✧ ✧ ✧
A cold, cutting wind blew.
Atop their wyverns, the Celestial Knight Brigade was heading to the frozen northern mountain range.
Wyverns had limitless stamina. However, their human riders didn’t, so periodic breaks for eating and resting were required. Obviously, these landings were more for the benefit of the humans than the wyverns.
The knights wore thick cloaks over their uniforms, and gloves for gripping the reins. However, after just half an hour in the sky, the knights were all chilled to the bone.
If they’d had to march as well, the experience would have been miserably cold, so it was a relief that they only needed to fly for this mission.
“We’ll be landing for a break soon!”
Zeke lightly flicked Snow’s reins.
Snow let out a cry in response to this command. There was no way everyone would have been able to hear Zeke’s voice, but Snow’s cry reached the other wyverns, and the knights were able to work out the meaning behind this signal from their own wyverns’ physical reactions. Although the rest spots had been decided upon before departure, there were times when one of the knights was truly exhausted and an emergency rest stop was required.
Snow glided through the dusk-dyed sky as if it were water. Her tilted wings cut through the air as she began her descent.
The landing point was a portion of frozen wasteland with no houses or fields to be seen. Due to their large size, wyverns needed lots of space to land, and this was especially true when there were seventeen of them.
Snow landed gracefully, and Zeke hopped off her back before scratching her under the chin. Snow let out a contented sound as he did so.
The knights pitched tents for themselves, but as they were unable to pack tents big enough for the wyverns, the wyverns slept upon the rough ground.
After feeding the wyverns and letting them do their business, the knights finally set about preparing their own dinners. Although “dinner” might have been a bit of an exaggeration, for the meal consisted of soup and simple preserved foodstuffs like nuts and cheese.
It wasn’t a delicious feast, but the knights were used to it. They pulled their food out of their knapsacks and fueled up.
Traveling by wyvern greatly reduced the time it took to reach their destination, so they would most likely reach the northern mountain range by the next morning.
As Zeke was eating some nuts, sitting upon a nicely sized rock, a shadow appeared above him.
“Mind if I join you?”
Having no reason to refuse, Zeke nodded.
Alphonse placed himself down on the rock next to Zeke.
“You’ve been pretty gloomy recently, Zeke,” said Alphonse, cutting straight to the chase. He spoke in a low voice so that the other knights—seated around the fire—couldn’t hear him. “Even I’ve noticed. Did you have a fight with Cecy or something? I’ve hardly seen the two of you together recently. Seems like she’s been avoiding you too.”
Zeke said nothing.
“As you can see, my looks are enough to charm a girl,” Alphonse went on. “Which is why I can’t really understand how you feel. All the same, I wanna help you. Our stuffy but beloved captain’s time in the sun has finally begun—it’s completely natural that I should want to support your happiness!”
Zeke remained quiet.
“Here’s some advice from me: I wouldn’t let her go. I doubt there’s another girl like her out there who values you and thinks as much of you from the bottom of her heart as Cecy does. You’ve noticed it too—right, Zeke? Whenever she looks at you, her eyes get wet with tears. You’ll probably hit me for saying this, but it’s almost enough to make even my heart skip a beat.”
Zeke was as silent as ever.
“Oh, sorry. Am I talking too softly for you to hear? Want me to start again? Uhh, right, ahem. You’ve been pretty gloomy recently, Zeke.”
“I heard you the first time.”
“Then why are you ignoring me?!”
Alphonse stood up in exasperation.
“Vice-Captain, please keep it down! You’ll upset the wyverns!”
“Shut your trap, Cyril!”
But even as Alphonse rebuked Cyril, he sat back down on the rock, calming himself.
Watching the sparks of the fire flicker in the air, Zeke spoke evenly.
“Listen—Cecily and I haven’t fought.”
“Really? You haven’t?”
“But there’s something I’ve been thinking about. The other day, Princess Charlotte asked me when I first developed feelings for Cecily.”
“The princess really asked that? Seriously, why were you two talking about love and stuff? I thought she hated you.” Alphonse was clearly surprised by this revelation.
“She’s started to talk to me more recently. She can’t be scared of the loins that Cecily loves, she said.”
“I really don’t understand the princess. She’s a cutie, but still...” Alphonse murmured with a tired expression.
Zeke nodded, then went on to flatly state another fact.
“She also said that your loins were particularly disgusting to her.”
“Does she realize just how many misunderstandings that phrasing invites?!”
“I’m begging you, Vice-Captain. Keep it down!”
The nuts that Alphonse threw at Cyril in the next moment struck his glasses with surprising accuracy.
