"Shall we go?"
A voice resembling a river breeze grazed her ears.
Odette turned her head in surprise.
Bastian approached without warning and stood by her side in front of a window overlooking the riverside.
"It doesn't look too far from here."
With narrowed eyes, Bastian stared out across the sunset-tinted Shulter River. The Ferris wheel from the amusement park Odette had been gazing at was in view.
"No. I'm fine."
"You were watching that last night. Weren't you?"
She tried to be evasive, but Bastian seemed unwilling to back down.
"That…"
Odette first took a step aside. It seemed hard to deny. It was obvious that she had been in front of this window watching the lights of the Ferris wheel late into the night.
"Just. Because it's pretty. That's all."
After much contemplation, Odette confided her most honest feelings.
They happened to stay in a room with a view of the Ferris wheel, and all she wanted to do was look at the beautiful lights.
It made her heart ache to remember that spring night when they promised to go on a field trip to the amusement park, but it was a secret that she kept to herself anyway.
How could she tell this man that she was regretting that she shouldn't have made that promise to Tira?
If that were the case, Tira wouldn't have been so desperate to protect their emergency fund. Then their father wouldn't have taken the money in the usual scuffle.
Perhaps it would have been such an ordinary day. Cotton candy. Merry-go-round. Electric Palace. Horoscope machine. Ferris wheel. If only Tira wasn't excited like a child by the stories she was happily chattering about.
She rationalized that it was because of her immature sister, but in fact, Odette was curious. The lights of the amusement park that she encountered when passing through the city center. She also imagined climbing on a ferris wheel that resembled a large golden wheel and slowly crossing the night sky.
Even on that night when she was stirring the pot of stew with the ladle in her hand. The fact that she was a little excited at that time made the weight on Odette's heart even heavier.
She shouldn't have done that.
Odette, recalling her foolish mistakes of the past, pressed her lips on a thin line as to clamp down on her sentimental mind.
Now was the time to do her wife's job. She was able to face Bastian with a calmer face as she recalled her unfinished mission.
"You have a dinner engagement."
Bastian was scheduled to visit the Duke of Herhardt's residence for a luncheon, and in the evening to attend a meeting with northern businessmen. Odette remembered today's schedule, obviously. It couldn't be wrong. After Bastian went out for the evening, she had promised to go see Tira.
"You should go now."
She tried again, but Bastian didn't respond. The blue eyes that looked at the ferris wheel crossing the sky as night approached soon captured Odette again.
"The schedule has changed."
Bastian conveyed the news in a calm tone.
The main purpose of getting on the train to Karlsvall was the Herhardt. Having accomplished that task perfectly, the rest of the chores could be handled as he saw fit.
It was a decision he made in the carriage back to the hotel. And Bastian concluded his official duties by announcing his absence from the meeting he was supposed to attend tonight.
He wanted to be with this woman.
Bastian wanted it. He clearly recognized it, and therefore complied.
"Get ready."
Bastian calmly commanded, staring at Odette's surprised expression.
After tomorrow's parents' event at Tira's girls' school, they had to go back to Ardennes. Before that, he thought it would be nice to give this woman a small present. Odette did a better job than he expected.
"Bastian!"
Bastian had just turned around when he heard a voice urgently calling his name. As he cast his gaze over his shoulder, Odette continued hesitantly.
"May I take Tira with me?"
Her lips, chanting an unpleasant name, glowed red in the afterglow of the sunset.
"Because I promised her. I'm going to see her tonight. Therefore… If I must go, I want to take Tira with me."
The eyes of the desperate mother bird shone with firm determination.
***
"Why is sister so senseless?"
Tira's stern rebuke drifted over into the tumultuous noise of the amusement park.
"Senseless?"
Odette tilted her head as if in question. She looked as if she had no idea what she had done wrong.
"Why would you bring me here? I thought it would be uncomfortable and stifling."
Tira, who clicked her tongue, looked behind her, pointing at her sister's mistake.
Bastian was on his way to a stall selling cotton candy that Tira had begged to eat. It was a last resort, concocted to give her time to talk to her sister.
"Don't be rude, Tira. Bastian has done you no wrong."
Thinking long and hard, Odette scolded Tira.
Tira, sighing in her astonishment, first led her sister to an empty bench. She also did not forget to check Bastian's movements from time to time.
