White Night
Scratch, scratch.
The girl seated at the desk moved the pen in her hand busily over the page.
With every motion of her hand, black ink darted wildly beyond the neat little square boxes and ran wherever it pleased.
The girl paused and looked down at the letters that had strayed outside the lines with obvious dissatisfaction, but when her hand started moving again, she did not become any more careful than before. The characters born beneath her fingers, like all the others, slipped free of the square cage confining them and went striding out into the wide world.
Daeun gently stroked the girl’s pink hair as she talked with Celine.
“...That’s what happened.”
“So much has happened while I was gone. If I had known you’d go through so much hardship, I would have gone with you...”
“Oh, no, no. I didn’t suffer at all thanks to Canaria. Well, I did think I might be leaving for Lady Edel’s side for a second when Canaria carried me and flew through the sky.”
“Hehe. Saying it like that makes me want to experience it myself.”
“Oh, no, you absolutely can’t say things like that even as a joke!”
Having teased her, Celine replied with even greater playfulness.
Daeun was so startled by the answer she quickly tried to stop her.
That... that just wasn’t something a person should do.
When she first ended up on Canaria’s back, Daeun had imagined the romantic sight of a movie’s hero and heroine walking hand in hand across the sky, but she had learned the hard way that reality and film were two very different things.
Reality...
Lost in her own thoughts, Daeun repeated the word to herself.
If viewers had heard her, they would have mocked her for being addicted to games.
But unless she said it out loud, there was no way they could know what she was thinking.
Well, even if they did hear it—
“It wouldn’t really matter.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, just talking to myself.”
Daeun brushed aside Celine’s confusion as though it were nothing important.
Even if she explained it honestly, Celine would just fail to understand because of the filter anyway.
No, she wouldn’t just fail to understand; she wouldn’t even be able to hear it.
...
Daeun shook her head and cast off the sour feeling.
“Anyway, I think we’ll need to stay in Valtora for about another week.”
A week. The time Brondein needed to finish the magic tool.
For a custom-made tool using a Dragon Orb as its material, that was remarkably short—not even a standard magic tool, but something made to order from one.
Asie had worried about it after hearing Brondein say so, but the dwarf had only laughed heartily, his beard flying.
“Bah, I can make it if I stay up a few nights, can’t I?”
No matter how you listened, it sounded like nothing but cause for concern, but no one dared argue with him.
The dwarves were a race so famed for crafting that none could dispute them in such a matter. Who would dare?
The only problem was that Max, Brondein’s partner, had disappeared, and there was no one left to inscribe the magic.
...You want me to?
Don’t want to?
No! I’ll do it! Please let me do it!
That issue had been solved by forming a new partnership with the magician who had helped find Max.
There had also been conditions, like showing them the ring Canaria wore during the work period, but they weren’t difficult at all, so she had agreed readily enough.
“Then I suppose the two of you have accomplished your purpose in Valtora splendidly.”
“Hmm... I guess so? The process was a little grimy, though.”
“Please don’t worry too much. Even Lady Edel, who makes mercy her virtue, would never forgive people like that.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. Still, the fact that you think that way only proves how kind you are, Lady Yoni.”
“Aww, why would you say something embarrassing like that?”
At Celine’s sudden remark, Daeun’s face heated up and she fanned herself with her hand.
It wasn’t to the point of wanting to crawl into a mouse hole, but she was too embarrassed to meet Celine’s eyes, and after darting her gaze around awkwardly she finally spotted the paper Canaria was scribbling on.
And the trails of ink dancing across the page, more like drawings than letters.
“Ah! Canaria! You have to write within the lines—if you keep going like that, everything will spill out!”
“...It’s annoying.”
“If you write carelessly because it’s annoying, your handwriting won’t get any prettier!”
“It’s not like I’m showing it to anyone. What does that matter?”
“E-even so, if you write properly, it’s easier to focus, and it’s easier to read too...”
“Hmm.”
Though Daeun racked her brain and came up with reasons, Canaria still seemed unimpressed.
At last, Daeun brought out her trump card.
“If you write all crooked like that, it’ll look like a little kid wrote it. Right, Celine?”
“Huh? Ah, y-yes, indeed. Lady Yoni is correct.”
“...Idiot.”
At Daeun’s momentum, Celine nodded without even knowing what she was agreeing to and answered obediently.
Canaria looked at them both with obvious contempt, sighed, and resumed writing where she had left off.
The black ink adorning the white paper was now neatly trapped within the square lines, unlike before.
* * *
One week later.
With dawn come and our bags packed, we left the church and headed for Brondein’s workshop.
“Waaah...!”
The instant Daeun’s mouth fell open, a cry of delight burst from her lips.
“So, what do you think? Does it suit you?”
“Of course it does!”
How could I possibly not like this!
Seeing Daeun smile so blissfully, Brondein’s face, which had been lined with fatigue, seemed to lighten a little.
I examined the ring-shaped magic tool Brondein handed her.
Honestly, with my complete lack of aesthetic sense, I was only thinking, Sure, it’s pretty, but is it really that pretty? But...
If the person receiving it likes it, that’s what matters.
Watching her bounce on the balls of her feet with delight, I nodded.
It wasn’t something I’d be wearing anyway.
