国产午夜亚洲精品AⅤ

Chapter 313

Even though it didn’t seem like she had done much that day, the tasks were unfamiliar and strange, leaving Ellen feeling both physically and mentally drained. Despite that, she didn’t find herself disliking it. Instead, it felt like she was discovering a completely different side of herself that she hadn’t known before.

She had looked in the mirror countless times throughout the day, wondering if that reflection was really her.

After drying her hair completely, Ellen lay quietly on her bed. The Miss Temple contest would begin the next day.

Gurgle.

Ellen frowned at the sound coming from her stomach. This would usually be the time she had a late-night snack with Reinhart, but she remembered Riana’s stern warning.

—“Don’t eat anything tonight.”

—“... Why?”

—“I know you don’t gain weight, but what if your face gets puffy tomorrow from eating late?”

—“... I don’t really get it.”

—“Just don’t eat. You can endure it for one night.”

—“... Okay.”

It wasn’t like she was being forced to starve; she was just told not to eat a late-night snack, which she could manage. Of course, she could endure it for one night. However, routines were a powerful thing.

Gurgle.

“...”

Her body was sending her signals because it was used to eating at this time, but she couldn’t eat. Moreover, the desire to eat seemed to grow stronger now that someone had told her not to. Although Ellen had gone to bed without a late-night snack many times, it felt different that night just because she had been explicitly ordered not to eat.

Ellen usually had strong self-control. She didn’t gain weight easily due to her exercise routine and active metabolism, and the Royal Class dormitory was always stocked with plenty of food. She had also spent a lot of time with Reinhart, who would make anything she wanted. Ellen realized that she hadn’t really tried to resist eating recently.

Still, she needed to show her best self tomorrow. She couldn’t let a little hunger get in the way.

She tried to force herself to sleep, but it wasn’t easy. She wondered if it was the moonlight pouring in from outside, and rustled out of bed to close the curtains.

Just as she grabbed the curtains to close them, her eyes fell on the street outside the dormitory. In the darkness, under the moonlight, she saw two familiar silhouettes.

Reinhart and Harriet de Saint-Ouen...

They were walking quietly, holding hands.

“...”

Ellen stood still inside her room, watching the scene. Harriet was walking beside Reinhart with her head lowered, seemingly embarrassed, while Reinhart gently held her hand as they walked. Ellen was frozen in place as she watched the scene unfold.

Holding hands... How special an act was it, really? Ellen had held hands with Reinhart countless times, and even hugged him countless times. She had done it all, even as friends with Reinhart.

Clearly, it was something that friends did with each other. Of course, it was a perfectly reasonable thing for them to be doing. Even so, Ellen couldn’t take her eyes off their clasped hands. It was as if her thoughts had come to a halt.

‘Have I already lost him?’ Ellen thought. ‘No. Perhaps it happened long ago. Perhaps it was all just my delusion that there were parts of him only I could touch.’

—“It’s been a while!”

In truth, maybe it had already happened long ago.

‘Why are they holding hands? I can do that too. I’ve held his hand countless times. Did I think that touching Reinhart was something that only I had the privilege to do? Why does my heart feel like it’s about to break when I see him holding hands with Harriet?’

—“Um, you know... sometimes... I think you’re really unfair...”

Harriet’s words from some time ago echoed in Ellen’s mind. Clearly, Harriet had always felt this way. She had been made to watch from afar as Ellen created stories and memories Harriet wasn’t part of, building a relationship she couldn’t intrude upon. Harriet had to just watch, unable to do anything.

‘So this is how it feels like.’

Betrayed, helpless, frustrated, sorrowful, and aggrieved...

Harriet had summed up these feelings in just one word: unfair. However, that word alone did not seem to do these feelings justice.

Ellen watched the two of them return to the dormitory. Perhaps it was already too late. Harriet was just doing what she needed to do. There was no need or reason to hate her for it. To hate her for such a thing... Ellen should have already earned her hatred long ago.

Harriet was making her own efforts, in her own way, and there was no need to hate her for that. Ellen tried to convince herself of this.

All she needed to do, then, was what she had to do. She needed to show her best self the next day. Maybe, just maybe, when Reinhart saw her, things would be a little different.

A little bit here, and a little bit there. Things might change, just a little. That would be enough.

Today was today, and tomorrow would be tomorrow.

Ellen squeezed her eyes shut, trying to erase the lingering image of the two of them from her mind.

***

I was in the training grounds that night, swinging my sword. Neither Cliffman nor Ellen was there, so I ended up hitting the scarecrow for the first time in a while.

I could have asked Sabioleen Tana for guidance, but it was late, and when that person started teaching, she tended to get so enthusiastic that I wouldn’t be able to sleep on time.

So, I swung my practice sword at the scarecrow.

Thwack!

“... Damn it.”

The practice sword broke.

‘Was I swinging it so intensely that I was completely absorbed in it?’

I didn’t think I’d been that engrossed in the sword.

What was it?

I had lost track of time.

I had already gone far beyond the standard bedtime. Even if I had asked for guidance from Sabioleen Tana, the session would have ended long ago.

My entire body was drenched in sweat. I gathered the broken pieces of the practice sword and threw them into the trash bin, then opened the window to the training grounds.

