted.
Even so, she kept following him, and eventually, he looked at her with an exasperated gaze.
“Hmph, then I won’t tell you my name either. I’m leaving.”
“……!”
-Tap-
Reflexively, Randel grabbed the small hand of the girl who was about to leave.
“…Then, will you tell me your name?”
“Hic.”
He hesitated for a moment, then wrote a small name on her palm.
[William Acton]
He took the name of the male protagonist from the book he was reading and added a random surname. It sounded plausible.
But the girl squinted at him suspiciously.
“You didn’t just take the main character’s name from the book and slap on a random surname, did you?”
“Hic hic.”
Randel shook his small head vigorously.
‘She knows this book?’
It was quite a thick novel.
But secretly, he hid it behind him, not wanting her to peek.
The girl saw this and grinned.
“Alright, fine. I was surprised, so I’ll let it slide this time.”
“……”
Randel, having calmed down, stopped hiccupping.
Then the girl extended her hand toward him.
Randel remembered the scene that day.
“I’m Autumn.”
‘A lie.’
It was the perfect season for the name she had given herself.
It was a late autumn afternoon, with red leaves scattered all around where they sat.
It was obvious she had made up her name too.
“Shall we have a little discussion about that book? I think the heroine is really stupid.”
Since neither of them had revealed their real names, they decided to let it slide.
“But you really shouldn’t be wandering in here.”
-Flinch-
The girl said this, pretending to scold him while looking down seriously.
Startled, the boy quickly stood up.
But Autumn stuck out her tongue playfully.
“Actually, I snuck in too!”
“……!”
The brown-eyed boy stared wide-eyed at Autumn’s mischievous grin.
The girl, whose age and name he didn’t know, was taller and bolder than him.
‘S-so surprising.’
The small, lonely Randel thought that this girl could be his first true friend, and it wasn’t a bad thing.
The next day, Randel returned to the same spot.
“Oh? You’re here again.”
“……”
“You’re bored too, huh?”
Without a word, Randel hugged his knees tightly, only watching her cautiously as she sat beside him.
“I had a feeling you’d be here today too. Let’s meet here all the time. I don’t have any friends my age nearby.”
The girl smiled brightly.
Randel blushed and buried his face in his knees again, unaccustomed to seeing such a radiant smile.
About a week of secret meetings passed.
It was then that he first learned her identity from a neighbor woman working at Rosewood Manor.
“Our young lady is so young, yet so beautiful and smart. Her hair is the color of curled roses, and her eyes shine with a dazzling orange.”
‘That must be her.’
She was the only daughter of the Rosewood Count and Countess, owners of most of the estate.
Even knowing this, his treatment of her didn’t change.
‘It feels a bit unfair that I’m the only one who knows her name.’
He thought so, but no one aside from her nurse could know her identity yet.
“Do you want to play pretend theater with me?”
“……”
“But if we do, you have to follow the lines with me… are you going to stay silent again today?”
‘It’s not that I don’t want to talk… I can’t.’
The young Randel pointed to his mouth, mumbling.
Then the girl, realizing this, stammered apologetically.
“Oh… so you really can’t speak?”
Feeling sorry for having rushed him, she glanced at him nervously.
‘That’s fine.’
He was used to this kind of reaction.
Rather than anger, pity was far more humiliating.
“Then let’s do this.”
“……?”
The girl rested her arm on the young boy’s shoulder.
“Then you’ll be the prince trapped in the tower, silent as ever.”
“……!”
She pointed at herself and grinned.
“I’ll be the brave knight who rescues the prince.”
A lot of time passed.
Over ten years, they naturally drifted apart.
Randel returned to the capital, now well into adulthood.
He couldn’t be sure if she had grown as much as he had during that autumn.
“Ah, please, young master, just go out!”
“……”
Over time, he had stopped caring about the world altogether.
