Chapter 151 - <8>
Backstage, Anna waited for her turn, her heart pounding. Ritz was next to her, with Franz and Constanze behind them. Edward was on standby elsewhere.
"Ritz, are you really okay?"
She whispered to Ritz beside her, and he turned to her and smiled confidently.
"Of course I'm okay. Don't worry."
His face, unlike usual, was painted with clown makeup. Perhaps done by a makeup artist who got carried away, there were fewer of the star, circle, triangle, and square shapes seen on the other clowns, and a conspicuous number of pink hearts. Was this supposed to be for comic effect?
His outfit wasn't his usual plain work clothes or the light armor he normally wore, but rather flashy, puffed-out bright red pants, a white shirt, and a gaudy, ridiculously large blue bow tie. His hair was stiffly styled into something resembling a bird's nest.
"Are you okay?"
His gentle, concerned words made her happy, and she looked up at him with a smile, meeting his eyes. Despite the clown costume, it suited him surprisingly well. He was so tall and well-built that anything looked good on him, she thought with a little envy.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"Glad to hear it."
The smiling Ritz placed a hand on her head and rustled her hair, hat and all. Anna's current outfit was also that of a clown, like Ritz's, but rather than a full clown, she looked more like a young boy. She wore a tattered brown jacket with flashy, primary-colored patches. Below that were worn-out work pants with similar patches. Her clown makeup was also kept to a minimum. She had to use her water spirits later, so she couldn't wear heavy makeup.
"Are you okay too, Constanze?"
"I'm fine. All I have to do is sing a little and stand there."
Constanze's outfit was a cute, knee-length blue one-piece dress. It was puffed out with many petticoats. The flower in her hair was also completely different from when she sang with Anna; it was large and placed in the center to look a bit silly. Her makeup was normal, like Anna's. The only standout feature was a few small stars scattered near her eyes, but that seemed to create a cute look rather than a clownish one.
"Are you okay too, Franz?"
"…I'll do it when the time comes. Don't worry about me."
"I see. If you say so."
Franz, who wouldn't even look at them and was completely still as he stared at the stage, was her biggest worry. He had listened properly during practice and had tried his best, but he never once looked at Constanze.
She had tried asking him what was wrong, but he had brushed her off with a single "Nothing." When Franz truly shut someone out, a wall that couldn't be overcome was erected before her, and Anna was at a loss. Edward had seen this and promised to talk to Franz soon, but with all the hustle and bustle, she didn't know when that would even be.
"It's showtime."
Marguerite, who had finished her opening greeting and a splendid dance and was now watching the flashy opening performance from the wings, said this and pointed to the stage for Constanze. The first act was a transition to clear the flashy stage props and set up for the next performance.
Looking in the direction Marguerite pointed, she saw a wooden panel standing in the center of the dimly lit stage. Constanze was supposed to hide there.
"I understand. I'll go on ahead."
After saying this only to Anna, Constanze briskly walked toward the stage.
"She's used to it."
"Yeah. She said she doesn't mind standing in front of people or being in the spotlight."
"They look alike, but she's the complete opposite of Franz."
"You're right."
As they were talking, the tune the orchestra was playing changed. It became a very cheerful and bright piece of music. At that signal, Ritz let out a deep sigh and scratched his head.
"Ahhh, here we go…"
"Do your best, Ritz!"
She patted the back of the still-reluctant Ritz, and he nodded. He then staggered over to the torch stand at the edge of the stage, took a torch, and lit it.
"Guess I have to. Let's go."
"Go get 'em!"
Ritz went out on stage, leaving her alone with Franz. Feeling somewhat awkward, she spoke to him.
"I wonder if Ritz will be okay?"
She asked that because it seemed unlikely he would answer about himself. Perhaps because he was a little nervous, Franz took a deep breath before answering.
"He'll be fine. He once said that it was a loss to the world of art that he didn't become an actor."
"Wow~ He really put himself out there, didn't he, Ritz?"
"It just means he's a good actor. Be careful."
"Huh?"
What should she be careful of? Before she could ask, Franz looked away awkwardly. It seemed he had let it slip.
"…I'm going now, too."
"Eh… ah, okay."
Franz was scheduled to enter from the opposite side of the stage. Anna was supposed to enter straight from here. As she watched Franz's back as he left without another word, a small sigh of relief escaped her. It was the most he had spoken to her in the past two days. To break through the shell Franz was currently in, maybe she should try to make more small talk.
