< Ending Maker SS #26 Ice and Wind (3) >
Ending Maker SS #26 Ice and Wind (3)
“Alex.”
“Oh, Arthur. Yuna, this is my best friend, Arthur Chase.”
As Count Chase strode toward him, Count Bayer instinctively turned to look at Yuna and said.
Then Yuna flinched and spoke in a small voice, perhaps because she was embarrassed or because she was scared by Count Chase approaching her with an extremely scary face.
“Oh, hello. This is Yuna.”
Her appearance, with her head bowed, was reminiscent of a small herbivore.
Because of that, Count Chase’s momentum subsided without him knowing it, but he still did not forget what was important.
After introducing himself in a stiff tone and showing courtesy, he roughly grabbed Count Bayer’s wrist.
“Arthur?”
“I’ll borrow Alex for a moment.”
Count Chase, who had been declaring to Yuna with a stern face, took more than ten steps while dragging Count Bayer along, and Yuna, who was suddenly left alone, cowered again with a frightened expression.
“Alex.”
“Arthur, what are you doing?”
When Count Bayer spoke with an angry face, Count Chase also felt angry, but he was not a wizard for nothing.
After suppressing his emotions with the power of reason, he continued speaking in a low, calm voice.
“Alex, she’s human—no, not human.”
Count Bayer flinched at the firm tone.
But it only lasted a moment.
“so?”
“Again, I’m not saying she’s not human. She’s neither an elf nor a dwarf.”
“I know.”
“You know? Do you really know? Do you know what it means to say that she is not human?”
Count Chase’s face became very sinister.
Count Bayer was a tall man, but Count Chase was even taller than Count Bayer.
Moreover, Count Chase was not only a large man, but he also had a body that was trained to the point of rivaling that of a knight.
When he raised his magical power and raised his voice in anger, the pressure was truly tremendous.
But Count Bayer was also a man of considerable skill.
He spoke, looking straight into Count Chase’s blue eyes.
“I know.”
Neither human nor elf.
It is a being that does not belong to the category that people usually call it.
There was no confusion in Count Bayer’s eyes. There was no confusion about himself.
Decisiveness like a sword.
At that firmness, Count Chase regained his composure. Instead of raising his temper further, he spoke in a slightly more subdued voice.
“Alex. She might be a monster.”
“It’s not a monster. You, who examined me, would know that best.”
“Maybe I didn’t do any harm on purpose to deceive you.”
“Why? If it was just to eat me like in the old tales, there would have been no need to come all the way here. There were plenty of opportunities.”
“But Alex······.”
“Arthur, you know as well that the chances of her being a monster are extremely slim.”
Count Bayer cut Count Chase off and said:
And to those words Count Chase felt himself unable to refute.
It was just as Count Bayer said.
It was an absurd conspiracy theory that a non-human, extra-human being had infiltrated the snowy mountains to deceive Count Bayer, who was wandering the empire, and that they had met by chance, and that they had continued to meet for nearly a month.
Even if such a thing were possible, to speak bluntly, it was not worth it to Count Bayer, let alone the Count Bayer family.
The Counts of Bayer were no longer the margraves of the north.
It was just one of many families located in the North.
In the northern part of a kingdom that is not even an empire.
“Is your head spinning now?”
Count Chase’s face hardened again as Count Bayer asked with a grin and a little playfulness. He suppressed his blushing face without realizing it by snorting and trying to say something.
“Anyway, it is clear that she is an outsider.”
“Yeah, maybe it’s an angel.”
Count Chase frowned again at Count Bayer’s calm answer.
But Count Bayer continued to speak with a shameless face.
“But Arthur. Look at her. Doesn’t she look like an angel?”
Even if you’re possessed, you’re possessed firmly.
Sighing inwardly, Count Chase looked back at Yuna, and once again narrowed his eyebrows at the sight of her cautiously looking around with eyes half filled with fear and half with curiosity.
“Oh, you just had a heart attack? Don’t fall in love.”
“That crazy guy.”
Count Chase, who had been caught off guard and instinctively swore, eventually had no choice but to admit it.
It was just as Count Bayer said.
She was clearly an outsider, but she was not a harmful being.
“I don’t know anymore.”
Count Chase in his younger days was still a teenager, for one reason or another.
Count Bayer smiled with satisfaction as he spoke casually, as if he was annoyed by the matter any longer.
“Yeah, I admit it. That’s good thinking.”
“Even if I see him again, he’s crazy.”
“Yes, yes. Oh, but Arthur, there’s something I want to ask you.”
Count Chase, who had been frowning and sighing when Count Bayer suddenly took on a serious expression, immediately straightened his posture.
“what?”
“So······ Hehe, isn’t our Yuna pretty? Huh?”
You finally put on a serious face, and that’s what you said?
“That crazy guy.”
Count Chase swore again, but there was a small smile on his face.
So Count Bayer was satisfied, and this time he grabbed Count Chase’s wrist as if he was trying to do the opposite.
“Let’s go, Yuna is waiting. She said she wanted to meet you so badly.”
