Chapter 25
A long-haired, handsome man with shining blond hair.
His skin was porcelain-white, and his lips were vividly red.
And that eye-smile—clean, gentle, the kind that could charm several people at once. Just looking at the softly curved corners of his eyes made me think—
‘Is he an angel?’
If he had wings, I would have believed it without question.
He smiled lightly.
Whoa.
An angel smile.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Uh… no.”
I couldn’t bring myself to focus properly.
Not because I was dazzled by his looks—absolutely not.
It was because his appearance felt wrong.
‘There’s no way a face like this didn’t appear in the original story!’
A man this ridiculously handsome made me uneasy.
The rules of romance fantasy were simple.
All major characters were beautiful.
Which meant that a man who made everyone around him look like squids by comparison was very likely to be a character from the original novel.
If that were true—
‘I need to be careful.’
There were all kinds of dangerous characters in this world.
Maybe because I suddenly felt anxious, my mouth opened before my brain could stop it.
“Uh—excuse me, sorry for asking this when we’ve just met, but… may I ask your name?”
“My… name?”
I waved my hands quickly when I saw his violet eyes widen.
What was I doing?
Asking a stranger’s name out of nowhere?
“Ah—no, never mind. That just slipped out. I’m fine, so you don’t need to worry.”
Blond hair and amethyst-colored eyes.
A rare combination.
If he had appeared in the original novel, I would have remembered him.
‘By the time Aksion grows up, he’d be middle-aged…’
A handsome middle-aged man, maybe?
But while there were handsome middle-aged men in the original story, none of them looked like this.
‘Then… an extra?’
With this face?
I stared at his impossibly handsome face in disbelief, then shook my head.
‘Yeah. Hard to believe, but he’s probably an extra.’
No matter how much I searched my memory, nothing came up.
Even Cillia’s past memories didn’t contain him.
So he probably wasn’t important.
“Hm. No—actually, I don’t know why, but I feel like I want to tell you my name.”
“…Huh?”
I stopped shaking my head at his sudden words.
He glanced at my messy hair and smiled faintly.
“My name is Morokanil.”
“Mo… rokanil?”
It sounded vaguely familiar, but no character from the novel came to mind.
“Yes. Morokanil. It’s a bit unusual for a man’s name, isn’t it? My mother liked wildflowers.”
“Ah…”
Wildflowers?
I quickly searched Cillia’s memories.
There was a wildflower called Morokanil on this continent.
‘It looks kind of like a dandelion.’
The flower that came to mind looked almost identical to a yellow dandelion.
“She named me that because my hair was yellow.”
He smiled brightly.
Light seemed to pour off his face.
Someone called that sparkling blond hair yellow?
I nodded awkwardly, wondering if his mother had trouble distinguishing colors.
“Oh… I see. Haha.”
“Then may I ask you something this time?”
“My name?”
Morokanil shook his head gently.
“No. What brings you to this shop?”
Huh? Not my name?
I had been preparing to say it nicely and failed mid-thought.
“Um… I came to buy something.”
“What kind of thing?”
Morokanil turned slightly, took a brown sheet of paper from the counter, and held a pen.
Like he was ready to write down my request.
“Well, I’m planning to farm. I need something that removes pests, affects plants as little as possible, and doesn’t harm people who eat the crops.”
“Ah, I see.”
Scratch, scratch.
He wrote down what I said, then folded the paper neatly and handed it to me.
He smiled softly as I took it.
“I’m afraid today’s first customer is also the last.”
First and last?
What did that mean?
“Huh? But isn’t the shop still open?”
“This shop operates strictly by reservation only. You won’t be able to get what you want today.”
“…!”
Reservation only?!
I didn’t know that!
“And if I remember correctly, reservations are booked about a year in advance…”
Gah!
I nearly tore my hair out in despair.
Seeing my reaction, Morokanil smiled reassuringly and pointed at the paper in my hand.
“Don’t worry. The next reservation is mine. You can take that spot.”
“…What?”
Wait.
What did he just say?
Morokanil gently took my hand holding the paper and guided me slightly closer.
One step closer to him.
“If you slip that paper under the door, the reservation will be complete. The shop owner is very particular and even remembers handwriting, so I wrote it for you.”
“N-no, that’s okay—”
No.
No, no, no.
That was not okay to refuse.
Pests were the ultimate enemy of rice farming!
I shut my mouth quickly and bowed deeply.
“Thank you so much!”
An angel.
An actual angel had appeared!
Screaming internally, I quickly slipped the paper under the door like he said.
A small note slid back out.
[Come back here in one month.]
“When you come then, the medicine you ordered will be waiting on the counter—just like this.”
“Ah…”
As he said, a square wooden board sat on the counter like a display stand, with a strange stone resting on top.
It must have been Morokanil’s order.
I nodded, then suddenly tilted my head.
Wait.
“Ah—then how do I pay?”
Tap. Tap.
Morokanil, who had been walking toward the door with his staff, stopped.
“Oh, that?”
He turned his head slightly, smiled, and continued walking.
“I already paid when I made the reservation, so you don’t need to worry.”
“W-wait—!”
“See you again, Lady Cillia Evanroar.”
“…!”
Bang.
The door closed.
I stood there like a statue, blinking.
‘What… was that?’
How did he know my name?
* * *
Who was that man?
With a serious expression, I lightly touched the stone inside my pocket.
Its hard surface pressed against the fabric.
It was the stone Morokanil—the dandelion angel—had left behind.
‘So careless.’
After radiating charm and disappearing, he had left his ordered stone behind.
The shop owner immediately closed the shop as soon as he left, so I hurriedly took the stone with me.
But Morokanil was already gone.
‘So the door closed, and I ended up bringing it with me.’
As I stood there seriously wondering what to do—
“You’re late.”
Dazhar, sitting across from me, growled.
I’d missed the time we agreed on while searching for Morokanil.
“I said I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it had gotten so late.”
“Hmph.”
He glared at me, then growled again.
“And you know… since I saved your life, shouldn’t there be a reward?”
“?”
When did you save my life?
I stared at him like he was talking nonsense.
He twisted his lips.
“You look at me like that sometimes.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m the lowest form of human.”
“Haha. What are you talking about?”
His intuition really was sharp.
Shame his personality was trash.
I smiled and waved it off.
He raised an eyebrow and spoke boldly.
“I’m hungry.”
“?”
“I said I’m hungry.”
“So?”
Then go eat, nearly escaped my mouth.
But remembering he was my in-law—and Cedric’s rumors about him—I calmed down.
That’s when Leon’s words came back to me.
‘Our lord has a strange condition. He can’t eat well—everything tastes bad.’
I also remembered how Dazhar had recently been hinting for rice meals.
Was he asking me to cook?
As I was thinking that, he muttered decisively.
“That white thing from before. There’s a problem with it. Other food tastes even worse now.”
“…I see.”
“So what are you going to do about it?”
This annoying in-law really knew how to ask nicely.
My eyebrow twitched.
Seriously, this guy—
Any pity I had vanished, replaced by something darker.
I smiled.
“When we get back, I’ll make you something.”
