And so the detective and her assistant left the room. The room fell quiet again as their busy conversation faded out of earshot. Cecily didn’t speak, while Cain bowed his head.
“Cecily, I really am sorry for tricking you. For lying to you.”
“Cain...”
“I won’t ask you to forgive me for slipping you the love potion and for lying about our promise. All I can tell you is how sorry I am.”
With his hands clenched into fists, Cain simply apologized over and over. Cecily shook her head at the regret filling his voice.
“Cain, I’m not going to tell you off about the love potion thing.”
“Why not?”
“Because I tried to do the same thing as you.”
“Huh? You did?” Cain gazed at Cecily with bewilderment.
Cecily felt more embarrassment in the retelling of what she’d tried to do than in the actual doing of it. Despite her flushed cheeks, though, she felt that she needed to tell him. About how she’d fallen in love at first sight, how a misunderstanding had caused her to become disillusioned with Zeke, how she’d tried to make a love potion, and how she’d planned to trick Zeke to drink her concoction.
“Ultimately, I didn’t actually end up making a love potion and Zeke drank it of his own will, but yeah. That’s what happened to me. The end!”
It was way too embarrassing to give him every last detail, so Cecily finished her story there. Not only that, she still had a question for Cain.
“Cain, tell me... Why did you make me drink your love potion?”
“Well...” Cain said, smiling weakly. “It has to do with my ten years of training. It was tough—real tough. Every day I had to do this punishing training to control my magical powers, and each night I would sleep like a log due to how exhausted I was. Then I’d wake up and do it all over again. I barely ever felt happy that whole time.”
“Cain...” Cecily couldn’t help but say his name. So that was why he’d wanted to visit all their old haunts again yesterday. Cain seemed so fixated on the past, on those days when he’d been young, where every day was fun and easy, and spent without a care in the world. Maybe that was also why he hadn’t wanted to hear about Cecily’s life recently.
Cain paused for a little while before finally going on.
“To tell the truth, I don’t think I really did love you all that much.”
“Mm-hmm,” Cecily said encouragingly.
Before Cain had started his training, in his eyes, Cecily had surely been just someone who was a little more special to him than others. Just like how Cecily loved romance, Cain had probably let himself idealize the memories he’d shared with that girl who was his age. All he could do was cling to them to help him get through his everyday life.
“I think,” said Cain, “I was just lonely.”
Loneliness... This was an emotion that Cecily knew well, especially recently. When Sewell had been recounting her past year to her, that sadness that had filled her due to not being able to mention Zeke was loneliness. Forgetting Zeke for these past few days due to the love potion was loneliness. That was how large a part of Cecily’s life Zeke was, and how much of her loneliness he helped to stave off.
I’m sure I could keep on living without ever remembering Zeke...
As Charlotte had pointed out, though, even if Cecily had been able to keep on living, she would have been permanently stuck with a gloomy expression. Whatever she did, that dark cloud of loneliness would have followed her about.
Simply being with Zeke makes me happy.
It was truly a miracle that she had fallen in love with someone like that.
“Right—I should be off.”
As Cain turned on his heel, Cecily hurriedly called out.
“Where are you going, Cain?”
“I won’t slip out of the village without telling anyone. Catch you around,” Cain said. He had a bright smile as he left the room.
Cecily silently watched him leave. Her chest was filled with a strange emotion. But in the next moment, she heard a sound from behind her. Turning around, she saw that Zeke was awake.
She spoke immediately.
“Zeke, let’s get married.”
“Huh?”
“Huh” was the answer you’d expect to receive upon making such a declaration—no matter how in love you might be with someone. After all, it would’ve been normal to say “You’re finally awake!” or “How are you feeling?” or “I’ll tell everyone you’re up!”
But Cecily needed to say what she did.
“Zeke, I want to marry you as soon as I can!”
“Cecily...”
Zeke was still a bit out of it, but he could tell how serious Cecily was.
“All right then. Let’s do it.”
“Yeah!”
Naturally, the two of them were on the same page.
“But I’d like your family and the Celestial Knight Brigade to also be at our wedding, so this will be a little pre-wedding wedding held here in the witch village.”
“A little wedding, huh...?” Zeke mumbled.
They didn’t have much money, nor did they have much free time. Not only that, zero preparations had been made. They would be leaving the village before noon in two days’ time, so it truly would be a small gathering—a wedding in name only. Be that as it may, however, Cecily still wanted to have a wedding here in the village where she’d spent fifteen years of her life, surrounded by everyone she’d grown up with, to celebrate her union with him.
“You can leave the preparations to me! I’ll get everyone to help—it’ll be a wonderful wedding.”
“I’m sure it’ll be the best day of my life.”
Zeke smiled. Cecily nodded, tears threatening to pour out of her eyes—it felt like the first time in years since she had seen him smile.
Cecily gently took Zeke’s hand. It was large, rough in places due to the life he’d spent swinging a sword. A brave yet gentle hand that fought to protect people.
“I caused you so much pain over these past few days... I won’t ever make you feel like that again.”
“It’s not your fault, Cecily. More importantly, I should help with the preparations too.”
As Zeke tried to sit up, Cecily pushed him back down.
“Hey, Zeke? Do you love me?”
“Yeah.”
“Lots?”
“Lots and lots.”
“Then rest up a bit more. You need to recover, my Zeke.”
Zeke grumbled in protest, but as soon as he closed his eyes, his breathing grew slower and deeper. It reaffirmed to Cecily how exhausted he really must have been. It was only natural—after their journey, he had spent a sleepless night here followed by hours of wandering a mountain.
“We don’t need water from a legendary spring,” Cecily murmured to herself.
Zeke had returned to the land of Nod, his hand warm in hers. She raised it to her cheek. It had always protected her. It had held her in a tight embrace. Her heart started to race just being touched by him. All of these emotions made words bubble up from inside of her.
“As long as we’re together, I don’t need anything else.”
Cecily stayed by his side in quiet bliss for a little longer.