I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess

After the declaration of Edgar's will to leave for Hespania, Helena immediately writes a letter to her family about their late return.

Even though Edgar could return to his hometown Ardenum whenever he wishes too, she still thoughtfully gives him a few more days to prepare his heart since the boy is about to leave his home which he has grown up since young and move to a completely foreign land.

“Are we going to Hespania the day after tomorrow? It's strangely tense.”

Early in the morning, Edgar muttered this statement out of the blue while he was checking the use of mana together with Ariel.

His heart had zero fluctuation when he brazenly accepted to leave for Hespania, but as the day of departure approached, a part of his heart trembled strangely with unknown reason.

Shall he read his feelings as excitement rather than nervousness?

It was a very subtle sensation as if his heart was being tickled gently with a very soft feather.

“Are you nervous too?”

Ariel looked at him with dubious eyes as she quietly listened to Edgar's words.

His reactions were normal and he was as calm as usual, there was not a single sign of nervousness, so she thought he didn't think much about it.

Besides, no one else, but Ed and the word nervousness were a very inappropriate combination.

“ Ofcourse, I am a human being too."

“Huh… that's interesting then."

They have been together for almost 13 years, but this is the very first time she had discovered this side of him.

Even the tall boy who had attacked a wild boar at the age of mere 10 years old would also feel nervous?

It was fun to see this unexpected side of him, but at the same time, she was worried.

“Are you really going to be okay? It's funny to ask now.”

"Ofcourse I am alright. Hey, I've heard that question over ten times already."

"I know that. But I wasn't going to ask any more, it's just that since you're nervous for some reason, I was also affected."

Edgar sprang from his seat, let out a breathy sigh as if he couldn't help it and strode over to stroke her hair.

“Am I that untrustworthy?”

"Hey, remove your wild claws from my head, tell me, do you know how much trouble I went through to get my hair ready in the early morning?

Although, she felt good when he stroked her hair….No, no, it was just not bad, still she couldn't accept the ruin of her hairdo which she had acquired painstakingly without anyone's help for the first time.

If her little maid, Shuri was here, she wouldn't fuss over such small matters but while she was in Ardenum she had to take care of all her own personal matters from head to toe.

"Then you can just roughly organize it and come out, why are you dressing up like that from the morning? Are you going to go out on a date?"

"Geez, what do you know about beautifying?! This is lady's knowledge!"

Anyway, this stupid man is really too much.

He was so good at making her explode in anger, that even if she tried to hold back, he made it unbearable.

What? A date?

If it were another word, it would have been possible to make a normal reference, but that one word was so annoying.

At this point, she wonders if he's deliberately scratching her insides.

"The immature princess talks about lady's knowledge etc…But she still uses fist."

"That's just because you……!”

Ariel, who was angry, tried to yell something, but when she realized that it was a pretty shameful line, she hurriedly swallowed the words.

In fact, it was enough to understand what she intended to say from the back and forth conversations, but that nuance sounded like a couple's whining, so it was awkward to take it out.

Edgar tilted his head and asked, "Only for me?" but Ariel turned her head around and shut her mouth.

Seemingly she didn't have anything more to say to that guy.

"Stop getting angry and tell me about your new maid and friend. Come to think of it, I haven't even heard how you've been doing."

"Is that how you mess with people and ask for an apology?"

"Then how about I kneel down?"

She at first wanted to get him on his knees, but imagining the man falling to his knees on the patch of grass without any hesitation makes her unable to get out those words.

Whew.

Ariel sighed quietly and asked him to sit down for a while, as there was no need to kneel.

"You want me to sit here?"

"Then where can I sit?"

"That's true, too.”

Originally, the wooden box near here was just cleared yesterday, so there was no place to sit.

Eventually, Edgar sat down on the grass, followed by Ariel, who suddenly laid her head over his thigh.

Edgar was dumbfounded as he clearly didn't expect Ariel to behave this way, sure enough such behavior was common when they were young unfortunately they were no more the young ones.

However, he didn't push her away and with a corner of his lips tugged upward, he started weaving through her messy hair with the intention of atoning for his mistake.

"Just now you were talking about your hair getting messy but now you are lying down unscrupulously, aren't you afraid it may turn into a bird nest?."

"It's already messed up anyway, and I should at least get some compensation for telling you about me."

"Can't you just let your friend hear it for free?"

In a very tight reality, Edgar's breath sounded weak.

"I'll tell you, but if you dare laugh at me for no valid reason, I am not letting you go easily."

