🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 28
Getting worked up over the past served no purpose. What mattered now was simply the fact that Alina was standing right in front of him.
So calm down.
Rihardt, who had been breathing slowly, closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again. His brilliant golden eyes—so radiant they seemed to gather all the light in the world—settled on Alina. He spoke in a heavy voice.
“I understand. I’ll accept it. If that was Rise’s decision.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah.”
Rihardt, who had been staring straight at Alina, broke into a deep smile. At that captivating smile, her heart tingled in a strange way.
What is this? Is it because it’s awkward?
Well, it had been six whole years, so it was only natural.
Reaching that simple conclusion, Alina turned her gaze away.
When she came back to her senses, she realized that the customers in the dining hall had forgotten all about their meals and were staring at them.
Startled, Alina hurried to apologize.
“Oh my, what should I do? I’m so sorry. We must have disturbed your meal, didn’t we?”
“It’s fine, Rise. I finished all of Rise’s food the moment it came out.”
“But who is this gentleman?”
“Rise’s friend?”
“Hahaha. Yes, well…”
Alina broke into a cold sweat under the barrage of questions.
Her shop was extremely small and didn’t even have a signboard, so only people in the know ever found their way there. All her customers were regulars.
Normally, she was grateful for their familiarity, but right now it felt a bit overwhelming.
The customers, who had shown up near closing time, began gossiping about the handsome man who had appeared and hugged Alina while keeping a close eye on Kaiden.
“He’s incredibly handsome. What do you do, sir?”
“A friend from her hometown? Or family?”
“Come on, not family. You can tell at a glance. They don’t look alike at all. He must be a schoolmate!”
“Well, that is…”
“Oh! Is he Rise’s fiancé?”
At one customer’s words, Alina’s face flushed bright red.
“Absolutely not! Definitely not!”
“That’s correct.”
Rihardt, who had been watching Alina talk with the customers, suddenly cut in.
Startled by his words, Alina raised her voice.
“Rihardt!”
“I came to find Rise. To take her back with me.”
At Rihardt’s words, Alina’s eyes widened.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said. Come back to the Imperial Palace with me.”
Rihardt spoke in an excited voice.
“You don’t have to worry. Everything’s fine now. I’ll take care of it all. Whatever Rise wants—anything at all.”
“No.”
Alina cut him off and refused. He looked at her, clearly shocked.
“Why?”
He had imagined reuniting with Alina countless times, but never—not even once—had he imagined her rejecting him like this.
The very thing he had been too afraid to even picture was now unfolding before his eyes.
Rihardt hardened his gaze and asked reflexively,
“Why?”
“If I were going to go back, I wouldn’t have left in the first place. I can’t go.”
Rihardt latched sharply onto her words.
“You’re saying you can’t go, not that you won’t?”
“Either way, I’m not going. And you shouldn’t be here either. Go back.”
There was no opening in Alina’s refusal. When she pushed him away and pressed her lips into a thin line, Rihardt called out to her urgently.
“Rise!”
“Just a moment.”
Alina stopped Rihardt and turned around. At her gesture, he stood frozen in place, unable to move.
Looking around at the customers, Alina raised her voice.
“Everyone, since you’ve all finished your meals, we’ll be closing early today. I’m sorry. As an apology, the cost of today’s food will be on the house. Have a safe trip home. And you too, Kaiden.”
“All right! Take care, Rise!”
At Alina’s words, Kaiden practically sprang out of his seat and headed outside. The other customers followed him, getting up without complaint.
Now only Alina, Rihardt, and the knights remained in the shop.
Even after all the customers had left, Alina glanced sideways at the knights guarding the doorway and asked,
“Rihardt, who are those people over there?”
Rihardt, who had been watching Alina usher the customers out with a blank expression, let out a small exclamation belatedly.
“Oh. Those are the knights under my command.”
At Rihardt’s introduction, the knights snapped their heels together and bowed in unison.
Rihardt glanced at them, then turned back to Alina. Like a child seeking praise, he spoke proudly.
“I became the commander of the Blue Lion Order. You wanted me to become a knight commander too, Rise.”
“Did I?”
“You did. On the day we said our final goodbye.”
Rihardt squeezed her hand tightly and added,
“You said that if I went to the academy and worked hard, I might even become a knight commander.”
Alina blinked slowly at his answer. Come to think of it, she really might have said something like that.
“You’re right. And you actually became one. That’s amazing.”
Smiling warmly, Alina looked at Rihardt.
The boy who hadn’t been able to do anything on his own had grown into nothing less than a knight commander.
She knew very well that, regardless of what the Second Prince Maximilian of her past life had been like, the path Rihardt she knew must have walked had been an incredibly difficult one.
