Winter (1)
If human life is like the four seasons, the life of a spirit is probably a long winter.
Looking at everything that was dying, the great wolf of the wind was guarding the forest like that.
*
âYouâre too good to be in trouble, Yenika.â
Laplace Bakery, located at the entrance of the living quarters, is a historic teahouse with a history with the Sylvania Academy.
A large-looking location on the road to the Ghakwon-dong, the taste of refreshments managed and managed by a former imperial pastry chef, and a terrace filled with the smell of flowers.
The appearance that seems to embody the romance of a girl is the secret to being able to maintain its realm even in the living dong commercial area, which is being encroached into the area of Elte Sanghoe one by one.
Yenica was also a girl of that age, so when Clara offered to shoot her at Laplace Bakery, she had no choice but to follow along.
The three-tiered dessert tray is filled with cakes of all kinds of dazzling colors. He was about to receive the tea with a dazzling light emitting from his eyes.
âItâs good to work hard, but itâs hard if you do too well. Do you know what I mean, Yenika?â
âYes?â
âYou have to know how to make a hole if you need it.â
Clara and Anise, Jenicaâs best friends, looked the same as usual, but they look strangely more tragic today.
It was the exact opposite of the academic atmosphere that was gradually becoming more spacious ahead of the winter break.
âUh, whatâs going on⌠Clara? With such a stiff face.â
âClara is going back to her hometown this vacation~. Iâm worried about you while youâre away~.â
Anise sipped the tea with a nice expression on her face.
âokay? Seriously, last year, I went back to my hometown every vacation to help out with work⌠I feel anxious when Iâm away from college. I know what it feels like.â
âItâs not like that, Yenika! Iâm not worried about my academic calendar, itâs your love story!â
There is no hesitation in Claraâs tone of voice as she stabs straight ahead.
As if something had happened to Yenica, who was firm and swallowing her breath at those words, Clara went in further.
âTo put it bluntly, you fell in love with that Ed Roth-Taylor.â
âClara. Itâs too direct.â
âI came here today with a firm resolution, Anise. Donât you know what Iâve been squeezing out Laplace Bakeryâs finest refreshments for? You have to spray this amount of bait to get through Yenika, who seems too busy these days.â
âMi, the bait⌠It looks like I was fishing.â
Strictly speaking, the expression âfishedâ was the most accurate, but Anise did not dare to express it explicitly.
âHe, and⌠my love story, what the hellâŚâ
âYenika, if youâve come this far, letâs not leave. I think youâve reached the danger line, Yenica.â
Yenika Tane would think that she had lived her life by hiding her love affair, but to her best friends Clara and Anise, it was meaningless. Yenikaâs insides are nothing but transparent windows.
âUp, the danger line?â
âokay. Yenica. To put it bluntly, you are a good âfriendâ.â
Clara was talking naked with her arms crossed, and graceful Anise was sipping tea next to her, sipping tea.
âItâs difficult to give such a compliment⌠itâs difficultâŚâ
âThatâs a good thing⌠but not a compliment, Yenika.â
Clara shot Yenica at her with a serious face.
âWhen Yenika first fell in love with that person like Ed, she felt like she lost her country⌠But as time passed and her evaluation of that person turned around, it was accepted. So, how did things turn out like this?â
âHey, ClaraâŚâ
âIt doesnât make any sense to blush and shake your head from now on, Yenika. I think if youâve come this far, you can just leave. I have been patient enough.â
It was only then that Jenica realized that it was all Clara and Anisâ trap.
The reason for the reservation of the private terrace, which is the most expensive at Laplace Bakery, was also to induce Yenica to a closed space for fear of overheard.
âYenika, youâre following the golden pattern of a loser in a relationship⌠as a good âfriendâ is coming to an end.â
There was an auditory hallucination that sounded like a thunderbolt.
âHey, what does that mean? Clara?â
âHave you recently been with him and your heart was pounding and you couldnât speak, or did you say that you couldnât see each other because your heart was pounding?â
âWhy are you suddenly saying that?!â
âIs there! Answer me!â
Isnât it too direct to prescribe Yenika, who has no immunity?
