“It means I’m still not good enough to win your heart.”

“…What? That’s not what I…”

“I must have been too forward, making you uncomfortable, and I couldn’t even understand that.”

Briton’s eyes were downcast as if he’d been rejected in love.

‘Ugh, Briton… What have I done…’

“Before I met you…”

Briton, who had been looking at me with a sad expression, slightly raised the corners of his mouth and paused.

Our eyes met, and I felt a pang of guilt for hurting such a pure boy.

But Briton lowered his gaze and didn’t continue his words.

The boy put the case he had held out to me back inside his clothes and said, “I was always lonely.”

I flinched at Briton’s words.

Remembering our conversation in the forest earlier… somehow made my heart heavy.

“All that time alone in the palace, I couldn’t find an answer to why I was born.”

“….”

Although it was hard to understand his words that suggested meeting me had changed his life, I listened to him seriously.

Usually, at this age, kids think even sharing friendship rings means they’ll be together forever.

So maybe the engagement with me had a big impact on Briton.

“And so, I pitied myself. I thought I was alone in my misfortune, and rationalized that my twisted personality was due to my upbringing.”

Huh? Briton’s personality is twisted?

That’s not true at all…

“Then one day, I met a pearl in the dirt. Someone who smiled with teeth whiter than any jewel, despite harsh conditions and rolling in the dirt… you, my lady.”

I looked at Briton with wavering eyes.

Our first meeting was at the imperial palace.

Did I look like a pearl in the dirt? Even if I was shabby, I wasn’t covered in dirt.

No, maybe he was connecting it to what I had said to Lariel before.

“You made me realize something very important. No matter what situation you’re in, no matter where you are, nothing changes. What’s important is the essence in here,” he touched his chest.

“…Me?”

When did I… have such an influence on Briton?

‘I-I’m not someone with that kind of influence though?’

Briton’s cheeks were tinged with pink as he spoke, his words coming out like a quiet confession.

“…Without you, I would have continued foolishly lamenting my life. So the most valuable jewel to me”

Briton spoke with a voice full of sincerity, almost desperately.

“…I hope it will become yours someday.”

***

That night, I dreamed of a year ago.

Rain fell in the empty Galnem, where I was all alone.

That day too, I fell asleep alone in bed, holding an old doll.

I hope Uncle Zimmer and the villagers will be back when I wake up tomorrow.

I miss everyone. When are they coming back?

Those were my thoughts.

And early in the morning, my eyes opened on their own.

“Uncle! Auntie!”

As always, I hurried outside with quick steps to look for people, but Galnem village was still quiet as death.

They hadn’t returned today either.

With drooping eyebrows, I started putting the red sugar beets I had processed and dried in the yard yesterday into a basket. If I preserve these in sugar now, they’ll become sweet preserves that last a long time.

‘Anyway, famine is coming, and survival is… the goal.’

Then, I heard a rustling sound somewhere and looked up.

“Huh?”

And I stood up with wide eyes, startled by someone’s sudden appearance.

…..

Why is there a stranger in the tree at my house?

The child sitting on the branch had brown hair and was slightly taller than me, wearing a white mask on their face.

‘Judging by his appearance, he must be a boy?’

The eyes behind the mask were black, and somehow they seemed to hold a cold gaze.

For me, who had never left Galnem, this was my first time meeting someone my age.

“…Um…”

I placed my small hand on my startled chest and carefully opened my mouth.

“…Hello!”

I wanted to talk to the boy first, so I raised my hand and called out.

“My name is Arinel. Arinel Mylar! What’s your name?”

But the masked boy neither spoke nor raised his hand in response.

“And… why are you in my house’s tree…”

After looking at me for a few more seconds with a gaze that seemed to look down on something worthless, he jumped over to the other side of the tree, beyond our house’s wall.

“Hey… wait!”

Eager to find this first sign of life I’d seen in a while, I quickly ran outside the house to look for the boy.

But the boy had disappeared without a trace.

In the end, unable to find him, I returned home with a blank expression, still panting.

