Chapter 73

“Did it do that?”

Jannette spoke as if she was hinting at something, but Ezekiel wasn’t one to be pushed around. He calmly lifted the cup of tea in front of me.

“I just saw a stranger who looked similar to someone.”

“The Princess?”

Ezekiel paused at those words.

W, What did you say? Did you see me earlier eating food? Did you?

“You’re making a face like you want to know how I knew.”

Jannette lightly laughed and stirred in a spoonful of sugar in her tea.

“Well, that’s because you look most alive when you talk about the Princess. Did you think I wouldn’t know?

“Jannette.”

“Even right now. You wouldn’t have been distracted if it wasn’t something about the Princess.”

As Jannette dipped her head to drink the tea, her hair covered her face like a veil.

“Let’s go.”

But, Ezekiel, who had been sitting on the opposite side of Jannette, just looked at her and put his cup down.

“Today’s the first time in a while since you got permission from Father to leave the residence. We should quickly go to places you want to visit. I heard there’s a place that makes ribbons nearby.”

“Yes, let’s leave.”

I watched Jannette accept the hand that was in front of her with a brighter voice than before.

“When we get to the store, please pick one out for me. I’ll be giving one as a present to her, so you won’t be bored.”

Shoot! They’re coming this way! I covered my face as much as possible with my hair. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to have noticed me and just left.

“Gosh. I thought we were getting caught.”

“Their conversation was boring.”

As the two left, Lucas muttered to himself like he had lost interest. I slid my eyes over to where Ezekiel and Jannette had headed. But it didn’t take long for my attention to be on something else.

“The food you ordered is ready. Your Napolia Super Choco-Fudge, Pumping in My Heart Fondue, Bluevelvet Secret Caramel, Agasa Strawberry Shortcake, Mont Blanc That Fell in Clouds, Sugar Sugar Delicious Sweet Frappe, and Signature Chocolate Dipped in Cocoa is here.”

Wowowow! It was finally here!

“What’s up with the names. But why did you order so many of these sugar clumps? Are you gonna be able to finish it?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

I responded, snorted at Lucas.

And wasn’t that chocolate drink yours? What was it called again?

Anyways, Lucas actually likes sweet things. He always ate the chocolate desserts Lili made!

Ha, trying to hide that fact that you’re more of a chocolate killer than Blackie, are you. See, your eyes are sparkling more than normal right now!

I lifted my fork aggressively.

“Let’s eat!”

It was after we had satisfactorily gobbled everything up.

“Now where do we go?”

“You’re gonna eat again after eating all that?”

No, I couldn’t eat any more. At this rate, I’d have to be rolled home.

“Oh! The bird store! Let’s go there!”

I remembered the bird store I had seen anywhere and we decided to go back there.

“Hurry up, Lucas!”

I ran past Lucas because I was so excited. Lucas watched me like I was amazing.

It seemed he was flabbergasted by my sudden change in attitude since I had been sitting mindlessly at my desk before we left the castle. He was bewildered at how tireless I was.

I arrived before Lucas at the bird store.

“Wow.”

Above my head, there were bird cages big and small. And in each of them, there was a beautiful bird.

“It’s pretty.”

The chirps and tweets of the birds could’ve been annoying to some people, but to me, it just sounded like beautiful music.

I walked by the bird cages like I was possessed and saw a pretty bird with blue feathers.

“That’s a grosbeak. If you raise it well, it can also be a messenger bird.”

The person who seemed to be the owner of all the birds left at the call of another customer.

I didn’t know if it was because it was the first time I saw such a beautiful bird, but I kept going back to it.

“Are you….the Princess?”

I heard a small voice behind my back. Shocked, I froze, with my hand reaching out inside a bird cage.

And the familiar voice once again spoke like it had confirmed something.

“Are you perhaps someone I know?”

Ack! I knew it was Ezekiel without even turning back.

Didn’t he say they were going to buy ribbons? Was it already done? Wait, but how did you know it was me by just looking at my back?

“Ezekiel! What are you doing there?”

Shoot, I could hear Jannette’s voice now. No, don’t come this way!