Anise, who was sitting quietly next to her listening to the story, was very concerned, but did not intervene right away.
âOh, thatâsâŚ!â
Yenika swallowed a gasp.
Yes. Obviously, itâs because weâve shared a lot more time than when we first met Ed Roth Taylor⌠Now, sitting next to him, I feel comfortable and warm rather than pounding and nervous, and I feel like Iâm healing. Considering the first time I met him, itâs safe to say that it has changed dramatically.
It wasnât really a negative emotion, so I didnât think it was that dangerous. Rather, I thought it was an improvement.
âDo you know what we call such a comfortable and reliable relationship? They call it family or close friends. Itâs just a relationship where Yenica helps you as much as you like!â
âWell, then⌠isnât itâŚ?â
âHey, burn! What does it mean when emotional exchange is only one-way? You should make him think of you too! If I just follow you and say I like you, is that a romantic relationship? A follow-up relationship!â
A dagger-like needle flew into Yenikaâs chest and pierced it.
Suddenly, a faint clap of applause or the cheers of animals resound. Clara couldnât hear it at all, but Anisâs ears, which were hiding some of the spiritsâ emotions, could hear faintly.
It must have been that the lower spirits who signed a master-slave contract with Yenika were not able to spit out the words. I just had to be cool.
âYouâve been thinking about the wrong approach for a while, Yenika. As long as you are always easygoing, bright, and kind, your charm is, so trying to be pushy and trying to get worse is going to hurt your charm. Surely⌠Belleâs opinion was more appropriate in this regard.â
âWhat kind of exchange of opinions happened without meâŚ?â
âItâs okay, Yenika. Anyway, itâs winter vacation after all. Thatâs when you open your eyes and cut your nose. Anyway, the man has a flat face and strangely has a lot of womenâs clothes, so we shouldnât procrastinate any longer. You have to take it off slowly. But at a time like this, I have to go back to my hometown, wouldnât I be anxious? yes?â
In front of Clara, who vomited in anger, Yenika had no choice but to sit still and listen to the story.
He couldnât figure out why he felt like he was being scolded, but he seemed to be a criminal in the atmosphere, so he stayed still.
Above all else, Jenica trusts Clara.
âHey, Clara is erudite. And because Iâm good at human relationships like this⌠Is that correctâŚ?â
âYes, Yenika! Listen to me!â
Claraâs worries about returning home gradually reached their limit.
âAnyway⌠Iâve been thinking about Yenika lately⌠Yenika Youâre desperately lacking in talent. Either way, we need to change our strategy.â
âUghâŚâ
Yenika was speechless as she was not without a point.
Using love as a bait as a bait to provoke, tickle, and tease others⌠From the image, Lortel seems to be far more proficient than Yenica. From the beginning, she was a girl who made it her business to play with peopleâs hearts.
I was well aware of the fact that I couldnât even find the original story if I had to follow along.
âIn that sense, you have to change the direction⌠As I said at the beginning, youâre too good-looking, the problem is, Yenika.â
âWhat else do you meanâŚ?â
âListen, Yenika. You need to be a little ugly.â
When I first see Yenika, I often think that she will look young and full of life on the inside as well as her youthful and energetic appearance. Actually, there is that part. Itâs like being terribly mischievous, or being timid in a strange way.
However, when it comes to important parts, it is surprisingly solid and flawless.
Despite this, he is confident in self-management, works hard, is altruistic, and is quite tolerant. A popular cutie with good looks, a senior in the grade, and strong brute force.
Heâs the perfect person to be proud of being a best friend⌠But now, that doesnât just work as an advantage!
âListen and follow me, Yenika.â
Clara took on a serious mood and made eye contact with Yenica, pronouncing each letter one word at a time.
âThe protective instinct.â
âBo⌠protectionâŚ?â
âThe protective instinct.â
Yenika swallowed her saliva and followed those words with difficulty.
