-

☾ sixty - four ☾

Soon she stopped crying.

She had finally calmed down.

'I have to leave now.'

As I was trying to get up, I heard a small voice.

"They expect too much from me."

I looked back without thinking.

She was staring at me with her red eyes.

'Hah, I'm a Princess of this country, yet she's speaking informally to me... she reminds me of Max.'

I had a sudden sense of deja vu, but decided to let it go because it would be annoying if I caused a scene.

She continued, thinking my silence was a sign to keep going.

"I want to put everything down sometimes because the pressure is too much, but I'm afraid I'll lose my value if I do."

Is it because I've never had expectations from anyone in my life?

To be honest, I couldn't relate to what she was saying.

However, her scared image overlapped mine during my childhood.

When I constantly tried to not be hated by my father.

'Does she not have any friends? With the way she was talking to me earlier...'

Then I saw something under her feet.

I pointed my finger towards the coin.

"Hey, can you pick up that coin?"

Her eyelashes twisted.

"No."

I answered back in a very nonchalant way.

"If you don't want to..."

I took a silver coin out of my pocket, and threw it in the fountain.

Unfortunately, it didn't land in the center like I was hoping for.

"Oh, that's a shame."

"What are you doing now?" She asked, glaring at me.

Somehow someone's expression overlapped with her own, but I paid it no mind and answered gravely. [1]

"If you throw a coin in the middle of this fountain, your wish will come true. That's why that coin under your feet is also meant to be yours."

At my words she picked up the coin.

Soon the coin in her hand passed by me.

Small ripples rose near the center of the fountain with a splash.

Then a faint smile rose around her mouth.

Staring at her, I spoke calmly.

"Now your wish will surely come true."

She replied with a blush at my words.

"That's just a superstition! Don't you know that this won't solve the problem?"

'You have such a sensitive voice.'

"Yes, it's just a superstition."

I threw the coin back into the fountain.

Unlike before, the coin landed near the center this time.

"But sometimes a man gets strength from nothing."

She stared at the fountain, frowning, as she spoke to me.

"What a strange thing to say."

As I was about to speak up...