He had just arrived at the stall. Thanks to the fact that he was so tall and towering, he was instantly noticeable in the crowd.
Fortunately, the line was long, so it seemed they had a little more time.
"When did I say the captain was bad?"
Tira shook her head and sat down beside Odette. When she heard the news that her sister would come to visit, Tira was overjoyed. Because she got out of the stuffy dorm and she was able to have fun. However, that happiness came to an end the moment she ran into Bastian in the lobby on the first floor.
"It's not the captain who's bad, it's my sister."
Even when she faced Tira's thorny eyes, Odette still had a bewildered look on her face.
"Me? why?"
"Why would you bring your sister on a date with your husband?"
"It's not like that."
Odette frowned as if she had been greatly insulted. Tira indicated her frustration by tapping her chest.
"Oh? How else can you describe this situation?"
"We just … ."
"Look. It's a date."
Tira sighed again as she looked at Odette, who denied her words.
"Even if it's not so, the captain is scary. Facing him is like sitting on a thorny cushion."
"Bastian is a generous person who is doing you a great favor. Don't talk like that."
"I'm afraid of him so why can't I say so?"
"You're afraid of Bastian?"
Odette asked again, completely unconvinced.
"Aren't you afraid of the captain?"
Tira seemed rather unable to understand Odette. Odette looked at Bastian with a furrowed brow.
The cotton candy stand with the grandiose name Fairy Thread was attracting attention with colorful light bulb decorations. With Bastian standing in line with a straight and upright posture, it was a sight that spun like water and oil.
Odette shook her head and moved her gaze towards Tira.
She wasn't afraid of him.
Of course, she felt infinitely uncomfortable when it came to the man, but that was a different feeling from fear. Although he had no expression and spoke very little, he was never unkind. In fact, he was also quite a gentlemanly and thoughtful man.
"Probably because sister loves him."
Odette was taken aback by Tira's casual words.
No.
She managed to hold back the words that she almost uttered reflexively.
"Still, I am afraid of the captain. Just making eye contact with him sends a shiver down my spine. He's like ice."
Tira looked at the cotton candy stand with an exaggerated tantrum. Bastian's turn was coming up.
At the moment when her eyes went dark at the thought of her being hindrance again, she heard a voice calling her name vigorously.
Her classmates living in the same dormitory were smiling and waving at her. A group of boys from the neighboring school were also there.
"I'll go see my friends."
Finding an escape route, Tira leaped for joy and stood up from the bench.
"Tira Beller!"
Odette called out her name in a scolding tone, but it was not enough to break Tira's will.
"See you later, sister! I'll be in front of the Ferris wheel by 9 o'clock!"
Leaving her one-sided notice, Tira ran to her friends. On the way to run away from her sister, Tira passed by the cotton candy stand. Her sister's husband, who was scary but wonderful, was accepting a white cloud of cotton candy.
***
"I'm so sorry, Bastian."
After explaining the circumstances of being left alone, Odette bowed her head once more.
"I guess it's because she's at an age where hanging out with friends is more fun. I'm sorry it had to come to this, after all the care and consideration you put into it."
Bastian looked alternately at the cotton candy in his hand and at his wife, who was at her wit's end, and laughed.
Odette's sister had disappeared. She had followed her friends whom she met here coincidentally. She seemed like an immature person with no thoughts, but she seemed to have at least some usefulness.
"Never mind, Odette."
Bastian looked at the clock tower and shook his head kindly. There were still a little more than two hours left until nine o'clock, when they agreed to meet again. It was the first time Tira Beller was useful.
"She's still young. Like you said, she's at the age to make friends."
"Thank you for saying that."
Odette finally smiled with relief. Wearing a short cloak over a checked wool dress, Odette looked younger than usual. It was a completely different appearance from this afternoon, when she played the role of an elegant noblewoman.
Perhaps it was an illusion created by this space filled with the cheers and laughter of children, but he did not think too much about it.
Bastian first handed over the cotton candy he was holding in his hand. Odette's eyes widened as she received it unexpectedly.
"I'm not a kid who likes this sort of thing."
"Aren't you younger than me?"
Bastian laughed out loud and grabbed Odette's hand. The lights of the newly lit rides illuminated the nighttime amusement park as brightly as midday.
Bastian strode into the lights Odette had been endlessly gazing at. He was with his wife, who was holding the cotton candy.