A Surprise Gift for the Two Women (4)
I woke up beside Ellie and got straight to work.
On days when I even helped her with the morning duties, she seemed quite curious about what on earth I was planning.
But telling her in advance would dull both the surprise and the fun.
So no matter how many times she pressed me out of curiosity, I never let it slip.
And so, at one in the afternoon — the time I had set for our date.
The destination was the streets of Cumul Territory.
Had it been a week ago, the inspectors would have been shadowing our every step. But now that their investigation was complete, they had hurriedly left Cumul Territory, saying they needed to look over the other territories as well.
Thank goodness for that.
If they hadn't gone, a moment alone together like this would never have come.
The only task I had left was to spar with Yeon, who had received her new sword, and help her refine the power and precision of her blade work.
And honestly, it was mostly to keep her from getting bored.
After all, as long as I knew the feelings she held for me, I knew she would never leave my side.
And I knew I would miss her terribly if she went.
There were plenty of hidden artifacts and the like in the Eastern Empire that I'd have to go see eventually — but her being by my side and her being within reach whenever I pleased were two entirely different things.
With that, I finished my sparring session with Yeon and, for the first time in a while, returned to my own room.
Ever since the incident where Ellie had been ambushed in Haizi Territory, my mental state had been shaky, so I had given up my room for her sake and slept in her bedroom instead.
It was easier to fall asleep with someone beside me, too.
A little embarrassing to admit... but if you asked who gave Ellie the most sense of security right now, it would be me.
Ahem... I'll stop that train of thought right there.
I went into the bathroom and washed myself clean. When I came out, I began dressing in the clothes I'd laid out beforehand, neatly folded.
A loose-fitting white shirt, black slacks for the bottom. Sandals to finish it off.
The weather had shifted from early summer into full summer, so it was fine to dress a little light.
Just in case the evening turned chilly, I grabbed a cardigan and stepped out of the room.
Not long after I arrived at our predetermined meeting spot, I heard her voice — one that always sounded new to my ears no matter how many times I heard it.
Jeans and a plain white tee. On top of that, she'd thrown on an enormous oversized men's shirt that reached all the way down to her thighs.
Taking the hand of this beautifully dressed girl, we left the mansion together in perfect harmony.
The first place we visited after leaving the mansion was Cumul Street — the very street where we'd had our first date.
Walking side by side down that street, we found ourselves surrounded by things worth reminiscing over.
First, cotton candy.
The stall where we'd bought our very first cotton candy was still open for business.
I took Ellie's hand and led her toward it, and the stall owner said to us,
"Oh-ho! Aren't those the lovers who came by back then!"
And astonishingly, the owner remembered us.
Even though it had been roughly half a year since Ellie and I started dating, he still recalled us clearly.
"You remember us?"
At my question, the owner nodded and replied,
"Of course. The young lady back then was so unbelievably beautiful, I couldn't forget her if I tried."
That was fair enough.
Back then and now, Ellie possessed a captivating beauty that drew every man's gaze.
The difference, though, was that we hadn't been lovers back then — and now we truly were, which was exactly why we'd come back to revisit this stall.
"Just between you and me, sir — we weren't a couple back then."
At my words, the owner waved it off as if to say that was impossible.
"You two suited each other so perfectly that I went out of my way to spin it into a heart, the very shape of love, and yet..."
"But look, we really are a couple now, so please go easy on us."
With that, I lifted her hand, still firmly clasped in mine, and held it up for him to see.
The moment I raised our joined hands, Ellie jolted in surprise, pulled my arm back down, and flushed crimson.
Watching the two of us, the owner let out a hearty laugh and offered his praise.
"Hahaha! Good. Very good. Since it's come to this, why not go all the way to marriage? In my eyes, you two make the most perfect pair."
"Miss, if that man ever mistreats you or falls short of what you deserve, you tell me. I'll give him the scolding of his life."
At the cotton candy vendor's words, Ellie answered with a contented smile.
"I will. Thank you."
And with that, the owner took our order and set about making the cotton candy.
While he spun the sugar, I casually asked Ellie whether she'd really ask him to do it — and Ellie said,
"Hmm... I wonder...? I'll watch how Hyun does it first."
Deep in thought, she delivered a message thickly laced with the implication that if I messed up, I'd truly be in for it.
A chill ran down my spine.
With her, it was entirely possible.
