“I’m not saying I’m cute. Carol is cute.”

“What are you saying now?”

His cheeks, flushed bright red, looked exactly like rubbing sugar-preserved cherries. At that drastic change, Asha, who had been choosing her words for a moment, tilted her head sideways in puzzlement.

“Then he’s not?”

“As Bati said first, compared to me, you……!”

The boy who had reflexively raised his voice shot up from his seat with his face red up to his neck.

Both Asha and Carol had long since emptied their plates. Joining the conversation out of courtesy had been a mistake.

“W-we’ll get up first.”

Carol stretched out his right hand to Asha, fluttering it. In that brief moment when their hands overlapped and they left the dining room, he easily guessed his future of being teased for years.

But for now, there was no proper solution other than running away. He had no choice but to grip the lukewarm hand tightly and hurry their steps.

※※※

The place Carol reached while holding Asha was the long gallery on the mansion’s top floor.

The corridor had all external light completely blocked by thick curtains, so Asha had to rely on the light from the landing until Carol lit the candles.

“Um, thank you.”

“For calling you cute?”

“No, that’s not it!”

Pop.

With the sound of a small bead breaking, the white candlestick lit up. The shadowed profile flickered with crimson light.

“This afternoon, for taking my side in front of that person.”

The densely settled eyelashes were dyed golden. Asha lightly clenched her dropped hand, then replied in a calm tone.

“That’s only natural.”

“Because you’re my friend?”

“Because that person was wrong.”

Behind the seemingly fair and just answer followed tilted affection.

“Cas, why should you be treated like that?”

“That person is always like that.”

“Exactly. It’s really annoying. What’s with your attitude, what’s with your outfit—what does he want?”

Just like when she had asserted herself without being intimidated in front of an adult man, her blue eyes turned upward.

“Why does he say such things? Not that I’m particularly curious.”

“You’re not curious?”

“Do I need to know why that person talks nonsense? Either he’s in a bad mood or emotionally impoverished—one of the two.”

“……Our family all says it’ll be fine if I just do well.”

The head that had been looking forward suddenly turned to the side.

The noticeably small girl in Kasoche had to crane her neck painfully to look at the biggest boy in the mansion.

“What do you have to do, how, and how well?”

“I don’t really know either.”

“Then don’t do it.”

“I won’t.”

“Yeah. Don’t do it.”

“I’m past the age of struggling because I hate being hated. Though it does feel bad every time I see him……”

The hand that had dropped while lighting the fire attached again.

The dry back of the hand brushed several times, then one hand intertwined with the other. Who was first would probably be forgotten once today passed.

We walked that corridor then, Carol’s hand was warm.

That’s probably all I’ll remember, Asha predicted as she pressed the protruding knuckle.

“Right now it’s okay because you’re here, Sha.”

The kid who was a full head taller than me smiled prettily.

“Why?”

“Because you took my side.”

“That’s only natur—”

“It’s also nice that you say such things.”

Why did just going from the stairs to the end of the corridor feel so slow, Asha held her breath and turned toward the paintings.

Though she couldn’t see the details, most of the paintings in the frames were familiar styles.

Not because she had great knowledge of painters or art history.

Because Carol had explained each one in detail, because she had ordered art books she wasn’t interested in based on those explanations. Thanks to that.

Asha walked close to the wall as if almost pressing her nose to the paintings. She moved slowly, pretending to appreciate the great souls of artists, so Carol didn’t notice anything strange.

Thanks to observing the paintings instead of the person right next to her, Asha immediately recognized a particular painting.

“Marso Cella……”

“You recognize it?”

“If there were two such paintings in the house, you would have mentioned it long ago.”

A sea so large that even the biggest boy in the mansion couldn’t encompass it with both arms spread.

Asha stepped back to see the entire painting. Naturally, Carol stood next to her with his arms crossed.

“How is it?”

“Well painted.”

“Does it look like the real sea?”

Her round eyes narrowed sleepily. Though it was a painting large enough that she had to crane her neck up, she didn’t feel any great emotion.

Rather, she just found the friend who was blinking and watching her reaction a little cute.

His deep blue gaze soon turned to her feet where pale blue clusters of light bobbed up and disappeared. The girl who had used the sound of waves as lullabies for nineteen years was more interested in this than the reproduced sea.

“Hey, Cas.”

“Yeah?”

“I wasn’t sure because my eyesight is bad. Are you a fairy?”

Light like cut and pasted rainbows. Something that bloomed independently in darkness that required candlelight.

When she first reached for the boy’s cheek, she thought it was a delusion created by eyes seeing something for the first time in her life.

The boy, who hesitated slightly at the outsider’s question, took a deep breath and shook his head.

“Um…… No.”

“Then?”

“To be specific, my great-great-grandfather on Dad’s side was a mountain fairy. After marrying great-great-grandmother, he lived mixed in Kasoche continuously. Since then the blood has kept getting weaker, so I can’t do what people generally think fairies do.”

“What do they generally do?”

“Trick lost travelers, things like that.”

Spin.

The low-heeled shoes spun half a turn as if dancing.

The host, standing face to face with his first guest, smiled awkwardly and continued.

“I’m just a bit light on my feet and sometimes glow?”

“……I never knew.”

“There are still many people who don’t like fairies or werewolves. I didn’t know what Iota would be like either.”

“Come to think of it, that’s true. There are none at all. I never even imagined it.”

Especially for someone who lived by the seaside but had never crossed the sea even once before grandfather died.

“Are you angry I didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

“Hmm.”

“I’m really not angry. Nothing changes just because you’re a fairy’s descendant.”

It was a clichéd line that appeared countless times in popular dramas.

It’s okay because it’s you. Because you being you doesn’t change.

But saying that much would really be trite, so Asha gripped his neat right hand tightly and shook it playfully.

“Though it’s a bit disappointing that you can’t send letters immediately like me.”

Just then, they had reached the end of the corridor.

At the end of the inconsistent gallery was displayed a painting that only one person had visited until it was worn. A mail carrier with his back turned and snow spread like clouds. Long, dry trees.

The mail carrier who faithfully traveled between the kingdom’s southernmost and northernmost points was really ‘painted’ and still.

Asha and Carol leaned against the wall and sat down, watching the small winter. Was it fairy mischief, or traces of old magic?

Blue-green hair naturally tilted against a firm shoulder.

Sitting side by side without taking their eyes off the painting, elbows and thighs touching, smelling the dried tea scent on clothes.

It was a surprisingly natural connection.

“Cas.”

A rough voice echoed in the corridor.

The midnight chill dried the inside of her throat.

“Will you sleep on the couch again today?”

“Huh? No. The guest room should be all ready by now. Take a look, and if it’s uncomfortable, you can keep sleeping here. I don’t mind here or there.”

While Asha was groaning in pain, Carol had dozed off lying sideways on the couch next to the bed. Though his body was a bit uncomfortable, his heart was much better this way, no, the couch was big so it wasn’t that uncomfortable either.

Though being nursed by family was familiar……

Asha was surprisingly and suspiciously moved by the remarkably smooth goodwill. She just didn’t show it on her face.

Her neatly extended eyes and maturing chin showed no trace of difficulty.

Pressing the back of her hand resting on her thigh, Asha opened her mouth brightly.

“Can’t we just sleep together?”