The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies

17 – The Boy and the Winter Island (01)

018.

“The snacks you used to like… and the clothes… Oh! There’s a play that’s been getting rave reviews lately, let’s go see it!”

“Yes…”

“The gardeners have prepared something special, and there’s a new luxury comb shop…”

“I’ll talk to Kallen when he returns.”

“No… let’s leave Kallen out of this…”

“That’s not possible.”

Sigh-

Eliana glanced at the mirror at the sigh tickling the back of her head.

The maid who had been prettily arranging her hair for over an hour.

It was Emma, who had talked to her even when she was sick.

It was troublesome because she kept crying after hearing that Eliana had recovered.

But Eliana didn’t dislike it.

It wasn’t just Emma.

Brother Schultz, who playfully jokes around.

Brother Decaum, who still resembles our father, stern but considerate.

Mother, with her kind smile unchanged, and father, who has softened compared to before.

I thought they had been forgotten, but they hadn’t.

The events of the past few days brought those thoughts to mind.

The scenery Eliana had longed for so desperately.

Only her heart had changed from before.

Something that fills everything and more.

Even if the rest is taken away again, she would never give up on that one thing.

Without that one thing, she might not even be alive, let alone reclaim it.

“Emma…”

“Yes, my lady?”

“Not that one… that one…”

In the mirror, Emma was seen picking up a dazzling blue jewel.

Instead, Eliana pointed to the jewel that resembled the dark color she had been eyeing earlier.

“Uh… my lady, that one is a bit dull…”

“I like that one.”

“Yes, ma’am…”

In the end, Eliana, with the dark-colored jewel decoration on her shoulder, nodded in satisfaction.

As she did so, she began to wonder when Kalen would return.

Kalen, who had been summoned by their father early in the morning.

That’s why she was left alone with Emma.

She had no intention of leaving the room without Kalen, so she waited for him while getting dressed.

“Would you like to wait outside, my lady?”

“…No.”

Eliana turned her head to look at the door.

When Kalen was there, it was just an ordinary door, but now it was beyond reluctance, it was even fearsome.

Even though she had wandered around the mansion so much yesterday.

It felt like it was reflecting something unknown.

Indeed.

I couldn’t do without Kallen.

Without Kallen, I wouldn’t have the courage to cross that door.

I’m afraid of falling while walking. I’m worried that my illness will relapse.

But then, when I think that Kallen will somehow take care of it, my cheeks flush for no reason.

It still felt like Kallen’s warmth, from when he held me and whispered, remained on my body.

Eliana stared endlessly at the door.

As always, longing for the boy to open the door and come in.

*

“Miss?”

“…”

“Miss.”

“…”

Did I hear it wrong?

Eliana thought she hadn’t woken up yet.

Otherwise, there was no way she would hear such words.

Or maybe her ears had gone bad because her illness had relapsed.

Eliana unconsciously tried to lean into Kallen.

“Miss!”

“Eek!”

Until Kallen grabbed her shoulders and stopped her.

“What, what are you doing?”

“I think my illness has come back, Kallen…”

“What?”

“Eek…!”

Kallen hurriedly looked at Emma.

Emma, who had only opened the door a crack and was hiding her face.

With Emma staring wide-eyed like that, Kallen couldn’t leave Eliana as she was, fearing what rumors might spread.

He was already dying from being harassed by the young maids around the mansion these days.

He couldn’t handle any more additions to that.

“Illness, you say.”

“I can’t hear well…”

“What did you hear?”

“That you have to leave now…”

Kallen glanced at Emma, who still had her eyes covered, and spoke.

“It seems you heard correctly.”

“Kallen has to leave…?”

“Yes.”

“…Why?”

Kallen noticed that Eliana’s tone had changed slightly.

Sensing the oddity, Kallen looked at Eliana.

It was Eliana whose face had hardened.

Carefully placing her hand over Kallen’s, which was holding her shoulder.

Eliana brought it to her thigh and stroked it, meeting Kallen’s eyes.

“Why.”

It wasn’t a question.

Even though Eliana’s tone rarely touched the end of her words.

Still, when it was a question, she would raise the end.

“That-“

“Why.”

“My lady…”

“Why. Why. Why.”

Squeeze-

Kallen frowned at the pressure felt from below and lowered her gaze.

Eliana’s hand was squeezing hers so tightly that the veins on the back of her hand turned red.

Then, even tighter.

Eliana’s monotonous voice echoed in Kallen’s ears.

“You have to look at me, Kallen.”

The cold voice was enough to make her heart feel eerie.

“Why is my guard leaving me? You have to protect me. You have to look at me.”

Sensing that something was wrong, Kallen hurriedly tried to gather her words.

“Miss.”

“Why.”

“It was a joke.”

“…”

Kallen laughed playfully.

The eyes hidden in her smiling eyes were calmly directed at Eliana.

Srrrk-

Kallen focused nervously on her hands.

She felt the pressure gradually easing.

Indeed, Eliana let go of her hand and spread her arms.

The smile she wore was completely different from the one just moments ago.

“I want to take a walk, Kallen…”

“…Yes.”

“Thank you for fixing my hair, Emma.”

“Yes, yes? Miss?”

