Chapter 250: On A Certain Day (2.5) (Extra)

On A Certain Day (2.5) (Extra)

** Author’s Note:This is the continuation of the short story found in Chapter 200. It’s an old story about Earl Terejia.

People always wonder what others are thinking, but I think it’s better not to know such things.

Feeling the summer sunshine piercing through my skin felt terribly displeasing. Still, to save face, I couldn’t let others notice this.

It was the first day of the academy. I could feel the stares of people stabbing at me in the head like a crown of thorns at the entrance of the area where a party of sorts was being held to welcome this year’s freshmen.

For someone like me, who has the strange power to read people’s minds, nothing was more painful than that.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Sieg.”

I fixed my gaze down, straight onto the tips of my white shoes, making every effort not to look at her.

“You’re late, Amadea.”

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Complaining out of frustration, I looked up at the person I had been waiting for— and instantly regretted it.

Damn it. I read them.

“Hehe, don’t give me that red, angry face just because I was a little late. It’s a party after all, isn’t it?”

No, no, no! This woman knew perfectly well that I wasn’t angry about that!

Forgetting the frustration up until then, I unintentionally covered my face –which yes, was reddened, but out of embarrassment– with my palm.

Damn it. I’ve never heard of anyone being this beautiful.

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Wearing an evening dress for the first time, she was as beautiful as a jewel made of crystallized white lily dew. But it was too embarrassing to find out what she was thinking, considering we had been treating each other like buddies for years, cracking jokes at each other.

“…It’s not that. This suit is so uncomfortable…”

I cleared my throat and tried speaking in a way that would deceive the eyes around us.

The pressure I felt from all around me was now a little softer than when I was standing here alone. The rude curiosity was still there, but the insulting contempt and ridicule seemed to have subsided.

But this would continue as long as people keep spreading those rumors about me having “stolen” my brother’s fiancée. This thought made me feel tremendously sad.

“…Let’s go. Give me your hand, Amadea.”

I shook my head in an attempt to change the mood. I couldn’t go home just yet. There was someone we had to say hello to first.

My childhood friend, who had become my own fiancée this spring, gladly took my hand and let herself be escorted by me.

It was a pretty bold move, even though it would have been best to try to avoid doing anything to feed those ravenous eyes.

After taking my hand, Amadea smiled happily.

Then she naturally leant towards me and whispered softly into my ear.

“Don’t worry about them. We know that’s not how things are, so the rumors will disappear eventually.”

“Oh, I know.”

After telling her that it was still painful, but that didn’t mean that I hated being around her for it, we stepped into the venue.

◆

It’s been exactly one year since Amadea became my fiancée.

It was the day Brother returned home from the academy. A day when the whole mansion was in a state of confusion as everyone rushed to welcome the next head of the family for the first time in a year.

On that day, along with the news that my brother was coming home, I was summoned into the drawing room by Father, where he himself was waiting for me, joined by Brother and Amadea.

The image of my father quietly starting to explain the engagement is, to this day, still vividly burned into my mind. Brother didn’t say a single word, and Amadea also smiled quietly with her gaze lowered.

I believed the reason behind the change in the original plan was my ability to read minds.

But instead, the reason Father gave was a slight reference to the circumstances around both Amadea and myself.

During the conversation between our families, the reason given was that Father thought I would be a better match for Amadea, but in the end, my mind was still settled into the reason I believed in.

──Father’s inner voice was calm, but I couldn’t grasp Brother’s thoughts.

There were some things I could hear, and other things I could see, but perhaps his thoughts were too complicated, and all I could get from him was a lump of blackened emotions, like the pages of a misprinted book.

And as for Amadea’s mind, I couldn’t read it at all, as usual.

I would be much better off without being able to read minds. This is a thought I’ve always had, and it constantly weighed heavily on me.

If only I didn’t possess this ability, then this change of engagement wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

I remember being at a loss for words inside that room, as Amadea simply said “Please take good care of me” in a calm, almost rehearsed voice, as if she didn’t really know the meaning of the words that were coming out of her mouth.

