Side Story 2 (Part 1)

“Lie, say hello. This is my brother, Robin Tanner.”  

Turning at Emily’s voice, there stood a red-haired girl. With white skin and freckles faintly spread across her nose. Brown eyes that wouldn’t leave her face.

“Brother, this is Lie. My friend! Olivie Elphano!”  

Emily bounced up excitedly.  

The young lady she had been writing about in her letters, calling her a close friend, seemed to be this girl.

Elphano, huh.  

‘Is she Evan Elphano’s sister?’  

Come to think of it, he did mention having an eight-year-old younger sister while foolishly smiling. Remembering that face, Robin looked back at her.

But no matter how he looked, the young lady before him didn’t seem to resemble Evan Elphano, who looked like a gorilla. Could siblings look this different? Pondering this, Robin gazed at her.

“……”  

Though she seemed to have been dragged along by Emily’s hand, those bright eyes didn’t seem to want to leave his face.  

It was a gaze that was tediously familiar and uncomfortable, no different from the other young ladies attending the banquet. This kind of attention was one of the reasons he was reluctant to attend banquets.  

An unpleasant feeling, as if he were an animal in a zoo.  

In unnecessary discomfort, Robin met her gaze and hardened his expression. Then.  

“Oh, hello. I’m Olivie Elphano.”  

Olivie, who seemed to think his expression was due to her greeting, widened her eyes and bowed her head toward him. With her small hand, she slightly lifted her skirt. It was a clumsy but polite greeting.  

“Robin Tanner.”  

Despite her politeness, Robin was already overwhelmed with displeasure. All he could think about was getting out of there quickly, unable to show any sincere attitude, so he gave a short greeting with just his name.

“……”  

Along with his insincere greeting, which was accompanied by a light nod, Olivie’s face slightly frowned.  

Her expression, which had been looking at him with an interested face until just now, completely disappeared, which was mildly irritating.  

“Tell Mother I’m leaving.”

“Oh……”  

Feeling a cold sweat running down his back, Robin turned around before he could even hear Emily’s reply.  

But before he could take a single step away from where he stood.  

“What a jerk.”

A sharp criticism was heard.  

At that moment, Robin’s body froze, unable to move an inch.  

“……”  

It was the first time he had heard such words.  

No, to be more precise, it was the first time he had heard someone say something like that to his face.  

He knew there were many things said about him, regardless of gender. He didn’t care what was said behind his back.  

However, she was the first person to say “what a jerk” loud enough for him to hear.

“……”  

However, it was awkward to turn around because of those words.  

It would seem as if he was reacting out of anger.

So, he just took another step and tried to quickly walk away from there.  

“Does being handsome make it okay? What a rotten personality.”

“……”  

Her criticism continued once more.  

‘Rotten personality, huh.’

Frowning at her criticism, he could no longer hold back and stopped in his tracks, turning his head.  

“Ahem.”  

However, when Robin’s gaze turned to her, Olivie quickly changed her expression and pretended not to notice, turning her head away and brushing off her clothes for no reason.  

Watching her pretend nothing happened, Robin furrowed his brow, and Olivie grabbed Emily’s hand.

“Emily! Let’s go play over there.”  

“……”  

And before he could say anything, she quickly moved out of his sight.  

Like a squirrel quickly running away from people, Robin let out a hollow laugh at her rapidly disappearing figure.  

“Ha.”  

She was a strange child in many ways.  

It was probably from that time.  

When Robin started noticing Olivie.  

To be precise, it was just that he began to distinguish Olivie’s face among the many people. In any case, Olivie began to catch his eye.  

At first, it was purely out of curiosity.  

During banquets, whenever he turned his head, he always saw Olivie smiling. Seeing her smiling as if she were always happy made him curious about what made her so happy and what she was smiling about.  

As he continued to watch, he found it fascinating how Olivie got excited and laughed at even trivial things. He became curious about her, who shone so brightly among people.  

Gradually, the time he spent looking at her increased little by little.  

Initially, he would turn his head to look at her whenever he heard her distinctive laughter, but at some point, it became a habit to look for her with his eyes as soon as he arrived at the banquet hall.  

Around that time, he, who had been reluctantly dragged around to play the role of Emily’s partner, began attending banquets voluntarily.  

