Chapter 14

Ailien blinked quietly. At her doll-like appearance, Kaius paused for a breath.

Just as he decided this would not do and was about to step in, that was the moment.

“If it’s not even your house and you step in for someone else, doesn’t that make you a minion?”

“You—what did you just say?”

As Beck stammered, his face turning red and blue by turns, Ailien shook her head as if in genuine regret.

“Sorry, but Lili is far too busy to deal with your minion duties……”

With a deep, drawn-out sigh, Ailien turned her back without a shred of regret. It was exactly the way an elder would gravely admonish a much younger child, and Beck was left speechless.

After the child disappeared, only a suffocating silence lingered among the boys.

“Did—did you hear what she just said?”

“Ha ha ha ha!”

What answered Beck’s question was Kaius’s roaring laughter. At the unfamiliar sight of him clutching his stomach and laughing, the boys did not know what to do and grew flustered.

After laughing like that for a good while, Kaius looked at Beck.

He merely gazed at him without a word, and yet Beck found himself taking a step back without realizing it.

“Sorry, Beck.”

Kaius had drawn that close and spoke firmly, as if whispering.

“I have no need for minions who act as they please.”

Kaius patted the other’s shoulder and left the frozen Beck behind, following after Ailien.

***

Having run a good distance and arrived at a corner of the garden, Ailien let out the breath she had been holding in a great rush.

“Did Lili do well?”

At Ailien’s question, the flying squirrel and the cat nodded vigorously at the same time, neither before the other.

It was a fierce gesture, as if to say she had done the best in the whole world.

Kiki approached without a sound and gently wrapped her soft tail around Ailien’s plump legs. Ailien plopped down on the spot.

Kiki looked up at the child with eyes full of pity, then gently licked Ailien’s white cheek with her rough, warm tongue.

Perhaps it had come from rolling head over heels when Beck pushed her earlier—there was a red scratch on that angel-like cheek.

“Lili is really all right.”

Ailien sniffled once, bravely, as if she did not mind at all. Then she clenched her tiny fist with great resolve.

“The world is packed full of fellows who can’t handle things better than even a common magical beast!”

The raw lesson Marilyn had once taught her in the cabin’s yard, the five-year-old brat had engraved in her heart splendidly.

Magical beasts move only by hunger or instinct, but humans wound others with nothing but petty spite and pretense.

The little archmage, more concerned about her friends being upset than the scratch on her cheek, brushed back her hopelessly tangled golden hair and simply smiled a harmless, beaming smile.

***

‘What on earth is that grubby thing doing?’

He could not understand why she would leave the neatly tended path and crawl into bushes that were sure to leave her covered in dirt. But then again, thinking about it, that little brat was capable of such things.

She only ever did the most unpredictable things.

Clicking his tongue at himself for being reduced to this and about to turn away, Kaius found he could not bring himself to turn after all.

It was because Ailien, who had been pushing her way through the bushes, had come to a dead stop at a certain spot. It was a secluded place shaded by the castle wall, where the roots of a great tree were tangled together, a place almost no one’s footsteps reached.

‘That looks dangerous.’

She was an infuriating brat who would not yield a single word, but the thought of sending her there alone bothered him.

Ah, of course she was not alone.

The cat and the flying squirrel that followed Ailien were with her.

Letting out a long sigh, Kaius ended up following after her. Repeating to himself that it would be a problem for his father if that child got into danger.

‘So small, and not a shred of fear.’

Ailien pushed through grass taller than herself and pressed diligently onward. Watching that spirited little back, he was speechless. Her cheeks, plump like white flour buns, bobbed in time with the child’s steps.

Having kept his eyes on those cheeks for a while, Kaius closed his eyes and shook his head. Thinking it over, it seemed he must not go any further than this.

He had come farther than he thought, and he kept looking back.

He did not know why on earth he had come all this way, but he was about to open his mouth to say that the short adventure was over and they should head back now.

“Whoa!”

Ailien let out a gasp as if she were sincerely marveling. But Kaius could not utter a single word. He could not even close his mouth.

‘There was a place like this in our castle?’

It was a landscape so beautiful it was hard to believe.

Small wildflowers that gave off a soft glow as if the stars of the sky had descended formed a colony. And among them, golden hair carrying the colors of the wildflowers fluttered as it moved about.

“Found it!”

A bright smile spread across Ailien’s face. The child crouched down and began examining the flowers one by one. Her appearance was no longer that of a young child playing house. Ailien carefully checked the color of the flowers, the shape of the leaves, the thickness of the stems.

Some flowers she put in her basket without hesitation, while others she shook her head at and passed by. Among flowers that looked identical, she seemed to distinguish some subtle difference.

At that serious and careful manner, Kaius found himself holding his breath without realizing it.

‘What is she doing right now?’

Her touch held such clear standards and certainty that it did not look like simply gathering wildflowers. Like a seasoned expert who had handled medicinal herbs for decades.

Ailien had soon filled her basket with wildflowers and smiled brightly in satisfaction. At that innocent smile, Kaius returned to reality.

‘……Surely not.’

She must have just been playing around. Even as he thought that, a chill ran down his body for some reason. As he stood there, Ailien turned around and opened her eyes wide.

“Oh my, what brings Kai here?”

Ailien, spotting Kaius standing there dazed, came scurrying over. Didi, perched squarely atop Ailien’s head, waved a small hand as if delighted.

Ailien, peering behind Kaius, put on a stern face.

“Did you come all the way here alone? Baby-baby shouldn’t go around alone!”

“No, hah.”

At Ailien’s words, Kaius finally came to his senses and swept back his bangs in disbelief. Was he really being scolded by this white flour bun of a thing for coming here alone?

“And you, who came here alone with you?”

“Lili isn’t alone, you know?”

At Kaius’s retort, Ailien tilted her head and opened her eyes wide. Then Kiki let out a small meow, and Didi covered her mouth with a hand and smiled sheepishly.

Kaius clenched his hand. The flying squirrel was cuter than he had expected.

“Fine, I understand. What are those flowers?”

But he realized that bickering over trivial things would only tire him out. So Kaius went straight to the point. He was far too curious about what Ailien had been doing all this time.

“Ah, this!”

Ailien thrust the basket full of flowers forward. Smiling as brightly as the flowers themselves. At that radiant smile, Kaius felt strange for no reason.

“Will Kai help Lili?”

“What should I help with?”

“You see, Lili and—gather these flowers together!”

“Gather these flowers together?”

Ailien’s eyes, gazing at Kaius, were excessively bright and sparkling. Why on earth had this child gathered flowers so meticulously? The question he had been holding onto all this time seemed about to be answered.

And the words that came from her pale pink lips were.

“Let’s play house with Lili!”

It was far more absurd than he had expected.