She felt proud and deeply moved that he had grown up so well.
“Then you must be living together with them.”
“Yeah.”
Still smiling, Alina turned her gaze to the knights. The orange-haired young man standing at the front bowed deeply.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Rise. I am Ulrich Tzenge, the commander’s adjutant.”
“Nice to meet you, Sir Tzenge.”
“Sir Tzenge?”
When one of Rihardt’s eyebrows twitched, Ulrich hurriedly spoke up.
“You don’t need to use honorifics with me. Please call me Ulrich. Ah—no, even ‘hey, you,’ anything like that is fine. Yes, please, by all means.”
“What? Even so…”
At Ulrich’s enthusiastic request, Alina looked troubled. Ulrich nodded firmly and said with conviction,
“I don’t want to end up on the commander’s bad side like Kaiden. It’s much easier on my heart if Lady Rise doesn’t call me by name.”
“Rihardt wouldn’t say that’s right either. People should be called by their names. Right, Rihardt?”
When Alina looked at Rihardt with a stern gaze, he answered immediately.
“Right. Rise is absolutely right.”
“You heard him, then. I’ll be counting on you, Ulrich.”
At Alina’s gentle greeting, Ulrich looked deeply moved.
“Thank you!”
Rihardt watched Ulrich repeatedly greeting Alina with a displeased expression.
“If you’re done with introductions, everyone should return to the palace now.”
“Yes, Commander.”
At Rihardt’s order, the knights filed out in perfect unison.
Watching Ulrich give a final courteous bow before leaving, Alina turned to Rihardt.
He showed no sign of leaving, even though all the knights were gone.
“Aren’t you going, Rihardt?”
“I’m going to go back with Rise… with Alina.”
“I told you I’m not going.”
“Why?”
At Rihardt’s blunt question, Alina lowered her gaze and searched for an excuse.
“Well, that’s…”
“I won’t ask why you left me. Just tell me why you won’t go back.”
“……”
“Is that… too difficult a question?”
As Alina fell silent with an uneasy expression, Rihardt spoke anxiously.
“You said you’d be on my side.”
There was no resentment in Rihardt’s voice—only longing for her.
“It’s already been six years since we separated. You have no idea how much I missed you, how much I longed for you, Alina. I don’t want to be apart from you for even a moment now.”
Alina bit her lip. His earnestness made her heart ache.
But she couldn’t let herself be swept away like this—not for Rihardt’s sake either.
Letting out a sigh, Alina opened her mouth.
“Tomorrow…”
“Hm?”
“Tomorrow, I have to go to the market. I have to sell pizza.”
Relieved to have finally remembered her schedule for the next day, Alina wanted to use it to get past the immediate crisis.
Rihardt frowned, clearly dissatisfied with her answer.
“What is that? Do you really have to sell it?”
“It’s something Marlon asked me to do. I promised I’d fill in at Marlon’s pizza booth.”
“And who’s that? Don’t you think you’re a bit too popular, Alina?”
Rihardt scrunched up his face in displeasure. Alina replied, utterly bewildered.
“Marlon is a seventy-year-old fixture of this neighborhood. If he’s popular, then it’s because everyone likes him. He’s kind.”
“Seventy…”
The moment he heard Marlon’s age, Rihardt visibly relaxed and smiled faintly.
“I see. Grandpa Marlon sells pizza?”
“Yeah. Every year during the market, I help out at Marlon’s booth. I work part-time.”
“How much do they pay you there? I’ll give you that money. No—twice, three times that amount. So let’s go now.”
Rihardt spoke excitedly, but Alina shook her head firmly.
“No. I promised Marlon. A promise is a promise.”
Listening to her, Rihardt pressed his lips together. Letting out a sigh, he said gloomily,
“…You didn’t keep a single promise you made to me.”
“What?”
“You said you’d keep giving me delicious food if I ate what someone I knew gave me—but then you left.”
With a dejected face, Rihardt continued,
“You said you’d wait until I grew up, and then you abandoned me and came here.”
“I wasn’t trying to abandon you.”
“But I felt abandoned.”
Rihardt’s broad shoulders slumped. Suppressing her pity, Alina tried to soothe him.
“It’s better for you if I’m not there, Rihardt. If I had stayed by your side, we both would have suffered. That’s still true now.”
At her words, Rihardt quietly clenched his fist.
“Everything you say is right, Alina. But not this.”
Folding his long legs, Rihardt perched on a chair. A shadow fell over his handsome face.
“During the days when you weren’t there, I wasn’t doing well.”
Rubbing his face with one hand, he spoke in a weary tone.
“I missed you every single day. My ally. My Alina.”
“……”
Alina’s expression darkened as she listened to Rihardt’s words.