I decided to run away.

“Wait….!”

“Ezekiel?”

It was a good thing I was wearing a light dress with short heels. I ran away from Ezekiel and Jannette until my feet were sweating. Birds of different colors passed by me.

“Please, wait just a moment!”

Noooo, why are you following me?

I ignored the voice calling out to me and ran around the different cages. Suddenly, Lucas appeared in front of me.

“Lucas!”

But what are you doing? Why are you having a staring contest with a bird?

“What the heck, I thought you were going to look at birds. Why are you rushing over here?”

Lucas asked me upon discovering I arrived in front of him, taking his eyes off the red bird he was having a staring contest with.

“Ezekiel’s following me!”

After hearing my urgent voice, his red eyes looked behind me. He squinted his eyes and clicked his tongue.

“Hold my hand.”

Was he going to use teleportation?

I grabbed his hand readily.

“Whoa!”

But what was this? Why are my feet floating in the air?

“Help me! W, What is this!”

In no time, Lucas and I were floating away from the ground. The bird cages became smaller and smaller. As I screamed in fear, Lucas grimaced like I hurt his ears.

“Ow, my ears. Is this your first time flying?”

Well, of course it is! When would I have flown before! The only experience that came close to this was when you dropped me from the sky on the Alpheus residence! Huk. I became even more scared after remembering that time.

“Y, You’re not gonna suddenly drop me, right?”

“Why would I drop you.”

But I couldn’t trust him, so I held onto him tight like he was my lifeline. He looked at me holding on to him and smirked like he was amused. Wait. Is it funny that I’m grabbing you because I’m scared? Is it?

“You won’t fall. Step in front of you.”

S, Step on what? There’s nowhere to step on even if I look as hard as I can!

“I’m letting go of your hand.”

As I didn’t listen to him, Lucas evilly threatened me. I need to have somewhere to step on to move my feet! Now he was threatening me with things that didn’t even make sense. Geez, ok, ok! Don’t let go of my hand!

I shut my eyes together and took a step forward like Lucas told me to. There was no way there would be anything to support my foot…or was there?

“What’s this!”

I was so dumbfounded that I looked down, and immediately regretted it.

AHH, there’s nothing there!

But Lucas was definitely moving with me hanging onto his hip like he was stepping on something. Everything he moved, his body floated up like he was on some kind of amusement park ride.

“Why are you so scared? Is this scary?”

“Well duh!”

Lucas was amused by me. But this reminded me of that scene. You know, the famous Japanese animation where a magician and girl take a stroll in midair.

“Strange. Why is this heavy?”

At his genuinely confused tone, my pride was scratched. I once again shut my eyes and followed Lucas, taking a step in the air. And as I did that, my body floated up.

B, But actually, this was kinda fun.

“Anyways, we got rid of that guy who was following you. I did good, right?”

This guy though.

As he looked at me like he was expecting a compliment, I was aghast.

Even if he had done this to avoid Ezekiel, but he wanted to hear a compliment after putting me through this?

“You could’ve just teleported us!”

“What did you say? Oh, you want me to let go of your hand?”

“No. Your decision was the best move!”

Ugh, fine, I guess once a psycho always a psycho.

But I suddenly had a thought.

“I’m wearing a dress!”

“Ow, my arm!”

I continued to pinch Lucas until we arrived back on the ground.

***

“Now let’s go back home.”

Today was fun. Although the ending was a bit horrible.

The long arm of the clock we had seen on the way flying here was between 5 and 6. We would arrive right on time. Lucas kept on rubbing his arm like it hurt.

“This time you’ll teleport us, right”

We had landed in the middle of a field nowhere. Long grass was waving in the grass around us.

I took a hold of Lucas’s hand first because I thought he would teleport us. But I got a scowl in response.

“Hey, why do you just grab people like that….”

He seemed to be annoyed that I had grabbed his hand.

“Oh, well I guess you can teleport without me holding you, right?”

Geez, fine then, I won’t hold your hand even if you beg me to anymore. Since you’re glaring so much just because I grabbed your hand this once.