CH extra 21

There were two possible successors of the DuBois family. One was Cory, and the other was Viedielle. The marquis tried to make it a point to not discriminate when it came to his future heir. Both of them were his children, so he wanted to give them the same opportunity. He got a lot of side-eyes from the people around him, but the marquis was steadfast.

Cory, who was the most likely candidate, barely attended and cared about his successor classes and didn’t really care about receiving the title. Meanwhile, Viedielle was hard at work at both magic and her sword, and was diligent in her successor classes.

The only reason why Cory was still in the successor spot even when he wanted to hand over the title to Viedielle was simple: he had nothing else to do. If he went outside and people asked, “What are you doing these days?” and he responded with, “Nothing,” that would make him seem like a complete slob. He was providing himself with an excuse of “I’m taking successor classes.” He was planning on sitting on that title until right before the successor was announced.

But it seemed like the day was coming closer.

‘Do you want to start a magic tower with me someday? That’d be fun.’

‘A magic tower with you?’

Cory remembered the plans he had made with Shuraina during their academy years and decided to put it in action. Shuraina had taken it as a joke and had glossed over the plans, but he had been sincerely thinking about it for a while now.

Cory left the DuBois residence and built a magic tower under his name. He placed various workrooms for different types of magic and made his own room and a guest room. It was only a guest room in name–it was basically a room built for Shuraina.

Then, when he was finished with his preparations, Cory began to rack his brain to figure out how to seduce Shuraina. He had built his entire life around magic–it was almost impossible to figure out how romance worked. He had used romance novels or dating tips as reference, but they were all a mess so he gave up. They all sounded like unhealthy relationships.

Because of that, Cory decided to focus on seducing Shuraina instead of trying to figure how to seduce people in general. Everyone’s personality was different, so he needed to research Shuraina to make sure that she fell for him. One needed to know the person to act accordingly.

So he thought about why Shuraina had liked him and he figured it out. Magic and snacks.

“…..so you’re going to try and seduce me with a castella that only took a measly 8 hours of waiting in line?”

Cory nodded, placing the whipped cream castella that had been created by a dessert expert. He tapped his knee a few times.

Shuraina came over to the magic tower to help with registration and tax issues but ended up staying for a few days after being caught up by the sheer beauty of the tower. She had her own room and plenty of space for her experiments, so it was practically heaven on earth for her.

Moreover, there were a lot of snacks thanks to Cory’s preference for snacks and sweets. It was even better because Cory brought famous desserts in the name of seducing her.

“I’m not too tempted though?”

Shuraina said, sitting on Cory’s lap as she ate her castella. Cory cautiously wrapped his arms around Shuraina’s waist. He rested his head on her rounded shoulders as he tilted his head. He had a gentle smile on his lips.

“Oh, really? Then what’s going to tempt you?”

At that question, Shuraina blinked for a moment before placing a bit of the castella in Cory’s mouth.

“I don’t know. You try this too. It’s super tasty.”

Cory narrowed his eyes as she smiled innocently and avoided the question.

“Seducing Shushu is hard.”

“I’m pretty difficult.”

“You just like me but I love you.”

“Basically.”

Cory pouted as he looked dissatisfied.

“Whyyyy? Love me, Shushu…..”

Cory whined, tickling Shuraina’s stomach. Unlike Cory, who just calmly stared back at her when Shuraina tried to tickle him, Shuraina was sensitive to tickling. Her eyes blinked wide open. Soon, she burst into loud laughter. She twisted her body and tried to get away, but Cory held her in his arms and didn’t let her go.

“Fall for me…… Fall for me……..”

“Haha! Hahaha! Hey! Aaaack! Sorry! I got it! I’ll fall for you! Let me to! Ack!”

Cory’s hands stopped moving at her giving up. He teasingly opened his eyes as his lips curled into a smile.

“You love me?”

“Nooooo….. Haha! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I love you! Whew, haha!”

Once she admitted it, Cory stopped tickling her.

“How much?”

“As much as a booger. No! Haha! Ack! It’s a joke! A joke!”

When Cory didn’t let her go so easily, Shuraina pressed a quick kiss on lips as proof of her love.

Cory’s eyes grew wide in surprise, his previously mischievous expression falling off his face. The brief kiss soon grew deep.

Shuraina went over to Cory’s magic tower often. She visited so often that she basically lived there.

She went over because she liked Cory, but she also ended up heading towards there because the environment was perfect for researching magic.

Whenever she came over to the tower, Cory always tried to seduce her with various items, as promised. Even though he was always the one tempted in the end.

Shuraina played around while she hung out at Cory’s tower, but the two of them often burrowed themselves in magic books and researched, just like they had in their club.

Shuraina had decided to produce a new magical item this year, so she had briefly let go of her knighthood dreams and was focusing on magic for now.

She researched magic circles day and night. She continued to research magic, something she liked, but she felt vaguely uncomfortable.

Shuraina had fallen asleep researching a specific formula layout that appeared often in black magic. She woke up and blearily walked around to her work station when she found Cory.

He was looking over the parts that she didn’t finish last night.

“You’re up?”

Cory smiled. He was wearing glasses and had his hair up in a lazy ponytail. Shuraina yawned widely and slowly trudged over to sit next to Cory.

She had been reading in dark areas for so long that her eyes had gotten bad. Shuraina had recently gotten her hands on some glasses.

