“L-legs are paralyzed?”

“Yeah, I can’t move them.”

I doubted if I had heard wrong, but Yurik’s answer remained the same.

“What nonsense are you spouting about paralysis? If you can’t move your legs, why are you kneeling?”

Roger, who had been monopolizing the bed, laughed as if it were absurd. He even advised me to ignore such obvious lies, saying there was no need to respond to each one.

If it were Roger, I would have ignored it, but Yurik was different.

It was difficult to ignore Yurik’s words.

‘What should I do?’

Should I fall for the obvious lie or scold him?

‘Alright, let’s let him win once.’

It’s not like Yurik does this every time. I decided to let it slide just this once and bent my knees.

“Come on, get on my back.”

I sat in front of Yurik and offered my back. I thought Yurik would happily get on, but that wasn’t the case.

“…?”

Strangely, I didn’t feel any sensation. It remained the same as time passed, so I couldn’t stand it and turned my head.

“You’re not getting on?”

“Lize, I’ve been thinking.”

About what?

“I think I might be too heavy for you.”

You realized that now?

“So instead of me, you’ll be the one getting on my back, Lize.”

What?

Unlike his confident declaration of being paralyzed, Yurik casually got up from his spot. Stunned by Yurik’s brazen attitude, he gently grabbed my wrist.

Yurik put his arm around my waist and lifted my legs. In an instant, my body floated in the air.

“W-wait…!”

“If you move, you might fall. So hold on tight.”

I felt uneasy. As expected, Yurik held me and spun around in place. The problem was that this was just the beginning.

“W-wait a moment! Ahhh! Yurik! I’m dizzy…!”

“Should I spin faster?”

Yurik held me and spun a few more times. As if that wasn’t enough, he took a big spin around the room and even threw my body up. The feeling of losing control made my eyes tightly shut.

“Hahaha! Lize, look at your expression!”

“Shut… Ahhh!”

Roger, who had been watching, laughed when I was scared to death. It was no use telling him not to laugh.

That loud laughter made my already dizzy head spin even more.

“Yurik! S-stop!”

Yurik had no intention of stopping. Since words weren’t working, I flailed my arms and reached out towards Yurik’s face. After fumbling for a while, my hand finally touched Yurik’s face.

Without hesitation, I tapped Yurik’s cheek several times. Yurik didn’t stop.

“Hey! I said stop it!”

I grabbed one of Yurik’s cheeks and stretched it out.

“Ouch! Lize!”

As Yurik couldn’t maintain his speed due to the stinging sensation, I took the opportunity to firmly grasp his other cheek. Yurik seemed to be in real pain and started losing his balance. At the same time, I also struggled in Yurik’s arms.

“It’d be best to put me down while I’m asking nicely!”

“S-sorry. Were you very dizzy?”

“This is…”

Are you really asking because you don’t know?

“I’ll put you down, Lize! Stay still so you don’t get hurt. Okay? It’ll hurt if you get injured.”

Unlike how roughly he handled me earlier, Yurik calmly lowered my body onto the bed. Weakly collapsing on the bed, I felt constantly nauseous from the dizziness. The patterns on the ceiling I saw now seemed to overlap two or three times.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Roger’s face suddenly appeared, blocking the ceiling. This is what you call ‘adding insult to injury’.

“You were just laughing in enjoyment a moment ago, and now you’re concerned?”

“I only laughed. The one who tormented you was that guy.”

I followed the tip of Roger’s finger.

Unlike when he was excited, Yurik was now politely standing in front of the bed, looking remorseful. I could see him fidgeting, perhaps because I was very angry.

“Lize, I’m sorry. I just wanted to make you happy… You can pinch me more until your anger subsides.”

Does Yurik know that my heart softens again when he looks so gloomy like that?

“It’s fine, come lie down next to me. It’s cold.”

“Okay.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Yurik quickly approached and lay down beside me.

The bed was large enough for three children to fit comfortably. We huddled together and stared at the ceiling in silence. Perhaps because we had woken up once, our eyes didn’t easily close despite it being dawn.

Fortunately, the dizziness subsided quickly, and my stomach felt better. My anger had also dissipated, and any remaining ill feelings towards Yurik and Roger disappeared.

“…A lot has happened.”

As I mumbled, Roger nodded beside me.

“Things got somewhat resolved thanks to this Roger Bakus.”

Roger displayed his pride, recalling what had happened earlier. Although it was annoying, he was right.

“You’re saying that with your own mouth. You have no sense of embarrassment.”

Yurik sarcastically remarked.

“This guy who thanked me earlier.”

“Yeah, my sister got better because of you.”

Yurik, who I thought wouldn’t acknowledge it twice, expressed his gratitude to Roger. Even Roger seemed to not have expected that reaction and didn’t tease him further.

“But have you ever thought about becoming a doctor? You said your mother and her family are all from a medical background.”

I asked out of curiosity.

“I did when I was younger. So I was torn between medicine and art, but I found that the violin suited me better.”

I tried to imagine Roger holding surgical tools, but it felt more awkward than I thought. In my eyes, Roger would look best when playing the violin.