Eliana said that and left with Kallen.

Emma couldn’t understand what she had just seen.

*

“They said I have to study magic…”

“The Duke is an excellent magician, and you will do well too, Miss.”

“Yes… Thank you. But I still want to learn from Kallen…”

“I’m not skilled enough to teach anyone.”

“Still…”

Throb- Throb-

The large glass window in Eliana’s room.

It was the garden Eliana used to see every day before she met Kallen.

It was the first place she visited after returning to the mansion.

What kind of feeling was the scenery she saw from the room that felt like a prison?

Would the garden that seemed so distant be as she imagined?

However, Kallen’s mind was entirely elsewhere.

The pain felt from the hand that was just grabbed.

Why does it remind me of Sinat?

Regardless of Eliana’s condition, the strength of that grip was abnormal.

She is fundamentally a woman.

Moreover, Eliana is particularly fragile.

Her lines are delicate, and she is slender.

It was impossible for Kallen to feel pain just from her gripping his hand a bit tightly.

Moreover, the handprint was clearly visible, which was certainly strange.

Unless it was due to the use of mana.

‘Is it related to mana?’

Another positive change that occurred in Eliana.

It was mana.

She had an enormous amount of mana, unimaginable for a girl of her age.

Even the Duke of Everchan was astonished.

It was only natural to urgently decide on magic education.

When Kallen was contemplating Eliana’s ‘illness’.

There were too many connections to what he had discovered.

The illness called mana overheating that Eliana was suffering from was a provisional name.

Even in the papers Everchan was searching through, only the symptoms were described, there was no name for the illness.

It was named as such because it showed symptoms of mana boiling like it was overheating in herself and those around her.

Then what is the fundamental ‘illness’?

‘She said it got a bit better when she was near me.’

That was the clue Kallen obtained.

It was similar to when he threw himself to save Sinat.

When Sinat was trapped in the spirit world, the attempt to sever the connection was the manifestation of his mind.

It was a conclusion drawn by linking his unique constitution without mana.

Although it turned out well in the end, he didn’t know exactly what had happened.

A similar thing happened to Eliana.

Was it a coincidence?

Eliana’s illness is also related to mana.

If her unique constitution, which lacks mana, has suppressed the illness that overheats Eliana’s mana.

It makes sense.

There was another point of concern.

Mental image.

It was the mental image that Blamia referred to as hell.

‘My mental image emerges when mana is stimulated.’

In other words, Eliana’s illness seems to stimulate her mana.

So, if the mental image emerged at that time, it explains it.

There are two common points tied to Sinat and Eliana’s situation.

The unique constitution that lacks mana, and the mental image.

There are many things that can’t be known immediately, but it might be better to talk to Blamia.

Kallen thought so and turned his attention.

“…”

Eliana gently stroked the tree.

The eerie feeling Kallen had felt a moment ago still lingered in his mind.

-It’s said that there’s no way to endure it without going mad. My wife told me that people tend to obsess over something precious to escape a painful reality.

…Why do Blamia’s words come to mind?

He hastily changed the subject to cover it up, but if this reaction continued, it would be troublesome.

For now, it’s temporary.

Kallen dismissed it as such and shook off his thoughts.

“Remember… Kallen…?”

“What do you mean, miss?”

The two had entered deep into the garden before they knew it.

Had he been led while lost in thought?

Reflecting on his slight carelessness, Kallen met Eliana’s gaze.

“The bet we made…”

“Ah.”

Indeed, they had.

When her illness worsened in the middle of the plain.

There were words that Eliana used to keep herself from giving up.

Run away, let me die instead – those were the only words she had been saying.

At that time, Kallen himself had no leisure, so it came out as a habit.

Even Eliana must have been out of her mind, but she remembered it.

“If I see Winter Island alive, it means Kallen won…?”

“Yes.”

“Then I lost…”

Was she trying to give a reward?

Certainly, Eliana’s work ended with Everchan doing everything for Blamia.

There was no separate reward for Kallen himself.

It didn’t matter, but it was still nice to be taken care of like this.

“Winter Island. Did Kallen like it…?”

“It was beautiful.”

“…Hmm.”

Eliana made a relieved expression.

She met Kallen’s eyes.

There was nothing she brought separately, so it wasn’t material.

It was the moment when Kallen thought of that.

“The reward for winning the bet is…”

At the same time, a wave of mana arose from Eliana.

The world was being reassembled.

With pure white snow.

With serene yet noble sunlight.

With majestic canyons and clear water.

The paradise described as a spectacle.

It was being rewritten by Eliana.

“…?”

Kallen couldn’t hide his uncharacteristic confusion.

Because he knew what this phenomenon was.

Soon, the garden disappeared.

Kallen recalls the place where he gazed at an unforgettable smile.

Even though it shouldn’t be cold, he feels a chill.

He remembers the pleasant numbness he felt on the plateau.

Kallen stared blankly at the scene.

The only difference was that in that world, there was another self looking down at the breathtaking view.

“…How is it, Kallen?”

Like a painting.

The name Kallen knows, the name the world calls.

The name Eliana gave to the painting for Kallen was Sim-sang.

It was as if it captured Winter Island exactly.

Eliana’s world was indescribably beautiful.