“Thank you, Canaria...! I’ll take good care of it!”
“...Why are you thanking me for that?”
“Because without Canaria, I never would’ve gotten it! And you paid for it too... I could have paid for part of it, you know. ...Should I pay now?”
“It’s fine.”
I was the one insisting on dragging her into dangerous Laxia, so this was the least I could do.
Though, knowing Daeun’s personality, I doubted she would have come with me even without my stubbornness.
“How could I take money when you’re saying it with your hands shaking like that?”
“What? M-me? I was shaking? No way...! Though I guess I am just a little short on money...”
“Ha. I was joking.”
Daeun jerked in alarm, looked down at her own hand, and then puffed out her lips.
Our relationship had grown much closer than when we first met in the mountains.
When I stretched out my arm toward the girl who stood several spans taller than I did, the bracelet on my wrist swayed with a faint chime.
“It’s a thank-you for the bracelet. ...Now that I think about it, I never really repaid you.”
“...You didn’t give me something grand enough to deserve one of these. It was just a bracelet from a street stall.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
With a soft smile, I denied her words.
“It was something amazing to me.”
After all, value wasn’t determined by price alone.
As Daeun listened quietly, some unreadable light filled her eyes.
For a moment, a chill of unease ran down my spine.
At this pattern, surely...
Hug!
“Canaria...!”
“Urk.”
Again. Yet again, I was pulled into Daeun’s arms, and with a sigh of resignation I accepted the embrace.
...Yep, there it is again.
I’m used to this kind of development by now.
Still—
“You’re squeezing me...”
I wasn’t saying not to hug me, so could she maybe do it a little more gently?
But Daeun’s arms around me didn’t loosen; if anything, she held me even tighter.
When I finally gave up and let her keep holding me, a muffled voice drifted down from above my head.
“...I’ll really, really treasure it.”
“Do whatever you want.”
This kind of warm, fluttery atmosphere isn’t really my thing.
With my arms dangling limply, I raised them and carefully patted Daeun’s back.
Gently, so I wouldn’t accidentally make her burst or break.
As if that had been a signal, her arms slowly loosened.
Her voice had sounded wet, so I’d wondered whether she was crying, but when I was finally released from the hug and looked up at her, there wasn’t a single tear on her face.
The tip of her nose was red, and her eyes were so watery they seemed on the verge of tears, but that was all.
“Ahem, ahem!”
At the sound of a cough, we turned and saw Brondein looking rather awkward.
“You two are as close as sisters. A very fine sight, that.”
Still, could we explain things now?
Daeun stepped away from me and laughed bashfully.
“Ah... sorry.”
“I understand perfectly well how you feel. But I haven’t slept for days, and I feel like I’m about to collapse from exhaustion. Normally, this sort of explanation should come from a magician rather than me, but... I went and passed out the moment the work was finished, so what can you do?”
Brondein rubbed his bloodshot eyes.
With each passing day, the redness had spread until now his eyes were as red as a rabbit’s, and then some.
As someone who had visited him every day, I could clearly feel the change in him.
His gaze landed on the ring I wore.
“...To be honest, I do regret it a bit. If my skill were greater, I could have made it better.”
When I had asked Brondein for help, I never told him what shape I wanted the magic tool to take.
So the fact that the tool for Daeun had been made in the form of a ring was entirely Brondein’s choice.
If he hadn’t gone flying off with inspiration after seeing the blessing I carried from Grasid, it might have taken another form altogether.
“The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. What sort of craftsman made an item like that...?”
At his voice, tinged with both envy and awe, I shrugged.
I still hadn’t told him that it was not a craftsman but a dragon who had made it.
Not because I thought he wouldn’t believe me.
Quite the opposite—I knew he would.
I wasn’t about to tell a man who bragged about buying a Dragon Orb while drunk that story.
Brondein’s words were half grumbling anyway; he didn’t seem to be expecting an answer from me.
Instead of pressing further, he shifted the topic to the ring.
Why he had chosen this design, how durable it was, what sort of magic had been inscribed into it.
He chattered on excitedly, sprinkling in plenty of self-praise as always, until at last he yawned so wide it looked as if his face might split.
By then, the story had worked its way all the way back to his childhood.
He wiped away the tears gathered at the corners of his eyes and rubbed them again.
“I really must go to sleep now. I’ve still got plenty more I’d like to talk about.”
“T-thank you so much for making such a wonderful item! You must have worked yourself to the bone, so please get some proper rest!”
“That’s right, Master. You might collapse if you keep going like this.”
Daeun and Asie, who had become his formal disciple after the last incident, joined forces and pushed Brondein’s back toward the bedroom.
“If it’s fatigue, I can heal him—”
“—Shh.”
Letting Celine finish what she was about to say would only lead to trouble.
Sensing that instinctively, I clapped a hand over Celine’s mouth.
“Mm?”
“Ahaha! It’s nothing.”
Despite his fierce resistance, Brondein was finally no match for the two of them and disappeared into the bedroom.
Only then did peace return, and the rest of us let out collective sighs of relief.
“He really did look exhausted...”
Except for one person.
Celine still gazed longingly at the bedroom door, unable to let go of her regret, while the rest of us stared at her with dead eyes.
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