85 – Date (5) / To Academy

* * * *

“Did you wait long?”

It didn’t take that long to hit the bathroom, exactly 10 minutes, but I asked out of basic courtesy.

The smell of blood and traces were erased by the moon night, and there would be no big difference in what was visible.

“…What are you doing here? I think you know it’s not the bathroom.”

However, it was unexpected that our princess’s point was sharper than I expected.

Lily’s narrowed eyes.

Slowly, from the tip of my toes, he scans me and looks at me.

My nervous mind was telling Lily that I was hiding something, but I turned my head away because I didn’t want to tell the truth.

“Ahaha…that’s it…”

Then, in the other side of my field of vision, I see familiar faces sparsely.

These are the faces of the knights who secretly escorted us with my permission because Lily had been arguing that I alone would be enough to escort her anyway.

It looks like they are looking for us who have disappeared like magic, even using a mirage to move their heads from side to side in a hurry.

‘I’m sorry for some reason.’

It means that while we were joking and having fun, they had to frantically run around the town during the festival season in this heat and with their costumes on.

No matter how tired I was, considering that even Prius, who was the leader of the Knights, couldn’t even brush me, it would have been close to impossible for them to capture my movements, even using Moonlight’s abilities.

In fact, I couldn’t even keep up.

He tore off his necklace and waved his hand at them, who appeared at just the right time.

It’s good that they found us they’ve been looking for so long.

It’s good that I can get away from Lily’s pressure investigation.

Isn’t this what it means to say that a sister is good and a brother-in-law is good?

“Ah, here! Here~!!”

“Huh? Why are you suddenly making a sound… Ah!! Empty you…!”

Lily looked at me with an expression as if she had found a traitor somewhere.

But I can’t help it.

For Lily, my heart says that I hope that today will be a day full of memories that will make your heart beat faster than ever.

Don’t tarnish her memory with stupid words like did you kill someone or what happened?

To thank her for taking half of my burden.

Aren’t my own hands enough to taint with blood and filth?

My heart jumped, and I nodded.

“What? The escorts are here, so today’s date ends here.”

“… cowardly.”

Lily’s lips pouted.

I stroked Lily’s hair to cheer her up.

“Sometimes, please just be fooled. It’s a man’s mischief.”

“If you say that, I really have nothing to say. You’re more cowardly.”

Even as I said that, Lily came into my arms. It feels like words and actions are completely separate.

It’s tick-tick, but I couldn’t hide the smile that bloomed on my lips, so did I choose the physical method of being held in my arms?

A shimmering sense of happiness flowed through her breath and skin, so it’s harder not to know.

Yeah, isn’t this good too?

I am her moon, secretly protecting her happiness from behind, and she giving me a bright, sunny smile.

That alone was worth my effort, so I embraced her in my heart, hoping that she would see my heart that only wants to see the person I love happy.

“…Pin-nim!!!”

I can hear the voices of the escorts confirming my presence and calling me from afar.

How will their voices sound to her who is quietly in my arms?

When I was young, I remembered the days when I was afraid of thunderstorms and wrapped myself in blankets.

It was as if the existence of parents had never existed in the first place, so the blanket was the only shelter. There’s no way I know about the mother’s arms, which is often said.

As if the sky had collapsed, the sound of torrential rain and ruthless lightning strikes.

All that noise, anxiety. It was a strange experience to be able to stop just by hiding oneself under a blanket.

Rather, it feels as if those sounds become the background music and show off the comfort of the disconnected space under the futon.

Will Lily do the same?

Even though the sun has already completely set and it is a dark night, the noise of the festival and the escorts’ voices have become low white noise, making me feel the comfort of my arms more fully.

I couldn’t see it, but there was no way to believe it.

I thought that while watching Lily quietly enjoying the joy of the festival that was not long left in my arms.

* * * *

Flash.

Every time you blink your eyes, time flies by as if the day changes.

Did Einstein say that time is relative?

I had no idea what the theory of relativity was exactly, as I had a GED, but I was just quoting it roughly.

Time is relative.

To be precise, time according to emotions is too relative.

A fact that I did not know because I had never had a fun and happy time in my life until now.

The sweet time spent with Lily really passed by in the blink of an eye.

Flash.

One day, Lily and I had tea in the garden, and we went on a flower outing together.

The first flower I saw was a sunflower planted in commemoration of Pin.

Lily grumbled that she was saying hello to the sunflowers towering high toward the window every morning.

With an awkward smile, he conciliated her with the words, ‘But isn’t it different to see it in front of your eyes?’

For some reason, I felt as if the sunflowers were withering that day.

Flash.

One day, Lily wanted to play hide-and-seek, which she often did when she was young, so she played in the imperial garden as a stage.