“Why?”
“Because I talk about you a lot? You’re my best friend.”
“joy.”
Count Bayer laughed cheerfully as he snorted, meaning that he was still shamelessly saying embarrassing things with a shameless face. Count Chase’s face was reddening.
“Let’s go.”
Count Bayer waved his hand and advanced toward Yuna, who had begun to stare at him without realizing it, and Count Chase, who had given up on himself, was dragged towards Yuna by Count Bayer’s hand.
&
The festival was fun.
It was a really fun festival, just like any other country festival, where people gathered together, a crude play about the discovery of a hot spring was shown, and then all they did was sing and dance.
In the first place, the festival was more about who you enjoyed it with than what it was about.
“Arthur, my friend. Play a song.”
As Count Bayer, whose face was flushed due to the alcohol, urged him on, Yuna, who was standing next to him, asked with sparkling eyes.
“Can you play?”
Her face was also flushed red from the alcohol. And Count Chase, whose face was also red, brushed back his bangs and laughed as he answered.
“A little bit of guitar.”
“You’re not just a little bit good, you’re really good. I told you that you practiced a lot to pick up girls.”
“Huh, never like that.”
But, as was often the case when Count Chase reacted in this way, it was true.
Even Count Chase had a pure childhood.
Of course, the current Count Chase was still young, not even twenty years old.
“Here, I borrowed money from the minstrel. Play me a tune.”
“Heh, I won’t decline.”
Count Chase accepted the guitar without hesitation and briefly touched the strings as if tuning it, then soon began to play in earnest.
It was a cheerful and exciting song, completely different from Count Chase’s usual image.
Naturally, the people’s eyes were drawn to him, and with the urging of Count Bayer, Count Chase even began to sing.
It was a lively love song with an upbeat melody.
“Pheuheu.”
A thrilling love song for Arthur Chase.
Count Bayer burst into laughter alongside Yuna, then held her hand and began to dance.
It was a dance without any technique, just spinning around and around, but it was enough for a place where people were laughing and talking.
A night where Count Chase plays the guitar and sings, and Count Bayer laughs and dances like an idiot.
And when the festival was over and midnight had come.
Yuna did not return to the snowy mountain, and Count Chase, like the quick-witted wizard that he is, went out for a late-night walk instead of staying at the inn.
From dawn until morning comes.
Count Bayer was with Yuna.
&
Time continued to pass.
Five days after the festival, Count Chase began to think that he should return home, even if it meant going alone.
It was a situation where several days exceeded the already set schedule.
“Are you going back?”
“I have to go back. And you have to go back someday too.”
Count Bayer frowned at Count Chase’s calm answer, but nodded. Because it was just as Count Chase said.
Alex Bayer himself was the sole heir to the Bayer Counts’ House, and so he had to return to the kingdom to continue the family line.
“I won’t treat this as a joke anymore. If you want to stay with her, propose to her formally. Ask her if you can leave this mountain and go to Count Bayer’s house.”
Yuna was not human.
Its identity is still unknown, but it may have been a being bound to the snowy mountain.
“i get it.”
“okay.”
“Arthur.”
“Why is that?”
“If you’re leaving today… why don’t we go to Seolsan together? I have to say goodbye to Yuna.”
“···i get it.”
The place where I met Yuna was always at the entrance of Seolsan Mountain. It wouldn’t take up much time.
Count Bayer and Count Chase rode their horses slowly towards the entrance of the snowy mountain.
But when they almost got there, the two had no choice but to spur their horses on. Yuna, who had always stood quietly in the waiting spot, was now running towards them.
“Yuna?”
Count Bayer, who hurriedly jumped down from his horse, held Yuna in his arms and looked at her. Her face looked so anxious.
“Yuna, are you okay? Yuna?”
When Count Bayer asked again, Yuna nodded with a face that looked like she was about to cry, then bit her lip. She looked at Count Chase, who was looking at her with his eyebrows narrowed, and at the huge snow-capped mountain behind him, then took a deep breath.
After taking several deep breaths, I finally faced Count Bayer and spoke.
“Alex.”
“Yes, Yuna.”
“Please kidnap me. Oh, no. Please leave with me.”
It was a series of embarrassing words, but Count Bayer nodded instead of asking again.
“All right.”
“yes?”
The answer was so quick and decisive that Yuna, who had started speaking, ended up being flustered.
But Count Bayer was still the same. He hugged Yuna tightly once more and quickly mounted his horse.
“Yuna, can we leave right away?”
“Huh? Oh, yes!”
When Yuna answered with a face that was a mixture of confusion, fear, and an indescribable joy, Count Bayer immediately turned back to Count Chase.
“Arthur, please.”
“good.”
Count Chase gave a short answer without asking for the details of the situation and then turned around.
Instead of looking at Count Bayer, who was holding Yuna in his arms, hurriedly riding his horse, he glared at the snowy mountain and spoke very quietly.
“It’s always my job to clean up.”
The same white snow-covered mountains as always.
But something was definitely different.
Count Chase focused his magic power and stared straight ahead.
&
