#050
“Raon.”
“Huh!”
Someone grabbed my arm and quickly pulled me by the waist. A refreshing forest scent enveloped my entire body, and before I knew it, I was in someone’s arms.
“What are you doing, Raon? If you keep spacing out like that, you’ll get lost in no time.”
The face whispering close to me belonged to someone I knew well. No, even before seeing the face, I already knew who it was just from the voice.
“Carlisle.”
I caught my breath. Carlisle’s eyes, looking at me, opened slightly wider.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
His slightly surprised expression and voice carried worry.
“No… it’s not that…”
I was bewildered. I had definitely fallen into the oasis spring… what was this situation?
The surroundings were full of light and noise. I wasn’t in an oasis in the middle of the desert, but had returned to the village. Moreover, it was the beach that was now submerged and gone. Instead of early spring close to winter, it was midsummer, so people passed by cheerfully chattering, dressed in colorful thin clothes. Refreshing summer music filled the surroundings.
‘Is this… a dream? Because I lost consciousness…’
“I was surprised when you suddenly disappeared. During festivals, if you look away even for a moment, you get swept away by the crowd instantly, so be careful.”
Carlisle whispered while moving forward, holding me close. I moved my steps as if pushed by Carlisle, half out of it. I was somehow properly dressed. Not in old, torn work clothes, but in a clean short-sleeved t-shirt and shorts.
The clothes weren’t the issue. What was stranger was this Carlisle before my eyes. Didn’t he look much younger than the Carlisle I knew? It wasn’t just because he had his hair tousled over his forehead like when I used to watch him comfortably in the old game. It wasn’t simply due to style differences—his actual facial lines and eyes were softer and rounder, giving him a youthful appearance. Nothing like the current sharp straight lines.
Early twenties, or maybe late teens?
I couldn’t understand what was happening. The most appropriate explanation would be that I was dreaming while unconscious, but my mind was becoming too clear for that. Moreover.
“Here, this.”
Carlisle held something out.
“…?”
Looking at what it was, it was a bracelet made by braiding several layers of dyed leather cord. A round blue stone dangled from it.
“You seemed to like it when we were looking around earlier.”
I did? The bracelet?
I stared at the bracelet and then looked up at Carlisle again. When I didn’t take the bracelet and just stared, Carlisle seemed a bit flustered.
“Oh, was I wrong?”
Saying this, Carlisle blushed slightly on his cheeks as if embarrassed. Carlisle Lightinger blushing? It was a rare sight. I’d never even imagined such an appearance. My mouth fell open without realizing it. What the hell was going on?
Moreover, there was something off about Carlisle’s way of speaking. It was unsuitably gentle, and somehow he seemed to…
“I must have been mistaken. If you didn’t like it…”
Grab.
I caught Carlisle’s hand as he pulled back. I wasn’t so lacking in social skills as to refuse a gift he’d chosen thinking of me, and while I wasn’t particularly into accessories, the bracelet in Carlisle’s hand was suitable for a man to wear and pretty enough.
More than anything, if there was a human who could embarrass someone making that expression, they’d truly be a heartless machine.
Anyway, I thought I might be seeing a vision, dreaming while unconscious… or maybe caught up in some kind of event. For now, I planned to go with the flow.
“No. I was just surprised for a moment because it was unexpected. Thank you.”
I took the bracelet from Carlisle’s hand and tried to put it on my left wrist. But whether it was because I wasn’t used to it or that’s just how it was, putting on a bracelet with one hand wasn’t easy.
“I’ll do it for you.”
Carlisle stopped walking and tied the leather cord around my wrist. Meanwhile, I examined his face as he stood close. It was a concentrated expression. With his eyes cast downward, his long eyelashes were right in front of my nose. From the current him, I couldn’t imagine the acrid tobacco scent at all. Only the refreshing forest fragrance filled the air.
“All done…”
As he lifted his head with a smile, his gaze met mine as I’d been watching him. Carlisle, who had stopped speaking mid-sentence, silently looked into my eyes for a moment, then suddenly pulled back. His face had turned red again.
So… you’re not Carlisle. There’s no way someone who blushes cutely like that could be Carlisle Lightinger. Who exactly are you?
