Truth or Dare
Confessing the lie, Edgar dragged his heavy legs and trudged out of the main building toward the backyard. Originally, he should have gone with Ariel to meet Sylvia, but their plans had gone completely awry. The reason was obvious: the accident that had just occurred in the training grounds. Though it had been a mistake, the sudden kiss left Ariel screaming at him and demanding that he not follow her. Under normal circumstances, Edgar would have gone after her to apologize, but today the blunder was so enormous that he couldn't even muster the courage to chase after her. Even now, the image of his childhood friend with her face flushed bright red, unable to utter a single word, remained vividly etched in his mind.
'I'm going crazy.'
Edgar let out a deep, earth-shattering sigh and quickened his weary steps. Setting the mistake aside, he no longer had the nerve to face Ariel. No matter how much he usually talked about them being childhood friends, he couldn't possibly claim to feel nothing at all toward a girl like her. Her behavior had grown strangely open lately, which had already made things difficult enough, and now that accident had set his heart ablaze. At this rate, he wouldn't be able to use the childhood-friend excuse anymore.
“Oh, Edgar! Why do you look so down today?”
When Edgar reached the backyard, Leonel, who had been out for a stroll, waved at him cheerfully. As expected, Enya stood beside him with her hands neatly clasped, wearing a gentle smile.
“Uh, um… I had a bit of a thing happen.”
“What thing? Are you worried about something?”
“No. Thanks for caring, Enya.”
Edgar forced a smile to reassure the pair, but his expression management was a complete failure. The two exchanged glances, sensing that something had happened, but since he clearly didn't want to talk about it, they didn't press further.
“But weren’t you supposed to meet the young lady’s friend today?”
Leonel, who had heard a rough outline of the schedule from Edgar yesterday, looked puzzled.
“I thought it’d be fine to step away for a bit. I just came out to get some air.”
Having come out to organize his thoughts, Edgar now found himself facing the newly coupled pair and let out another sigh. He suddenly worried that being around this couple might only make his heart even more restless.
“Really? I always heard you two were glued together. Must be something big.”
“Even we have days like this sometimes.”
Edgar shrugged, then spotted Creed walking over from behind and offered a greeting. Creed simply raised a hand in his usual casual manner, then placed one hand on his hip and looked at Edgar as if asking what was going on.
“Sylvia’s here. I left the two of them to play and stepped out for a moment.”
“Is that so? Then while you’re here, why don’t you spar with Leonel?”
“Spar?”
Edgar tilted his head at Creed’s sudden suggestion. The two had sparred a few times before, but since they had such an excellent teacher in Creed, sparring with him was far more helpful for improving their skills. The fact that Creed was making this request now meant there had to be a reason behind it.
When Edgar unconsciously glanced at Leonel, the boy flashed a wide grin and openly admitted he was the culprit.
“It’s been a while since I wanted to go up against you. You okay with that, Edgar?”
“You? That’s unusual.”
“Before becoming the knight commander, if I had someone to set as my goal, I thought it should be you.”
At Leonel’s ambitious answer, Edgar finally smiled in understanding. Leonel had always said—almost like a habit—that his goal was to become a knight, specifically the knight commander, the pinnacle of knighthood. In other words, he saw Edgar as the first rival he needed to defeat in order to reach that height.
This fact came as quite a surprise to Edgar. He had known Leonel’s ultimate destination was the knight commander position, but he had never once heard that he had set Edgar as his immediate goal before advancing.
“Leo always said it. That he wanted to become as strong as you, Edgar, and as quickly as possible.”
“Really? This is kind of embarrassing. I’m not exactly someone who deserves to hear that.”
When even Enya stepped in to confirm the fact with her pure expression, Edgar scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Still keenly aware of his own shortcomings, the words filled him with both joy and embarrassment. Moreover, hearing it from a friend his own age felt even more awkward than it would from a much younger sibling.
“Alright then. Shall we have a match for the first time in a while?”
“……”
When Creed handed him one of the wooden swords he had brought along, Edgar gripped it and bared his teeth in a combative smile. Leonel tightened his hold on his own wooden sword, feeling the fighting spirit brush against his skin.
The words Creed had spoken when Leonel first asked to spar with Edgar still echoed in his head.
To Leonel, who harbored enormous ambitions, those words had been incredibly shocking. Even fighting with everything he had, he still might not be able to reach Edgar. At first he had been skeptical, but after facing him directly and feeling it with his own body, he understood completely.
In that case, he would fight as if his life depended on it and try to win at least once.
Lowering his expectations, Leonel charged toward Edgar, who had yielded the first move.
After finishing his spar with Leonel, Edgar returned to the castle. Thanks to breaking a sweat, his mind felt considerably clearer than before. Since he couldn’t avoid her forever, meeting Ariel was now his most urgent priority.
Just then, he saw Shuri approaching from the opposite direction. He raised his hand lightly in greeting and asked,
“Ah, Shuri. Where’s Ariel?”
“She’s still with Lady Sylvia.”
“Really? That’s taking quite a while.”
He had heard Sylvia would be staying for two days, so he had assumed their conversation would be short. His prediction had been wrong.
‘Or maybe she still doesn’t want to see me.’
It wasn’t an impossible thought, and a small shadow fell over Edgar’s face. After experiencing something like that, Ariel would naturally need time to reorganize her thoughts before facing him again. Telling himself there was no need to rush, Edgar took some of the luggage Shuri was carrying.
“Y-you don’t have to help me, young master……”
“When Ariel’s not around, I’m basically just lounging around anyway. Besides, you’re still going back and forth with how you address me.”
