Is the Friend of a Friend a Stranger? - Chapter 47.2

“What’s wrong? Is it because I called Owen without saying anything? You seemed to be closer lately, so…”

“Close? Who’s close!”

After shouting suddenly like that, Sylvia put on a bewildered expression and raised her hands to bury her face. Heston suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked at Owen, as if he didn’t know she would raise her voice.

“Did you two fight?”

“Well. Seems like it.”

Even Owen’s languid reply. She felt like she just wanted to bury her face in a pillow and die. Heston smiled briefly and joked around, something he did only in front of his close friends.

“Obviously, Owen, you must have done something wrong. Women are always angry with you.”

“No way, I think you’re worse. I am a kind person.”

“You are kind but… You also tend to be easily misunderstood.”

“Well. Sylvie says I’m kind and a nice person.”

“Cough.”

Sylvia choked, even though she didn’t eat anything. She flailed her arms and focused the attention on herself.

“I’m sorry, but I think I should hurry up. I left the report as it was, and I have to go to my father later.”

“…”

It was a very cowardly trick to escape with an appointment that wasn’t even announced. But strangely enough, Heston didn’t apologize for taking her time, as he usually did, and just stared at her without saying anything. She thought she knew all his expressions, but this was the first time she had seen the face he was making right now.

She blinked, wondering if she had done something wrong, but Heston quickly turned his head.

“That’s right.  I called you here because Duke Araspe wanted to invite Sylvia and Owen to dinner after the ceremony for the completion of the tower is held. The current allegation that the Duke allowed the Ekevich envoy to enter the tower is almost certain. So, what connects the incident of the fake relic to Ekevich is that envoy. He wants to end all this in a simple way by using Courtney Merino’s grudge.”

“Grudge?”

“Yeah. He has been saying that she hated you for a long time. That you took away her opportunity to win a scholarship in the academy. There is a story that the Merino family was in debt at that time and in desperate need of a scholarship, but because of you, she missed the opportunity to win and developed a grudge. He has become impatient enough to even investigate your school days.”

“Then, is it… true?”

Heston sighed at the slight, trembling voice, pretending to be okay.

Even from the moment it was reported that Courtney Merino was dead, Sylvia continued to worry about her. Merino was clearly a criminal, giving drugs to Sylvia, a phosmata, to blind her, and threatening her. However, she remembered that Merino was quite intimately attached to her when they were kids, even if it was for a short time.

Sylvia was a child who excelled in understanding and empathy from an early age. Once they entered her heart, she kept giving them opportunities again and again even if they had left that place completely, thinking things like, ‘This is probably why they did that.’

That was why when it was discovered that she was a supporter rather than a wizard, she said she would rather deal with monsters, even though Heston thought it might be hard. If she became a wizard, she would be in a war between people. It was clear that it would deeply destroy Sylvia’s soul.

Still, how vaguely did he try to speak whenever he told her about Merino? Heston’s low voice woke Sylvia up.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. What I’m saying is that you don’t have to care about her at all.
Do you understand?”

“Yeah.”

When Owen saw Sylvia respond like a polite student with a short sigh, he recalled what happened a few days ago. Sylvia grabbed him and said, ‘You’re not at fault. It’s Count Bronowitz’s fault, not yours.’

‘She learned that from Heston.’

He couldn’t believe that he was so shaken up by the comforting ways she had learned from another man. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was a little funny. He also wondered what Sylvia would be like if Heston’s existence was erased. He thought that the consolation method he told her about might be used in this way as well…

“Heston. Can you give me some of that candy over there?”

Owen said abruptly. Heston handed the box of candy on the desk to Owen. Owen took out a purple candy in the shape of a violet flower and ate it, then handed the box to Sylvia, which she refused.

Owen, who closed the box at her refusal and put it in its original place, had his arm scratched long by the tip of a sharp quill that was stuck in the desk. But it was Sylvia, not Owen, who flinched and let out a quiet groan at the appalling pain.

“Ouch.”

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