“S-So…”

As Summer was about to stammer out some words, Russell turned around.

“Let’s finish looking around. The sun will set soon.”

“Ah.”

At Russell’s words, Summer quickly shifted her gaze to the garden.

An exclamation escaped involuntarily. The garden bathed in crimson sunset light looked surreal, like something out of a dream.

The breeze carried hints of autumn. Summer was truly over.

“…Summer?”

“This, this is…”

Summer hastily raised both hands to cover her reddened eyes.

“Grandmother used to often get sad looking at sunsets.”

“Hic, sob…”

“Oh dear.”

As if Russell’s joke was a signal, Summer began shedding tears like chicken droppings.

Russell quickly pulled out a handkerchief and carefully wiped Summer’s tears.

“Sniff, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t apologize to me, Summer.”

“…”

“Let’s try spending four very shameless days.”

“…”

Under the setting sun, Russell’s blue eyes held a sorrowful light.

“So you can detach from me. So I can feel even a little relief.”

Russell’s face as he said this did not look relieved at all.

Russell let out a faint sigh. A shadow of darkness briefly crossed his beautiful blue eyes.

“Russell. You should try being a bit shameless too. I have to detach as well, you know.”

Summer wiped away the remaining tears with the back of her hand and forced a smile. Her reddened eyes stood out under the sunset.

Russell’s fingertips gently touched Summer’s flushed eyes. Very carefully and slowly.

“Summer.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t go.”

“…”

As if caught in Russell’s gaze, Summer couldn’t move an inch.

Not even blinking. All Summer could do was stand frozen, endlessly looking into Russell’s eyes.

Blue eyes tinged with purple. It was a moment of seeing his true feelings in them.

It felt like something inside her dropped to the floor with a thud. What emotion should this be called?

Should she say her heart ached like a stone? Or…

“Summer. If you leave, I’ll spend several sleepless nights. Desperately clinging to the fading remnants of summer.”

The moderately low voice speaking softly. The setting sun. The blowing wind. His trembling eyes, and his throat bobbing with constant nervousness.

“Summer, don’t go.”

When she realized his voice was trembling faintly at the end, Summer ended up closing her eyes.

He had asked to let him detach a little.

“How is it? Are you a little less attached to me now?”

His trembling voice as he tried to joke.

Summer slowly opened her closed eyes.

“Russell.”

“…”

“Thank you.”

“…”

“Really, really thank you. They say there’s no such thing as forever, but I’ll remember forever.”

“…Summer.”

In four days, this would be a face and scenery she could no longer see.

The sunset that had been blazing as if to devour the world sank behind the mountains, and a blue darkness arrived.

“There’s something I want to show you.”

“…”

“Just a moment.”

Russell held out his arm. Summer lightly placed her hand on his arm.

The place they arrived at was the study.

It was a place where one could see the atmosphere of the Bertrand family at a glance. Since Summer had already finished looking around, she sat down in a chair right away.

As she sat in the chair quietly looking at the books, she was reminded of the time she was preparing for exams.

In a space not even a corner of this study she was sitting in now, she had memorized textbooks over and over as if possessed by something.

“Summer.”

Russell took out a document from the safe in the study and handed it to her. Summer’s eyes widened and froze as she reflexively received the document.

“This is…”

“An appointment letter. To hire you as an administrator for the Bertrand family.”

“…”

“You just need to sign here. Since it was your long-time dream.”

“…How long have you been preparing this?”

“Since you said becoming an administrator was your dream.”

“…”

“Will you sign it? Summer, you’re quite a capable talent I don’t want to lose.”

Russell handed her a pen. As if in a trance, Summer signed her name on the signature line.

Appointment letter. Summer stared blankly at the appointment letter again and again, feeling surreal.

It was a dream. She had clung to it thinking it was the only way to guarantee her future. She had pushed herself that way, thinking there was nothing but a fall if not this.

“Russell, have you ever disliked studying too?”

“I always dislike it. I learned while being hit since childhood.”

“…You, Russell?”

“You may not believe it, but I had the lowest academic scores in the family.”

“…”

“Just as people don’t know everything about you, you don’t know everything about me either.”

“…”

“But at least, I’m not a different species from Summer, so I can dare to listen to your story.”

As she listened to Russell’s words, Summer gently stroked the appointment letter with her hand. She could feel the texture of the paper clearly under her palm.

So this is an appointment letter. This.

“Now then. Summer is now an administrator of the Bertrand family. You can work here from now on.”

“…What? Work?”

Summer, dazed, quietly watched as a door connected to the study opened, led by Russell.

When the door opened, what was revealed was a study.

“…”

“Summer. This is your personal study. You can come and use it freely anytime.”

Russell placed a bundle of keys in Summer’s hand.

Summer tightly grasped her hand with a confused mind. She could feel the cold metal sensation in her hand.

“…It’s not a dream.”

Summer murmured, gently fondling the keys in her hand. Since she could feel the cold sensation, it wasn’t a dream.