“Ehehe… It just feels too disrespectful now to call you ‘Mister Edgar.’”
Shuri stuck her tongue out slightly and smiled awkwardly. Ever since Edgar had played a major role in resolving the long-standing grudges within the Robeheim family, he had unknowingly become someone favored by Yulken within the castle. Of course Yulken hadn’t publicly announced it, but anyone with eyes among the vassals and castle staff could tell. That was why Shuri, who had previously stuck to calling him “Mister Edgar” on Ariel’s orders, eventually found it difficult to continue. She had considered returning to the old title of “young lord,” but one day Helene had subtly suggested in a gentle tone that “young lord” sounded too stiff and asked if “young master” would be better. Shuri wasn’t naive enough to miss the meaning behind those words, so she had accepted it and settled on the current title.
“Address me however is comfortable. Just don’t call me ‘young master’ because you’re watching my reaction. Your current way of speaking is perfect.”
“Yes, I’ll do that. The young lady said the same thing. She told me that Edgar young master hates excessive formality, so it would be better to treat him a little more casually.”
“Ariel said that?”
Edgar’s eyes widened at the first-time revelation. Shuri nodded with an innocent face and cautiously began to reveal some of Ariel’s hidden sides.
“You probably don’t know, do you, young master? How much the young lady talks about you.”
“I thought she only ever badmouthed me.”
“Pfft, you can be surprisingly pure sometimes, young master.”
Of course her master didn’t refrain from complaining about him. But even when she complained, Ariel would always end up taking his side. That was simply how she spoke about him.
‘Maybe it’s okay to help a little?’
Revealing her master’s personal matters might be unbecoming of a servant, but perhaps stepping forward for her master’s future could be forgiven. With that thought, Shuri cleared her throat and began to share more of the private conversations she had shared with Ariel.
“She only ever talks about you, young master. Like how you bought her something today, or what you talked about. She even gives me every little trivial detail.”
“…Does she?”
Edgar felt embarrassed for no reason and scratched his cheek with his index finger, averting his gaze. He had known Ariel wasn’t very honest, but hearing the truth directly like this felt strangely moving. He wanted to keep listening, but feeling guilty about hearing such things while the person in question wasn’t present made it difficult.
“By the way, where should I take this?”
“Ah, we’re almost there. It’s right up ahead.”
When he subtly changed the subject, Shuri fortunately took the bait. She pointed to the hallway leading past the reception room, and Edgar inwardly cheered as he walked forward, pretending to be calm.
Bang!
The commotion erupted right after.
“I-I told you not to follow me!”
“A-Ariel! That’s not it! Look ahead! Ahead!”
The reception room door suddenly flew open violently, and Ariel came bursting out, charging straight toward where the two of them stood. Sylvia tried to stop her from behind, but by the time Ariel turned her head, Edgar was already right in front of her.
Thud.
Unable to slow down in time, Ariel collided with Edgar. The items he and Shuri had been carrying scattered noisily across the floor.
“Ugh… Ariel, are you okay?”
“……”
Despite the situation, Ariel didn’t scream or even apologize. No, more precisely, she couldn’t. Having pinned Edgar to the floor like a carpet and lying on top of him, she felt his heartbeat against her chest before belatedly jolting up in surprise.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Did you hit your head hard?”
“I-I’ll go get the doctor!”
After letting out a single hiccup, Ariel remained silent, staring blankly down at Edgar. The startled Edgar, wondering if she had hit her head, reached out and gently touched her forehead. Shuri hurriedly ran down the stairs to call the castle doctor, while Sylvia could only watch the scene unfold.
“Haa… haa……”
On the other hand, Ariel had no composure left to answer Edgar’s worried question. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the candy she had eaten earlier, but she could feel something wriggling inside her body, passing through her solar plexus and slowly rising toward her throat.
‘I want to say it. I want to say it.’
Ariel broke out in a cold sweat as she desperately fought the urge, but she could feel herself gradually reaching her limit.
‘What will happen to me if I let these words out?’
Even if she revealed her true feelings, she didn’t want it to happen this way. At the very least, she wanted to convey her heart to him of her own will, without borrowing any external power. But the moment she spoke those words, even someone as dense as him would have no choice but to understand.
Then what should she do? What method could resolve this situation?
As her mind raced at full speed in that short moment, her eyes suddenly widened like lanterns.
There was one way.
“Ed, I’m fine… so listen to me carefully.”
“Are you really okay? You’re sweating this much.”
“Y-yeah. I’m really fine……”
In truth, she was not fine at all. But she would lie somehow. The moment she realized that even after eating that candy earlier, she could still force out lies, Ariel opened her mouth without hesitation and explained the situation to him.
“I ate a strange candy that Sylvia gave me just now.”
“Candy?”
Edgar knew that Sylvia brought all sorts of strange things, but he couldn’t see how candy had anything to do with the current situation. To provide further explanation, Ariel suppressed the true feelings that threatened to burst out at any moment and continued with difficulty.
“Yeah, so… words I don’t want to say keep coming out…. Do you understand? From now on, nothing I say is what I truly mean.”
“Uh, um……”
“Good, as long as you understand. So……”
When Edgar nodded like a broken marionette, Ariel’s eyes changed in that instant. It was as if the final shackle binding her reason had been released. Then, as if her strength had finally given out, she flopped back down onto Edgar’s body and brought her lips close to his ear.
It was fine now. She had prepared an excuse so she could escape at any time. These weren’t her true feelings. They were nothing but lies forced out by the candy’s effect.
Therefore, she could say as much as she wanted.