Kalcion told the servant to bring in a tailor and exchanged a few words with Dion, who had just arrived.
Meetings that continued day and night were greatly reduced. Instead, short conversations with Dion and his men, who had come to report, increased in this way. Sounds like a pretty tight operation, but neither of them cared at all whether Selina heard it from the side or not.
“And, the day after tomorrow, we leave.”
Dion gazed at Selina and Kalcion alternately with a distraught face.
“Do you really have to do this?”
“Isn’t everything prepared?”
“I know.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“But—!”
To dare to raise his voice in front of Kalcion, it seemed that he had entrusted him with a great task. The slight change in Dion's voice did not change Kalcion's decision.
“Still, this is really. No way.”
“Are you going to disobey?”
“…How could I?”
He looked like he was going to cling to Kalcion’s pants with tears but immediately subsided at Kalcion’s cold words. The body followed it automatically, but it seemed that he couldn't do as he thought.
“I really don’t understand.”
He didn’t stop grumbling.
“I don’t understand myself either.”
A grin, a reaction unimaginable to the past Kalcion.
In this situation that could not be explained either rationally or emotionally, Dion had a grim face. He had an intuition that everything that would happen in the future would be beyond imagination.
“I sincerely hope that the most common sense option will be chosen…”
Selina shook her head and looked at Dion's back as he exited the room.
“A contract is a contract, but there is no need to leave in this urgent situation. I could wait a bit…”
They didn’t know when the Crown Prince would attack.
She was so sorry that he had to spend time with her.
“If you do that, you will end up putting things off forever. When this is over, another will happen, and things just keep popping up.”
Kalcion paused for a moment and exhaled slowly. A moment so heavy that it was difficult to even breathe was approaching her.
“I need to make up my mind about this too. I'm a human, too, so I don't know how my mind will change as time passes.”
As time went by, Selina could naturally settle down, and she could adapt and settle down.
As long as she couldn’t see it, the image of the world she lived in right now would fade in her mind. There may be some lingering and nostalgic moments, though she couldn’t beat the vivid reality in front of her eyes.
Kalcion couldn't have not known that either. His instinctive selfishness and the desire to win all of Selina's heart fought a fierce battle.
She had no right to stop the battle.
* * *
The departure was made quietly.
In the early morning, without anyone to see them off, Kalcion and her quietly left the castle alone.
When she entered the castle, she made a grand appearance in Kalcion’s arms, but her exit was quite calm. Since Selina's secret could not be known externally, it was her ‘suddenly disappearing' and Kalcion's ‘going out suddenly because of monsters.’
The fewer people who know the inside story, the better.
“Your belongings are bigger than I thought.”
Selina was surprised to see Kalcion's backpack in front of her.
Kalcion took care of everything except for a few things she had to take care of herself, but she didn't expect it to be so huge. He was almost like a peddler. Even with it on his back, he walked faster and lighter than her.
Still, they were going to climb the Beast Mountains, and it wouldn’t just be a flat path, so she was worried.
“Because you have to be prepared for one situation at a time. It is better to take as much as you can.”
A few of the guards would be willing to accompany them. However, later on, food may also need to be procured on the spot, so in that case, a large number of people may become a burden. In the Beast Mountains, Kalcion's opinion would be absolutely right, so she simply followed it.
Her steps away from the castle were heavy, apart from her belongings.
Thinking that it might be the end of her life made her look back over and over again. She has no choice but to feel so until the entrance to her original world. She might come back. Nonetheless, there was a greater chance that she would never come back.
It was still unclear which one was correct.
However, her thoughts were cut off as she started climbing the mountain. Kalcion lifted and carried her to the place where the road was not visible, grabbed her and pulled her to a high place, and helped every time, but it was still difficult.
At first, she couldn't understand how she had followed this path bare.
The weight of her steps differed between when she was determined to live and die and when she was deciding whether or not to go. However, in front of the goal of the mountain, she eventually climbed hard. By the time she arrived halfway up the mountain, her whole body was drenched in sweat.
A few drops of sweat appeared on Kalcion's forehead as he climbed the mountain carrying baggage that was bigger than his own body.
“It’s fortunate that we haven’t seen beasts yet.”
