WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Spring Never Comes to Stolen Fields ◈

Chapter 12: Reunion

──────

Luna seemed unable to contain her emotions after Celia's speech.

Staring at the floor, she muttered in a voice I could barely hear.

"...How... hard... did I work... to claim him...?"

She bit her nails so hard they looked ready to break if she kept going.

Worried Luna's patience might finally snap, I did everything I could beside her to cheer her up.

"Luna, there'll be a special banquet after the entrance ceremony. They'll have all kinds of delicious food from the human world..."

Watching me try so hard, she let out a quiet snort.

Perhaps she felt a little better. Stretching, she played along.

"Ugh... I'm still in a terrible mood... but if Sirius wants it that badly, then I guess..."

That was when it happened.

Luna suddenly vanished from my sight. Behind me came the sharp sound of flesh striking flesh with tremendous force.

Unable to process what had happened, I turned around.

Luna spoke in a cold voice, sounding genuinely disgusted.

"Don't touch what's mine, you insolent bitch."

Celia stood there with trembling eyes, cradling her red, swollen hand. Luna stood before her with her back to me, as though she would not give an inch.

The people heading to the banquet hall after the entrance ceremony held their breath and watched us in silence.

Luna had clearly struck her with all her strength. It must have hurt terribly, yet Celia did not even look at Luna standing before her.

Celia's eyes met mine.

She stood there blankly without saying a word. Then tears began streaming down her face.

"...Yu... Yuwol..."

Ignoring Luna, she tried to come toward me.

I stood there in a daze, unable to decide how to react.

Luna held an arm out between Celia and me, snapping me out of my panic.

"Sirius."

It was Luna's cool, composed voice from before my Innate Magic had affected her.

"Yes? Ah, yes."

"It seems the Hero has mistaken you for someone else. Why don't you introduce yourself properly?"

"I..."

That was right. Luna was telling me to prove it.

To prove who I was.

"How do you do, Hero. I am Sirius, in the service of Lady Luna of House Iaros."

I greeted her in a calm tone and politely bowed before Celia.

"Do you have some business with Sirius, Hero?"

Luna crossed her arms, glaring at Celia with a satisfied look.

That should be enough... Don't provoke her any further, Luna...

Celia blinked as if she could not understand the situation. She looked at me as though demanding an explanation.

The words "It's been a long time" rose to my throat, but it was not time yet.

Revealing my identity recklessly would be premature.

And telling her who I was now meant taking far too many risks.

If she found out how I had been living, and what blood flowed through my body now,

not only Luna, but Celia could end up in a very difficult situation as well.

"...You're lying."

"...Excuse me?"

"Why are you lying to me... Yuwol...?"

Celia pleaded with me in a trembling voice.

"It's me... Celia... I was taken from Homeron... Don't you recognize me...?"

Seeing her body shake so pitifully made my heart feel as though it were tearing apart.

If I looked sorry, I felt like she would see through me, so I turned my head and quietly said,

"I'm sorry, but I believe you have mistaken me for someone else, Hero."

Celia closed the distance between us and grabbed my hand.

"Look at my face properly, Yuwol... It's you, isn't it? Why are you hiding it...?"

Tears welled in her blue eyes.

"This is inappropriate."

"Did you know your left eyebrow rises whenever you lie...?"

I had that habit?

Even I did not know that.

And I really was in trouble. I wasn't lying...

As Celia held my hand and spoke to me,

an immense chill wrapped around me from beside us.

It was a warm spring day in full bloom, yet my breath came out in white clouds.

Ugh... It's cold...

Apparently unable to listen to any more of it, Luna linked her arm through mine and pulled me away from Celia.

"Ah... Lady Luna!"

"Sirius. You know House Iaros does not tolerate such undignified behavior, don't you?"

Not House Iaros. The Demon King's House.

Luna, her hair the color of frost, withdrew the chill and glared at Celia.

"I'll let this slide just once."

"Yes, Lady Luna."

"Let's go."

Luna stormed out of the hall, and mindful of the stares around us, I quietly followed her.

Haah...

This was not the kind of reunion I had wanted at all.

After pushing through the crowd, we finally caught our breath and headed toward the banquet hall.

Luna's expression remained sour the entire way.

She looked like a wild beast whose territory had been invaded.

As I carefully watched her from behind, Luna spoke.

"...How did it feel, seeing her again after so long?"

How did it feel... Back when I was in the Demon World, it had felt like a wish, something that could only be good.

Now, though, things were very different.

I answered honestly.

"It's complicated..."

No other words could describe my situation better.

For one, I had to hide my identity from Celia right now.

Even if I did tell her, the right circumstances and conditions had to be in place for her to accept it.

If I told her, "After you left, I trained under demons, became the Demon King's daughter's lover, and came to take you back,"

she would kill me on the spot.

And this body was not completely mine anymore.

The Demon King's blood flowed through me, and I was Luna's Thrall. Strictly speaking, Luna was my master.

Honestly, I could not think of any way to approach Celia without upsetting them.

My feelings were complicated, but her face, after seeing it again for the first time in so long... was beautiful.

I had thought she was pretty even as a child, but the Celia I saw today could only be described as having grown up beautifully.

She used to have a softer, rounder look, but now she had become a sharp, charismatic woman.

If Celia's parents were still alive, they would have been happy...

A bitter memory made me smile bitterly.

Luna still did not look happy, but she stroked my back as though she understood.

I was so grateful to her for thinking of me before herself.

* * *

I finally found him.

Just knowing he was alive made my tears refuse to stop.

Yuwol had tried to pass himself off as someone else named Sirius or whatever, but there was no way I would fail to recognize him.

He was definitely Yuwol, my first love.

I still could not understand why he was lying to me.

Surely, he did not realize just how important I was now.

If I wanted, I could become the lord of a territory two or three times the size of Homeron.

He would have nothing to fear by my side...

As I thought that, the irritating silver-haired girl came to mind.

I was pretty sure I had heard that she was from House Iaros.

House Iaros... I thought it was one of the noble families of the Kingdom of Zeros.

I vaguely recalled the lessons I had received at the duke's household.

Still, the Kingdom of Zeros lay across the sea, farther from the Ibellis Empire than any other nation.

No matter how much I thought about it, I could not understand how Yuwol had made it all the way there.

I briefly wondered if he had been sold to a cruel slave trader, but if that were true, he would never have made it here.

There was something deeply suspicious about all of this.

Yuwol pretending not to know me, and that woman's unnecessarily hostile attitude.

Thinking about it, I had been too flustered to remember before, but her words came back to me from when I tried to embrace Yuwol.

Don't touch what's mine, you insolent bitch.

This academy revolved around me, the Hero.

Everyone gathered in that hall was practically itching for a chance to speak with me.

She should have been polite and spoken gently, yet she had acted so disrespectfully.

After thinking it over for quite some time, I came to my own conclusion.

"Julia."

"Yes, Hero."

"I have a favor to ask."

Since I rarely asked for favors, Julia looked puzzled.

"Please find information on the girl from House Iaros in the Kingdom of Zeros, and her male servant named Sirius, who entered the academy this time."

Julia, who seemed not to have heard what happened when I left the hall, looked at me in surprise.

"It's unusual for you to look into someone other than Yuwol."

Of course it was. Sirius was Yuwol.

"Please be as quick and thorough as possible. Please."

"Understood. I'll submit the request right away."

It was only a matter of time before I reclaimed Yuwol.

And that bitch who made a move on my man would pay the price she deserved.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried