77 – FAY 77

The Tempestuous Years

Over the past few years, the Greenhouse had become quite lush with greenery.

Initially, Aska had tried growing vegetables several times, but after failing, he eventually shifted his focus to flowers and trees. Instead of garden trees, he even attempted to grow fruit trees, planting apple and grape seeds, but naturally, they didn’t sprout.

Since he insisted he couldn’t give up, I had no choice but to find and bring him small saplings.

In any case, Aska’s Greenhouse was now a chaotic mix of fruit trees, wildflowers, herbs, and weeds. To put it nicely, it was natural; to be honest, it was like a thicket in a deep forest.

But there were already plenty of gardens arranged in perfect rows and columns without a single deviation, so having one like this wasn’t so bad.

As I looked around the Greenhouse, filled with the scent of grass and trees, I went further inside and saw the swimming pool. And in front of it was the mysterious stone tower that Aska had built from the very beginning.

Right in front of the stone tower was a wide, flat stone slab, which gave it a strange altar-like appearance. On the stone slab were candies that Aska had received as gifts from me and trinkets that I had received as gifts from Aska, all lined up neatly.

Gazing at the two shimmering glass bottles, reflecting the light, I unconsciously reached out my hand. But I couldn’t touch them. Once, I had accidentally knocked down the stone tower while touching them, and Aska had been angry and hadn’t spoken to me for days.

I could understand the candies, but the trinkets in that glass bottle were mine, and I had even cast Preservation Magic on them. How could he not let me touch them?

“Piiiii.”

As I frowned and looked at the glass bottles, I heard a familiar sound. I turned my head and saw Pipi popping out from the lush bushes. More than two years had passed since then, but he hadn’t grown at all.

Pipi, still smaller than the palm of my hand, hopped onto my outstretched hand.

“Why aren’t you growing, even though you eat so much?”

“Pii, piipi.”

“Why isn’t Aska coming? Didn’t he come here this morning?”

“Pii.”

I couldn’t communicate with Pipi like Aska could. But he seemed to understand what I was saying, so I continued to talk to him as if I were talking to myself.

“Should I go look for him?”

“Piit!”

“You like that?”

Pipi stomped his tiny, fishbone-like feet on my palm and chirped enthusiastically, but I couldn’t understand what he meant. But somehow, his chirping seemed sharper than usual, as if he didn’t want to go out.

“Is he at the Training arena?”

“Pii…”

“I should go look for him. Are you coming?”

“Piing.”

At my question, Pipi jumped off my palm. Then, he ran back into the bushes and disappeared. Whenever I tried to take him out, he would do that, as if Aska had strictly forbidden him from going out.

I didn’t interfere, but Aska treated the little bird very ruthlessly and strictly. Even if I forced him to come out, Pipi would be the one getting scolded, so I left the Greenhouse without any regrets.

“…”

As I walked leisurely, I thought about how Aska treated Pipi.

Since he was young, Aska had often imitated and followed my actions, and this was one of them. Preventing him from going out, not letting him eat anything late at night. He was especially strict when I met other people.

To apply the same rules to a pet bird…

“…”

Thinking about it made me feel bad. When we were young, I could brush it off as a joke or insist on my way, but as I got bigger, it became difficult to control him.

As he got older, he became more stubborn and started to argue logically, making it hard to deal with him.

Aska was especially sensitive about me meeting anyone, and there were more than a few times when I was in a difficult situation. I might suddenly meet someone, or I might forget to tell him, and every time, he would get angry as if I had done something terribly wrong.

I still remember him jokingly saying that he would put shackles on my ankles whenever that happened, and he actually did it. Over the past two years, I had already worn shackles on my ankles about 10 times.

I couldn’t do the undignified thing of hopping around like Aska did, so on those days, I would just sit or lie down all day.

“…”

Thinking about it, it was truly an absurd situation. This was all because I was too lenient. Otherwise, who would put something like that on my body…?

I stopped walking and stood in place, reminiscing about the past, when I suddenly heard a sound. I shook off my thoughts and looked towards the sound, and saw Aska standing on a tree branch.

He had a wooden sword in his mouth and was reaching up with both hands, fiddling with something, so I asked.

“What are you doing up there?”

Aska didn’t answer, as if he was too busy. The tree was so tall that it was uncomfortable to keep looking up. The sunlight was also strong, so I frowned and watched him for a while, and then Aska jumped down.

