A Flight Beneath the Stars
“Huh?”
She stared at me blankly at first, as if she hadn’t understood what I’d said. Then, a few seconds later, her eyes widened.
“W-what do you mean? Go out?”
“Exactly as I said. You must be tired of staying here all the time. It wouldn’t hurt to go out for a change.”
Needless to say, the thought that this choice was dangerous lingered in the back of my mind. Nothing catastrophic would suddenly happen, but no one except the great gods could know what kind of ripple a single small change might cause.
Perhaps this one outing would bring an end to our relationship. I hoped it wouldn’t, but unlike my companions, I had no power to turn hope into reality.
“It’s already late, but I doubt Lady Rofena would mind something like that.”
Even so, the reason I could do this was probably because, no matter how impulsive the urge had been, I had grown comfortable enough with her and the situation.
“Of course I’m fine with it, but……”
Yet instead of happily following along as I’d expected, she was glancing at me warily. At first I didn’t understand why, but then I remembered the last time I’d tried to let her out.
“Lady Rofena, don’t tell me you’re worried I might chase you away?”
If a prisoner started worrying about being allowed to leave her cell, that was a clear sign things were getting seriously complicated.
“You know I could take that crystal from you anytime, right?”
“Not just the crystal.”
If she wanted, ripping my arm off wouldn’t be difficult either.
“Then what are you worried about?”
“I’m just surprised. You suddenly asked me to go out with you.”
“Should we not go, then?”
She smiled and summoned flames to her palm, so I had no choice but to shut my mouth.
“Yes, yes. I understand. Still, you must completely hide your presence.”
“I know. Who do you think I am?”
She stood up and pulled me to my feet.
“Let’s go quickly.”
The anticipation in her voice made me think I’d made the right call, yet I still couldn’t shake the hesitation in my heart. Holding her hand, I left the study.
When we reached the inn room, she didn’t look around or check anything. She simply grabbed me and headed straight for the window. I thought she just wanted to see the outside after being cooped up so long, but then she tried to take off with me in tow.
“W-wait a second, Lady Rofena!”
At my urgent call she stopped. She turned back with an innocent expression.
“Why?”
She genuinely didn’t seem to understand why I was so startled.
“If you suddenly try to fly off like that, what am I supposed to do?”
Thankfully I’d kept my voice down in case someone heard. I’d almost woken the entire neighborhood.
“I’ll hide us. No one will see. And if I don’t, what else are we supposed to do? Just sit in this room that’s even smaller than the study?”
She wasn’t wrong. We had to leave somehow.
“You could at least warn me first. You startled me.”
The moment I said that, she gave me a strange smile.
“You’re scared of flying, aren’t you?”
It was the kind of mischievous smile an older sister might wear.
“Of course not.”
“Liar! Now that I think about it, whenever we were about to fight in the air, you always moved the fight back to the ground, didn’t you?”
I couldn’t fly on my own to begin with, and since I could only fight through summons anyway, there was no reason for me to engage in aerial combat.
“People who can’t fly prefer the ground. That’s all there is to it.”
“Then it doesn’t matter, right? Let’s prove it.”
“……”
Faced with such an obvious provocation, I could only nod.
“Haah. Fine.”
She smiled brightly, and I felt her mana wrap around me. Just as I tried to brace myself, we were already floating in the night sky. She looked at me and smiled again.
“See? You’re scared.”
I had to admit it. Suspended in that vast emptiness where I couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the sea began, with the ground impossibly far below, I couldn’t help but freeze up a little.
“H-how did we get this high? Where exactly are you planning to go?”
I’d only been thinking of staying within the island, but apparently that had been naïve of me.
“Anywhere you want.”
She stood proudly between the moon and stars and declared it. That confident expression, those shining eyes, her face illuminated by starlight and moonlight—I realized I had been staring at her in a daze.
For a brief moment, when our eyes met, I thought it didn’t matter where we went. Then her mana shifted, and we descended. We were still in the sky, but the distant city now twinkled with lights right beneath us, while the moon and stars hung far above our heads.
