Chapter 30 (1/2)

At Eian’s unusual reaction, Kynemeia felt her temper rising and pouted.

“Forget it! I don’t want it back either! I’m not someone who’d reacquire something I’ve given, okay?”

As though he’d gotten the reassurance he sought, his expression loosened up to his standard one. Still, he carried on fiddling with the bracelet.

“Why do you keep touching the bracelet? Is it weird?”

Eian stroked the pumpkin charm on the bracelet and grinned.

“It’s my first time having a friend.”

‘It’s also my first time receiving something of this sort,’ he added to himself privately.

Kynemeia bit her lip as her heart wavered.

“Y-You, even if you act pitiful again, I won’t…!”

She was about to question how could he not have had a single friend in thirteen years but stopped herself. Almost instantly, her pupils began quavering wildly.  Eian listed his head, puzzled.

Then a tremor seized her shoulders as a certain truth struck her like a thunderbolt. ‘Me too…! I don’t have a friend in this life either!’

How could she have afforded one? The nobles refused to socialize with her due to her family name, the commoners due to her aristocratic status. It was no wonder this was her first time ever hearing of Relationship Day!

Everyone must have known she was friendless all along, but no one would have dared point it out!

‘Oh my God, I’ve had no friends in all my twelve years of living…’

CRASH! It felt as if a crack of thunder had clashed above her head.

‘To think a girl as bright and nice as me is living a life resembling that of someone with an antisocial personality disorder…!’

Since Kynemeia had failed to finish her words earlier, Eian prompted her.

“Mia? What is it?”

“No… Just thinking… It turns out we’re… each other’s first friend…”

“I’m your first?”

“Yeah… Much as I dislike it…”

“I like it, though.”

The boy’s expression melted, his grin spilling over to his eyes.

“Good for you…”

Kynemeia turned away grimly. To think her very first and only friend in this life is a wicked magician. Was she slowly but surely headed for ruin?

What a tragedy.

* * *

Kynemeia and Eian spent some time by the column chit-chatting before a maid came to announce lunch, and they headed to the dining hall. She was asking the maid about the lunch menu for the day when her gaze fixated on the boy who suddenly spun his arms, his face set with discomfort.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s just that my joints have been cracking lately.”

“That so? Is it growing pains?”

“Growing pains?”

“It’s a pain of some sort you’ll feel when you grow taller.”

“Aah…”

‘Might be similar,’ Eian mouthed to himself and nodded hugely.

Kynemeia squinted at him. ‘He’s already this big, but he’ll merrily continue growing taller, all on his own?!’

She whipped around with a disapproving air when she caught something black at the corner of her eyes.

‘…?’

A motion like butterfly wings vanished past the edge of a window. Kynemeia rubbed her eyes. She was pretty sure she’d just glimpsed a black butterfly. ‘Did I see wrong?’

But more importantly, they couldn’t stand around like this.

She glared at Eian. The disparity in their heights was starting to widen considerably. Looking up at his head, high above her, she felt rage surge through her gradually.

What is this?!

They were only a year apart, weren’t they! Still adolescents, both of them!

And he hadn’t had a friend either!

‘I should take some growth pills.’

* * *

‘The smell of herbal medicine…’

Even though Eian had wanted to follow her, Kynemeia left the boy behind and entered Hyeminwon alone.

“Oh my, Miss Little Angel. Welcome.”

The clerk stepped out when he spotted her, pressing his hands together in greeting.

‘Again?!’

She bowed her head awkwardly. Greetings in Yu Ga was the same as how it was done in the Western Continent, by bending forward at one’s waist, but she didn’t understand why they put their hands together solely for her.

“Miss Little Angel, please wait here awhile. I’ll call Sir Xuan Tian over.”

“Uh-huh.”

He ushered her into the parlour before knocking on the room next door.

“Sir Xuan Tian! Stop drinking alcohol and come out! Miss Little Angel is here!”

‘He’s drinking again?! In broad daylight?’

She was peering into the sunlight when Xuan Tian’s voice reached her ears.

“Mia is here?”

“Yes, she’s in the Magnolia Room.”