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Yes, it's been a while. But finally the part I was looking for has come. Also, I wonder if the lord they mention in this part is someone we know...
(Part 6)
*Huff…huff…*
The two of us ran away until we reach Queens’ Hill to the southeast of Kings. We arrived to a place that had many more fields of luxurious gra.s.s than paved roads. The mysterious man and I threw ourselves on the green carpet of gra.s.s, panting.
At that alt.i.tude, the sky in front of my eyes seemed so close, the air was thin and I could feel the movement of the clouds on my skin. Relying on sheer physical prowess, we had arrived quite far. My heart was beating wildly, due to the effort.
When I tilted my head just a bit more, I could see close by the walls that enclosed the country and the flags with the royal crown fluttering in the wind, all upside-down.
“Hmm…ah…since we got this far, I guess I can relax.” From the halting way he spoke, the man was as out of breath as me.
“This is the first time I’ve come to Queens.”
“Is that so? So how does your first time feel?”
“Really tiring,” I said jokingly, laughing.
“That’s good,” he laughed as well.
Still lying down, I turned my head to the side and found him tilting his head in my direction, studying me.
“But this feels really nice, somehow.”
Truly, I’d been doing nothing but running; a whole day of rus.h.i.+ng back and forth, you could say. Since I don’t usually engage in that much physical activity, probably the next day I was going to ache all over. As long as it didn’t interfere with my job…
“You’re faster than you seem,” he said.
“Is that so? I don’t compare myself with other people all that often, so I wouldn’t know.”
“Yes, for a woman you’re really fast. The sight of you running with your skirt bunched up was the highlight of my day.”
I wasn’t really sure if he really meant it or he was pulling my leg, but he grabbed the hem of his coat and moved his legs to imitate me. However, since he was lying on the gra.s.s, it looked more like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Oh yeah, well, that meowing you tried to do when we were about to be found out, that wasn’t like the real thing at all!”
Upon hearing my retort, the man uttered his failed attempt at an escape maneuver again. “Meow!”
“Yes, that’s it! It doesn’t resemble the real thing at all!”
“Hmm, that might be true. But I think I can imitate a horse better than that.”
“Hehe, you can do a horse as well? Let me hear it.”
At this, the man swiftly rose and moved as if he was going to whirl around in circles with his hands imitating the front legs of a horse. “Hihi-“
“Ahahahaha! Neither sounds good!”
“Haha, how cruel.”
The trees rustled and the cool air made our hair flutter. It was the first time I had been able to chat like this with a man of my own age, and yet I was able to act normally, strangely enough. It was likely due to the man’s personality. At some point during our escape, I’d become unconcerned about the fact that I didn’t know his true ident.i.ty.
“Lucca, come here,” he called out to me as he approached a vantage point.
When I went after him as requested, a scenery I had never seen before spread out before me. “Wow!” I exclaimed out loud, surprised. The cityscape extended before my eyes, dyed in the colors of dusk, as if burning.
A scenery I had never seen…I say that, but since it was the city where I was living, it should’ve been something I was already tired of seeing every day. However, since I was looking at it from a great height, the town looked so different from usual as to warrant it to be called an unfamiliar scenery.
The sun sinking in the sea proclaimed the end of the day we called ‘today.’ At the same time, the marketplace, the castle, the open s.p.a.ces and private homes where we lived…in short, the country as a whole was dyed in crimson. Even the Forest of Death, a dark forest that extended outside of the kingdom’s walls, shone with a beautiful red hue.
“So lovely…” When faced with something truly pretty, people are left without words; I knew that well enough.
Dusk had also reached the heights of Queens’ Hill and so the man and I were also enveloped in its red glow.
“Indeed.” Perhaps due to the crimson light, he turned his gaze towards me. I cannot say whether he knew the feelings dwelling in my heart; however, he didn’t say anything further.
For a while, the both of us watched the beautiful scenery together. Slowly, I realized that I still didn’t know the man’s true ident.i.ty, not even his name.
“Hey, this is kind of sudden, but can I ask you something?”
When I transferred my gaze from the landscape to the man beside me and peeked at his face, he had his eyes closed, and seemed to be concentrating on something.
“Hey!” I said again, but he brought a finger to his lips and shushed me. I wanted to know what had caught his attention, so I imitated him and closed my eyes. When I did, I realized that I could hear music coming from somewhere nearby.
When I looked in the direction of the sound, I saw that in a field slightly distant from us, an old man had begun to practice with a small stringed instrument. He was playing a triple-time waltz, mixed with the sound of the swaying trees and gra.s.s. Suddenly, the rows of houses below seemed like the seats of a theater, burning red. Even I, who had never touched a musical instrument, could understand how pleasant it was to play music there at this hour.
“Nice, old man! Come, Lucca!”
