I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess

Translator : Idris

Edgar thought.

I don’t know exactly what the effect of this candy is, but it’s clear that one of the effects is to temporarily reduce intelligence.

Otherwise, the situation that is currently happening is completely incomprehensible.

“Ed, I like you… Hee hee… … .”

“… … .”

Ariel had been sitting next to him on the soft cotton-padded chair for a while and rubbed her face against his arm, making a cat-like noise.

Her face was also like that of a cat, so Edgar thought of a more noble cat with lustrous black fur.

If the fact that the pupils are red is also a singularity, then it must be a singularity.

Meanwhile, Sylvia, who was sitting across from her, was watching this scene with an absurd expression.

‘Did I misunderstand the effect of candy?’

Sylvia looked at the glass jar containing the candy and was lost in confusion.

She has heard that it allows one to bring out the words inside one's mind, but she never thought that even one's behavior could change like that.

Maybe this is a rare opportunity for her friend and she must be expressing all the bottled up desires that have accumulated so far in her heart.

Either way, it was a very entertaining sight for anyone to watch.

“Why did you bring something like that?”

“Sorry. I brought it because I thought it would be fun, but the effect is really good.”

“Sigh… … .”

Edgar couldn’t say anything more at Sylvia’s act of scratching her cheek while laughing innocently.

After Ariel entered this state, he tried to hear an explanation from Sylvia, but it is said that the effect of this candy is to bring out actions and words against the will of the user.

In other words, it makes people who hate something, crave more of it and those who like it, push it away more.

Edgar himself had doubts about the effects of the candy, but since the only two people who knew about it said so, he had no choice but to agree.

“Looking at it like this, she doesn't seem to dislike you. ”

Seeing Ariel clinging to him like a cicada on a dead tree, Sylvia asked in a calm tone. Edgar sighed and waved his hand firmly.

“You may find it funny, but it's not.”

If she had her appearance changed into a real cat, he would not have been this self conscious, but for him now, this situation was practically hell.

One could say that he is realizing what it means to reach the limit of his patience as a man.

Anyway, it was clear that it was not a happy situation.

“Fuu, wouldn’t it be nice to be hugged by a pretty girl like Ariel?”

“That’s… … .”

Edgar glanced at Ariel and kept his mouth shut.

Of course, he might like her as Edgar Billhark, but after realizing that this wasn’t Ariel’s original will, he felt nothing but a sense of collapse.

Even in the midst of that, the soft touch that came close to his body was testing his mental strength from time to time, and it was literally to death.

“Oh, you know what? That the memory disappears when the candy’s effect ends?”

“Disappear… You mean the memory after eating the candy?”

“yes. Aren’t you curious?”

While listening to another unexpected effect, Edgar was relieved saying it was good news.

He was thinking about what to do when Ariel returns to normal, and how to treat her now.

But if the memory is completely gone, it will at least mean it’s okay to put aside worrying about it for a while.

Of course, what bothered him the most was that Sylvia’s words could not be trusted unconditionally.

“What? Are you suspicious?”

Seeing Edgar’s strange gaze, Sylvia asked in case of doubt, and Edgar narrowed his eyes even more and said in an airy tone.

“… Do you look like someone trustworthy? You made the kid like this.”

“What ‘kid'? Anyone who hears it will think that Ariel is your sister or daughter.”

“… … .”

Sylvia is still Sylvia, even after making a good mistake, she could still retort well.

Edgar also kept his mouth shut as if he had nothing more to say, and carefully wrapped his arms around Ariel’s shoulders, who was clinging to him.

‘My little sister.’

At the sudden realization, Edgar smiled bitterly and took a sip of the black tea in front of him.

It’s not that the statement is wrong, but he couldn’t come up with a way to deny it.

No, denying this would be tantamount to abandoning one’s conscience.

When he first saw a girl named Ariel, he was already an adult mentally.

That’s why, despite being in the position of her childhood friend, he has always regarded her as a younger sister with a large age gap.

Edgar never felt that it was wrong.

Even though his heart felt that way, it wasn’t that there was a big crack in the relationship as a friend on the outside.

However, it was only when he just entered this year that he felt that his heart was twisting little by little.

‘I never thought being too pretty would be a flaw.’

A small laugh formed at the corner of Edgar’s mouth as he tried to bring out a story that others would have shouted at as being full.

