18 — 2

“Beth, is that you?”

It had become completely night.

A wet cloth had been placed on his forehead.

It smelled good. It was lavender water. Noel slowly sat up.

It seemed he had remained asleep on the sofa where he had rested during the day, all the way until night.

He could still taste sweetness in his mouth.

He remembered Beth’s face as she had shoved the honey, which he had only just told her was more precious than the same amount of gold, into Noel’s mouth without the slightest hesitation.

He should have told her that the honey would count as her temporary income.

(This is the first time I have slept this much for as long as I can remember.)

Noel stared at his hand.

Noel sensed that his heart and body were completely satisfied.

His magic power had also recovered to its full value. It was probably the power of that honey from earlier.

All of the suffering from insomnia that had tormented him for these past several years had melted away in just these few hours.

Strength filled him. His head clearly recognized the world.

“Noel-sama. Have you woken up? Are you all right?”

The greenhouse door was opened hesitantly, and Beth peeked her head in, holding hot milk, biscuits, and a light.

She had probably come to check on him before sleeping.

Beth was dressed simply, as though she had thrown a gown over her nightclothes.

Her hair, which she always wore in braids, had also been let down and tied into one.

“…Thank you, Beth. I rested well. This may be the first time in my life I have ever rested this well.”

It was not his first time setting foot in the greenhouse at night.

But he had never felt the breath of nighttime plants so close before, nor had he ever felt as though the plants had brought their hearts so close to him. When Noel took a deep breath, he felt as though he had come back to life.

He reached for the hot milk Beth had set out for him.

The gentle taste of the hot milk cherished Noel.

“Thank you.”

Noel looked into Beth’s eyes and thanked her.

Beth smiled a little, then gently touched the flower of a firefly grass, which gave off a faint fluorescent glow.

“These children let Noel-sama rest.”

She murmured that fondly.

Firefly grass was cultivated as a dye used as markings when laying down magic circles.

To Noel, it had been nothing more and nothing less than that, but this common plant that could be found anywhere suddenly felt precious.

Come to think of it, this small grass also seemed to have a very slight hypnotic effect.

Noel sat up properly and faced Beth.

“Beth, you truly saved me. I will prepare for you the same amount of gold as the amount of honey you fed me. In the first place, that honey was something I intended to make your temporary income.”

Beth said, not seeming very interested, while drinking her own hot milk.

“I appreciate the thought, but everything in that greenhouse belongs to Noel-sama, and my work is only helping everyone grow healthily. So that honey was Noel-sama’s from the start.”

“But… that will not satisfy me.”

It had been three whole tablespoons of magic bee honey.

The same amount of gold would be enough to buy the entire series of the precious adventure tales Beth was reading and still leave a large amount of change. It could probably even replace the nearly broken waterwheel with the latest foreign-made model.

However, Beth said she did not need anything, then continued.

“I’m happy that Noel-sama has gotten better.”

Seeing Beth’s happy face as she shyly blushed, Noel felt as though his feelings were flying somewhere far away.

And then,

An indescribable feeling welled up from somewhere distant.

A feeling that sprang forth from the depths of his heart, the depths of his soul, and somewhere far beyond even that.

A feeling too faint to grasp with words. A feeling even more uncertain, without any outline.

Blue moonlight shone inside the greenhouse.

He could hear the breathing of the plants rejoicing in the moonlight.

The nocturnal firefly grass trembled its lily-of-the-valley-like petals as it gave off a small glow.

“Hey, Noe—”

Driven by an impulse he could not put into words, Noel reflexively pulled Beth to his chest and hugged her with all his strength.

The small feeling that had spread faintly in his heart like an ink stain could no longer be dismissed as his imagination.

The ink stain became a huge, enormous vortex, swallowing Noel’s heart.

As Beth looked up at Noel from inside his arms with her large, startled eyes, Noel was drawn into them, and as though trapped by ice magic, he could not look away from Beth’s eyes.

He could not breathe. It hurt. And it was sweet.

Like lost children, the two of them stood alone in the night world.