I stared with widened eyes at the hand that abruptly appeared before me. In all likelihood, my mouth was half-open as well. Since I had absolutely no idea of what he wanted from me, I resorted to shaking his hand.
“Hahaha, what was that? No, I want us to dance.”
Changing the way he gripped my hand, he encircled my waist with his arm.
“Ah! Da-dance?!” Without thinking, I shouted.
Dance? Dance, he said?
In the romance novels Meyrin lent me, there were dance scenes at times, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to do the real thing; so I just had a general idea.
“N-no way! I’ve never danced in my life…”
“That’s okay. Everyone has their first time.”
“Th-that’s true, but…”
In contrast to my bewilderment, he began to turn around and around, looking as if he was having a great time. When he did, I had no choice but to move as well.
“1, 2, 3…1, 2, 3…that’s it, you’re doing great.”
“That’s not…”
At first I had to put all my energies in following his movements, then gradually I began to move my feet in time to the beat he was counting.
“1, 2, 3…then, turn…ta-dah!”
“T-ta-dah?!”
“Ow!” Caught by surprise by his enthusiastic yell, I lost my footing as I tried to bend my body. Consequently, I stepped on his foot with great force.
“I’m-I’m really sorry!” I apologized.
“Hahaha, this might be the most fun I’ve ever had in a dance, I think.” He nodded acknowledging my apology, looking deeply moved by the whole experience; once more, he took my hand and began to count the beat.
“You’re having fun… Even though I stepped on your foot?”
“Yeah. But am I having fun because you stepped on me? No, that can’t be it. That’s in no way something I would enjoy…”
“Hehe, you’re a weird one.”
Under the sky at sunset, completely dyed in crimson, we danced the waltz.
Back when I was running, I had difficulty breathing. But even though by then I should’ve calmed down, my heart began to pound hard inside my chest. For some reason, spending time with him gave me a very warm feeling; it even made me think I wanted to continue dancing with him forever.
If only there was a magic spell to stop time…
For the first time, I directed my thoughts towards such an impossible magic.
“Who are you? I was fearing you might be…A bad man?” As we danced, once again I tried to ask the question that remained unanswered.
“A bad man? Do I look like one?”
“No, not at all. But those soldiers were chasing after you.”
“That is true… Perhaps I did a bad thing.”
“Is that so…”
That confession so flippantly spoken saddened me. Yes, I did think before ‘his real ident.i.ty doesn’t matter’, but unsurprisingly, it was painful to hear the man admit that he was a villain.
Perhaps I should capture him and bring him back to the castle.
As that thought came to me, another image crossed my mind…Meyrin’s sad smile, as she said that a witch that reveals herself to a friend will be denounced by them and imprisoned. Without realizing what I was doing, I stopped moving my feet.
“What’s wrong?” He studied my worried expression.
In response, I shook my head weakly. I probably looked as if I was about to cry. “I’m sad because you’re a bad person. But you being bad shouldn’t be the sad part, I’m the one at fault here…” I attempted to explain what was on my mind, but the words reaching my ears sounded incomprehensible, even to myself.
“I’m sorry, it was just a bad joke. I’m not really proud of myself, but I swear that I’m no criminal.” He softly placed his hands on my shoulders and looked at me straight in the eye.
“So then, why were they chasing you?”
“I’m… My name is…” Just when he was going to finally answer my question, a figure came running towards us from afar.
“Hey! Hey!” It was the elderly man that was playing music moments ago. His voice became audible and grew in volume minute by minute as he came closer.
“Oh, so it was you. It’s quite unexpected, to see you in a place like this.” Once he reached us, the old man spoke in an affectionate tone after facing my companion, who still had his hands on my shoulders.
“Ah, Jacob. You always play excellent music. You were of great help, thank you.”
“Great help? When?” The man named Jacob turned towards me. “Oh, I see. This is a very beautiful young lady.”
For whatever reason, the man next to me looked very satisfied as he agreed. I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but since it seemed Jacob was complimenting me, I bowed slightly in his direction.
The old man grinned as his eyes focused again on my companion. “However, you shouldn’t sneak out of the palace. Lord Kai will be angry with you again, Prince Cougar.”
“Hahaha, I’m being careful.”
The old man had uttered a word that seemed to be my companion’s name, but next to it was a word I wasn’t used to hearing…But it was a word that carried frightful implications, and it shocked me. If Jacob wasn’t joking, that meant… I stared at the man beside me, who was laughing in a carefree way.
“Prince? Did he say prince?”
“Now that you mention it, I was in the middle of introducing myself.”
“Oh my,” Jacob said, as it dawned on him what was going on.
The man he had called ‘Cougar’ turned towards me and spoke his name, framed by the sunset sky. The setting sun turned his dark purple hair a deep red hue. “I’m Cougar Kings, second prince of this kingdom.”
