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So, stubbornly shaking three fingers, Briden, who was silent for a moment, said solemnly.
“I got it. I’ll try to repay somehow.”
“Ung. But besides Asil, there’s one more animal to thank.”
“Perhaps the Saintess?”
“Uung, then two. The Saintess and the turtle lady.”
“Turtle lady?”
“Ung. When in the water, a blue turtle from the young lady’s body- Oop.”
Briden’s hand quickly covered Asil’s mouth.
Why are you doing this! Asil glared at Briden with a sidelong glance.
“Did you perhaps tell that to someone else? Like Count Erzebet or something.”
“Nooo.”
No, I didn’t tell anyone. Shaking her head side to side with that meaning, the hand covering her mouth fell away.
Briden asked again with an extremely serious expression.
“Then, can you not tell anyone from now on either?”
“Whyy?”
“That’s a secret. ……A really important secret to us.”
“Ung, I know. I won’t tell.”
Asil was a black dragon with a heavy mouth.
Once she said she wouldn’t tell, she was confident she wouldn’t say it even if given a hundred baskets of strawberries.
Moreover, a friend’s secret, then she must definitely keep it.
At the quick reply that came back, Briden stammered with a slightly surprised face.
“Aren’t you curious what that turtle was?”
“Ung. It’s a divine beast, right.”
“……Aren’t you curious why the divine beast is with Lilibet instead of Father?”
“Not curious.”
It wasn’t a lie; she really wasn’t curious.
As much as she didn’t know the imperial law that the owner of the divine beast must be the head of the family, she also didn’t know that the divine beast shouldn’t be with Lilibet.
Finding it hard to believe the words that she wasn’t curious, Briden stared piercingly at Asil as if gauging her intentions.
Since there had been no one trustworthy around until now, suspicion was inevitable.
However, when Asil stared back blankly with innocent eyes, he couldn’t question further and just hung his head low.
Asil wanted to reassure him, who reminded her of Snoa.
So, like she did with Edenber, she extended her pinky finger.
“Asil keeps friends’ secrets the best. Promise.”
Briden, with a bewildered face like someone hearing a word for the first time in his life, asked back.
“Friend?”
“Ung. Asil and friend, right.”
“……The young lady and me?”
Briden’s face flushed a bit. But soon, as if when did that happen, it darkened.
“No, we can’t be friends. Count Erzebet won’t like it.”
“Whyy?”
“Because I’m an illegitimate child. And on top of that, a twin.”
“Uuum.”
Asil, with arms crossed, frowned and tilted her head.
She still didn’t know what the word illegitimate child meant, but she could tell it was a very bad word.
But does that become a reason not to be friends?
It was then that Arcian, who had finished his work, came to pick up Asil.
“Our pretty Asil, were you having fun?”
“Ung, Mister!”
“When will our daughter call Dad as Dad….”
Arcian, with a sorrowful face, lifted Asil up high.
In her heart, she had been calling him Dad for a long time, but she was too shy to say it yet.
Asil unnecessarily swung her feet back and forth in the air.
During that, she felt an intense gaze from below.
When she turned her head, she saw Briden sending a somewhat tense look.
Suddenly, as the earlier conversation flashed through her mind, Asil asked Arcian.
“You know. If Asil becomes friends with the young lord, you won’t like it?”
“With the young lord?”
Briden flinched at Arcian’s gaze.
Arcian, thinking why she was asking this, answered.
“No, it’s good. Why?”
In truth, forming many relationships with humans wouldn’t be good, but he didn’t want to hurt a child’s feelings.
In that moment, Briden’s face brightened.
“The young lord said Mister wouldn’t like it.”
“Where is such a thing. The more friends, the better.”
“Asil thinks so too. So the young lord and Asil are friends.”
“……I see.”
Briden’s earlobes turned slightly red.
Until now, whenever other nobles turned away from him, he thought childish things like playing friends weren’t necessary…….
It seemed that wasn’t the case.
But young lord, isn’t that a title with too much distance for a friend.
Briden didn’t like that Asil called him with the same title as others.
“Don’t call me young lord.”
“Then what should I call you?”
“Call me oppa.”
“Oppa aaa?”
For Asil, oppa was only Snwa oppa, but now a new oppa? Asil tilted her head quizzically.
At that cute sight, Briden felt a ticklish sensation in one corner of his chest.
After sending Asil off, he returned to Lilibet’s hospital room.
And after fiddling with the area around his eyes, which he could see clearly for the first time in years, he took out a half pendant from his pocket and looked down at it.
“Br, Briden. This…….”
It was something his mother gave him right before she passed away.
Originally, he wore it around his neck, but after he couldn’t see, he kept it preciously in his pocket in case he lost it.
His mother’s last words rang in his ears.
“Even without Mom…… make sure you two rely on each other and live. You two are children who deserve to be loved…….”
……Well.
As soon as Duke Skya, the father, knew his children were twins, he abandoned them and left.
Because of that, in one corner of Briden’s heart, the doubt ‘Should we not have been born?’ always lingered.
Until now, no one except Mother had liked them.
So he always lived flattened down, so as not to catch anyone’s eye…….
“So the young lord and Asil are friends.”
Every time he recalled Asil’s words, his heart kept pounding like a child putting candy in his mouth for the first time in his life.
He learned today for the first time that such a pleasant resonance could come to him too.
The world that was all gray felt like it was being colored in five colors. This is what living is, he finally realized.
At the same time, he thought he didn’t want to live in this mud pit anymore.
Briden fiddled with the area around his eyes.
‘I can see now.’
The presence or absence of vision makes a world of difference.
Briden, clutching the pendant with all his might, let out a deep breath, huu.
And whispered softly to Lilibet.
“Us…… shall we run away from the dukedom?”
* * *
A few days after that.
Asil was going to the imperial palace in human form.
It was to learn from Iokaste how to become a ferocious dragon.
After the first meeting, Iokaste steadily called Asil and kept the promise.
Not how to become a ferocious dragon as Asil thought…… but she diligently taught the etiquette to become a dignified human.
Contrary to the vicious public image, Iokaste was a good teacher.
Even if Asil made mistakes or couldn’t follow well, she taught until she could without getting angry once.
“How much would a child know. Well, if you were a spy sent by Count Erzebet, it would be different though.”
“Asil’s dad doesn’t grow potatoes.”
“…….”
Thanks to that, Asil could comfortably learn about human etiquette.
Today, besides that, there was other business.
It was about the hunting festival.
The imperial family, to clearly determine responsibility, tried to find the one who raised the leader Arc to house size.
Since Lilibet had woken up, there was no reason to delay the investigation anymore, so they called Asirian Erzebet, one of the parties involved, to the imperial palace.
Asil, after the meeting with Eokaste, was heading to the investigation room when she met Count Feyrunt coming from the opposite side.
Asil, seeing the count for the first time, tilted her head. Clearly a human she saw for the first time, but his face was extremely familiar.
‘Who is it?’
Asil, forgetting it was rude, stared blatantly at him.
Then, after sniffing with her nose, she realized.
‘Ah, it’s Dillon’s family. Must be Dillon’s dad!’
Thud.
Right then, something fell from him as he brushed past.
It was a half pendant.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
By Anna 💓