“Hey! Why’d you do that?”
Cyril’s glasses had shattered with a resounding crack. But then he pulled out one of his spare pairs and simply put them on.
Zeke leaned back and looked up at the night sky while his subordinates bickered. Was that red-eyed young woman looking up at this same sky too? Zeke hoped so.
She seemed troubled...
Zeke had gone to see Cecily the day before he had set off. Charlotte had told him that Cecily had been frequenting the library recently, so he’d wandered around until he found her.
They hadn’t argued, but he’d sensed something was odd about her. It seemed to Zeke that she was scared of something. But all he could do was stew upon it without knowing what the problem could be.
Cecily had said that she had something to tell Zeke upon his return. And so, he resolved to come home safely so that he could ask her what it was.
“When did I start liking Cecily, huh...?” Zeke murmured to himself.
Zeke hadn’t managed to answer Charlotte that day, but he knew the answer.
“I need to tell her when I’m back.”
With the northern mountain range just a short distance away, the night passed them by.
✧ ✧ ✧
“This is all too sudden, Cecily.”
On a morning three days later, Charlotte and Cecily were talking by the entrance of the Snowflower Palace. Wearing her hood, Cecily could only turn her head down and away from Charlotte’s fearsome look.
“Lady Charlotte, I really am sorry.”
Cecily was aware that it was only natural for Charlotte to be scolding her. After all, she had only announced last night that she would be leaving the Snowflower Palace.
Since the Celestial Knight Brigade had departed, Cecily had sifted through the library’s books with increased fervor, but she couldn’t find any information on an antidote. Time was simply passing, and she had nothing to show for it.
Filled with a growing sense of danger, Cecily had realized she had to use her last resort—she would head back home and ask her mother, Greta, for the recipe.
“Do you have to go?” Charlotte asked yet again. Cecily nodded resolutely.
“Yes. I have to. Because of the love po—the love for my parents is making me really homesick,” Cecily said, fumbling her words, her cheeks red with awkwardness. It was horrifically embarrassing for her to say, at the age of sixteen, that she was homesick. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.
However, she couldn’t come up with any other excuse. Fortunately, neither Charlotte nor Maria seemed to doubt what she said. Rather, Maria patted her shoulder in a gesture of support.
“It’s not shameful to be homesick. It’s a natural human emotion. I’m sure, just as you wish to see your parents, they, too, are wondering how their beloved daughter is doing.”
Cecily didn’t mind being consoled in this way, but it did make her feel uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Charlotte puffed out her cheeks in her usual pout.
“If you’re homesick, then we could have arranged for a carriage to take you back.”
“You’ve allowed me to stay for so long already—I couldn’t possibly cause any more hassle.”
“I don’t think of it as a hassle!”
Cecily smiled, as she knew that Charlotte was telling the truth.
“Thank you, really, Lady Charlotte.” No matter how much she thanked Charlotte, it wouldn’t be enough. “You really are my first and only friend, Lady Charlotte.”
Charlotte’s eyes started to glisten with tears at these words.
“This isn’t goodbye forever,” Cecily added. “I’ll be back.”
“Really? When you’re not homesick anymore, I can see you again, right?”
“Of course. A best friend wouldn’t tell a lie.”
“Okay,” Charlotte said finally, seemingly accepting Cecily’s decision.
Charlotte, Maria, and the other maids had gathered to see Cecily off. They were people who had accepted Cecily, though she was a commoner and also a witch. Cecily continued to wave until they were finally out of sight.
“It’s just the two of us again, Rolo.”
Rolo, who was walking with quiet steps by her feet, only meowed in reply.
Though she was encouraged to be accompanied by her close friend, the land outside of the palace was unknown territory for Cecily.
She applied the eye drops that she had crafted in the palace’s kitchen a few days before. As she blinked, her eyes changed from red to a banal flaxen color, thanks to their magic.
So as to avoid unwanted eye contact with strangers, she pulled her hood down low and departed from the castle. The bag hanging from her shoulder contained some food and water, courtesy of Charlotte.
Cecily intended to take the same public carriage that had originally brought her to the royal capital. If she didn’t have enough money, she could simply do some chores at a village along the way and so earn a bit of change. At any rate, she wanted to return to the castle as soon as she could.
“I doubt I’ll be back before Zeke comes home...”
Cecily had no way of moving faster than those wyverns.
Lost in her thoughts as she put the royal capital behind her, she suddenly felt someone tap her shoulder from behind.
“Excuse me, young lady. May I have a moment?”
“Yes?”
It happened as soon as she turned around—a single blow from behind, and Cecily’s world went dark.