Chapter 237
Ardin came to an abrupt halt without realizing it, staring at the two of them.
Dantère’s face, as he wrapped an arm around Vivian’s shoulders and looked down at her, was suffused with happiness. As though he truly enjoyed this time he was spending with her.
Then what about her?
Ardin took in the sight of Vivian stepping into a scene that had once been familiar to him.
She had looked listless these days, but today she seemed in fairly good spirits.
Rather than because of Dantère, it seemed the Academy itself had caught her interest.
‘Hm….’
The two standing together, unexpectedly, suited each other well.
He had thought Dantère Ortatum was hopelessly promiscuous and incapable of treating women with any seriousness nor respect.
Yet the expression and attitude of the man standing beside Vivian now felt like those of someone entirely different from the person Ardin had known.
Vivian must have felt something similar to Ardin, which was why she could be at ease around him.
Was there any space for me to step in between them?
It already looked like a perfectly framed picture.
Would it be better to pretend I did not see them and quietly avoid the place for now. If I approached for no reason, Vivian might look at me with a frown, as though she found me tiresome.
As those twisted thoughts wriggled inside him, Ardin recalled the handkerchief Professor Dellin had tucked into his jacket pocket.
The opportunities he had missed after binding his own limbs.
Even though he had regretted it, he had almost chosen the familiar path once again.
Simply because it felt awkward and unfamiliar.
“Vivian.”
Ardin, who had been standing within the shadow by the building entrance, took a deep breath and stepped forward. Then he called her name.
“Ardin, you were here?”
Vivian smiled when she saw him, and Dantère clicked his tongue.
Had he become an interloper?
Perhaps that was the case.
But Ardin knew that by taking this single step, he would be able to spend the rest of the day with Vivian.
Despite winter having already begun, the midday felt unusually warm. The memory of a day spent laughing and chatting as they toured the Academy together was about to bloom like a bright flower.
Even if things did not work out with Vivian in the future, it would not be meaningless. Memories were not meant to consist only of joyful and happy moments.
Even if they were sad, painful, or bitter.
It was enough to make use of this newly gained opportunity and create one fulfilling day that could adorn his empty life.
“Did you come to look around the Department of Magic?”
“Yeah.”
“If you are all right with it, I can show you around. I probably know this place better than the Young Marquis.”
Dantère furrowed his brow in irritation, yet could not refute it.
The Department of Magic was a place firmly closed to those not born with talent.
Excluding Lionel, who exerted an almost suspicious degree of influence over the Department of Magic, Ardin was the only one among Vivian’s acquaintances who could guide her here.
Vivian readily nodded.
“Thank you. I had a lot of questions.”
Dantère would feel bitter at missing the chance to be alone with her, but what could be done? They had already agreed not to force Vivian into making a choice.
How important Vivian was to Dantère, a man who had experienced countless women, was none of Ardin’s concern.
Still, could she possibly hold as much meaning for him as she did for me.
‘Unlike you, Vivian was my first, and she will be my last.’
Standing on the opposite side from Dantère, Ardin intertwined his fingers with Vivian’s hand.
“Let’s go.”
No matter what Dantère did with Vivian from now on, he would not be able to exclude Ardin.
Unlike the past, when he would withdraw after reading the situation, he would make a far greater effort to spend time with her going forward.
He would stubbornly create opportunities and fill the pages of memory to the brim.
That was Ardin’s way of settling his regret for the time he had foolishly let slip away.
* * *
‘Th-this was not what I meant to happen.’
I could not say there had been no selfish desire at all, but this kind of development was truly not what I had wanted.
Lionel, who had been biting down on my chest and forcefully licking the peak with the tip of his tongue, suddenly lifted his gaze.
The moment my eyes met those red pupils, clouded with heat and greed as though they were boiling over, what I was holding around him below tightened with a twitch.
It felt like I was doing something truly wrong.
Of all things, Lionel was wearing the uniform Academy students wore.
This was the very uniform Lionel had worn back when he was enrolled as a student.
Amazingly, the space Lionel had used remained exactly the same even now, several years after his graduation.
According to the dorm supervisor, royal nobles from foreign countries would occasionally inquire about using this space, only to hear that Lionel had once lived here and recoil in shock before choosing another room.
Well, needless to say, the young nobles within the empire, who would scramble to flee, flustered at the mere sight of him, were no exception.
