I Start with a Bad Hand!

Klaus, having clambered noisily down the clock tower with me, found the Second Prince standing outside as if he had been waiting. Fortunately, it seemed he understood Klaus’s gestures well, for he handed Klaus both an arrow and a pocket watch. Klaus bowed slightly in gratitude. The Second Prince was not looking at Klaus, however.

“They’ve just come down too.”

“Coming down is the easy part.”

Seeing that Klaus was preoccupied with the watch, I replied to the Second Prince instead. He raised an eyebrow and asked me,

“Were you waiting inside? There was no one when I opened the door of the clock tower.”

“We went up together. The watch the prince picked up was also dropped by me.”

Why would I wait at the bottom if I came all the way to the clock tower? I answered him without revealing my thoughts. Then the Second Prince looked at me as if he needed more explanation, probably wondering how I managed to go up and down with my own legs.

“…Klaus helped, so we went up together.”

“Did you receive support?”

Are we playing twenty questions now? Growing tired of answering, I just blurted out,

“No. I was carried up.”

“Carried?”

The Second Prince frowned and asked again, his posture noticeably skewed.

‘How could I have come down in such a short time then.’

On all fours? While going up might be feasible, coming down was quite dizzying as the face tends to lean forward. Of course, how I knew it was dizzying… Hmm… Such trivial matters should forever be buried in memory, and I quickly replied to stop him from asking further.

“Yes.”

Then I nudged Klaus, drawing his attention to me.

“Is it settled now?”

“Yeah… Thanks. I won’t forget what I promised earlier. Call me anytime.”

I stared intently at Klaus. He, oblivious to everything, smiled refreshingly. He had promised to repay me in any way if I helped him.

Klaus was now set to be the lead in the hellish drama Agnes and I were part of. I responded to his clear smile with a gloomy expression. If Agnes had any sense, she would scream not to associate with someone who makes such confessions. Klaus had to deliver those lines now. Chuckle.

I turned my head again to look at the Second Prince, who was still standing there with a perplexed expression as if something was amiss. Why wasn’t he leaving? With the intention of sending him off, I bowed slightly. However, he did not accept my bow and instead spoke of something else.

“Are you heading to the academy? Let’s go together.”

With those words, the Second Prince gestured for Klaus to lead the way. However, Klaus and the Second Prince. Separate may be fine, but together was definitely an awkward combination they did not wish to be in.

“Perhaps the two of you could go… I’ll leave now.”

As I backed away, intending to give the two men some space to bond, it seemed they preferred the awkwardness of three to the discomfort of just two. They looked at me with expressions that asked what on earth I was talking about.

“You found it, so of course you should come with us.”

“It’s okay. I’ll talk to my senior later.”

“Aren’t we all headed in the same direction to the dormitory?”

“I need to return something to Professor Agatha.”

“Oh, I’ll return that later for you.”

Perhaps they were desperate too. Aware of their mutual discomfort, they seemed to find every reason to block my exit. It almost seemed better to lie about having left something behind and climb the clock tower on all fours again.

As we continued our awkward journey, I felt like I was being dragged along. We passed the garden where Agnes and I had enjoyed our tea. The brightly colored flowers were still blooming. Noticing my fixed gaze on the garden, Klaus turned to look as well, and then turned back to me with a bright smile as if he had discovered something delightful.

Every time I saw him smile or sing, I was reminded that Klaus was indeed handsome and, also, that he was Irene’s brother. Initially, I didn’t think they looked alike, but the green eyes, reminiscent of a summer forest, always brought Irene to mind whenever he looked at me.

Would Irene have the same expression when smiling? I waited for Klaus to speak, curious about what he was about to say.

“There’s the flower from the song you sang earlier.”

Klaus pointed to the flowerbed as he spoke. I squinted to see the flowers more clearly. But really, there was no need. It was the cusp of spring and summer, so it certainly wasn’t cosmos.

“That’s not it. The flower in the lyrics was cosmos.”

Ah, right. Klaus responded naively. Then, locking eyes with me, he posed another question.

“But, Dietrich.”

“Yes?”

“What does ‘wayside station’ mean? I wanted to ask earlier when you said it blooms from that flower at the wayside station.”

The Second Prince glanced our way, trying to gauge what we were discussing. However, I didn’t really want to explain it to him. Pretending not to notice his curious gaze, I turned toward Klaus.

“Oh, that’s….”

