“How the hell are you doing your job!”
A man yelled at another, raising a piece of paper.
It was the roughly copy of the schedule Cynthia had created.
“What is this half-assed itinerary! I was expecting something since we went through such a major hassle just to get this! Besides, it’s all wrong!”
These men were members of the People’s Liberation Front, who hated the royal family. They hadn’t given up on the ‘Kidnap Cynthia Plan’ and had followed her all the way to Medea, looking for an opportunity to kidnap her.
‘She’s an important person to the Brigadier General Masera, so he’ll do anything to save her. We’ll use him as much as we can and then hand the princess over to that enemy country.’
In fact, they were receiving aid from that enemy country. The People’s Liberation Front was more like a spy organization that gathered people under the guise of ‘opposing the revival of the monarchy.’
However, finding the two people mixed in with the umbrella-wielding crowd was not easy.
So, they went to the scheduled locations listed on the schedule in advance and waited, but they only ended up empty-handed.
With a face full of frustration, he held up another schedule.
“And this! It’s just a useless list of restaurants with detailed information!”
“But thanks to that, dinner didn’t suck today. The vegetables were cooked perfectly. Usually Medeian food is so tasteless…”
The aggrieved grunt whined.
Another member stepped forward.
“It seems certain that she’s staying in the royal palace, so how about infiltrating as tourists?”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve trying that with the Medea royal family. If we get caught, we won’t even have bones left to pick up!”
The senior member shouted, but someone said worriedly.
“But I heard that woman is blessed by the goddess of fortune. In fact, all those who tried to assassinate her are dead.”
“Hah, don’t talk nonsense. There’s no such thing.”
The senior member was slightly intimidated when another member pointed to the Ferris wheel that had stopped.
“Ah, the Ferris wheel seems to be broken. The people riding it now are out of luck.”
“Wouldn’t it be lucky if you’re with your partner?”
“Ugh, I suddenly feel unlucky. It seems like a wasted day, so let’s go back.”
The People’s Liberation Front members sighed as they passed under the Ferris wheel.
They had no idea that the couple trapped in the Ferris wheel were the very people they were looking for.
If the Ferris wheel had been operating normally, they might have run into them.
* * *
Inside the stopped Ferris wheel, I cowered in fear each time the Ferris wheel shook with the occasional gust of wind.
Masera, who had been silently gazing around, gently pushed me away as I clung to him like a cowardly octopus.
“It will restart soon.”
“Are you sure? But please stay still. You’re big, so it shakes more when you move.”
Thump!
Just then, the Ferris wheel shook violently, moved for about five seconds, and then stopped again.
“Eek!”
Before I knew it, I was sitting on Masera’s lap, with my arms wrapped around his neck.
Masera looked down at me with cold eyes.
“Is clinging to people a habit of yours?”
“You’re the only one I can cling to right now.”
“Would you cling to someone else?”
“Maybe if it were Eugene…”
“Do you have some kind of affection-deficit disorder or something?”
“Do you perhaps have some kind of affection deficit?”
At Masera’s prickly tone, I widened my eyes.
“Are you well versed in psychology? I’ve kind of wondered if I might be a little affection-starved. When I read about it in articles, it always super resonates…”
“That’s not what I mean.”
He seemed hesitant to say it outright, wearing a frustrated expression.
In the end, I asked directly first.
“Are you perhaps bothered that I’m friendly with other people?”
“It wouldn’t look good in other people’s eyes if you, a married woman, acted this way with other men.”
“I don’t usually ride Ferris wheels alone with strange men, you know? It’s only because Brigadier General Masera is my husband that I have a reason to cling to you.”
I grumbled, removing my hands from around Masera’s neck.
Just then, the Ferris wheel shook slightly, and my body swayed. He quickly wrapped his arm around my waist to steady me, frowning.
“I’m talking about being escorted by other men, like at the wedding reception.”
“Huh? But didn’t you, Brigadier General Masera, also escort another women? Isn’t that a pot calling a kettle?”*
“I don’t know what ‘pot calling a kettle’ means. I only met the Grand Ducal Princess at the entrance and had a conversation. I…”
Thump, thump.
“…I was actually waiting for you there.”
His last words were drowned out by the thumping sound.
Just like before, the Ferris wheel shook loudly, and then suddenly the door of the Ferris wheel opened.
A Ferris wheel employee was staring at us with wide eyes.
While we were focused on our conversation, the Ferris wheel had restarted and had already returned to the starting point.
