A Moonlit Confession
As soon as Edgar stepped inside, Ariel’s face twisted with unmistakable bewilderment.
“…Why are you here, you idiot? If you had any sense, you wouldn’t have come today.”
“I came because I have something to say. Besides, when have I ever cared about your circumstances?”
“Tch. You never listen to a word I say.”
Edgar thought it odd that she was voicing the very thing he wanted to say, but since it wasn’t wrong, he didn’t bother refuting it. He simply walked over and sat in an empty seat.
“I didn’t tell you to sit.”
“You’d leave a friend standing? You’re really strict, aren’t you?”
“Tch.”
Ariel knew better than anyone that a little sarcasm like that wouldn’t make him leave. Clicking her tongue lightly, she turned her head away. Edgar lowered his gaze for a moment, held his silence, then spoke after a beat.
“That candy. You said the effect lasts until tomorrow, right?”
“You came here knowing that? You really have a terrible personality.”
“Has my personality ever been good for even a day or two?”
Ariel shot back at his shameless grin, “That’s something to brag about, really,” and mocked him right to his face once more.
What on earth did he come here for? Ariel desperately wanted to leave the room and escape, yet her feet refused to move. She figured it was because she was too busy suppressing the urge to pour out her feelings for him to focus on anything else. That was the conclusion she reached on her own.
“The moon looks especially beautiful tonight, doesn’t it?”
Meanwhile, Edgar had already risen and walked over to the balcony, letting out a soft exclamation as he gazed at the round moon. Under normal circumstances, the line would have sounded perfectly ordinary. But tonight, Ariel took it as nothing more than an attempt to change the subject. She glared at him with an unimpressed look and spoke in a sharp tone.
“Stop pretending to be poetic. You don’t care about things like that any more than I do.”
“There are days like this sometimes. Come over and see for yourself.”
“Forget it. Just leave already. I’m tired and I want to sleep.”
At least Ariel could be grateful for one thing: unlike right after eating the candy, she could now speak her mind with relative ease. If she kept snapping at him and refusing to engage, maybe he would get bored and leave. With that thought in mind, Ariel continued to poke at Edgar with cold words, even though her true desire was to stand beside him.
“……”
“W-what? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Normally, Edgar would have brushed it off with his usual playful retort, but when he simply stared at her in silence, Ariel felt a strange unease and shrank back. Without a word, he walked toward her with heavy steps, reached behind her neck, and bent down. Then—
“Up we go.”
With one hand supporting her knees to balance her weight, he lifted her effortlessly with a grunt.
“W-what are you doing, you idiot?!”
“If you won’t come, I’ll just take you. The moon’s really bright tonight, you know?”
“Shut up! I said I don’t care! Put me down right now!”
Her words were fierce, but the hands striking him carried no real force. Edgar took that as consent, smiled, and carried her toward the balcony.
“Want me to keep holding you like this? Or will you come down nicely?”
“…Ugh, you’re so annoying.”
Ariel knew she wasn’t so fragile that being held for a short while would leave her breathless. If she chose to stay in his arms out of spite, she would only end up drowning in embarrassment and shame. She gave in.
“Fine. Put me down. I’ll look at how bright it is.”
When Ariel admitted defeat and asked to be set down, Edgar lowered her to the ground without hesitation, a playful smile on his lips.
“See? It’s easier if you just listen when I talk.”
“…Want to die?”
“Hey, even so, that’s a bit—”
A fierce flame flared up in Ariel’s hand. Edgar hurriedly tried to stop her, pleading. Ariel hadn’t summoned the fire with any real intent to harm him—it was only a threat—so she snorted and extinguished it. Then she glanced at the moon once before turning back to Edgar and getting to the point.
“So? Why did you come?”
“We’re finally enjoying the moon and you have to kill the mood by asking that right away?”
“That’s your problem, not mine. If you don’t want to answer, don’t. I’m really going to sleep.”
“Haah… I can never win against you.”
Edgar hadn’t expected her to wait patiently while he stalled for time. He turned to face her properly, just as she had asked, and spoke in the calmest tone he could manage.
“Ariel, how many years have we known each other?”
“Two years… No, I think they said we first met when I was about eight months old? It’s been at least seventeen years.”
Unlike Edgar, Ariel couldn’t clearly remember their first meeting, so she calculated the time based on what Helene had told her.
“Seventeen years… Long if you think about it, short if you don’t.”
“It was long for me. I don’t know about you.”
“Why?”
“It was just long. Why do you have to ask for a pathetic reason?”
When Ariel snapped at him, Edgar simply chuckled and nodded without pressing further. Seventeen years. Just as he said, it could be considered short or long depending on the perspective. But one thing was certain: it was more than enough time for their gazes to shift and for their feelings to change.
Edgar fell into thought, recalling the countless moments he had shared with Ariel. The time they went to the mountains and ran into a wild boar, the time they buried a time capsule together, the nights they stayed up watching the stars. Even the most ordinary, everyday scenes from back then now felt incredibly vivid when he looked back.
