Chapter 56
Chapter 56
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 56
“I was just going to sit still, but I just apologized first.”
“How unusual. You apologized first.”
“Enna said too. I’m good at apologizing and complimenting. Only the brave can do that.”
Lucas, who had been messing around with snacks and chattering for a long time, suddenly raised his head and looked at Izmel. He seemed somehow distracted.
Lucas asked, tapping the desk.
“Brother, are you listening?”
“…What?”
Izmel, who was halfway in his thoughts, turned his gaze to Lucas in surprise. Lucas pursed his lips and made a sad expression.
“What have you been thinking that much?”
Izmel shook his head at Lucas’s words.
“Nothing. I’m just a bit busy.”
He deliberately tidied up the stack of papers on the desk. As a result, it was only a matter of touching the documents that were already laid out neatly.
Lucas, who was staring at his brother’s clumsy movements, smiled mischievously.
“Hmmmm. Did you fight too?”
“What?”
“Did you fight with Teacher?”
Izmel, stabbed to the point by his little brother, shrugged his shoulders.
“To fight. We aren’t children.”
Lucas burst into laughter as Izmel got angry.
“Lie.”
“I don’t lie.”
“A lie again.”
Lucas took a bite of the cookie and shook his head leisurely.
“…I just made a unilateral mistake.”
“What is unilateral?”
“Eleanor did nothing wrong, and I did something wrong.”
It was only then that Lucas nodded slowly as if he understood. Lucas clicked his tongue and criticized his brother
“You should have done well.”
Demi’s brother and Enna’s uncle get along well with her, tjhough.
If it was like before, the words of rebuttal or questioning would have returned immediately. Yet somehow he was quiet.
Lucas looked up at him and saw Izmel’s sullen face. Dark ink rain clouds seemed to hang low only over his head.
“I know…”
Should I tease him more or not? After thinking for a moment, Lucas rested his chin on his hands and met Izmel’s eyes.
“Brother should apologize first.”
“I did.”
“Teacher said she won’t forgive you?”
“No. She said it’s fine.”
“But?”
Lucas tilted his head, as if he didn’t understand. If you said sorry and heard it was fine, wouldn’t it be over?
Izmel laughed weakly and ran his hand through Lucas’s hair.
“It’s okay if you don’t know yet, Luke.”
Izmel stuffed Lucas’ pockets full of snacks. He lifted his tiptoe and patted Izmel on the shoulder.
Lucas let out a long sigh as he left Izmel’s office.
‘I have no choice but to step in.’
Lucas’s little mind was busy planning to reconcile the two of them.
***
An invitation has arrived from Lucas. Very unexpectedly.
[Hello. I’m ‘invieting’ Teacher to my hideout.]
Eleanor grinned when she noticed a spelling mistake. But this time, there was only one, so if it was progress, it was progress.
‘Maybe someday Lucas will write a nice letter like His Highness.’
A letter that starts with a polite greeting then ends with a witty postscript and a nice signature. Eleanor felt that on such a day she would feel a little sad.
In any case, it was impossible to ignore an invitation with a crookedly hand-drawn map.
“Even though I’m a bit anxious… Luke invited me personally, so I have to go.”
Eleanor took a carriage to the Imperial Palace. The weather got hotter. She could see early summer in the light green landscape through the carriage window.
Thanks to the mark of the Empress and Izmel, she was able to ride the carriage deep into the Imperial Palace, but she had to walk a long way to reach the place marked by Lucas.
“It seems like I keep going into the mountains, though… Is this right?”
Eleanor looked around, slightly uneasy. Trees so tall and old that even her outstretched arms couldn’t hold them all were disoriented.
“I think it should appear at this point.”
It was around the time that her feet started to throb a little. At the end of Eleanor’s vision was a small wooden cabin. It seemed that this was the identity of the figure Lucas drew under the letter.
“Whoa! I’ve only seen it in foreign movies.”
The cabin, which was built two stories high, had a mysterious yet fairytale-like atmosphere. Her heart started beating fast.
Eleanor walked up carefully with steep steps. The floor creaked slightly as she entered the cabin cautiously.
“How nice…!”
A teapot, two small teacups, and beautifully stacked cookies were placed on a small table in the cabin. The pretty pink tea was still warm.
What is that?
Eleanor reached out the moment she found a palm-sized note lying under the tray.
[Teacher and Brother also need to talk to each other and solve the fight. When you reconcile, you feel good.
By Lucas]
Eleanor let out a laugh dejectedly.
The whole thing was cutely designed by Lucas to ease the awkwardness between Izmel and her. It was the same way that reconciled Sienna and Lucas.
“Luke, this brat…”
She sat down on the old rug. It smelled a bit of old dust, but not to the point of being unpleasant.
Eleanor, who had been looking around, approached the little bookshelf in the corner. A few dusty wooden swords stood at an angle next to the bookshelf, and several novels stained with hand stains were inserted into the bookshelf.
