Chapter 87: Departure
***
On the day of departure, white snow covered the entire city.
The snow must have started falling in the latter half of the night. In just one evening, the accumulated snow on the roads had reached ankle-deep, and the goose-feather-like flakes in their silver dress mixed with the whistling cold wind, striking against faces.
In front of the gates of Shanter Castle, Madam held a very thick pink-white fur shawl in her hands, forcibly trying to drape it over .
“On such a cold day, that cloak of yours is too thin, it can’t block the wind and snow… Hurry up, don’t dawdle!”
“This is too ugly.” I kept shaking my head in continuous resistance, using my hands to block Madam’s arms. “I’m really not cold…”
The Pontifical Knight’s cloak could almost wrap around my entire body, and underneath I was still wearing a fur-lined leather armor underskirt… Originally, with my constitution, even if I wore nothing… Bah. In any case, low temperatures not only didn’t make feel uncomfortable, but were actually quite pleasant for . Yet now I was about to be wrapped up like a dumpling.
But Madam didn’t care about any of that, and whenever she wanted to force to do sothing, that delicate arm of hers would move with surprisingly great strength. Combined with the fact that I didn’t dare use force, afraid I might accidentally hurt her, back and forth like this, the shawl had already wound around my neck and was wrapped around my body.
Madam patted my shoulder with satisfaction, completely ignoring the gloomy expression on my face. Her actions perfectly embodied what it ant to be “your mom thinks you’re cold.”
“Where’s Parsifal! I told him to help carry so luggage, how co there’s still no sign of him?”
“…Mom, I, I’m here…”
A sturdy but hunched figure slowly walked over from the small path on the right side of the garden.
Parsifal was currently carrying an incredibly huge suitcase, his steps already heavy, panting white breath from his mouth. Despite the cold weather, sweat was actually dripping from his forehead, and even his voice had unconsciously started to tremble.
“Mom, what did you pack for Peipei… Why is it so heavy, huff, so heavy… And she’s so strong, why do I have to carry it! Am I your biological child…”
“You’re her older brother, act like an older brother should! What’s the result of staying in the workshop for several months? Walk faster!”
Madam shouted in dissatisfaction, and when it reached Parsifal’s ears, even I could see the grievance on his face. He walked over trembling, struggling to hoist the case onto his shoulder, trying to load it into the horned carriage compartnt behind us, but unfortunately failed twice.
Then arms reached out from inside the compartnt, grabbing the case and pulling it in. After that, half of Carlos’s large face popped out.
“Little Syl, what the hell did you pack in here?”
“Clothes.”
“Clothes are this heavy?”
Facing Carlos’s questioning, I shifted my gaze from his face to the snowflakes dancing in the sky.
“…And donuts.”
Carlos was imdiately speechless.
“Alright, you’re amazing.” He rubbed his temple. “But those things will go bad before long. You brought so many, what’s the point?”
I answered him with a completely serious expression: “I will eat them all before they go bad.”
I was quite confident about this, and considering Valen Empire’s weather, the shelf life could be extended a bit more.
“Squawk—”
Goat Cheese called out loudly from the air, landing on the carriage compartnt. When Madam saw this, a smile appeared on her face.
“Peipei, rember to write letters ho when you get there.”
I nodded.
“Mm, I will.”
Then I looked toward the castle behind .
The black ramparts stood firm as gold and iron, the towering spire that reached into the mountainside stood majestically in the wind and snow. The Duke and Lafayette were currently in so conference room on the third floor, negotiating iron ore and leather procurent matters with many rchants from other places. Before leaving the inner castle, I had already said goodbye to them.
I didn’t know if they were watching from my direction, but I still waved toward the castle.
“I’m leaving.”
“Stay safe.”
“Peipei, co back during holidays!”
“Mm-hmm!”
I bent down to pick up the black leather case at my feet, slinging it diagonally across my back, glanced at Madam once more, then stepped into the carriage.
“Madam, we’re leaving now.”
“Go on… Sir Carlos, I’m troubling you for this journey.”
“It’s nothing.” Carlos made a “puff” sound and spat out the half stalk of straw from his mouth. “Tell His Grace that I’ll co find him again before long.”
“Alright.”
Heavy snow fell on her cascading black hair like ink, the wind swept up her hair strands across her cheeks.
Even so, it couldn’t hide those bright eyes clear as the bright moon.
“Sir Carlos, may the moonlight be with you.”
Carlos gently struck his chest with his fist.
Creak… creak…
The carriage started moving. After traveling a few ters, I heard Madam calling out once again.
“Peipei! Take good care of yourself over there—!”
I imdiately lifted the carriage curtain, stuck my head out, and shouted toward the figure standing behind.
“I will!”
“When you encounter problems, discuss with others first! Don’t always try to show off on your own!”
“I know—!”
“…Co back safely…”
“Oh!”
The voice grew more and more distant.
The atmosphere in the carriage fell silent.
Carlos leaned against the backrest, looking at with great interest. That gaze made feel like I was a monkey in a zoo being observed.
So I glared at him viciously with my slightly reddened eyes.
“Stop staring.”
