By Zephyria 
We ate and drank the well-prepared refreshments and tea, chatting about this and that. The conversation mostly revolved around how Sam Marcus, who couldn’t use mana, was able to contract with a spirit.
Most spirits accepted processed mana as a condition for contracting with humans. However, some spirits who had contractors came to understand the value of relationships.
The gnome from Karzentia simply wanted Sam Marcus to be able to see him.
The spirit contract magic circle aids in the safe bond between humans and spirits. The gnome, materialized on the magic circle, promptly chose Sam Marcus as his contractor. The gnome, who had watched the Marcus family since Sam’s grandfather’s generation, seemed utterly captivated by Sam Marcus’s passion for raw stones.
The gnome became Sam Marcus’s third hand while he handled raw stones. Sam apparently cherished and doted on this imaginary friend that had taken form.
In any case, it seemed they were living quite happily together.
“We’ll have to eat dinner soon. Are you dining with us as well, Your Majesty?”
“No. I plan to eat at the palace.”
“Are you going to Aunt Sandy’s today too? I’ll go with you!”
“No. You should be chatting with your friend, Viscount. It’s not heavy, I’ll be back in a flash.”
Marianne, who had half-risen, sat back down with a soft thud, acting coy.
“Alright. Then, please get me a portion for two, disguised as a portion for one.”
“I’ll just buy two portions for you, Viscount.”
“Ahaha, yes!”
As soon as the old man left the shop, I immediately turned to Marianne.
“Viscount? When did you become that?”
“I’ve become a 6th Circle Master, and I’m just entering the 7th Circle. I also passed my promotion thesis earlier this year, so I became a Viscount. The magic circle with 13 stacks that Michael helped me with on the golem is all 8th Circle, isn’t it? I plan to use that for my next promotion. Isn’t it cool?”
“Yes. It’s very cool.”
“Isn’t it amazing?”
“Yes. It’s amazing.”
“Isn’t it strange? Like, when did she grow up this much, and she feels like my own child…”
“Not quite to that extent.”
We burst into laughter.
There were also stories I could only bring up after Iver Marcus had left.
“…By the way, Marianne. Your hands look rather bare?”
“Heh heh.”
“What is it?”
The child stretched both her small hands forward. Indeed, neither of her tiny hands had any accessories. Benjamin had clearly succeeded, and Marianne didn’t show any signs of disappointment, so I was puzzled.
Marianne shook her hands playfully and then placed them, clasped, on the table.
“Well, I’ve just put it off for a while.”
“Put it off?”
Marianne lowered her voice slightly. Then, carefully, as if unraveling a ball of yarn, she laid her love story out on the table.
Even before I went missing and after, Benjamin had been openly expressing his feelings. Could there be anyone as clever and considerate of those around her as Marianne? Marianne had long noticed Benjamin’s affection for her, but for various reasons, she hadn’t wanted to advance their relationship.
When Benjamin pleaded with Marianne to remain just a friend, or even a closer friend, Marianne thought:
It does make me flutter sometimes.
But isn’t it too comfortable?
“You know Benjamin is studying for his exams right now?”
“The Imperial Knights?”
“Yes. They have a 30% written exam and a 70% practical exam. But the people challenging for the Imperial Knights are all elites among elites, so they twist the questions immensely to increase the difficulty of the written exam. If you miss just one question, you lose half a year. You have to wait for the next quarter’s exam.”
“…Hmm.”
“So he’s been a student until now. Of course, he’s busy studying, but even so, he comes to pick me up every day after work.”
“Every day after work?”
“Yes, because we don’t have time to see each other outside of that. When I’m researching and something gets complicated, there’s no weekend or anything. Mana stone powder and paper for drawing magic circles all cost money, so after work from the Magic Tower, I walk home. He comes to walk with me on that path.”
“Hooh.”
“It’s at most 30 minutes… and about an hour of walking a day is good for a student’s mental health, so I let him. I’m grateful he protects me because the night road is dangerous. Still, it didn’t feel like… love, did it?”
Marianne’s hands covered her own cheeks. Hoo, she exhaled a long sigh, perhaps knowing herself that her romantic feelings were already in disarray.
“It’s not like that. Benjamin and I have been friends for too long. We’ve known each other for about ten years now. I know he’s liked me for a very long time, but remember? We used to sleep right next to each other whenever we were homeless, and we talked a lot with wet hair after showering. Back then, we were just like family.”
“Back then?”
“Aigoo, when did you get so sharp?”
Marianne, after a moment of shyness, giggled and pretended to hit the empty space in front of her. Since I was sitting opposite her, she couldn’t reach me, so she resorted to such tricks.
I pretended to rub my arm as if I had been hit, urging her to continue.
“So?”
