I Start with a Bad Hand!

“Is it good?” 

“Of course.”

Watching his smug face as he eagerly accepted the food, I resignedly pushed the bread basket towards him.

“I spent everything to come see you… I can’t go back now.”

Even though his fever had subsided, Icarus showed no signs of leaving Heylem. Whenever I stared at him for a bit too long, he would cough and lie back down.

Eventually, I asked him directly, “Where’s your magic scroll? You need to go back to the capital.” Icarus, looking a bit embarrassed, replied,

“Just… give me a break.”

Not sure what he wanted me to overlook, I placed the back of my hand on his forehead, feeling his fluttering eyelashes against my wrist as I gauged his temperature. His skin felt just as lukewarm as mine.

He’s definitely recovered.

As I looked down at him with narrowed eyes, his usual mischievous smile returned to his face.

“I’m not asking to kick you out. But if you disappear without a word, your parents might worry.”

Icarus smiled wryly at my words and replied,

“If that’s all, then it’s fine. They won’t worry.”

They care about me less than your cook does. I slapped his shoulder lightly, and he yelped in mock pain. He didn’t look fragile at all.

I had thought he was just making excuses back then…

Now, looking at the elaborate dishes set before Icarus, I realized he might have been right. When Icarus first revealed his true identity, Sara had been so shocked she almost fainted. For a while, she kept to herself and served elaborate meals. But after following me to the kitchen and seeing Icarus nibbling on bread crumbs, she seemed to gradually relax.

Of course, she still didn’t treat him as casually as before. Whenever Icarus wandered into the kitchen, Sara would discreetly slip away, and Icarus would watch her with a somewhat disappointed look.

“I should’ve come in disguise as you said. We used to have such good conversations.”

“Aren’t there plenty of people to talk to in the palace? Why seek out conversation partners here?”

Icarus grumbled in response.

“There’s no one like that in the palace.”

But eventually, even Sara began to respond to his words occasionally. At some point, she became his conversation partner, sitting in the kitchen with a friendly smile, just like now.

“You really were acting like a lord… I didn’t realize you were someone so important…”

She didn’t forget to mumble about how it was unfair I hadn’t told her anything.

“I’m sorry…”

Standing next to her, I sipped my tea absentmindedly. Meanwhile, Icarus had fully adapted to the estate, roaming around freely.

“I didn’t get a proper look last time because I came and left in a hurry.”

And,

“Now I have a duty to thoroughly inspect the North. I need to take in everything, one detail at a time.”

With such excuses, he explored even the Baron’s castle, which I hadn’t thoroughly seen myself, and now he wanted to venture outside the estate.

“Our villagers are old and have weak hearts. They might faint if they see someone from the royal family.”

At my clenched-teeth remark, Icarus triumphantly pulled a small vial from his pocket and drank it. Watching his hair slowly turn brown and his smug expression below it, I quietly asked the butler to bring a robe. I had half given up by now.

Let him enjoy it…

Heylem wasn’t particularly large, yet Icarus found endless fascination in exploring it. As we passed the lake where Agnes and Klaus once skated, I asked, “What did you mean by that? Since yesterday.”

“Hmm?”

“You said you have a duty to thoroughly inspect the North, and that you’re the master of the North. What do you mean by that?”

With a frank gaze, I asked him, and his unexpected answer came back.

“Because the northern territories will soon be under my jurisdiction.”

“What?”

“We need to protect against monsters and enemy nations at the border… It’s good to familiarize myself with the surrounding territories beforehand. And to be precise, not all northern territories will be under ‘my’ jurisdiction. Your territory will still be ruled by Baron Degoph, so you can relax.”

I must have furrowed my brow without realizing it. He looked down at me slightly and pressed his thumb against my forehead, trying to smooth out the crease. His calm demeanor made me think that perhaps I should be the one frowning, and he should be the one with his eyebrows smoothed out. Feeling a bit embarrassed by the role reversal, I asked,

“Since when?”

“…Right after graduation, if everything goes as planned.”

After thinking for a moment, I asked again,

“…That polar region?”

You’re going to manage a place where there are more bears than people? I furrowed my brow even more as I questioned him, and he laughed while pressing his thumb against the space between my eyebrows.

“The North is one of the Empire’s borders. Someone has to protect it.”

…That’s true. As a member of the royal family, it’s natural for Icarus to bear the responsibility of protecting the citizens of the Empire. But even Heylem, which isn’t as far north, barely sees the sun in winter and has long days in summer. To entrust such a place entirely to someone who has just graduated…

“Why? Don’t you trust me?”

As I stood there silently, he continued to roll his thumb between my eyebrows, smiling. I looked at his slightly flushed nose from the cold and replied,

“It’s not your ability I doubt; it’s the judgment of those who sent you there.”

“What?”

His hand, which had been at my brow, moved to my mouth. He exaggeratedly looked around, then frowned slightly and said,

“That was close. If anyone heard, you could have been arrested for insulting the royal family.”

“Am I going to be arrested for insulting the royal family?”

“Not as long as I keep my mouth shut… probably.”

“Oh no.”

Save me. The conversation ended in a playful exchange and laughter, but I was left with a lingering unease.

‘Is it because I’m an outsider that I don’t understand? What is the average life expectancy here that their life cycles differ so much from those on Earth? Why would they send someone who’s just become an adult to such a harsh region alone?’

Feeling the stark difference that I might never get used to, I walked on the snow. The silence was broken by a familiar estate resident.

“Oh my, you’ve returned so soon?”

Hearing this, Icarus hurriedly pulled his robe back on and glanced back slightly.

“…Returned?”

Seeing that the face wasn’t who he expected, the resident quickly apologized.