“And I have a lot of talent for the violin.”

“That’s true.”

“This is why having too much talent is also a problem. I want to do both if I could, but my body can’t keep up. So in the end, I chose what I had more talent for.”

As if he had found his voice, Roger continued to talk more about his dreams. As he had mentioned before, he said he wanted to become a violinist who could bring joy to everyone.

When asked if he would choose fame or joy, he naturally chose joy, which was very much like him at that age.

“Then Yurik, what’s your dream?”

“Dream?”

I asked Yurik the same question. Unlike Roger, he didn’t answer right away and paused.

‘Yurik’s dream, huh.’

Yurik was someone whose future was determined from the moment he was born as the heir to the Penton family. Even in the book, didn’t Yurik naturally inherit the Penton family?

So it was natural for Yurik to not be able to freely dream. An environment where he couldn’t do what he wanted. That’s why he had to hide his cute tastes.

“I haven’t really thought about it. Other than becoming the heir of the Penton family and greatly growing the Penton family…”

As expected.

“But if given the chance, I want to wield a sword.”

“Sword? Are you talking about swordsmanship?”

When Roger asked, Yurik nodded.

“Yes.”

“Don’t your parents say anything about it?”

“They don’t stop me. But if I insist on becoming a knight, they will stop me. There’s also the reason that there’s no other heir to succeed the family besides me, and even though it’s peaceful now, if a war breaks out, knights must stand on the battlefield no matter what.”

Yurik seemed to have a lot of worries because of that.

“If you want to become a knight, you’d want to join the Violet Knights, right?”

In response to Roger’s question, Yurik silently nodded. If asked to name the most honorable and renowned order of knights, everyone would say the Violet Knights.

“Now that I’ve told my story, Lize, tell us your story.”

“Lize? It’s obvious she’ll be a chess champion.”

Yurik and Roger’s gazes landed on me.

I always had plenty of dreams. When Isabel took my book away, I hoped she would return it the next day. When my father tried to exile me to the Marsen family, I hoped he would reflect on his actions and apologize to me the next day.

That’s how I dreamed of overcoming the crises that came my way.

“…I’ve never thought about it.”

But the future was different.

“Didn’t you want to become a chess champion?”

Roger seemed surprised, as if my answer was unexpected.

“That’s a goal. A goal that I must achieve.”

“Then have you ever imagined what kind of person you’ll be ten years from now?”

When Yurik asked specifically, I pondered carefully again.

“I have no idea how I’ll be living ten years from now, but there’s one thing I hope remains unchanged.”

Perhaps the moon was covered by clouds, as the light that had entered the room disappeared. Darkness enveloped us, but the warmth of each other remained the same. Even at the slightest contact, the three of us flinched.

“What is it?”

“Well, I hope that even then, I’ll still be friends with you and Roger, just like now.”

I said with a smile, trying to change the atmosphere, but instead, the mood sank.

Yurik, do you know? If the contents of the book and your life flow in parallel, ten years from now, you’ll push me into death.

“Hmph, we’ll still be close ten years later.”

I chuckled at Roger’s answer.

“People’s hearts always change.”

“Should we make a promise if you’re worried?”

Yurik and my heads turned towards Yurik.

“Ten years from now. Today is February 23rd, so exactly ten years later, at 12 o’clock midnight, from the 22nd to the 23rd. The three of us will meet in the winter garden. How about it? No matter how much we fought the day before, we must come.”

“What if we still don’t come?”

Roger asked.

We might forget the promise, become a person who is inferior compared to other friends, or our relationship might not be good at all. What if we don’t come because of that?

We needed a strong solution that would force us to keep the promise.

“Hmm.”

Even after pondering, I couldn’t think of a suitable solution. Wouldn’t retaliation be better then?

“Ah, how about visiting the mansion or workplace of the person who didn’t come? And on that day, we resolve all the reasons they didn’t come or any misunderstandings.”

Barging in unexpectedly was the retaliation. I thought everyone would ponder over my suggestion, but they surprisingly agreed easily.

“Okay, then this promise absolutely cannot be broken. Got it? Especially you, stubborn Lize and Penton, keep this in mind.”

I was actually worried that Roger would break the promise. I was about to honestly express this thought but held back. Because Yurik stretched his arm out into the air.

“What are you doing?”

When Roger asked, Yurik gestured for him to raise his arm like he did. Following Roger, who had raised his arm in bewilderment, my arm also went up.

“Let’s make a pinky promise right here and now.”

I don’t know if we’ll really remember this promise ten years later… Even with the threat of retaliation, if everyone forgets the promise, it would end there.

The moon, which had been hidden by clouds, revealed itself. As the darkness lifted, three pinky fingers stretched out to the highest point appeared. The small and cute fingers seemed to emit light.

“Lize, you promise.”

Yurik whispered.

“…Then let’s really meet ten years from now. Absolutely, absolutely don’t forget. Understood?”

The boys on either side of me nodded at my words.

Ten years later, February 23rd.

Lize Marsen,

Yurik Penton,

Roger Bakus.

The three of us pledged to meet again in the future, a precious encounter.