What Do You Mean? You Said Your Back Hurt!

“It seems she may have been injured, so I’ll take her to a healer myself.”

I could feel the hard forearm wrapped around me like a vine.

The reason I could sense that faint trembling was probably...

Was he trying so hard to hold me without hurting me?

“Huh? Sir Khalid is going to? Why? And wow, you’re talking a lot today too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you say more than three lines at once!”

As if.

He was actually kind of a chatterbox by nature.

Thinking that to myself, I gripped the edge of Khalid’s cloak tightly. His large body twitched a little.

“Then... we’ll be going.”

Khalid turned away with a slightly hoarse voice.

Step, step.

For a while, I heard his footsteps heading toward the far end of the alley.

How much time passed like that?

Feeling the firm hand pressing the back of my head, I cautiously raised my face.

“......”

Unlike when he was younger, his jawline was sharper now, darker somehow.

That thick neck, stretched straight, and the Adam’s apple jutting from it...

I didn’t have one of those, so my gaze stayed fixed on it blankly—then suddenly that Adam’s apple bobbed once, hard.

“Huh—”

Startled, I jerked my eyes away.

Then I startled all over again when I met those gray-blue eyes staring straight down at me.

“P-put me down!”

My body flailed like a fish thrown onto dry land.

But Khalid wasn’t so easy to shake off.

“Ruby... my back hurts. Don’t move.”

What? It hurts?

“O-okay. Right. If you’re hurt, then no moving.”

I stiffened all over again like a block of wood.

Honestly, I didn’t even know what I was saying.

Because all that was spinning through my head were his eyes from a moment ago, watching me so quietly.

“It’s been a while.”

Khalid murmured it.

“Two years.”

“Y-yeah. It has...”

“Have you been well?”

“I mean... yeah. I guess.”

When I nodded vaguely, I felt a brief vibration through where our bodies touched.

He was probably ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ laughing.

Back then...

Back then, he hadn’t laughed like that so calmly. He would smirk, arrogant and sharp, or sneer with that usual cynicism...

And he definitely didn’t use to pick me up like this!

Had carrying magical-beast carcasses around all the time made it a habit?

Round and round. Total chaos festival in my head.

Before I knew it, I could see the far end of the alley.

Khalid tilted his head slightly.

“Ruby, can I walk a little slower?”

“Huh? Aren’t you already going slow?”

“My back hurts...”

“O-oh. Then y-you should walk slowly!”

“Yeah.”

Thump. Thump.

“Bear with it a little longer, even if it’s uncomfortable, Ruby.”

I could feel the muscles in the arms supporting me so securely.

Thumpthumpthumpthump.

What is this?

We were fine for two whole years, weren’t we?

Hey. Heart.

Why are you making such a spectacle of your existence again?!

*****

Khalid set me down only after an absurdly long time had passed since we’d left the alley.

He’d made such a fuss in there about how badly his back was stinging that I’d been ready to drag him straight to a healer, but the moment we stepped out, he said it had mysteriously gotten all better. Just in case, I still cast a light healing spell on him.

Anyway, we pushed through the festival crowd, drunk on excitement, and went into the first café we saw.

There was too much we needed to talk about.

“Welcome.”

“Huh.”

What was this place?

It felt like stepping into a miniature greenhouse.

“Our café is built around a private greenhouse-garden concept, so each party is given its own separate space. There is an hourly usage fee. Would you still like to come in?”

Now that I looked more closely, everyone coming in was a couple linked arm in arm.

So this was sort of a date spot...?

I feel like we’ve walked into somewhere we absolutely should not have come.

I laughed awkwardly and grabbed Khalid hard.

“Hey, hey. Let’s just go somewhere el—urk.”

But the one flapping in the air was me.

“It’s perfect for talking about secrets. Let’s go.”

Khalid strode right in.

When he said he wanted to reserve not just our area but the entire greenhouse garden around us until closing time, the employee beamed and led us inside.

What even is this.

Was I overthinking it?

Scratching the back of my head, I headed toward the innermost seat.

Thanks to the straight-grown trees and neatly maintained shrubs around it, the place was well shielded from outside eyes.