âOriginally, all men are the same. If youâre reliable like Yenica, listen to your side, and just be positive, do you think sheâll like it? no. Rather, I have to constantly confirm the hardship and weakness of myself. Oh, Iâm helping this woman. you are dependent on me Youâre relying on me emotionally. By constantly confirming this, build your self-esteem and stimulate your protective instinct.â
Anise admired herself.
Clara doesnât have much of a dating experience, but surprisingly, the story pierces the coreâŚ!
Is this the intuition of a person who âlearnedâ love affairâŚ!
âThis is more suitable for Yenica than the usual smut.â
âThat⌠thatâs a bit vagueâŚâ
It doesnât suit Jenicaâs opinion. When Clara asks what that means, Yenika narrows her eyes and fiddles with her fingers.
âThat⌠poem⌠actually⌠Iâm already leaning on a lot emotionallyâŚ?â
The reason why you can feel as if you are being healed after an hour of relaxation while living in a bachelor life walking on a thin ice sheet or living in a Dex tube is because Edgar always greets you in the same way by the bonfire when you go to camp.
When he withdrew the fact that Ed was coming to the Dex, on the one hand it was a pity, but on the other hand, it was still okayâŚ
âBut Ed Roth-Taylor doesnât know that at allâŚ?â
âIs that so⌠It certainly seems that Ed is struggling just by maintaining his camp life and college life at the same timeâŚâ
This was also one of the fundamental problems.
As he maintains a life like an iron man, he has no time to turn his attention to love. Thatâs exactly what Bell Maia pointed out.
To break through this part, you really have no choice but to grab a man named Ed and shake it.
âThen itâs just a lack of stimulation. Reveal your inner self and receive comfort! Arenât you worried about the spectacle, Yenika? Wow, this would be really hard if I didnât help⌠Iâm worried!â
âThere is no way such a worry can arise overnightâŚ! Most of them have been resolved to some degree!â
âThen create your worriesâŚ! If you create a problem that didnât exist, itâs bound to happen!â
âIâm so sorry if I bought you worry with a lie!â
When Ed apologized sincerely for being rude, he could not win and had a history of bowing his head.
Yenicaâs conscience canât stand the absurd lies. However, if there are sincere concerns, most of them solve them on their own due to their competence.
âWell, if there is something to worry aboutâŚâ
âWhat if there is?â
Yenica thinks, âUmmâŚâ and then confesses.
âThese days, Ed was planning to make a contract with a high-ranking spirit by some expedientâŚâ
ââŚâ
âI also lay down groaning for a few days after signing a contract with Takan, but if Ed, who is still lacking in sensitivity, uses a shortcut to sign a contract, wouldnât it rather ruin his bodyâŚ? But Ed is a style that is greedy for self-growth⌠Because it can work out well⌠If you make a decision, itâs sometimes right to push it boldly⌠⌠Anyway, Iâm a little worried about thatâŚâ
It was something he was talking about quite seriously, but Clara leaned back against the backrest, patting her forehead with both hands.
Anise took a deep breath and brought the teacup to her mouth. In the end, even if the story goes like this, this girl is like this. Heaven is like this, what do you do?
That innocent girl who tilts her head and looks at Clara and Anise. On the contrary, considering the fact that he and Yenika became best friends because he liked that aspect, it wasnât that he didnât like it again.
âI think soon.â
After eating a bunch of Laplace Bakeryâs gourmet snacks and leaving Yenica with a satisfied face⌠Clara and Annis walked side by side in the living quarters.
Clara did not think that Anisâs words were out of the ordinary. It was because Clara had some intuition.
However, it is quite unnatural that Anise didnât say a word properly in her conversation with Yenika.
When the three of us got together, we always chatted and chatted⌠Today, Anise was quietly drinking only black tea.
Anise, unlike Clara, has a knack for relationships between men and women, but she was the last to find out that the person Yenicaâs love affair with was Ed.
It was because he was busy with his teaching job and his grades were sparse.
Clara with freckles and protruding hair looks full of vitality, but surprisingly, she comes from a wealthy family.
