Inside Out (1)
The school admission announcement hadn't even come out yet.
Naturally, there had been no entrance ceremony.
Therefore, there was obviously no dormitory move-in either.
Lady Karalin would be staying in temporary lodging for the time being.
But the Holy City was so vast.
How on earth was I supposed to track her down by searching every corner of it?
That was practically the definition of finding a needle in a haystack.
Yet here I was, having received this letter.
The letter read as follows.
“To Yohan, who must be struggling all alone. I, who have been endlessly waiting for you, take up my pen. After we parted ways at the gates of the Holy City, I searched everywhere to obtain a temporary pass. Then I heard from the immigration office that you had already entered Zigmund. So….”
The opening was essentially Lady Karalin telling me she had been working tirelessly, both openly and behind the scenes, for the past few weeks to bring me here.
“…If you happen to see this, please come to the hotel where I am waiting. I miss you.”
And the main point was a request for me to come to the hotel she had reserved.
I had been waiting desperately for this.
“Alright then. Shall we share a kiss, Mr. Immigration Officer?”
The immigration officer recoiled in horror at my words.
“Ugh, what kind of nonsense is that? Shall I deport you by force?”
“You’ve been holding onto a letter for me that soothed my heart after losing Lady Karalin for nearly a week. At this point, I could even offer you my lips.”
“…I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, Mr. Yohan. But did you really pass the exam?”
The immigration officer asked, sounding genuinely puzzled.
“It’s not confirmed yet. I still have a few more tests to take. But if I received an A rank, I should be accepted.”
“You really are something else. The Grand Duke’s family truly is on another level.”
The immigration officer let out a hearty laugh.
“To be honest, when you suddenly declared you’d take the entrance exam while claiming to be an attendant, I thought you had nerves of pure steel.”
As he spoke, he processed the extension of my stay permit.
He didn’t even glance at me, simply doing his job with a detached expression. Yet in those words, I could sense at least some measure of recognition.
“…There. I’ve extended your stay permit for now. So once the acceptance results are out, feel free to come see me anytime. At that point, I’ll need to issue you a residency permit instead of a temporary one.”
“Thank you.”
“No need. I’m simply doing my job. I wish you and Her Ladyship the Grand Duke’s daughter nothing but good fortune on your path.”
I gave him a casual wave and left the office.
As expected, Lady Karalin was truly in a league of her own.
Just as she had promised back then.
While I was struggling to pass through these nearly impenetrable gates, she had been making her own efforts to keep track of my movements.
So the more steps I took toward the hotel, the more I wondered whether it was truly right for a mere servant like me to show up empty-handed.
After all, I still hadn’t given her a gift to celebrate her admission.
‘It must have been in the Holy City.’
There was a paradoxical flower garden in the Holy City where every kind of flower bloomed regardless of season.
There was a flower shop that sold blooms harvested from that garden.
When I played Eternal Eclipse, I always bought birthday gifts for the other characters from that very shop. The memory suddenly resurfaced.
Jingle, jingle—!
So instead of heading straight to the hotel, I made my way to the flower shop first.
“Welcome—Hic! A robber…”
“I’m not a robber. I’m a customer.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. Um, what kind of flowers are you looking for?”
“I’d like peonies, please. She likes them the most. They’re for a very noble person… but she dislikes anything overly formal, so something simple and beautiful would be perfect. Right away, if possible.”
A bouquet.
My wallet had grown rather thin after taking the entrance exam and wandering around for a week.
Still, this was worth it.
Some might think that Lady Karalin, the one destined to inherit the title of the North’s Tiger, would dislike such cute and lovely gifts. After all, she carried a strong, cold image that matched her fearsome reputation.
And in truth, that had been the case.
The gifts she had received until now were always things like beast pelts or bizarre objects that reeked of iron.
But that was because those people didn’t truly understand her.
‘Lady Karalin is secretly a very sensitive and delicate person.’
This was important.
From long ago, if she were to receive a gift, the one she liked most was always flowers.
It was a fact that only I knew.
After all, she was the Grand Duke’s daughter.
If others gave her swords or armor based on shallow assumptions, she would respond with:
‘A fine weapon. I shall store it carefully in the armory.’
—always sounding indifferent.
