"Young master, now is not the time to be daydreaming. Please get ready quickly. His Grace the young duke has arrived."
When Callian timidly went downstairs, Claude had already been waiting for a long time.
"Why are you so slow?"
"Sorry, I didn't sleep well. Why did you come so early?"
"What do you think?"
"I'm not Your Grace the young duke, so how would I know what you're thinking?"
Callian's reply successfully amused Claude.
Being watched while eating made her feel uncomfortable all over. Because she really had no appetite, Callian ate in tiny bites. This made Claude particularly concerned.
"You don't need to be so restrained. You can eat a little more. I'm taking you out with me. Jaelan asked me to. He repeatedly reminded me to take his adorable younger brother Callian out and help him get familiar with life in the capital."
"But Your Grace, young duke—"
Before she could finish speaking, the man interrupted her.
"Call me Claude. Don't call me Your Grace any more. I don't want to hear it."
Hearing that, Callian coughed lightly twice to ease the awkwardness.
"What? You don't like it?"
Callian hardly ever said no. "It's not that I don't like it."
"Then eat. Fill your stomach first, and then we'll go out. I advise you to eat a little more, Callian."
Before long, they appeared in the busiest part of the city centre. The two handsome young men walked side by side, drawing frequent stares from passers-by.
"Remember this road. When locals give directions, they all use Coen Bank as a landmark."
For someone who was going straight into ninth grade, memorising a bit of road like this should have been easy. But Callian was not listening at all. She muttered to herself in a low voice.
"I've heard of this place too. Seven kilometres north-east of Coen is the academy, and three kilometres away is the Imperial Palace."
After that, a silence fell between them.
Claude himself could not figure out what exactly his feelings for Callian were, that they could make him become this ridiculous. He had been attracted to a man, had even kissed him, and yet had called out Callian's name to a woman. He had never expected himself to make such a low-level mistake, and he felt deeply unwilling to accept it.
"Aren't you coming?"
The moment he raised his eyes, he saw Callian, who seemed to be glowing all over, smiling at him brilliantly. This unfamiliar feeling, in which impulse overpowered reason, made him very unhappy.
All day long, Callian was in an especially good mood. The people of Aethel looked very relaxed, and everyone seemed to be living quite comfortably.
"Where there is sunlight, there will be shadows. The brighter the light, the deeper the darkness. Everything follows this kind of rule. Don't jump to conclusions so easily."
But Callian, who had walked out from the darkest place, had a different opinion.
"People living in darkness may not necessarily know that they are living in darkness. Perhaps not knowing is what actually makes them happier, because happiness itself is relative. When people see others who are different from them and better than they are, they feel unhappy. But if they know nothing from the very beginning, they will not feel unhappy. Instead, they will feel that such a life is only natural, and then satisfaction or dissatisfaction would not even come into question."
These deeply empathetic words left Claude unable to refute her for a moment.
"Callian."
Claude suddenly spoke, startling her slightly.
"Relax your mind for now. We still have one more place to go."
As soon as he finished speaking, a jar full of candy was tossed into Callian's arms. Sure enough, Callian really liked it. Sure enough, he's still just a child. She was soothed in an instant.
Hearing that, Callian angrily explained, "I— I just like sweet things. Don't always treat me like a child."
"I'm not treating you like a child. But you are young."
"Then Your Grace the young duke isn't that much older than I am, right?"
Claude was instantly choked speechless. He could only simply change the subject.
"We've seen the light. Now let's go and experience the darkness. We're going to Ruber, entering from the northern entrance."
Hearing this, Callian's heart instantly fell into chaos. Could it be that what happened in Ruber last night had been discovered?
All along the way, Callian felt deeply uneasy. Going to Ruber so suddenly might have already made Claude suspicious of her. After hesitating again and again, she finally decided she could not just sit around and wait to die.
"Is the Ruber you mentioned the place I know?"
Unexpectedly, Claude asked back what kind of place Ruber was in her understanding. Callian shook her head repeatedly, her face full of resistance.
"What else could it be? I heard that it is a place that must never be approached. One should not even entertain the thought of going in."
But that explanation did not convince Claude, because from Callian's room, Ruber could be seen just across the Leon River. Unexpectedly, even such a subtle detail had been noticed by Claude.
Now, no matter what, she could only keep pretending to be clueless to the very end. Callian suddenly put on a look of extreme fear.
"Really? That dark place really is Ruber? I see."
Not long after, the carriage arrived at their destination. This place was the empire's mistake, and also the empire's shame. People also called Ruber the empire's tear. But at this moment, Callian's mind was filled with nothing but anxiety.
Claude was most likely testing her now. So she lied to Claude and said that she was very afraid.
"It smells terrible here. I feel a little nauseous. I don't want to look any more. Let's go back quickly, all right?"
But Claude clearly had no intention of letting her off so easily.
"Even if this is an abandoned place, people still live here. Isn't this exactly what you call the dark shadow born beneath the light?"
Callian was panicking badly inside. At this moment, she could not respond in any way and had to pretend she knew nothing.
Suddenly, the big boy in front of him began trembling violently. "I want to go back. I'm really scared. Okay?"
His voice had already taken on a sobbing tone, and his eyes were brimming with tears. That appearance made Claude's heart tighten slightly. In the end, he still gave in to Callian and agreed to her request.
On the way back, Callian did not say a single word and only lowered her head to fiddle with her fingers. It seemed she had really been frightened.
"But why do I always feel that you know Ruber very well?"
The moment those words came out, Callian broke out in two drops of cold sweat. She swore that she had never come here and had never gone inside. But all she got in return was Claude's cold expression.
Did he really believe her? He was truly impossible to read.
Just as she was thinking that, Claude suddenly turned his head back. Callian stiffened straight at once, like a guilty thief caught in the act.
"I have a dinner appointment, so I'll just take you home directly."
To her, this was undoubtedly the most pleasant thing Claude had said all day. She immediately let out a sigh of relief. But Claude became unhappy instead.
"If a person is always the same, that is boring too."