“Herwin, there’s something I wanted to ask you…….”


“Yeah, what is it?”

“Do you happen to like Arista?”

Expecting to answer anything, Herwin took a step back in surprise, his reaction adding to her anxiety.

“Do you really… like… Arista?”

“I like Arista……?”

Herwin looked confused, and he couldn’t hide his wavering eyes.

He seemed to mull over Lucia’s words.

“I’m…….”

Herwin frowned, then his ears perked up.
His eyebrows arched upward as if realizing something.

Then a subtle flush of excitement washed over his face.

It was a look she’d never seen before, but it was also all too familiar to Lucia.

It was like looking at herself in a mirror when she thought of him.

It was like looking at herself in the mirror when she thought of Herwin, and no matter how hard she tried to hide her excitement, the flutter of excitement was visible on her face, and so was Herwin.

So Lucia was miserable.

She thought there was nowhere to retreat to, but there wasn’t.

Pushed to the edge of an endless cliff, Lucia was filled with despair.

Her heart slammed into her chest and seemed to stop beating.
Lucia’s mind went blank, and she asked hollowly.

“……you like Arista as expected.”

Herwin didn’t say yes or no, which is why it felt like a strong yes.

Lucia’s lips twitched.

“Why? What’s good about Arista? By any chance… for saving you before?”

“…Lucia?”

Lucia’s voice sounded strange.
Herwin sensed it and looked at her.
He shuddered involuntarily.

Lucia had a strange expression on her face that made it hard to tell if she was laughing or crying.
The corners of her mouth were drawn into an arc, and even though she was trying to smile, her eyes were crying.

“What’s the best part about Arista? Huh? Answer me…….”

“Lucia, what’s wrong with you? You look weird.”

“I said, answer me, where is it good?”

Lucia’s question remained the same even when Herwin interrupted her.


Normally, she would have seen right through Herwin’s concern for her, but Lucia couldn’t see it.

Her vision narrowed in a whirlwind of jealousy.
All she could see was that Herwin was being evasive.

“Don’t like Arista.”

“……what?”

“Don’t like her.
I know you like her because she saved your life, but Arista, she’s not as good as you think she is.”

Lucia’s mind flashed back to her conversations with Bianca.

‘Lucia, look at it this way.
She’s not interested in him, she’s flirting with him.
She’s flirting with him, and she’s flirting with him in the name of fun, but I know what she’s doing.
That’s how you manage your connections.’

‘Ha, a friend? What’s a friend? There’s no such thing as a friendship between a man and a woman.
It’s all an excuse.
Look, you’re in love with Herwin, too.’

‘I’ve known it from the beginning.
She can be all smiles and nice in front of you, but she’ll never stop cursing you out behind your back, and she’s very high-minded.
She knows how to make a man fall for her.’

From the time Lucia began to dislike Arista until now, Bianca has been saying negative things about Arista.

It used to sound so outrageous, but now it felt like she was right, like Arista was managing a fishery.

Lucia finally lost control of her emotions and began to tell him what she had heard from Bianca.

She was trying to divert Herwin’s attention away from Arista.

But the more she talked, the darker Herwin’s expression became.

At first, he was confused as to what she was talking about, then his face hardened, and finally, his mouth closed and his brow furrowed.

“Arista is not as good a person as you think…….”

“Lucia.”

Lucia, who had been smiling bizarrely, stopped dead in her tracks.
The sound of Herwin’s voice in her ear was chilling.

Sensing that something was wrong, Lucia looked up from her bowed head, and her eyes widened even more.

“Why…are you looking at me like that?”

There was a faint hint of contempt on Herwin’s face, like a fly drawn to the castle of Phoenaeus.

“You, now.
Do you realize what you’re saying?”

Lucia shrank back at the intimidation radiating from Herwin.

“Are you insulting Arista right now, just because I like her?”

“My, when did I ever badmouth Arista… I just want you to know the truth…….”

“The truth? You think the words you spew are the truth?”

Herwin’s frown deepened.

“You’re blinded by jealousy right now, and you’re denigrating Arista any way you can.”

Thud.


Her heart, which she thought she’d hidden from view, slid downward once more.

“What’s wrong with you, it’s not like you, I thought your least favorite thing was saying things behind our backs that you couldn’t even say in front of us, and gossiping about things that don’t even make sense, but look at you now.”

Herwin gave her a pitying look.
Lucia could offer no rebuttal to his words.

Tragically, she was now behaving exactly like the people she hated the most.

“I, I’m…….”

“No matter how much you like me, you have no right to control my mind.”

Lucia bit down hard on her bottom lip.

“I’m disappointed in you, Lucia.”

The heartless words pierced her ears.

She couldn’t help but stare at him.
He was giving her the same hard look he gave everyone else.

