Felix, who had made up his mind, arrived in front of the girls' dormitory at once.
But I couldn't get in. Mrs. Flora, the superintendent of the girls' dormitory, stood in front of him with a shocked face.
"Where are the men crawling! Not even the principal can enter without my permission!"
Unlike Inspector Lauren, who occasionally writes girls out into boys' dormitories, she was strict and determined.
The girls in the dormitory looked out the window with curious eyes at the chirping voice of Inspector Flora.
Reluctantly, Felix had no choice but to turn away from the girls dormitory.
He walked towards the boys' dormitory with a confused expression on his face.
Everything was a mess. And it was you who made it happen.
He likes himself, misunderstands him, and behaves childishly.
Even if Lucy was intentionally avoiding him because he was tired of him, he had nothing to say. He seemed to be the same.
Really, people like me... … .
Felix returned to the dormitory and stood tall. He looked at the flower bed in front of the dormitory with his eyes wide open.
"Lucy!"
Lucy was sitting with her body curled up next to the ornamental tree planted in the flower bed. Hearing Felix's voice, she stood up.
"Senior Felix."
In the dark autumn evening, her emerald eyes twinkled in the moonlight.
Felix walked over to her. When they got a little closer, Lucy suddenly stepped back. Felix also stopped walking at her unfamiliar behavior.
Lucy stood there without a word and looked at Felix.
As before, smile brightly at him or say, 'Senior!' in a welcoming voice. and not coming.
For a moment, Felix remembered the first time he had known her. At that time, I was busy running away and avoiding myself just by looking at myself.
… … No, that's also wrong.
Somehow, I felt like I was farther away from her than then. Her expression, which had no emotion, seemed to say so.
After hesitating for a while, Lucy slowly opened her mouth.
"Elder. I don't know why the senior was angry... … ."
Contrary to her calm expression, Lucy's voice trembled softly.
"Irrespective of how you feel, I have enjoyed spending the past few weeks with you. The time we went to town together and the time we studied together."
At her words, Felix became numb as if he had been hit in the head. His eyes were twitching like a crazy person. Her words were so unexpected that I didn't understand them right away.
"I was so happy that I also thought that it would be good for those times to never end. Of course, there are many moments in life when I felt happy... … It's the first time I've been happy that way. I don't think I'll ever feel that way again. However, I was only thinking about my own happiness, so I couldn't take the senior's position into consideration."
Suddenly, sadness filled Lucy's face.
At that moment, Lucy was like a ghost. A ghost that is clearly standing in front of him, but seems to disappear quickly even with a single breeze.
"Senior is right. I think it is my greed to study together or to be together anymore."
"Lucy."
Felix's breathing became heavy. My mind went blank as if I was dizzy.
he reached out to her But Lucy took another step back. Felix's hand fell from the air at that obvious gesture of rejection.
Lucy avoided his gaze and pulled something out of her pocket. It was a small box. She handed it to Felix.
"I was originally going to give this for my senior's birthday, but… … I'll give it to you now. I don't think I'll see you then."
Felix accepted it blankly.
"Then I will see you."
Lucy stepped forward and tried to leave his presence.
"Lucy, wait!"
Felix hurriedly grabbed her wrist. Lucy turned to him.
Her cold eyes, which she had never seen before, met Felix's eyes head on. Her wrist slid out of Felix's hand.
Leaving him there, Lucy strode away into the darkness.
Felix, who was left alone, stood staring at the place where she had disappeared for a long time.
It was like a dream.
The words that the time I was with him was happy, the words that I would never see him again, were all just as distant as I had heard in a dream.
"Why… … ."
Why did this happen?
He murmured in the dark.
As I stood there, lost in my mind, I felt the touch of a small box held in my hand. He reluctantly opened the lid of the box.
"under."
Seeing the necklace inside the box, Felix let out a deep breath. A deep sense of regret came over me.
He slowly picked up the necklace. In the small crystal, his constellation was shining brightly in the moonlight.