But if someone who truly understood her heart gave her flowers or a doll, she would say:
‘…How unfitting. Still, I shall gratefully accept it.’
She would pretend to be indifferent, yet treasure it so deeply that she would display it in her personal cabinet of cherished items and gaze at it every single day.
And that wasn’t all.
She even gave names to her dolls.
…Well, since I knew the flowers would eventually wither and have to be thrown away, I always felt a twinge of doubt whenever I gave her such gifts.
Still, she always seemed genuinely happy to receive them. Wasn’t that what truly mattered?
‘Yes. That’s enough.’
As long as I could imagine the joy on her face, the money was never a waste.
While waiting for the flowers to be wrapped, I stepped into the alley right beside the flower shop, lit a cigarette, and fell into thought.
Flick—
‘Now, how am I supposed to explain everything that’s happened since I got here…’
If I started from the beginning, it would be how I slipped through the walls of Zigmund.
Then the utter humiliation I suffered at the hands of Loban.
And the bizarre breakthrough I came up with to resolve the entire situation after that humiliation.
Since people of the North always repaid their enemies thoroughly, I chased Loban to the very end, drove him into the abyss, and even devoured his treasured sword.
As a result, I ended up enrolling in the Academy—an event that wasn’t even in the original plan.
‘Come to think of it, I did all of that without reporting a single thing.’
It was far too reckless to call it “acting first and reporting later.”
If anyone raised an issue, it was more than enough to warrant punishment.
At the time, my blood was boiling and I simply charged ahead.
But there was always the chance it could have caused trouble for Lady Karalin.
I kept calling myself a loyal servant, yet it seemed I still had a long way to go.
“Sir, your bouquet is ready…!”
At that moment, the shop door opened and the clerk came out to hand me the flowers.
“Thank you.”
“Hehe. This might be presumptuous, but let me take a guess. This bouquet is for a lady, isn’t it…?”
“Uh, well. I suppose it is…”
“I knew it! Sorry about earlier. You’re so incredibly large that I got startled, but the moment you asked for peonies, I just knew it had to be a gift for a woman! I tried my best to make it convey your earnest feelings.”
“You can tell all that just from someone ordering peonies?”
“Of course!”
“No, couldn’t it also be for a mother or some other precious person?”
Maybe veteran florists could read minds.
I asked out of pure curiosity.
“Huh? Do you not know the language of peonies?”
“I wouldn’t. I’m an honest man who gets mistaken for a robber, after all.”
“…Ah, hahaha! That’s not what I meant.”
The flower shop owner fumbled for words but eventually told me the truth.
“The language of peonies is ‘shyness.’ That’s why, nine times out of ten, it’s the flower lovers give each other.”
What?
“Ah, no! It’s not like that between me and Her Ladyship!”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s just… I bought them because I know she likes these flowers…”
The shop owner gave me a mischievous look.
“Her Ladyship and I share a master-servant relationship. Any other kind of relationship is something I must neither imagine nor pursue. Please do not misunderstand.”
To be honest, I was quite flustered.
I had bought the flowers without any deeper thought, never dreaming they carried such implications.
There was no way anything like that could happen between me and Lady Karalin, right?
If I were to take the flower language seriously, I would have wanted to change it to a different flower.
But I had already paid.
‘Nothing I can do about it now.’
If Lady Karalin had been bothered by the flower language, she would have mentioned it at some point.
Since she had never said a word about it until now, it was probably fine.
I hurriedly took the flowers and left, heading straight for the hotel where she was staying.
The hotel manager, seeing me for the first time, raised his eyebrows as if he had been expecting me and greeted me warmly.
“Ah, I can tell at a glance. You must be Sir Yohan of the Kim family! Just as Her Ladyship described—you are indeed a giant of a man. Welcome. We have a room reserved under your name, sir!”
“Huh? Really?”
“It’s the room Her Ladyship the Grand Duke’s daughter reserved, saying she would somehow bring her loyal servant here. Come, I’ll show you the way.”
It seemed Lady Karalin had reserved a room purely for me, not knowing whether I would even use it.
So I said,
“No, you can tell me about my room later. First, please tell me where Her Ladyship is.”
“As you wish. After all, the owner of this hotel right now is none other than Lady Karalin.”
As expected of the Grand Duke’s daughter.
