Chapter 39: Never Say You Are Happy (2)

「Haa……」

「Your happiness will run away」

「Yes, it"s running away this minute」

「That"s not what I meant……」

I felt alright when I was preparing. I was somehow able to face reality because I was too preoccupied with work.
But when I realized there was nothing more to do, each minute became more and more painful as if I were slowly approaching h.e.l.l.

「In the first place, I am currently working you know?」

「You are helping your father」

「As an apprentice」

Keito who was older than me already graduated from elementary school and is now helping out his father.
Someday he will become a gardener just like his father, but for now he is still just an apprentice. Since he has recently just finish his training his practical skills is still rather inexperienced.

「It"s your lunch break, I heard the time from your father」

「Saying unnecessary things……」

「Your food is ready」

「Yes-yes……」

He prepared it while sighing, it seemed it was an unlucky lunch break for him but luckily for me my luck can"t go any lower.
Incidentally, we aren"t in the usual rose garden but instead in the corner of a garden full of flowers.

We set up a cafe s.p.a.ce under a structure with a rounded white roof, a so called gazebo.
We prepared snacks, sandwiches, and three types of desserts. I would like to place emphasis on the word dessert. Girls are made of sweet and cute things, someone did say that after all!

「Hm, delicious」

「I know right？I helped out today」

「That"s rare, for the cook to permit it」

「Because…….soon it won"t be possible to eat together like this anymore」

Within a month or so I will be leaving for Avantor Academy. When that happens, we can"t eat lunch together like this or have tea parties in the Rose Garden anymore.
I won"t even be able to hear his complaints anymore either……what will I do if I get a hole in my stomach from stress.

「Even so, Maria knows how to cook?"

「The cook also helped me and I can make it if it"s things like sandwiches」

「Usually normal n.o.bles can"t even make sandwiches」

When I think about how we are still able to talk this normally in the short amount of time we have left it"s quite emotional. The speed of sandwich reduction also slows down.

It"s lonely…….also I felt a bit at loss. I won"t actually say that out loud because it will make me look stupid.
As I slowly eat my sandwich while thinking about such things, Keito had already finished off four pieces. Because his break is only an hour and since he also was talking to me perhaps he was unable to eat slowly.

Not that it really mattered, so I continued eating. I took the same amount of time as before and ate the same amount.

「Thanks for the meal, it was delicious」

「Sorry if it wasn"t to your taste, Keito seems to be eating more recently」

「Is that so? Maria seems to be eating less」

「I have not changed」

Growth period? But I don"t feel that he has particularly changed much…….though his face has matured a little.
It then struck me that we can"t stay the same forever. Just like how Keito grew up by being with me, it seems like I also changed little by little by being with Keito.

The period of time I can come back from school is limited…….next time we meet, I wonder if we will still recognize each other?
When I thought about that it somehow became hard to leave, I couldn"t bring myself to put away the empty dishes.

「Maria-sama, so this is where you went」

「Linda-sensei!」

Whether one is anxious or not, time will still move on as usual.
While I was being slow, it seems that the time of my tutoring had arrived instead of Keito"s work.
Judging from what Linda-sensei said as she came out of the mansion with slow steps, it seems she searched for me since I wasn"t in my room.

「I am sorry, I was unaware of the time」

「No, I just arrived a bit too early」

Just like her footsteps, Linda-sensei"s tone was slow so it seems she wasn"t angry. I was thinking about how no one came to call me even though the teacher had already arrived, but apparently it seems I wasn"t late.

「Today we will be practicing magic, so let"s go to the courtyard. Do you have your wand?」

「Yes」

「In that case let"s just directly head over to the courtyard」

I actually wanted to watch Keito work since I was still free and thought I"d rather have just done some self-studying, but in the end I eventually gave in and sighed.
I will be going to middle school soon so I wanted to keep learning as much as I still can.

「Well then Keito see you later!」

I tried being as bright as possible and stood up with a smile.
He will also come to see me off when I leave home so I say this because it"s not actually goodbye yet. I don"t have much time left anyways, so I would like to keep on smiling till the end.

Being solemn doesn"t suit me or Keito.

It"s not like we will never see each other again……or at least that"s how it"s suppose to be. I can"t be certain because the place I am heading to is filled with my death flags.

No, I will do my best with all my power.

