Chapter 79
“C-Cherry…!”
My conversation with Ferdinand was cut short by Gerard rushing over in a panic.
“Cherry, are you—are you alright?”
His face had gone pale, as if he thought Ferdinand had done something to me.
“Hey, boy. Do I look like the sort who’d bully a tiny squirrel barely worth a fistful?”
“Th-that’s…”
Gerard backpedaled, avoiding his gaze. Which basically meant—yes, he thought it was possible.
“When you left me and König on the mountain to ‘make men out of us,’ we were only five years old…”
To be fair, Gerard had his reasons.
But still—
Did he just call me… a squirrel?
My eyes sparkled as I looked up at Ferdinand.
“Ahem! What are you staring at?!”
He barked, suddenly flustered, then quickly stood and stalked off.
Yet, for the first time, it felt like the impossible distance between us had closed.
If only by a squirrel’s tear.
Probably the first and last time, though.
Except—it wasn’t.
* * *
The next day, and the day after that…
I basked in the garden as usual, but Ferdinand never showed.
Not that I was waiting for him or anything…
Still, worry tugged at me.
“Cherry, you don’t look well,” Gerard remarked.
With König busy training knights in the yard, Gerard had finally escaped his duties. He detested sweat and dust, so instead of the training grounds, he joined me in the garden.
“If you’re worried about Ferdinand, you needn’t be.”
“Chuut?”
“He’s at the White Sun Palace.”
White… Sun Palace?
I blinked, and Gerard pointed.
Behind the main keep, a small white marble palace gleamed.
“It was where Ferdinand and Lady Solana once lived. He hasn’t gone near it since she passed…”
Gerard’s eyes softened as he looked toward the distant building.
“Chuut…”
Maybe… after talking with me, he missed Solana more.
Perhaps, instead of wandering Sunset Town, he now wandered old memories with her.
“He wanted peace. Even dismissed the servants.”
“Chuut…”
What if he’s sick?
Gerard shook his head firmly.
“No need to worry. Ferdinand is Ferdinand.”
“Chuut?”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“He passed eight hundred long ago and still smashes doors like kindling. He’s good for another hundred years, at least.”
He nodded gravely.
Well… fair point.
That floral shirt from the south looked ready to burst off his muscles, practically begging me to save it.
But wait—
“Chuuuut?!”
Over… eight hundred years old?!
I thought that was just a figure of speech!
Sure, the academy’s histories mentioned him—but I always assumed it was exaggerated. Like the tale of Yggdria’s first emperor being born between two giant trees.
“Ferdinand is practically a living fossil,” Gerard said.
According to him, Ferdinand’s grandfather was the very first head of House Kreutz.
I tried counting years on my fingers… gave up after cycling through them several times.
“I know. I tried that too when I was a child,” Gerard said sympathetically.
It was the dragon’s blood, he explained, that granted such lifespans.
So that legend… the ‘War Fiend who swept half the continent’… was true?
I mimed swinging a sword. Gerard’s face grew solemn.
“If you mean Yggdria’s founding era—yes. It’s true.”
Now he pestered his grandchildren for attention, but in youth, Ferdinand had been terrifying.
“Before Lady Solana, they even called him ‘Yaksha.’ The Kreutz reputation was born then.”
I shivered, wondering what he’d been like.
Gerard leaned closer, eyes gleaming.
“But the truth is, he only met Lady Solana about… two hundred years ago.”
“Chuut?!”
Two hundred years isn’t long?!
Time clearly flowed differently inside this castle.
“And—this is a secret—their marriage began as a contract.”
A contract marriage?!
My eyes went wide.
The ultimate romance cliché.
“Chuut, chuut!”
Tell me everything!
I waved my little paws impatiently.
“They met on a blind date, arranged by their elders. Solana only went because her sister begged her to attend in her place.”
“Chuuuuut!!”
Fate! Pure destiny!
I stamped my feet in excitement, cheeks hot. Gerard, delighted, wiggled his brows.
“Both were weary of constant pressure. So they proposed a contract marriage. And then…”
And then?
Tell me faster, before I suffocate!
I leaned in, breath held—
BANG!
Gerard yelped, clutching his ear.
“Chuut?!”
Who ruined the moment?!
I glared—and there stood Ferdinand, digging a finger in his ear.
“No wonder my ear was itching. Gerard, it was you, wasn’t it?”
“Chuut.”
I instantly turned my back on Gerard.
Speed was survival.
I crouched, ready to leap off the chair—
“When I said it was chance, that wasn’t true. I knew Solana before that.”
“…!”
I nearly swore, slapping my paw over my mouth.
Then I scurried to sit before Ferdinand, eyes round and shining.
He chuckled incredulously, scattering the fine fur from my cheeks.
The war fiend’s sharp gaze bore down, but I didn’t care.
“Chuut!”
How did you know her? Why? Since when?
He only smirked, as if recalling another lifetime.
“I’d already seen her at the dragon clan assemblies. Never in my life had I laid eyes on someone so beautiful.”
