Chapter 172: Summer and With It, Trouble (4)

༺ Summer and With It, Trouble (4) ༻

There were quite a few popular locations for dates in the Royal Capital, but the Bayt Royal National Garden, located on the outskirts of the city, was considered by many to be a must-visit.

Not only did the garden look spectacular, but the trees and flowers of this place had concealed the underground cave, which was dug out by the believers during the beginning days of the Kingdom to hide from the eyes of the persecutors.

For the believers of the Order, it was a historical site that showcased their faith and was also a fabulous garden that provided a wonderful walking path for the citizens of the Kingdom.

Due to the amount of historical significance in the Bayt Garden, it later became a national garden and underwent a few changes, but that wasn't important for the young couples.

That popular national garden was what had been decided to be Hua Ran and Korin's main venue for their date.

"Ugh..."

In front of the ticketing office located at the entrance of the garden, a black-haired girl was restlessly walking around in circles.

『Hua. Honestly, you're very distracting.』

"Uht..."

Hua couldn't say anything back to her sister. She was too nervous and her mind was so preoccupied that she couldn't even think of a response.

"Will he... come?"

『There's no way he wouldn't.』

"But..."

What if Korin hated her? Like, even if he didn't hate her, what if he didn't consider her a potential partner for a date?

Looking back, she was full of regret. She continued asking herself, 'Why did I say that? Just why?'

Even Korin seemed slightly befuddled by her sudden request, and he took a while to agree...

『Sure. Anywhere you want to go?』

Everything went by in a flash after that. Korin decided on the date, and the girls returned to the hotel that Marie had booked for them.

Fortunately, Alicia and Marie had zero clue that Hua Ran was going on a date with Korin.

On D-day, Hua wore something vastly different from her usual, dry nun clothes.

You had to wear something pretty for a date - that was a fact that she had taken in from one of Josephine's romance novels. Therefore, the two girls in one body withdrew cash from the Zeon Order's coin storage and immediately headed to a nearby clothing store.

It wasn't her first time buying clothes. Estelle had taken her to clothing stores a few times, paying several gold coins every time.

However, it was her first time going into a clothing store by herself. Not knowing anything, she just bought the dress that was recommended by the staff, but...

"T, this... is, is too bold."

『...But everyone wears stuff like that here.』

Hua Ran was wearing an off-the-shoulder dress. This country was very open with bold outfits and skin exposure, but it was very embarrassing for the two, who had come from the East.

『Marie-unni... and Alicia all wear like this. This is... probably normal, right?』

"They're all... crazy."

Let alone belly buttons and thighs, the women of this country all exposed either the top or the side of their breasts as if that was the common sense of a lady!

『But it's... pretty.』

"...Is it?"

『Yes. Hua, you look very pretty right now.』

"Will... Korin think the same?"

『It's said in one of Senior Professor Josephine's romance novels. Apparently, men are like rabid dogs and lose themselves when they see bare skin.』

"What does 'rabid' mean?"

『They held hands together on the bed after that, so maybe it's part of the ritual in calling storks? But why dogs?』

"...Do you need dogs to summon storks?"

『...Wait, so the reason there haven't been any storks until now even though we slept while holding hands...』

That can't be...

It seemed that being far away from the stork habitat wasn't the only reason behind their failure. After coming across such a shocking truth, the sisters both thought about somehow getting themselves a dog.

"...It's too early for a stork."

『Think about it though. A stork carrying a little baby that looks like us and Oppa. How handsome, and how pretty will the child be?』

"...Don't say 'us'."

『You're saying that again?』

Ran was the one that liked Korin, not her - Hua once again put emphasis on that to defend herself. This date was just to confirm the fact that she did not like Korin.

"Sorry, I'm late. Ohh~ new clothes, huh?"

"Y, yeah..."

Hua unconsciously gulped as she saw Korin arrive 10 minutes before the promised meeting time. It was her first time showing a casual outfit and was therefore visibly nervous.

What will he say? Will he say it's pretty? Or that it looked nice?

For some reason, Hua had a feeling that she would feel hurt if he said something negative.

"You look pretty. You've always been pretty but seeing you dressed up makes you look different. In fact, my question is, why haven't you been dressing up like this until now?"

"R, really?"

It was a magnificent reply from the male. With a shy look on her face, Hua fidgeted with the short strands of her hair.

