Ch 85
“Nothing much. I just made up a cute little lie to be alone with you.”
“…..”
I stared at Yvnes suspiciously but he just looked back with a gentle look in his eyes. I wanted to chase after Hestia because I wanted to know what lie he told Hestia to make her run away like that, but Yves just said, “Hestia’s going to come back fuming in a moment, so stay here.” and held me back.
Yves handed me his giant bundle to divert my attention.
“This, it’s your junior graduation gift.”
“…..?”
I had to take a few steps back from the sheer size of the bundles I received. It was just that big.
“….what.”
I opened the bundle that was my supposed junior graduation gift, and peeked into the contents. There were a few smaller bundles within it. I couldn’t open up all of them right there, but they were all labelled so I could see what they were.
There was one bundle full of accessories, and another for different types of shoes. There were other things in there but I couldn’t read the labels to check. Even though it was absolutely filled to the brim with things, it wasn’t heavy at all because of the featherweight magic on it.
When I looked baffled by the amount of items in the bundle, Yves scratched his cheek.
“I got a bit too excited buying your things.”
“……”
“Whatever. You’re going to accept it, right?”
“……..”
When I continued to stare blankly at Yves’ gift, he put his arms around my shoulder in a familiar gesture.
“Hmm, and I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you that this was from Harun’s labor this time.”
Yves began to persuade me as best as he could when it seemed that I wouldn’t accept it.
He grabbed some of my hair and began to curl it with his finger.
“I chose each and every one of these items thinking of you. It’s my hard work and care.”
If you don’t accept it, I’m going to trash it, Yves added, successfully making sure that I wouldn’t reject it.
Until now, I didn’t want to be in debt to him and refused any expensive items that he tried to gift me. Specifically for Yves, I felt the need to give back anything that I received from him with something of equal worth. He could always use my gifts against me.
And he could give me a lot of expensive items and then ask for something strange. He wanted a kiss on his cheek last time, right? Like I’d do that, supid.
When he still didn’t receive the answer that he wanted, Yves promised to not ask for something weird. He added that he just wanted me to use the things I received from him well.
Moreover, he added that because this was a graduation gift, he didn’t need something in return.
“You’re going to beat my ass if I betray you, right? I wouldn’t lie to you. So relax and take the gift.”
Yves said as he used transportation magic to move my gift to the dorms.
A few moments later, Hestia tried to come back to us fuming just like Yves had predicted, but she was swept away by a crowd and disappeared again.
“Just as I thought, it was your doing, Yves hyung.”
“I was wondering why I was being called all of a sudden. You keep surprising us.”
Not long after, Hylli and Cory, who had been called away by others, returned where we were.
Cory and Hylli saw that I was alone with Yves and scanned me over. At Cory’s question of, “Yves hyung didn’t do anything weird to you, right?”, I nodded back in reply.
Yves just glanced at Cory and Hylli.
He quietly muttered, Should’ve come slower, as he clicked his tongue.
Anyway, once Cory and Hylli returned, we sat back down on the sofa and tried to think of things to do as we waited for time to pass. We were sick of watching people dance and we were too full to eat any more. And we were too awake to nap.
When Yves saw that I looked bored, he took out a set of cards from his pocket. When I asked him where he got it, Yves replied that it was Swan’s. Cory, who had a fountain of blankets, took out a random blanket and put it on the ground and Yves set up a card game on top of it. It reminded me older relatives sitting down and playing hwatu* during holidays. I couldn’t help but laugh.
And like that, we ended up playing cards in the corner of the hall as others danced and whispered words of love to each other. People stared at us from time to time, but I was too focused on the game to care.
For some reason, Yves, who had set the game up for us, didn’t play. He just sat on the sofa with his chin on his hand as he watched me play.
Bang!
While we were deeply immersed in our game, the door slammed open. Swan walked in, dripping wet. He put his hand in his hair and shook the water out of his hair, then wrapped his face with the blanket around his body.
Swan joined us as we played our game. He grabbed Cory’s arm and put it on his head.
