Riley realized there was Andal walking toward them with heavy steps. Riley stopped talking and shrugged his shoulders.
“… You’re here.”
“What a ridiculous rascal. Look who’s talking. Hey, no matter how terrible my personality is, it couldn’t possibly be worse than yours.”
Andal ground teeth as he looked at Riley. Riley looked apologetic as he raised the middle finger toward Andal.
“What’s that compliment for?”
“Oh, this is a compliment for your kind heartedness.”
“…”
Andal, dumbfounded, looked at Riley’s middle finger. Still finding it to be suspicious, Andal asked,
“… Are you being cynical?”
Nainiae was surprised by Riley raising up his middle finger in middle of the conversation. Having heard Andal mentioning ‘compliment,’ Nainiae tilted her head side to side, confused.
“…?”
“I’m not being cynical.”
Riley shrugged his shoulder and asked as he looked at Nainiae who had a question mark floating on her face.
“I’m not, right?”
Nainiae, who noticed Riley’s eyebrows wiggling, roughly figured out what Riley was up to. She nodded and said,
“Yes, that’s right.”
If it was before she finished the trip to the Rainfield, she probably would not have realized the meaning behind Riley’s facial gesture with the wiggling eyebrows.
“… Tsk.”
Andal, not able to dig in further into questioning, clicked his tongue, redirected his gaze upward, checked the color of the sky and got to the main point.
“Well then, can she go with me now?”
“No, not yet.”
“What? You said to come for her on the evening, didn’t you?”
Riley shook his head, and Andal had a confused look on the face.
“It’s still evening, right?”
Riley looked up the sky and asked back.
The sun was almost set now. Instead of orange color, the sky was filled with dark blue color. The stars were starting to show themselves here and there.
“You are so fickle…”
“You are going to be living for several thousand more years. Can’t you wait a few hours? Stop mumbling around and just wait.”
Riley scolded Andal for complaining and then looked at Nainiae who was just standing there and watching what was happening.
“Nainiae.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“It’s about time for you to go back to the kitchen area.”
“To … the kitchen?”
Perhaps it was because of what Willa said earlier. Hearing Riley’s order was making Nainiae’s shoulder to fall down all the way.
‘Get out of the kitchen.’
Nainiae felt like she could hear Willa’s voice. Hoping Riley will change his mind, Nainiae asked carefully,
“Excuse me, is there a reason for going to the kitchen…”
Riley had an ambiguous smile that seemed to indicate there was something to it. However, he didn’t answer. Riley grabbed Nainiae by the shoulder, turned her around toward the mansion, and ordered once again.
“… Get going.”
* * *
By Riley’s order, Nainaie ended up back at the kitchen.
She was hesitating in front of the closed kitchen door. For no reason, she grabbed on to the tip of her skirt and checked her cloth’s condition over and over, knowing already that it was completely fine.
‘Will it be all right?’
For several tens of minutes, she hesitated about entering.
Nainiae vacantly tried touching the cheek that Riley’s hand touched. As if that gave her the courage, she nodded and raised her hand toward the door.
‘That’s right, this time, I should do it right.’
Right now, she had a look on her face that was quite different from how it was when she entered the kitchen earlier today.
‘I should look at them properly. To the people who I cherish, I should look at them in the eyes and say it properly.’
That was the only thought in her head. She had her hand on the kitchen’s door hand and carefully opened it.
“… S… She’s here!”