“But for now, this is enough.”
When I turned my head, the mountain that had seemed so far away was now right beside us. Even if we weren’t at the peak, moving a little closer would put us at the mountainside. As if reading my thoughts—or perhaps she’d intended this all along—she flew toward the mountain, and we landed on a small rock among the trees.
“How is it? Not scary anymore, right?”
Her playful smile wasn’t much different from usual, but her eyes held an unmistakable sense of liberation and joy. Of course she was happy. It had been a long time since she’d seen anything besides the study, felt the wind on her skin, or looked up at the stars and moon.
“I’m sorry it’s not somewhere more exciting.”
Seeing her like this, I felt both glad we’d come out and a pang of guilt. Taking her outside had clearly been the right decision. If anything, we should have done it sooner and more often. Of course, there had always been reasons we couldn’t.
But was this truly done purely for her sake, acting on a whim with no plan?
Maybe, without realizing it, I had been thinking that even this small indulgence was a great kindness and favor to her. Maybe I was already using her feelings to feed some petty sense of superiority.
Perhaps I wasn’t acting out of goodwill or trust at all. Maybe I was treating her like something I owned. If not, I should have thought of somewhere more fun, or something she would enjoy more……
“Stop it.”
“Excuse me?”
Her sudden words snapped me back to reality.
“You look like you’re lost in some pointless thought again. I’m right here.”
That warm single sentence, her calm yet firm voice, and the emotion in those beautiful eyes scattered everything crowding my mind like mist. As if by magic, no thoughts came to me. Then her hand touched mine.
“I’m here, Anak. So look at me properly.”
I didn’t know what to say or what to think. I heard a sound and thought it strange, only to realize it was my own heartbeat.
Old memories surfaced. Her completely different self from back then. I never could have imagined this situation even in my dreams.
I truly couldn’t do anything. Memories and thoughts rose chaotically, but they all felt distant and hazy, as if behind a fog. While I stood there lost in that silence, she saved me again.
“What’s so fun about having something anyway? Acrobats? Plays? Or balls that last all night?”
She made a playful face and pretended to shudder as if the very thought bored her. Only then did I come back to my senses.
“I guess that’s what the books said.”
My heartbeat was still loud enough to hear in my ears, but I said it anyway. Just how many books had Lord Georges given her?
“I don’t get what’s so good about those things.”
“Well, I’m not particularly fond of balls either. Still, some plays are quite good depending on the work and the troupe. Musicals too.”
“Musicals?”
“Ah, plays where the dialogue is sung.”
Maybe because of what had just happened, I was forcing myself to sound more cheerful than necessary, but the more I did, the more my heartbeat returned to normal, so I couldn’t help it.
“You like that?”
“Depends on the work and the troupe.”
In truth, most ordinary troupes didn’t even have proper orchestras or actors skilled enough to attempt a musical, so being able to perform one at all meant the troupe was large and talented. Even so, there had been plenty of disappointing performances.
Not the grand, lavish official performances held at noble or royal houses, but the ones local theaters or traveling troupes put on for commoners on the road before the main show—half practice, half service. It wasn’t uncommon for the male and female leads to forget their lines because of a hangover from the night before, or for the supporting cast’s songs to be skipped entirely.
Most of the musicals and plays I saw in Amusbian as a child were exactly like that. Back then, since I’d never seen a proper musical, I just thought that was normal.
Incidentally, that was why I was so shocked when I saw a proper musical performed by an invited troupe at the Academy later. No one missed a line or a note, and not just the leads—almost every role had its own song.
I’d been genuinely surprised when the actors playing servants started singing about brooms and mice. And then I was surprised again because the song was unexpectedly well done.
“Really? Then let’s go see one next time.”
She lightly jumped up and sat on a tree branch, looking down at me.
“Of course, only if you let me out again then.”
“Only if you promise not to leave in the middle because you’re bored.”
Knowing her personality, that was entirely possible. Or she might keep asking why the rival was singing about her plans right in front of her love interest.