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Chapter 03
“So this is why you shouldn’t give anything to a kid who’s always complaining.”
“My birthday is only a month apart from yours.”
“A whole month apart, huh, Cyril? Don’t try to put yourself on the same level.”
Adrien, giving a warning with a “sshh” that wasn’t scary at all, turned away without a second thought.
“You’re not getting discharged immediately anyway.”
“Of course not.”
“Then it’ll keep being dangerous.”
I’ll give it to you later, after you’re discharged.
Adrien quietly added.
In other words, he was telling her to spend the remainder of her military life with this ill-tempered handkerchief.
“Don’t bother saying thank you. I understand your feelings completely.”
“Good thing I don’t know them twice, then.”
Adrien didn’t even wait to hear her full response before walking away. His casual way of waving his hand looked utterly indifferent.
“Ah, Cyril.”
“What?”
“Don’t follow me right away. I don’t want to raise suspicion.”
She stopped for a moment, but the remark was ridiculous.
Cyril shook her head, feeling a headache that hadn’t been there before.
Who even thinks saying something like that is a good idea…
After Adrien disappeared, Cyril quietly looked down at the two handkerchiefs.
Two years. In that exact amount of time, her embroidery skills had improved considerably.
And her feelings inside hadn’t changed, one way or another.
Even if it didn’t show, that consistently kind girl must have wanted to say just one thing:
Don’t get hurt.
Just that one sentence.
“You really haven’t changed at all.”
Cyril muttered softly. Only then did it truly feel like she had returned to everyday life.
＊ ＊ ＊
“If I may speak frankly, I honestly thought you weren’t even human. It’s embarrassing, but I thought you were like a fairy or a goddess… you know, something like that.”
“That’s quite rude.”
“I’m sorry. To speak like that to a friend of the lieutenant… I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s not like that.”
Cyril swallowed her reply. Her words would never reach her blind subordinate anyway.
“I never knew red hair could be so beautiful. And your eyes… I thought someone had planted the entire ocean in them. How can they sparkle like that…?”
The second son of the Langrard Baron family, a lieutenant in the 2nd Company of the 1st Brigade of the Special Forces Command, seemed utterly blinded by admiration.
His praise for Adrien was so excessive it was bordering on a divine creation myth.
“That’s enough.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cyril knew that even if she didn’t know the details of Adrien’s birth, she was just a perfectly ordinary human being.
Hearing such absurd praise about a childhood friend was torture enough.
In the end, Cyril silenced her subordinate with a single phrase.
“Lieutenant Langrard.”
“Yes, sir!”
Yet her sparrow-like subordinate still looked like he had more to say. She could ignore it, but his desperate, pleading eyes demanded an answer.
Receiving that kind of gaze from another man was rather nauseating. Cyril sighed and gestured for him to speak.
“I heard that you two have been friends for a very long time.”
“So?”
“I just can’t understand how you managed to remain just friends.”
Cyril lightly squinted one eye. As if to say, “The one who can’t understand is me, not you.”
“Isn’t that so? If it were me, I would have fallen at first sight. How could you keep such a beautiful mademoiselle by your side and remain just friends—”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“It’s not an exaggeration. I truly mean it.”
Cyril, ready to dismiss it as exaggeration, stared at her subordinate. Lieutenant Langrard accepted her gaze with a perfectly honest face, leaving no trace of falsehood.
Once Cyril realized he truly meant it, she scowled completely.
“…I suppose I could understand if the mademoiselle wasn’t as beautiful as she is now when you were younger.”
“Beautiful, what?”
“You know… some people aren’t particularly attractive as children, but completely change as they grow. In that case, I could somewhat understand…”
“She’s always looked like that.”
The indifferent reply made her subordinate’s expression change drastically. A look of utter disbelief—what could possibly be wrong with her?—was directed at Cyril.
And she didn’t even say “looked,” she said “always looked like that”! How could someone utter such nonsense about a person so beautiful?
The lieutenant genuinely couldn’t understand his superior.
“All I can say is that your eyes must be crooked.”
Cyril shook her head and said no more.
Her subordinate’s gaze grew even more impure, but Cyril was completely sincere.
How could anyone rationally explain why they wouldn’t like Adrien?
Cyril wanted to ask in return:
How on earth could anyone like Adrien rationally?
Thus, all of this began thirteen years ago.