On many occasions I had this unreasonable ironical feeling that she was, in fact, the one able to see straight through me, and not the other way around. But it was at this particular moment that I had this feeling with more overwhelming intensity than ever in my entire life.

◆

Since Brother graduated from the academy in the same year both Amadea and I started our first year there, all the whispering and unwanted attention we received when we officially announced the change of engagement disappeared after a while, just like Amadea said it would.

After that, strangely enough, I started to accept the fact that I was engaged to Amadea, which up until then had been something that made me feel terribly uneasy.

I tried to think about why —then I realized how shallow of me that was, and desisted.

I was too ashamed to admit that all this time I had been actually glad that things turned out this way, since I had been attracted to Amadea even before she first became Brother’s fiancée.

“…Well, someone’s in high spirits today.”

I felt like I’ve heard that somewhere before. Then I realized that she had said those exact same words to me in various similar situations before, which made me feel a bit silly.

Even though it was early in the morning, Amadea was already taking a sip from a cup of tea in the garden that was just outside my dormitory.

The sight of her relaxing there like she owned the place forced a sigh of amazement out of my mouth.

“Don’t be so angry. Why don’t you sit down with me? I heard you haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“We would normally eat lunch together on holidays. But what about you? Correct me if I’m wrong, but that on the table is your breakfast, isn’t it?”

“No, I have already finished breakfast. I make it a point to eat my breakfast on time.”

Amadea chuckled after saying that, but on the garden table there was an amount of snacks that you wouldn’t expect to be served with tea after breakfast.

…The servants of the dormitory house must have gone the extra mile to serve her like this. Understandably enough, they couldn’t afford to give poor hospitality to my fiancé; after all, she was the duke’s daughter.

That made me think that I should have left my bedroom early instead of spending my morning reading books. Had I done so, I would have been able to give instructions on how to properly serve tea to Amadea.

I reluctantly took a seat across from her and pulled most of the snacks toward me. Rather than pleasing this young lady, I believed that all this huge amount of confectionery would accomplish would be to give her a sore stomach.

“You should have told me you’d be coming today. At least, I’d like to know you’re coming.”

I picked up the pie in front of me, which was completely covered with a thick cream, and after a brief moment of indecision, I ended up splitting it in half. As expected, it was too much for a single person to eat all by themselves. So, to take responsibility for my guest, I thought about sharing half of it with Amadea.

But the moment I looked up to put her half on the plate in front of her, I noticed that she was looking at me with an unusually blank face.

“…What’s wrong?”

When I asked her that, she just looked at me curiously. Then she whispered, “Sigmund,” so I leant forward to make sure I wouldn’t miss hearing anything she would be about to say next.

Then, while I thought about what she might have been thinking, Amadea suddenly put her lips to my cheek.

“Hey!! …W-What!?”

For a moment, I thought the world had turned upside down.

It felt as if all of the blood in my body had suddenly rushed to my cheeks.

I unconsciously leant back, pulling myself away from Amadea. The cutlery on the table complained about my sudden reaction.

Meanwhile, Amadea was chuckling, completely pleased with herself. It almost sounded like a cat’s purring.

“Amadea!!”

“Don’t get so mad. I’m just… happy, that’s all.”

Now it was my turn to meet her bashful smile with my own blank face.

What exactly about this made her feel happy, I wondered? I felt a bit overwhelmed, as I couldn’t remember having done anything special to please her.

However, that was the first time I’d seen that kind of expression on her face. Instead of her usual unreadable smile that appeared to be calm and poised, she had a girlish smile that was suitable for someone of her age.

“I won’t do it again. Come on, let’s eat.”

Shrugging my shoulders as I remained dumbfounded and unable to move, Amadea slowly returned the atmosphere to its normal state.

She too might have realized that things were going a bit out of hand.

I was urged to eat my half of the pie, but I was still quite taken aback by her sudden burst of happiness.

As I kept on wondering about what in particular had made her feel so happy, I soon noticed that she was looking at me and laughing as if she could see straight through me, to which I could only respond with an “Amadea!”

At that time, even though I was confused, I thought that such days would only continue from then on.

And I believed that once the day came for me to finally get over my shallow self and face her properly, I would be able to admit that these days were full of happy memories.