"Let's go buy clothes together later when we have a chance. I'm sure you'll look pretty no matter what you wear, but we can buy accessories that go well with you and your clothes as well."

"Nnn..."

Hua was bashfully fidgeting with her hair when Korin reached out to grab her hand. She flinched from the sudden turn of events, but her surprise didn't end there.

Korin gave a kiss to the back of her hand and asked to escort her, as he had been 'taught'.

"Shall we go, my lady? If you give me the honor of escorting you, that is."

"Y, yeah... Nn..."

Unable to fling away or reject his hand, Hua found herself holding onto Korin's hand as they entered the garden together. As expected of a popular garden, it was packed with people.

"There are a lot of people. Are you okay?"

"I'm... fine."

Hua, who hated being with a large crowd, leaned on his shoulder like a kitten relying on its mother.

More parts of their body came into contact, from hand-in-hand to arm-in-arm. Oblivious to how the warmth of the touching skin was flushing up her cheeks, Hua Ran leaned in even closer.

"Smells nice. No wonder everyone recommends this place."

"Yeah..."

"This place is famous for the Pigeon Cave, which leads to an underground shelter. Going to that place first seems to be the way to go, so do you want to try that one out first?"

"Okay..."

Following the signs that wouldn't have been there in the distant past, they walked forward until they arrived at the famous Pigeon Cave. Going down the stone staircase that led to the shelter of the persecuted believers, they found a wide entrance.

Despite the expensive magical lamps placed here and there, the cave was overall still dark. The two of them therefore stuck close to each other as they walked down the pathway.

On the walls of the dark cave, they found several equal-sized spherical holes.

"Hua, look. This must be where they kept the pigeons."

"Y, yeah..."

Hua couldn't focus on the conversation. Her mind was solely focused on her arm that was locked next to Korin's.

The sound of her heart, which was always noisy when next to him, sounded even noisier inside the silent cave.

'Can he hear it? Can he?'

『H, he shouldn't be able to.』

All she could do was hope that the sound of her heartbeat wouldn't reach the ears of the one next to her. Hua Ran... was intoxicated by the sweetness of the situation.

***

Hua didn't look too good.

When we were exploring the cave, she didn't bother looking around and instead held tightly onto my arm with her head dropping low.

'Is she scared of dark places?'

It was a mistake on my part for not checking beforehand whether she had claustrophobia or anything similar.

"I think we are done with the cave now. Do you want to go up?"

"..."

Without saying anything back, Hua silently gave a nod in response.

The highlight of the national garden was sitting down on a mat next to the flowerbeds, enjoying the fragrant scent of flowers while having lunch.

After finding a great place to sit down, I opened up the mat and placed it on the ground. It was still a bit early for lunch though; it was more like a brunch.

"..."

Sitting down on the mat, I took out some food. Honestly, kimbaps were the best for picnics but it was hard to make those here, so I brought some sandwiches instead.

It wasn't my first time coming here, but the Royal National Garden truly was a spectacular place.

Tulips were decorating the entirety of the large hills at the front. Tulips of all sorts of colors were each taking up a territory as they harmonically brightened the scenery, resembling the tulip fields of the Netherlands.

The beautiful background that was spectacular for both the eyes and the nose was further supplemented by Hua munching on the sandwiches like a squirrel.

She really is...

"Cute."

"Uhh..."

Hua seemed to have picked up the word that unconsciously slipped out of my mouth. Seemingly very embarrassed, she dropped her head and said after throwing a glance.

"...Me?"

"Yeah. Cute and pretty. You would put anyone in a good mood just with your looks."

"Uhhh..."

Her ears turned deep red as the heat rapidly moved down to her cheeks. I was not telling a single lie.

"Trust me. You're the prettiest and the cutest person in the world right now."

Hearing that, her eyes turned into circles. It was my first time seeing her open her eyes up that wide.

"You're... also looking, h, han..."

"Nn? What was that?"

"...Not bad."

"Ah... Is it not that good? I tried my best though..."

I dropped my head looking dejected which immediately put Hua Ran in a fluster. She rolled her eyes and moved her arms around in agitation, not knowing what to do, which looked very funny and cute.

"No, I mean... like..."

"I'm joking."

"Uht...!"

When I mischievously said that with a smile, Hua at last realized that she had been fooled and turned red. She then took revenge.

-Slam!

"Uahk...!"