When Ellie sets her mind to something, she genuinely does it.
Having taken up knighthood — a profession at the very extreme — in a woman's body, that disposition of hers burned all the stronger.
And then there was...
"There we go!"
Look at the arm muscles on that cotton candy vendor.
Even by my standards as a Successor of the Divine Beasts, a hit from those looked like it would land someone in the infirmary.
Resolving from the start never to give her a reason to stray, we took the heart-shaped cotton candy the vendor had made and left the stall.
As Ellie and I strolled down the street chatting about everyday things, we spotted an artist with a limp in one leg, drawing free portraits for passersby.
Her skill was breathtaking — no words of praise would have done it justice — and everyone who received a drawing hurried off, beaming, eager to show off the version of themselves captured on paper.
I met Ellie's eyes and said,
"Want to give that a try?"
When I pointed at the painter sketching people on the street, Ellie — apparently just as unfamiliar with the idea as I'd expected — nodded and agreed.
On the Hung Continent, art of any kind — painting, writing — was simply never displayed on the streets.
Unlike Earth, the accepted wisdom here was that showing your art to others freely brought no benefit whatsoever and might even cost you your hard-won techniques.
So those who practiced the arts rarely revealed their craft to just anyone.
It was also a kind of stubborn pride — the belief that art should speak through the work alone and nothing else.
In that kind of world, standing in the middle of a street drawing strangers' portraits was quite an unusual sight, at least within the imperial domain.
And yet here, both the artist and those receiving the drawings wore smiles that never left their faces.
Maybe this was fine.
Walking up to the artist together with Ellie, I asked,
"Could you draw a picture of us?"
At my words, the artist looked us over and said,
"Oh my... what a beautiful pair you make..."
She spared no expense on the compliments — if anything, she sounded as if she should be begging us to let her paint us.
We smiled at her reaction and took our seats.
"It won't take long to finish. About fifteen minutes, so please bear with me."
"Of course."
Fifteen minutes... long if you call it long, short if you call it short.
For us, it wasn't long at all.
If anything, we treasured time like this.
We'd both been so busy lately that even holding hands had become a rare luxury.
Part of why I'd planned all this was for my own sake too.
I was worn down emotionally as well.
And so Ellie and I, beneath the warm sun of early summer, held each other's hands and let the warmth of one another's skin seep in.
Time slipped by, and the brushstrokes grew fewer than they had been when she'd been capturing us in earnest — the painting was nearly done.
Meanwhile, a crowd had gradually gathered behind the artist, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the portrait she was making of us.
Any other artist would have flown into a rage — what did they think they were doing? But the one painting us simply smiled and carried on her work with evident joy.
At last—
"It's finished."
The artist announced that she was done, and we — mindful of her bad leg — stepped over to her and received the painting ourselves.
When we saw it, we were stunned by the quality. It was the work of a true master.
The us in the painting were gazing at each other, smiling brightly as though we were happy beyond measure — because we were.
Not a single sketch line remained; the work was impossibly clean. As we thanked the artist and reached for a reward,
"Please, don't trouble yourself with money. Seeing my customers smile like that brings me joy too — that's why I do this work. Keep your coin."
But we pressed one gold coin firmly into her hand anyway and hurried away before she could refuse.
An artist capable of work this fine deserved her due, after all.
And so, gazing at each other's painted smiles, we launched into conversation all over again.
By the time the hours had worn on, it was around four in the afternoon.
We'd stopped by a café in between for a light snack and to while away some time, and the day had vanished in what felt like an instant.
Then a shop caught my eye.
- Whoosh! Thwack! Bullseye!
Come to think of it, I remember this place.
This was where Ellie had won that bet, earned her one wish, and confessed her feelings to me.
When I mentioned it, the memory seemed to surface for her too.
"Do you know how nervous I was back then?"
"Nervous? You didn't look nervous at all...?"
At my response, she thumped her own chest once and declared,
"What woman on earth confesses her heart to the man she loves without being nervous?!"
"Really? How long had you liked me before that?"
At my teasing question, Ellie's face flushed in an instant and she ducked her head to hide it.
Not that it helped — her ears were scarlet and plain as day.
"Back then I called you 'Ellie,' but it used to be 'Noona.' Should I try calling you Noona again today, for old times' sake?"
"Don't... Call me Ellie."
