In the last month of winter, snow covered the ground like a white blanket. He moved and felt a childlike joy every time he looked in the footprints left behind by his tall boots.
After his conversation with Sivina and Ana, he went out into the front garden and came to the cart to wait for them to get ready. Their journey today involved four people, including Bart.
He would leave Yurine at the Virgo Cathedral and leave her for a short time, even though he did not want to do so, even though his mind and heart would remain there and he would worry constantly.
He remembered the last time he had been separated from her for a short time, the epileptic seizure and the aftermath. It was the first time he realized that Yurine cared about him.
Kigaro and Dimen, as Yurine's bodyguards, would be with her at all times during Yu's absence. Yu had ordered them never to leave Yurine alone, even if Leoral, still at the cathedral, insisted.
Kigaro and Dimen would have obeyed Yu even if the Pontifex himself had come against them. They had bonded during their migration and he was sure they would never let Yurine out of their sight.
"Are the ladies ready?" Bart asked.
"They are still preparing."
"They need some time to recover from the shock."
The two men beside the carriage were also dressed in black. The only difference was that unlike Yu, Bart had a beret on his head. Yu's ears were cold because he hadn't thought of buying a beret.
Now if someone else were to give him his beret, Yu would refuse it because he didn't want to wear what someone else was wearing.
But if the person who gave him his stuff was a pretty girl, he would have accepted it.
He should have taken the carriage so as not to expose his ears to the cold any longer. The carriage Yu had bought from Libra was also white and very comfortable inside, and the walls didn't let the cold in. He opened the carriage door and was about to get in when Bart stopped him.
"Mr. Valarfin."
One foot was inside the cart, the other outside. He turned his head and looked at Bart. Instead of looking at him, Bart was looking at the brown horse tied in the middle of the two rinos pulling the cart.
"Can we talk?"
He pulled his foot back and closed the car door. He took a few steps in front of Bart and looked at the horse he was tending.
"Let's see what he has to say."
Horse was a young female. She had brown hair and mane, but she had white hair on her chest, face and feet. Yu thought that the white on the horse's coat made her look more aesthetic than she really was. She was certainly prettier than the two rinos next to her.
"The horse that Lady Rie cared for grew and developed while she was away. Now I'm trying to get her used to rinos so she won't be afraid."
"What's her name?"
"Virgo."
"I guess Rie was not good at coming up with creative names. But it's a good name."
He liked the name Virgo. It wasn't because he was a Virgo, Yu didn't believe in horoscopes. To be honest, he didn't know why he liked it either, it just sounded good to him.
"Probably because the English version is cool."
The word virgo, after which a city here was named, means spike in English.
"Did you take that horse now?"
"Uh, no. I thought the little lady would probably want it, so I started training her."
"If there's no owner, I'll take the horse."
He was not a person who liked animals and was not good with them. Nevertheless, he liked the look and the name of the horse. Although he was afraid of being bitten, he put his hand near the horse's head and began to stroke its mane. The horse whinnied slightly and Yu kept stroking it.
"What will the young lady say to that?"
"She'll let me."
He didn't think Yurine would deny him for an animal. Maybe she wouldn't want to give it to someone else because it was her mother's horse, but she wouldn't mind if it was Yu.
"I think, probably, probably, probably, ninety-nine point nine percent, she wants me to be with Rie because she sees me as her father. It's like she wants to give me her mother and she's not going to reject me for her horse..."
"I know how to drive rinos, but is driving horses like driving rinos?"
"It's almost the same. I would even say it is more difficult to ride a rino. If you know how to ride them, you'll get used to the horse in no time."
"I liked Virgo, even though I can't be a knight on a white horse because she is brown. She is a beautiful horse and I like the white spots."
If she didn't have white spots, she would have been an ordinary horse, but these spots were his ornament.
"Then can you help me learn? And if it's like you say, you won't have to try very hard."
"I will."
When he realized that Bart didn't trust him, he decided to apply a technique he had seen on the Internet.
One day when he was bored, he was surfing the internet and came across content about manipulation. Although he could not remember the story of one of the content he came across, he remembered the technique he saw.
Of course, the technique was not going to suddenly make Bart love him and be devoted to him with a fierce loyalty. In any case, the only way to achieve such a strong devotion in an instant was through magic that transcends human perception, or through fraud, as Yu did with Kigaro.
But if it would soften Bart's thoughts and make it easier for Bart to trust him, the technique was worth a try.
The technique was simply based on one person asking for a favor from another person with whom they had a bad relationship.
If the favor requested was large, it could be refused, but most people would not refuse a small request that could be easily accomplished.
When the targeted person accepts the request, the subconscious mind thinks that it has invested in the relationship with the other person and does not want its investment to be wasted.
He was aware that he was not trusted by Bart, and when Bart wanted to talk, he could more or less guess the subject of the conversation. That's why he had asked him for help with riding before he started on the main topic. He thought this would make him more open to being trusted.
"So, what do you want to talk to me about?"
