Sophie paused. “Livio.”
“Talk about tiny,” Livio laughed, as if he’d accidentally blurted out his reaction. Just look at that cute grin of his!
Livio stared intently at the leather pouch he’d taken from Sophie, laughing like a little kid, making Sophie laugh right alongside him as she grabbed a cookie. It was a comparatively large cookie—the size of her thumb. It was perfectly bite-sized.
Then again, Sophie had never encountered a cookie that wasn’t bite-sized.
“This just fixed the shape of the crumbled bits, didn’t it?” Sophie asked. “Then again, just looking at the shape, it’s the same as the original cookie, so I guess that’s amazing in its own right, but...did it actually multiply?”
“Maybe in terms of sheer numbers?”
She’d never expected to be splitting hairs over a pouch. The joke had fallen flat—way flat. It wasn’t some joke—it was a prank. Sounds like a scam to me.
Whoever made it had done a fine job coming up with this sort of nonsense. Weren’t there any other items that made better use of the spell? Then again, even Sophie had bought it while thinking there was no way it could be for real, so perhaps it was just as it was meant to be.
But even then, just what sort of person had made this? And what sort of look had they had on their face while they were making it? Guess no one stopped them, huh?
It made less and less sense the more Sophie thought about it until she finally found herself bursting out laughing.
“It’s a lame joke, but you can’t help but laugh at the fact that they nailed the details so well,” Livio said, laughing.
Sophie laughed alongside him, taking the pouch. Sophie couldn’t even begin to imagine just who on earth would make this sort of confusing object. Going even further, Sophie couldn’t even begin to imagine how she could use it down the road. Wow. Sophie was even more impressed. There were all sorts of people out there in the world.
“The world really is a big place, huh?”
Considering one cookie was all it took for Sophie to get a taste of the world, the pouch had been a steal. We’ll just leave it at that. Yup. It was funny, so it’s fine. It’s lame, but that’s the fun part.
It was a new experience for Sophie—and a valuable one.
In a terribly unmannerly manner, Sophie shoveled the cookies in her hand into her mouth, as the faint aroma of tea caused her lips to curl. Unable to be contained, a smile broke across her face, only for Livio to beam in turn.
“Lady Sophie,” Livio said, calling her name with a gentle smile on his face.
“Yes?” Sophie replied, still unable to hold a neutral expression.
Livio narrowed his eyes. “So, about this morning...”
“This morning?” she asked before nodding. “Oh...”
It seemed he was going to talk with her about this morning’s mystery, wherein Livio had suddenly left from his seat at the breakfast table.
Wonder what it was about? Doesn’t seem like anything bad, though.
Placing the leather pouch back into her enchanted bag and looking up, she noticed Livio’s face was slowly growing redder and redder.
Look how cute he is... Sophie thought, tensing her mouth against the smile that threatened to break through.
Livio took a deep breath and simply said, “It was me.”
“Huh?”
The breeze blew through Livio’s bangs. “That idiot with the nosebleed...in the garden... Th-That...was me.”
Sophie’s eyes blinked wide in surprise as she tried to make sense of what Livio had just told her.
Sophie had been all alone, deathly exhausted—and he’d found her. That little knight...had been Livio. Sophelia’s little knight and the knight she loved were the same person.
How absolutely, magnificently wonderful!
“It was you? Really?”
Now that Sophie thought about it, the number of individuals whose fathers were in the Knights and had the standing to participate in the Knights’ training was limited. It seemed like something she would’ve been able to figure out had she thought about it, but unfortunately, the boy and Livionis had just looked too different. And just how on earth do you take a national-treasure-level face and make it look like that? Sophie thought to herself, just a bit terrified of the boy’s father, who’d apparently punched him that day. Even then, Sophie was delighted.
Sophie was delighted that she could finally thank Livio’s father—that she’d always had his son in her life.
“Thank you so much for what you did back then,” she said, pouring heartfelt gratitude into her words as she grinned.
“Urgh!” Livio gave a small moan and clutched his chest.
Sophie tilted her head to the side in confusion, only for him to sigh as the wind gently shook his lustrous hair.
“It was then—that was when I started having feelings for you, Lady Sophie.”
“What?”
“Ever since then, I wanted to take you out of that garden so badly I couldn’t stand it.”
Ever since then?
Before her brain could even process the words and name the emotion they made her feel, Sophie’s tears were already falling. They came one after the other, spilling down her cheeks with no end in sight.
“I have nothing but respect for everything you built back then...” Livio paused. “I consider myself truly fortunate—both to have met you that day and to have been born in the same kingdom as you.”
The hand that wiped away Sophie’s tears was a sword-wielding hand—hard but kind. Cupped in Livio’s large palms were all the days Sophie had convinced herself that her entire purpose for living was to fulfill her role.