“Whenever he was desperately pleading in front of me, I felt a bit sorry, a bit embarrassed, and a bit awkward. Honestly, it felt too much like friendship to be called romance. He carried me, piggybacking me whenever my stamina dropped throughout the pilgrimage, so holding his hand didn’t make me flutter, and linking arms didn’t feel like much, for me. He was different, though.”
“…Ahem.”
“You can laugh if you want to.”
“Haha! So, how was Benjamin different?”
“How else? His fingers would stiffen just by touching mine, and when we linked arms, he’d get so rigid that he’d only move his right foot forward.”
“Only his right foot forward?”
“When a person walks, they go left foot, right foot, right? He just kept going with his right foot forward. Like he was broken. I almost died laughing.”
Marianne placed her index and middle fingers on the table, moving only her middle finger forward and dragging her index finger. Middle finger, middle finger, middle finger. Mimicking Benjamin, who walked right foot, right foot, right foot. It was so funny that I laughed, and Marianne laughed too.
Then, the child let out another long sigh.
“…But because he kept doing that, I started to like him too. It was so fun watching him get flustered and not know what to do, and I’d think, ‘Does he really like me that much?’ And when I looked into his eyes, I could see love. It shimmered… It was truly strange.”
“Hmm.”
“So, as I walked home every day… Michael might not know, but even if you don’t hate your job, people naturally want to go home as soon as they get to work. Especially when work is busy and difficult.”
“Yes. And then?”
“When I get off work, I see Benjamin, every day. So… I didn’t know if I was waiting for work to end or waiting for him.”
Marianne’s voice grew a little softer.
“And… he kept getting more handsome.”
“Huh?”
“No! Listen. It’s not like my eyes are deceiving me; objectively. When we were traveling, he was like a potato just dug from the earth. His skin was tanned and uneven, and his hair was a bird’s nest when he woke up, and he didn’t even bother to fix it. If his hair got in the way because it was long, he’d cut it with his own dagger!”
“Hmm.”
“But he’s the youngest son of the Marquisate, isn’t he?”
“…Right?”
“When he returned to the capital, he started taking care of himself. He wore perfectly tailored clothes, cinched his vest tightly at the waist, and his hair… Ah, I really need to get a hairdresser from the Claudian Marquisate. I only just realized his hair was capable of waves.”
“…Mmm.”
“And then, all dressed up like that, he’d be standing neatly in front of the Magic Tower when I got off work. He’d stand there stoically, then smile shyly when he saw me, raising his hand just this much to wave. He’s quite tall, isn’t he? You can see him from 50 meters away, and he’d acknowledge me so cutely!”
“…Ughhhhhh.”
“When I got closer, he’d smell faintly of perfume, and it was always the citrus scent I liked, and he’d extend his right arm… How could I not like him? It’s just,”
The child stopped her hands, which had been roaming the table.
“…I lacked confidence.”
“…”
“I was cowardly, I admit. But what could I do? I love magic more than Benjamin. I want to become Count Philodendor. I couldn’t give that up for anything. Then…”
“…”
“After becoming incredibly wealthy… I started to wonder, ‘Can I be greedy now?’ Of course, I know that fifty thousand gold is a drop in the bucket compared to the Marquisate’s fortune. So I just made a joke, disguised as a joke… I played a prank, but did Benjamin hear what I said?”
“…Yes.”
“Mmm, well. I said something like that. That it would be nice to… live together.”
Marianne’s voice grew progressively softer. I held my breath, sensing the damp atmosphere seeping into her voice.
“Then he stiffened up and looked at me expressionlessly. I thought I had made a mistake. Because I had been… like that all along. Did it look like I was playing with his feelings? That wasn’t it. I thought that.”
“…”
“The next morning, when I was about to go to work, he was standing there wearing a tailcoat.”
“…Yes? Where?”
“In our garden. What’s truly astonishing is that I don’t earn much money since I don’t run a business, even though my rank has increased. So I still live in the same house I lived in with my family. It’s a three-story house, with two servants and two maids, a modest setup, so there are no guards protecting the house.”
“Yes. And then?”
“So, he. He opened the door and came in. He drew a heart with flower petals in the garden. I didn’t know people still did things like that…”
“…Hmph!”
“My family couldn’t go to work and kept pushing me to go out quickly and do something, and the fence isn’t very high, so the neighbors and passersby were all peeking and watching. And there he was, kneeling in the middle of the heart of petals, holding a bouquet this big!”
Ah.
I couldn’t suppress my laughter and covered my mouth with one hand. Marianne, unable to stand still, tugged at her ears and let out a pained groan.
“But when I came out, he looked at me… and never took his eyes off me.”
“Did he just stare?”
“Did you hear what he said?”
“No.”
“Benjamin, like that… kneeling, and then giving me the bouquet.”
The child, with a blushing face and immense shyness, mimicked Benjamin.
“‘Let’s live together. I’ve wanted to say this every day since the first day I saw you. I love you, Marianne. Will you marry me?’ he said…”