It was probably a gentle punch for her, but it felt like my shoulder was about to be ripped off. Even though I did deserve a little punch, from the looks of things, it seemed that one regeneration ability wouldn't be enough to let me tease her another time.

"I won't... apologize for that."

"Haha. Sorry."

After we were done with lunch, we got up and started walking around the garden.

"Look. This rose is gold. It must be magic, right?

"Shall we buy some souvenirs? How about a hairpin? Don't you think this red tulip pin looks great?

"Ohh! They're having a concert there. Should we listen for a bit?"

"..."

It seemed that I was the only one excited with the flowers. Despite going around and having the chance to look at all sorts of flowers and souvenirs, I found her looking at me whenever I turned around.

In hindsight, it was to be expected that Hua wouldn't be interested in flower viewing. Ran might be interested, but it appeared that I had chosen the wrong venue regardless.

We had an early dinner at a restaurant inside the garden and discovered the countless stars that were decorating the night sky when we left the restaurant.

There was a great place to see stars nearby, but I got the impression that she probably wouldn't enjoy it, just like with the flowers.

"Should we start heading back?" I asked.

"...No."

And received a completely unexpected reply.

***

In the end, we walked all the way to the cave which was great for seeing stars.

Technically, we were no longer inside the Royal National Garden and were just outside of it. In the far-off distance on the grassland going all the way west to the horizon were several bell-shaped caves.

This was a place that was shown in the game as a part of the background with no interaction possible. In reality, however, it was one of the many caves that were discarded by the government.

Unlike the caves inside the national garden that the Kingdom maintained to be tourist attractions, the caves here were raw and untouched.

"Here."

Going past the entrance that was wide enough for several adults to walk in side-by-side, we walked down the dark cave. Before long, we came across a single ray of light shining down.

"Where is this?"

Inside the enormous cave, there was a hole in the ceiling that gave way to starlight.

This place was the only place inside this cave that had light. I laid myself down underneath the hole to bask in the light that was under the monopoly of this room.

"There was a time when I lived here due to some circumstances and reasons. Back then, I had to hide myself but that was when I came across this fabulous place. I wanted to show this to you since we were here."

'Lie down,' I suggested as Hua carefully laid herself down on top of the mat. I recommended my arm as a pillow like I had done a few times already, and she did not refuse the offer.

When we laid down on the ground, we could see several stars through the small hole of the cave. The lake of stars inside the hole was much smaller than the ocean of stars you would be able to see outside.

"...Small."

Hua seemed to have thought the same thing and gave her honest review.

"It is. You would be able to see a lot more stars outside."

"Then why?"

"Sometimes, I think this to myself. As great as it is to share something beautiful with everyone else, sometimes I want to keep that all for myself."

Nature belongs to everyone. I had no plans of refuting that, but was it so bad to think about being a little selfish?

"The people viewing stars outside gaze up at the broad space without even knowing what they are looking at. But right now, we are only looking at the stars that are filling up that tiny hole."

We were the ones monopolizing those stars. We were the only ones gazing at those stars that filled up a small and compact area, which no one else in the world even knew of.

"Only... us?"

As if she was intrigued by my idea, she followed the end of my finger when I pointed off into the distance.

"It's ours."

"Ours..."

Perhaps it might be a severely selfish interpretation, but this had left quite a deep impression in my mind, even in the last iteration.

All I hoped for was that this moment would be left behind in Hua's mind as a memory worth revisiting, just like how it had been for me.

"..."

For a long time, her crimson eyes were focused on the stars above while I looked at the side profile of her face.

In her immersion, her eyes reflected the stars and sparkled like gems.

The stars that were inside her eyes, which were even smaller than the tiny hole of the cave, were extremely close. The moment I realized that those stars were so close that she could feel my breath—

"...Kuhum."

I cleared my throat as I continued gazing at the little artwork. Right now, I was the only one here; I was the one monopolizing the artwork called Hua Ran.

For a very short moment - perhaps one that barely lasted for three seconds - I continued that one-sided exchange.

"What's wrong?"

Hua turned around after sensing my gaze which unfortunately put an end to that exchange.

"Nothing."

Looking away from her eyes, I turned back to the sky as Hua soon followed suit. For quite some time, we silently gazed at the sky and focused our eyes on the stars that were ours and ours alone.

The wide room of the cave, which amplified even the softest of whispers, remained silent for a very long time.