「Ah, hey, you forgot your wand!」

「Eh?」

As I was heading back with Linda-sensei, Keito"s voice suddenly calls out to me just as I turned my back.
I looked back quickly upon hearing the words, I have my wand…….I looked at my empty hand which should have been holding the wand.

Keito uttered『Your always like this』because I wasn"t paying attention I had carelessly left the wand I had brought along with me……what a failure.

「You were just talking about it a while ago how did you forget it」

He seemed to be really exasperated as he said that and then gave a sigh.
Uuu……it"s too harsh to retort. To even forget the tool that I needed to use now, I am even surprised at myself.

「Here, be careful」

「Sorry, and thank──」

Uu, it didn"t come out. Or rather I was unable to say it.
Keito had brought the wand over to me and as he reached his arms out to hand it over, at that moment.

The wand suddenly glowed, and the next moment there was a bouquet of flowers in Keito"s hand where the wand should have been.

Pink and yellow statices in the middle, along with margarets, lilacs, and golden oxeyes.

It has zero unity.

There is also flowers that have vines around them, I think it"s probably ivy. It"s an aftereffect of being together with Keito whose father is a gardener and since he is familiar with flowers I also have some knowledge of flowers. I don"t have as much confidence when compared to Keito though.

I had involuntarily concentrated on the flowers to avoid reality……but it"s about time I came back.

Keito is stuck in a position of presenting out flowers to me.

I also learned how to produce flowers from the tip of the wand, it"s one of the basic magic skills. It also leads to attribute magic, it"s essentially fundamental.
But even so, it"s only capable of making flowers bloom from the tip of the wand and couldn"t produce such a bouquet.

「What..is……this?」

「……is this?」

Keito seemed to be completely dumbfounded from the situation……but one thought came to my mind.
I learned about it in one of Linda-sensei"s lessons, the ability to communicate with plants. It"s said that even unknown plants can be produced if you have that ability.
But Keito shouldn"t have that ability.

If I recall there shouldn"t have been such an event.
That"s right, when Greas-sensei was here.

「……Linda-sensei, ano」

「I will call the head and his father」

As expected, Linda-sensei is calm, unlike me who was surprised and fled reality. She probably didn"t want to leave us when were both frozen in shock.
Seeing that I had returned, with her usual smile she gave a bow and headed back into the mansion at her usual pace.

……Eh, are you leaving behind Keito?
Well, it"s fine anyways.

「……Keito is your arm alright?」

「……It"s a bit hot and heavy」

「Right, let"s sit down for the time being」

I received the bouquet and wand from Keito"s hand and then handed the bouquet back to Keito.
Even after I took the wand from Keito and even after I removed the bouquet from the wand the flowers didn"t wither, so I would say my prediction is likely accurate.
I pushed the still confused Keito into the gazebo and the bouquet was placed onto the table.

「Are you okay? How do you feel?」

「Oh, I am completely…….just a bit confused」

「It"s no wonder, I was even surprised」

「……This is that right?」

「Probably, it"s likely what Keito is thinking」

Keito knows about what happened with Greas-sensei, because he also keeps me company he also has knowledge about magic. So he can probably guess what the previous matter was about.

「Linda-sensei said she is going to call both of our fathers, it cannot be concluded without doing an examination but…….probably, there is no doubt」

「……Right」

「Your not……fine are you?」

「No, I was surprised but……that"s all」

Isn"t he sitting a bit too far?
I thought about whether he was just pretending to be tough…….but Keito"s eyes didn"t seem to contain any anxiety or doubt.

「Nature will take it"s own course…… I learned not to worry about things from watching Maria」

「Give me back my concerns」

This person just made of fun of me a little didn"t he? He trampled on my kindness. It"s most definitely the usual Keito with his particular way of kindness.

「Don"t worry, I don"t mean it in a bad way」

「What"s with that self-confidence?」

「Rather than shock, it"s more important that I can go to the same place as Maria」

「……We"re still not sure yet though」

「I know」

It was an irritating laugh. He is definitely enjoying my reaction and laughing about it. I wanted to take revenge, but then his laughter subsided so I stopped.

After that, my father and Keito"s father came and Keito was taken for an examination. I had cla.s.s with Linda-sensei so I left.

I had insisted I wanted to go with him……neither my father nor Keito"s father had said anything but Keito had replied「I don"t need you」so I ended up not going.

The result of the examination came out at night.
Needless to say, we started hastily preparing his enrollment and move to the dormitory the next day.