* * *
8 years ago. Lucy couldn't even imagine that she would one day be able to attend the best academy of the Empire.
For her, who was ten at the time, her hometown of Brom was all she knew of the world.
Located on the eastern edge of the empire, the village was a quiet rural village with small mountains lined with gentle ridges.
Fresh green waves swayed with the wind in the fields and fields. In the blue sky, the bright sun scatters sunlight every day.
Chickens, dogs, and children ran tangled together on the dirt road, and laughter echoed non-stop here and there.
Although she had never gone out of her hometown, Lucy was living her own happy days in that simple and peaceful village.
At the time, Lucy had one more important dream than entering a prestigious academy. That was to inherit my grandmother's pharmacy.
Lucy's grandmother ran the only drugstore in town. Fifty years ago, she lost her husband during the war, carrying Lucy's father, who was a baby, on her back, and it was a drugstore that she had saved up with a penny or two.
She had unparalleled knowledge and a unique sense of how to handle herbs.
Thanks to this, even after the war was over, her shabby little drugstore was able to keep the same place for decades.
The grandmother used the money she earned from running a drugstore to help her only son study hard. Thanks to this, Lucy's father was able to learn medicine at a clinic in a nearby city.
Now, having become a doctor with 20 years of experience, he was gaining the trust of the villagers as Brom's only doctor and the Lord's doctor. As a commoner from the countryside, it must have been quite a prosperous career.
Lucy's grandmother, a war widow, raised her family brilliantly in half a hundred years.
It was a long time ago that Lucy had never been through, but just hearing the story was enough to tell how difficult and wonderful the road Grandma had walked. It was all thanks to her grandmother that she was able to sleep in a comfortable bed and eat well every day.
In Lucy's eyes, the grandmother was stronger and more courageous than any other person.
Hearing the story of a heroic old woman's life, the will to one day inherit the drugstore and make it a good one.
Grandma's hands are like magic hands.
Lucy thought every time she saw her grandmother's tiny, callus-studded hands. Then he raised his little white hand and looked at it.
Could such a power reside in this hand?
Besides the skill of handling herbs, there was another ability that Lucy wanted to inherit from her grandmother. That's right... … .
"Lucy! The food is getting cold, come here!"
It was a grandmother's cooking skill that no one could imitate.
Lucy, who was chasing the wild cat that suddenly appeared in the yard, jumped up from her seat. She quickly ran to the kitchen.
On the table was a large grilled chicken sizzling in oil. At the seductive smell, Lucy unknowingly brought her nose closer and sniffed.
Lucy, unable to hold back the saliva in her mouth, sat down on a chair and reached out for the grilled chicken.
"for a moment."
Grandma quickly blocked her hand. She said to Lucy, who looked at her with bewildered eyes.
"We have something to eat, and this is chicken for the lord's house. Hurry up and bring it to me before it cools down."
At that, Lucy pouted her mouth and furrowed her brow. Lately, she's been really dissatisfied with these errands.
I was just not going to see Colin on purpose!
she murmured to herself.
"Come on, Lucy. hurry."
Whether or not she knew that feeling, Grandma pushed out a bowl of grilled chicken. Reluctantly, Lucy carefully took the bowl with both hands and left the house.
There was another reason why she didn't want to go to the lord's mansion. This is because from a certain point on, whenever the lord's servants saw her, they joked about it.
Not surprisingly, when he saw Lucy entering the lord's mansion with grilled chicken, Tom, the head of the stable, greeted him as a joke.
"Our little girl is coming."
"Don't call me that!"
Lucy screamed at once.
In spite of her enraged protest, the inspiration passed by without blinking an eye. Lucy glared at the mean face with dissatisfied eyes.
So, from some day on, the elders of this village started arguing that Lucy would become the lord's daughter-in-law. And then, as if the engagement of Lucy and Colin, the son of the lord, had been confirmed, he was tossing a joke.
It was very difficult for Lucy. No matter how good the lord's heart may be, he and Colin grew up without shame from a young age, but in this world, there was a difference in status.