While Lacey was holding hands with Ellie, lots of villagers had spoken to her pleasantly, but the Dawn Witch could hardly say that she was just getting pulled along by a small child.
She wondered where exactly they were going, but along the way, they met Allen’s twin brothers.
When he saw Ellie, the blood rushed to Yorma’s face. “E-E-E-E-E-E-E-Ellie! Great weather we’re having!” He flapped his arms. Reeve seemed to consider this normal.
Aha, so that’s the story here. Even Lacey grasped what was going on. S-So Ellie wants emotional support for her crush on Yorma...? But wait, maybe it’s Reeve she’s interested in...! If that’s the case, what do I do? Who do I support?! She was shaken up.
But Ellie just curtly replied “It’s cloudy today” and walked past Yorma without stopping.
“It’s really great cloudy weather!” Yorma shouted from behind. He wasn’t defeated, but it was still quite a pitiable sight.
How far are we going? Lacey noticed that the twins were tagging along behind them now. They sped on forward. This path seemed rather familiar, though. Of course, Lacey had been on all the roads in Plume Village by now, so it wasn’t a matter of having traveled the road before or not. Instead, the route they were taking felt altogether too familiar.
They arrived at Sasanqua, where brilliant red camellias were blooming out front.
It can’t be, right?
“Oh hey, you’re gonna get lunch?” the twins innocently asked. Ellie ignored them.
Just then, Cedric happened to step out of the restaurant. His thin-rimmed glasses and combed-back grizzled hair were the same as ever. His build was as slender as his eyewear, and he was standing up tall and straight. He blinked when he saw Lacey and the children.
“Oh, Lacey. Welcome.”
“H-Hello, Mr. Cedric.”
“What brings you here? Care for some lunch?”
Cedric’s tone of voice was one of the things that had changed since Lomigos’s visit. Kargo, Granny, and the other villagers used to call her Miss Lacey, but now they were just calling her Lacey. This embarrassed her a lot, but it made her happy.
“No, well, I’m not exactly here for that... H-Huh?”
Ellie, who had just been pulling Lacey along and moving at a fast pace, was suddenly hiding behind her. Despite her efforts, Lacey was tiny enough that there wasn’t much to hide behind and her ponytails were sticking out. Cedric had noticed, of course, and narrowed his bespectacled eyes with a contemplative hum.
“U-U-U-U-Um, umm, I...”
It was very cute to see Ellie go bright red. For one brief moment, she seemed endearing.
“I like you, Mr. Cedric!”
The small child dropped a devastating grenade. Yorma was hit by the shrapnel and collapsed to the ground, losing all strength. Reeve consolingly patted his back. Cedric opened his eyes wide, and Lacey almost felt like she was going to faint.
∗ ∗ ∗
There was a heap of acorns piled in front of Lacey. This was Ellie’s thank-you gift.
Ellie had confessed her love, which was an immense feat that not even Lacey had ever attempted. Cedric’s response to it had been very mature. “I’m happy to hear that. Thank you.”
This wasn’t quite an answer, but rather an inoffensive statement of his feelings. Ellie was overjoyed. Yorma was deceased. Reeve pulled some popcorn out of nowhere and started munching.
“Hey Lacey, since he said he was happy, that means Mr. Cedric doesn’t hate me, right?! Does he like me too?! What do you think?!” Ellie was a ball of excitement.
Meanwhile, Lacey could only respond with things like “I’m not sure” and “Maybe.” She was frantically trying to think over everything and converse. All that came out were vague statements, but Ellie seemed to be satisfied nonetheless. She then began some kind of strange ritual.
“What are you doing there?” Lacey stared.
“Come on, Lacey, you’re a mage! Don’t you know fortune telling and stuff?” The girl gave a scandalized look and raised her shoulders.
Mages and fortune tellers were completely different professions, but it wasn’t really important to mention that. “I don’t,” Lacey replied honestly.
Ellie puffed out her chest proudly and told her what it was. “This is how you tell if there’s love in your future!”
According to Ellie, there was a charm where you plucked flower petals and said “he loves me” and “he loves me not” in alteration. Thus she and Lacey each picked up a flower stalk and divined whether they were loved or hated. Ellie was ecstatic each time she got “he loves me” and wanted to do the same thing once over just to be sure. When she got “he loves me not,” she would get frustrated and keep on trying until she got “he loves me” again. For some reason, Lacey played along.
He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. They kept saying the same words over and over so many times that Lacey felt like her head would explode. By the time they’d gathered a whole pile of flower petals on a plate, Ellie seemed to be tremendously satisfied. “Thanks! Here’s your payment for the job!” she’d said as she gave Lacey a heap of acorns. Was she a wild animal or something?
“And the job was done before I knew it...”
All Lacey had really done was listen. Ellie had confessed to Cedric all on her own, and Lacey had just nodded along during their conversation.
Nonetheless, Ellie had been smiling.
Now that she was thinking about it, Lacey noticed that a smile graced her own lips as well. She was sure that if not for the day she’d spent with Dana, she wouldn’t have been able to fulfill Ellie’s request. This thought made her feel happy. She lay down on the table and kicked her legs.
“Phew...”
After wriggling for a little while, Lacey let out a small breath. She stifled her smile and then turned her head to the side. Pressing her cheek against the cool table helped her calm down.
Oh, I can use the petals from Ellie in a new sachet, she thought as she looked at the pile of petals. She then flicked an acorn by the rim of the plate with her fingertips. The acorn fell onto its side with a wobble and smoothly rolled around the table.
There were still a few flowers left that hadn’t been plucked.
“He loves me.”
There wasn’t any real meaning to it. Still sprawled out on the table, she stretched out her arm and plucked off a petal.
“He loves me not.”
She’d spent so much time with Ellie that the words just rolled off her tongue.
“He loves me.”
There were still petals left.
“He loves me not.”
Who, exactly?
“You’re supposed to do it while thinking about the person you like,” Ellie had told her with a warm, full-lipped smile.
The person I like...
Lacey hadn’t ever thought about that before. She’d just been so focused on improving her magic skills. She had absorbed lots of knowledge that seemed like it would be necessary, but she’d discarded the rest. In truth, she might have been envious of the starry-eyed girls her age talking about love and had just intentionally averted her gaze from that kind of thing.
Ellie reminded Lacey a little bit of how she’d been when she was younger—although she’d never been that candid.
“Wayne.”
For some reason, his name naturally flowed off her tongue. Lacey had been like this all the time lately. Usually, her head was totally occupied by an eagerness to come up with her next big invention, but whenever she zoned out while watering the garden or eating meals, she’d end up thinking about him. She was dying to know when she’d see him next.
Pluck, pluck. One by one, she tore off the petals.
“He loves me not.”
At last, there was only one remaining. The words she would say in alternation were set.
“He lo—”
“Lacey, what are you doing?”
“Hwheh? Wah! E-e-e-AAAAAAH!”
She crashed across the table with a clamor and became covered in petals. Wayne watched this with knitted brows. Lacey was filled with a peculiar sense of embarrassment.