I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess

29 – A place of new beginnings

In the end, Ariel, who was constantly beaten by Edgar, cried all day long with her bangs down to hide her red forehead.

“Shi, you’re not doing this because you’re interested in Shuri, are you?”

“I’m listening from the side, don’t say anything weird, you idiot.”

“I’m not stupid! In the first place, I meant that you shouldn’t even think about touching that kid because he has an owner!”

Oh, do you have an owner?

Edgar’s eyebrows twitched briskly at the intriguing phrase heard in the middle, whether or not Ariel burst into exasperation.

After all, there is no story as enjoyable as someone else’s love story.

It’s not long before we arrive in Hespania, so isn’t it a very suitable material to soothe the entertainment until then?

When he turned his head toward Shuri with a mischievous look in his eyes, Ariel shook her head impatiently.

It wasn’t strange that Shuri screamed ‘Hee-ik!’ because his expression looked sinister.

“Are you curious? You mean you already have a lover?”

“Not already, but because he’s a year older than us?”

“Leave outsiders a little. Because I’m talking to Shuri.”

Edgar, who heard unnecessary noise from the side, ignored it and began digging into Shuri’s love history.

“I-I don’t think it’s going to be that interesting… We’ve been close since we were young, so it feels like we’re in a relationship now… … .”

“really? did you?”

I heard that she had a lover, and I knew who she was, but Ariel hadn’t even heard the details of her love story.

Glance.

She looked sideways at Edgar, who was sitting across from her, and suddenly stood up and asked him to change seats.

“Why are you suddenly seated? We’ll be arriving soon.”

“Noisy. If I want to change, I will change!”

“It’s like that immature thing… … .”

When Edgar let out a sigh and changed seats, Ariel’s expression, which a moment ago had been casual as if she was curious about other people’s love affairs, completely changed.

“Hmmm. So, is that why Shuri has been friends with that person since childhood?”

It was embarrassing for the owner to come close to the body and ask the story in earnest, but Shuri nodded her head and continued talking quietly.

“Anyway, we work in the same family, so we have something in common. My parents are familiar with each other.”

“My name is Ronan… did this? The gardener’s son.”

“yes that’s right. He has a quiet and calm personality, but he has taken good care of me since I was little. We played in the mountains and fields together.”

Ariel, who had a lot of sympathy for Shuri’s story, nodded her head and immersed herself in the story.

As a matter of fact, childhood friends who have been close since childhood have such memories.

It was because he had been busy running around since he was young with a fat man who was digging his ear out there.

“I liked being at home. But Ronan had a calm personality, but he liked to play outside. He always took me out and showed me things.”

“Wow, what a wonderful person. It’s different from someone who’s confined to the mansion and only gets dragged around by women.”

Ariel speaks as if to ask ‘someone’ to listen, with her head slightly turned away.

A small wrinkle formed between Edgar’s eyebrows as he listened to him in silence.

“Is that what you want me to hear?”

“Well? Didn’t you mean that? Have you ever been stabbed?”

He blatantly provoked him with his bright red tongue sticking out, but Edgar sighed as if he would let him go this time and sat back down.

I don’t know what would happen if I worked in a running carriage like this.

Watching Edgar barely let go of his anger, Ariel slightly raised the corner of her mouth as if she was blushing, and suddenly grabbed Shuri’s hand.

“Shuri, tell me more when you return to the castle. I will do well in the future. Understand?”

“yes… … .”

Fortunately, there seems to be no revenge for what happened just a moment ago.

I was nervous about what to do if I got revenge on my heart, but seeing him smiling so brightly made me feel relieved.

Maybe it means that the man named Edgar has that much influence over Ariel.

rattle.

The moment I finished thinking that far, the carriage stopped and informed me from the outside that I had reached my destination.

Finally arrived at Hespania, which is called the heart of the North.

Soon the carriage door opened, and a cold wind rushed through the gap.

“Certainly, Hespania is cold.”

The air in Hespania was so cold that Edgar, who was strong against the cold, felt quite chilly even though he was wearing quite a lot of clothes.

Ariel was already trembling and wrapped herself in the blanket Shuri handed her.

“Mom, why did you get off here?”

Realizing that the place where the carriage got off was in front of the entrance to the outskirts of the village, not the castle, Ariel expressed her doubts.

“Yeah, I thought it would be nice to show Ed Hespania.”

“Hmm, I think it would have been okay to look around in the carriage… … ?”

“Then you don’t have a lot of taste. If my daughter is having a hard time, will she go back to the castle right away?”

The size of the city is enormous, befitting the nickname of Hespania, the heart of the North.

It would probably take a whole year to walk from the entrance to the castle without getting on the carriage.

Edgar also felt sorry for his childhood friend shivering in the cold, so he suggested that he go to the castle since he was fine, but Ariel stopped him.

“Uh, okay. I can alleviate it with magic anyway.”

In addition, Hespania had a unique characteristic of a hidden city.

Considering this, the cold won’t last too long, so Ariel pointed the way with her chin, as if to hurry on.

When that was decided, Helen asked Sheppy to lead the carriage back to the castle.

I asked Shuri about her intentions, but decided to stay by Ariel’s side.

In the first place, she had lived all her life outside of Hespania, so she didn’t even budge from the cold.

“Oops… !?”

Just as he was about to move, Edgar’s body staggered in the snow on the floor.

