It's Not Night

Chapter 86

Andra was trying to get closer to the source of the sound. Someone grabbed the ribbon behind her neck. Since it was a choker, her neck was choked and her weight shifted backwards. The person who pulled the ribbon fell down with Andra leaning backwards unexpectedly.

“Cough! Cough”

Grabbing her neck, Andra let out her constant cough. Tears welled up in her eyes for a long time. She barely lifted her head and looked at the boy who was pulling the ribbon behind her neck. The boy had a puzzled look as he held the ribbon. Andra couldn’t stand it and squealed.

“Are you crazy? Why are you pulling someone else’s ribbon? Are you going to strangle me to death?”

“…It’s a mistake. I didn’t mean to hold it!”

“That would be a big mistake! You should try it too!”

Andra, feeling something accumulating from the beginning, grabbed the boy’s hair with a flinch. The black hair protruded between her fingers and clasped tightly in her hands.

The boy’s face was distorted as it was the first time in his life that his hair was grabbed. Hey, why don’t you let this go? Andra exclaimed. I can’t let it go! Suddenly, the two got stuck together as they continued to fight.

“Ah! You’re going to rip off my hair!”

“You strangled me!”

“That was a mistake!”

“It’s even weirder that it was a mistake! You can grab the skirt, why are you holding the ribbon around my neck!”

“Ack! It hurts! It hurts!”

Andra grabbed the boy’s hair with all of her strength and shook it. Although her father, Albert, said that a young lord’s hair shouldn’t be grabbed carelessly, she couldn’t stand it. He threw stones at first, then strangled her, this time! She thought he had to pay it as much.

Above all, he was not a member of the imperial family, nor did he appear to be the son of a high-ranking family. Andra was holding the boy’s hair with a credible reason. Because she was the only lady of the Eastern Avellin.

“I can’t lose by strength!”

Suddenly, the boy pushed Andra, who was holding his hair. He was right to be confident in his strength, as Andra was pushed back to the ground. But she jumped up again and tried to grab the boy’s hair again. She wanted to pluck a little more of that brazen, sloppy boy’s hair.

“You are the one who made the mistake, how can you push the victim!”

“A person who grabs another person’s hair is the victim?!”

“I am!”

“You’re really—!”

The boy couldn’t stand it either, and grabbed Andra’s braided blonde hair. As a result, the two were holding each other’s hair. Andra glared at her boy with glaring eyes.

“A man recklessly grabbing a lady’s hair?”

“You grabbed mine first!”

“It’s your fault! You fiendish Airak!”

Andra groaned and exclaimed with a low voice. Airak was sort of like a swear word in the East. As soon as the boy heard the word Airak, he stared at Andra with a puzzled expression, and he cried out as if he would not give up.

“You loser Avellin!”

The boy’s and girl’s eyes met in sparks for a moment. The two pulled each other’s hair at the same time. And then they started to fight back and forth. However, the fight between the two stopped shortly after. This is because the third person, an adult man and woman, suddenly appeared in front of them.

A woman in a dress that exposed her shoulders with some scorching heat, and a man in a disheveled clothes, burst into laughter as they saw the boys and girls fighting in front of them.

“Look at them, Rick.”

“I was wondering who interrupted us, but they were kids.”

The man whispered as he kissed the back of the woman’s shoulder. Andra and the boy stopped plucking each other’s hair and looked at them. After a while the woman said in a soft voice as she smiled in half-curved eyes.

“Young Lord and Young Lady. You shouldn’t be doing this here. Where are your guardians?”

A man approached and separated Andra and the boy. While the man lifted the boy up, the woman approached Andra. She tidied up Andra’s messy hair, then glanced at Andra’s face and opened her mouth in amazement.

“Oh my gosh, you’re an Avellin, aren’t you?”

“…Hello. Do you know me?”

“I don’t quite know you well, but I knew someone who looked just like you. Get up now, little lady. Sitting on a cold ground like this for a long time is not good for your body.”

Andra got up while holding the woman’s outstretched hand. The woman looked at the girl and then the boy, and she burst out laughing out loud in disbelief.

“Rick, can you believe it? Is there such a fate?”

“Avellin and Airak are fighting in one place. It’s one hell of a fate.”

At that, Andra and the boy looked at each other at the same time. Their eyes were saying things. Are you really an Airak? Are you really an Avellin? The two’s faces contorted in surprise, then soon changed to a look of contempt for each other.

“Come now, don’t fight. First of all, getting out of this maze comes first. They may be looking for you outside.”

The man standing next to the boy intervened.

So Andra and Dustin were led out of the maze by the woman and the man, respectively.