At that time, Lily was sick, so it was a role where she could just hide, but this time, she will find me, so tell me to hide… .

Even though I clearly know my ability, I can’t help it because I look so confident.

He hid himself in a tree to bully Lily, but was soon caught.

Using Operati Anulus’ communication effect to track with voice, isn’t the map hack a scam?

It was a result that made me tilt my head in many ways, but it didn’t matter who the winner would be anyway.

The content of the bet was that the loser would kiss the winner.

He had no choice but to sigh and gestured to Marianne, Lily’s exclusive maid. Bite people around you.

Ten minutes later, the expressions of the ladies-in-waiting facing Lily, who was exhaling with excitement with her face blushing strangely, were spectacular.

The emperor… After hearing the report, he didn’t say anything. However, it became an open secret that he had been seen drinking alcohol with cheese on the terrace alone that day.

Flash.

This was the day the emperor summoned me and said he would give me a position.

Somehow, he suggested that if you want to get along with the royal family, you still need at least one title.

If it’s burdensome, I’ll give you a baron, a title traditionally bestowed on knights, so I ask you to accept at least that.

However, I firmly rejected his offer several times.

“No. If that happens, I will be the first to be called the ‘Baron of the Empire’ when I make a name for myself in the future.”

What’s wrong with that? The tone of the emperor’s urgency and embarrassment, that if he didn’t like the title, he could even give him a viscount or a count.

“That’s not the problem. I have a title I must get first of all.”

Still, he shook his head and said.

“I must, above all else, become a person called the ‘Sword Saint’.”

That was the only way to become a disciple worthy of my master.

Even though he has completely inherited everything from his sword-saint master, if the disciple cannot surpass his master, how can he carry his face in shame?

My will was so resolute that the emperor sighed and grabbed his greasy hair, while Lily was looking at me with bright eyes for some reason.

-I always wonder why you make that choice… what am i going to do do as you please Respect your willingness to take the easy way out.

On that day too, rumors spread that the emperor had drank alcohol, which he had abstained from for several years.

Flash.

On this day, as well as training, we had time to teach swordsmanship through sparring to improve the skills of Lily’s exclusive escort knights.

Lily, along with Marianne and the other ladies-in-waiting, were at the cheering table.

My exclusive maids were also mixed, but there was one difference between her and the maids on Lily’s side.

The difference between holding something right or not.

Lily’s maids, including Lily’s, brought food and drink to each of them after the knights’ training was over, but since Lily was my exclusive maid, I didn’t bring anything.

I didn’t bring anything because I came to the conclusion that it was strange to even prepare food for someone else’s service as my exclusive maid.

“Cheer up Berry!!!”

Originally, there would be no way to support me as an educator, but now I have to deal with them all alone.

It’s not 1 vs 17, it’s 1 vs 70.

70 people because it is basic to take turns serving as exclusive escort every day by 10 people.

I had to deal with quite a lot of people, but surprisingly, the match was over within one or two matches.

This is why high-quality experiences are fraudulent.

Decades of life-and-death risking on the battlefield, and even more so, the decades spent by the swordsman, were melted into just one assassination, so a human’s gaps could be seen with just a glance.

Still, after repeating it several times, when everyone was able to defend 6 or 7 times, they ended training and ate lunch.

Each knight who had something with certain maids received a lunch box from a maid who was more than a colleague and less than a lover.

For the rest, a lunchbox filled with the maids’ unrequited love, or a lunchbox filled with camaraderie.

I had a lunch box prepared by Lily herself.

Like the clichés in novels and cartoons, it didn’t happen that a beauty couldn’t cook.

In the first place, she was the one who cooked rice for me, who was paralyzed before returning.

Even at that time, the rice made by Lily was guaranteed to taste above average.

So, cooking in an environment equipped with these top-notch ingredients and tools boasted a different taste.

A rice cake that looks good and tastes good, so I’m not envious of others.

Besides, it wasn’t too bad that the eyes of envy and the eyes of admiration converged at the impossible situation of eating the lunchbox prepared by the princess herself.

special on this day.

He tipped off Lily in advance and suggested that they make a lunchbox just for the emperor.

And before nightfall, I visited with Lily, and while Lily prepared the lunch box, I handed over a bottle of good wine from the village as a gift.

“But I hope you enjoy it enough that it doesn’t harm your health. I’ve heard that drinking in moderation can be good for your health.”

He looked at Lily and said.

“Shouldn’t you watch the princess happy for a long time?”

He laughed heartily.

On that day, for some reason, it is said that the emperor called the ladies-in-waiting the night before and ordered them to keep a bottle of liquor and keep it in the best place. It’s the alcohol you want to drink at the princess’s wedding or something.

And again, the emperor’s sobriety began.

Flash.

And finally, the day we return to the academy has arrived.