It was a flowing dress of water hue.
Coupled with the cold moon, it had a somewhat chilly color, but it didn’t leave such a cold impression when matched with her face.
The usually proud woman had a blush on her cheeks. Looking shy, she fiddled with her skirt.
Was this the first time Adele wore a different outfit? Suddenly feeling my breath catch, I couldn’t speak, and Adele’s eyes narrowed.
I saw her hair flowing naturally as she moved her head.
Her pure white hair brushed against the dress, seemingly turning the surroundings into a monochrome palette for a moment.
At the same time, there was a sense of déjà vu.
Having seen this dress somewhere before, I couldn’t just call it beautiful without thought.
Through the blurred residual thoughts, a voice penetrated. It was Adele’s voice, frowning slightly.
“Is it not good?”
“No, I mean…”
What was I supposed to say? The sight before my eyes was something I couldn’t have imagined.
Adele in a dress? If the socialite crowd saw this, they would surely be shocked.
However, even though she was wearing a dress, her posture was still a bit off, causing a chuckle to escape me.
“Then why are you laughing? Don’t make it frustrating. It’s just… yeah, it’s the first time I’m wearing it, so I just wanted to know what you think.”
“Why haven’t you worn it until now? It suits you so well.”
“Hmph.”
Even with that scoff, she didn’t seem displeased as she slowly tucked her hair behind her ear.
Even upon a second look, I couldn’t believe this image. Rather than awkward, it suited her as if she had always worn it.
That’s why I lost my words.
I didn’t know what her intention was in pulling out the dress, but if it was to make me flustered, she had certainly succeeded.
…Honestly, she looked pretty.
I couldn’t find any other words to describe it.
She had always been beautiful, but particularly in the dress, Adele stood out even more.
Watching Adele awkwardly adjust her skirt, I suddenly became curious as to why she wore the dress.
So I asked, and she shot me a look as if to say, “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Did you forget there’s a New Year’s event at midnight? I told you to stay for two days to show you that.”
“Ah.”
I was so distracted by the South that I’d completely forgotten.
Wasn’t the New Year after midnight? Then again, she didn’t seem the type to dress up for it.
But it was her fickleness that changed with occasion, so I decided to accept it.
She probably just wanted to wear a dress. Although I couldn’t deny that the reason was tied to me, I had nothing to say because it suited her so well.
However, my attire didn’t look very neat compared to her dress.
Not having considered such a situation, when I tried to change my clothes, Adele spoke.
“You don’t have to go. It’s not like I’m wearing this for anyone.”
“But there is a matter of courtesy, right?”
“Who are you trying to be courteous to? If I don’t care, just quietly escort me.”
Just like at the Full Moon Festival, she reached out to me and waved her hand.
Seeing the gesture to hurry and grab it, I lightly clasped her hand, and Adele smiled before standing beside me.
Adele, dressed not in armor or a cloak but in a dress, seemed awkward, but it felt like I was the only one feeling that way.
Adel, dressed in a dress, looked so awkward that it felt like I was the only one who noticed.
I awkwardly smiled and followed Adel’s lead.
Probably heading towards a festival to decorate the last night, the last day in the North.
“Let’s go now. The North’s festival will be a bit new.”
#
The mention of “new” didn’t sound very positive.
It must be due to the cultural differences between the North and the Center.
There were too many wild things for Adel, in her dress, to participate in, and everything to see was just bleak.
Though it was a festival for the New Year, it had a strong sorcerous character.
Unlike the sorcerers of the South, they merely worshipped beasts and nature, offering thanks to the gods for getting through another year unscathed.
That’s probably why the Order finds the North bothersome.
Gathering people who honor nature more than the Moon God, perhaps Adrian and Adel’s discomfort with each other stemmed from this region.
As I aimlessly glanced around, Adel furrowed her brow at Bunta, who was running around with a barrel.
“I told him to behave, but it seems he’s gone wild.”
“Well… I think it’s fine as long as he doesn’t harm anyone.”
My eyebrows twitched as I watched him smash a stall.
Of course, Bunta was bound to cause trouble. No matter how much a lieutenant he was, Adel couldn’t overlook such antics.
As a subordinate of the Grand Duke, he ought to set an example, right? Just as Adel sighed and was about to move…
“Hey, Bunta, the Grand Duke told you to behave.”
Out of nowhere, Lothos, who had been ambling over, grabbed Bunta by the collar.
Looking angrily, he glared into Bunta’s eyes, but then tilted his head slightly towards us.
Then he glanced at me, flashed a grin, and continued.
“Today, the Grand Duke is busy. He can’t pay attention to you one by one. Follow me with that barrel; we need to fix this here.”
Lothos, winking with one eye obnoxiously, bowed his head towards our direction and quickly disappeared.
Should I say he’s quick-witted or utterly clueless?
Looking at Lothos with a face full of disbelief, Adel shook her head and chuckled.
“He’s completely lost it.”
“So what will you do now?”
I subtly asked, glancing at Adel’s dress. The way she walked alongside me seemed quite awkward.
Her feet must be hurting by now; those high-heeled shoes couldn’t be easy for her.
I didn’t quite understand why she was voluntarily going through this trouble, but I didn’t want to keep watching her walk uncomfortably.
Realizing somewhat what I meant, Adel looked at me for a moment, nodded, and replied.
“…I might as well take a little break.”
“I wonder if your feet are okay.”
“They’re fine. It’s not like I’ll be hurt from just wearing heels.”
She shook her feet a few times and then started striding somewhere.
Adel was definitely heading towards the forest.
A secluded place where no one was around, and you could see the entire sky during this winter.
As we walked among the bare trees, I occasionally caught Adel as she slipped.
“Are you alright?”
