Chapter 11

Before I could even process what kind of situation this was, my first instinct was to glance out the window.

What if someone saw Kade and me riding in the same carriage?

Fortunately, there were plenty of luxurious carriages around us, so ours didn’t seem particularly noticeable.

Meanwhile, Kade was staring at me as though studying me.

The intensity of his gaze made the silence difficult to endure.

“You didn’t drag me in here just to give me a ride home. What do you want?”

“So you claim you’re not close to any royals, yet you attended a birthday banquet.”

“That’s—!”

Even I thought the situation sounded suspicious.

My mouth opened and closed awkwardly.

Then a wave of indignation suddenly hit me.

“And what about you? Are you close enough to the Third Princess to receive invitations? Besides, who attends the Princess’s birthday banquet looking like that—”

I gestured toward my government uniform beneath my coat.

Then I remembered the state Kade had been in at the banquet and trailed off.

As my gaze automatically swept over his now spotless appearance, he shamelessly shrugged.

“Forget it. Talking to you is pointless.”

“I’m the one who put you in this carriage so we could talk. Go on.”

“About what?”

“Anything.”

At that one word, anything, my lips parted.

There were so many things I wanted to ask.

Why did you hide the fact that you were a mage?

How could you leave so coldly?

Were your feelings for me ever real?

But I had my pride.

Those were questions I absolutely refused to ask the man who had dumped me and disappeared.

The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became.

So instead I asked sulkily:

“How much did you sell the ring for?”

“…”

Kade’s eyes slid away.

Then he shifted in his seat.

“Let’s not talk about ancient history.”

“Hmph.”

So it did bother him.

Even now, looking back, it had been an infuriatingly petty breakup.

I glared at him before pulling back the curtain covering the window.

Since we were near the docks, the night sea stretched endlessly beneath the dark sky.

Melgot was a coastal region, and the Magic Tower stood closer to the sea than anywhere else.

Far in the distance, enormous waves occasionally rose into the air.

It looked like crystal whales surfacing before diving back beneath the water.

“…”

Watching the sea only made my chest feel tighter.

I clenched my fist.

Without anyone touching it, the curtain suddenly swept closed and covered the window again.

Kade had used magic.

“The road runs right along the shore. The wind is cold.”

“The northern winds of Melgot really are harsh.”

The response escaped me automatically.

Then the realization hit.

Did he remember that I don’t like the ocean?

And yet he had just dismissed the ring he’d given me as ancient history.

Ever since we met again, Kade had done nothing but confuse me.

He acted cold, yet came all the way to my inn to return my badge.

He doubted whether I was truly a government official, yet caught me when I almost fell at the banquet.

Why does he keep acting like this? Does he feel guilty?

I sat there turning those thoughts over in my head while the awkward silence stretched on.

Then—

THUD!

The carriage suddenly lurched and came to an abrupt stop.

“Ah—!”

My body lifted from the seat and pitched forward.

Straight into Kade’s arms.

A sensation that was familiar and unfamiliar all at once.

The clean scent of fabric was familiar.

The winter scent clinging to him was familiar too.

But the faint smell of blood and the scent of the sea were not.

And the magical power radiating from him—something I had never been able to perceive before gaining my communication ability—felt almost alien.

All those sensations wrapped around me at once.

“…”

“…”

Silence filled the carriage.

I knew I should immediately pull away.

Or say something.

Anything.

But my mind had gone completely blank.

Then an awkward voice came from the driver’s seat.

“Ah, my apologies! A magical beast jumped out in front of us!”

“…!”

That snapped me back to reality.

Through the robe pressed against me, I could clearly feel the firmness of Kade’s body.

Startled, I shoved at his chest and scrambled away.

“Wait. If you get up like that, you’ll hit your head.”

“I-I’m fine!”

Kade wrapped a hand around the back of my head before it collided with the ceiling.

Then he carefully settled me back into the opposite seat.

I obediently sat where he guided me.

Even so, my cheeks still felt hot, and my heart wouldn’t stop pounding.

I fanned my face with my hand.

Then I realized something.

The pounding wasn’t only coming from my own heart.