As Anna was thinking this, she heard Constanze's bright singing voice. It seemed to be a song often sung in taverns about a man and a woman falling in love. It was almost her turn.
"Anna, you're up."
At Marguerite's words, Anna took a deep breath. It was a clown play, so there were no lines, but she was very nervous.
"I'm going!"
Anna stepped onto the stage that Ritz had lit. At the center of the stage, Constanze was singing, and Ritz was sitting with his back to the audience, facing her.
The comedy scenario that Marguerite had come up with began with a lamplighter who lights the street lamps finding a huge, mysterious sphere in the brightened space. The lamplighter approaches it, suspicious and scared, but then an arrow flies from nowhere, pierces the sphere, and it breaks open to reveal a beautiful girl who sings a song about the beginning of love.
The lamplighter is completely captivated by her and tries to win her heart by pulling various things out of his pockets, but she doesn't even look at him. To her, the grimy lamplighter is invisible from the start. Then, two boys come along. The boys are also captivated by the singing girl and start fighting over her.
The lamplighter gets involved, claiming he saw her first. But even they don't pay him any mind, and he just circles around them, trying to assert his existence.
Eventually, the fighting boys decide to settle things using their spirits. The clueless lamplighter desperately tries to stop them, insisting that he's the one who will win her over, but the boys don't even see him.
After witnessing the clash of spirits, the singing girl is drawn to both boys, and in the end, without ever once glancing at the lamplighter, she steps between them, and the three of them walk off arm-in-arm.
The lamplighter, left all alone, sighs as he extinguishes the lights he lit one by one and disappears sadly from the stage.
And when the lights come back on, the set for the next act is in place.
Of course, the lamplighter was Ritz. No one but Ritz could have pulled off such a complex role. And the one who would shoot the prop Constanze was hiding in from backstage was, of course, Edward, who had said he could use a bow.
When this scenario was first explained, Ritz had muttered, "This isn't funny at all." Anna didn't know what wasn't funny about it, but seeing Edward burst out laughing, she figured it must be some secret only the two of them knew.
With the clown's characteristic walk taught by Marguerite—wide, exaggeratedly bow-legged steps, swaying his body—she reached the center of the stage and encountered Franz, who was also desperately trying to walk the same way. As planned, their eyes met, they counted to three, and simultaneously turned to face Constanze.
Constanze was walking around, singing to some distant point, ignoring Ritz who was kneeling before her, pulling bouquets and food from his pockets. Because of the clown makeup, it was hard to read Ritz's expression, but from his exaggerated movements and every single gesture, he looked comical and pathetic, yet somehow poignant.
He was truly a man confident enough to declare, "It's a loss to the world of art that I'm not an actor." Anna couldn't lose to him.
Anna, as planned, walked up to Constanze and clung to her, trying to get her attention. Franz came close but acted disinterested, playing a character who tries to attract attention by pretending not to care.
Or rather, his expression was so blank it was unclear if he even had any intention of attracting the girl's attention. But everyone knew it was impossible for Franz to act, so Anna and Ritz had no choice but to be extra flamboyant.
Even though Anna was trying her best to act comically, and Franz and Ritz were getting involved, the overwhelmingly unenthusiastic Franz was difficult to interact with. He would bat away the approaching Ritz with one hand and wouldn't stop Anna from clinging to Constanze.
As the act went on, she could tell Franz's enthusiasm was waning. He wasn't just not intervening between Constanze and Anna; he wasn't even making eye contact with Constanze anymore.
She thought he could at least do that much, but Franz himself just stood there bewildered, a vacant look in his eyes. When she looked at Constanze, she could see her glancing over at Franz, as if she was concerned, but he never seemed to meet her gaze, and she could tell Constanze was gradually getting depressed.
She didn't know what had happened, but since Franz was Constanze's one and only older brother, she wished he would look at her properly. Constanze adored her brother so much, this just wasn't right.
As she thought this, a surge of anger toward Franz welled up inside her. She was supposed to be fighting with Franz as part of the act, but for some reason, she was putting an unusual amount of force into it. This seemed to get through to Franz, and an annoyed expression appeared on his face as he felt Anna's censure. As she stared back at him with accusing eyes, Franz's eyes flashed darkly.
Even without words, she understood. He was telling her to mind her own business. That, in turn, touched a deep part of Anna's heart.
He was thought of as the most important person, so why couldn't Franz just be honest? Becoming someone's number one was a truly difficult thing. And yet he was given that right.