[Dry]
Cory focused on the game as he spelled Swan dry. Swanhaden, who had become dry in an instant, joined our game and shuffled our cards with a flashy move. For someone who had his entire face wrapped in a blanket and was basically blind, he was frighteningly good at playing.
[We will soon be announcing the queen of this year’s school end party.]
The sound of the party announcer’s voice rang through the hall.
Oh, it seemed that they were finally announcing the queen. Hestia had been dragged away earlier, so she was going to be the queen for sure.
I stopped playing and looked towards the dance hall.
[Hestia Flowith received a large amount of votes. She is our queen for this year. Congratulations.]
I could see Hestia receiving her crown under the sparkling spotlight. Everyone looked on as Hestia tilted her head forward to receive her crown. Hestia was showing off her presence under the crowd’s silence.
If one was chosen as the Augran queen, the queen and their partner danced alone on the hall.
Hestia came down from the stage with Harun’s escort.
When Hestia and Harun stood in the center of the hall, the orchestra soon began to play their music again. A beautiful melody began to play within the hall. The piece that was currently being performed by the orchestra was only performed as a grand finale for the queen.
There was a bit of magic mixed in this piece. The crown resonated and sparkled with each note of the piece, and the result made the wearer look even more beautiful. The piece was extremely expensive to begin with, and it took a lot of magic to play the music so it was only performed once to celebrate the queen.
Everyone looked wordlessly as Hestia waltzed to the beat. I was also included in the crowd. Adoration, jealousy, yearning and want all poured onto Hestia.
“Shushu, it’s your turn.”
I was too busy staring at how beautiful Hestia looked to know that it was my turn. I nodded and tried to focus on the game again but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. I was proud of Hestia for shining so brightly but I was also kind of jealous. She really was the main character.
Swanhaden lowered the blanket on his face slightly and stared at Hestia, then at me.
Swan started to make something with the cards in his hand.
He folded a lot of cards together and began to shape them, then asked Cory ever so often to connect the cards to make something.
Swan had made a crown of cards. He stared at the crown in his hands and, without a word, put it on my head. I could see his jewel-colored eyes through the slits of the blanket. He tried his best to not meet my gaze as he carefully put the crown on my head.
“It suits you.”
And like that, Swan rewrapped the blanket tight over his face.
When I looked at the crown on my head with an odd look, Cory suddenly put something in my hand.
This time, it was a small cane. It was too small for me to actually use as a cane, but I held onto it anyway.
Hylli watched as Swan and Cory did anything but play games with the card as he began to make something too. When Cory asked Hylli what he was making, Hylli said he was making a necklace. Cory helped Hylli stick the cards together. Hylli tried to put the necklace around my neck but the necklace was so small that it got stuck near the top of my head. I ended up proving that I had a big head instead.
Yvnes watched all of us before he smiled, muttering, Cute. He ended up grabbing a few cards of his own to join us. Yves made a heart out of cards and stuck it onto the necklace that Hylli made.
When I asked what we were doing, Cory shrugged his shoulders. Hylli really looked like he had no idea what was going on, and Yves smiled as he looked at me. I couldn’t see Swanhaden’s face at all.
“Thanks?”
I felt like I need to say thank you, so I said it. I couldn’t help but sneeze at the disgustingly positive mood of it all.
Once Hestia was done with her dance, the party was over.
As we walked back to the dorm after cleaning up, Hestia placed her crown on my head. I still had cards stuck in my hair.
“Why aren’t you wearing it?”
“My head feels too heavy with the crown, so I’m putting it down for now.”
“Really? Let’s put it in the bag then.”
Hestia stopped me just as I tried to take the crown off of my head. I was confused at Hestia’s request for me to keep wearing it, but I decided to stay put after hearing her continued protests.
In the end, Hestia didn’t collect the crown off of my head. She ignored my requests for her to take it back.
I ended up keeping the crown. Honestly, it was pretty but completely useless. I wondered how I was supposed to take care of it.
The crown is currently on my desk. I’m using it to organize my little knick-knacks.
T/N: SWAN THAT WAS SO THOUGHTFUL OF YOU OH MY GOODNESS
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