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75th Chapter

Time passed, and six days have gone by since the welcoming banquet of the Atara delegation.

On the eve of the hunting tournament, the Crisis family was having tea together on the terrace of their mansion after a long while.

“Shushu. I have something for you.”

“Yes?”

I stared blankly at Kal, who coughed lightly and showed a shy expression, as I put down my cup.

Tilting my head in question, I saw Kal cough again and pull a small box from his pocket.

“Tomorrow is the hunting tournament, right? I prepared a token for you.”

At the mention of “token,” Aria and Caesar, who had been quietly sipping their tea, suddenly perked up and exchanged looks before turning their faces towards Kal with displeasure.

“Are you not participating, Kal?”

“Yeah. I’m not really interested in hunting, and besides, you’ll win anyway.”

Kal, confident in my victory, scratched his head. He chuckled at my embarrassed reaction, opened the box, and took out an item.

“I thought you wouldn’t use a handkerchief, and I figured you might find fancy accessories uncomfortable, so I went for a simple ring.”

Inside the box was a thin silver ring without any adornments. While it was far too plain for a noble to wear, I appreciated its simplicity.

“I thought just giving you an accessory would feel too formal, so I put a magic on it to balance your mana. You can wear it casually. Can I put it on you?”

Kal, holding the ring in his hand, grinned at me.

Rather than the ring, I was grateful for the time he took to prepare it, and I happily nodded, extending my right hand.

“No. Isn’t your right hand the one you hold a sword with? It might be uncomfortable, so let’s do it with the left.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Following Kal’s suggestion, I switched my hands to the left.

Kal, still wearing a fresh smile, carefully took my hand and slid the ring onto my finger. It looked a bit loose initially, but as soon as it settled on my finger, it tightened as if it had been perfectly fitted.

“Hmm, but… the placement…”

Blinking at the ring now on my left ring finger, I threw a fleeting glance at Kal, who confidently remarked, “Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of flies buzzing around you. If they attach themselves to you, just show them this ring and say you have a lover.”

“Got it.”

I chuckled at Kal’s earnest plea.

While I have many friends, none would harbor romantic feelings for me. However, Kal’s concern was cute, so I readily nodded.

Bam!

Just then, as sweet gazes were exchanged between Kal and me, the tea table rattled with a loud bang. I turned my head in surprise towards the noise.

“Do you have no sense of decorum, brother?”

There stood Aria, gritting her teeth and smiling, her fist placed on the tea table.

“We agreed to prepare the hunting tournament token for Shushu without overlapping, didn’t we? I distinctly told you three days ago that I’d get the ring ready…”

“I’ve been thinking about the ring since a week ago. Oh dear, did you really prepare a ring? But what to do? Shushu’s left ring finger has already been claimed by me.”

“You little brat…”

Glaring at the shamelessly smiling Kal, Aria shot up to her feet.

Aria’s blue eyes sparkled dangerously, and soon, magical symbols began to activate in her hands.

Kal, with an annoying grin, casually crossed his legs while invoking his magic.

“Are you really going to fight your magic teacher with magic? You are truly an undutiful disciple.”

“The fact that you’re boasting about teaching me magic while relying on my healing powers for your current research… Did you forget about that?”

Watching the two of them who seemed ready to hurl meteor spells at each other, I sighed.

Since Aria started learning magic, their arguments had escalated in scale from mere bickering.

‘I will get stronger. I won’t just rely on my sister anymore. I will become strong enough to protect her.’

This was what Aria had said after realizing she possessed a normal body that could run without tiring for the first time since she was sickly.

She vowed to become strong enough to not be overlooked by anyone.

Aria had thought long and hard about how to develop her strength. She once tried to learn swordsmanship from me but gave up after just an hour upon realizing she had no talent for it.

To put it bluntly, Aria had no aptitude for physical combat.

As she explored various ways to build her strength, she eventually settled on magic.

The reason Aria began to learn magic was quite amusing. During one of their usual fights, she accidentally used magic in a bout of anger when Kal teased her, realizing her own talent for magic for the first time.

‘It seems difficult to speak positively about that guy, but… Aria Crisis is indeed a genius. Casting magic isn’t that simple. You need to memorize complex and intricate formulas and understand the equations behind them. You’ll also need a significant amount of mana to cast any spell. Thus, learning a single magic spell requires an enormous amount of time. Yet, Aria Crisis… managed to memorize and understand the format of the magical symbols in the brief moment I deployed them. Without even realizing it. Damn it. Why is she so good at magic…? How unlucky.’

Kal, who was considered a genius in magic, said this much. Meanwhile, Aria described Kal as follows:

‘These days, I’m learning magic from that punk, no, Kal brother. He sticks to my sister like a leech, so I wonder if he’s useful at all… but he knows a bit of magic. Watching that arrogant guy acting all high and mighty, I want to blast a fireball at his face, but… he’s definitely a good teacher. Ugh, admitting that to myself makes me want to hurl…’

‘Aria, I see. At least it seems like Kal is teaching you. Though he pretended he wouldn’t teach you.’