“Oh, sorry. My mistake. I thought you were someone else. Seeing a tall young man with brown hair with the lady, I thought you were ‘him.’ As you know, there aren’t many like him in Heylem.”

The resident, smiling with a knowing look that only northerners would understand, continued. Icarus asked,

“Her ‘him’?”

“The young master from the marquis’ house who came down from the capital. He’s supposedly very close to our lady.”

Speaking in an overly edited manner, the resident laughed easily. Even without looking, I could feel the piercing gaze from Icarus beside me. I hurried to correct the resident’s words, which had been conveniently edited in their mind.

“Close… but we’re just friends.”

“Really?”

The resident, glancing at Icarus’s sullen face, gave a slight nod and then walked away.

“The ‘guy’ from the Marquis’ house came here?”

I stared at him intently at his casual mention of the Marquis’ eldest son, and he quickly added, “Horatius’ younger brother, I mean.”

“He came a few weeks before you arrived.”

“Why?”

I wanted to strip the word “why” from Icarus’s vocabulary.

“Well… does he need a reason? He probably just wanted to come…”

“What is there to see here?”

“That statement is something I can acknowledge as a person from Heylem, but I can’t forgive it.”

“Alright, spare me.”

He waved his hand lazily in a gesture of surrender, much like I had done earlier. After rolling my eyes at him briefly, I continued speaking.

“Anyway, this is why I hate inviting people to the estate. Every time I bring someone over, people start asking those subtle questions about what kind of relationship we have.”

“When you’re with me, no one asks you those questions.”

That’s… I couldn’t find a reply, and Icarus looked at me with a sullen face. As I started walking again, I responded to his comment.

“…Someone did ask.”

“Who?”

“Sara. Our cook.”

“I knew it. See, I’m not the only one who feels close to you.”

“Did Sara agree with that distance?”

As I nodded vaguely, Icarus asked,

“What did she say?”

Hearing the slight anticipation in his voice, I recalled Sara’s initial evaluation of Icarus when she first met him. So…

“Well, in any case, that’s a relief. If he’s just a friend, then I’m reassured.”

“Even as a commoner, the way he looks at the Baron and his demeanor is that of a noble.”

“And the way he subtly speaks without much respect to the lady.”

After a moment of silence, I summarized her words.

“She said that the inescapable grace of the royal family is evident and was curious how I got close to you.”

“Oh.”

Although not entirely a flattering description, it was acceptable. Icarus, following my steps with a shrug, didn’t bring up the topic again. However, since that day, he started clinging to Sara more often, engaging in conversations with her frequently.

***

The vacation ended without much happening. After a farewell dinner for me, as I returned to the academy, and for Icarus, who lingered in Heylem until the very last moment, I returned to my room to pack for my final semester.

After dinner, instead of returning to his room, Icarus lounged around and eventually began helping me pack, subtly bringing up the main topic.

“The priest wants you to come with me. They said they need something for their research.”

“What research? What do they need?”

“They showed me some sort of black orb fragment.”

“Oh.”

It wasn’t hard to guess what the priest needed. A physical manifestation of Dietrich’s soul fragment. I continued packing my bag and asked,

“Where?”

“…”

When there was no response, I looked up at him, and he smiled with a somewhat troubled expression.

“I’m not sure.”

“What?”

“What kind of answer is that?” I stared at him as if I didn’t understand, and Icarus, while transferring the stack of books into my bag, said,

“Like you said, I’m too dumb to understand what the priest was saying.”

I stopped my packing and gave him a sideways glance.

“I didn’t say ‘dumb,’ I said ‘idiot.'”

“Isn’t it the same thing?”

“But at least consider my effort to cushion the blow.”

“How is ‘idiot’ a cushioned term? It’s as straightforward as it gets.”

“There’s a sort of… benevolent perspective wrapped around it.”

Icarus, who had been helping me pack without any sign of irritation, asked in a seemingly casual but subtly hopeful tone,

“So, do you have it? That black orb?”

“The original one was handed over to the priest, and as for the other one…”

I paused briefly, recalling the incident with Logan. That day, I had definitely coughed it up and then…

When I stopped speaking, Icarus asked curiously,

“Where is it?”

“I… spat, no, threw it… somewhere.”

“What? Where?”

I silently looked out the window. A heavy silence settled over the room.

“What were you thinking when you threw it?”

Icarus grumbled, diligently digging through the snow, his breath visible in the cold air.

“How was I supposed to know it would be needed? I thought one would be enough.”

Muttering as I broke through the hardened snow, I added, “Logan left, and the snow came and went, making the snow here hard to dig through.”

“What on earth are you doing out there, miss?”

At that moment, a lantern’s light pierced the darkness and shone on us. August, suspiciously eyeing us as we panted and dug through the snow in the flower bed in the middle of the night, asked. I awkwardly rotated my arms and stretched my neck, smiling. The cold had stiffened my mouth, making my expression awkward.

“Uh… nothing. Just… exercise.”

“Digging in the snow is exercise?”

“I can’t do this in the capital.”

Despite his skepticism and the threat of frostbite, we continued digging for another two hours until we finally found the orb buried in the snow. Both Icarus and I, utterly exhausted, silently stared at the retrieved orb.

“At least I’ll get to sleep in the carriage…”

Even after being buried in the snow for so long, the orb still gleamed, its round shape intact. As he reached to touch it, I stopped his hand. Despite everything, it felt wrong to let him touch something I had spat out. He looked a bit disappointed, but I pretended not to notice and took a deep breath of the early morning air. The chill had already started to wane.

With the hidden item unearthed, the decisive spring had arrived.