My Childhood Friend is Like a Stone - Chapter 9

Episode 9. Chapter 2. The Little Kid and The Little Kid. (7)

To avoid Adrienne’s gaze, Cyril turned his head slightly. Adrienne, who was speaking loudly with her mouth open, blinked.

Cyril was oblivious to the fact that he was avoiding her gaze. She didn’t want to look at Adrienne right now for some reason. After a while, the “knock knock” sound stimulated his ears once more. Cyril was forced to look away once more.

Adrienne was nodding her head, as if telling him to come closer. She was clearly going to keep knocking on the window if he didn’t listen. It’s better to be bothered once than many times. Cyril stood up and walked towards the window for the first time.

“Why are you calling me?”

Adrienne gave him a big smile as he spoke through the glass. As she was bothering the sick man, she smiled once more. She’s strange in so many ways.

Cyril had a crooked thought.

Hoo—.

Adrienne, who is completely unaware of the idea, began yet another eccentricity. It was unusual to be able to breathe through a clean window. Adrienne, who breathed through a clean window, put her finger on it and moved it for a while.

[To.ge.ther. do.it.]

“Let’s do it together,” she wrote in her honest handwriting, without thinking about what others would see. The sloping handwriting appeared to be good, but it was bad handwriting; even though she knew he was sick, she still asked him to do it with her.

“—I’ll think about it.”

Regardless, Adrienne is Cyril’s first friend, and this is the first time a friend has asked him to do something together.

That honesty touched Cyril’s heart, and he nodded his head. Adrienne smiled brightly behind the blurry glass. Cyril didn’t have the confidence to face that smile, so he turned around and pretended not to know.

*******

But that was all.

Cyril couldn’t understand why he did that on that day four months later.

“Ah!” Cyril froze when he felt the light blow.  After being startled by the hard feel of the wooden sword, the unknown flutter that tickled one side of his chest had already disappeared.

“Aren’t you going to avoid it?”

Adrienne, who had hit Cyril on the shoulder without mercy, tilted her head innocently. Cyril felt cheated since he said he couldn’t see the flying sword with his own eyes. The frail body and the strength to crawl on the floor were overwhelming merely to digest the basic training, running.

He spent three months working on his stamina, and he’s only been holding the sword for a month.

“Do it again.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

It was far too early to begin a full-fledged fight, but the knight would not back down. After all, don’t children grow up fighting? The problem was that the ‘children’ were their Master’s daughter and the Duke of Thesar’s son, but it was too embarrassing to consider it a match in the first place.

“Ah!”

“Why aren’t you avoiding me?”

Moreover, the Young Master usually went to Adrienne’s one-sided beating, but there was no way because the person involved, Cyril, refused to stop her. In the eyes of the Knight, the victory or defeat was actually decided from the beginning.

Adrienne was taller than her peers, had greater endurance, and had begun swordsmanship several months before Cyril, so it was natural for her to win. The Knights knew that the Lord, Count Cassinel, often thought, ‘How great it would have been if Adrienne had been his successor.’

Cyril, on the other hand, was thin and lacked physical strength. One grit was sufficient, but it was meaningless right now due to a lack of skills.

‘But we don’t know what’s going to happen in a few minutes.’

They were already in their third fight.

The Knights stared at Cyril with a sword, pretending to be calm despite the fact that his beaten arm was stinging. Cyril, who had been in bed for a long time, was regaining strength quickly. He was still short, but his arms and legs were long, so he had a promising future. He would have been a great young man if he had grown up without any problems.

The Young Lady would have grown up by then, so it could be a good match. When he saw the children arguing, the old Cassinel Knights smiled warmly. They’ve been in this relationship since they were kids. It was like a romantic couple that his wife would like to know.

‘What’s all this about?’

And Cyril, who is in charge of one of the pairs, gritted his teeth. When the sweet phrases of romance and relationship were gone, just the flames of revenge and duel dominated Cyril.

“Do you like being beaten, Cyril?”

“Would you like it?”

“Can I take a look?”

“Don’t say such a thing.”