“Shall we go in and sit down.”

“…”

As soon as Russell finished speaking, Summer staggered over and slowly ran her fingertips over the desk and chair.

Then she sat down in the chair.

“…”

“You said you prepared for a long time to be an administrator.”

“Thank you… for remembering.”

Summer kept touching the desk and stationery. The more she touched them, Summer’s face contorted until she finally bent over the desk, silently bursting into tears.

A dream. It was a dream. To get a stable job and sit like this.

To shed the identity of a student and become a member of society.

That thing everyone else does.

While Summer cried for a long time, Russell stood quietly by the door the whole time, waiting for Summer to calm down. Quietly.

This time, Summer couldn’t easily stop crying. Her fragile shoulders kept shaking as if about to break.

“…Summer. You’ll collapse at this rate.”

“I’ll remember, I’ll never forget today… Thank you, thank you…”

“…I wanted to receive something other than such grand words of thanks.”

Russell detached himself from the doorway where he had been leaning and approached Summer. Then he lightly placed his hand on Summer’s cheek. As if telling her to look at him.

Summer raised her tear-stained face as if entranced and faced Russell.

“I wanted to receive your smiling face. Your happy expression too. Your excited voice as well.”

“…Hic,”

“You keep crying so much. I prepared this because I wanted to see you smile too. You’re crying your eyes out.”

“Ru-Russell…”

“Yes, Summer. I’m here.”

Summer weakly tugged on Russell’s sleeve. Russell was pulled along by a strength that couldn’t even kill an ant.

Summer hugged Russell’s waist and burst into tears again. Russell lowered his eyes and endlessly stroked Summer’s hair and patted her shoulder.

As if he would always be by her side no matter when the tears stopped, even if he didn’t know when they would stop.

“Why has our young miss, who left so excited, returned in such a state?”

Mary furrowed her brow when she saw Summer, who had returned asleep in Russell’s arms.

Summer’s eyes were red from crying so much, and her eyelids were swollen.

“I have nothing to say. She seems exhausted from crying for a long time, so let her rest.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Mary snatched Summer from Russell’s arms as if taking her away. It was the skill she used to subdue Summer whenever she thrashed about having nightmares.

“I’m counting on you.”

“Please return safely.”

After Russell left, Mary stood alone in front of the main entrance, staring into space.

“Don’t come.”

A cold warning flowed from Mary’s lips.

“…”

“Don’t touch the young miss.”

“What a selfish child. Are you saying you don’t care what happens to the world?”

The one who revealed herself from the darkness was Fei. Mary hugged Summer tighter with a hardened face.

“Aren’t you the selfish ones?”

“We only act for the continuation of the world.”

Fei spoke in a mocking tone, shrugging her shoulders. Mary gritted her teeth and glared fiercely at Fei.

“Does that have to be achieved by sacrificing the young miss’s life? What a worthless world that is.”

“Watch your mouth, frog.”

“You watch yours, witch.”

“Ha! You know too, don’t you? That this world flows according to the Creator.”

Fei let out a fierce breath, seemingly getting angry as Mary retorted without backing down.

Mary calmly waved her arm towards the mansion a couple times.

Daisy, who had been eagerly waiting for the young miss’s return through the window, excitedly ran to Mary.

“Oh, the young miss…?”

“She’s asleep. Can you take care of her instead of me? I have something to talk about with that thing.”

“Sure.”

Daisy vigorously hoisted Summer onto her shoulder and went into the mansion.

Only then did Mary feel at ease enough to mock Fei.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Is it okay for a witch to be this stupid?”

“…What?”

“You just protect your god.”

“Protect god? We maintain the balance of the world…!”

“No. You already know too. Who the only person who can change this world abandoned by the Creator is.”

“The black-haired one wants to go back. Who are you to try and make the child stay in this world?”

“A very long time ago.”

“…”

Mary’s voice was chillingly calm. Even Fei flinched.

“A very long time ago, when the Creator abandoned this world, it was you who rebelled against god and became witches, losing your names and being driven to the black forest.”

“How do you know that…”

“You exist to somehow maintain the world abandoned by the Creator.”

“…”

Mary sneered at Fei.

“You’re clinging to an abandoned world. While crying out to the god who abandoned us.”

“…What are you,”

Fei stammered in confusion. What kind of being was this? Mary was a bizarre life form that even Fei, a witch, had never seen before.

Mary’s eyes were clear without wavering. In contrast, Fei’s eyes darted around.

She could intuitively tell. While she may have deceived the black-haired one, she could never deceive this exhausted maid.

Mary took a step closer and tapped Fei’s shoulder. Despite the very small force, Fei momentarily lost her balance and stumbled, landing on her behind.

“You just protect your god.”

“…”

The maid looking down at her seemed like she was looking at herself living in the brilliant world of the past.

“I’ll protect my god.”

Like Fei’s own past, when she lived under the name of the first Pope who protected the god who created the world.