TMLOH 107

Chapter : 107

Noel swallowed hard.

“Are you going to scold me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Arellyn smiled beautifully.

“Sometimes siblings fight. And it wasn’t anything serious—what would I even scold you for?”

A pleasant breeze brushed past them.

Falling flower petals.

The murmur of people talking.

The excitement of the festival.

“But you should make up. You two were close, weren’t you? And don’t you like Ciel a lot? Isn’t it uncomfortable to keep acting like this?”

Noel fidgeted with his fingers.

The air surrounding Arellyn felt different somehow. If he made even a small mistake, it seemed like it could scatter into nothing, so Noel was careful even to breathe.

“Arel can be really mature sometimes.”

“She really is more adult than you two.”

“Haha.”

“That sounded sarcastic.”

Arellyn pouted. Even that expression was cute.

“I don’t want to fight with Pession.”

“What?”

Noel found himself liking Arellyn even more, which made things complicated.

He already liked her now—what would happen if he liked her even more?

“Why would you suddenly fight with Pession?”

“There’s something going on. You wouldn’t understand, Arel.”

Arellyn furrowed her brows.

Even now, the way Arellyn’s “danger level” appeared was strangely broken, making it difficult to understand—like a puzzle—but Noel no longer cared or felt curious about it.

Arellyn brushed herself off and stood.

“Anyway! I’ll bring Ciel. Should we really make up?”

“Yes.”

Noel was watching her back, wishing he could hold onto her. At that moment, Ciel, who seemed to have just finished his own meeting with Arellyn, walked over.

“Noel.”

“Ciel.”

Apologies, excuses, or “I’m sorry” weren’t necessary.

The moment they looked at each other, they could understand what the other was thinking.

Making up wasn’t difficult at all.

It was Ciel who spoke first.

Before going to buy skewers, Arellyn had approached Ciel and said just one thing:

“You want to make up with Noel, don’t you?”

It was Arellyn who playfully reached out her hand to Ciel, who had frozen from being caught off guard.

“I’ll help you.”

That was the opportunity they had.

Maybe because they had always been able to understand each other just by looking into each other’s eyes, they had thought words were unnecessary for this kind of thing—but now that it was happening, it felt different.

Expressing your thoughts clearly with words was actually this nerve-wracking.

“Noel… well, you know, whenever Arellyn plays, the area around her lights up, and the golden eyes glow in ways I’ve never seen. It’s amazing and incredible, and I guess that’s why I kept acting out of character.”

This wasn’t just being observed by one person.

Ciel was entranced, as if caught in a spell.

“No, Ciel. It’s me who enjoys Arellyn’s music, but whenever she plays, her danger level shoots up like never before, so I think I got scared.”

Noel carefully and calmly explained her feelings.

“Really?”

Ciel’s eyes widened.

Suddenly, the two became serious. Then, as if nothing had happened, they tilted their heads curiously, back to their usual selves.

“The value went up, but so did the danger?”

“Why?”

“Then the performance can’t happen. We can’t let Arel get hurt.”

They came to a dramatic agreement.

“By the way, Ciel, did Arellyn recognize me?”

“Noel too? I thought so as well. Pession thought I was still Noel until the end.”

Noel and Ciel’s eyes met.

They were thinking the same thing.

“And Arellyn?”

“She went that way earlier.”

“With Harun?”

“Yes. With Pession.”

“Let’s follow them quickly.”

It wasn’t just the two of them now.

“Are the twins really making up?”

Pession, Harun, and I moved to a nearby cafeteria with our drinks after leaving the twins to properly reconcile.

“They’re on their own, so they should manage, right?”

We were separated, but each of us had a guard assigned, so it was fine.

Pession sipped his blue lemonade through a straw and looked at me.

“But why did the twins fight?”

“Difference in artistic opinions, maybe?”

“?”

Come to think of it, Sperom really loves art.

He contacted them to sell the Grandeur series, but my dad refused. Poor Duke Sperom…

‘If he contacts me one more time to sell, he said he’ll burn it in front of my eyes. My dad really has a terrible personality.’

I adjusted my evaluation of my father while crunching ice.

“This tastes good. Try it.”

“Tastes good.”

They said that the evolution of the universe tends toward a final convergence.

Once technology and civilization reach a certain level, differences become negligible. That’s how I felt about this world.

Although it wasn’t science, but magic engineering, the civilization level wasn’t much different from modern times.

Even if not a forest city, the streets of the capital were filled harmoniously with various buildings designed with magic engineering—it was visually stunning everywhere.

It felt like I was truly on a trip.

“Shouldn’t food taste a bit different too?”

Without cocoa powder and coffee, I would’ve taken them to enjoy some honey.

The easiest items for honey were already popularized throughout the capital.

‘Still, if I wanted, I could probably use it somehow.’

I continued comparing what was similar and different from modern life while exploring.

“Oh?”

A familiar pink hair caught my eye.

‘Chloe.’

Why was the heroine here…?

“Eh? Arel, what’s wrong?”

Pession’s eyes met mine reflexively, and when he smiled beautifully, I swallowed hard.

“Nothing…”

“Why? What were you looking at?”

“Well!”

I already knew Chloe would appear, and that I could run into her anytime. My excessive nervousness was entirely my problem.

Even knowing I couldn’t prevent Chloe and Pession from meeting because it was destined, my hands twitched.

Pession, looking out the window, had an expression that subtly changed.

Did he see Chloe?

“Arel.”

“Uh, uh?”

Pession smiled and pointed at something.

“Let’s do that too.”

“Eh?”

How did it come to this?

I stood in the open lobby of the Magic Tower first floor, lost in thought. Harun looked similarly troubled.

The only excited one was Pession.

[Come celebrate the founding festival with the main event at the Magic Tower!]

[Who has talent? Nobody knows! But just participating earns a small prize!]

Letter-shaped creatures with mouths flew through the tower air, chattering endlessly.

“Wizard’s Door?”

“If you have the talent, you can reach the final room.”

Pession’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.

I was about to tell him we would’ve known already if anyone had that talent—but he looked too excited.

“……”

Harun, sharing the same thought, stared at the basic magic books sold on the first floor.

《You Can Do It, Archmage!》

Fraudsters were everywhere.

“Can we play like this without the twins?”

“I told them to bring the twins!”

“Thorough as always.”

Pession grinned.

“I heard that if we find the secret room, we might become an apprentice to the Archmage.”

The tower was clearly planning to profit. I shivered at their shrewdness.

“It’s our turn.”

Pession grabbed my hand excitedly.

Alright, since he’s this happy…

Let’s go along with it.

“Only one person can enter at a time.”

A weary-sounding wizard explained.

For some reason, when I opened the door and entered, I was instantly alone.

Three doors appeared before me.

‘Ah, so this is why it’s called the Wizard’s Door?’

But…

I tilted my head, staring at the doors.

“What is this?”