“You don’t need to catch me. I won’t get hurt if I fall.”
“You really don’t need to do that.”
As I held her waist and gently lifted her up, Adele, who had been staring at me blankly, brushed off her waist and began to walk again.
If she was going to do that, it would’ve been more comfortable to just wear her usual attire. I thought she might have worn the dress to give a speech, but there was no speech from Adele at this year’s New Year’s festival. The reason? She was too lazy.
If Adele said that, it would be a perfectly understandable reason. So, in the spare time left, she must have gone to find and put on a dress.
If you asked why, I wouldn’t really know. In the now completely darkened forest, a small flame flickered up.
The artifact in Adele’s hand emitted a tiny flame, spreading into the forest and creating a soft glow around us.
So, it wasn’t that dark.
With the faint light reminiscent of twilight, it wasn’t difficult to reach our destination. It was a place I was familiar with. It was somewhere Adele often brought me to.
I had been wondering when I would come to this place in this life, and it seemed today was that day.
The only spot in the forest with a clear sky, where a fallen tree lay like a bench.
In the round opening of the sky, a solitary full moon floated, accompanied only by countless stars dotting the space beside it.
After being still for a moment as the wind sneaked in between the trees, I met Adele’s gaze as she looked at me.
Even in the dim light, her face was quite easy to see. Perhaps because of her striking appearance,
As I saw Adele, who seemed completely free from the title of Grand Duke, I gradually parted my lips.
“Is this the place you were trying to come to?”
“Yeah, it’s a place I often visit. When I want to be alone.”
“But today, it’s just the two of us.”
“I know. I brought you here on purpose. Didn’t I say I wanted to show you something?”
I thought the ‘something’ she wanted to show me was the dress, but it looked like there was still something else.
What could it possibly be? As I silently stared at Adele, she realized our eyes were locked and shrank her shoulders.
It was apparent that her dress was thin.
It seemed like the magic had made it somewhat bearable, but still, this was the North.
After a moment of just staring, I opened my mouth again.
“You look cold.”
“I’m not cold.”
Here I was with my cloak wrapped around me, while Adele wore just her dress without any outerwear.
Anyone looking would probably think I was doing something terrible to her.
It concerned me. Even if she was okay, it meant I was uncomfortable.
I strode over to Adele, who was sitting against the tree stump.
When I approached, a surprised Adele looked at me blankly as I draped my cloak over her shoulders.
“You said you weren’t cold.”
Seeing her frown as if to say, ‘What are you doing?’ made me let out a small chuckle.
Though my cloak was gone and her shoulders felt bare, my heart felt more at ease seeing her comforted.
“Just stay like that. I’m worried you might be cold.”
“…Stop worrying about useless things. I’m leaving tomorrow anyway.”
“Then why did you wear the dress? Wouldn’t it have been more comfortable to wear your usual clothes if you were coming this far?”
She wasn’t giving a speech, and she wasn’t making a public appearance for the festival after all.
When I asked, Adele hesitated, her lips quivering as she pondered the answer.
After a while of deep thought, she finally met my eyes and slowly replied.
It was different from the eyes I usually saw. Softly shimmering as if recalling a distant memory, her eyes undulated like ripples.
The eyes were like ripples, softly shimmering.
“A long time ago, I think I wanted to show you this.”
“Huh…?”
As I wondered what she meant, Adele shook her head and didn’t say another word.
A long time ago, huh? I didn’t know when she meant, but it didn’t feel like that long ago.
A strange question rose up and settled in my mind.
Her tone just now felt like she was talking about a ‘past’ that only I knew.
The dress that Adele was wearing was something I had seen before.
It was the dress I had found in the room where she used to live when I couldn’t prevent her death by betrayal.
The memory of that dress, now ownerless, was still vivid in my mind. Yet, seeing her talk like that made those memories resurface.
It was probably just a coincidence. No one else had ever recalled a previous cycle.
So I turned my gaze again. Breaking away from the old memories, I looked up at the sky.
“Robert. This is what I wanted to show you.”
Fwoosh—
Along with Adele’s voice, I saw something streaking across the sky.
It was a sound that had awakened my consciousness back then, during the Full Moon Festival.
Bang—!
Fireworks streaked across the sky, instantly filling the surroundings with noise.
The sound was so loud it rendered my ears numb, and the light brightened the night sky to the point where the moonlight was obscured.
White, red, blue. The colorful display of lights blinded my eyes.
“I liked what I saw during the last Full Moon Festival. So I brought it all the way from the North.”
Bang—!
The loud noise drowned out all sounds, yet Adele’s voice remained clear.
As I watched the lights in the completely open forest, I turned my gaze back to Adele.
In that moment, shadows approached. Adele’s face, seen under the bright sky, was cloaked in darkness.
Yet, as our eyes met, her gently trembling lips spoke once more.
It was a somewhat cautious voice.
“Isn’t it pretty? The expression… might be a bit lacking.”
Old memories resurfaced. Here stood the woman who had said she had something to show me, but could never return.
This was an echo. It was like a curse for me living through my memories, and all I could do was overlay it onto Adele.
When the hazy afterimage overlapped to form a single state, a faint smile appeared on the face I finally faced.
Light, darkness.
Among the repetitive scenes, what stood out wasn’t the light of the fireworks.
It wasn’t the moon floating in the sky or the stars regaining their light.
It was merely a woman in a dress of blue water.
“…You’re beautiful.”
I replied, looking at Adele, not the sky.
Without adding anything about the fireworks, she slightly averted her gaze from the intense stare I gave her.
Seeing her like that, I quietly added with a smile.
“Very much.”
It was something I should have said before, but only now did I spit it out.
And then I realized.
I was still living within the echoes of memory.
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