Chapter 3.
“This is why you shouldn’t give things to kids who do nothing but complain.”
“My birthday’s only a month apart from yours.”
“That’s a whole month, Cyril. Don’t put us on the same level.”
Adrienne gave him a warning with a completely unthreatening expression, inhaling softly, then turned away without hesitation.
“You’re not getting discharged anytime soon anyway.”
“Obviously.”
“Then you’ll keep being in danger.”
I’ll give it to you once you’re discharged.
Adrienne added quietly.
In other words, he was to spend the rest of his military service with that awful handkerchief.
“You don’t need to thank me. I know exactly how you feel.”
“Good thing I don’t have to know it twice.”
Without even listening to the rest, Adrienne started walking away. She waved her hand lazily, completely half-heartedly.
“Oh, Cyril.”
“What?”
“Don’t come in right after me. I don’t want to raise suspicion.”
She stopped briefly only to say something that outrageous.
Cyril shook his head, feeling a headache form out of nowhere.
As if he’d want to do that….
After Adrienne disappeared, Cyril quietly looked down at the two handkerchiefs.
Two years.
In exactly that amount of time, her embroidery skills had improved, at least somewhat.
And whatever the case, the feelings stitched into them had not changed.
That girl, who didn’t look it but was always consistently kind, had probably wanted to say just one thing.
Don’t get hurt.
Just that.
“Seriously, you haven’t changed at all.”
Cyril muttered under his breath.
Only then did it feel real that he had returned to ordinary life.
＊ ＊ ＊
“I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to say this, but honestly, I thought she wasn’t human. It’s embarrassing to say, but something like a fairy or a goddess. You know, that kind of thing.”
“That’s extremely inappropriate.”
“I apologize. That I would dare say such a thing about the lieutenant’s close friend….”
“That’s not what I meant.”
It was inappropriate to fairies or goddesses.
Cyril swallowed the rest of his words. Someone that blinded by infatuation wouldn’t hear it anyway.
“I never knew red hair could be so beautiful. And her eyes—I thought someone had put the ocean inside them. How can they sparkle like that…?”
The second son of Baron Langrde, a second lieutenant belonging to the 2nd Company of the 1st Brigade of the Special Operations Command, was clearly blinded.
His praise of Adrienne had gone so far that, if allowed to continue, it would soon reach the level of a goddess creation myth.
“That’s enough.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cyril might not know the exact details of Adrienne’s birth, but he did know she was a perfectly ordinary human.
Listening to absurd praise of his childhood friend was painful in itself.
In the end, Cyril shut his subordinate up with a single line.
“Second Lieutenant Langrde.”
“Yes! Lieutenant!”
Still, the chatterbox subordinate looked like he had plenty more to say. Cyril could have ignored him, but the eyes begging for a response were too earnest.
Receiving that kind of look from another man was deeply unpleasant.
With a sigh, Cyril gestured for him to speak.
“I heard the two of you have been friends for a very long time.”
“So?”
“I just can’t understand how you managed to stay just friends.”
Cyril slightly narrowed one eye, as if to say, “You’re not the one who should be confused here.”
“Isn’t that strange? If it were me, I would’ve fallen in love at first sight. With such a beautiful mademoiselle at your side, how could you remain just friends—”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“I’m not exaggerating. I mean it sincerely.”
About to dismiss it as flattery, Cyril instead stared at his subordinate.
Second Lieutenant Langrde met his gaze calmly, his face utterly devoid of falsehood.
Once Cyril realized the man was serious, his expression twisted completely.
“…Well, if she didn’t look like she does now when she was young, I could understand it.”
“Didn’t look… like what?”
“You know. Sometimes kids are ugly and then grow up completely different. If that were the case, then even I could—”
“She’s always looked like that.”
Cyril’s indifferent reply made the subordinate’s face change entirely.
The look he gave his superior was almost heretical, as if asking what on earth was wrong with him.
Not even ‘looked like,’ but ‘was made that way.’
How could he speak so carelessly about someone so beautiful?
The lieutenant genuinely could not understand his superior.
“At this point, all I can say is that everyone’s eyes are crooked.”
Cyril said only that, shaking his head.
The subordinate’s gaze grew even more impure, but Cyril was completely serious.
Why didn’t he like Adrienne de Casinel Blois romantically?
Cyril wanted to ask in return.
How could anyone possibly like Adrienne romantically?
And so, all of this began—
Thirteen years ago.