Fortunately, Ariel caught her, so it’s a shame, or she would have hit her butt on the floor right away.

“You fool, walk carefully.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think of that.”

Ardenum was also colder than other regions, but it wasn’t snowy all year round. Even if I hadn’t thought of it, I couldn’t help it.

Still, the snow piled up to his ankles, and it was not difficult to walk, so Edgar was able to adapt to the snow-covered road quickly.

‘But why is there no snow on that spire?’

Edgar, who was moving his steps, tilted his head at a tall spire that caught his eye.

It was barely visible from quite a distance, but unlike the other structures, it was clear that there was no snow debris around the building.

And for some reason, there were few people in the place where I was walking now.

I thought that in a big city the size of Hespania, there would be crowds everywhere, but I was very surprised.

“Why are you looking around like that?”

“I hope there are fewer people. Is it because it’s on the outskirts?’

In such a large city, the central area where the leading powers who dominated the area are located is the most developed, and there are densely populated areas where commoners live in the outskirts.

But somehow, even in the outskirts, there was no such building.

As if it were an abandoned land.

Ariel exchanged glances with Helene at Edgar’s questioning self-talk, and soon burst into a small laugh at the same time.

Well, for an outsider new to Hespania, this might be an appropriate reaction.

Although Hespania has been widely known lately, even first-time visitors rarely show such a fresh reaction.

Ariel was curious and thought deeply about him, so he wanted to leave it for a while longer, but Ariel couldn’t win Helene’s eyes and soon began to explain about Hespania.

“Haven’t you heard of the characteristics of Hespania?”

“No?”

“Ooh, listen carefully. In Hespania, there is a magical sphere that is said to be a symbol of dominance.”

It is a symbol of dominion.

Does that have anything to do with the power of control passed down through the Loveheim family?

At the appearance of an interesting word, Edgar immediately pricked up his ears and focused on Ariel’s explanation.

“By the way, this is also the story of Elgrun, the first head of the Loveheim family.”

“It was a long time ago.”

It means that 600 years is a story in the past.

At that point, it would be closer to legend than history, but since ancient times, history has sometimes been mixed with exaggerated fiction.

In any case, if the explanation was done properly, it would not have been known.

“Currently, the aliens do not know what to do, but during the time Lord Elgrun was alive, he reigned as the ruler of the north and drove out the aliens.”

“You know that.”

“And at the time, there was a sphere containing mysterious power that Lord Elgrun obtained by defeating the chieftain of the alien tribes, but no one knew of its ability at first.”

The head of the alien races said that it was more precious to them than their lives, and handed it over as a price for defeat. At that time, Elgrun ended his life without knowing the power of the sphere.

“In the meantime, Lord Schwarz, who was the second generation, inherited the position, and one day, he inadvertently poured his magic into the sphere… … .”

“You mean that ability was activated?”

“right. It turns out that the orb is an item that can only be activated by those who possess special magical power, but the owner of that special magical power is the lineage of the Loveheim family.”

Only then did the contents of the magic sphere, a symbol of dominance, fit together like a puzzle in my head.

An item that can only be activated by those with the magical power of domination, and was brought as a symbol of victory by Elgrun, who conquered the north and became a ‘ruler’ in a true sense.

That’s probably why it was called the ‘Symbol of Domination’.

“But what does that have to do with Hespania?”

“You will see that soon. Don’t be surprised.”

Ariel snorted and suddenly cut off the explanation.

Just as a question mark was about to rise above Edgar’s head, as he turned left, an unexpected sight unfolded before his eyes.

The spire he had seen a moment ago was a little closer, and besides the towering buildings, even the roads.

It was because it had the appearance of an ordinary city like Ardenum, as if the snowy scene I had just seen was a lie.

The air was still a bit chilly, but at least it wasn’t the biting cold it had been a while ago.

The number of people walking increased significantly, and their clothes were quite shallow for those living in Hespania.

“What is this?”

“Aren’t you curious? This is the effect of the ‘symbol of domination’.”

Ariel laughed heartily as he watched him wink his eyes, and went on to explain.

In other words, the ‘symbol of dominance’ kept by the Loveheim family can make an area within a certain range have a climate similar to that of other areas.

It was also the driving force that enabled Hespania to be reborn as the heart of the north, a metropolis, regardless of the icy cold of the north.

“Then, the outskirts… … ?”

“Unfortunately, this is an area that the symbol of domination has not reached. That’s why it’s a place where even the poorest of the common people live.”

In the past, the ‘symbol of dominance’ exerted absolute power to protect a wider area, but as time passed, its power gradually weakened, and it is said that Hespania became what it is today.

There is no way to immediately prepare a residence for those who lived on the outskirts only by suddenly shrinking the city, and if the range decreases day by day, such a rule-of-thumb solution will not provide a perfect solution.

When Edgar’s expression changed subtly after hearing about the complicated reality, Ariel strode over and grabbed both of his cheeks and stretched them randomly.

“Do you know who told you to make that face? No need to worry.”

Ariel was determined to come up with a solution somehow if she became the head of the household, but she had no intention of passing the responsibility on to others.

Even if he is the man he trusts the most.

When Edgar frowned in pain, Ariel let go of his hand and walked forward with his arms behind his back.

Then, smiling brightly among the tall buildings and the roadside stretching back, she gave a belated welcome to her friend.

“Anyway, come on. To Hespania.”