Before she knew it, she was glaring at Franz. How could he not understand how wonderful it was to have someone like that?
Suddenly, Anna felt Ritz's arm wrap tightly around her shoulder. Similarly, Ritz's other hand gripped Franz's shoulder forcefully. They were both trapped in Ritz's arms.
She remembered that this was the cue for the two of them to break free from Ritz, who had stepped between them, and then clash their fireball and water sphere at the center of the stage to create a huge splash. But for a cue, Ritz's grip was strong.
Ritz, with a comical motion, peered at both of them and gave a low warning, imperceptible to the audience.
"Spirit users shouldn't get emotional. Are you two trying to burn this tent down?"
His serious voice, which she hadn't heard in a long time, made her gasp. That's right, Roshozu was the land of fire. If she provoked Franz's emotions and caused him to go berserk, it would be irreversible. Anna, who knew this, shouldn't have emotionally directed her water spirits at Franz.
"This stage belongs to Marguerite. We're not going to be the ones to destroy it."
As he said that, Ritz began to count down softly, so only the three of them could hear.
"Three, two, one, release."
Reacting instinctively, she and Franz pushed Ritz away at the exact same time. As Ritz feigned being thrown back with great force, she heard him mutter a small, "Yes!"
Simultaneously, she began the incantation to gather water spirits, creating a water sphere large enough to hold in both arms. A similar fireball was in Franz's hands.
A murmur went through the audience. The orchestra played a loud, dramatic piece of music.
Her eyes met Franz's. The anger from before was gone, and his expression was back to being blank. She thought maybe she should try talking to him a little after today's show was over.
Remembering Ritz's voice from before, she counted to three and then launched the water sphere toward Franz. Franz launched his fireball at the same time.
The two spheres met head-on at the center of the stage, creating a massive cloud of steam, and then, with a dull explosion, they vanished in another violent burst of steam. A blast of hot, humid vapor blew all the way to where Anna was standing. She instinctively covered her face.
A sound that was part scream, part cheer, erupted from all over the audience.
Eventually, the stage, which had regained its quiet, was shrouded in a mist created by the hot steam, fantastically obscuring it from view. As the mist gradually cleared, Constanze emerged from the faint remnants, extending both hands wide toward Anna and Franz.
Anna took that small, still-childlike hand. Constanze was a strong girl, so she wouldn't say it, but being so small, it must be tough for her. She wanted to do something to help. She looked up at Franz on the opposite side, and he hesitantly took Constanze's hand. Then, as if he were afraid, he squeezed it.
After linking arms and cheerfully skipping into the wings, she looked back at the stage to see Ritz standing alone in the center, sighing with an exaggerated motion. Then, taking the torch in his hand again, he used the extinguisher on the back of it to put out the lamp flames one by one.
As he extinguished the last one, she saw a genuinely lonely expression on Ritz's face for a brief moment. Anna realized it wasn't an act; it was real. With that expression seared into her mind, the last light went out before her eyes.
A roar of applause erupted.
Just as she was wondering why this few-minute performance would make Ritz so sad, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Not a single trace of his previous expression remained on his face.
"No fighting on stage, okay?"
Ritz chuckled as he said this. Behind him, the large trapeze apparatus was being moved into place. Their act was to buy time for this to be set up. Now that the professional crew was down, everyone had to pitch in to assemble it.
"Okay. I'm sorry."
"You too, Franz. The power of fire is strong here."
"…I know."
Franz answered seriously, his head still bowed. Constanze looked at him with bewildered eyes. A subtly uncomfortable air flowed between the Lucina siblings. She didn't know how to fix it.
In stark contrast to the two in the wings, loud music blared on stage, and the stage was lit up at once by the many dancers appearing on the trapeze, accompanied by lively cheers.
"Well, it went better than I imagined. You did well."
Ritz, sensing the awkward atmosphere, said this and then comically swept Anna and Constanze up into his arms, praising them in a cheerful tone.
"Ooh, I'm a rose between two thorns, aren't I? A perk of the job."
After saying this cheerfully, Ritz winked, and with a loud smack like the circus folk did as a joke, he pretended to kiss Constanze's hair. Then, he gave Anna's hair a light, bouncing kiss.
The teasing whistles of the circus people passing by and their bright laughter at Ritz's expense were so ticklish that she couldn't help but laugh. But Constanze, in the other arm, turned bright red, broke free from Ritz, and got angry.
