You two are together?

There was more studying and training. Over the past few days, nothing noteworthy had happened, apart from Crucabena personally using someone who had tried to escape the House of the Hearth and been caught as a subject for combat practice.

Clervie, however, had been troubled lately.

She kept feeling as though her best friend and Xingsu shared some secret they could not tell anyone.

They were like... hmm... like a couple giving each other the silent treatment after an argument.

They clearly seemed to be on good terms, and both had things they wanted to say to each other, yet the instant their eyes met, they would hurriedly look away.

As the saying went, awkwardness was contagious, and Clervie, stuck between the two of them, was experiencing exactly that.

During their free time after dinner, Clervie dragged the two of them to their secret base, an unused attic that had sat empty for a long time.

Speaking of which, Xingsu had been the one to discover this place. There was a window here that gave them a perfect view of the starry sky while lying on the floor.

He did not know whether he was imagining it, but whenever he gazed at the stars, he always felt as though something among them was calling to him.

Back in the present, our little angel Clervie was hard at work trying to break the ice between these two.

"Are you two hiding something from me?" Clervie planted her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks in a sulky pout. Moonlight from the window shone on her back, leaving her face dark in the backlighting.

Unfortunately, despite Clervie's best efforts to look imposing, the two before her only found her comical, and even a little cute.

At the sight of Clervie, both nearly lost their composure, but held back their laughter as they answered:

"No. Why would we hide anything from you?"

"What makes you ask?" Peruere asked in return.

Clervie refused to let Peruere steer the conversation and continued:

"Both of you, look me in the eye."

The two obediently looked at Clervie.

Looking at the girl standing before him with her hands on her hips, glaring at him fiercely-or so Clervie thought-Xingsu was the first to crack.

"Pfft... hahahaha! Clervie, what are you even doing? Hahahaha!"

The girl's face instantly flushed red, and she jabbed Xingsu hard with her utterly harmless fist.

"You're definitely hiding something from me! Xingsu, stop looking at me. Look at Pepe!"

"All right, all right." Xingsu stopped laughing and turned to look at Peruere.

As Xingsu looked into those unusual eyes, fragments of that night kept surfacing in his mind...

I can't just watch you throw your lives away! Those words still lingered in his mind.

...Will I die? If this goes on, I'll definitely die as a traitor... but what about Clervie and Pepe? Clervie is much softer than Peruere. If they really fight, I'm afraid it'll end just like that dream, with Clervie throwing herself onto the blade... The dream. If things really turn out like that dream, and I become the king...

Across from him, Peruere was meeting his gaze as well. She began to reassess Xingsu. In terms of talent, Xingsu was the best among the children. From academic and theory classes to sword practice, he was always among the very best. Or rather, if Crucabena truly wanted to choose a king, Xingsu was the most capable. Without using that hidden power, even I might not be able to beat him... but he doesn't seem to want to become a king. If a day really comes when we turn our blades on each other...

"Hey, hey, hey!" Clervie jumped up and knocked Xingsu on the head. "What are you thinking about? You're staring at Pepe!"

"And you too, Pepe! You're just letting him keep staring at you!"

Only then did the two snap out of it. They turned their heads away, pretending none of that had happened.

Clervie, who had witnessed everything from the side, could hardly pretend nothing had happened. Thinking of how strangely these two had been acting over the past couple of days, and how it had only started after that incident, they must have discovered something or worked something out behind her back. Then it had to be...

Clervie suddenly looked as though lightning had struck her. She pointed at them with a trembling hand. "Y-you two..."

Xingsu and Peruere both wanted to keep something so cruel from Clervie for now. Seeing that their secret was about to be exposed, they hurriedly denied it:

"Clervie, it's not what you think."

"We were just..."

"When did you two get together?!"

Clervie felt as though the sky had fallen. Her best friend and the most outstanding of the children had actually gotten together just like that! Didn't that make her the extra person between them? She imagined the two holding hands in the future while she could only watch from behind, silently offering her blessings...

"Here's what happened, Clervie... that's not what happened, Clervie!" Xingsu had still been thinking about how to explain his wish to overthrow Crucabena, only for Clervie's bombshell to leave him at a complete loss.

"Clervie, it's not what you think." Peruere was still the quickest to regain her composure. Although this misunderstanding was a little absurd, it would be easy enough to clear up.

And how did she even get that idea?! This is ridiculous!

"So when exactly did you two get together? Who confessed to whom? Does Mother know? Have you secretly..." Clervie crossed her hands and tapped her thumbs together.

Clearly, Clervie had not listened to their excuses. The dormant flames of gossip in her heart seemed to have awakened, and she no longer even cared about her place between them. All she wanted was to feast on the gossip. In those few seconds, she had already thought up names for their children.

Thump!

Peruere ignored Clervie's antics and gave her a hard knock on the head.

"Hiss, ow, ow, ow." Tears welled in Clervie's eyes as she clutched her head, successfully calming down.

"Ah! Owwwww-" As though that one blow had not been satisfying enough, Peruere also pinched the flesh on Xingsu's arm hard and twisted it a full 360 degrees.

"Why am I getting caught up in this too?!" Xingsu protested the inexplicable pinch.

His protest was overruled.

The farce ended with two people hurt. Perhaps because things had become even more awkward, Clervie ultimately let the matter of their strange behavior drop.

The three little ones lay in the attic, admiring the starry sky outside through the glass.

When the weather was fine, they would come here from time to time to talk about the interesting things that had happened that day.

Clervie sometimes made refreshments in the kitchen and brought them to share, a small privilege Mother had granted her.

Xingsu liked lying on the floor, gazing at the stars while pointing out the constellations he recognized.

Peruere preferred to listen, offering incisive opinions as Clervie and Xingsu told their amusing stories.

"This starry sky is so lovely. It feels like it's been ages since I last saw so many stars."

"Xingsu... stars..." Xingsu's eyes roamed the vast, boundless starry sky, unable to pull away, as though someone were calling to him.

"Xingsu... Pepe." Clervie softly called to the two of them.

"I heard that at night in Snezhnaya, colorful auroras hang in the sky... When we grow up, let's go see them together!"

"Yes. We'll definitely go see them together."

"...Yes."