“We apologize for the inconvenience- uh, um… please ride again!”
The employee, flustered by our embarrassing scene, slammed the door shut.
Masera narrowed his eyes and took his hand off me.
“Please move when I’m asking nicely.”
“Hmph. As if you ever speak nicely.”
While the Ferris wheel went up again, a long silence flowed between us. About five seconds.
“Ah, that’s the 100-year-old cafe I found. We can have dessert there.”
I pointed to the cafe visible through the Ferris wheel window with an excited face, and he nodded.
“Let’s do that.”
Why are you answering while looking the other way?
What’s there that you keep looking at?
He seemed so persistent, as if he was trying to find something, so I became curious and moved to Masera’s side to look out the window.
But I didn’t see anything particularly special.
Only that some men below seemed to be having a serious conversation while looking at some papers.
Masera distanced himself as if he was conscious of me sitting next to him, but I only said what I wanted to say.
“Do you like looking at the night life? Night scenery is usually enjoyed from the highest point. But I like seeing it from a mid-level height.”
“How unusual. As is how the topic of conversation changes so quickly.”
“From the top, everything looks like countless stars, but from a mid-level height, you can see each one in detail.”
I traced the words ‘Life goes up and down like a Ferris wheel’ written on a sign visible through the window with my finger, adding.
“Life is like that too. Everyone only looks at the top and tries hard to climb up, but I think the time spent staying in the middle and looking around is the most important. So that going down again isn’t a fall, but a process of heading towards another path.”
You must have lived fighting too. I hope you don’t worry about falling again.
I made a rather sentimental monologue.
“I knew it, I can even see the letters written on the paper in detail.”
How good is this man’s eyesight? He’s a sniper after all.
Suddenly, his eyes, which had been fixed on the ground, turned to me.
I’ve come to realize this while being together on our honeymoon, but his blue and purple eyes contained the ever-changing sky as it was.
Clear sky, cloudy sky, sunset. Right now, it looked like the blue hour of dawn.
He looked at me with a calmer gaze than when he was looking out the window, adding.
“It’s the same with seeing things you don’t usually see when you look up close.”
The longer his gaze lingered on me, the more my cheeks felt strangely ticklish.
If you have good eyesight, do you see something different from others? Like my tiny eye boogers?
I rubbed my eyes and tidied my hair for no reason.
Before I knew it, the Ferris wheel had reached the top and slowly began to descend.
“By the way, where did the schedule go? You haven’t even looked at it once since leaving the royal palace.”
“Hey, I know I brought it…”
Huh? Where did it go?
I rummaged through my small bag, blinking my eyes.
Come to think of it, it’s gone. Did it fly away in the wind?
“I swear I brought it, but unfortunately, it’s gone.”
I was still confident. I remember all the good restaurants anyway.
“It didn’t seem like we needed it anyways.”
Masera, who was brushing back his platinum blonde hair, was quite annoyed, but I couldn’t argue because nothing had gone according to plan.
I looked at the Ferris wheel we were riding as it touched the ground.
“Still, it was fun that nothing went as expected, right?”
“It’s better. The thing soldiers expect the most is death.”
He asked, lost in thought.
“Are you afraid of enemies who kill soldiers?”
“What if that enemy was after me…?”
I don’t know what his intention is in asking, but I answered honestly.
“High-ranking officers like me have many enemies. Of course, an officer’s wife will have just as many enemies. It’s easy to become a target, so you’re actually in a fairly dangerous situation.”
What’s his point?
I stared intently at Masera, who was speaking with a serious face.
He slowly added.
“I’m worried about you becoming an officer’s wife. I, as a soldier, can’t even consider your trauma.”
Is he saying that because I panicked at the sound of gunshots and fireworks? Meaning, don’t hold him back with my nuisance in the future…
“Brigadier General Masera, are you perhaps worried about me?”
Without realizing it, I brought my face close to his and asked, sparkling my eyes.
That means I’ve become a little important, right!
‘A person who holds you back = someone you care about = liking = marriage.’
‘Analysis result: that man is a tsundere.’
To say it so indirectly. How cute.
I’ll actively seduce you from now on.
💟 Translator Notes 💟
“Huh? But didn’t you, Brigadier General Masera, also escort another women? Isn’t that a pot calling a kettle?” = the term used was actually 내로남불 which is basically a sarcastic way to point out a double standard. The literal translation is: ‘When I do it, it’s romance. When others do it, it’s an affair’. Felt that ‘double standard’ was a bit too obvious here, so swapped for another idiom.
