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Chapter 12.
Who’s worrying about who, exactly?
Cyril almost laughed in disbelief.
Cassinel was mostly peaceful, but not always.
When the time came, the count of Cassinel and his knights climbed the mountains as if facing a swarm of locusts from the old tales.
When he was very young, Cyril hadn’t known Cassinel’s circumstances—
but he did now.
He knew well how Cassinel fought to guard the border while the emperor remained indifferent.
He knew ever since—
“Everyone’s busy today. So skip training and play with me.”
—since the day the innocent face that always laughed without a care suddenly darkened.
That must have been the moment.
Cyril remembered how Adrien always stared out the window whenever the count was away.
Her gaze unfocused, her smile faint.
And yet she never breathed a word about what really happened at the border, trying to reassure the sickly boy from Tezar.
She only made excuses—wild animals, mountain storms—anything but the truth.
Looking back, everything she did was for someone else, just like when she tried correcting his picky eating for the sake of his health.
Hopelessly foolish—and hopelessly kind.
“Adrien, I know quite a bit about Cassinel now.”
“…There are things you don’t need to know.”
“Why? Afraid I’ll get scared and run away?”
He snorted at his own joke, but no response came.
Cyril soon noticed Adrien frozen like a statue.
“…Wait, don’t tell me you actually thought—”
“No! That’s not it, I just—”
Adrien waved her hands frantically in denial.
Which unfortunately only made it look more like she did think that, but Cyril decided to let it go.
How she saw him didn’t matter right now.
What mattered was easing her mind, even a little.
“His Lordship will return safely. So stop making that face.”
“What face.”
“Stop smiling with only your eyes. It looks even scarier on you.”
Adrien raised her voice—“What?”—as Cyril teased her.
Lately, she reacted instantly whenever someone commented on her face.
Of course, nothing could be scary with that face, but teasing her was always worth it.
“If you keep getting angry like that, you’ll get even uglier. Want a carrot?”
“No.”
“Really?”
He shook a fork with a round-cut, cooked carrot on it, and Adrien’s eyes followed it back and forth.
After a moment of agonized hesitation, she muttered,
“…I’ll eat it.”
I knew you would.
A satisfied smile curled at Cyril’s lips.