‘…Tch. Alright. He made a big fuss about not teaching me at first. What a brat, acting all smug. In return for him teaching me, I’ve decided to help him with his research.’

‘Research?’

‘He’s working on embedding healing power into artifacts. Since my sister often gets hurt during sword training, he seems to want to create a portable way to heal her in a timely manner. Hmph. I bet he was jealous of me healing my sister every night using my healing powers. If he’s that upset, he should deal with being a magic deficient too… let him see how tough it is.’

‘Aria.’

‘…Fine. Anyway, I’m learning magic on the condition that I help with his research. For me, it’s two birds with one stone, practicing my healing while learning magic.’

After fully recovering, Aria naturally awakened her healing powers and has been diligently practicing swordsmanship, healing the many wounds on my body each night. Even with all her grumbling, the fact that things were improving between Kal and Aria was evident.

“Brother, do you really think you can claim Shushu’s left ring finger? That’s absurd! Back down gracefully.”

“What if I refuse to back down? Do you want to fight me with magic? Just because you are somewhat skilled in magic doesn’t mean you can surpass me. You’re miles away from that.”

…Very slowly, indeed.

I sighed as I watched Kal and Aria leaning in towards each other, nearly ready to tear at each other’s necks.

‘Both seem overly mature normally, but when they’re together, they become like children.’

Aria had always been exceptionally calm and intelligent. With her genius-level intellect and challenging circumstances, she had become a child-adult who never threw tantrums.

In Kal’s case, he was so cold and skilled that he seemed inhuman in every affair, making both of them overly mature.

‘It’s nice to see them showing such childlike behavior occasionally, but… lately, with them starting to use magic, it could become dangerously violent.’

‘What is happening… Are they both okay? Did they hit a bomb on the way?’

‘No, it’s just…

‘Just that I had a little fight with this brat.’

Thinking back to how both had returned from the magic tower as mangled messes after a disagreement, I frowned.

If I left them like this, they were clearly bound to start fighting again.

Seeing that Caesar, who was leisurely sipping tea while observing Kal and Aria’s standoff, showed no interest in intervening, I felt compelled to step in.

“Both of you, stop.”

At my sigh-laden intervention, Kal and Aria abruptly flinched and dispelled their magic. They spun their heads towards me and glared with fiery gazes.

“Sister, tell me! Are you going to throw away the ring that brat gave you and wear my ring on your left ring finger?”

“Don’t listen to him. Just keep wearing his ring!”

‘Why are both of them so obsessed with the left ring finger?’

As someone who thought it didn’t matter where the ring was worn as long as it was worn, I found it hard to understand their debate. Under the scorching stares insisting for an answer, I blinked and reached out towards Aria.

“Aria. Can you give me the token you prepared now?”

Aria, blinking, pulled a small case from her pocket and handed it to me. Upon opening the case, I found a small silver ring adorned with an opal.

‘They’re both so cute.’

Switching between the ring Kal gave me and the one Aria prepared, I couldn’t help but smile. I imagined both must have thought hard and considered what tokens to prepare for me, which made me feel overwhelmed with affection.

Rolling Aria’s ring in my hand, I slid it onto my left ring finger, the same as Kal’s.

“Thank you both.”

As I beamed at the two rings now on my finger, I laughed heartily.

“I almost lost my breath! You know, if I feel this good, just let me revel in it for a moment.”

“I would’ve preferred it if your breath had stopped right there. It’s only because Shushu likes it that I’m taking a step back. Next time, I won’t step back.”

As Kal and Aria exchanged serious glares but shook hands in a strangely ritualistic manner, without even touching skin to skin, a peculiar conversation transpired between them, and Caesar, sitting quietly across from me, rose with a sly grin.

“Well then, is it my turn now?”

He walked towards me grandly, holding a box about half my height in his hands.

“I want to give you a gift, too.”

Caesar knelt beside my chair and looked up at me. My eyes widened in surprise at his sudden gesture.

“Uh, isn’t your father participating in the hunting tournament? Why would you give me a token—”

“No, this isn’t a token. It’s a gift. I can’t just sit by idly.”

Caesar smiled softly yet faintly. At first, I never imagined I would see this expression, but now I was somewhat accustomed to Caesar’s new smile.

Since becoming a part of the Crisis family, I had slowly changed.

I learned to express emotions I usually suppressed, how to appreciate kindness instead of being wary of it, and how to enjoy impending happiness without anxiety.

Just as I had changed, so had Caesar.

He had started to engage in conversation with others, albeit only with those in the mansion, moving away from the cold silence he once maintained, and began to smile instead of staring blankly at me.

The fact that someone changes because of me, and I change because of someone else, is an astonishing and wonderful experience in itself.

 

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