Chapter 22
Epilogue
“…”
Fireworks bloomed across the night sky.
Loud music and the joyous laughter of festival-goers filled the air.
Amid it all stood one woman, the only person awkwardly looking around her surroundings.
Wearing the frilled skirt she had only ever worn once before and the crystal shoes on her feet, Daisy stood near the fountain in the town square, holding a basket with a single rose inside.
Already, four different men had approached her, but she had politely turned each of them down.
“I already have plans with someone.”
That was the excuse she had given those men, and it wasn’t entirely a lie.
“Daisy!”
And then the man who would prove that her words were true came running toward her.
Today, he wore neither armor nor formal attire. He was dressed only in an ordinary checkered shirt, yet somehow, he looked more handsome than ever before.
Daisy hurriedly hid the basket holding the flower behind her back.
She still felt a little embarrassed.
She had plenty of experience secretly watching someone, but this was her first time falling in love. No matter how gifted she was with magic, romance was another matter entirely. There was no one to teach her, and no one she could ask.
She could always ask Olson from the royal kitchen, but somehow she found it difficult to bring up such matters. Of course, Olson never failed to offer helpful advice.
For example: “Kiss him in front of everyone so they’ll know without a doubt that he’s yours.”
Even now, the noble ladies and young aristocratic women still whispered that Aaron was only acting on a passing whim.
Daisy understood why.
To them, Aaron Schmidt was a treasure too precious to let slip away.
And that very treasure had ended up in the hands of a gloomy mage like herself.
She understood why they would be angry. Especially since she hadn’t been the one clinging to him. He had been the one who arrived riding a dragon and courted her so spectacularly in front of everyone.
“Is that flower behind your back for me?”
Perceptive as always, Aaron immediately noticed what Daisy was hiding.
“Ah, um… It’s only a simple flower…”
“I don’t mind, even if it’s just a wildflower.”
After hesitating for a moment, Daisy held out the flower as Aaron smiled brightly at her.
The way he smiled as he accepted it was exactly like the boy she had met all those years ago. He hadn’t changed one bit.
“Um… haven’t we done something like this before?”
Holding the flower in his hand, Aaron tilted his head.
“Haven’t we done something like this before?”
But Daisy gave no answer. This was something he had to remember on his own.
She could have told him, but memories were always more precious when one recovered them for oneself.
“Well, we can worry about that later. Now then, Miss Daisy Freyan.”
Smiling warmly, Aaron held out his hand to her.
“May I have this dance?”
Daisy gently placed her hand in the one extended by the man with the flower tucked against his chest.
Aaron took her hand and led her into the crowd dancing around the square’s rainbow-colored fountain.
As lively music filled the air and happy laughter echoed all around them, Aaron and Daisy would appear and disappear among the dancers, smiling happily as they gazed into each other’s eyes.
◇ ◆ ◇
Leaving the cheerful festival behind, Aaron took Daisy’s hand and led her to an old stable where he used to hide whenever his Holy Knight training became too difficult after he had first begun.
Though it was a stable, it was always kept neat and tidy, and the stacks of well-dried hay filled it with the pleasant scent of fresh grass.
The scent of grass.
Aaron thought Daisy smelled like fresh grass.
It wasn’t perfume. It was more like the scent of wildflowers, or perhaps the fragrance of hay that had been thoroughly dried beneath the warm sun.
He had wondered why he found the scent so comforting, until he realized it was because it reminded him of this very place. This was the refuge where he used to hide whenever training became too much to bear.
It was a scent that brought peace, reassurance, and rest. That same scent clung to Daisy.
Now that he thought back on it, he remembered catching that fragrance even on the night they had spent together, before he knew who she truly was.
She wasn’t dazzling or extravagant. She was simply someone whose presence made him feel at home.
「I think you should learn to love only one person.」
Daisy had once said those words.
If he ever found her, she had told him, then from that moment onward he should practice loving only one person.
When he’d first heard those words, he had had no intention of doing any such thing.
And even now, he had no desire to “learn.”
Back then, it was because he saw no reason to. Now, it was because there was no need.
After all, loving only one person required no study. When your heart wanted only one person, what was there to learn?
His heart wanted only this one woman.
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