It was as he thought.

The beauty of the girl named Ariel became more beautiful as the days went by, and she gradually acquired the nobility befitting the successor of the Robeheim family, which means that she gradually changed into an attractive woman who could not help but attract the attention of men.

And, of course, Ed was also included in the category of ‘man’.

Moreover, he was neither a corpse with dead emotions nor a crippled man with no masculinity.

Although he could be a stupid man who tried hard to restrain his gaze from going to her, while covering his own unconsciousness by saying that he was like a ‘little sister’.

‘It’s difficult.’

Edgar was confused between two emotions.

One is the feelings he has for a girl named Ariel.

And the other is Ariel’s feelings for him.

He was rather insensitive about his work, but not so dull that he would not notice it until many years had accumulated.

However, if you ask if it is sharp enough to dig into a girl’s feelings one after another, that was not the case either.

Is the feeling she harbors in her heart friendship? Or is it love?

From smiling at him, extending his hand first, to always acting defenselessly.

Maybe it’s possible because he’s just a comfortable childhood friend to her.

In the past, there would have been no reason to worry about this.

Edgar’s gaze on her was always friendship as a childhood friend, so there would have been no need to forcefully guess what her feelings were.

If Ariel became more honest with her feelings and matured as she got older, Edgar was the opposite.

Rather, compared to the past when he looked at the world with a plain gaze, day by day he began to have a consciousness closer to that of a boy.

With that of a boy of the same age who is clumsy with the emotions of others, ignorant of his own emotions, and troubled between them.

Just as Ariel changed little by little while being colored by Edgar, Edgar also changed little by little by being colored by Ariel.

It was just a story.

‘I didn’t expect it.’

Edgar burst into laughter at the sudden sense of collapse and took off his coat from Ariel, who had fallen asleep in the seat next to him.

It never occurred to him that he would see Ariel not as a sister, not even as a friend, but as a full-fledged member of the opposite sex.

But now that he thinks about it, maybe this is normal.

Edgar knew that she was the most beautiful girl, more attractive than any woman.

From the moment he recognized this truth, it was as if the winner of this tug-of-war had already been decided.

He should have looked away if he hadn’t harbored these feelings in the first place.

However, he faced a girl named Ariel, and sometimes he looked at her with more sincere eyes than his family.

At that point, it was as if he had already started a fight in which defeat was confirmed.

“She fell asleep from exhaustion.”

“… Yeah.”

Sylvia sent a warm look at Ariel, who was sleeping with an angelic face and let out a breath even herself didn't notice.

As usual, Edgar tried to reach out to tidy up her messy hair, but he hesitated, then smiled bitterly and took his hand back.

How can people change their thoughts and emotions easily, so they can’t even do this kind of thing recklessly.

Could this be that the thief numb my feet?

“Edgar, I’ve been curious about something before.”

“What?”

“What do you want to be for Ariel? just a close friend? Or a lover?”

“I don’t know. I was right at first, but now that I think about it, even that is uncertain.”

Sometimes people do not even recognize the emotions or thoughts they had at the time, and often realize them belatedly later.

Edgar seemed able to say with ridicule that he was just such a case.

The fact that he came a long way to Hespania for her.

The fact that he went in and out of her room every night, rationalizing that it was to comfort his lonely friend.

On the night of the prom, having recited that decision in his heart to Ariel.

All the actions of the past that he had done thinking it was for friendship, now looking back, were only things that he wondered if they were really for friendship.

Seruk. Seruk.

Edgar stretched out the hand he had retrieved and straightened Ariel’s hair, resting her sleeping head to a more comfortable position on his shoulder.

That one small act seemed to clearly show the change in his mind, and somehow Sylvia felt like a hearty smile would come out.

“… But one thing is for sure, it’s pretty enough to be a waste of time for me.”

“Pui, is it? Well, that’s the answer.”

Sylvia gently closed her eyes and leaned back on the sofa.

How would her friend, now soundly asleep, have reacted if she had heard this?

Well, it wasn’t her business anymore.

She just wanted to lay a paving stone, because in the end, the end of this story can only be concluded by the two of them.

Sylvia took another sip of the tea, drawing on the face of her lover whom she suddenly misses.

She didn't know what she swallowed down her throat, but she felt like she could feel the sweetness blooming on her tastes bud.