The mysterious man that had appeared before me was no other than a prince of this land.
()
(Part 6)
*Huff…huff…*
The two of us ran away until we reach Queens’ Hill to the southeast of Kings. We arrived to a place that had many more fields of luxurious gra.s.s than paved roads. The mysterious man and I threw ourselves on the green carpet of gra.s.s, panting.
At that alt.i.tude, the sky in front of my eyes seemed so close, the air was thin and I could feel the movement of the clouds on my skin. Relying on sheer physical prowess, we had arrived quite far. My heart was beating wildly, due to the effort.
When I tilted my head just a bit more, I could see close by the walls that enclosed the country and the flags with the royal crown fluttering in the wind, all upside-down.
“Hmm…ah…since we got this far, I guess I can relax.” From the halting way he spoke, the man was as out of breath as me.
“This is the first time I’ve come to Queens.”
“Is that so? So how does your first time feel?”
“Really tiring,” I said jokingly, laughing.
“That’s good,” he laughed as well.
Still lying down, I turned my head to the side and found him tilting his head in my direction, studying me.
“But this feels really nice, somehow.”
Truly, I’d been doing nothing but running; a whole day of rus.h.i.+ng back and forth, you could say. Since I don’t usually engage in that much physical activity, probably the next day I was going to ache all over. As long as it didn’t interfere with my job…
“You’re faster than you seem,” he said.
“Is that so? I don’t compare myself with other people all that often, so I wouldn’t know.”
“Yes, for a woman you’re really fast. The sight of you running with your skirt bunched up was the highlight of my day.”
I wasn’t really sure if he really meant it or he was pulling my leg, but he grabbed the hem of his coat and moved his legs to imitate me. However, since he was lying on the gra.s.s, it looked more like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Oh yeah, well, that meowing you tried to do when we were about to be found out, that wasn’t like the real thing at all!”
Upon hearing my retort, the man uttered his failed attempt at an escape maneuver again. “Meow!”
“Yes, that’s it! It doesn’t resemble the real thing at all!”
“Hmm, that might be true. But I think I can imitate a horse better than that.”
“Hehe, you can do a horse as well? Let me hear it.”
At this, the man swiftly rose and moved as if he was going to whirl around in circles with his hands imitating the front legs of a horse. “Hihi-“
“Ahahahaha! Neither sounds good!”
“Haha, how cruel.”
The trees rustled and the cool air made our hair flutter. It was the first time I had been able to chat like this with a man of my own age, and yet I was able to act normally, strangely enough. It was likely due to the man’s personality. At some point during our escape, I’d become unconcerned about the fact that I didn’t know his true ident.i.ty.
“Lucca, come here,” he called out to me as he approached a vantage point.
When I went after him as requested, a scenery I had never seen before spread out before me. “Wow!” I exclaimed out loud, surprised. The cityscape extended before my eyes, dyed in the colors of dusk, as if burning.
A scenery I had never seen…I say that, but since it was the city where I was living, it should’ve been something I was already tired of seeing every day. However, since I was looking at it from a great height, the town looked so different from usual as to warrant it to be called an unfamiliar scenery.
The sun sinking in the sea proclaimed the end of the day we called ‘today.’ At the same time, the marketplace, the castle, the open s.p.a.ces and private homes where we lived…in short, the country as a whole was dyed in crimson. Even the Forest of Death, a dark forest that extended outside of the kingdom’s walls, shone with a beautiful red hue.
“So lovely…” When faced with something truly pretty, people are left without words; I knew that well enough.
Dusk had also reached the heights of Queens’ Hill and so the man and I were also enveloped in its red glow.
“Indeed.” Perhaps due to the crimson light, he turned his gaze towards me. I cannot say whether he knew the feelings dwelling in my heart; however, he didn’t say anything further.
For a while, the both of us watched the beautiful scenery together. Slowly, I realized that I still didn’t know the man’s true ident.i.ty, not even his name.
“Hey, this is kind of sudden, but can I ask you something?”
When I transferred my gaze from the landscape to the man beside me and peeked at his face, he had his eyes closed, and seemed to be concentrating on something.
“Hey!” I said again, but he brought a finger to his lips and shushed me. I wanted to know what had caught his attention, so I imitated him and closed my eyes. When I did, I realized that I could hear music coming from somewhere nearby.
When I looked in the direction of the sound, I saw that in a field slightly distant from us, an old man had begun to practice with a small stringed instrument. He was playing a triple-time waltz, mixed with the sound of the swaying trees and gra.s.s. Suddenly, the rows of houses below seemed like the seats of a theater, burning red. Even I, who had never touched a musical instrument, could understand how pleasant it was to play music there at this hour.
“Nice, old man! Come, Lucca!”