“I know.”
If a beast had come out, she might have gone to the other world before her original world.
“It looks like the sun is going down. It would be good to rest here for today and start again when the sun rises tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
On the inside, she hurrayed because she was relieved, but on the outside, she nodded her head with an expression saying, “I’ll follow your opinion.”
She had no reason to whine about the hardships she was making for herself. Kalcion set down his pack and found a flat piece of land to gather fallen leaves. Selina also stood beside him and reached out to help.
“Stay still. You went hiking today, so you’re going to have muscle pain.”
He spread a blanket over the rock and sat her down.
“Never move.”
“But.”
“When I see you working, it’ll get on my nerves and slow me down.”
Kalcion, who had finished his request, moved around alone with his gear and finished preparing for the bed. It was so swift, as he confidently said, that Selina was able to put her apologetic feelings aside and wait comfortably.
Even if he was fast, the mountain night came quickly.
After getting ready for bedtime and lighting a bonfire, the surrounding became completely dark in an instant.
The Beast Mountains, where there were few wild animals, were deafeningly quiet at night. Selina crouched by the fire, listening to the crackling and burning wood as she chewed on things like jerky and dried bread.
“For the first time since I was born, I stayed outside.”
“Are you scared?”
“No, it’s still fun.”
They say that if you use your body a lot, your head will become simpler.
Until they set off, she was confused with her melancholic heart, but now she felt light with thoughts like the flames in front of her eyes were pretty, and the beef jerky was more edible than she thought.
“Shall we go around like this for a month?”
Selina giggled.
“I'll forgive you if we cut it back a little bit.”
“Okay, three weeks.”
Selina laughed again like a drunk.
This time, Kalcion laughed along.
Perhaps they had forgotten about the soon-to-be parting, the two simply looked at the reality right in front of them. After a simple meal, he heated a canteen of water over a bonfire. While she was watching what he was going to do, he approached her with a soft towel.
“The temperature will drop more than now at night. You just have to wash off your sweat and go to sleep.”
“Ah…”
She couldn’t have a public bath in the middle of this mountain. She thought she would just not wash, but it was an unexpected luxury.
Instead of handing over the canteen, Kalcion sat down on his knees at Selina's feet.
“Will you wash me?”
“It’s harder to do it alone.”
It sounded like an excuse, but Selina pretended to follow his whims and nodded her head coldly.
“Then, please do it for me.”
He liked the fact that he was kneeling in front of her. He was happy even while taking care of her.
Taking off her shoes with his own hands, he took off her socks as well. When the warm water-soaked towel wrapped around her feet, she immediately relaxed.
“Ah…”
She didn't even know she was tired, but now she realized that this was comfortable.
Selina let out a languid sigh and looked down at the top of Kalcion's head, which she rarely sees. Her body odor was weak, so her feet wouldn’t smell, but it was probably uncomfortable to touch the feet that had been overworked all day.
Regardless, he carelessly massages them with his bare hands.
His hands, thoroughly cleaning between the toes and pressing his thumbs against the soles of her feet, were quite firm and cool.
She was completely stretched out and threw herself into his hands. Having finished off her feet, Kalcion wet another towel and took her hand. Her hands were simply wiped before eating, so there was no more place in need of a thorough clean, so it was over quickly.
Next, he raised his body a little and came closer to her neck. The sound of his hand brushing between her collar made a deafening silence.
“I always thought… you never learn to use your hands like this, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
Even while laughing, Kalcion's hand did not stop.
“I don’t think there’s anywhere that teaches you to do this, so how do you do it so well?”
There were more people who couldn't be taught even if they were taught. Tenderness was not something that could be created through education. Even Kalcion was originally bad at it, yet he suddenly became good at it. There was so little process that she was bewildered.
“Well, it seems to happen naturally if you follow your heart. I'm glad you're a person who's used to receiving feelings.”
With his words, Selina thought again, ‘Is that so?'
When she received something, the first thing that came to her mind was the moments when she was grateful but not impressed.
She obviously received sincerity, but did it fill her own heart in it?
It seemed that if she returned to her original world and returned to her original life, she would not be able to fill the parts he had filled in all along.
She felt quite lonely.
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