Editing Kaze no Kishihime v2c0

“Are you sure this is really all right?”

Karina asked with an anxious expression, and the sixteen-year-old Cendrillon nodded in response. All around them stretched a lush green forest. As roots and weeds hindered their steps, the two walked down the narrow woodland path, leaning close against one another.

Beneath her beautiful hair, shining like gold, her blue eyes were filled with worry. Karina clung uneasily to Cendrillon’s arm.

“Pierre, are you certain this is all right? I’m worried.”

Through the gaps between the trees, the spires of the castle could be seen in the distance. Cendrillon glanced toward them and smiled.

“As long as we’re in this forest, we’ll be fine. The trees hide lovers who carry secrets.”

“Really? Don’t nobles have magic that lets them know where someone is even if they’re far apart?”

“There’s no magic that’s convenient! You really do worry too much. You were so passionate when we were dancing!”

Even so, Karina remained uneasy. She made herself small and pressed even closer against him. Through his sleeve, Cendrillon could feel the softness of her body.

The Karina before him was nothing like the radiant confidence and goddess-like presence she possessed while dancing. Here, she was simply a timid seventeen-year-old girl.

Cendrillon never tired of gazing at the beautiful girl who was a year older than he was. Anxiety shimmered in her slightly drooping eyes, dimming them like a moonlit lake. Yet that did nothing to diminish her beauty. The shadow of unease dwelling in her gaze captured his heart more strongly than at any other moment since they had met.

Even merely walking beside her made him so nervous it felt as though his stomach might leap up through his throat. His palms were slick with sweat, and he kept swallowing nervously.

“Pierre... if your father or the servants find us, they’ll kill me.”

“That’s an exaggeration!”

Cendrillon laughed, but Karina could not.

“Because I’m the daughter of a traveling performer, and you’re the son of a noble lord.”

“My father is the lord, not me.”

“That’s practically the same thing.”

“You can dance so beautifully, and yet you’re this timid?”

At those words, Karina’s troubled eyes drooped even further. Even though she was a year older than he was, she looked three or four years younger when she made that face.

They had met only about a week earlier. A troupe of traveling performers had arrived at the post town within the territory governed by Cendrillon’s father, and the star attraction among them had been Karina.

Karina, with her composed expression and passionate dancing, quickly became the talk of the territory, and before long word of her beauty reached the ears of the lord’s son, Cendrillon.

“My dancing isn’t anything special. Nobles are just very good at flattering people.”

“I’m not flattering you. I really mean it.”

The dance Cendrillon saw in the post town was something he knew he would never forget. It seemed to overflow with life itself. Whenever Karina flung her arms through the air, the very atmosphere around her seemed to fill with color; whenever she stepped lightly across the floor, each movement left an indelible mark upon his heart.

Lost in thought as he walked, Cendrillon caught his foot on a tree root and stumbled.

Karina quietly reached out and caught him.

“I'm sorry.”

“It’s all right. You really are reckless, just like you were the night we first met.”

With those words, Karine showed her first smile of the day.

Cendrillon’s cheeks flushed red.

“But I’m glad I was so reckless”, Cendrillon said.

“Why?”

“Because thanks to that, I was able to meet you.”

After watching Karine dance, Cendrillon was so intoxicated by a surge of passion that, after changing his clothes, he went to the troupe’s tent and waited there for her to appear.

The troupe leader came out and asked what he wanted. Dressed in rough, common clothes, Cendrillon was mistaken for a beggar looking for scraps, and the man haughtily tried to drive him away.

“We have nothing to give you! Get out of here!”

Just as Cendrillon was at a loss, unable to reveal that he was the son of the lord of these lands, the members of the troupe surrounded him with improvised weapons in hand.

Without thinking, he blurted out, “Hey, stop that! Insolent fools!”

The agitated performers raised their brooms, clubs, and even drumsticks, ready to beat him. Revealing his noble status would have caused trouble, so Cendrillon didn’t bring his wand with him. Even so, he was well trained in hand-to-hand combat, and swiftly evaded their attacks.

