Chapter 21
“Hmm, I can’t tell like this. If I turn—”
“Don’t you dare!”
“Ah, you scared me. What? What’s wrong?”
What do you mean, what’s wrong?
Instead of answering, Nina stumbled and collapsed onto Lavian’s lap, replacing a hundred words with that one gesture.
Then, with her blue eyes still glistening with unshed tears, she glared at Lavian’s flustered face.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
“What do you mean, what? I was just checking if the baby got scratched or anything.”
“Then why are you turning me around?!”
“Because that’s the only way to properly check.”
“……”
A moment of silence passed.
From a distance, the sound of children playing with a ball could be heard, and a single leaf floated in on a breeze, landing gently between Lavian’s elegant brows.
Nina, who had been glaring blankly at Lavian, reached out one hand toward the leaf.
“Whoa, hey—are you trying to hit me now?”
“No! I was trying to take this off your head!”
Nina’s tiny palm fluttered in front of Lavian’s startled face.
Her small hand, no bigger than the leaf itself, bore no bandages, no blood.
‘What was that, then?’
What on earth had that memory been?
Unconsciously, Lavian caught hold of Nina’s fluttering hand.
The small hand in his own felt like a butterfly.
Small and fragile like a butterfly, with a fluttering pulse that felt no stronger than weak wings…
“Mister?”
“…An old comrade of mine suddenly came by.”
Nina, startled when her hand was suddenly caught, became even more flustered by his words.
Lavian, for his part, had misunderstood Nina’s dazed expression as a reaction to what he had said.
“From the war.”
“……”
“Anyway, it’s been so long that we had a lot to catch up on.”
“……”
He was probably explaining why he had been late earlier.
Nina was just beginning to come to that conclusion when—
“Sorry.”
“…Huh?”
“I’m sorry. For leaving you alone.”
His tone was gruff, but it was still an apology.
Nina’s mouth opened halfway in surprise.
“Anyway, it won’t happen again from now on…”
“Mister.”
Lavian, who was awkwardly trying to finish his sentence, stopped.
“It’s okay. You came back.”
“……”
Unlike in the dream—this time, he came back. So it’s all okay.
Repeating those words silently in her heart, Nina smiled brightly.
Innocently, like a child.
‘Come to think of it, I didn’t get to buy that book.’
“By the way, who was that kid?”
“……”
“Mister?”
Lavian, who had been staring at Nina with a strange look, belatedly flinched and asked back,
“Who?”
“That Katya Dozer girl.”
Nina recalled Katya’s final expression as she both gave and took away.
She was definitely a strange child.
And she gave off the sense of having some sort of complicated grudge against Lavian, though Nina didn’t know why.
“Oh, her. She’s the daughter of a famous pickpocket.”
“Why would the daughter of a famous pickpocket hate you…?”
“Beats me. There’s no shortage of women who hate me.”
“……”
Nina’s gaze grew frosty.
Lavian, feeling unusually awkward, looked around needlessly as he changed the subject.
“Want some cotton candy?”