“Do you remember? That time you told me ‘The Story of the Star God’?”
“W-why are you suddenly asking about that? You didn’t even tell it to me in detail back then.”
“True. I only mentioned that such a story existed. My bad.”
It was the story she had shared while they lay on the roof of the warehouse behind the Bilhark family garden, gazing at the waterfall of stars pouring down from the sky. Back then, Edgar hadn’t understood why she hadn’t told him the full story, or what meaning it held that had made someone who cared nothing for stars grow to love them. But now, looking back, he wondered if the reason had been simple all along.
“Actually, I heard about it from Lady Helene. Roughly what the story was about.”
“What? You heard…?”
Ariel’s eyes widened in shock. Helene herself had said the story could only be told to two people in her entire life. So how could Edgar have heard it from her? It didn’t make sense. Noticing her confusion, Edgar smiled faintly and placed a hand on her head. Was it just his imagination, or did her hair feel especially soft today?
“I didn’t hear the actual contents. But when I helped your family with something a while back, I caught a glimpse of what kind of symbolism it carried.”
At the time, Edgar hadn’t thought much of it. He had been too busy dealing with the immediate problem, so even knowing that “The Story of the Star God” was something only two people would ever hear hadn’t interested him. But now, for him, the fact that Ariel had told him about the story’s existence—even if not its full contents—had become a major clue. Perhaps it had been the lifelong confession of a young girl who had mustered all her courage despite her embarrassment.
It might just be my imagination. Edgar had never once thought Ariel saw him as a romantic interest. But that also meant that with just a small shift in perspective, everything he had seen and heard from her could be viewed differently.
“Of course, I don’t actually know how you feel about me. Maybe my guess is completely off, and you’ll slap me right now.”
“……”
Ariel finally understood what he was trying to say. She remained silent and looked straight into his eyes. What a fool. To only realize it now. To only look back now. Wasn’t it far too late? And he knew better than anyone how much she hated people who couldn’t keep their promises on time.
“But you’ve never been honest with your feelings. I figured even if I said it like this, you’d just try to dodge it somehow.”
“…You’re wrong. You idiot.”
Now that he had finally figured out her feelings, Ariel found him so annoying that she lashed out with words she didn’t mean. Seeing her reaction, Edgar realized it was time to bring out his trump card. He reached into his coat.
When he pulled out what he was looking for and opened his palm to show her, her eyes trembled violently. It was a small pink candy, sparkling like a fragment of the starry sky they had looked up at together that day. It was the very thing that had tormented Ariel all day long.
“What… are you planning to do with that?”
“Nothing much. I just want to play the same prank I always do.”
Edgar had come here after a lot of thought. Along the way, he had asked himself what he truly wanted most in the end. To become her lover? Of course that would be the happiest ending, but it wasn’t his most fundamental desire. What he wanted was simply to hear Ariel’s true feelings. Her current, honest heart. Even if she had liked him in the past, her feelings might have changed as she grew. So all he wanted to know was how she felt about him right now, standing before her, and whether those feelings matched his own.
That was why he had brought the candy. To find out whether the sweet whispers she had given him today were nothing more than the candy’s effect, or whether they were her true feelings hidden behind that excuse. He believed this was the only way to hear the unvarnished truth from someone who was never honest.
“……!?”
“Tastes good. Definitely something you’d like.”
Edgar tossed the pink candy into his mouth. Ariel stared at him in stunned silence, her mouth hanging open.
I don’t feel anything different. He had expected some dramatic change because of the way Ariel was reacting, but surprisingly, Edgar felt nothing. Maybe the effect varied from person to person. Either way, it was only a pretext for him, so it didn’t matter much.
Thud.
“W-why are you suddenly doing this? Let go…!”
When he pulled her into his arms without a word after eating the candy, Ariel muttered in a curt tone and struggled to escape.
“If you want to get away, just do it. I’m not even holding you that tightly.”
“…Idiot.”
Whether those words were true or false, Edgar couldn’t tell. But at this point, it didn’t matter either way. What he was about to say next might earn him even harsher insults.
“You might have already guessed by now, but… I love you, Ariel.”
“……”
“I don’t know how you feel. But even if I never see you again after tonight, I wanted to tell you this.”
Edgar felt her body trembling in his arms. It wasn’t because the night air in Hespania was particularly cold tonight, nor because she was especially sensitive to the cold. Ariel, her face buried in his chest, listened to his quiet confession under the moonlight before finally speaking in a sulky tone.
“…Idiot. No mood, no charm. What kind of confession is this?”
A more romantic place. A more fitting atmosphere. There were countless better scenarios he could have created with just a little thought. Why did this man have to confess in such an utterly ordinary place and situation? But even now, the one she hated most was herself. How could her heart race so much at a confession that had no beautiful words or sweet embellishments, just a straightforward outpouring of his true feelings? Had she always been this easy? Or maybe it was because it was him. He was the man who always saw right through her weaknesses.