I'd asked half in jest, recalling the past — but my beloved clearly preferred the pet name Ellie to Noona.
A shame, but the darts and the like would have to wait for next time.
There was still one more place we needed to visit.
We found it: a blacksmith's forge.
Naturally, I'd thought of the old master's workshop, but Ellie insisted that a sword too fine was wasted on a novice, so we sought out an ordinary forge instead.
Ellie also knew that I'd already passed on the famed blade Mogleigh to Yeon.
I'd told her about it before handing it over, after all.
If I hadn't, she might have felt slighted.
"Should we teach him the two-handed sword, since he's a boy?"
"I think a well-balanced one-handed sword suits him better, don't you?"
The reason we were agonizing over a blade right now was that the sword we chose would go to Leon.
After Haizi Territory fell, Leon had begged Ellie to take him on as a butler of House Cumul.
Ellie had refused, of course — but Leon had pressed his forehead to the floor until it bled, showing the depths of his resolve.
Faced with that resolve, she had laid down a single condition.
One year.
One year of learning under Edgar — one year to prove that he had changed.
In other words, for twelve months, Leon would have to strip away the label of traitor that had been fastened to him. It was a kind of trial Ellie had set for him.
Leon had accepted — but there was something he hadn't known.
The butlers of House Cumul were all, without exception, formidable in combat.
The current head butler, Edgar, was skilled enough to serve as Vice Commander of the Azure Scale Knights, after all.
Leon, naturally, knew less than the first stroke of swordsmanship — but Edgar had taken one look at him and pronounced him talented.
And so Leon would receive butler training alongside sword lessons, just as I once had.
The only problem was that he had no sword of his own yet, so Ellie and I had agreed together to buy him one.
Which was why we now stood in the blacksmith's shop.
"How about this one?"
What caught my eye was a short blade.
The kind of short sword I myself had used so often.
It was a shortsword.
These days my Sword of the Azure Sky shifted forms and took the shape of a longsword — but there was a time when I'd wielded a shortsword myself, so I knew its advantages intimately.
One of those advantages: it was light enough for even a small child to lift.
A longsword's blade is long and heavy; children can barely manage the weight.
If they can't even handle the weapon, how are they supposed to learn the art?
Far better to drill him with a short blade until it's second nature, then graduate him to a longsword.
Ellie evidently approved of my reasoning, because she settled on the shortsword as well — and with a gift for our little butler in hand, we left the forge.
Having lost track of time picking out a sword, my stomach had begun to grumble.
Hardly surprising, when our lunch had been little more than a light snack.
As we browsed the street, we came across a restaurant.
A specialty house devoted entirely to egg dishes.
Ellie adores anything made with eggs.
The fluffy texture, the soft mouthfeel, the rich flavor, the dense nutrition — eggs were one of her staple ingredients.
"Ellie, there's an egg restaurant over there. Want to try it?"
"Huh? Really? Let's go."
Sure enough, a light gleamed in her eyes.
By her reaction, even Ellie hadn't known a place like this existed.
When we pushed open the door, quite a few patrons were already seated. Scanning the tables as we made our way inside, it quickly became clear that most of the customers were eating omelets.
The moment we sat down, a waiter swept over and took our order.
After placing it, we decided to split each other's dishes — partly for fun, and partly because the menu names were so strange that even I, a seasoned gamer, had never heard most of them.
"Fluffy Omelet" and "Bunsi Stir-Fried Eggs"... whoever named them, I could tell their sense for naming left something to be desired.
The food arrived faster than expected.
In front of Ellie: an omelet crowned with a half-cooked egg crepe in white and yellow, a brown sauce pooled across the bottom of the plate.
In front of me: a comfortingly familiar tomato-and-egg stir-fry served over rice.
So bunsi was tomato?
Relieved that neither of us had gambled wrong, I let out a quiet sigh.
This tastes good.
Ellie, evidently encountering this combination for the first time, tilted her head and stared at my plate.
Once the meal began, we traded bites of each other's food, asked about the things weighing on her mind and on mine, and — now and then — strayed into conversations only lovers are permitted, making the meal a thoroughly enjoyable one.
Ellie finished her food looking just as delighted; her face was in full bloom.
When I checked the clock inside, it was eight in the evening.
We'd lingered so long over dinner and conversation that the sky outside had already gone dark.
We settled the bill and stepped out of the restaurant.
