Chapter 37
Clarissa stood half a step behind Adria, feeling a swelling warmth in her chest as she watched Aryan descending the stairs.
“Congratulations, Your Highness Adria!”
“You grow more and more like His Majesty with each passing day, Your Highness.”
“Truly a blessing for Asgard.”
The moment Adria came down, the two of them were swallowed up by the crowd.
Adria deftly returned the greetings, and before long was exchanging conversations so lofty they were hard to follow.
Clarissa noticed Aryan quietly slipping away from Adria’s side and hurried after him.
But there was something neither Clarissa nor Aryan realized.
What is this—those people…
Rashad, the newly appointed Crown Prince left standing alone, was just as perfect a target for the crowd.
“Rashad Aryan, it’s an honor to meet you for the first time.”
“Master Matthias, I entrust the Crown Prince to you.”
“You seem far more admirable than I expected. I’m relieved.”
In the blink of an eye, Aryan too was trapped among a crowd nearly as dense as Adria’s.
No matter how much he had grown in such a short time, unfamiliar things did not suddenly become familiar.
Unable to hide his confusion, Aryan darted his eyes around.
Watching the group surrounding him, Clarissa bit down on her inner lip.
These are the people who wouldn’t even spare him a glance when Aryan was at his lowest…
Bitterness surged up.
The way they changed their attitudes the moment Aryan became Rashad was no different from the world she knew.
It annoyed her—but it was still far better than seeing him standing there alone.
Swallowing a hollow laugh at her own irony, she cautiously approached Aryan, who still looked at a loss.
Once she made up her mind, slipping through the adults was fairly easy thanks to her still-small stature.
When Aryan showed no particular reaction, the people around him eventually began chatting among themselves, leaving the very person concerned out of it.
Clarissa seized him from behind and tugged him along, helping him escape the crowd.
The space they left behind was quickly filled by someone else, and the people continued talking without even realizing the subject of their attention was gone.
Aryan looked back at the person pulling him with wide, startled eyes.
“Wh—”
Before he could finish, soft chestnut hair came into view.
Still surprised, he blurted out her name.
“Clarissa?”
“Shh!”
With a playful expression, Clarissa pressed a finger to her lips and whispered.
Aryan obediently closed his mouth and followed where she led.
Clarissa stopped at a secluded balcony.
Having almost run the whole way, the two of them had to catch their breath before they could say anything.
Once she had finally recovered, Clarissa spun around.
Her sweat-damp face curved into a gentle smile.
“Hehe, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
Beneath the darkened sky, Clarissa’s golden eyes sparkled.
Faced with her beautiful smile framed by red lips, Aryan stared blankly for a moment before finally nodding.
“…Yes.”
At his answer, Clarissa let out another bright laugh.
Aryan tightened his grip on her hand.
He could clearly feel her warmth. This wasn’t a dream.
There were so many things he wanted to ask.
Had she decided never to come to him again? Would she stay by his side from now on?
But before he could voice any of it, Clarissa beat him to it.
“You seem to be doing… well.”
Contrary to her worries, he really did look well.
A healthy glow to his face, an expression free of clouds.
Clarissa tilted her head up slightly to look at him.
The last time she had seen him, he had only been about her height. He’s really grown a lot, she thought.
At her words, Aryan felt that he hadn’t truly done so well during the days without Clarissa—but thinking that nodding would make her happy, he quickly nodded anyway.
“You’ve grown taller… a lot.”
Clarissa reached out and lightly brushed the tip of his silver hair as it swayed beneath his chin.
Aryan’s blue eyes followed the light in hers.
Looking down at Clarissa, now a little smaller than himself, his cheeks gradually reddened.
Only then did it really sink in that he had grown.
It made him happy—and a little regretful.
“I’m the same as ever, right? But don’t relax just yet. I’ll catch up again.”
Clarissa flashed him a mischievous grin as he stood there momentarily dazed.
“…Yes. I’ll wait.”
Though part of him didn’t want to lose, if it meant she would keep coming to see him—and if that was what she wanted—then nothing else mattered.
As if they had completely forgotten their last meeting, the two smiled sweetly at each other.
Then, suddenly recalling her purpose, Clarissa asked playfully,
“By the way, that nasty Crown Prince hasn’t been bullying you, has he?”
“Pardon?”
Aryan’s eyes widened into perfect circles. He might have grown taller, but his way of reacting hadn’t changed.
Just as Clarissa was about to brush it off as a joke—
“Who’s bullying whom?”
The so-called nasty Crown Prince appeared before them, brow furrowed.
Seeing Clarissa’s pale face, Adria scowled as though he had heard something extremely unpleasant.
“Who did you just call nasty?”
“Oh my, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
After a brief moment of fluster, Clarissa calmly continued.
Her blatant pretense that nothing had happened made Adria’s eyebrows shoot up even more sharply.
“I heard everything.”
At his warning-like tone, Clarissa took a step back as if frightened.
Naturally, it was an act.
The only one who hadn’t fully grasped the situation was Aryan.
His gaze flitted back and forth between the furious Adria and Clarissa.
Before he could say anything, Clarissa spoke first.
“What did I say, exactly? Right, Aryan?”
Adria’s and Clarissa’s eyes landed on Aryan’s cheeks at the same time.
He hesitated for a moment, then, seeing Clarissa’s crestfallen, pale face, hurriedly backed her up.
“Ah… yeah. That’s right. You didn’t say anything.”
In that instant, Clarissa realized the two had grown considerably closer.
Aryan—Aryan is speaking informally?!
Her mouth fell half open in shock.
Then a sharp, derisive laugh escaped Adria’s lips.
As if scoffing at the idea that staying quiet would solve everything, Adria narrowed his eyes and pressed Aryan with the same angry tone.
“Do you even know what position you’re in?”
Clarissa’s surprise didn’t end there.
Aryan, who had been silently listening to what sounded like a warning—or a threat—suddenly burst out laughing.
“Ha ha…!”
The gentle laughter coming from beside her was undoubtedly the voice Clarissa knew, yet she couldn’t immediately bring herself to turn her head.
Before she could, Aryan stepped toward Adria, naturally positioning himself between Clarissa and Adria.
For Clarissa, the sight was a tremendous shock.
Perhaps even more so than seeing how much Aryan had grown.
In the original story, the two had been close friends, so she had expected them to grow close eventually—but the speed of it exceeded her expectations.
As a result, Clarissa muttered absentmindedly,
“It’s nice to see the two of you getting along so well.”
Surprisingly, it was Adria who reacted first to her words.
As if something was bothering his conscience, he grumbled,
“Just so you know, it’s not like I did it for you or anything…”
“What a strange thing to say. What does the two of you getting along have to do with me?”
Clarissa cut him off briskly before he could finish.
Then she turned to look at Aryan’s face.