That was our first meeting.

“Wait! Talk to me!”

The first meeting didn’t end as just a first meeting.

Since Galnem was in a remote location without any nearby villages, I wondered if he lived in one of the empty houses. The boy started appearing in the village frequently.

But whenever I went to the villagers’ houses, the boy was nowhere to be seen, as if deliberately avoiding me.

Yet when I caught glimpses of his shadow from afar, I would chase after him.

And one day, when I finally caught up and grabbed the hem of his clothes, I found those icy cold eyes behind the mask staring at me.

“Hey. Your name is…”

As soon as I started speaking, the boy placed his index finger on my lips.

Was he telling me to shut up?

Either way, he clearly didn’t want to tell me.

Then he shook off my hand as if something filthy had touched his clothes.

It was definitely a contemptuous, thoroughly rude gaze.

I had kind of guessed from how he ignored people from the start, but it seemed his personality was quite nasty.

“Do you hate talking to me that much? Or do you just hate me?”

To my words, the boy coldly nodded once. Then nodded again.

This brat!

From his perspective, I supposed I might just be an annoying resident in the village where he had decided to stay temporarily.

Judging by his twisted personality, he might be a runaway teen who had a big fight with his parents.

And maybe he just wanted to be alone in this village he’d found.

“Fine, I understand that you don’t have a nice personality. Not everyone can be kind to others. But there’s something I need to make clear.”

Still, I spoke to him firmly.

“You’re the rolling stone here.”

I pointed my finger at him.

“And I’m the embedded stone.”

Then I proudly pointed to myself.

“So if you want to live in this village, you need to follow the embedded stone’s rules. First, in Galnem village, residents took turns checking the defensive devices at the entrance to protect against wild animals. And as long as you’re living here, you’re a resident too.”

Though his eyes clearly said ‘What nonsense are you talking about?’, I continued speaking.

You need to do your share if you want to live in the village, you punk!

“Until now, I’ve been checking twice a day by myself since everyone left, but now you should…”

The boy started walking away as if what I was saying wasn’t worth listening to anymore.

“Hey! Where are you going!”

Seriously, how can someone be this incredibly rude?

***

Our next clash happened a week later during the day.

The boy had started shooting birds with a crossbow he’d taken from Uncle Famel’s house.

Watching him kill birds from his lazy position on Uncle Amrus’s rooftop, I shouted.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

At my shout, the birds fluttered away.

The masked boy shot me an annoyed look.

Ignoring his attitude, I looked up at the roof and said.

“The blue-feathered finches help our village’s crops grow. They’re precious birds. And if you’re not even hunting them for food…”

I picked up a bird that had been killed by the crossbow and said.

“How can you kill birds just for fun? Don’t you feel sorry for them?”

At those words, the boy jumped down from the roof and stood in front of me.

His eyes were still cold, and though his lips were hidden behind the mask, I could imagine him sneering mockingly.

He raised the crossbow bolt.

As I flinched, he watched me for a few seconds, then wrote something on the ground to our left.

‘None of my business.’

The powerful rudeness I’d sensed from first impressions was vividly alive in those written words.

“Fine, I understand that both these birds and I might seem equally worthless to you. But you know what.”

I looked into the boy’s eyes and spoke in a clear voice.

“That’s not allowed in this village.”

I continued in a strong tone.

“It might seem trivial to you, but this village is the home where my most precious people will return to, and it’s a place I must protect.”

The boy’s eyes seemed to say ‘So what are you going to do about it?’

Seeing that look, I said, “So if you’re not planning to change your behavior, I’ll do everything I can to drive you out of here.”

I stepped closer to the boy and looked even more directly into his eyes.

“You’d better be prepared.”

And from that day, our war began.

First, I discovered that the boy really didn’t like insects.

So I released spiders onto Uncle Zimmer’s bed where the boy slept at night.

That night, I chuckled listening to the crashing sounds coming from Uncle’s house.

After all, disobedient kids need proper discipline.

And the next morning, I couldn’t help but be shocked.