My Childhood Friend Is An Archmage Chapter 149
Translated by d6y (ko-fi)
Side Story 2
I consider the hypothesis before dismissing it. It can't be. The Ryan I know isn't that petty.
Even if he once harboured feelings for me, he already made it clear that he wouldn't be romantically involved with me. He was a bit of an oddball, but not someone who held a grudge.
It's Viscountess Artisina who's being weird as hell. The image of him flashes through my mind. Even today, he didn't bother to hide his crush on me in front of Lancer. He's royalty, so he at least knows to treat me with some proper decorum, but this is annoying.
I sit in silence, thinking about all these d*mned people.
“....?”
“....”
“Skyla, are you there?”
“Uh, huh? Yeah?” Lancer's urger snaps me out of my reverie. I glance up to see him looking at me. “Sorry, I was thinking about something else for a second….”
I panic. It sounds as if I'm distracted.
But Lancer doesn't seem to mind. “I see, Skyla, it's okay, because it's important for you to think!’
“Uh… thanks for understanding…?” I say, pleased but a little confused. “By the way, were you talking to me about something?”
“Yeah, nothing much,” Lancer says with one of his trademark smiles. “I was wondering if I could go into the palace and borrow the Emperor's seal for a moment, since our marriage licence hasn't come through.”
“What?”
Wait a minute, that's not not a big deal.
I nearly jump at his comment. Does he think the Emperor's seal is some kind of feather pen that belongs to the student next to him at the Academy?
“Lancer, stealing the Emperor's things is a crime!”
“I'm not stealing it. I'm borrowing it, using it, and returning it.”
“And if you're caught? You'll be arrested immediately. I don't want to be the lover of a criminal.”
“I’ll make sure I won't get caught.”
“How?”
In response to my question, Lancer puffs out his chest. “It's simple: I'll use stealth magic to get into the palace, then I'll use restoration magic to find out what the Emperor did the day before, then I'll find the location of the seal, then I'll turn myself into a scribe, and then I'll go to….”
The rest of his plan sends a chill down my spine. It's the sort of thing that would have made anyone else scream, ‘Conspiracy! Rebellion!’
The only reason this empire hasn't fallen is because Lancer isn't as power-hungry as I am!
Once again, I'm reminded of my deep respect for his pure heart.”Lancer, I know you want to speed up our marriage, but that's not the right way to go about it.”
“But… I want to be by your side all the time.”
My heart flutters at the profound confession. It's that I don't know how Lancer feels right now. I'm impatient too. I can't wait to declare our relationship officially.
I want to be with Lancer. That's how I feel.
I want to take him as my husband, bring him to the Kaerun Duchy, share the same room with him from morning to night, and send my parents to a cottage on another estate…
Ah, that last one is a desire wrapped in a darkness too deep to be realised.
Anyway, the bottom line is that in order to marry Lancer, the Crown Prince must first grant us permission to marry.
“Let's just wait a little longer, I'm sure it will be granted soon,” I say, either in an attempt to comfort Lancer or myself.
He nods.”By the way, Skyla…”
“What?”
“That thing you said to your parents earlier, what exactly did you mean by that?”
“Huh?” I blink.
Lancer continues, his face still buried in the nape of my neck. “Skyla, you told me, there are many ways to show love besides PDA.”
Ah. That's what I said when my parents were unabashedly and unapologetically making out in front of everyone.
“Literally. There are many ways to show love.”
“Like what?”
“Um… saying I love you?”
“I love you, Skyla,” Lancer says immediately.
“You're a quick learner, Lancer.” I smile and stroke his blonde hair with one hand. His golden hair shines brightly in the growing darkness of the carriage as the sun sets.
“What else?”
“What else? Um… being kind to me? I suppose you could call that an expression of love.”
“I'm always nice to you.”
“I know.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Uh… you always think about them?”
“I think about you all the time. You're always on my mind.”
I can't help but giggle. “Really? I’ll stay there without paying rent forever.”
“Huh?” Lancer tilts his head. He doesn't seem to understand, lacking a sense of language, not understanding hyperbole or metaphor.
