Blooming Tower of the West Wind

"You mean you haven't seen Theron since she graduated?" Virgil gave up studying the storm outside, and turned his head to ask in disbelief.

"I saw her yesterday."

"Didn't you see it before yesterday?"

"……Um."

"Shouldn't you be celebrating her housewarming?"

"It doesn't have to be."

Virgil stepped forward in three steps at a time, wishing he could look at Hipper with a magnifying glass.

"She is now a mage on the same level as you, and she has grown up for a long time. She is 20 years old, what are you waiting for?"

Hipper blinked innocently: "What do I need to wait for?"

Virgil stammered: "Uh... I really think that you are very unusual to Theron, so unusual that you shouldn't have this expression at all now."

"Then what should I look like?"

Virgil stared at her closely: "Aren't you happy with her?"

Hipper motioned for him to continue.

"Then since you think she is so suitable, you two are now on equal footing, and you are very happy with her, what is preventing you... from developing a closer relationship with her?"

Hipper said nonchalantly, "It's not the right couple to be together. Aren't two adults making a lifelong commitment because they like each other?"

Virgil looked at her for a while, and said seriously: "Men also have intuition. You can deceive my reason, but you cannot deceive my intuition."

Hipper met his gaze without flinching.

"You've turned back into that nasty old mage again, the kind without human emotions."

Hipper smiled noncommittally, and walked to the window.

The storm outside became more and more violent, and the sound of the sharp corners of the stone piercing the wind kept changing directions, forming some kind of very strange melody.The turbulent silver core in the distance kept releasing lightning, and the iron-blue sky was illuminated by strange silver-purple lightning from time to time.

Hipper seemed to be able to touch the bright silver thing with her hand, but her fingers were stopped by the transparent glass.

It also seemed that something transparent was pierced by her. Unlike the rage outside, the room was deadly silent, and the naughtiest wind had stopped.

For a king to give a speech, all elements should be quiet.

"... There was a period of time when I had a very happy life, exactly as I wanted." Hipper suddenly opened her mouth, her finger unconsciously poking at the window, and the glow left a long-lasting space along her finger. Book, attached to a glass surface.

Virgil was suddenly stunned. He didn't expect the archmage to confess for so long, and he confessed. The air froze for a while, and he asked in a daze, "When did it happen?"

"Probably around the time... when she was writing her thesis."

Virgil asked tentatively: "Before the Lich's attack? Or after?"

Hipper's lowered eyes were reflected from the mirror-like glass, "...After we returned from St. Terences, Theron had a breakthrough idea," there was an imperceptible look on her face The blush, appearing on her sad face, can only make people think that it is because of her inner turmoil, "I took her to... Mordana."

"How did you get there?"

"Take a carriage. I took her down that road and showed her my favorite glaciers and mountains."

"... camping next to Lake St. Titis?"

"Also spent the night on the edge of Rollo Woods."

"... what happened?"

"What you imagined didn't happen. I kept vigil while she slept. She kept vigil while I slept." A sneer appeared at the corner of Hipper's mouth, and the originally out-of-focus eyes suddenly gathered on Virgil's face through the mirror, "I disappointed you. "

"No, no, don't say that, I didn't expect it at all, and I can't say I was disappointed." Virgil scratched the place on his face that felt a sudden sting. "and after?"

"We were in the library at Mortanloo, copying a manuscript on alchemy for five days, during which time we sat together . . . as in junior school—shoulder to shoulder , hand in hand, sitting on a stool. I talk in her ear, she talks in my ear, go out to find something delicious at noon, and walk hand in hand in a strange city in the evening..."

"What about her?"

Hipper lowered her head, showing a shy and shy smile, "I think she should like it too."

"What about after you come back?"

The smile on Hipper's face disappeared, she put her forehead against the glass, and whispered: "You must not have imagined that this journey has changed my habits for many years. After returning, I will go to the city with her to eat desserts every now and then. , about three or four times a week."

"A fun date, huh?"

Hipper suddenly turned around and smiled, nodded, "Yes."