As I was about to answer mindlessly, I hesitated. The meaning of ‘wayside station’ wasn’t complicated. However, in a world without trains, explaining a wayside station was tricky. Wayside station, wayside station… Eventually, I had no choice but to fabricate an implausible explanation.

“Well… my hometown is so far from the capital that it takes about a week by carriage. But the coachman is old, so… we stop at places like carriage rest stops. Not exactly teleport stations though.”

Having blurted it out, I immediately realized it was a hopeless start. Why did I have to make something up? But having spoken, I had to bring it to a conclusion.

“It’s very small… like a wayside station. But we call it a station instead of a stop, you know, to fit the rhythm.”

‘No.’ My mind was screaming at me to stop talking.

“And standing there, stopping every time another carriage passed, I imagined how my parents must have watched me go. That’s why… that’s why sadness blooms at the wayside station.”

‘Stop.’ 

“From the longing for my parents….”

‘Please stop with the interpretation that sounds like a university entrance exam explanation.’ 

Regardless of the songwriter’s intentions, I was attaching bizarre interpretations to the song. I could have simply glossed over the explanation of a wayside station… The emotionally heavy song my friend liked was turning into a filial piety song comparable to ‘Mother’s Grace.’

R.I.P mood….

I wanted to apologize to the original singer in my heart. Somehow, I had to revive the fading sentiment of the song.

“But it doesn’t have to be about parents… it’s just a story about love….”

I was attempting CPR on the dead sentiment when our eyes met with the Second Prince, his eyebrow raised as if he found the conversation intriguing.

I simply shut my mouth. Then, clinging to Klaus as if my life depended on it, I tried to change the subject.

“…Did you like that song?”

“What song are you talking about?”

Suddenly, the Second Prince interrupted our conversation, his face showing he was hearing something he disliked.

“Oh, that was when Dietrich in the clock tower….”

As Klaus was about to explain with an innocent expression, I elbowed him in the ribs as hard as I could. Before Klaus could even scream, I pretended to stumble and grabbed his arm.

“Ouch. There’s a loose stone here.”

Sorry, I almost fell. After completing the mission to keep Klaus’s mouth shut, I turned to the Second Prince to answer his question.

“I taught Klaus a song while we were climbing the clock tower.”

“So that was….”

“No! Look, we’re already at the academy building. Let’s go see Irene. Senior now.”

Was Agnes’s acting rubbing off on me? I could have done it more naturally… With a feeling of regret, I creaked my way to the stairs. Just before ascending, two hands reached out to escort me. Naturally, I took Klaus’s hand.

***

Agnes and I had experienced something akin to a miracle. To our final evaluation stage, which had hitherto attracted no interest, two volunteers had come, surprisingly. Different in style but both pleasing to the eye, these two handsome men were brightening the rehearsal room.

“They… they’ve come to help with our rehearsal. For our final evaluation.”

Yet, this unwanted miracle was no different from a disaster. With a reluctant expression I managed to suppress, I introduced the two men to Agnes. Her expression, as she looked at the Second Prince and Klaus, was ambiguous, possibly a smile or something else. Based on big data analysis from the days spent with Agnes, it was an expression that suggested she had much to say but was holding back.

“Just… a moment…”

Agnes asked for a moment from them in an awkward, act-like tone. Then she quietly called me aside. I followed Agnes to a secluded corner, somewhat lifelessly.

“…Can’t we just ask Senior Irene to help?”

It was a complete burden. Really, a complete burden. This was the first time I had seen her with such a serious voice and expression. But that was already…

“Senior Irene is coming too…”

So it’s you, those three, exactly the four people we need. It was too much for me to act anyway… I forced a smile, lifting the corners of my mouth as if everything was fine. Agnes wasn’t fooled by that dead smile.

“You freaked out about the royal party in the greenhouse, remember?”

“That’s right.”

“So, that person over there, he’s just someone who looks like him?”

“That… kind of.”

Kind of what! Agnes was silently screaming. It was at this moment, someone entered the drama room. Irene entered and coldly observed the two handsome men who were awkwardly distanced, and then noticing us in the corner, she approached.

“Sorry, the meeting ran late.”

Agnes looked at me with a desolate expression. The pride we had enjoyed as genius playwrights and actors, which had dominated our days, or rather, our moments of laughter when we were alone, had deflated like a balloon.

The lead actors for our final evaluation play, which seemed to be nothing more than elegantly packaged garbage, now gathered in one place.