I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess – Chapter 65

Due to Silvia causing yet another commotion, the castle remained in a state of uproar for the entire day.

Later, the three gathered in Edgar’s room found themselves merely glancing at one another in an unusually tense atmosphere.

To be precise, it was Silvia who was nervous, while Ariel, arms crossed, waited to see how she would react.

Caught in between the two women and calmly sipping tea with a bitter smile was Edgar.

“So, what’s your explanation?”

Ariel’s utterance shattered the silence, causing Silvia to tremble slightly.

Her defensiveness was unlike her usual self, but having committed a wrong, she had no words to offer.

Edgar, this time, couldn’t side with Silvia either, instead just munching on the cookies laid out on the table.

On the bright side, the cookies weren’t overly sweet, so they suited his taste.

“Well, you see… I thought that candy was the real deal at first too?”

“And yet?”

Ariel’s demeanor seemed to say, “If you don’t want sparks flying from your hands right now, hurry up with your story.”

In response, Silvia could only continue, trembling like a small animal facing its predator.

“But yesterday, your condition seemed a bit off, so out of curiosity, I tried one, and it had no effect…?”

“It had no effect?”

“Yeah. So later I checked, and the packaging of the medicine was slightly different. I must have mistakenly taken a regular candy from home.”

In other words, she meant to say she brought a normal candy instead of the magical one that only looked the same.

Upon hearing this, Ariel let out a deep sigh and glared at her friend, who had turned into an enemy under the name of friend.

In her gaze, the question of “Should I kill this or not?” was unmistakable, causing Silvia to let out a brief scream of “Yikes!” and hurriedly flee behind Edgar for refuge.

Unbeknownst to her, that action only ignited Ariel’s anger further.

“You… where do you think you’re touching me right now?”

Instead of being filled with righteous fury, Ariel simply asked in a tone so cold it felt emotionless.

“Where? Ah.”

Realizing what she was grabbing at that moment, Silvia belatedly sighed softly.

What she was holding was none other than Edgar’s shoulder and waist.

And right in front of her stood her friend, who had become possessive after becoming his lover just the day before, glaring at her.

“This, this isn’t what it looks like! Ariel! You know my heart!?”

“I can kind of guess you want to die right now.”

“No! I have him too, don’t I? Why would I be interested in someone like Edgar…?”

“What? Someone ‘like’ Edgar?”

Good grief, seriously!

Silvia’s thoughts echoed in despair as she found herself trapped, unable to respond no matter how she tried.

One undeniable fact she could discern from this dire situation was, Ariel was indeed completely infatuated with Edgar.

“Alright, Silvia, why don’t you head back to your seat? Ariel, you should calm down too.”

“Are you siding with that woman right now?”

“That woman…?”

Silvia felt tears welling up from her friend’s icy demeanor that wouldn’t even utter her name.

Whack!

“Ouch!?”

On the other hand, the sudden slap caused Silvia’s tears to trickle.

“She’s not just that woman; she’s my friend and yours too, you know? Now sit down already.”

“Tch, if you treated me kindly, would that kill you!?”

“If I treated you kindly, you’d crawl all over me, wouldn’t you? Well, since I feel a bit guilty, come here.”

Despite Ariel pouting at Edgar’s irritating behavior, she obediently moved closer to him.

Then, he reached out his big hand, gently ruffling her hair and playfully pinching her cheek.

“Are you really mad?” his soft voice seemed to ask, causing Ariel to look away shyly and respond with a mere “Not really.”

Meanwhile, Silvia was watching this scene, fanning the flames of her admiration for Edgar.

“Sure enough, childhood friends are different.”

While Silvia had become decent friends with Ariel over time, their circumstances meant they didn’t get to meet often, so she couldn’t compare with Edgar.

This meant Edgar was several steps ahead in knowing how to handle Ariel.

“Fundamentally different.”

While Silvia seemed to be trying to gloss over Ariel’s anger, Edgar’s approach was more about calming her down first and then sorting out right from wrong.

Without the assumption that he could completely persuade Ariel, his response was impossible.

Truly, just as the childhood friend who had stirred the heart of a noble lady.

Silvia felt like a halo was shining behind him.

“Ah, I said I wouldn’t get mad.”

“Really? If you keep that up, you bribe me into not fulfilling our promise today?”

“Tch, saying that after already agreeing is too much!”

How dare he use that as a hostage after saying he would stay with her all day.

Even with him right there, she felt like it wasn’t enough, and she couldn’t just let that slide.

In the end, Ariel reluctantly nodded her head, as if admitting she would have to go along with this negotiation.

“As long as you’re not mad anymore, that won’t happen. Instead, I’ll give you a longer hug since I’m sorry.”

“…Then I want a longer hug this time.”

“Alright.”

Once he said that, Edgar embraced her more carefully, as if cautious not to break Ariel’s fragile body, instilling a more precious feeling into the embrace.

‘Somehow this feels a bit different.’

Ariel thought suddenly that the emotions flowing through him felt more affectionate than before.

Even when they were just friends, he would occasionally hug her, so it wasn’t particularly strange.

Just that the slight shift in their relationship allowed various feelings to transmit through his embrace, leaving her in awe.

“By the way, I’m surprised.”

“…What is?”

Just as she was relishing the warmth of his embrace, a suddenly gentle voice whispered near her ear.

Ariel lifted her face from his chest and asked in response.

What greeted her was Edgar’s face, blooming with a mischievous smile as he looked down at her.