On the other hand, anise has an old-fashioned and elegant appearance, but is very poor in the environment. Therefore, he cannot neglect his teaching job.
âI know Clara well, butâŚâ
âyes. I think Yenika is also very emotionally involved.â
Is life in the Dex tube a problem? Or is there some other reason?
Sometimes, Yenika feels like sheâs overdoing it. If you think that the Glaskan incident was the cause of the explosion, it is highly likely that Yenicaâs troubles have not been resolved yet.
Itâs such a subtle difference that normal people canât feel it, but Anise and Clara could.
The feeling that if there is an opportunity, I might reach my mental limit again⌠A feeling that some fundamental troubles are not resolvedâŚ
Still, I feel as if I am being healed periodically or being relieved of my emotional weight.
That opponent is probably Ed Roth Taylor.
It is savage that he confided such worries to his irreplaceable best friends and did not expect them psychologically. If you have caught up to the day like this and tried to sneak up on it, but you didnât end up talking about your worries⌠thatâs Yenikaâs choice. You canât say anything about it there.
However, Aniseâs opinion was slightly different from Claraâs.
âClara noticed Yenicaâs love affair first, and it seems that she changed her opinion about the man by contacting Mr. Bell and the school staff, but⌠I have another opinion.â
Clara seemed to understand Aniseâs thoughts at that moment.
The reason why Jenica and Clara didnât say anything while drinking tea while they were arguing.
âI still donât know if I can trust him completely.â
âokayâŚ? Well, the fact that my reputation is improving a bit makes me uneasy.â
âIt is so⌠but the decisive reason is alsoâŚâ
Anise raised the thumbs and index fingers of both hands and interlocked them to form a square. And put the faces of passersby in it.
âContemplation.â
ââŚâ
âLooking at it, itâs just like a playboy. If you have to lean on a man who is obsessed with women, in the end, only Yenica will get hurt.â
Itâs a bit too much to judge just by looking at the contemplation⌠Iâd like to say, but itâs hard to refute it when you think of Ed Roth Taylorâs appearance. fact is true
âStill, itâs a bit too much to judge just by looking at itâŚâ
As if she had even read Claraâs mind, Anise immediately said that.
âI wonder if verification work is necessary on my own. At least you have to make sure that heâs not a mean guy.â
âhow?â
âWhat would be the best way?â
Anise untied the ribbon that was tying the back of her hair, and swept her gray brown hair to the side of her shoulder. She blinks her moderately long eyelashes and smiles naturally with a face full of shyness.
âWow-. really? Isnât that overkill? Youâre not that thick-faced.â
âWhat kind of skill would it take? If youâre a really mean person, youâll get over it with just a little bit of flirting, right?â
âWhat if you really jumped on it, and youâre convinced that youâre a bastard?â
Anise spoke naturally with her characteristic aristocratic smile.
âIf thatâs the case, then youâll have to take responsibility and tear it apart with Yenica.â
âŚscary.
Clara and Anise werenât always in agreement, but I didnât expect them to come out this hard. Thoughts of Yenica were always the same, but the difference in method is another law.
âAnis doesnât have much contact with that man. I heard that they donât even live in a dormitory, so theyâre out of workâŚâ
âWell, thereâs no law that says you canât flirt just because you donât see each other often⌠But if you share a lot of time, itâs also true that itâs easy to flirt. Donât worry, Clara. Because I have an idea.â
When Anise has this certainty, I am most anxious.
Just by looking at your appearance, you should not be mistaken for a person who is always gentle and graceful.
âYou know my supervisor, right?â
âClaire assistant professor?â
âyes. This time, because of the heavy workload, I decided to receive a lot of support for undergraduate scholarship students. Obviously, before that, the lab itself was very busy because there was not enough manpower.â
Anise is Claireâs chief assistant. Itâs a relationship weâve been together since the first semester of our freshman year, so Assistant Professor Claire had a lot of trust in Anise.