"Hey, would you stop that!"
"I'll drop you if you struggle. Oh, Franz, should I do it to you too?"
As Ritz beckoned with a grin to the silent, downcast Franz, Franz genuinely recoiled in disgust.
"…Absolutely not."
At Ritz's usual teasing tone, Franz's sullen expression clearly shifted to one of reluctance, and then to one of exasperation. Seeing that, she felt relieved that Franz seemed to be okay, for now.
"Well then, I'm going to get changed."
As she said this, Ritz smiled and set Anna and Constanze down.
"You're going already?"
"Yeah. My next act is in a dress. I have to put on makeup, too."
"That's right."
Anna's next time on stage was for the water spirit acrobatics she had been doing for the past two days. Her role as a clown was over. After a few more acts, Ritz, Franz, and Edward were scheduled to perform to fill the time until the wild beast acrobatics.
It was the fire act that Ritz had been made to choose, and the act using Edward's bow and arrow. Their other appearance was to clean up after Anna and Constanze's scene. While cleaning, they would have a mock fight with mops, an act that seemed to feature Ritz and Edward mainly. Marguerite had teasingly told them, "Don't get too serious, Hero King and his right-hand man."
The fire act had apparently been surprisingly easy for Ritz, and he had quickly learned to manipulate the unlit ropes. According to Ritz, "The kusarigama effect is amazing!" Of course, if he could manipulate that, he should be able to manipulate it when it was on fire.
But fire, naturally, was hot. The moments where he had easily passed it between his legs or crossed and spun it were apparently unbearably hot. Anna had been called in to help during practice just in case, and she was glad she was there, as Ritz ended up getting burned all over.
In fact, the reason his hair was styled into a messy bird's nest was to hide the parts that had been burned. Even Anna couldn't fix hair. The only thing she could do was cut the burned parts after this performance was over. Ritz hadn't had his hair touched since leaving the capital, other than cutting the back himself, and it was getting a little long, so it probably wouldn't matter if she cut it short.
But if she cut it for him now, she had a feeling he would just create more burn marks all over, and she would have to cut countless more. The thought of him losing all his hair as she kept cutting was too terrifying to imagine.
Even if he had no hair, Ritz would still be her important person, but a bald man nearly two meters tall with a solid build would be too scary for children and the people of a normal, peaceful village.
But even more dangerous was the fire-breathing.
When she first heard it, she thought he would be breathing fire from his mouth, but it was different from what she had imagined. Ritz held an extremely high-alcohol-content liquor in his mouth. This liquor, when lit, burned surprisingly well. And it had an incredibly strong smell.
She had him let her smell it, and out of curiosity, she put a drop on her finger and licked it. The sensation was hard to describe—stinky, spicy, painful—and Anna writhed in silence. Even if she learned to drink, she swore she would never touch this stuff.
In front of Ritz, who held that strong liquor in his mouth, Franz would toss a small fireball, and Ritz would spray the liquor at it like a mist.
Normally, water would extinguish such a small fireball, but the alcohol he sprayed was so strong that the mist of liquor would instantly ignite and disappear in a flash. That was the mechanism.
Apparently, a skilled person could create a large, flashy flame. But Ritz first struggled with just blowing the mist correctly.
Not spitting out what was in his mouth because it was a waste was a creed Ritz shared with Anna. So even when told to spit it out in a fine mist, he just couldn't seem to do it right. At first, he practiced with water, but the mist didn't seem to expand. So the method Ritz took was extremely dangerous.
It was to practice with real fire using the liquor. Apparently, water and alcohol had different weights and spreads. After practicing just blowing the mist a few times and getting to the point where it misted better than water, he had Franz actually throw a fireball and tried it.
And he ended up burning his lips splendidly.
Each and every time, Ritz, who said it was inefficient to have them healed one by one, was watched with bated breath. By the time he was able to make the flames ignite far enough away that they didn't come back into his mouth, Ritz's lips were so swollen that it was a situation where she shouldn't laugh, but she couldn't help it.
She desperately tried to hold back her laughter, but seeing Edward burst out laughing, she laughed too, and Ritz gave her an extremely displeased look. He was apparently in too much pain to even open his mouth to complain. After she carefully touched his lips with her fingertips to heal them, his mood seemed to improve drastically.
"Well then, I'll get ready and watch your fire dance, Ritz."
"Yeah. If I catch on fire, help me out."