I clear my throat. “What I'm saying is that I'm glad I'm always on your mind.”
“Glad?”
“Yes.”
“What about you, Skyla? Do you think about me all the time, too?”
“You're asking the obvious.” I huff knowingly and run my fingers through his hair. A smile sprouts at the corners of his mouth like a spring flower.
“And what else? What other ways do you show your love?”
I rattle off a list of what I think of as expressions of love. Every time I give a new example, he would mention how he already did that and do it again.
It's adorable. It makes me happy just to see him so happy with all these little things.
The conversation continues on this theme even after we arrive at the Soli Duchy.
“And? Is there anything else I'm not already doing?” He asks again as we lay on the bed. I can feel the warmth of his body against mine as he snuggles into my back.
“Hmm… Well….” His question makes me pause. Honestly, he's already given me more than enough love than I deserve, and I feel bad that I haven't been able to give back to him the same amount he makes me feel.
“I don't think there's any….”
“Really?”
“Oh, there is one.” Then a thought pops into my head. When Lady Artberry had announced that she was coming to visit the Soli Duchy, Hubert prepared a bouquet of flowers for her. But due to some unforeseen circumstances, he was unable to meet her. So he had asked Lancer to deliver the bouquet on his behalf.
Not knowing much about gifts, Lancer gave the bouquet to her without mentioning that it was from Hubert, and he was almost misunderstood.
As I recall the incident, I remember something. “...Lancer, I think you're still a little slow on the gift-giving front.”
We've gone to the market to buy a gift for Rachel before, and Lancer was pretty bad at giving gifts to others.
“Gift-giving?” He asks, his hand still on mine.
“Yep. I don't think you're very good at giving gifts.”
“I'm good at giving gifts. It's just that you don't accept them.’”
“What, when?” When did I refuse a gift from him? My eyes widen at his reference to something I may not know about.
“I told you that if you wanted the imperial capital, you could have it.”
“....” Exactly why he's not very good at gift-giving.
I have a lot to say, but I decide to hold back. “Now, Lancer, don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to do this, but people usually give trinkets as gifts.”
“Trinkets?”
“Yeah. Did you see my parents with their couple's brooches the other day?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you see Austin and Rachel wearing the same rings today?”
“Yes.”
“And did you see that me and Phoebe have matching bracelets?”
His arm around my waist tenses. “No, no. You're my lover, not Phoebe's.”
“She's not my lover, she's my friend. Anyway, that's how lovers and friends usually exchange trinkets like brooches and rings and bracelets and handkerchiefs, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” I can feel him nodding behind me.
I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that I've given him a little bit of information about modern society that would be useful to him today.
Of course, I didn't know it then…
The national repercussions of our conversation.
* * *
The next morning. “You say a letter came from Lancer?”
“Yes, my lady. He left the letter with the gatekeeper at dawn.”
When I had finished my morning exercises and washed myself, Phoebe, who was waiting for me in my room, handed me a letter.
Running a hand through my wet hair, I open it. A letter so early in the morning. If he has anything to say, come and say it.
With that in mind, I open his letter without further thought. The ink hadn't even dried before he put it in the envelope, and the black ink was smeared all over the paper.
Dear Skyla, my favourite person.
Lancer's curly handwriting is cute. But what followed isn't so cute.
Skyla, I've been thinking about our conversation yesterday. I don't think I've given you much in the way of jewellery, except for that long green gemstone necklace with your name on it when we were at the market. So I'm going to get you another necklace, a very special one, one of a kind!
I won't reveal it yet. It's a secret.
Oh, but I thought you might like a second option, so I asked Brother Hubert what he thought. You know, he's given a lot of gifts to girls. Of course, I've never seen him receive a gift from a girl, but I guess it doesn't matter.
He killed Hubert twice with a smile… without even knowing it. Mentally sending my condolences to Hubert, I continue to read the letter.
I explained to him that I was going to give you a necklace as a gift. Then he said to me, “You're committing a crime, you madman!”
Hmm? I blink. I don't quite understand what I'm reading. Why would Hubert say it's a crime to give me a necklace?
