HSTYM 09

Chapter 9

He was staring intently into the fountain, as if there were something inside it, even though no water was coming out.

Just as Herace was about to call out to him, “Young Master,” Xenon suddenly raised his lowered head.

His transparent blue-gray eyes met Herace’s.

His gaze was sharp and raw, and Xenon, who had unexpectedly encountered Herace in his own territory, opened his mouth with a noticeably flustered expression.

“……What happened to that guy? Why did you come here?”

“That guy? Who are you talking about?”

Herace pretended not to know, even though she knew exactly what he meant.

It was the first time she had ever seen this young master flustered.

Trying to hide how amusing she found this while asking innocently, Herace’s tone was almost irritatingly innocent.

Xenon avoided her gaze. He bit down on his lip until it began to bleed, then spoke irritably.

“You know, don’t you?”

“Isaac went home.”

Xenon suddenly let out a short laugh.

It was the happiest reaction he had shown all day.

There was a hint of mockery in it as well.

“Ah, he wasn’t any fun to play with, but at least he’s good at running away.”

“He didn’t run away. He went back after getting his injury treated.”

At Herace’s defense of Isaac, Xenon twisted up the corner of his mouth.

It was an obvious sneer.

Herace had no idea where a child like him had learned to smile like that.

She was certain that if she had left without seeing Xenon today, Wednesday would have been a very tiring day, so she spoke.

“What are you doing here, Young Master?”

“As you can see, I’m playing alone.”

Having already recovered from his embarrassment, Xenon slowly raised his hand as he spoke.

The blue fish that had guided Herace here wrapped itself around Xenon’s hand and rubbed against it, swaying playfully as if trying to act cute.

Unlike when it had passed uselessly through Herace’s hand, it naturally touched Xenon’s hand, as if it were swimming around inside its own home.

“With a fish you made with magic?”

“A fish? Does this look like a fish to you?”

Xenon gave a small laugh and grabbed the fish.

At the same moment, the shape of the fish scattered.

Then dozens, even hundreds, of tiny water droplets appeared around them before bursting apart.

“This is nothing. It’s just a mass of mana.”

The water droplets bubbled and burst like foam, then soon began popping up one after another in the air like fireworks made of water.

The changes and movements were so fast that it was difficult to follow them with her eyes.

As Herace frantically turned her head, following the trails of blue mana, Xenon folded his long fingers, which had been stretched out, and clenched his hand into a fist.

At that moment, something that was neither liquid nor light, but carried a bluish glow, beautifully burst upward from the empty fountain.

For a moment, Herace was left speechless as she stared at the mysterious and beautiful thing tracing its path through the air.

At dusk, the blue mana contrasted against the sunset that had dyed the sky red, dancing like waves inside the fountain at the slightest gesture from Xenon.

As the rising mana swayed so vividly that it looked as though it might splash onto Herace, a smile spread across her lips as well.

“You can do something like this?”

“Why? Are you surprised that a weak and rotten young master can do something like this?”

“Me? Of course not. From the very first day I met you, I realized just how incredible your magical abilities are.”

Herace, who disliked conflict, immediately calmed Xenon down when he seemed to be trying to pick a fight, then smiled sweetly.

If he had the power to create such a beautiful scene, it would have been much better if he had shown this to the other playmates who came before me and played with them like this.

If he had, anyone would have had no choice but to admire and like Xenon.

“Why did you use such beautiful power to scare people?”

“Scare them? I was just playing. There’s nothing different about what I’m doing now.”

“Wouldn’t you become much closer if you looked at something this beautiful together?”

Herace, feeling happy after seeing such a beautiful scene, smiled brightly as she spoke.

Xenon silently looked at her face before quietly asking,

“What about you?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think you’ve become close to me? We’re looking at this scenery together right now.”

Herace barely listened to what he was saying as she excitedly watched the masses of mana.

Whatever he said, all she could do was roughly nod in response.

“Of course, of course. It would have been nice if we had done this from the beginning.”

“……”

Herace had been staring at the fountain for so long that she did not even realize how long she had been standing there.

Only after Xenon finally calmed the mana did she come back to her senses.

“It was so beautiful!”

“Was it?”

“Yes. It felt like time passed in an instant.”

Then, as Xenon’s expression began to fade, he suddenly gave a faint smile and answered.

“Me too.”

“Hm?”

“My time also seemed to pass quickly.”

“Looks like we finally agreed on something.”

Herace smiled back brightly.