She had reserved an entire massive hotel.
It made sense—if she stayed in a regular hotel with other guests, there was always the risk of running into strange people.
This was a wise decision.
However, the more I walked down the endlessly wide corridors, the more a question kept rising in my mind.
Mirrors.
Mirrors.
Mirrors.
There were mirrors everywhere.
It wasn’t blinding or anything.
In fact, I thought it looked beautiful…
But honestly, the words I had heard from the flower shop owner kept bothering me.
My own reflection in all those mirrors kept catching my eye.
‘Damn it. I look like a brainless brute who only grew in size.’
Of course, since Lady Karalin and I were merely master and servant, it was an impossible notion from the start.
But setting that aside, how could anyone imagine a woman falling for someone who looked like this?
To someone as radiant as Lady Karalin, I was…
“Why are there so many mirrors here?”
When I asked, the bellboy walking ahead answered confidently.
“Sir Yohan, you have a sharp eye! This is the pride of our hotel. By placing mirrors in various spots, we create a sense of openness far greater than the actual size of the space.”
“My face keeps showing up. It’s distracting.”
“Is that so?”
“Excuse me for asking out of nowhere, but is there something strange about my face?”
“Not at all. You are consistently a very handsome man.”
“Heh. You’re quite the smooth talker.”
“I mean it. The person receiving that bouquet must be very happy.”
“……”
I said nothing more.
I dismissed the bellboy and knocked on the door of the room I had been led to.
“…Who is it?”
“My lady, it is Yohan.”
Crash—!
I was sure I had heard Lady Karalin’s voice.
From inside the room came the sound of frantic scrambling.
Just as I was about to break the door down, thinking something serious had happened—
Creak—!
“…Yohan!!”
The one who appeared was Lady Karalin in her casual clothes.
Her face was completely flushed as she greeted me.
“Ahem. Yohan. You’ve come.”
—She cleared her throat a few times.
Then welcomed me again in a composed voice.
But those blue eyes, as always, poured themselves entirely onto me.
Ah, how magnificent.
It had truly been a week. I didn’t know where to put myself.
“Lord of Steel, there are so many things I want to ask you.”
“Ah, that is…”
So I immediately prepared to kneel and beg for forgiveness.
An apology and request for punishment for acting without any report.
But it seemed Lady Karalin had never imagined such words would come from my mouth.
Her face softened considerably as she spoke.
“Just how did you manage to enter Zigmund…? All I knew was that while I was trying to get a temporary pass, I received word that you had already come inside. I’ve been worried sick, truly.”
There was no choice but to confess everything now.
“That is… I will explain everything in due time, but first—I took Zigmund’s entrance exam and passed.”
“Eh, the… entrance exam? How did that happen?”
She looked at me with wide, surprised eyes.
“I got into an argument with some central noble on the street. When I chased after the bastard who ran into Zigmund, I remembered there was an entrance exam.”
“And then?”
“So in the heat of the moment, I declared I would take the test, went inside, beat him to a pulp, and passed.”
…Damn it. Just kill me now.
“Th-that said, the guy I hit was pretty strong. I even swallowed the treasured sword he was so proud of. I’m sorry, my lady. I will accept any punishment…”
However, the answer that came from Lady Karalin’s lips was something I could never have imagined.
“Such trivial details don’t matter.”
“Pardon?”
“The important thing is that you, Yohan, can attend the same school as me… right?”
“P-pardon?”
She simply looked at me, as if seeking confirmation.
“For now, it seems that will be possible…”
“…I’m so glad.”
“Ah…”
“To be honest, I felt completely lost. Having to attend school alone again, and having to adapt to it all by myself.”
It was pure honesty.
I was endlessly grateful, yet at the same time, it pained me.
She had always tried so hard to appear strong.
But ever since her exile to Zigmund had been decided, it seemed she had begun opening her heart more and more.
“I’m relieved. I feel the same way.”
So I chimed in with her and held out the peonies I had bought in such a hurry.
“What is this?”
“A gift to celebrate your admission.”
“You…”
“You like peonies, don’t you?”
She simply smiled brightly and took the flowers, gazing at them.
“You really are…”
Somehow, it felt like my mistake had been completely washed away by her kindness.
Then Lady Karalin spoke.
“Would you like to come in?”