He took his hand off the horse's mane and turned to face Bart. Bart fixed his gray eyes on Yu.
"I want to know who you are and how you met the young lady."
"As I guessed."
It was not a surprising request. Like Bart, everyone in the cathedral wanted it. Even Sivina and Ana and Kigaro and the other roarons wanted it, because Yu Valarfin was a man who came out of nowhere and suddenly became a part of everyone's lives.
"Yu Valarfin, I'm not from around here"
He wouldn't believe him if he told him where he was from.
"Where do you come from?"
"İ-"
A single letter came out of his mouth and then he fell silent. He had told Sivina and Ana that he was from İlonya. When Ana said she was from İlonya too, the conversation moved to 'Which part of İlonia?' and Yu was put in a difficult position.
He did not want to make the same mistake now. Besides, he had told the man he met on his way into the city that he was from the Storm Kingdom in order to present a more convincing story. He could get in trouble if he gave everyone a different address.
"It is a generally green place with four seasons. I don't want to talk too much about it."
His inability to answer such a simple question put him at the bottom of the list of people who could be trusted, but if it later turned out that he was giving people different place names, he would be close to impossible to trust.
Of course what they said was true. He came from a green country with four seasons and he didn't want to talk about where he came from.
Before Bart could continue asking him questions, he started to tell his story.
"You know young people, they are looking for excitement. When I lost my parents, I had no reason to stay in my hometown, so I decided to leave home and go on an adventure. I ended up in Rolderhelm."
Even though he was partly telling the truth, he had doubts about whether Bart believed him.
Now it was time for the least plausible part of the story, but it would be incomplete as he believed it would not be accurate to mention that Rie and Yurine were secretly moving underground.
"One night I crossed paths with Rie, her apprentice and the young lady. The apprentice was badly injured and the young lady was unable to heal him. Rie asked for my help and we ran to the nearest place, the Sigma Tower. What we didn't know was that we were walking into a trap. There Rie was killed and I took the young lady and escaped."
"The lady was murdered? That's not what they said."
"And you shall not tell anyone about this."
He dropped the 'you' language and switched to 'you' language and gave a clear command.
"Then the young lady asked me for help and I became her butler. I told you this story because you wanted to trust me, it would not be good to wonder more."
It was not hard to see from his sour face how displeased Bart was to be taking orders from someone so much younger and inexperienced than himself.
"Can I ask you one last thing?"
"Something simple."
"Why are you with the young lady? What's in it for you?"
The question was simple enough for him to answer without thinking. It was also the impression made his lips curl upwards in glee. Everyone was surprised that Yurine loved someone other than her mother.
"Because I think of her as my daughter."
His voice was cheerful. That was one of the reasons why he was there for her and why he was trying to make her wish come true, even if it meant risking his life.
His own desires and the prospect of reward were involved, he did not deny that, but if he did not love Yurine, he would not have risked his life to save someone he had only known for one night.
"Do you have to have a vested interest to stand by someone? The young lady and I are both people who have lost loved ones. In this loneliness, isn't it inevitable that we stand side by side against the difficulties that await us?"
There was no way he could leave Yurine after the Sigma Tower because he was aware that she had also become a kind of Yu Valarfin. Yu was actually standing by Yurine's side, but he was also standing by his past, having lost his sisters months ago.
"But you are right," he said. This time the joy in his voice was replaced by a mixture of grief and seriousness. "I have a vested interest. When I create that perfect world, even if I am going to die, I will be able to say 'at least it all made sense, my life was not wasted.' But of course we shouldn't be that much pessimistic, I'm sure everything will be fine. I love Yurine, I want to have a long life, marrying with a good girl and having children. Then Yurine shall have brothers and sisters and they shall play together while I watch it with a smile on my face. A good life, that's what I want her to give me."
When he came to a different world, all he left behind were nothing but memories that now hurt him to remember.
When he met Rie, he liked her and thought he could start a new life with her. Then the future he had envisioned was buried in the ashes of the Sigma Tower.
Yu Valarfin, who survived the Sigma Tower, was a big zero. He didn't even have a past in the world he came from. He didn't have friends or a purpose, but Yurine gave him feelings he didn't think he would feel anymore, became a friend and gave him purpose.
Now all he had was his daughter and he wanted to see her happy, but that was not all he wanted. There were also other reasons, such as self-gratification and to ease his conscience. And being happy.
He smiled as he thought of a world where Yurine played with her siblings. Even though he knew it would hard to happen, maybe never.
"It's nice to imagine."
His imagination left his mind and settled on his face as a pure smile.
"But I must remember that what I want to touch is a star."
"Is there anything else you want to ask? If they are simple questions like the ones I just asked, I can answer them."
"There are many things I want to ask, but I think you will find them all difficult."
He got behind Bart and opened the door of the carriage to which the two dinosaurs were tied.
"The young lady said you helped me after I fainted, thank you."
Bart nodded slightly and, having nothing more to say, climbed into the driver's side of the car. Yu, unable to satisfy his curiosity, got into the car and waited for Sivina and Ana.