Noah, who’d remained silent for some time, looked down at my arm and asked. “Is your arm okay now?”
“Of course. In fact, I could honestly take off the bandages now.”
When I waved my arms around to show that it was okay, Noah’s eyes widened. His countenance also seemed to turn a little blue.
Only after I consciously lowered my arm did Noah’s expression relax a little.
With a more at ease expression, Noah moved his lips. “Yes, I would like to join you.”
“Sir Linus and Sir Aiden are coming too, of course.”
I added, in case Noah might find it burdensome, “Everyone’s worked hard, after all.”
“…”
Clapping in excitement, I headed to Linus’s room.
“What?”
“I’m sorry, Lady Blair.”
Contrary to my expectations, Linus refused me immediately.
With a slightly wounded expression, I asked again. “You really aren’t going? It’s very fun…”
“I apologize, Lady Blair. I must write this report to give to the master of the Tower of Magic, so…”
With the still-to-be-written report in his hand, Linus answered me with an apologetic face.
Aiden, too, glanced at Noah’s face before he shook his head.
“Oh… Alright,” I murmured, lowering my head.
Glancing at Noah standing next to me, I pouted my lips.
Then, did that mean… we were canceling?
Aw, what a shame. I’ll have to ask Rita to bring back something to eat for me. What should be good – cotton candy? Or some skewers?
While I was in the middle of thinking about what to eat… “What are you doing?” I asked, seeing Noah turn around.
“Preparing to go out.” Then Noah blinked and asked, “Would you rather not go if it’s just two people?”
“Noo, no, that’s not it.”
Wah, ahh, ahhh?
Only then did I understand and pointed at the both of us with my finger.
“Oh, you mean the two of us.”
With a nonchalant expression, Noah motioned with his chin. “Then, shall we go?”
Seeing how proactive he was, Noah must have been wanting to go out and play, too.
That made sense. Even though it was our vacation, he was busy throughout with subjugations, leaving him no time to rest or to play. As someone who’d received his help, it was the least I could do to take him out to have some fun.
“… Coming.”
I’ll go and enjoy the market for just a little bit. We’ll have to come back home when the sun goes down anyway.
We had approximately three hours before sunset. We can play for just that much time.
Counting down the time in my head, I began moving my feet.
***
Out in the city now, I was awash in a huge struggle.
What in the world was I supposed to feed Noah?
I mean, in the first place, could I actually feed him anything at a place like this? Though I had no intentions to talk bad about our fief, Noah was the son of a marquis in the capital.
First off, it didn’t seem from mealtimes that there wasn’t anything he didn’t eat…
Eh, whatever, I’ll just ask him to pick something for now.
“What would you like to eat, Noah?” I asked, pointing at the sprawling row of stalls. I felt secure with my allowance in my pocket. “Oh, you know about cotton candy, right?”
As soon as Noah quietly pointed at the cotton candy stall, I brought out my wallet.
“Let me buy it for you. Stay here.”
“No, that’s alright.”
We took our wallets and argued for a while before I came up with a suggestion, thinking we wouldn’t be able to reach an end like this. “Then should we buy one each?”
After reluctantly dissuaded by Noah’s insistence that he’d buy mine too, I accepted a large pink stick of cotton candy.
“Thank you.”
“Eat well, miss.”
After staring at the gold coin that Noah offered him in bewilderment, the uncle at the stall rummaged through his pocket and gave him a handful of copper coins for his change.
It was natural that such a large unit of currency was rarely circulated at a small street stall like this. Somehow, it seemed a bit funny.
Watching Noah receive the cotton candy with his hand full of copper coins, I bit into my cotton candy with a proud expression.
It tasted great in my mouth.
Licking at the sticky area around my lips, I turned to look at Noah.
Noah was awkwardly licking the cotton candy with his pink tongue. And somehow, the appearance of this was rather obscene… Get a grip, me.
After shaking sanity back into my head, I glanced at Noah in observation.
Did he not know how to eat cotton candy? Then why did he choose this?
Though I guess cotton candy did look very pretty. Very fluffy and pink.
Looking down at the cottony pinkness, for some reason, I was also reminded of Flora’s hair.
“You can just tear it off with your hands and eat it.” Laughing softly, I ripped a part of the cotton candy and put it in my mouth.
Hearing my words, Noah tore off a very timid size of the cotton candy.
Just as he was about to chew on it, it must’ve melted away—Noah paused for a moment, his golden eyes shaking.
Th-that’s so cute.
“…”
At the edges of his white fingers, cotton candy stuck to his fingertips like wool.
I was about to bring my hand to my mouth and say that he could just lick that when Noah suddenly leaned in my direction.
For an instant, I caught a whiff of sweetness.
“It’s good,” he murmured, licking his fingertips slightly.
I averted my eyes for no apparent reason and nodded my head.
Wait, but did Noah like sweets before?
Remembering the peppermint that had disappeared into Dora’s mouth, I tilted my head.
“Would you like to sit down?” I asked, pointing to a nearby bench, since Noah’s eating speed was a bit slow.
If I knew this would happen, should we have begun eating at a later time? But other than eating, there wasn’t much else to do.
Tearing and eating the cotton candy, Noah nodded.
His cotton candy disappeared at a slower rate when compared to mine. Glancing at my side secretly, I slowed down my eating speed as well.
Just like that, we slowly finished our cotton candy, bit by bit.
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