Mikhail, who had been glancing at me, soon asked Frigia.

“What brings you here?”

“Oh, speak of the devil.”

Unlike me, who flinched as if caught gossiping, Frigia was quite confident.

“I’m just here because my friend sought some advice. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“I haven’t.”

As Mikhail spoke curtly, Frigia shrugged as if to say, ‘Is that so?’ Then she whispered to me.

“He doesn’t really like me.”

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. He had clearly heard her.

Frigia chuckled and slapped Mikhail’s shoulder.

“He’s not a bad person, so try asking him for help! He has experience teaching children at the Tower!”

Mikhail took a step back.

Ignoring him, Frigia waved at me.

“I’ll go explore the castle a bit more!”

“Uh, take care…?”

By the time I awkwardly said goodbye, Frigia was already gone.

‘She’s something else.’

Frigia’s extroverted energy was quite extraordinary.

I was wiping off my cold sweat.

Mikhail was still standing at a distance from me.

‘Should I ask, or not?’

I also thought Mikhail wasn’t a bad person.

It’s just that he was quite odd.

I was briefly lost in the dilemma of whether it was okay to leave a child with such a person.

‘Why does he keep looking there?’

Mikhail’s gaze stayed where Frigia had left.

Feeling my gaze, Mikhail seemed ready to leave.

“I will take my leave.”

“Wait!”

I impulsively grabbed his sleeve. The face that turned to look at me was dreadfully cold.

“What is it?”

I was scared by his icy expression, but I managed to realize something.

“Mikhail, do you have a moment?”

Mikhail, who had been alternating his gaze between me and his trapped sleeve, sighed briefly.

“Fine.”

In the end, I was able to wander the garden with Mikhail.

‘It’s awkward.’

It was natural. There had been almost no point of contact with Mikhail even after the reincarnation.

Kashar, who had become the Demon King, had this loyal servant by his side.

I didn’t know why he stayed there.

One thing was clear.

“Are you there, Mikhail?”

I stopped in the middle of the chilly garden and asked.

“You do like the princess, right?”

Mikhail, who had been about to walk past me, also stopped.

“…What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”

He was asking me, but his fluster was obvious.

“I don’t know what you are seeing but…”

“Your eyes look like mine. They’re the eyes of someone in love.”

His voice faltered, unable to deny it.

His gray eyes were visibly shaking.

‘How can you not realize?’

The way I followed Kashar and the way Mikhail followed Frigia were eerily similar.

Mikhail’s face turned red.

He avoided my gaze and turned his head.

I pretended not to see it and finally asked what I had always been curious about.

“By any chance, that comment about the gray tower being beautiful…”

“It wasn’t about the tower, it was about Frigia.”

As expected.

The line that contributed to his nickname, ‘The Gray Oddball,’ was actually a shy confession.

“Because in a world full of gray, only Frigia stood out.”

Recalling that day, Mikhail’s tone softened.

‘It was like that earlier too.’

His expression, usually cold towards me, had softened when directed at Frigia.

The difference was subtle, but since we were both in love, it was more apparent.

“I regret having to leave the tower.”

“Even without that incident, I had plans to leave the tower. I had achieved what I wanted.”

It turned out that Mikhail becoming Kashar’s lieutenant was also due to the tower master’s orders.

However, I didn’t know what he had achieved.

“What you wanted?”

“A gift for Frigia.”

Suddenly, I remembered the earring in one of Frigia’s ears.

‘The gray earring.’

In the latter part of the original story. The continental war.

Frigia stands by Elsirus as a Grand Mage.

At that time, Mikhail had gone to the other side of the world to awaken the Dragon’s second ability.

Before Mikhail arrived, crises occurred multiple times.
Kashar had nearly killed Freesia, but it was the gray earring that saved her.

“Just once, a magical trinket that could neutralize all attacks.”

After Freesia blocked Kashar’s attack, her magic pierced through Mikhail.

She had died while protecting the person she loved.

“Did Mikhail make that? If he liked her that much, why didn’t he confess…”

Unable to understand him, I sighed after a moment.

“Mikhail thinks Freesia dislikes him.”

Perhaps he thought it would be better to die by her hand than be rejected.

“……How complicated.”

Unrequited love is always bitter.

Especially in Mikhail’s case.

Knowing the future made me feel even more downcast.

I forced a smile and spoke to him.

“I won’t tell anyone. If you just teach magic to the princes.”

“……You had a motive.”

“Of course.”

His gray gaze met mine.

He faintly smiled and surprisingly said something unexpected.

“At first, I thought you were a fraud.”

“A fraud?”

“Yes. There were quite a few frauds claiming to cure the lord’s madness. Of course, they disappeared by the lord’s hand.”

The only effective thing was the Alube fruit.

“So that’s why you were especially cold to me.”