chapter 26
“What do you mean all of a sudden?”
“Should I just stay here instead of going to the academy?”
He looked at Yurina with a more serious face than before. Yurina couldn’t read his mind at all.
“I heard from the professor earlier. If I go to the academy, I can’t be able return to the Empire until I graduate.”
That was a fact that Yurina already knew.
Regardless of their status, the Royal Academy of Crohn provides full tuition and living expenses in the Crohn Royal. The new students had to work for the royal family until graduation.
In order to prevent running away in the middle, students were strictly prohibited from entering and leaving the country.
It is known that the system was introduced to allow ordinary people who feel the burden of tuition fees can receive education without discrimination, but in fact, it was a kind of scheme to keep magical talents in the kingdom.
Very often, if you have a really talented person, you can hold them in the kingdom as a way to defer graduation with various excuses.
‘Raynald is back safely, so it doesn’t matter.’
She wondered why the kingdom didn’t hold Charion and let him graduate, but Yurina carefully guessed that his skills were superior to the professors and were impeccable.
As he looked at Yurina nodding her head calmly, Raynald asked in an embarrassed voice.
“Did you… know?”
His trembling voice sounded as if he were reproaching her. Because of that, Yurina could not answer at first glance. Raynald tangled his hair rather roughly, as if he had realized the meaning of silence.
“You already know, but why?”
“…..”
“You know I won’t be able to meet you for years if I go there, but why?”
His eyes filled with resentment became a dagger and stuck in his chest. He looked at her then turned his back on her, covering his face with his hands. Yurina couldn’t even look at his back, so she bowed her head.
The heavy silence crushed the shoulders of the two. Unable to bear the awkwardness, Yurina opened her mouth first.
“Ray, you know, the Royal Academy of Crohn is the best of the existing academies. Dave went there, too. I thought it was the best option for you.”
“I can learn it here, too.”
I could hear the sound of a stifled throat as if I had clenched my teeth.
“You said I’d protect you. Yeah, you brought me here. I came here believing in you. I don’t need an academy or anything. I only believe in you and I’m here! But you, you…!”
Are you throwing me away?
Yurina overheard words of resentment that did not come out of his mouth. It may have been a hallucination created by her imagination, but what he was trying to say would not have been all he could have said.
I couldn’t figure out why I made such a ridiculous suggestion. It just crossed my mind.
Wouldn’t it be okay to spend time with him every day like now? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to forget about the original and enjoy these moments that won’t come again with him?
The time with him was so sweet that I didn’t want to lose him. When I saw him for the first time, it was an idea I had never imagined.
‘Maybe, unlike the original, Ray wouldn’t give his heart if he saw Lydia.’
Obviously, there has always been a story about the female characters worrying about the original work in the possessed book that they have read in the past. However, as the story progressed, the male lead or sub male lead fell in love with the female lead’s unique charm.
In some cases, she didn’t pay any attention to the heroine of the original work. Then there was a groundless expectation that Raynald might also be able to go on a different route from the original.
So the irrational idea of trusting Raynald dominated my mind.
Raynald, who was biting his mouth without affirmation or denial, came one step closer and asked instead of answering.
“I wanted to ask you something at once, can I?”
It had nothing to do with what I was saying a little while ago, but Yurina nodded without pointing it out.
“Yes.”
“That’s when we first met. You obviously told my teacher and the Marquis that you wanted to support me impulsively with my red eyes. He said he saw my eyes and remembered the story you had heard one day and believed I had magical powers.”
“Yes, I did.”
“You said you were amazed at me, but my memory is a little different. You obviously weren’t surprised when you saw me then, but were happy.”
He’s right about that. At that time, Yurina was excited with the joy that she could change her fate. But what’s wrong with that now? Does he bring up such a story?
“Yurina, I know it’s funny, and I know it sounds silly….”
“Tell me.”
“Did you know you were going to meet me?”
He started calmly, but his voice trembled toward the end. Yurina looked at his red eyes mixed with all kinds of emotions and closed her eyes.
When she first saw him, like his words, she was delighted.
The joy of not having to die and the sense of accomplishment that she changed her fate with her own hands. It was her own secret that she would never tell anyone else. To hide this, she even pretended to be a 10-year-old in front of her father and Dave.
Strangely enough, however, it seemed to Raynald that she might have a little secret.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Yurina opened her closed eyes and looked up at him, whose eyes were already wide apart.