She seemed a bit cold. She wrapped a blanket around her body, shook for a while, then plopped onto the table and fell asleep again. Cory, who was working on some side pieces, raised his hand to stroke her face. His hand was usually cold, so Cory put his hand on his mug of warm cocoa and warmed his hand up. Then, he put his hand on Shuraina’s face.

Shuraina liked the feeling of Cory’s warm hand. She smiled for a while before she stared at the magical devices and circles and sighed.

“It’s been months since I’ve come here and just focused on magic.”

“Yeah.”

Cory agreed, raising the temperature of the room with magic.

“I need to prepare for my knighthood exam, but I’m still here.”

Shuraina said, pulling her hand out of the blanket burrito and tightening a screw on a side piece.

“Why is my life going waywards like this?”

It felt like her life was going in a much different direction that the one she had assumed after the festival.

Shuraina wanted to be a magician as a hobby–she had never wanted to do this as her actual occupation. But she somehow ended up getting closer and closer to becoming a magician.

Swordsmen needed to train every single day to ensure that their bodies stayed fit and skilled. She needed to start practicing the sword for the exam she was going to take next next year, but she kept on pushing it to tomorrow. The shock of her failing the exam that one time hadn’t quite left her yet.

“You know how I didn’t contact you after we graduated?”

Shuraina said, letting her drowsy brain to control her mouth. Shuraina found it easy to tell Cory things that would be hard to tell others. She sipped the warm mug of cocoa as she continued to speak.

“To be honest, I failed the knighthood exam. I was disqualified for a pretty stupid reason, so it was hard for me to recover. I locked my door and spent quite a while locked in and alone.”

She really had been locked in. She didn’t wash or eat–she just laid there on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“I have this bit of guilt just eating at me for not practicing the sword and just using magic like this all the time, you know? I feel uncomfortable.”

She whispered, closing her eyes and holding onto the warm mug.

“You feel guilty because you’re walking the path of a magician after trying so hard to join the knights?”

“Mm, well. You’re right.”

Shuraina nodded at his pinpointing, direct question. She pressed her cheek into the desk and stared back at Cory, who was staring at her. Cory had an unreadable look on his face. He seemed like he pitied, worried for her. It was, at least, a face that told her that he really cared for her. The hand brushing through her hair was warm.

Cory just quietly looked at Shuraina and waited for her to keep talking about her feelings. After a bit of silence, Cory spoke up.

“Sometimes, I look at you and I think, “Living life well is really hard,” he said.

His voice was low and sweet.

“The ideal life that you’d dreamed of is one kind of life. I feel like doing what you want to do is another life that you could choose to do. There isn’t a right answer.”

Shuraina watched Cory as he looked her in the eye and tried to comfort her in the best way that he could. His fingers intertwined with hers. Shuraina rested her hand in Cory’s.

“No matter what life you chose, don’t care about what you’re doing and just focus on your feelings and thoughts–are you enjoying what you’re doing, is it difficult, are you content, are you miserable? I want you to focus on you and your feelings. Don’t be too hard on yourself or beat yourself up.”

Cory playfully shook Shuraina’s hand in his. His eyes were smiling, but he looked worried for her.

“If you want to join the knights, should I help you practice? I’m not good with a blade, but I can make some traps or something with magic.”

When Cory stood up to grab his jacket, Shuraina shook her head. She had been quiet for a while, deep in thought. She soon grabbed his sleeves and smiled sweetly.

“……Later.”

Just like they had in their club, Shuraina was in charge of another miniature project so she shoved her knighthood application aside. Just like she had made a model of the Augran mountains, she was creating a model of the entire empire to see everything at a single glance. Road renovations for new transportation devices, city planning for new cities, etc. Hylli had put in a request for Shuraina to test out future policies before putting them in action. Because this was an official request by the emperor, she was receiving funding from both the royal family as well as the DuBois family.

Shuraina, who had become an official member of the tower now, had moved her belongings into the tower and lived, slept, and ate there. She was exhausted every day after all of the work, but she wasn’t having too much of a difficult time mentally.

“When I’m with you, I feel comfortable. For real.”

Shuraina said as she laid down on top of Cory, who was laying down on the wide sofa in the tower. It was break time.

“Make sure you get butterflies from time to time though.”

“Mm…..I get butterflies here and there.”

“Really?”

She said, listening to Cory’s heart beating rapidly in his chest.

“It wouldn’t be too bad if I just kept researching magic with you, just like this.”

Times like this were nice–when Cory and her were exhausted from racking their brains researching magic and they took breaks like this. Researching magic was great, and so was Cory. She had a bit of lingering attachment to the sword and the idea of knighthood because of the time and effort she had spent on it, though. Shuraina’s eyes soon closed shut as she fell asleep. The muffin in her hand dropped with a quiet thud.

Cory looked at Shuraina, who had fallen asleep in his arms, with a gentle gaze. He placed the fallen muffin back onto the plate and tugged the blanket closer and put it on both of them. He stretched his arm to Shuraina’s back and gently patted her back rhythmically. His eyes soon began to shut as he heard her even breathing.

He pressed a peck on Shuraina’s lips and wrapped the blanket tighter around them and fell asleep.

Within the magical tower’s research room, two people, just on the cusp of adulthood, were sleeping peacefully. The warmth of the sunshine pouring through the window gently embraced them. The herb tea and cookies that Cory had brought over were still warm. Both of them seemed to be dreaming about happy things–they were smiling as they embraced each other.