Volume 4 Chapter 9 Part 3 (2/2)

Hearing those words I responded with a smile.

「Yes, you’re welcome Edi.」

The sound of waves was reaching our ears. I tried to get up, but the boy stopped me and pressed the hem of his overcoat to my forehead. I felt a pang of pain. I only now realized that the blood was still flowing out of the wound. I heard that it was difficult to stop the bleeding of wounds received on the head. Such a situation must have been scary for the boy even if I smiled.

「Edi, you’ll get dirty.」

「It’s fine, so be quiet.」

「… Yes.」

His tone hadn’t left any room for objection, so I nodded obediently and sat back down. We stayed like that until the blood stopped flowing.

* * *

Afterwards we returned to our current residence, the second house of Nibbiella family, while avoiding people’s gazes and with our hoods pulled all the way up.

After arriving at home, the boy took out the emergency care box from the back of a shelf, sat me down in a chair and skillfully treated my forehead wound. He stopped his hands every time I grimaced at the sting of the disinfectant so it took a while, but all in all it was a thorough treatment.

「Thank you.」I said to which he replied seriously 「Can’t have a scar left on a girl’s forehead.」. I laughed unconsciously and got glared at.

Since we ate and drank all sorts of things at the stalls after lunch when it was time for supper we weren’t hungry at all, so in the end we didn’t have it. We both took a bath and around the time I thought my hair dried, I looked up from the book I’d been reading in the living room at the clock hanging on the wall. I see, it’s that time already. I was completely absorbed in the book but if I stayed up any longer it would interfere with our work tomorrow. Thinking that, I lightly tapped the shoulder of the boy, who was sitting next to me and was also reading a book.

「Edi, shall we go to sleep?」

「…But I’m not sleepy yet.」

「Oh my, is that so?」

His mouth might have said that, but his eyelids seemed very heavy and his head was dropping slightly. I chuckled once again. I peeped at the face of the boy, who was desperately trying to fight off sleepiness and closed the book he was holding.

「In that case I’ll sing you a lullaby. Fernan often sang it to me, so I’m quite confident.」

When I was young, he’d often get into bed with me and sang to me when I grumbled that I wasn’t sleepy yet. I didn’t have talent for singing, but somehow the effect of lullabies was guaranteed.

「Treating me like a kid.」

At my proposal he looked up at me, and even though he was sleepy he seemed offended. Seeing that look, I somehow managed to swallow down the laughter that was about to escape from my mouth. Those words were a clear proof of his childishness, but the fact that he didn’t seem to have noticed made him cuter. I was a bit happy that I could witness this child’s childishness which I hadn’t noticed before. Although till midday today I had wanted him to turn back to normal as soon as possible, now I was thinking like this. I was selfish too.

I closed the hard-cover book I was holding on my knees, while thinking that if he heard my thoughts he would for sure say 「I’m not joking.」. The boy stubbornly tried to open his book once again and I took his hands in mine.

「I’m also getting sleepy. Would you like to sleep together today, Edi?」

「Wha!」

「After all, were already married. Sleeping together is a given.」

I smiled brightly and the boy’s face instantly turned red.

「~~No need! I’ll sleep alone!」

He said in an uncharacteristically raised voice, shook off my hands, stood up and left the living room in a hurry. I waved the handkerchief which was laying on the table at the boy and sent him off with my eyes. This time I let out a chuckle. Ah, he was too cute.

Still chuckling, I opened the book again. After reading around 10 pages more I closed the book for good. I left the living room and went down the quiet hallway, my footsteps light, and stopped in front of the boy’s bedroom’s door. I was debating whether to knock on the door. I made a fist, but in the end I didn’t knock. I let my hand fall and just opened the door quietly.

「Edi…?」

There was no answer. Although I knew it was bad manners, I stepped inside. Inside I found the boy, fast asleep with his head on the pillow. He was holding a quill and he was surrounded by scattered papers with the magical language which I had copied. A sigh escaped from my mouth at this scene.

「He really is hopeless.」

Oh my, did the ink spill onto the pillow cover? I came thinking “what if’, but it was exactly as I’d imagined. Honestly, even though he turned into a child he was still such a workaholic. Once again I sighed in amazement. I gathered the scattered pieces of paper and put them on the bedside table. Then, I took the quill out of the boy’s hand and put it on the table too. There was nothing I could do about the already spilled ink, so without another choice, I lifted and moved his head carefully so he wouldn’t wake up, took off the dirty pillow cover. In its stead I spread a handkerchief and put the head of the boy whom I had turned on his back on top of it. His unconscious body was much heavier than it was this afternoon when I lifted him up, so it took a considerable effort to turn him, but I somehow managed to lay him on his back.

Having finished the task, I sat on the bedside and looked at the boy’s face once more. The letters got imprinted on his face and it made me want to laugh. I stretched my hand out and wiped them off with my fingers. It must have felt good because he snuggled up to me like a kitten which wants to be spoiled.

It seemed he was really tired as there was no sign of him waking up. His childlike, healthy sleeping face free of wariness was dazzling. His beauty made me think that the Goddess in high heavens must have been very enthusiastic. Even more than that man, this beautiful boy seemed like a girl. I even imagined he would look good in a dress.