***

Belinda couldn’t take her eyes off Leo, who was making a wish with his eyes tightly shut, his brow furrowed.

She was worried about losing the child in the crowd of people around them.

Fortunately, Leo soon returned to Cheshire and Belinda, but with a face full of gloom.

“Ratchet, why do you have such a loser’s face?”

“My fragment boat… it sank.”

That can’t be. Didn’t we just set it afloat?

Belinda quickly looked back at the river and inwardly sighed.

Due to the sheer number of people launching fragment boats, the area near the upstream dock was in utter chaos.

Now that she looked closely, countless boats were colliding with each other, losing balance, and sinking before they could go far.

It seemed Leo’s boat had met the same fate, sinking not long after launch.

There was a superstition that for a wish to come true, the fragment boat had to safely reach downstream from its upstream starting point.

In the end, Leo’s wish had sunk right after departure.

Seeing the gloom on the child’s face, Belinda was seriously considering buying up all the fragment boats in the area to fill the river with Leo’s boats.

“Seedo, come here. Let’s launch another boat.”

Cheshire called Leo, having brought an old fragment boat from somewhere.

Soon, master and disciple sat down casually on the grass and began inscribing magic circles in every corner of the boat.

“What kind of magic circle do we need to keep the boat from sinking?”

“We need a reinforcement magic circle… and I think we also need one that helps maintain balance.”

Despite the sudden magic lesson, Leo thought deeply without showing any signs of boredom.

After drawing a couple of magic circles on the bottom of the boat with Cheshire’s help, they loaded the lantern and the note with the wish onto the boat.

Finally, after placing Cheti on board as a passenger to power the magic circles, Leo’s second fragment boat was ready to set sail.

“Cheti, you must return safely.”

The so-called Cheti-ship, carrying Leo’s worries and expectations, vigorously cut through the river’s current and moved forward.

Like Leo’s first fragment boat, it shook and tilted as it collided with other boats here and there, but it never sank.

At last, the Cheti-ship passed the treacherous starting line and sailed smoothly to the middle of the river.

Cheshire turned to Belinda, who had been watching all of this from a gently sloping area overlooking the river and smiled mischievously.

“You just thought I was a good teacher, didn’t you?”

“You could have been an even better teacher if you hadn’t said that.”

Seeing the Cheti-ship advancing faster than any other fragment boat, Belinda couldn’t deny having such a thought, even if just in jest.

Ignoring Belinda’s curt response, Cheshire took off the cape he was wearing and spread it out beside him.

As he patted it, gesturing for her to sit, Belinda, who was feeling tired anyway, pretended to give in and sat on Cheshire’s cape.

Leo was standing a bit away, absorbed in watching to make sure the Cheti-ship was safe.

And as if he had been waiting for this moment, Cheshire spoke up.

“Master, you saw how capable magic is, right? So if you need the power of magic for your plan, make sure to call me.”

Surprised by this sudden remark, Belinda turned to look at Cheshire, momentarily forgetting to watch Leo.

He seemed to have been observing Belinda all along, as their eyes met immediately.

The amethyst necklace around his neck seemed to sparkle particularly brightly in the moonlight.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Sometimes, I noticed Master’s expression when looking at the main building wasn’t quite right. That’s how I knew. Ah, Master has decided on something, I thought.”

Belinda thought that if Cheshire hadn’t become a magician, he would surely have become a fortune-teller.

His ability to observe people’s expressions and see through their inner thoughts was extraordinary.

‘Or maybe I’ve let my guard down too much, trusting only in the Belinda translator.’

Belinda unconsciously touched her lips and replied coldly.

“Is there magic that can read people’s minds too?”

“It’s just that I’m very perceptive and interested in you, Master, so I noticed.”

“Cheshire, you don’t need to talk like that anymore.”

“Like what?”

“Acting as if you’re interested in me. It’s the same with this compensation. Don’t make excuses about dates, just be honest about what you want.”

Belinda wanted to strongly say that she detested behavior that seemed to test people’s hearts, but she closed her mouth upon seeing Cheshire’s expression.

Cheshire looked truly hurt, his eyebrows drooping sadly, with an expression so pitiful it seemed he might shed a tear at any moment.

“…It’s too upsetting when you say that. Why do you think that way?”

“If you have a conscience, put your hand on your chest and think about it.”

“Then why don’t you check my conscience for me, Master?”

And before she could stop him, Cheshire’s hand gently grasped Belinda’s.

The reason she didn’t shake off that hand was a kind of learned response.

To read traces of dark magic, or to replenish Belinda’s magical power, Cheshire had held Belinda’s hand countless times before.

That hand had never harmed her, so Belinda found herself momentarily defenseless, silently watching as her hand was placed near Cheshire’s heart.

Through the unseasonably thin fabric, Belinda could feel Cheshire’s heartbeat.

Beating a bit faster, it seemed to confess that Cheshire’s words were true.

However, while Belinda thought that Cheshire was a good teacher to Leo and perhaps had no ill intentions towards him, she considered whether he was lying or not to be a separate issue.

Because…

“Cheshire, you’re too skilled at lying.”

She had already seen through his true intentions with the lie-detecting glasses.

“So don’t use such petty tricks and just tell me what you want. Before I get upset and refuse to give you any compensation.”

The strength left Cheshire’s hand that was holding Belinda’s.

He smiled bitterly and tilted his head.

“I didn’t expect the words I said then would come back like this.”

He lay down on the grass and covered his face with both hands.

He was as confident in hiding his true feelings and feigning expressions as he was in using magic, but now he couldn’t manage his expression at all.

“So Cheshire, what compensation do you want?”

“Let me think for a moment, Master.”

***

The reason Terry didn’t like Cheshire was simple.

“I don’t like the look in that magician’s eyes.”

Terry had quite good intuition and tended to trust her first impressions quite a bit.

And Terry’s image of Cheshire hadn’t changed from the beginning until now.

‘He’s someone who might lose his mind at any moment.’

Sometimes she would watch Cheshire while hiding in the shadows.

At those times, when Cheshire thought no one was around, his face would wear an empty, expressionless look, and Terry would feel something chilling from that face.

It’s the eyes she often saw in back alleys.

The eyes of someone whose life goal is revenge.

She knew it well because she once had such eyes herself.

She couldn’t allow such a person to be by Belinda’s side.

Of course, that couldn’t be an excuse for her current reason for tailing Belinda.

Vivian, who had struggled until the end but finally followed Terry out, was in agony, pulling her pigtails with both hands whenever her conscience pricked her.

“Miss Terry, is it really okay for us to follow Lady Belinda like this?”

“It’s fine. We’re not eavesdropping on Lady Belinda’s conversations. So we’ve just come out to enjoy the festival, and it’s merely a coincidence that our destination keeps matching Lady Belinda’s, that’s all.”

Is that so?

When you put it that way, it does seem like that.

Just as the strength was starting to leave Vivian’s hands that had been pulling her hair…

“Adding such reasons doesn’t make it any less of a crime.”

With Cedric’s following words, strength returned to Vivian’s hands pulling her hair.

Cedric had followed Terry under the pretext of mediating Terry and not neglecting his duty to guard Belinda from any possible danger.

At first, he seemed to have been true to his purpose.

But the moment he saw Cheshire’s hand touch Belinda, he realized that there was more than just a sense of responsibility mixed in his decision to follow Terry.