CHAPTER 18……………………………….
“You’re working at a pawnshop? Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because it’s legal, unlike loan-sharking? Or did he say he wasn’t a loan shark?”
“Anyway… I should go say hello. Actually, I’ll go right now.”
“…Not on your day off? And aren’t you going to wear this?”
Ruezea looked like she had more to say, but her attention quickly shifted back to Laseil’s wardrobe.
“Take whatever you want.”
Laseil answered curtly and hurried out.
It had been nearly ten years since he’d seen Ellut last, so he was a little nervous.
Has his face changed a lot?
Only after storming out did he realize he was getting anxious.
He thought for a moment, then reached a conclusion.
There’s only one pawnshop in town anyway.
If he went there, the person sitting inside would naturally be Ellut.
He passed by it all the time, but had never actually gone in, so the feeling was strange.
I always wondered how a pawnshop suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
After a short, steadying breath, Laseil pushed open the door.
Since the building was a renovated house, the door was fairly heavy.
“If you’ve got something to pawn, leave it o—”
“……!”
Ellut looked almost exactly the same as before.
Aside from his hair being a bit shorter, he was unchanged.
“Ellut?”
“Who… Laseil?”
Ellut, who had been staring blankly out the window, widened his eyes.
“Laseil Zaen! I thought you’d gone off and died somewhere!”
“I didn’t die.”
“I heard you were sold to a ducal house?”
“No.”
“Rumor has it you got adopted and served as a stand-in for the duke’s daughter and were about to be married off to the monster duke in her place—”
“…Me…?”
It sounded less like he’d heard rumors and more like he’d read a novel.
Ellut burst into laughter at Laseil’s subtly twisting expression.
“Your personality hasn’t changed at all!”
“Did you have to figure it out in that way?”
“Wait a sec, I’ll bring you some tea.”
“No.”
“Don’t refuse.”
“No. No.”
Ellut’s tea was famously terrible.
One day it was unbearably bitter from over-steeping, the next it was practically warm water from not steeping enough.
On the rare occasion he managed to brew a normal cup, the snack he served with it was catastrophic.
His cooking was fine—why only tea and sweets were a disaster was a mystery.
Laseil’s three attempts to refuse were ignored.
“Drink. I can brew a proper cup now, you know.”
“…Tea…?”
It wasn’t tea—it was just milk tea.
Thanks to the milk and sugar masking the flavor, it tasted good enough, but you could barely sense the black-tea aroma.
At that point, he figured Ellut should’ve just served sweet milk.
“You used to like it as a kid. You’d barge into someone else’s home out of nowhere and drink their milk…”
“I was a kid.”
Thinking back on their first meeting still made Laseil shake his head.
Since his father said it would be hard to repay the debt, Laseil went to deliver the news to Ellut.
He’d acted on the very simple idea that if you couldn’t repay money, you told the lender.
“How old are you now, anyway? Adult?”
“I guess?”
The person who should’ve told him—his father—had died, so Laseil didn’t know his exact age.
He just used the day he first arrived at the Duchy of Resean as his birthday.
Since it was close to Yujire’s birthday, celebrating together worked fine.
“I’ve heard the gist. You’re working as a guard knight? How’d you get close to Prince Sieren?”
“I spoke on behalf of the lady….”
“On behalf? Then that rumor was basically true?”
Basically was doing a lot of work.
Rather than correcting Ellut, Laseil changed the subject.
“What about you? How’d you end up running a pawnshop?”
“Me? Nothing happened. It just looked fun.”
“…….”
Thinking about it, Ellut always started things simply because they “looked fun.”
“Anyway, tell me about you. Got a fiancé? Anyone you like? Don’t tell me no?”
“…….”
Why was he always so invested in other people’s love lives?
Suppressing a sigh, Laseil answered in one word:
“No.”
“What? You should fool around while you can! What about… who was it again? Prince Sieren?”
“He likes someone.”
Anyone could see Irenes was in love with Yujire.
Why Laseil was the only one who knew this remained a mystery.
“Prince Sieren? Are you sure you’re not misunderstanding?”
“No way.”
Laseil briefly explained what had happened so far.
Ellut’s expression slowly shifted and finally he burst into laughter again.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Do other people… know you think like this?”
He kept stopping mid-sentence to laugh.
Laseil held back his irritation and nodded.
“So everyone except you’s been enjoying this little show?”
After laughing for quite a while, Ellut finally calmed down enough to speak.
“Anyway! So let’s just assume Prince Sieren isn’t in love with the young duke-to-be.”
“He clearly is.”
“I said assume. Do you think he’s someone you could date?”
This was a question Laseil had never once considered.
He had never thought of Irenes as a romantic prospect.
Sir Sieren is a good person.
Objectively and personally, that was true.
Kind, considerate, not one to flaunt authority—but able to when necessary.
“As a knight, I respect him.”
But as a romantic partner? He honestly couldn’t imagine it.
The idea of Irenes being head-over-heels for someone seemed impossible.
He was equally kind to everyone; imagining his lover getting jealous felt more plausible.
“…I don’t really want to date him.”
Thinking it over, Irenes might be a good person, but not necessarily a good lover.
“He seems like he’d flirt with anyone.”
“He flirted with you too?”
“All the time when we meet.”
If he hadn’t known what Irenes was truly like, he would have had some serious misunderstandings.
“Hahaha—hahaha! What happened?”
Ellut, nearly breathless from laughing, leaned forward with sparkling eyes.
If he told the whole story, they’d be here all day.
The worst was how Irenes used to give him a gem every time they met—violet, the exact shade of Irenes’s eyes.
It didn’t match Laseil’s hair at all.
He later realized it matched Yujire’s navy hair perfectly.
Another bad one was when they had tea alone.
A simple word game gradually turned into lines that sounded suspiciously like confessions.
Turned out he was practicing confessing to Yujire.
“Hahahaha!”
Ellut burst into tears from laughing so hard.
“Sorry, it’s just—you’re still so clueless.”
“What?”
“I can’t wait till you figure things out! …Ah, a customer. Bye!”
Laseil was practically kicked out of the pawnshop.
Even after years apart, there was no emotional reunion, no touching moment.
Ellut’s personality was exactly the same as before.
I still have no idea what he’s thinking.
But surely he was thinking something.
Laseil came to that vague conclusion and looked around.
Everything was the same as usual.
“Hello, Sir Zaen!”
“Hi, big sis!”
Children who knew Laseil’s face greeted him as they passed.
Some adults were heading home after work as evening approached.
The sun was setting, and with it, the estate’s ghost stories began their nightly activity.
There’s another shadow there.
Under the central tree of the estate, a rope-shaped shadow swayed.
From the distant forest came the sound of quiet sobbing.
In the abandoned house Laseil had visited, figures floated above the floor.
“Three today!”
“Aw, I lost.”
“…….”
Each night, the locals gambled on how many ghosts would show up.
Usually the winnings were small snacks, but sometimes—like today—it was a whole meal.
“Ah, Sir Knight! Thank you again the other day. Can I ask you something?”
Another villager who recognized Laseil approached him.