A chill of an ominous premonition ran down Ariel’s spine.

“If what Silvia said is true, then it means yesterday, when you clung to me and whined, it was all genuine?”

“……!”

“So you really liked me that much?”

Bringing up facts she had been desperately trying to forget, Ariel hurriedly attempted to escape from his embrace.

But Edgar, who was not one to easily let go of her, had now completely pulled her into him and sank down on the sofa.

“L-let go of me…! You fool! When did I tell you not to get mad…!?”

“I’m not trying to make you mad; I’m just asking out of curiosity. So tell me, did you really like me?”

“How would I know!”

After all, at that moment, the candy Silvia had told her about had left her in a daze, and her consciousness had become hazy.

She remembered everything after that—how she clung to him, rubbed her face on his arm, and used his thigh as a pillow—but whether she had done all that in her right mind was something she couldn’t answer.

‘No, there must have been a reason. I wouldn’t have acted like that without being insane.’

Ariel began rationalizing, thinking that Silvia could be deceiving her with unsubstantiated claims or that the candy had indeed been magical, and she held no blame.

Edgar, sensing that if he kept teasing her, her face would explode, decided to release her from his embrace.

“It’s hard to believe you two are officially lovers now.”

Silvia exclaimed softly, surprised by how unreservedly they could hug or touch each other.

“Really? Isn’t it pretty much the same as before?”

“Not at all. Before dating, I was really aggressive, but once we started dating, I couldn’t even hold hands properly.”

Her gesture of shaking her head as if to say “not at all” made her seem like a middle-aged woman in her forties.

Surprised, Edgar and Ariel exchanged glances and blinked as they began to dig into Silvia’s dating history.

“You wouldn’t be like that now, right?”

“Yeah, well… heh heh.”

Seeing her swallow her words as if unable to continue, Edgar desperately tried to suppress any inappropriate thoughts.

Meanwhile, Ariel, in this arena of romance, remained confused and merely tilted her head, glancing between the two.

“I was more aggressive before dating, but once I thought he knew I liked him, I couldn’t just act freely.”

“You’re quite unique. From your usual personality, it seems like you’d just yank on his tie and plant a kiss.”

“Eh?”

Silvia tilted her head slightly at Edgar’s strangely detailed elaboration.

Now that she thought about it, she felt that since this conversation had started, Ariel’s verbosity had notably diminished.

At that moment, Ariel was standing there with her head bowed, not knowing what to do.

Silvia sensed a strange discomfort at this juncture.

“…Wait, did you really kiss Ariel like that?”

“!?”

“Ah.”

With an unintended revelation of their previous day’s events, both Ariel and Edgar flinched.

Realizing she hit the nail on the head, Silvia’s lips curled into a wicked grin as she gazed at her recently-made lover friends like a predator sizing up its prey.

Ariel, late to the situation, was busy glaring at Edgar, asking what they would do now, while he could only chuckle and do his best to alleviate the circumstance.

“Really? So you really did that? Just like Ariel.”

Edgar had suspected Ariel would catch feelings since the sofa incident where she had clung to him, but this seemed beyond his imagination.

“Seriously? Are you kidding me!” Silvia exclaimed exaggeratedly, covering her mouth in shock.

Ariel’s face turned crimson once more at the comment that had only just started simmering down.

“Y-you idiot! If you hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have been caught! What are we going to do now!”

“What’s wrong with it? Why should you be embarrassed about kissing me?”

“…….”

That he would respond like this at such a time was something Ariel had not anticipated.

With her mouth agape in shock, she froze on the spot.

Even if she stubbornly insisted she was embarrassed after saying that, it would only drive a wedge between them.

And yet, keeping her mouth shut in this situation felt like a shameful admission.

Consequently, Ariel reached a conclusion.

“I think I’ll go visit my mother.”

It was her way of escaping the situation.

Creak. Thud.

“She ran away.”

“Yeah, it seems so.”

The two, watching the door to the reception room where she had just vanished, exchanged glances and smiled wryly.

There was something endearingly irresistible about that side of her, preventing them from stopping the teasing.

Knowing that others saw her merely as the cold heiress of a noble house only added to their amusement.

In their minds, viewing Ariel just as she was brought expressions of genuine laughs.

Then, the air felt a tad heavier, and at that moment, they both sensed it, causing Silvia to speak up.

“Edgar, now that Ariel’s gone, can I ask… are you really okay with this?”

“…It will be tough, I imagine. But I’ll try to endure.”

Edgar understood the significance behind Silvia’s question.

It was the very issue that had been weighing on his mind, particularly when he had confessed his true feelings to Ariel yesterday.

On the surface, their two families were bound by a master-servant relationship.

It might have provoked less gossip had he been the son of a small, unrelated noble house, but the case was entirely different here.

Some would undoubtedly find a way to make trouble, needing only a reason to do so.

The internal enemies are always the most frightening in times like this.

“If you need help, just ask. Of course, I know my ability to assist is limited.”

“I don’t expect any. I chose this path, so I have to find a way through it.”

Edgar replied, biting back a dry smile and carefully fiddling with the edge of the teacup he held.

Perhaps this choice would ultimately affect Helene, who had cared for him until now, as well as their family master, Yulken, and even the woman he loved.

No, it wouldn’t be “perhaps”—it surely would.

What he must do at that time was clear.

Rather than running away, claiming he was the cause of turmoil, he needed to hold his beloved’s hand and face it head-on.

Edgar was certain that Ariel would expect that of him as well.