“I thought the moon would set the mood a little. Was I wrong?”
“You were wrong. Completely wrong.”
Ariel continued to criticize him with words she didn’t mean, thinking things like how she would have to teach him from now on, or how presumptuous it was of him to confess without putting more thought into it. Edgar listened quietly, then smiled playfully, gently pulling her away from his chest and bending down to meet her eyes. If the previous confession had been just the opening act, then the real game to draw out her true feelings was only beginning.
“Now it’s your turn, Ariel.”
“My turn…? Hmph. You should be grateful I even listened to your confession. Don’t tell me you want to hear me say I love you too?”
Since she had already heard his confession, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to say that much. Just as Ariel was about to speak honestly, Edgar raised a hand to stop her and shook his head.
“That would be nice too, but… what I really want to know is whether the things you did to me today were your true feelings or just because of the candy.”
“O-of course it was because of the candy! There’s no way I would do something like that to someone like you otherwise…!”
Unable to admit the truth, Ariel reacted with exaggerated shock. Edgar had expected her not to answer honestly, but her reaction was even more intense than he had anticipated. Still, he wasn’t particularly bothered. That was exactly why he had eaten the candy in the first place.
“Are you sure you want to go with that?”
“W-what do you mean?”
“I’m talking about the effect of the candy I just ate. You told me about it yourself, remember?”
“The effect……?”
Ariel blinked in confusion at the sudden question. The effect she had lied about to Edgar. She had told him it made people say things they didn’t mean. And the candy Edgar had just eaten was clearly the same one. Which meant……
“Y-you……!?”
“So? What are you going to do?”
“Y-you idiot…! What kind of confession is this……!”
Ariel’s eyes widened as she realized the truth, her hands and feet trembling. Edgar was using the very lie she had told him against her. I knew that candy was the problem! If Ariel couldn’t bring herself to confess honestly out of embarrassment, he would simply laugh it off and say, “I was lying because of the candy too,” testing her true intentions. Even if Ariel knew the candy’s real effect, she couldn’t say it out loud. Admitting the truth would mean acknowledging that all the humiliating things she had done to him all day had been her genuine feelings. Either way, she had no choice but to reveal her true heart if she wanted this ridiculous charade to end.
“Well, Ariel? I want to hear it from you.”
“Ugh……!”
Ariel cursed the man who had just confessed his love to her with every insult she could think of, letting out a frustrated groan. The confessions she had seen in novels or plays always had a more tender, affectionate atmosphere. Why had she ended up in this ridiculous situation? But letting this confession slip away was out of the question. She had been waiting for this moment for so long.
“I-if you’re that curious… I guess I could tell you.”
She had already received his confession, so in a way, she had won their little game. Admitting and accepting her shameful actions for the day was a small price to pay for the greater cause. That was what she told herself as she mustered her last bit of pride, but the incorrigible man couldn’t resist teasing her even in such a serious moment.
“What? I couldn’t hear you.”
“Ugh……!”
He had definitely heard her. She had seen him clearly listening and smiling! She wanted to shout that at him, but in this situation, she was at a disadvantage. Unless she gathered the courage to speak her true feelings, this stalemate would continue. Ariel looked up at the infuriating man with a sulky expression. Even now, that playful smile of his was getting on her nerves. She felt like she needed to get at least one good hit in to feel satisfied.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, she grabbed Edgar’s tie. He took it as a sign that she was finally ready to answer and turned his head with a wide smile. But what awaited him wasn’t a heartfelt confession from the girl. Instead—
“What, now you’re ready to—mmph!?”
Ariel yanked on his tie, stood on her tiptoes to match his height, and pressed her lips against his. Their shadows overlapped. It wasn’t the deep, passionate kiss of adults intertwining tongues. It was simply a kiss that conveyed a girl’s long-hidden feelings and everything that had happened today—more than enough. Perhaps it was because of the candy he had eaten earlier, but Ariel’s first kiss carried a faint, sweet strawberry scent.
When their lips finally parted, Ariel’s red eyes, bathed in moonlight, looked straight at him without a single trace of hesitation. As if she were trying to engrave proof that Edgar now belonged to her into his golden eyes.
“You have no idea how big a mistake you just made.”
“…What did I do wrong this time?”
“What do you mean? It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
Edgar replied incredulously, as if all he had done was confess once, but Ariel’s eyes remained steady and unwavering as she shrugged. She walked over to the railing, letting the cool night breeze wash over her, then turned back and placed a finger on her lips. It was a seductive smile Edgar had never seen from her before—one that almost seemed like that of a succubus tempting its prey.
“You made it so I can’t hold back anymore. From now on, whether you like it or not, you won’t be able to escape me.”
I’ll make sure you enjoy the days when I wasn’t honest with my feelings.
“I hope you behave yourself, my foolish lover.”
As he listened to her calmly reveal the feelings she had hidden for so long, Edgar found himself smiling wryly without realizing it. Maybe he really had fallen for an outrageous woman.