Chapter 24

“This is the desk.”  

Letina closed the door and followed Mielle.  

When Letina came closer, Mielle opened the drawer. It was empty, but after closing it and fiddling around, she opened it again, and there was the box, sitting right in place.  

Mielle took out the box and placed it on the table in front of the sofa.  

“Sit comfortably. There’s a lot to see.”  

Letina sat on the sofa next to Mielle.  

“Um… Is it really okay to do this…?”  

“Yes.”  

Mielle unlocked the lock on the blue box.  

Letina swallowed hard.  

Finally, inside, there was a single neatly placed notebook with a blue cover.  

“Read it from the beginning.”  

Mielle clasped her hands and smiled in anticipation.  

[Today I met an annoying girl.  

I was resting, but she suddenly appeared and startled me.  

Anyway, my heart pounded and I felt annoyed, so I didn’t even greet her and went somewhere else.]  

Letina, surprised, quickly closed the notebook.  

“This… isn’t this a diary?”  

Her guilt grew even stronger.  

“Come on. Next, next.”  

Mielle opened the diary and forced her to look.  

[Seriously, I wasn’t curious at all, but she told me her name.  

Letina Feymun?  

Even her name suits her.]  

Finding her own name, Letina could no longer resist the temptation and turned the page.  

[She keeps coming up to me. So annoying.  

Doesn’t she have anything better to do.]  

[She came every day, so why didn’t she come today?  

It’s so annoying.  

Routine is so important.  

A senior in the swordsmanship department said if you break it once, it affects the next day and the day after.  

But because of her, my routine is ruined.  

Today’s class was a mess, and tomorrow, and the day after, will it be like this?  

D*mn it.]  

[Contrary to my worries, there were no effects from yesterday.  

I guess it’s fine if it’s just one day.  

Today’s routine wasn’t broken because she came.]  

[My chest felt itchy, so I scratched it, and the next day she brought me some medicine.  

She said it was good for itching.  

So I said if she disappeared, it would be solved, and then she really didn’t show up anywhere.  

Good. From now on, I’ll just make a routine without her.]  

[If you’re not coming, just don’t come at all.]  

[D*mn, d*mn, d*mn.  

Who likes whom?  

That’s ridiculous….]  

[I’m never giving her ice cream again.]  

There were marks nearby where someone had scribbled hard with a pen. Letina rubbed at them.  

She could feel the dents from the force.  

After that, the entries continued, all brief.  

No names were written, but Letina felt they were all about her.  

She stopped at a page where her name appeared again.  

[Letina.]  

She took a deep breath and turned the page.  

[Letina.  

I like you, I like you.]  

[I like you….]  

Her heart dropped.  

[It’s all my fault.  

She came to me so kindly.  

Why did I act like that.]  

[Today she wore a half-up hairstyle.  

She was so pretty.  

I wanted to tell her right then, but I just couldn’t say it.  

When I called her ugly, she frowned.  

It upset me, but even that face was cute.  

…D*mn, is this really me?]  

[Kiaros Gatiel, you idiot.  

You brought this on yourself.  

You can’t complain about her thinking you hate her.]  

Letina’s hands trembled, so she couldn’t turn the pages one by one and flipped through several at once.  

[I won.  

If Letina had come to cheer for me, I would’ve been even happier.]  

[Letina seems to be avoiding me.  

Why?  

Was there still room for her to dislike me even more?  

I just want to know why she’s like this.]  

[How upset must Letina have been when I avoided her?  

And back then, she was even younger than now.  

How could I only realize it now.  

Idiot….]  

[Letina seems amazing.  

Even though I ignored her, she still had the courage to approach me.  

If I hold on to her, what if she ends up hating me more.]  

Finally, her vision blurred.  

Letina put down the notebook and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.  

“Oh… I didn’t show you this to make you cry…”  

Mielle hurriedly handed her a handkerchief.  

“Sorry.”  

“You’re crying because you’re happy, right?”  

“…Yes. I’m happy. I’m crying because I’m so happy.”  

Letina picked up the notebook again. When she put it down, the pages must have flipped back, because suddenly it was after graduation from the academy.  

[I shouldn’t have gone to see her.  

Letina still seemed uncomfortable around me.  

It felt like my heart was being cut.  

If she’d been even a little less pretty today, it would’ve helped me erase my feelings.]  

[I met Letina at Lake Winkel.  

She didn’t know it was me.  

She took me and gave me the name Liri.  

It seems she plans to raise me as her pet duck.]  

[Even though I’ve known her a long time, there are so many sides of Letina I’d never seen.  

I’m grateful every day I can be near her.  

If it weren’t for work or family, I wouldn’t want to be apart for even a moment.  

I want to see more of the Letina I don’t know.]  

[I want to beat up all the guys proposing to Letina.  

…Should I try doing it from the shadows like I did at the academy?  

But anyway, now Letina listens to everything I say.  

So I can bear it.  

For now.  

…But if we really get married later….  

I don’t even want to imagine it.  

No.  

That’s happiness I never dared to wish for.  

If I can just keep this connection, I don’t need anything else.]  

[I’m satisfied even as her pet duck.]  

That was the last page.  

Letina’s eyes stung again. She wiped them with the handkerchief Mielle had given her.  

“Kiaros pretended to be an ordinary duck for three years. That’s against beastman etiquette. He’s not a kid, he’s crazy. If I told our parents, they’d be so furious they’d start lecturing right away. I’ve got something over him now, huh.”  

Mielle tried to cheer Letina up with a lighthearted voice.  

“Weren’t you ever mad at Kiaros?”  

“……”  

“Well, whatever happened in the past, you two love each other now and got married.”  

“……”  

“Kiaros told me before you got married that he liked you from way back. But after finding this diary, I realized it wasn’t just ‘like’—he really, really loved you.”  

Ugh. Mielle grimaced at how cheesy it was, but kept talking.  

“You probably knew, but seeing it like this is different, right?”  

“…I, I need to go.”  

Letina had someone she wanted to see right now.  

“Can I take this diary with me?”  

“You can give it back to him yourself.”  

Letina picked up the palm-sized notebook and put it in her bag.  

“Thank you for today, Mielle.”  

“What for.”  

With a knowing look, Mielle waved and sent Letina off.