There was a tension between them that no one else could cross.

Lucia sensed it.
That he was disappointed in her now, and that he was building an invisible wall, guarding himself against crossing it.

She had been pushed completely outside of his boundaries.

All of her hard work, all of her endeavors, had been undone by a single choice.

Now she might not even be worthy to stand by his side.

The realization burned through her skin and into her bones.

Despair was the only word to describe the sensation.

A single tear fell silently from Lucia’s eye.

Herwin strode past her, unmoved this time.

“Think about what you did wrong.”

He walked away from Lucia without soothing her.

Lucia could only stare at Herwin, unable to hold on to him.

* * *

“Shit……!”

Herwin cursed through clenched teeth as he headed for the classroom, his face set.

He felt a tightness in his stomach as if he had a sieve.

When Lucia had asked him earlier if he liked Arista, he’d realized that he’d been thinking of her as something special.

Up until that point, she had been just another one of his best friends, like Christine, but his feelings for her had changed after their encounter with the ogre in the mountains.

When he was injured by the ogre’s attack, he thought he was dead.


It was nearly impossible to avoid the ogre’s attacks when he was immobilized with a badly sprained ankle.

If he had known how to use an auror, he would have been able to fight it off, but Herwin had not yet been able to create an auror.

It was in that moment of crisis that Arista appeared.

‘Herwin!’

She shouted so loudly that the forest echoed, and a cascade of violet auror shot from her sword, slicing the rain in half and the ogre’s body in half as well.

After that, he was half-dazed and didn’t even remember how he got out of the forest.

All he could remember was the sight of Arista slicing the ogre’s body in half.

Ever since then, Herwin had felt a deep attraction to Arista.

Not only because she saved his life, but because he admired her ability to create such a powerful Auror.

So when he spoke to Arista again in the infirmary, he thanked her and promised to duel her later, when he felt better.

He was flattered and excited for the first time in a long time.

He had been pleasantly surprised by her skill level before, but now it was a much more pleasant and pleasing feeling.

Perhaps this is the feeling of liking? He’s not sure, but it’s a special feeling he’d never felt before.

‘Arista is not as good a person as you think….…’

He remembers Lucia’s words from earlier.

The words that followed were one of confusion and disbelief.

Lucia hates to speak ill of others more than anyone else, and she was doing it just because he had a crush on Arista.

What’s more, none of what Lucia said was true, and it’s amazing how she could see Arista in such a way.

The image of Lucia’s face when he pointed out her mistake flashed before his eyes.

Her once-white face had turned pale with embarrassment, and the way her eyes darted about, it was clear that she knew what she had done wrong.

When Lucia called Arista names, he was angry, but he also felt sorry for her, because he knew she wasn’t the kind of person who would say such things to someone else.

So when Lucia burst into tears, he felt weak.

“Hah…….”

He just didn’t know what to make of Lucia right now.

Herwin walked into the classroom, running a hand through his messy hair.

“Herwin, why are you alone?”

“Where’s Lucia?”

When Herwin went to look for Lucia and came back alone, his friends were puzzled.


“Have you seen Lucia?”

Bianca stood up and approached.

As if that weren’t bad enough, Herwin spotted her and frowned even more.

‘…… You’ve been hanging out with Bianca a lot lately.’

Lucia hadn’t been the same since she’d gotten to know Bianca, and he wondered if her influence had changed her.

Bianca’s ears perked up a little as Herwin glared at her.

“Why, why?”

“……No.”

He’s annoyed but only annoyed.
Still, unlike Christine, Bianca was subtly sulky, and he knew he had to take a closer look.

“Herwin, did you have a good talk with Lucia? Did she tell you anything about me?”

Arista stepped forward.
Her violet eyes met his and he paused.

“I don’t know.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Arista was flustered and urged him to speak up, but Herwin remained silent.

Drool-

The back door opened and Lucia walked in.
Her friends greeted her happily.

“Lucia, are you okay…….”

Ethan asked cheerfully to break the awkwardness, but he couldn’t continue as soon as he saw her face.

Lucia’s eyes were so red that anyone could tell at a glance that she had been crying.

The people panicked.
Herwin was also agitated, but he tried not to show it.

“……Lucia.”

Arista called softly, but Lucia ignored her and sat back in her seat.

To their horror, Lucia was seated right next to Herwin.

Herwin nudged his head toward her.
Lucia remained silent, covering her face with her long hair.
She leaned her arms on the desk.

The mood sank even further.

The friends realized at once.

Herwin and Lucia were fighting.

When the other kids fought, they tried to defuse the situation around them, but this time, no one could.

Lucia was the one who usually mediated, and it was especially bad because she was the one who always made everything okay, no matter what, and now she was fighting with Herwin and no one else.

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