“Look at this.”

Aska had a wooden sword in one hand and a leaf in the other. I carefully looked at the leaf in his hand and asked.

“Why this?”

“Why? The color is unique.”

“…”

Looking closely, half of the leaf was green and the other half was a faded yellow.

The colors are different, so what?

I was curious, but I had a feeling he would get annoyed if I asked directly, so I answered vaguely.

“I see. The colors are a bit different. It’s pretty.”

“Let’s take it home.”

“Okay.”

The “home” he was referring to was the Greenhouse. Aska would sometimes bring trinkets he found outside and display them in the Greenhouse.

“Were you at the Training arena?”

“Eat.”

Aska didn’t answer my question and took out three large dates from his pocket. If I didn’t accept or eat what he offered, he would follow me around and bother me, so I took them without complaint and took a bite.

“…”

“…”

Even after I ate, Aska still stared at me silently. I had no choice but to take another bite, and another, and another, until I had eaten them all.

Only then did Aska smile brightly and say.

“I measured my height before coming here, and I’ve grown a little more.”

I couldn’t help but be surprised by his boastful words.

“What? Didn’t you say you grew a week ago too?”

“I’m 175cm now, 1cm taller.”

As he said that, Aska stood close to me and measured his height with his hand, as if he were comparing. The gap had narrowed a lot, but I was still growing too.

Even though he was clearly catching up quickly, Aska grumbled as if he was dissatisfied.

“Can’t you stop growing?”

Who is he to say that…? I was dumbfounded, when I noticed a blade of grass stuck in Aska’s hair. I reached out and stroked his side hair, and the blade of grass that was hanging precariously fell down.

“Parha said I’ll probably grow even more in the future.”

“Height?”

At my question, Aska closed his eyes and nodded. Just then, a breeze blew, and his white, slender hair fluttered. I watched him silently and said.

“Stop going to the Training arena.”

“What? Why?”

At my sudden words, Aska frowned and opened his eyes wide.

“Isn’t that enough now? We need to recast the Sealing Magic soon too.”

“I don’t want to. And you’re still not completely healed.”

I couldn’t tell if Aska’s words were true or false. He clearly seemed fine, but he kept saying he wasn’t healed… A year ago, I couldn’t believe him and secretly used magic, and he ended up coughing up blood again.

Thinking about that, it didn’t seem like Aska was lying, but another year had passed since then.

“When are you going to get better?”

“I’m almost there.”

“Didn’t you say that two years ago too?”

“Anyway, no. I’m going to keep going to the Training arena.”

He was as stubborn as they come. I lowered my hand that had been stroking Aska’s hair and said.

“I said no.”

“Why not? I’m going to be a knight.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Does he even realize what kind of status he has?

“Why? Mahir said he has over thirty knights who have sworn loyalty to him, but you don’t have even one.”

Where did he hear that from? Did Parha tell him? More than that, I was dumbfounded by the name that came out of Aska’s mouth.

“Why are you calling someone’s name so carelessly?”

As I furrowed my brow, Aska tilted his head to the side.

“You always tell me to properly address him as ‘Your Highness’ when we’re together. What’s the problem? It’s just the two of us here anyway.”

It was an impudent remark, but that wasn’t the problem right now.

An indescribable feeling was bubbling up from within. He calls Mahir’s name and Parha’s name just fine, but he rarely calls my name.

We spend so much time together and are always together, so there’s no need to call each other’s names, but I can’t help but get annoyed at times like this.

Parha stopped making eye contact with me when he’s with Aska because I kept nagging him, so that’s better, but the problem is when he spouts useless things like today.

Besides, he’s always saying “Parha this” and “Parha that,” so I’ve been thinking about not letting him go to the Training arena for quite some time now.

But Aska loves to move around so much that I just didn’t say anything.

“Why are you suddenly telling me not to go to the Training arena?”

I watched the grumbling Aska silently and said.

“There’s nothing more for you to learn.”

“There’s no end to learning.”

That was true, but it was just absurd to hear those words coming from Aska’s mouth.

“I can’t believe it.”

“I’m the one who can’t believe it. Why do you keep growing?”

“Stop talking about height. I’m sick of it.”

“I’m more sick of it. You should have stopped growing after that time. Why do you keep growing, it’s annoying.”

Aska kicked a stone on the ground with a dissatisfied expression. Watching it shatter into dust instead of flying through the air, I couldn’t say anything more.