And so, she thought that the end of that day had been bright as well.

Since meeting Xenon, it had been one of the few good days.

Wednesday.

The tiring Monday had passed, and the uneventful Tuesday had passed as well.

And now Wednesday had come again—the day she was supposed to go see Xenon.

After hearing that Xenon had smiled a lot on Monday, her father and mother had seemed very pleased.

Her mother even imagined the pitiful ‘Xenon Lianeric’ from the stories Herace had told her, thinking that the sick Xenon seemed strong and brave despite his condition, and she felt sorry for him.

“Herace, are you going to see the Young Master again today?”

Even though she already knew the answer, her mother pretended not to know and asked Herace.

Herace thought for a moment before obediently nodding.

The reason was that her meeting with Xenon last Monday had not been bad.

Although Isaac had been injured and she had not exactly made peace with Xenon, the mana he had shown her was beautiful, and the atmosphere between them had remained friendly until they parted.

If Xenon behaved as calmly as he had inside the maze on Monday, there was no reason why she could not continue setting aside some of her time for him.

“What about Isaac? You said you went together last time.”

Her mother did not know exactly what had happened that day, so Herace lightly shrugged and answered.

“He was injured on Monday. He probably needs to rest.”

“Oh dear. Did Isaac say he couldn’t go?”

“Not really. But I don’t even want to ask him. I don’t want to burden someone who’s already hurt.”

“Yes, that was the right thing to do. Anyway, I’m glad that you seem to have gotten along well with the Young Master.”

Unable to tell her happy mother that she and Xenon were not actually that close yet, Herace only gave an awkward smile.

“Then go and have fun today as well. If anything is difficult, you can always talk to Mom about it.”

“Yes. I will, Mom.”

Herace, who had been twisting the neatly arranged strands of hair her nanny had prepared for her, eventually gave up on correcting her mother’s misunderstanding. She simply waved her hand lightly and said goodbye.

When the time came and she got into the carriage, the coachman drove toward Lambert Mansion without even asking where they were going, as he was already accustomed to the destination.

As the carriage entered through the main gate of the mansion, she remembered the fountain of light she had seen in the rose maze, and a smile appeared on her face again.

Just as Herace’s carriage was about to pass through the main gate—

“Who are you?”

The gatekeeper guarding the mansion asked the coachman.

It was merely a routine question.

“She is Lady Herace of Viscount Lorca.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The gatekeeper contacted the mansion’s administration through a magic orb, and Herace looked out the window with a bored expression while she waited.

Even though he was a disowned heir, as long as he was a member of the Lianeric bloodline, this level of security was only natural.

It was something that happened every time, so she simply waited for a while.

Suddenly, the coachman climbed down from his seat and knocked on the carriage door.

When she lowered the window, the coachman’s face was stiff.

“Why?”

“Miss, I think we should go back.”

“What are you talking about? I’m supposed to meet the Young Master.”

“Ah……”

The coachman hesitated, searching for his words. Then, avoiding her eyes, he quickly delivered the message.

“Lambert Mansion has refused your visit.”

“What?”

Surprised, Herace stuck her head out of the window and looked at the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper, whom she had now met several times and had become familiar with, also seemed flustered by the situation. He blinked repeatedly and avoided Herace’s gaze as much as possible.

“Did something go wrong? Tell the Young Master. I came here today as his playmate.”

“The thing is…… it was an order from Young Master Lianeric.”

“……What?”

The coachman’s face had gone pale as he delivered the message.

The gatekeeper seemed to be talking repeatedly with the mansion’s administration as well, fiddling with the magic orb and mumbling something more, but in the end, no message came allowing her to enter.

“Go back?”

“……”

While the coachman fidgeted helplessly, feeling utterly ashamed, Herace let out a hollow laugh out of sheer disbelief.

“Ha! Just last time, he was asking me if we had become close, and now he’s doing this to me?!”

Even though she angrily muttered to herself, nothing changed.

Since the enormous Lambert Mansion had said they would not allow Herace inside, she could not simply force her carriage through the gate.

Herace pressed her lips tightly together before speaking.

“Fine. Turn the carriage around and let’s go back.”

“Yes, understood.”

The coachman hurried back to his seat and backed the carriage away, as if afraid that the blame might somehow fall on him.

As Herace’s carriage moved farther away from the main gate of Lambert Mansion and passed along the walls bearing the same crest, Herace, who had been sitting with a stern expression, opened her lips again.

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

“Stop here. I need to get out for a moment.”