“I was looking for you then. Don’t ask me how I knew your existence. But I knew you’d be somewhere, and I’d been going around the orphanage looking for you. Only to find you.”
“…..”
“And when I found you that day, I was so happy. You will never know the joy I felt at that time.”
Yurina took off her gloves and reached out toward him with a clenched molar. I wanted to get a little closer to him. I wanted to feel his warmth.
“Ray, I’ve been waiting for you all along.”
He looked at her trembling hands and remained silent for a moment. Yurina waited silently for his answer. As he closed his eyes for a while and took a breath, he whispered in a low voice.
“Yeah, that’s enough for me.”
He approached and took Yurina’s hand and kissed her soft palm.
“That’s all I need.”
Every time he uttered a word, Yurina wriggled her finger, feeling unfamiliar with the hot breath that touched her palm.
When Raynald kiss her soft palm with his lips and releases it, there was a bit of a watery noise comes out. It was a minor contact, but Yurina’s face also gradually turned red. She must be an innocent 10-year-old child.
“You always think and act a lot. There must be a good reason to send me to the academy. I’ll go to the academy. If that’s what you want.”
He put Yurina’s hand on his cheek and laughed. His smiling face in the white snow seemed somewhat desolate and almost to tears.
Yurina looked at the boy’s face when he was beginning to grow, and touched his cheek with her other hand.
*****
A few days later, he left for the Crohn Kingdom with people from the academy. It was only one person, but the great mansion was as silent as empty. Oh no, is it her heart that is empty?
Yurina sat by the window, gazed blankly at where the carriage had disappeared, and carefully opened the note she had held in her hand before he left.
[I will keep my promise. Just wait a little bit. I will become a better wizard than my teacher.]
It was still a letter in a crooked handwriting. Looking at the misspelled letters mixed in the middle, Yurina smiled unknowingly.
Even the sender, the recipient, and the greetings were not written according to the etiquette, but I was able to read Raynald’s sincerity.
She read the short letter, read it, read it again, and closed her eyes, putting the letter on her cheek that his hand had touched.
“Yes, I’ll wait.”
So come back to me soon, Ray.
The preparations to leave are all done. People who came from the academy with their luggage to take to the academy and Dave, who will be with us at the the academy entrance ceremony, were all in the carriage.
‘Now I just need to ride.’
Knowing that, Raynald seemed willing to know what she knew, and when he found out, it seemed like a ferocious eagle bend his heart with its beak and claws.
It was difficult to control the soaring feelings of being sick and bitter somewhere in the body. The sense of betrayal towards Yurina, who had always believed she would be with him, was so great.
But…..
-Ray, I’ve been waiting for you all along.
Just a word. The moment I heard Yurina’s words, everything seemed to be resolved. If she wanted to, I could go without hesitation to the faraway place.
“I have to go now. Everyone is waiting.”
Despite her barely exhaling urging, Yurina did not think to let go of his hand. Raynald carefully took her hand off and blew his breath into the cold hand.
“Your hands are cold. Get in there quickly. You will catch a cold.”
Yurina’s face changed subtly. Even though he didn’t want to see Yurina crying, Raynald was strangely relieved, looking at her distorted expression as if she was about to cry.
‘You really don’t want me to go.’
That’s it.
“I’ll be right back. Take care.”
Raynald spent the night picking up some sheets of paper, giving the barely completed note to Yurina’s hand, and then turning around. The door of the carriage closed at the end of Yurina’s voice to say goodbye.
He wanted to leave a little later, but the carriage, which could not have known his mind, began to move as soon as the door closed.
“Yurina.”
Raynald looked at the mansion by opening a window without worrying about Dave’s words that it was dangerous. Yurina, who did not go inside, was waving her hand to the carriage from a distance.
Seeing her face growing farther away, the tears that had been holding him back were dripping down his cheeks as he had been acting resolutely in front of her.
“Don’t forget me.”
He muttered his little wish, which he had never told Yurina.
Of course, I was afraid that I had to spend seven years in a strange land which has different languages and no one I knew.
But what was more terrifying than that was that I didn’t see Yurina’s face for a long time, and even more terrible than that was the anxiety that I might be forgotten by her for a long time.
“Don’t forget me.”
It’s a long time, but it’ll take a long time to get back, but I’ll remember you, so don’t forget me.
You promised.
I will be a great wizard and come back next to you. To protect you.
So don’t forget me.