“Young ladies shouldn’t use crude language.”
“I hate you the most, looking at .”
“Haha, then what should I do? Now it’s just the two of us left, I happen to be very bored, and you’re very interesting. If I don’t look at you, what do you want to do?”
“Go pick your toes.”
“…You’re at least a noble young lady, no, a royal princess, how can you be so vulgar?”
“Mind your…”
“Business.” Carlos imdiately continued before I could finish. “Can we not include the swear in every three sentences? This will affect … Oh my god!”
Halfway through his words, he quickly lifted both feet, very nimbly dodging my leg sweep attack. I was annoyed but didn’t have the mood to argue with him, so I could only huff twice and say.
“I’m warning you, don’t provoke .”
Perhaps seeing that my emotions were genuinely off, Carlos quickly raised both hands.
“Okay, okay, I won’t provoke you… What’s wrong, can’t bear to leave this place?”
I stopped paying attention to him.
Can’t bear to leave this place… there was a little of that, but not entirely.
Actually, I couldn’t really describe my mood at this mont either.
I had gained a sense of belonging here.
At the last mont when I looked toward the castle, a feeling suddenly arose in my heart, “I had lived here for many years, and would continue living here in the future.”
I didn’t know if this was my emotion or soone else’s emotion, because according to my mory, I had only lived in Shanter Castle for 3 months, and my hotown was in a distant other world.
But the emotion was incredibly real, and it stung .
What exactly… am I…
“Carlos Hurricane.”
“…Are you calling ?”
“Besides you, who else?”
Carlos shrugged.
“Oh. I didn’t expect that this ti even proper nas don’t count, I didn’t react for a mont, sorry sorry. What’s the matter?”
“Do you think the Abyss could possibly tamper with mories?”
Upon hearing this, he frowned and brought his right hand to his chin, falling into thought.
“…Tampering with mories… How could you tamper with sothing as ethereal as mory? Forget the Abyss, even the gods probably couldn’t do it… What are you trying to say?”
“…No, it’s nothing.”
It seed this was sothing he couldn’t understand.
This was sothing that no one, including , could understand.
I couldn’t even be sure if it was actually related to the Abyss. This was really too difficult to understand. To put it in more concrete terms, my brain seed to be split in half by sothing. One half said I was Peylo, the other half told I was called Chen Yuxuan. The half that said I was Peylo gave personality, while the half that said I was Chen Yuxuan gave mories.
But now, the half that gave mories was trying to give personality anew, while the half that gave personality was providing with new mories.
It was just that complicated.
If this were in my previous world, it would be multiple personality disorder, commonly known as ntal illness.
And obviously the doctors in this world couldn’t treat such a condition… just look at that bird-beak knight. Such a casual person, Carlos said he was actually a world-famous doctor with superb dical skills.
I definitely didn’t dare entrust myself to him, and besides, this kind of thing… I couldn’t tell others about it for now.
This was too difficult for .
“Little Syl, what are you thinking about?”
Suddenly feeling sowhat stuffy, I lifted the carriage curtain slightly, and suddenly noticed that the streets outside looked sowhat familiar…
“…Stop the carriage!”
“What’s wrong?!”
Carlos, who had been getting a bit drowsy, was startled by my sudden shout. He glanced outside the carriage and imdiately understood what I wanted to do.
“I’m going to buy sothing.”
Before he could stop , I quickly jumped down, ran rapidly across to the other side of the street with my little legs, and ca to the front of that shop that sold Osmiru cakes.
I stepped inside.
“Welco~”
A sowhat familiar sweet voice, still that familiar shop assistant girl. When she saw , she was stunned for a mont.
I walked slowly to the front counter and asked her, “Not many custors today?”
“…Ah, yes, because of Divine Birth Day.” The girl who had co back to her senses showed a smile. “Everyone is with their families. It was so busy a while ago that I could barely handle it… Um, what would you like to order?”
“Are you here alone?”
“No, there’s also my grandfather. But he went to the town in the west to buy ingredients…”
“Was it the sa last ti too?”
I rembered the first ti I ca here, the girl was also alone then, so busy she was almost crying. The impression was particularly deep.
“Yes.” The shop assistant girl showed a bitter smile, seeming to understand what I was thinking. “I… I might be a bit stupid. When grandfather isn’t here, I always get so busy I’m in a panic, not knowing what to do…”
“Why not hire shop assistants?”
“My grandfather won’t let … He always feels that young people nowadays are unreliable and will steal things from the shop… But before, soone did co to help…”
Speaking of this, the shop assistant girl suddenly looked at with sowhat anxious eyes, then seed to gather her courage.
“It was a girl nad Peylo… She’s a child of His Grace, clearly of noble status, yet she would always co to help in the shop when grandfather wasn’t around. At first I didn’t dare let her do these things, but she insisted… When it was crowded in the shop, people squeezed around with all kinds of slls, she could endure that hardship too. Every ti her beautiful black hair would get all ssy… She didn’t want any paynt either, just took so cakes with her when she left.”
“You could tell she really loved sweets… and was willing to interact with us common people… She was a very kind girl.”
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