When they came out of the maze, dozens of lights surrounded the garden. Andra looked around with a startled face. The woman stroked Andra’s hair and whispered in a soft voice. Of course, the content was quite serious.

“It seems that they are looking for the Young Lady and Young Lord.”

The woman was right. A man spotted them and shouted at the others. After a while, people flocked around them. Andra could see Albert and Ansel rushing towards her among them. And behind them were people who looked they’re from Airak.

“Andra!”

Albert rushed to Andra and hugged her tightly. Baby, where have you been? He lifted her head and checked Andra, his face hardened at the sight of the small scar on her forehead, the matted hair, and the clothes covered in grass and dirt. Then he heard a voice calling him.

“Long time no see, Sir Albert.”

“…Princess.”

With a smile on her face, the woman naturally treated Albert. But Albert frowned.

“I heard you came back from Flande, but… Why is my daughter with Your Highness?”

“Lord, don’t get me wrong. I just happened to meet the Young Lady in the maze. Surprisingly, if I were to explain the situation, she was fighting with Young Lord Airak.”

When the Princess said so, Albert’s head turned to Dustin, Airak’s young son. At the same time, as he saw the people next to Dustin, his face quickly turned to contempt. And it was the same with Duke Airak on the other side.

“Duke Airak.”

“Marquis Avellin.”

The atmosphere cooled in an instant. The duke and marquis just stared at each other, but to the others it seemed as if they were pointing sharply forged swords at each other. Ansel hastily took Andra into his arms. It was Marquis Avellin who spoke first.

“It seems that the Young Lord resembles the Duke and is as thoughtless.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. The Marquis doesn’t even know who started first? My son has also been seriously harmed.”

Duke Airak responded to Marquis Avellin’s words. As the Duke said, there were several small scratches on Dustin’s face that would have been made by Andra. But Marquis Avellin didn’t even notice.

“It sounds like the Duke’s martial arts aren’t what they used to be?”

“If you don’t want me to draw my sword here, you should be careful, Marquis.”

With Marquis Avellin’s sarcasm, Duke Airak changed the position of his hand as if he was going to pull the sword out of its scabbard at any moment. Because of this, the people around him silently took a half step back and swallowed a gulp. Since Airak’s martial arts have been famous since ancient times, they did not want to get caught in it.

“As expected, if you don’t know how to speak properly, your habit of looking for the sword first is still the same. So are you going to cut me down right here?”

“There is nothing that cannot be cut.”

“Then go ahead. Her Majesty will be very pleased to see blood on this sacred day.”

“Don’t talk about Her Majesty in such a cowardly manner. That stupid mouth always flutters behind Her Majesty’s back.”

“Is the Duke jealous of how I am treated?”

A small spark flew between Duke Airak and Marquis Avellin. Andra became nervous as the atmosphere became more ominous. And what if Airak really cuts her father off? Just because of that brazen bastard! Andra grabbed the hem of Ansel’s trousers and stood behind him, glaring at Dustin.

‘It’s because of you!’

Dustin understood what Andra had mouthed, and frowned in indignation. He also quickly mouthed angrily at Andra without letting out a sound.

‘It’s probably because of you!’

What? Andra looked at Dustin and smirked. That’s right, I won’t even apologize! Andra decided. Who is the cause of this commotion? She thought it was necessary to say for sure.

Where did he learn how to throw stones from the beginning? It would be from the north. Since ancient times, northerners have been called barbarians.

“You want to try it with me, Marquis?”

“Are you truly trying to argue with me, Duke?”

On the other hand, the fights between the family heads continued. And the atmosphere was starting to overheat, so it didn’t seem like they could easily stop the fight between the two. So, around the time that everyone expected Airak and Avelin to fight, the sound of footsteps, one of the attendants shouted that the Empress had appeared.

“Both of you stop. I can’t believe you’re having a big fight at my castle on my day.”

When the Empress appeared, everyone hurriedly bowed their knees to the ground. The Empress glanced alternately at Duke Airak and Marquis Aveline, and clicked her tongue. Then she beckoned them both to follow her. The nerve war that had been so overheated seemed to be over.

But only one.

‘You’ll see, Airak!’

‘I should be saying that!’

Andra and Dustin were able to imprint this first impression of each other firmly. That was the beginning of that bloody, terrible relationship.

‘Yes, even from such a long time ago, that guy absolutely does not know how to apologize.’

Andra, remembering her first meeting with Dustin, gritted her teeth. That’s how her relationship with Dustin, which started on the wrong foot from the very onset, began. And, this ill-fated relationship deepened as the days went on. In particular, Andra was upset every time at Dustin’s actions, where there seemed to be no manners.

‘You tormented me like that, yet now you like me?’

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