"Hand in hand? Feed cakes to each other?"

Hipper thought for a while, then nodded firmly.

"What happened later? According to the general development, you shouldn't have seen it for half a year. Star Song Castle and Dead Leaf City are not far away."

"No turning point."

"That's impossible!...Well, then, tell me what happened afterwards."

"This kind of time lasted until the time to submit the thesis. I was worried that she would not graduate, so I didn't tell her about the application for exemption."

"Then she must be angry because of this. She didn't think she would leave here so soon, right? This is your fault. You must not treat girls like this. You have to make her feel that you hold her in your hands. When you're being coquettish..."

Hipper turned around, looked down at her hands, and smiled softly, "But she didn't. She was a little flustered at first, but she immediately accepted the reality and concentrated on picking the place farthest from Aime Cortes. , and even refused to consider the surrounding area of ​​Dead Leaf City, and told me that he wanted to go as far away as possible.”

"...There must be some misunderstanding here."

Hipper tilted her head and looked at Virgil, with a smile on her face all the time, "I thought she would miss it, just like when I was a child and refused to go to school. Then I can take advantage of the situation and tell her to make my home... in On the piece of land I was optimistic about earlier, an additional two-way portal can be set up."

"But things didn't go as you expected...Listen to me, old friend, although you think you had a good time with her...but maybe for others... Don't look like that, To normal people it's just a normal schoolgirl interaction, and I bet Theron and Luna do that too, or even Theron and Jen, Theron and Caroline, or even Theron and Luna. Long and Svis, Theron and Kova..."

The old mage frowned and asked, "Are they still holding hands?"

"That's not the point...the point is that you may be misjudging what these things mean to you mean to Theron."

"What else should I do? I deliberately got close to her, purposely held her hand, deliberately whispered into her ear, and I, I still—" She raised her voice slightly, as if talking about her failed experiment , "I even got her to sleep in the same bed with me—"

"I don't know what else I can like about her."

Virgil opened his mouth several times, obviously not very accepting of the archmage in this state, he even scratched Tius, and the footstool bit him in protest.

"All the memories I cherish, she said no, she didn't want it, and she left without missing it."

"This is already the bottom line of my self-esteem, and I won't do such a shameful thing again."

She was about to go out as she said, and Virgil was still digesting the shock of all this, when the wind suddenly started to surge, and he followed Hipper in a pretentious manner, and even pushed Virgil.

The door was closed with a "bang", and Virgil murmured: "...you haven't told me what happened after you saw the little beast yesterday..."

As if hearing this question, the flattering wind next to the old mage pushed open the door with a "hula" again. Hipper regained her arrogance, looked at Virgil with her usual sarcasm and sarcasm, and said: "I'm sorry to inform you that I can't accompany you to dinner tonight, and I'll leave later."

Virgil asked blankly: "Go? Where?"

Hipper had already turned around and left, and the voice was sent from a distance by the errand boys: "Yongning Lake!"

Virgil shrugged, lowered his head and said to Tius: "It seems that I am the only one to take care of you, my old friend."

Tius groaned and drooped his furry ears, shaking the back half of the footstool and looking at Virgil.

"You have been eyeliner for so long anyway, can't you tell me what happened when they were together day and night?"

"Aww! Awwhhhhhhh..."

"okokokok……"

After talking with each other for a while, Hipper opened the door but didn't come in, and asked, "You can understand Tius too?" A big blue water polo was carrying luggage behind her.

"Don't understand? I'm just playing with it." Virgil flipped the foot of the footstool.

"Take care of it for me." After the archmage finished speaking, she closed the door very quickly, and the sound of her footsteps came from outside the door, which sounded a bit hurried for some reason.

Virgil raised Tius and said regretfully, "If only you could really speak."

Tius wailed, and it could be seen that it also wanted to tell Virgil something, maybe what it said was "Virgil is so stupid that he can't even understand wolf language, and he dares to call himself a wolf." Where's the hunter!"

The author has something to say: hate dogs can't talk (