Unable to state his name and unable to fight back, he continued dodging their blows until the tent flap was suddenly thrown open, and Karina appeared.

The instant his heart skipped a beat, his body froze.

In that single moment of hesitation, a club struck the back of his head with tremendous force, and Cendrillon lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Karina’s anxious face.

Her drooping eyes, blue irises, and full lips hovered above him. He found himself lying on a tattered cloth spread beside the tent.

Karine’s beautifully shaped lips moved as she asked:

“Are you all right?”

When she saw that he was too stunned to answer, she asked another question.

“Why did you come here?”

Enduring the pain coursing through his body, Cendrillon replied:

“I came to see you.”

Karina’s eyes widened.

Then she said to him:

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

Those words made Cendrillon feel as though he had taken flight.

“Can I see you tomorrow night?”

Karina lowered the corners of her eyes slightly and tilted her head with a troubled expression.

Then she smiled and nodded.

And so, the following night, Cendrillon met Karine in the very forest path they were walking through now. There, he revealed his true identity and confessed his love to her.

“Even now, I still find it hard to believe.”

Carefully watching the ground so as not to trip again, Cendrillon spoke.

“What do you mean?”

“That you were able to remember each person’s face while dancing so passionately like that.”

“Well, there weren’t that many guests to begin with… and besides, it was the first time anyone had ever looked at me with such fascination.”

After saying this, Karina looked away bashfully.

Cendrillon found her unbearably adorable. Just as he fell in love with her at first sight, she too felll in love with him the moment she first saw him.

Then Karina lowered her eyes again, unease returning to her expression.

For the past week, the two of them met only at night, when the darkness could conceal them from prying eyes… but today, unusually, they were meeting in broad daylight.

“Where exactly are we going?”

“We’re almost there.”

There was a reason Cendrillon chose to lead her deep into the forest on the troupe’s day of rest.

At last, the mountain path came to an end, opening into a wide clearing.

The sight before her was so radiant that Karina let out a breath of wonder.

“How beautiful…”

It was a forest oasis roughly twenty square mails in size. At the center of the clearing welled up a small, crystal-clear spring, encircled by moss-covered stones. Flowers bloomed all around the edges, and butterflies fluttered from blossom to blossom in search of nectar and water.
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“This is my secret place.”

Cendrillon said with a proud smile.

“This is wonderful! It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a place this beautiful!”

Karina could not help clapping her hands. The anxiety she had shown moments ago vanished without a trace, and her usual bright smile returned. Seeing that expression, Cendrillon felt a sense of relief.

“This is the first time I’ve ever brought anyone here.”

As he said that Karina's eyes lit up.

“Oh!”

With a delighted cry, she threw her arms around him. Her radiant smile made it hard to believe that only moments before she had looked ready to burst into tears.

“So that means only you and I know about this place?”

“That’s right.”

“It feels like something out of a dream.”

“Girls really are mysterious.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Just a moment ago you looked as if you were about to cry, and now you’re smiling like a flower in bloom.”

Karina sat down on a suitably sized stone and gazed into the spring.

“That’s because I fell in love with this place the moment I saw it.”

Cendrillon placed a hand on her shoulder, and Karina turned toward him, the corners of her eyes drooping softly.

“Hey, make me a promise.”

“Of course. I’ll make as many promises as you want.”

“No, just one. One is enough.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Only when you’re here… I want you to remember me.”

Karina closed her eyes as she spoke.

“I could never forget you.”

But Karina shook her head.

“No. Only when you are here is enough. And let this place become somewhere that belongs only to you and me. If you can do that, then I ask for nothing more.”

For reasons he could not explain, Cendrillon was overcome by a feeling in which loneliness and joy were strangely intertwined. Before he realized it, he pulled Karina tightly into his arms.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. I love you more than anything.”

Cendrillon leaned in, and Karina gently kissed him, as though wrapping his lips in her own.

Only a week had passed since they first met, yet Cendrillon felt as though he had already come to this place to meet Karina many times over the course of years.