I tilted my head, thinking that he was really a friendly kid. Ahin smiled slightly while looking at me. His smile was so lovely that I thought this kid could make a living with just a smile. Wow. That’s a million-dollar smile.

  “Have you ever seen S-Herbogenbosch’s flag?”


  “Yes. It’s a cloud flower with three pairs of wings.”


  “That insignia is taken from the stigmata.”


  Oh, I see. Then his stigmata must be three sets of wings. I didn’t care about the stigmata before, but that was amazing to know for sure.

  “Wow, that sounds amazing. I’d like to see it one day.”


  Ahin opened his eyes wide upon hearing my words. I realized what I had just said when I saw his reaction to my words.

  Ah……! I didn’t mean that I wanted him to show it to me. However, if I hadn’t said it, that would have made this even more awkward…… Uh, what should I do? Oh no. this was pretty mortifying. Fortunately, Ahin didn’t say anything about it, but I was making things awkward a lot.

  “Sorry. It seems I’ve been talking too much today.”


  “That’s alright.”


  Honestly…… I felt like we hadn’t gotten any closer. I must seem like such a goof to him now.

  I meant, it was not like I wanted us to be best friends…… I just wanna do something about this awkwardness. It scared me when kids were this quiet. Besides, we still hadn’t seen any sign of the twins. Where the hell were these two? We were already out of the palace and heading to the garden, but I couldn’t find a single hair or the heads of those twins. I didn’t get why they had to come this far. Ah, this was annoying. Oh, they would be punished when we meet again.

  As I shut my mouth, it’s starting to feel awkward again. The awkwardness curled up like thick clouds. Ugh.

  Ah, but I seriously couldn’t take it. Hmm…… I would have to give this a try instead.

  “Would you like to ask me anything? You answered all of my questions, so I’ll answer yours.”


  Why did he look so thrown off? Was it that surprising for me to answer his questions?

  W-what now? I said I’d answer him, so why was he so quiet? I was starting to be upset. However, what Ahin said after what seemed like a moment of contemplation shocked me too.

  “Then…… would it be alright if I…… touch your hair?”


  “Huh?”