"Would you even feel disturbed by my reaction? But you talk brashly like a brat"

"…Hmm, hum. It's alright if you know."

He also knows when to stop talking nonsense, fortunately, Ariel didn't seem to have the intention of holding his actions accountable or else he would have been taught a lesson with her magic right away.

Somehow Ariel, who snorted with a satisfied look, soon began to recite one by one about her new relationships.

"First of all, Shuri, the maid, is the daughter of Sheffy, whom you know well. It hasn't been long since she became my personal maid, but she's been working in my family for quite a time."

Whenever she visited the Bilhark family, she always left Shuri at her parents' house, so there was no opportunity to introduce her maid yet.

Edgar also had heard her name only, but he didn't know anything about her personality or age, so he became interested.

Of course, not in an irrational sense.

"Is she similar in age with us?"

"She's a year older. But whenever I look at her, she's more like a younger sister than an older sister. She's usually teary eyes too."

"I think I know what you mean."

It probably means that she is naturally cute and has a clear expression of emotion.

Edgar knew that Ariel was quite aloof to others except himself and her family, so when he drew the imagination of a person named Shuri, he thought they would be a pretty good pair.

"Her personality must be quite different from that of Sheffy."

" Yeah. Honestly, even I didn't think that they were mother and daughter until they reveal it themselves, Sheffy said it was because Shuri looks alot like her father. She said their hair color is also the same."

"Oh."

She must have inherited a lot of her father's blood.

Edgar was also told that he looked more like his father than his mother, so he felt a sense of homogeneity for no reason.

Come to think of it, he once heard a superstition somewhere that women live happily only when they resemble their father, and sons live happily when they resemble their mother.

If that's true, Shuri's future is guaranteed.

Anyway, he wanted to meet that person at least once.

"What about your friend?"

"Sylvia? She's nice, but she loves to play pranks a lot. I think she's worse than you."

"Oh, that's too much".

Edgar used to be proud of being second to none at telling jokes, but now she says someone is even better than him. He felt his daily life could be considered a joke.

"Anyway, I'm tired when we're together. I'm out of my mind."

Ariel shakes her head as if she is sick of it, burying her face in Edgar's thigh.

But even so, Edgar could see that a girl named Sylvia was a friend who had become quite close to her.

No wonder, all the time she mentioned Sylvia, her lips were drawing a faint line.

However, there was also one thing that was at stake.

"You're not being swayed by a friend named Sylvia and taking it out on your maid, are you?"

Edgar, who was listening carefully to the story of two different people, thought that the front and back match strangely, so he decided to poke it just in case.

How did she find out that Shuri, a maid, is alway teary eyed?

Ariel, who was being pranked upon will not be able to hold back herself with a decent amount of anger, given her personality, so where would she vent it?

And as if to prove this, Ariel turned the face she was burying in the opposite direction, and avoided answering with her mouth closed.

“…….”

"…Hey, don't face away like that.”

You little brat(girl).

Since young, he has been teaching his childhood friend not to be so big, but as soon as she got a personal maid, she started to think that she had a certain amount of power since she is the literal owner of the little girl.

There's no way a 15-year-old girl who's just become a maid can stand her deeds.

"I'm done talking, so I'm going to take a nap. Don't wake me up."

"If you don't get up and answer me, I'll grab you and throw you into the tree".

"Try it. I'm going to tell my mom."

When Edgar's most deadly counterattack was foreseen, he eventually hid Ariel's hand behind him and sighed deeply.

"What if I ask your maidservant and I get the answer I expected?"

"What, what do you want me to do?" I didn't do anything."

"Speak it right. If you don't, I'll risk it and throw you right away."

He thought she had grown up over time, but her childish mind was no different from before.

It is good she still has the childlike innocence as it is. But there is a certain need to change this immature princess's ways of thinking.

"At that time, I'll get all the punishment you want me to get. That's enough, right?"

"Okay, let's move on for now."

As Edgar reduced speculation after grinding his teeth, Ariel glanced at his expression and laughed inwardly.

Shuri's owner is herself anyway.

Even if Edgar asked Shuri to tell him the truth, Shuri couldn't talk carelessly because of the time she had to spend with Ariel.

"Victory is in my hands anyway."

Ariel smiled at Edgar's face which was soaked in defeat, (Ariel's smile) which then morphed into a flirting one unconsciously.

She felt a little bit sorry for Shuri in her heart, but she can apologize or give her a present later.

A flurry of bloomed amaryllis rolled around with the breeze gently on the ground.

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