“Uh… um, want to drink something? That place over there is one you like.”
Looking around, Carlisle hurriedly pointed somewhere. I turned my gaze that way without much thought and was a bit surprised. It was an outdoor cafe decorated splendidly for the summer festival. Someone was busily taking orders at the counter opened to the outside.
‘That’s Rosie…’
That part-timer from our tangled relationships was currently my ex-wife. Should I really go in there now? I still vividly remember getting slapped.
“No, not right now…”
I tried to hurriedly dissuade Carlisle, but it was already too late.
“Raon? Did you come out to have fun too?”
Rosie, who spotted me, waved and called out.
“I just brought freshly baked bread from Kevin. If you order a special drink, I’ll give it as a service. How about it?”
In Rosie’s friendly sales pitch, I couldn’t find any trace of the anger from when she had slapped me. Her rose-tinted cheeks and sparkling eyes were full of vitality.
In a dazed state, I went to the order counter as if enchanted.
“I was worried because the weather’s been cloudy for several days, but everyone’s excited now that it’s this clear.”
While making small talk and placing an order, a practical problem suddenly occurred to me.
‘Wait, how do I pay?’
Come to think of it, I didn’t even know if I had money right now. No status window or anything would appear. I secretly searched my pockets, but couldn’t find any money or wallet.
“I’ll pay and take it. Go sit down.”
But just then Carlisle intervened. Was it my imagination that he seemed to subtly pull me behind him, cutting off the conversation with Rosie?
The amount displayed on the counter register was 540 Rual. It was a normal price, not the current insane prices. For a rich young master, paying for some coffee and bread wouldn’t be much of a burden. It’s just that as a fellow man, I didn’t feel good about having him pay for this too after just receiving a gift.
But since I didn’t particularly have a way around it, as I hesitated, Carlisle spoke in a somewhat strong tone.
“Let me pay for everything today. It’s our first da… no, um, since I asked to meet.”
“……”
He started speaking boldly but stumbled briefly in the middle—was he trying to say “first date”?
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I glanced at Rosie. She was smiling with her lips turned up, eyes shining with curiosity. It was clearly the expression of someone watching a friend’s first romance, so I cleared my throat and stepped back.
Feeling it would be more embarrassing to keep being seen together here, I left the rest to Carlisle and hurried away. I was looking for an empty seat among the tables placed in front of the shop when—
“On a date?”
Someone else spoke to me. When I confirmed who it was, my eyes widened again. Abundantly curly red hair, green eyes. It was Eira Wintum.
Eira was smiling brightly at me with a neat, stylish appearance and mischievous expression like before. Like Carlisle and Rosie, she also looked several years younger.
“Um, no, it’s not really…”
It did feel like that kind of atmosphere, but calling it a date still felt awkward. I didn’t know what to say.
“What did I tell you? I said Carlisle Lightinger was interested in you. You insisted absolutely not even if you died.”
Eira whispered closely. My head was confused. What kind of worldview was this? It felt like appearing in an untimely teen drama. The tangled relationships had disappeared somewhere, and everyone had become unrelated to marriage or divorce. Rosie and Eira were close friends, and Carlisle and I seemed to be in a fresh relationship just starting to date.
The world seemed to have returned to the previous prosperous times. Like a prequel to the game—the same world but returned to the past? But then why had the game system disappeared? It no longer seemed like a world borrowed from a game either. I tried calling up the status window in my mind again, but nothing appeared as expected.
Or had I crossed over to a completely different dimensional world? If so, could this really be an existing world? Was that possible?
Eira kept chattering about something beside me, but I was somewhat out of it.
“Hello, Eira.”
Someone’s voice cut through my hazy mind. It was Carlisle.
“Oh, hello, Carlisle.”
“What’s going on?”
Carlisle, who had squeezed between Eira and me, set drinks and dessert on the table. His voice and tone were kind, but I somehow felt coldness and distance in his gaze toward Eira.
‘What? Looking at him like this, he really is the Carlisle Lightinger I know.’
“Oh, just, um, I saw Raon so I came to say hello. And stuff.”
Eira stepped back and stammered a bit. Raon smiled gently.
“As you can see, we’re on a date.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