– Izmel Biden Pontius de Bellium. Do not touch.
Eleanor, inadvertently pulling out a book, opened her eyes wide at the words on the front page of the book. Although it’s not the current elegant handwriting, the straight handwriting was cute.
It said don’t touch it, should I just put it down? His Highness when he was a kid might have been like that, but would the current him allow it?
A fierce conflict arose inside Eleanor.
“Let’s sneak a look and put it in.”
Eleanor pulled over a plaid blanket that looked like Izmel’s, and sat with her back against the wall.
She remembered something she had been overlooking. Clearly, this place was reserved for two people. Yet she was the only one here from earlier.
Eleanor looked toward the door and pricked up her ears.
“Anyway, according to the note, shouldn’t His Highness be here by now?”
***
As usual, or more precisely, as it had been since the ball, Izmel was having a rather gloomy and lethargic day.
Since he assigned Dwight to Hildegard, Izmel’s workload has increased. Izmel thought it was a good thing. It was harder for him to keep his thoughts of Eleanor off while he wasn’t working.
‘I didn’t know it would bother me this much.’
Izmel slumped back in his seat and tousled his hair. After a short meeting, letters and official documents to be dealt with were piled up on the desk.
“Your Highness.”
Then Henry approached cautiously. His expression was heavy.
“The obituary of Prince Fernando has arrived.”
Thud. A corner of his chest rang like a drum. Izmel slowly put down what he was holding in his hand.
“It will be nice if you can show your face, even for a moment.”
“…Of course. Of course I have to go.”
Izmel, who came to his senses belatedly, raised his head and nodded. Pressing down on his throbbing temple, Henry prepared for his clothes and carriage.
Inside the rattling carriage, Izmel was exceptionally silent. His face was expressionless as he slowly read the words of condolence Henry had handed to him.
He seemed to have no emotion at all, and at the same time, his expression was complicated with too many emotions mixed together.
Henry asked anxiously, looking at him.
“Are you okay, Your Highness?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
Izmel raised the corner of his lips accustomed to it. His gaze was still unmoved from a single line of the mourning speech written in elegant strokes.
– Rest in peace.
“Because Prince Fernando was Your Highness’ teacher. He had been teaching Your Highness for quite some time.”
“Yes, about seven years.”
“You must have many memories.”
At Henry’s words, Izmel lifted his head and met his eyes.
“I do.”
Izmel looked at the coffin in front of him with a strange expression throughout the funeral. The death of his old master evoked feelings in him that he couldn’t explain.
What are those feelings, he wonders.
Sadness? Vanity? Or else…
Even The slightest flaw couldn’t be found as he sat with his back stood still. He recited a condolence speech with a solemn face, left an elegant smile at those who gathered to greet him, and boarded the carriage.
No one noticed that his emotions were fluctuating greatly. Even the chief aide, Henry, with whom he has worked with for years.
“It looks like it will rain.”
Izmel, riding in the carriage, looked up at the cloudy sky and murmured quietly.
“It seems like a sudden heavy rain is coming.”
“I know.”
“How about just going in and resting today?”
Izmel shook his head at Henry’s suggestion.
“Looking at it earlier, there were a lot of things piled up on the desk. I don’t think it’s wrong to relax when I know I have work to do.”
“There will be no urgency. I’m worried that you seem to be overdoing it these days.”
Izmel patted Henry lightly on the shoulder as if he was okay. He entered his familiar space and buried himself deeply in his chair. Izmel felt like she could breathe.
Izmel, who closed his eyes for a moment and calmed his emotions, pulled the pile of papers in front of him.
Flutter
A sheet of paper, clumsily wedged between the neat documents, fell onto the desk.
‘What?’
[I’ll help Brother reconcile with Teacher. Don’t mess it up this time! Got it!!!
By Lucas]
Izmel’s eyes widened. He hurriedly took out his pocket watch and checked the time.
“Shit!”
Two hours had already passed since the time Lucas had written on the note.
Izmel, who crumpled Lucas’s note with one hand, sprinted away.
Henry called out loudly from behind, and the passing officials looked at him strangely. But at this moment, Izmel couldn’t see or hear anything.
When he came out, it was raining. The rain was quite heavy, yet it couldn’t stop Izmel from running frantically.
Izmel’s wet hair clung to his forehead. His eyebrows stung his eyes in the damp rain.
“Please, please…”
Throughout the run, Izmel muttered hundreds of times. What Lucas said was right. He couldn’t mess it up again.
Izmel stopped in front of the cabin, breathing heavily. It was a space filled with memories of his childhood.
‘It’s been a while.’
Meeting Eleanor here today, when the teacher who taught him at that time died, aroused a strange feeling.
“Eleanor!”
Izmel called out to Eleanor in a slightly cracked, locked voice. However, he got no answer back. The strength drained from his shoulders.
As expected, he ruined it all again.
It was when Izmel was about to take a heavy step like water-soaked cotton.
“Your Highness?”