Sometimes, he would laugh along with her words or cheerful laughter heard from afar. At such times, when Emily asked why he was laughing, he had to clench his molars because he couldn’t find the words to answer.  

But that was all, and it didn’t go beyond that.

It was just that, nothing more. He didn’t particularly want to get closer to her or have any other feelings for her.  

Olivie didn’t seem to have any intention of getting closer to him either.  

When their eyes occasionally met, she would frown and reluctantly greet him with her eyes. She was the only girl who treated Robin that way.  

To her, he was just Emily’s brother, without any further feelings. The same was true for Robin.  

Emily’s friend.  

His younger sister’s cheerful friend.  

That was the extent of it.  

Sometimes, she seemed cute, but that thought came from watching her giggle with Emily. He regarded it as a feeling similar to finding Emily cute.  

He attributed his attention to her as being due to her being different from the young ladies he knew. Besides, didn’t everyone find her lovable?

So he didn’t think deeply about it.  

That’s why even after returning to the academy after a short vacation, he didn’t think much about her.  

When Emily occasionally mentioned Olivie in her letters, he would simply think, ‘She’s still the same,’ and smile. If he thought a bit more, he would wonder if she was still smiling so brightly.

Well, he figured he would find out once he finished his studies and returned, so he pushed those thoughts aside.

Therefore, two years later, when he completed all his courses at the academy and returned to Plen, he was surprised not to see Olivie at the first banquet he attended.

‘Why isn’t she here?’  

Honestly, when he realized he was flustered by her absence, Robin was confused. He couldn’t accurately pinpoint why he was flustered.  

But it felt like someone who should naturally be there wasn’t.  

So, to hide that bewilderment, he quickly erased the thought of ‘Why isn’t she here?’ with ‘Well, it could happen.’  

She was no longer an eight-year-old kid.  

She wasn’t at the age to attend every banquet as if going out to play, he reasoned.

Even though she was only ten years old.  

So he thought the same for the second time.  

But when he couldn’t see her at the third banquet and then the fourth, he began to worry a little.  

“…….”  

The thing was, even if the previous banquets were excusable, this banquet was the Spring Garden Party hosted by Earl Tanner, where all the young ladies of Emily’s age were invited.  

It was strange for any reason that she, known as Emily’s close friend, didn’t come.  

“Emily, I don’t see your friend.”  

Unable to hold back any longer, Robin asked Emily.  

“Who?”  

Emily turned her head to look up at him, puzzled by Robin’s sudden words.  

Robin hesitated for a very brief moment at her eyes, which seemed not to know who he was talking about, and then awkwardly opened his mouth.

“The young lady you introduced to me back then.”

“Do you know how many young ladies I’ve introduced to you?”

“The one from our childhood. The one with red hair.”

Red hair?  

Who could that be?

Emily, who had been pouting like a duck, suddenly opened her eyes wide as if she remembered.  

“Our Lie? Are you talking about Olivie?”  

“Yeah, I think it was a name like that.”  

Robin cleared his throat and nodded briefly at Emily’s response. Then Emily, with noticeably drooping shoulders, looked up with a dejected face.  

“Sigh.”  

She sighed deeply, her shoulders slumping even more.  

“I haven’t seen Olivie much since winter.”

“Why, did you have a fight?”  

“No, we didn’t fight.”  

Emily shook her head, dismissing the idea. Then she let her delicate shoulders droop again, her face clearly showing she was upset.  

“Lie has been very sick. But they said she wasn’t receiving visitors, so I couldn’t even go see her.”

“……Sick?”  

It was a reason he hadn’t imagined.  

Sick?  

How sick could she be?  

Evan didn’t seem to think much of it.  

As Robin, now confused, stared blankly at Emily, she nodded as if she was also upset.  

“Yeah. She must be really sick. Since she won’t even let me visit her. They said it’s not a serious illness, though.”  

Emily, making a whining noise, pouted her lips.  

He wondered if there was more to it, but Emily’s story ended there.  

Sick, she said.  

“……I see.”  

If that’s the case.  

Robin nodded and without saying much more, looked around the banquet hall aimlessly. Even though the garden was filled with people in green, it somehow felt empty.