Chapter 023

「Promise Under The Blue Moon」

Translator: Silver

“It’s a beautiful moon.”

I made that simple observation as I approached the large tree.

“……Mmm.”

The elf girl only gave me a slight acknowledgment.

Abel wasn’t wearing her usual hat.

Even indoors, she usually wore her trademark witch’s hat.

I’m sure she always had it on outside.

Her pale blonde hair reflected the blue moonlight.

She looked majestic and beautiful.

“Abel, today――”

“……Come closer.”

I was cut off before I even start. She sits down and put me on her lap.

We were sitting the same way we had been when I first met her.

(It was like a parent and child at a picnic…)

Our surroundings were so fantastical, but I didn’t feel anything. Well, I’m only a five-year-old child, after all. I just couldn’t immerse myself in the picturesque scenery. So, I got straight to the point.

“Abel, what were you doing today?”

“……Alone, I was just alone.”

“Was it fun?”

“……It wasn’t fun. But it was necessary.”

It was an emotionless and indifferent answer.

I couldn’t see the elf girl’s face. I could only stare up at the moon.

“Were you doing something important?”

“……I was considering something important.”

Abel started patting my head.

What kind of expression did she have?

Are you looking at the moon or me? I didn’t know.

“……I’ve mostly been alone in my past, and it’ll be the same in the future. It’s a matter of fact, and I shouldn’t forget that. I told myself that.”

Time, huh?

Maybe the sense of time was different between Abel and me.

Perhaps it was thousands of years. Maybe this girl has lived even longer than that.

I’m sure the way she sees the world is different from how I see it.

Right now, I was incapable of understanding how she felt.

We couldn’t stay together forever.

“For you, spending time with us is but a brief moment, isn’t it?”

“……Mmm. That’s why it’s so valuable. ……I think so.”

She started hugging me tightly.

“That’s an excellent idea.”

“……It was your mother that said that.”

My mother had a fascinating mind.

I’m impressed that they mutually considered each other best friends.

“……I gained a lot of important things from Lucia. Meeting you, Al, was one of them.”

“Oh, yes. If Abel thinks so, I’m happy.”

But I’ve never done anything for her.

She taught my magic and alchemy, gifted me my own workshop, and hired a master blacksmithing teacher on my behalf. Yet, I couldn’t do anything to pay her back.

“Abel, is there anything you want or something I can do for you?”

Aside from what I couldn’t do yet, knowing what she wanted would allow me to repay her in the future.

“……There is, but it’s impossible.”

I still couldn’t see her expression. But she sounded a bit sad.

“Is it alright for me to ask what it is?”

“……No.”

“I see. That’s a shame.”

I believe that we had a good relationship, but we weren’t at the point where I could learn about the depths of her heart. At least, not yet.

The strength behind the hug increased a little bit.

“……Al is still a child. So you just have to be spoiled.”

Hmm.

So the reason she won’t tell me wasn’t that she didn’t trust me, but because I was still an unreliable child.

If so, there was only one thing I could say.

“Then, when I become an adult, let me repay you, Abel.”

“……, I act under my own beliefs. There’s no need for you to feel indebted to me, Al.”

“Hahaha. So holding me is something that you want to do?”

“…That’s right. I don’t want to let go.”

Uh-huh

I tried to be sly only to receive an embarrassing answer. No, I was happy.

“……Let me ask the same of you. Al, is there something I can do for you?”

“Then, can I touch――”

“……Not that.”

It was shot down immediately.

I must say that the defenses surrounding her ears were incredibly high.

“……If you dedicate no only your mind and body, but a piece of your soul to me, then I’ll let you touch my ears.”

“Eh――”

“……A joke. I wouldn’t and can’t ask you to do that.”

Abel slowly released her hold on me.

“……Al, can you dance?”

“Not really. …… Mother says that it’s something I have to learn.”

Did miss grand dame want to dance?

If I’d know such an opportunity would arrive, I wouldn’t have been so reluctant to learn……

However, Abel didn’t seem particularly concerned as she lifted me up and faced the moon.

“It’s a beautiful moon……”

“……Mmm.”

Although I was repeating myself, Abel honestly replied this time.

“……Just as a stars have a cycle, so to does the moon.”

“The lunar cycle?”

“…… That is also true. I was talking about the hundred-year cycle?”

“Will something happen in 100 years?”

“……No. 10 years. The 100-year cycle will come about within a decade.

10 years.

I’ll be 15 years old by then.

“So, what’s going to happen?”

“……On that day, the ‘Great Blue Night’ will occur. The whole world will be bathed in blue moonlight.”

“Really. It sounds like it’ll be beautiful.”

Wasn’t Halley’s comet on a 75-year cycle? This “Great Blue Night” was a once in a century occurrence.

If you’re unlucky, you could live your entire life without witnessing it.

“……Al. It’d be good if you could remember it.”

Abel sit me on the ground and then took my hand.

“……Ten years from now, I want to share a dance with you on the ‘Great Blue Nigh’.”

“Like now?”

“……Just like now.”

Even though we weren’t dancing, I said such a thing.

We were just holding hands and looking at each other.

“Understood. I’ll learn to dance. Then I can dance with Abel.”

“……Mmm. It’s a promise.

The elf extended her pinky finger and entwined it with mine without hesitation.

The “pinky swear” also existed in this world.

I looked up after that thought crossed my mind.

“……10 years from now, I’ll be looking up to you, Al.”

There was a gentle smile there.

It was the first time I saw one on Abel.

“Beautiful……”

It wasn’t the blue moon.

The girl I made a distant promise with was genuinely captivating.

I felt that from the bottom of my heart.

T/N: Sorry little princess and yandere brocon, but I’m jumping on this ship and going down with it if I have to.

<Previous Chapter   Index    Next Chapter>