âI heard that the man also applied for a bachelorâs scholarship. If I recommend it to the professor, you might be drawn to our lab. These days, we tend to give our staff generously.â
ââŚâ
âI still have to process the paperwork for the conference, and I didnât have enough manpower to take charge of the job placement test for the freshman class that will be on vacation⌠One stone and two birds.â
Saying that, Anise nodded her head with a stern expression on her face.
Clara looked at Anise with a worried face.
Was it really a good thing I decided to go down to my hometown this vacation? When I came back from vacation, there must be no upheaval in human relationships.
Was it a good thing that Ed Roth-Taylor was brought into Claireâs lab for this nonsensical reason?
I couldnât shake that thought.
*
[ New finished product ]
wooden wall
After making a groove on the wooden plywood and fixing it by interlocking it, I tied it once more with a rope and stood it upright.
It blocks wild animals from approaching the camp and blocks drafts to some extent.
Crafting Difficulty: âââââ
[ Crafting proficiency has increased. ]
Winter has come.
It was a disaster to see the snow that looked cozy and piled up.
After waking up in the morning, removing all the snow from the campground, and putting up a wall to block drafts, the sun was already in the middle of the sky.
Itâs been a while since I set up a policy not to overdo it just because I have a lot of work to do.
Until late in the afternoon, with the intention of lying down and resting, I turned off the heating and lay down in the hut.
Itâll be very cold at night⌠Letâs get up around sunset and finish the firewood work and food work. Still, the good news is that the preservation of food itself has improved thanks to the cold weather.
And tomorrow, I have to go to work as a bachelorâs scholarship student. Did you say that there is no physically demanding job, and that the task is entrusted to you so that it does not take too much time?
He said that he could take the paperwork with him back to the dormitory and take care of it⌠Well, in any case, as long as it can be combined with life in moderation.
There was a lot to do.
You have to go to the Elte Sanghoe branch in the living-dong side to find out how things are going with the engineering supplies, and you have to go to check the results of the end-of-semester exam.
There is no problem in living at the camp right now⌠but just cleaning the snow on a regular basis is hard work.
Even if the roof of the hut is the same, shelter tents and simple facilities placed outside may be crushed by the weight of snow and collapse. You need to constantly check the status.
Still⌠I got some tuition waiver through the undergraduate scholarship, and negotiated to receive tuition benefits instead of giving up the right to enter the dormitory for the remaining amount that was not exempted. It means that the tuition fee problem has been settled by the next semester.
I feel like a lot of parts of my mind have been liberated by that alone, so my shoulders are very light these days.
To some extent, I spent some money to supplement the supplies. I even had the opportunity to lead a leisurely camp life right away. Itâs no longer to the point of splitting the day apart and living like a madman like in the beginning.
I stopped dividing the day into hours. I divided my work into five parts, morning, lunch, afternoon, evening, and night, and laid out my work schedule. I was still busy, but⌠it depends on how people adjust, and compared to before, she looks like a fairy.
When I woke up in the late afternoon, Lucy was lying on the blanket.
It was in the middle of sleeping with me in the shape of a cross, drawing an oblique line. I have no intention of waking up when I hear the sound of my breathing.
ââŚâ
I was thinking of picking up Lucy as it is and throwing it back into the reserved seat, a wooden shelterâŚ. I thought it would be a bit odd to throw it outside on such a cold winter day.
The cold wouldnât be a problem for Lucy, who was wearing all kinds of protective magic anyway⌠but itâs still a matter of mood.
I just threw Lucy on the hut bed, opened the door and woke up to the cold air.
Take one deep breath and steam gushes out of your mouth. The fresh winter forest air awakened my consciousness at once.
ââŚIâll do it soon.â
Anytime you do it, you have to take the risk.
If you hesitate and miss the time, it becomes more ambiguous.
Thereâs never been a better time than now.
I thought to myself, and took out a ring with a golden phoenix engraved on it from my arms.
Then he clenched his fists tightly and held them close to his chest.
âAre you listening?â
I donât know if there will be or not. Still, I dare to call his name.
ââŚMerylda.â
The wind blew.
Despite the cold winter wind, it felt strangely warm.