Chapter 14: Unexpected Confessions
WHEN you looked closely at it, the statue of King Leonard located in the center of the plaza had a handsome face and was well-carved. He wore a robe and was holding a staff in his right hand.
The statue was majestic. Clearly, the king had been loved and revered far beyond the level of any of his descendants. As Mia gazed up at the statue with wonder, someone bumped into her.
“Eek!”
Mia stumbled, but Henrik grabbed her arm and prevented her from going flying. The man who’d bumped into her tsk-ed loudly, barking at her to “Watch where you’re walking, girly!” before stomping away.
Oh no. I’m really terrible with big crowds.
As Mia was about to call after him with an apology, Henrik suddenly reached out to grab the man’s shoulder.
From the furious look in Henrik’s eyes, it was obvious he planned to chase after the man and confront him. Mia was shocked. She hadn’t thought of Henrik as the violent type.
Is he serious?!
“It’s fine, really!”
As she tugged on Henrik’s coat sleeve, she spotted someone behind him. A very familiar someone.
Oh yikes, this looks bad!
Felix was standing there.
It was odd, though. He seemed to have a lot of space all around him. Then Mia realized it was because people were giving him a wide berth and a lot of suspicious looks. His arms were full of…strange objects.
Mathias was standing behind him, looking quietly exasperated. With his height, his head was higher than the general height of the crowd. And there was also something else odd about him…
Wait, why are there ears coming out of the top of his head?
Mia peered closer. Ah, it was the rabbit, perched on top of Mathias’s head. But Mathias was so tall that most in the crowd hadn’t even noticed his bunny passenger.
Besides, they were all too busy staring at Felix.
Don’t tell me all that stuff he’s holding is for…
Mia grimaced, gazing at the mound of green objects Felix was struggling to hold.
As Mia looked away in embarrassment, Henrik turned, noticing the other two young men. “Oh,” he said flatly. “So they’re here.”
Then he grabbed hold of Mia’s hand and started tugging her.
Got to get away from Felix!
Mia was clearly alarmed by Felix’s bizarre arrival, and Henrik seemed to instantly pick up on it.
He led her quickly away, cutting through the station building to enter a park situated behind it.
The park’s narrow paths were like a maze. Herbs and flowers were planted neatly along the paths. Everything was dusted with a fine layer of snow, but it really reminded her of the academy’s medicinal herb garden.
And with no street stalls or other attractions like the plaza had, it was completely uncrowded.
Henrik quickly led her along one of the little paths. As he did so, he began telling her about the park.
“These are the gardens King Leonard had planted for Luludia.”
“…”
Amid her anxiety over Felix, Mia couldn’t help thinking that there sure was a lot of talk about King Leonard going on around her these days. You barely heard that name in the capital, but it seemed like all anyone could talk about here was the legendary king.
“During his reign, he was always telling everyone we had to use Neu-Aera safely, for the sake of his wife whom he loved. But once he was gone, those sentiments were lost, too. But his words have still been deeply ingrained on this land and all who live here.”
Henrik kept walking as he spoke. Waist-high shrubs lined the path they were walking along. Mia wondered where it would lead them.
“The fairy tales, the Winter Solstice festival, all of it is connected to that. We set them all up so that King Leonard’s devotion wouldn’t be forgotten. To remind us to question the ways power is used. To remind us that King Leonard used his powers of innovation for the sake of love and that we should never misuse the power he discovered ever again.”
Mia walked beside Henrik, surprised by how talkative he was being. She felt she needed to show the proper attention to what he was saying, but at the same time, had he just forgotten about Felix? Mia could barely focus on what Henrik was saying, she was so concerned about the scene they’d just fled from.
They reached the center of the park, and finally, Henrik came to a halt. There was a statue there. It wasn’t another regal and majestic statue of King Leonard like the one in the plaza, though. This one depicted the king on his knees, offering his love to his wife.
“We need to remember King Leonard’s devotion always, all of us.”
The king was holding a frog in one hand. That must have been the fabled first Neu-Aera. How true to the fairy tale this statue was. But Mia was distracted by awkward thoughts of the things Mary had told her.
He’s not hiding behind the bushes right now, is he?
Mia looked this way and that, searching for a glimpse of Felix. But the park was big. They were probably safe. Just as Mia began to relax, she realized Henrik was taking something out of his pocket.
“Here, Mia.”
It was a glass brooch. Mia’s eyes widened suddenly as she took in its green hue, its animal-like shape.
“Uh…”
“You and I see the world in the same way. I want us to be on each other’s side, supporting each other always.”
Henrik’s tone was casual, his expression impassive as usual.
It would be easy enough for Mia to misunderstand, wouldn’t it? Surely he meant supporting each other’s research work, right?
But Henrik had used the word “always.” And the brooch…was shaped like a frog.
“Are you serious?”
Henrik chuckled as Mia took a step backward.
“You really are naïve. Remember last year’s Winter Solstice? When Felix asked you on a date, and you invited us all along?”
“Last…Last year?”
Mia thought back. Yes, the Winter Solstice. The four of them had gone on an investigative trip to the Sanatorium.
Wait, that was originally meant to be a date?!
Now that she thought about it, Felix did seem a little disappointed. The realization was a year late, and Mia was shocked. She’d never dreamed…
“B-But, I was distracted at the time, what with the Grand Plan and everything! I didn’t have the mental space to notice things like that!”
But her protests didn’t register with Henrik.
“And you came along to my house without a second thought. Zero sense of awareness.”
Mia could feel the blood rush to her cheeks.
“A-Awareness? But…?”
Mia took another step backward, completely flustered. That’s when she felt a solid structure against her back. A wall? Or was it a firm hedge? Before she could turn, something fell on the floor at her feet and rolled away from her. It was an earring…shaped like a frog.
And the hedge wall, or whatever she was backed up against, felt warm. Alive.
Wha…?
Slowly, fearfully, Mia turned around to see Felix, white plumes of steam coming from both nostrils, his eyes fixed on Henrik with a look of boiling hatred.
“So you were trying to beat me to the punch, huh?”
“The early bird gets the worm. Nobody ‘beat you’ to anything. And besides, I have no obligation to give you a heads-up on any of my intentions.”
Henrik was meeting Felix’s glare head-on. Gnashing his teeth, Felix stomped over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Felix, facing Mia.
“Mia. If you’re going to accept any gifts, let it be these.”
Felix held up his armful of frog junk.