"I guess it's time to head back?"
At Ellie's words, I took her hand.
"Nope. There's still one place left."
"Where?"
Ellie tilted her head slightly to the right, wearing an expression of pure surprise.
"Somewhere you know well."
And with that, holding her hand, I began walking toward the place where she had once confessed her feelings to me.
As we drew near, Ellie spoke up.
"Huh...? This is...?"
So it was only now dawning on her.
Come to think of it, Ellie has an almost unnervingly sharp eye for everything concerning me, yet she's hardly quick on the uptake about anything else.
Well, that's how much attention she pays me, so I'm grateful.
Though sometimes she reads me so perfectly it's almost eerie.
And so we climbed the steps slowly, until at last we reached the place where Ellie had once laid her heart bare before me.
But—
"It's not fireworks time right now, though...?"
The only difference from that night was that not a single soul stood ready to launch them.
"Hyun-ah. Even so, you brought me all the way here thinking of me, didn't you? Thank you."
Ellie took my hand and smiled brightly.
Even in the darkness, her smile shone like the noonday sun.
"It's a shame, though. The fireworks here were really beautiful."
- Crescent. I need you.
- You are the Guardian's contracted one — of course I'll grant your wish!
Merging the skill Heavenly Mandate Flower Divine with the Moon Dragon's authority to recreate a domain of power!
Moonlight Dance manifests at the caster's feet!
Feeling the domain of my authority unfurl, Ellie shot me a bewildered look — but I only smiled at her and called the domain of moonlight into being.
From this moment, this place became a world where only Ellie and I existed.
With a veil of illusion draped over everything around us, no one could tell we were here.
Before long, bright moonlight began to fall upon her.
Unlike the fireworks, this gentle silver glow bathed her golden hair in radiant light.
"Hy... Hyun-ah... What... what is this...?"
To her, fidgeting as she watched me, I sank down onto one knee.
"Wh... what—?"
"Ellie, you said it yourself, didn't you? That you wanted to confess your feelings to me before the Tide of Corruption arrived."
"Yes."
Ellie nodded, affirming my words.
"I felt the same. I'm a Successor. The vanguard who must always stand at the front of the battlefield and seize victory, no matter the cost."
"..."
"I'm the same way. I'm not saying I'm going to die — but I might have to say words like these to you again someday. And truthfully, I'm surprisingly shy, so I'm not good at saying things like this."
"But if I ever do die — my resting place won't be some distant meadow or forest. It'll be the seat beside you, Ellie."
"I was the one who saved you as you walked through the darkness. But you, too, saved me as I walked through my own."
To me — a boy who had lost his family, left with no passion, no drive, not even the barest instinct to survive—
she became the force that drove me to live on, and the very meaning of my life.
She became my hope. She became my light.
Because she existed, I fought to survive inside that game. To save her, I ran, and ran, and ran again.
The one who came to me after I lost my family — that precious person was you.
I was your salvation, and you were mine.
We saved each other, pushed each other forward, and breathed hope into this world all over again.
"So this time... it's my turn to say it."
I rose to my feet once more and placed my hand on her bowed face, guiding her eyes up to mine.
And there she was, looking back at me with eyes brimming with tears.
"I love you. Always — my light, and the one who saved me."
"Alice Cumul. I love you."
With those words, I drew out a small box and took from it a ring set with diamonds.
Not an enormous stone — five modest diamonds set in a line along the band.
Brilliant gold light coiled around the diamonds, curving gracefully to embrace each stone in an antique setting.
I lifted the ring from the box and offered it to its rightful owner.
The ring sliding onto Ellie's ring finger gleamed in the moonlight.
Then she snatched the box away, plucked out the ring beside it —
and slid it onto my left ring finger.
Then she buried herself in my arms and whispered,
"I love you too... Hyun-ah. What am I supposed to do...?! My heart is beating so fast...!"
"Don't worry. So is mine."
I drew her ear close to my chest and let her listen to my heartbeat.
That pulse, faster than usual, became a single sound declaring everything I felt for her.
"I will love you, always."
Then I drew Ellie back from my embrace and pressed my lips to hers.
The moment our lips met, the bright moonlight poured down over our heads.
And that silver glow would shine all the brighter upon the rings on our left hands.
For as long as my love for her never fades, the ring on her left hand will shine brilliantly — forever.