“…!”

I quickly leaned toward the window.

Outside, magical beasts were fleeing in panic.

“Kade. The magical beasts are terrified.”

I pointed toward the direction they were running from.

The sea, a short distance beyond the docks.

A dark figure was gliding across the water like a ghost.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to see what it was.

Suddenly Kade grabbed me and pulled me away from the window.

“I haven’t even gotten a good look—”

I was about to protest.

Then I saw his expression.

For once, he looked genuinely serious.

I immediately fell silent.

Quietly, he shut the window.

Then he addressed the coachman.

“Take the shortcut and head behind the inn. Wait there for a few minutes, then circle around far away from the Magic Tower. If anyone asks, tell them no one was in this carriage except a government official.”

“Yes, sir. Understood.”

The coachman obeyed without question.

I, however, understood absolutely nothing.

“Why are we leaving? Shouldn’t we at least confirm whether that’s a monster?”

Kade suddenly grabbed my hand.

“That’s worse than a monster.”

The next moment, my vision distorted.

The ground vanished beneath my feet.

That dizzy, unstable sensation—

One I’d experienced very recently.

Wait… this is—

Before I could identify it, Kade whisked me out of the carriage in an instant.

***

The feeling was like missing a step while descending a staircase.

Even the second time, it was horrifying.

“Stop fighting it and just sit down.”

Following the hand guiding me downward, I lowered myself shakily and finally opened the eyes I’d squeezed shut.

My vision spun.

Everything was blurry and out of focus.

I kept straining my eyes, trying to force them to adjust.

Then darkness covered my sight.

A warm hand settled over my eyes.

It was Kade’s.

“Keep them closed. Don’t force yourself to look.”

“If you’re going to teleport, you could at least warn people first.”

“I’ve never warned anyone before doing it.”

His answer annoyed me, but I decided to trust the expert.

“How are you completely fine? Doesn’t it make you dizzy?”

“Have you ever seen a coachman get motion sickness from riding a carriage?”

“…Fair point.”

We exchanged the meaningless conversation.

Then suddenly, a powerful sense of déjà vu washed over me.

A quiet hill beneath the night sky.

Kade standing behind me, covering my eyes with his large hand while saying he had something to show me.

The sound of wind like a flute.

Then flower petals filling my vision as he removed his hand.

Flowers that rarely bloomed in cold regions.

Their petals danced on the breeze, sparkling like fairy wings.

In that beautiful scene, there had only been Kade and me.

“Wow! Kade, it’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“You like it?”

“How did you do it? Did you use magic?”

“Magic? Hardly.”

The memory of his smiling face bloomed in my mind like a flower.

…Now I understood.

“Vivian? Why are you smiling?”

I pulled his hand away from my eyes and opened them.

His blue eyes came into focus.

I stared at them.

“Those sparkling flower petals. That was magic, wasn’t it?”

“…”

Kade looked directly at me.

Then he stood and rubbed the back of his neck.

I never understood what went on inside his head.

But that reaction?

That much I understood.

“So it was.”

“You keep bringing up the past.”

“Because we’re people from the past.”

He walked several steps toward the window before stopping.

It felt like he was looking back at me.

But with moonlight and the lamps outside behind him, his face was hidden in shadow.

Kade must have used magic countless times while we were together.

And yet I had never noticed once.

Even during the moments when I felt closest to him, there had always been a hidden shadow of secrets between us.

It wasn’t that Kade was completely different from the man I knew.

I simply never knew him at all.

Even without seeing his face, it felt as though our gazes were locked together.

Unable to bear it, I looked away.

Only then did I properly notice my surroundings.

Come to think of it…

The place Kade had teleported us to was my room at the inn.

If this was where we were going anyway, we could have simply taken the carriage.

Or better yet, he could have just come directly here instead of summoning me into one.

Did he do this because I complained about him trespassing before?

No.

Since when had he cared that much about what I said?

Once again, I had no idea what he was thinking.

So I finally asked the question that had been bothering me.

“What exactly did you see near the docks that made you run away?”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“And don’t tell me the Magic Tower Lord was actually scared.”