“Why have you been missing for the past few months?”

Initially, her first interest was how he got here at all and why not in the academy. And if it was revealed that he ran off on a whim, Yurina would have to get mad at him.

But even thinking about it, Yurina said something completely different. Although she understood with her mind which moment was the most important now, her emotions prompted her to ask a completely different question.

“I don’t think you were sick. It looks like you were doing well. Why didn’t you write to me?”

In contrast to her burning heart, her voice sounded calm. However, she still couldn’t keep her expression on her face. Yurina eventually stopped smiling and crossed her arms over her chest.

Whether he was embarrassed by her behavior, which was now so different from previous moments of euphoria, or not, Raynard also stopped smiling and lokked at her face.

“I was very busy in winter.”

“No matter how busy you are, you would have found time to write one letter.”

“What…”

“I know you’re busy, unlike me sitting here doing nothing. However, if you are busy, can you at least write me a line about being busy and send it? That’s what I would do, no matter how busy I was.”

Yurina kept firing words at him without giving him a chance to respond.

“Have you ever thought about the person who has been waiting for you for six years? Have you ever thought about how I felt if your letters do not arrive for the second month? There was no news from you for two months, but suddenly you appeared in person.”

Yurina tried to look as calm as possible, but her voice kept rising and trembling, as if her emotions had overheated and exploded.

She felt a surge of heat and covered her face with both hands.

Even now, while she was saying all this, she felt sorry for scolding him like that. But there was no stopping her now.

“How I…”

‘I really don’t want to admit this, but I think I was hurt by this attitude. Everyone consoled me, saying that everything was fine, that he was just busy. I tried to persuade myself like that, but my heart simply refused to believe.’

‘What really happened there? Perhaps he is in such trouble that he cannot even write a letter? At times such a thought stuck in my head like a sharp stone, and every time my heart was heavy.’

‘Then, as my thoughts drifted into the darkest places, there were times when I was angry at myself for sending Reynard to the academy because of my selfishness and greed.’

‘I would just ask Dave to teach him magic. Why send it to the kingdom of Crohn, where the letter goes all month?’

‘And my sincere feelings, which I did not show to anyone, surprisingly easily came out before Reynard.’

‘Why do you have to…

…Bring me grief.’

‘However, no matter how open I was to him, I still didn’t manage to say this.’

‘Otherwise, I would feel truly miserable and worthless.’

She didn’t know what to say, so Yurina closed her eyes and tried to calm her emotions.

Reynard was silent.

Was he embarrassed or angry? Or maybe now he regretted? Yurina couldn’t imagine the expression he was now looking at her with.

‘I was proud of the fact that I know him better than anyone in the world. Right now it’s the other way around. I’m most perplexed, what is in his heart?’

Was the gap between them so great?

He’s closer than ever, but why does he seem so far away?

Raynard, who was breathing softly and raggedly, carefully removed Yurina’s hands that were covering her face.

“Yurina.”

He grabbed Yurina’s cheek.

“I did everything wrong. So… Don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying.”

That was a lie.

This was her last pride. Yurina avoided his gaze as she rubbed the area around her eyes with her cuffs.

Raynard took her hand and wiped her eyes instead. Feeling itchy, she reflexively closed her eyes.

His touch to the eyelids was gentle. His palms were warm as he gently wiped away the tears from her cheeks. At this touch, the rarely soothing mood immediately subsided.

“I am very sorry that I couldn’t write earlier. I didn’t know you thought so. It seemed that it would be easier for me to come personally than to write you a letter. If I knew that you think so, I would send you at least ten of them.”

Yurina couldn’t immediately accept his excuses.

Whatever he said, she absolutely couldn’t calm down and easily accept it after all she had endured.

So, instead of further pressing on the sore spot, she decided to change the subject:

“But why the hell are you here? What happened to the academy?

Raynard was still rubbing Yurina’s face and replied as if it didn’t really matter.

“I finished everything.”

Yurina couldn’t think through those short words at first. She looked at Reynard’s face. However, there was not a single sign of a lie on it.