When Esmeralda returned to the clearing, she felt even more disappointed. Just a while ago, the fire lizards that had gathered on the rocks were nowhere to be seen.

At that moment, Kyrion pointed towards the bushes, bringing his finger to his lips. The flames that had been on the bushes had died down considerably. As soon as Esmeralda pulled her head back, she quickly found the cause.

The lizards that had been basking in the sun on the rocks had gathered around the bushes and were diligently eating the fire.

Kyrion, who had swiftly gathered all the lizards into the sack he brought, looked at Esmeralda with indifferent eyes.

“Well, the fire was quite useful.”

Kyrion lifted the heavy sack, showing it off, and nodded his head.

“Thank you.”

It was a succinct and utterly dry tone, but Esmeralda, who was trying to avoid Kyrion’s gaze with a throat full of frustration, turned her eyes away.

“Oh, no need to mention it.”

When she looked up again, Kyrion, who had just been standing in front of her, was gone. Surprised, she looked around, only to find Kyrion walking away in a hurry in the distance.

And after a while, he turned around and called her.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Although Kyrion urged her as if he were in a hurry, Esmeralda, with her necklaces swaying as she tried not to step on her skirt, ran after him.

“Let’s go!”

A smile filled Esmeralda’s face as she waved her hand.

Kyrion was in a hurry.

He wanted to quickly finish this insignificant lizard hunting and return to where his sister was, but nothing went according to his wishes.

He really wanted to just leave this burden of a person, who walked around boasting about using magic to clean up, somewhere and come back.

Although he already thought of his sister as someone with a filthy temper, such behavior would undoubtedly not help in image improvement.

Kyrion, trying hard to resist the urge to glare at his sister’s friend running towards them with a bright face from afar, asked through gritted teeth.

If you leave your only friend in the forest and come back, it’s definitely going to be a dirty temper, right?

“Pink or sky blue, that is the question.”

I agonized intensely over the color of the handkerchief given as a souvenir during the festival. When I held it up to the library’s high window, the late afternoon sunlight penetrated the handkerchief.

Pink reminded me of strawberry shoes, and sky blue reminded me of the limited edition fluffy cloud macarons released by the academy’s most famous patissier every spring.

I couldn’t help but agonize over it.

“They’re both pretty, aren’t they?”

In response to my severe dilemma, Hiss tried to comfort me beside, but I shook my head decisively.
“There are people who weave the handkerchiefs Young Jimin receives every year into tablecloths. If they can’t choose the perfect color, their granddaughters will ask them one day, ‘Grandma, why is this handkerchief the only ugly one?'”

Eliza, who had been diligently carrying luggage around, nodded earnestly.

“I’ve asked the same question to our grandmother once. Got quite a beating though.”

Now realizing how important the task of protecting a granddaughter’s buttocks was, Hiss, after much contemplation, pointed to the pink handkerchief.

“It’s probably this color.”

“Let’s go with sky blue.”

Someone snatched the sky blue handkerchief from my hand. It was Kyrion.

“The pink one was made at the spring festival when Nuna was 14.”

Suddenly, Kyrion brought a handkerchief next to my face.

“It looks pretty because it matches Nuna’s eye color.”

Feeling awkward for some reason, I snatched the handkerchief from Kyrion’s hand.

“T-then, let’s go with this one. We shouldn’t overlap.”

Looking again, the sky blue handkerchief seemed more beautiful. I discreetly grabbed one as a sample.

“It shouldn’t overlap.”

Hiss agreed convincingly, but instead of looking at me, he stared at Kyrion with a complicated expression. A mysterious smile appeared on Kyrion’s face as he faced Hiss.

Before an awkward silence settled in, I quickly spoke.

“What about Esmeralda?”

I thought Esmeralda, who I expected to return soon after following Kyrion, still hadn’t shown up. At that moment, when I was starting to worry, Kyrion pointed outside the window. Esmeralda, dividing the front yard of the duke’s residence, came into view. Her skirt, which was once vibrant when I went out, had somehow faded, and she was even dripping water.

Her hair, beautifully arranged until recently, was now completely disheveled, and she was even dripping water. I alternately looked at Esmeralda and Kyrion with amazed eyes. Kyrion, who sighed lightly, scratched the end of his eyebrow.

“I didn’t do anything.”

Still, Kyrion shrugged when I didn’t withdraw my suspicious gaze.

“Ask her when she comes. She’s here.”

Returning Esmeralda answered cheerfully.

“Master Kyrion saved me.”