Cyril’s heart was on fire due to those blue eyes and the fact that he was carrying a sword.

‘I’m going to win, really.’

Cyril’s eyes were burned as he looked at his sword. The little seed in the heart, which had almost grown into something, was struck by a wooden sword and half broken, silently holding its breath for a long time.

******

“—What should I do!”

Cyril’s ear was tickled by a fluttering voice. ‘It’s noisy,’ Cyril thought in the middle of his daze. A stamping sound could be heard nearby. The sound of voices continued, but his head was too hazy to grasp what was being said.

‘Why…’

Cyril frowned helplessly as he felt a heavy stone crushing down on his head. It was very hard, like lying on the floor. His head was feeling something soft, but his back was beginning to grow sore. He felt as if he were lying on the floor with a pillow.

Cassinel lacked infinitely compared to Thesar, but it wasn’t enough to make the bed feel like the ground. So, what is the problem? Why does the bed, which has been well-made for several months, suddenly feel like a bare floor overnight?

A question came to Cyril’s mind, which had been agonizing for a while.

‘…Did I fall down?’

Cyril was apparently reading a book while leaning against the bedhead a while ago. Leaning on his dim back and watching the swaying letters was Cyril’s little pleasure. Then he noticed a suspicious shadow by the window, so he got closer and discovered ‘something’.

Cyril lost consciousness the moment their gazes met. That was the last memory I had. He apparently witnessed a confusing scene.

‘Wait, what was that?’ Cyril continued to agonize with his eyes closed.

“Adrienne! Isn’t this kid dead? Is he really dead? Huh?”

“No, he’s alive.”

Voices intervened between the hazy memories at that point.

“Look at him, he’s breathing.” The warmth, which was believed to be a finger, touched and dropped slightly under Cyril’s nose. The unnecessarily loud voice was strangely familiar.

Adrienne.

Cyril came up with the name all of a sudden.

‘Yes, this is definitely Adrienne—’

As soon as he remembered the name, he also remembered the last scene he saw.

Cyril was successful in recalling the two who were sticking their heads out in the darkness where the moonlight barely cast shadows.

‘There were two of them.’

Chills. The sensation of the hair caused Cyril’s eyes to flutter open for a brief moment. The surroundings gradually became visible as the blurred vision cleared.

Two blue pairs of eyes looked down at Cyril. Blue eyes, like jewelry, are not uncommon, but it was odd that there were two pairs, rather than one.

“He opened his eyes! See? He’s still alive.”

“That’s a relief. I’m relieved—”

Adrienne on the left is staring blankly, while Adrienne on the right is worried—. Cyril’s gaze was drawn unconsciously to Adrienne on the left.

‘She’s real.’

He’s thinking the same thing.

“Oh my goodness, what is this…? Lady, could you please explain what happened? First, let’s put the Young Master to bed.”

The door swung open, and Jerome, who was running, quickly grabbed Cyril. It was one of the two, as the hugging motion felt dull unlike before. Either Jerome got older or Cyril got a little heavier in the meantime. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two. It’s also a sign that he’s getting a little healthier.

“Reid said he wanted to see Cyril but didn’t want to wake him up, so I looked through the window a little.”

“I’ve only seen it. But then this kid collapsed. He must have been surprised. We were a little too much, weren’t we? That wasn’t supposed to happen—”

During Jerome’s treatment, two voices talked nonstop. Cyril focused his entire mind on the particularly catchy word. Reid? He thinks he’s heard that name before— Cyril blinked twice before opening his eyes.

“Reid?”

Adrienne’s older brother and Count Cassinel’s heir. He appeared to be exactly like his given name.

Reid de Cassinel Bluea

Cyril had overheard a story about Reid while passing by. Adrienne frequently mentioned her brother. When asked where he was, she replied, ‘Reid is with Grandmother.’

The old madam of the Bluea family, Adrienne’s maternal grandmother, was said to be very fond of Reid and kept him by her side now that she was ill.

He only thought he was older than she was, but he never imagined they’d look alike. Cyril took turns looking at the Adrienne twin brothers, Reid and Adrienne, who had only been born five minutes earlier.