I stared with widened eyes at the hand that abruptly appeared before me. In all likelihood, my mouth was half-open as well. Since I had absolutely no idea of what he wanted from me, I resorted to shaking his hand.
“Hahaha, what was that? No, I want us to dance.”
Changing the way he gripped my hand, he encircled my waist with his arm.
“Ah! Da-dance?!” Without thinking, I shouted.
Dance? Dance, he said?
In the romance novels Meyrin lent me, there were dance scenes at times, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to do the real thing; so I just had a general idea.
“N-no way! I’ve never danced in my life…”
“That’s okay. Everyone has their first time.”
“Th-that’s true, but…”
In contrast to my bewilderment, he began to turn around and around, looking as if he was having a great time. When he did, I had no choice but to move as well.
“1, 2, 3…1, 2, 3…that’s it, you’re doing great.”
“That’s not…”
At first I had to put all my energies in following his movements, then gradually I began to move my feet in time to the beat he was counting.
“1, 2, 3…then, turn…ta-dah!”
“T-ta-dah?!”
“Ow!” Caught by surprise by his enthusiastic yell, I lost my footing as I tried to bend my body. Consequently, I stepped on his foot with great force.
“I’m-I’m really sorry!” I apologized.
“Hahaha, this might be the most fun I’ve ever had in a dance, I think.” He nodded acknowledging my apology, looking deeply moved by the whole experience; once more, he took my hand and began to count the beat.
“You’re having fun… Even though I stepped on your foot?”
“Yeah. But am I having fun because you stepped on me? No, that can’t be it. That’s in no way something I would enjoy…”
“Hehe, you’re a weird one.”
Under the sky at sunset, completely dyed in crimson, we danced the waltz.
Back when I was running, I had difficulty breathing. But even though by then I should’ve calmed down, my heart began to pound hard inside my chest. For some reason, spending time with him gave me a very warm feeling; it even made me think I wanted to continue dancing with him forever.
If only there was a magic spell to stop time…
For the first time, I directed my thoughts towards such an impossible magic.
“Who are you? I was fearing you might be…A bad man?” As we danced, once again I tried to ask the question that remained unanswered.
“A bad man? Do I look like one?”
“No, not at all. But those soldiers were chasing after you.”
“That is true… Perhaps I did a bad thing.”
“Is that so…”
That confession so flippantly spoken saddened me. Yes, I did think before ‘his real ident.i.ty doesn’t matter’, but unsurprisingly, it was painful to hear the man admit that he was a villain.
Perhaps I should capture him and bring him back to the castle.
As that thought came to me, another image crossed my mind…Meyrin’s sad smile, as she said that a witch that reveals herself to a friend will be denounced by them and imprisoned. Without realizing what I was doing, I stopped moving my feet.
“What’s wrong?” He studied my worried expression.
In response, I shook my head weakly. I probably looked as if I was about to cry. “I’m sad because you’re a bad person. But you being bad shouldn’t be the sad part, I’m the one at fault here…” I attempted to explain what was on my mind, but the words reaching my ears sounded incomprehensible, even to myself.
“I’m sorry, it was just a bad joke. I’m not really proud of myself, but I swear that I’m no criminal.” He softly placed his hands on my shoulders and looked at me straight in the eye.
“So then, why were they chasing you?”
“I’m… My name is…” Just when he was going to finally answer my question, a figure came running towards us from afar.
“Hey! Hey!” It was the elderly man that was playing music moments ago. His voice became audible and grew in volume minute by minute as he came closer.
“Oh, so it was you. It’s quite unexpected, to see you in a place like this.” Once he reached us, the old man spoke in an affectionate tone after facing my companion, who still had his hands on my shoulders.
“Ah, Jacob. You always play excellent music. You were of great help, thank you.”
“Great help? When?” The man named Jacob turned towards me. “Oh, I see. This is a very beautiful young lady.”
For whatever reason, the man next to me looked very satisfied as he agreed. I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but since it seemed Jacob was complimenting me, I bowed slightly in his direction.
The old man grinned as his eyes focused again on my companion. “However, you shouldn’t sneak out of the palace. Lord Kai will be angry with you again, Prince Cougar.”
“Hahaha, I’m being careful.”
The old man had uttered a word that seemed to be my companion’s name, but next to it was a word I wasn’t used to hearing…But it was a word that carried frightful implications, and it shocked me. If Jacob wasn’t joking, that meant… I stared at the man beside me, who was laughing in a carefree way.
“Prince? Did he say prince?”
“Now that you mention it, I was in the middle of introducing myself.”
“Oh my,” Jacob said, as it dawned on him what was going on.
The man he had called ‘Cougar’ turned towards me and spoke his name, framed by the sunset sky. The setting sun turned his dark purple hair a deep red hue. “I’m Cougar Kings, second prince of this kingdom.”
The mysterious man that had appeared before me was no other than a prince of this land.
()