Whew. Calm down. I’m the only one making a huge deal out of this right now.

I shook my head hard.

Then—fwip—my hat was taken off.

My carefully tucked-up silver hair spilled free, and Khalid, who had just been pulling out my chair for me, clicked his tongue.

“You’re going to get yourself exposed like that.”

“Ah. No.”

If that happened, I’d be dragged straight into an audience with Dad and the King of Casalia.

After a moment’s thought, he pulled my hood over my head, then untied the cord of his own cloak and wound it snugly beneath my chin.

Every time those long fingers brushed the underside of my jaw, I wanted to keep swallowing and swallowing, but I forced myself not to.

“This way it definitely won’t fall off.”

He smiled, satisfied.

I mean, sure, that was true, but...

“......”

I studied my reflection from every angle in the candlestick on the table.

...A pill bug?

Is this really right?

“So why are you here, anyway? Don’t tell me you came alone.”

It felt a little absurd, but I still answered properly.

“No. I came with Dad.”

“The Duke too? I heard a support procession was coming, but I didn’t think he’d come himself. Why would he bother...”

“Well, Allen...”

Because he said you and the Princess looked like you were about to fall in love?

So Dad came racing over with murder in his eyes?

But there was no way I could say that out loud, so I clamped my mouth shut.

Whatever he read in that silence, Khalid, sitting across from me, knit his brows slightly.

“What nonsense did that bastard Allen say this time?”

“Uncle Allen didn’t say anything! ...Hey. But no matter how I look at it, doesn’t this outfit seem kind of ridiculous? I look like a matchstick.”

“You’re cute, so it’s fine.”

“Huh?”

The motion of Khalid pouring tea came to a sudden stop.

Tap, tap.

He touched his own ear.

“...I asked if you wanted me to free your ears. Is it too stuffy with even those covered?”

“Oh. Right. I guess it is kind of hard to hear.”

Because I was pretty sure I’d just heard something else.

I slipped both ears out and focused again.

“Oh, right. This.”

Khalid pulled out a thick sheet of paper from inside his clothes.

I knew what it was before he even unfolded it.

“The stele formula...”

“It took two years. Sorry.”

His face stayed calm as he said it, and for some reason that made my chest tighten.

That sort of thing really hadn’t changed at all since he was little.

You little mutt...

My nose stung, and I sniffed once—

“But I heard you had a nosebleed.”

At that, I let out a helpless laugh.

“So the news of my nosebleed made it all the way there? Was it posted somewhere on social media or something?”

“There you go again, saying things that make no sense. Anyway, let me see.”

I blinked slowly.

“I am looking.”

“No, your magic. Isn’t your condition bad because you’re running low?”

“Ah...”

That was what he meant.

Khalid slid the formula across the table and held out his hand to me.

I hesitated for a moment, then moved the hand that had been resting on my thigh.

We were the only people who could exchange magic with each other. So ever since we were young, we had touched like this all the time.

But still...

That hand stretched out toward me now—

When did his hand... get this big?

It felt so unfamiliar all over again.

Swallowing dryly, I placed my hand in his.

*****

Small...

Khalid stared quietly at the small white hand resting on top of his.

Had it always been this small?

The Rubian he had met again after two years felt even smaller than she had in his memory.

Or maybe it was that he had grown.

He had lost count of how many times he had to have his knight uniform altered because it no longer fit. It wasn’t just his height. With each battle, his frame itself had become harder, more solid.

I can’t just grab her the way I used to.

Not that he had ever grabbed her carelessly before, but Khalid still found himself thinking that if someone blew on Rubian too hard, she might simply drift away.

Maybe it was because of the black cloak wrapped so snugly around her, but every one of her features stood out with painful clarity.

Her round, pale forehead. Her large, deep eyes. Her small lips, moving without pause, still spilling a voice that was easy to listen to.

Nothing’s changed.

Suppressing the smile that kept trying to rise, Khalid lightly closed his hand around Rubian’s.

He remembered the warmth and scent of her from when he had held her earlier. His stomach twisted, but he gave nothing away.

Then—

“Ah—Khalid, Khalid. That hurts!”

Khalid jolted and snatched his hand away.