Chapter 81
“So then, we won’t be able to see each other for a while, huh?”
Unaware of his anxious, uneasy heart, Violet could only feel a pang of hurt at Aldrick’s firm declaration that he would go to war.
The small, cute boy who had once only reached her shoulder was gone. The boy had grown into a young man, and now that man was saying so easily that he would leave her side.
Why it made her feel so disappointed, Violet couldn’t quite tell, but the thought that Aldrick, who had been by her side since childhood, was now heading off into a wider world she didn’t know filled her with a strange melancholy.
While she would remain here, in this place, as if stuck in time, Aldrick had already become a fine knight.
The distance between them would only grow greater, and when that time came, maybe she wouldn’t even be able to call his name as casually as she did now.
Maybe I should get married, too.
Feeling down, Violet thought it impulsively.
Even if she wanted to up and leave like Aldrick, she couldn’t. In her situation, the only real way to improve her life was through marriage.
The situation in the Zerotta household wasn’t good, and along with the family’s affairs, her own circumstances were worsening by the day. When she thought about her father, who drank and gambled almost daily, Violet’s expression darkened even more.
Aldrick completely misunderstood that expression as being his fault.
Seeing her gaze off into the distance with such a sorrowful face, Aldrick’s ears turned red again.
Just as Violet had said, the two of them wouldn’t be able to see each other while he was off at war. But after that—they’d spend the rest of their lives together, face to face.
Aldrick imagined such a future.
When that time came, would it be okay to kiss those pretty lips of hers?
He was well aware that he was shameless for thinking such things about someone who was just worried for him. But he couldn’t stop himself.
Somewhere along the line, whenever he looked at her, those thoughts would come creeping in.
After having a wet dream around the age of fifteen that featured Violet, Aldrick hadn’t been able to meet her eyes for quite some time.
Clenching and unclenching his fist—slick with sweat for no reason—Aldrick finally responded to the question Violet had asked earlier.
“I might not be able to see you for a while. But I’ll definitely come back. Maybe even as often as I used to.”
No, maybe even every day.
Aldrick indulged in that happy thought all by himself.
***
Aldrick Winter loves Violet Zerotta.
This fact had never changed, not since he was a seven-year-old boy, and not even now, as a seventeen-year-old junior knight.
Of course, the form of that love might have changed a bit. When he was too young to tell right from left, he’d adored her like an older sister, and at the time, hadn’t even realized that was love.
Aldrick and Violet first met at the stream where the village women did their laundry.
After the women had left, they often left behind dropped items—mostly useless junk, but once in a while, Aldrick would be lucky enough to find a coin or two. So, he often wandered around the stream.
That day, too, he’d come to the stream late, after everyone had gone. And there, he saw young Violet.
Damn it, what rotten luck.
At first, he cursed inwardly at the presence of someone else.
Villagers were always quick to scold someone like him, a stray loitering nearby.
But then Aldrick suddenly stopped in his tracks.
The figure that stood upon noticing him was smaller than he’d expected.
“Hey, who are you? What are you doing at the wash stream this late? Did my father send you?”
She was just a little taller than him, with a pale face and messy brown hair turned crimson in the sunset glow like it was on fire.
Seeing Violet approach and speak without a hint of suspicion, seven-year-old Aldrick was caught completely off guard.
People rarely talked to him that casually, since he lived on the charity of the temple orphanage.
One look at his dirty face and ragged clothes was enough to tell anyone he was from the orphanage. Most villagers, adults and children alike, treated him coldly because of it.
“Uh, well…”
No matter how roughly he’d grown up, he was still just a child. He didn’t know how to respond to someone who didn’t treat him with hostility.
Even the friars at the temple who were supposed to care for the orphans usually shouted at or kicked him.
Unable to find the words, Aldrick just stared at the girl’s pale face.
In the dimming light, she was all that he could see.
Maybe even then, his fate had already started to tilt toward her.
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