A chilling breeze brushed past my cheeks and through my sweat-soaked clothes.

I was definitely feeling unsettled.

What was I supposed to do?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure it out.

It was well past bedtime, and if I kept swinging the practice sword in this state, I would probably just end up breaking more scarecrows and practice swords.

I decided to wash up and go to bed. I thought about making something to eat, but Ellen wasn’t around, and I didn’t feel like cooking for myself.

As I walked down the hallway, I ran into someone. The person who bumped into me tilted his head in curiosity upon seeing me.

“Hey.”

It was none other than Vertus.

‘Isn’t he busy managing the magic trains? What’s he doing in the dormitory at this hour?’

“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Vertus asked, beating me to the question.

“I was at the training grounds.”

Vertus chuckled. “Training late into the night even during the festival... Impressive.”

“What about you?”

“Ah... I had some work to do, but I’m done now, and I’m heading back to rest.”

‘Has he finally wrapped up the work relating to the magic trains?’

The festival wasn’t over yet, but perhaps all the necessary tasks he was overseeing had been completed.

Vertus had dark circles under his eyes, which suggested that he had been working tirelessly. It didn’t seem right for him to be praising me for training during the festival; he was having a much harder time himself.

“Oh, and congratulations on winning the tournament.”

“Oh... thanks.”

Vertus patted my shoulder and walked towards his room. If someone as stoic as him could be made to show such visible signs of fatigue, the past few days were definitely rough.

Just as he was about to go into his room, Vertus suddenly turned back towards me as if he had remembered something.

“Ah... wait a second.”

“Huh... What’s up?”

Cold sweat broke out all over my body.

All the other guys had passed me without incident, but not him. He hadn’t seen me since I last met him in my cross-dressing state. This was the first time he had seen me since then.

Vertus narrowed his eyes and stared at me intently.

‘No way... You can’t recognize me, right? Even though we encountered each other before, it was just a brief encounter, right?’

“Hmm...” Vertus frowned and stared at me for a while, then shook his head. “No, I must be tired.”

With that chilling remark, Vertus turned and went into his room.

***

Vertus dragged his heavy, waterlogged body back into his dorm room to wash up and then collapsed onto his bed.

Managing the operations of the magic trains during the festival period was no trivial task. The magic trains were the most important means of transportation within the capital, and they were always busy.

During this festival period, people from all over the continent flocked to the capital and made use of them. It was inevitable that there were people who had never seen or heard of these magic trains before.

Children cried, calling them monsters on wheels, and even adults sometimes ran away in panic. That was the easy part. Even in the farthest corners of the continent, people were divided into different classes. Those who made it to the capital to see the Temple festival had enough money to pay for the warp gate fees, which meant that most of the visitors were high-status individuals from their own regions.

There were plenty of people who complained loudly about how there weren’t any carriages on the magic trains reserved exclusively for nobles. They couldn’t stand the idea of sharing the same transportation as commoners and demanded explanations.

It was laughable to see ants arguing about their ranks, but Vertus had to handle it well. Trying to resolve all these incidents and accidents smoothly and without trouble was incredibly stressful.

After days without proper rest, he had finally returned to the dormitory to get some sleep. He felt like his head was about to explode. However, seeing Reinhart had suddenly reminded him of something. He hadn’t had time to think about it because of all the work he’d been swamped with, but the girl with the silver hair he had encountered came to mind as soon as he saw Reinhart.

He couldn’t forget her. He had committed the ridiculous mistake of spitting tea on the face of a girl he had never seen before, and Vertus knew he would never forget her face for the rest of his life.

‘She looked similar. Definitely.’

He wondered if he was just imagining things because he was tired, but the more he thought about it, the more certain he became. Of course, he would need to see them side by side to be sure, but the silver-haired girl and Reinhart looked very much alike.

After that, though, Vertus’s thoughts took a rather strange turn.

First of all, Vertus had been so busy that he didn’t know much about what had been going on in the festival. He only knew that Reinhart had won the first-year tournament.

Therefore, he had no idea who the silver-haired girl was, or that she had participated in the Temple’s cross-dressing contest.

To Vertus, the silver-haired girl was just that—a silver-haired girl. Reinhart and the girl were two entirely different people, but they looked alike. They even shared a rather rough manner of speaking.

When he had asked about her silver hair, she had said it was dyed. And Reinhart was from the streets.

‘Does Reinhart have a sister or a brother?’ he wondered.

It was entirely possible that Reinhart had blood relatives he didn’t know about, given how some children were abandoned at birth.

It was a simple matter of asking Reinhart if he had a sister or a brother. Of course, the answer could be “yes,” “no” or “I don’t know,” but whatever it was, Reinhart would surely be curious about why he was asking.

‘Well, it might be nothing.’

People could just resemble each other for no reason. If he told Reinhart that he had met someone who might be his sister or brother and it turned out not to be true, Reinhart would be quite disappointed.

‘Maybe I should look into it separately...’

There was no need to tell Reinhart about it. If it turned out to be true, he could reunite Reinhart with his lost family member. If not, it would be as simple as him retrieving the handkerchief he hadn’t gotten back.

Believing it to be just a trivial matter, Vertus slowly drifted into sleep.