"I will!"
Leaving behind the joking Ritz and Franz, whose expression still betrayed nothing of what he was thinking, she decided to head back to the dressing and makeup room with Constanze for the time being. The costume and makeup artists were there. In the bustling room, the flying costume and makeup artists, after finishing with others, rushed over and helped them change.
Without a moment to talk, they were herded by the endless stream of costume and makeup people, and after they were both ready, they hurried back to the wings. She hadn't noticed in the rush, but quite a bit of time had passed, and Ritz's act was about to begin.
"We made it."
Looking at the stage, she saw Ritz holding one unlit chain in each hand, skillfully spinning them. He showed them off cheerfully to Franz, and the clown played by Franz stood up with a bored look, went behind Ritz, and, as if struck by an idea, clapped his hands with an exaggerated motion toward the audience.
Then, he proudly created a palm-sized fireball behind Ritz, who was showing off to the audience, and showed it to them. From the wings, she could clearly see the audience's faces, tense with anticipation of what would happen.
Then, Franz casually tossed the fireball at Ritz. Ritz, while skillfully pretending to dodge, let the fireball hit the oil-soaked cloth at the end of the chain. It caught fire. The first one was a success.
As Ritz acted out his complaint, Franz threw another fireball. That too skillfully caught the cloth, and Ritz's chains quickly turned into chains of fire. While pretending to panic and trying to put them out, he swung them above his head and spun them at high speed on either side of his body, earning a round of applause.
Anna watched in admiration, thinking that maybe Ritz could actually make a living doing this kind of work.
He had said he didn't have a place and wanted someone to support him, but he was so much more skillful and capable than Anna, so maybe he would be fine without her. That thought was a little sad.
Eventually, Ritz spun the chains at a tremendous speed to extinguish the flames, then threw them aside and, while acting angry and complaining, took a bottle of liquor and drank from it as he approached Franz.
Ritz, with liquor in his mouth, held out his hand to give the prearranged signal, and Franz launched a small fireball at him. At the same time, Ritz spat the alcohol from his mouth.
A huge flame erupted. It was the biggest one yet.
"Ah!"
She couldn't help but let out a small cry. Fearing that Ritz might have caught on fire, Anna timidly peeked, but his face was calm. She breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed her services wouldn't be needed.
"That man is the type who thrives under pressure."
Constanze muttered beside her. It was always, always true, and it made her laugh.
"Ed-san is also strong under pressure~
On the stage before her, Edward, wearing a strange triangular hat and with his braided golden hair swaying, was approaching Ritz and fixing a large cloth ball on top of his head.
Leaving Ritz, who was pretending to be held down by Franz and pinned against a wall, Edward took up a colorfully painted bow.
"He said it doesn't have an arrowhead, but it would still hurt a lot if it hit."
"…Let's hope it doesn't."
"It won't. It's Ed-san."
Until just a moment ago, Anna hadn't known that Edward could use a bow. But according to Ritz, Edward was a master hunter before the civil war began, and it was always Ritz's job to track the prey. They apparently often hunted in the mountains and camped out when they were training with the sword.
Ritz, it turned out, was terrible with a bow. He was apparently faster if he just chased prey with a spear. That was why he'd said, "Don't make me use any weapon other than a sword."
Instead, he had often played by throwing stones into lakes, so he was good at throwing stones.
The bow, drawn to its limit by Edward, released with a sharp thwip and pierced the ball on Ritz's head. A bullseye.
"Wow…"
She let out an impressed sigh. Anna had a bow too. But it wasn't a bow and arrow for shooting at targets. It hadn't occurred to her until now, but maybe if she learned from Edward, she could be of help to Ritz and Edward with a normal bow and arrow.
She'd ask Edward to teach her next time.
As she was thinking this, a ball one size smaller than the previous one was placed on Ritz's head. In front of the audience, who watched with bated breath, Edward shot that one down perfectly as well. A precise shot, without a hair's breadth of deviation.
Next, an apple was placed on his head. The extremely small target caused a stir in the audience. But Edward was unfazed. Ritz didn't seem fazed either. Franz, whose only role was to place it on his head, looked more nervous.
Eventually, Edward slowly drew the bow with a beautiful form. But for some reason, he smiled mischievously. Just as she thought, Huh?, the arrow missed Ritz's head spectacularly and stuck in the ground between Ritz's wide-spread legs.
"Ah!"
Anna's gasp and Ritz's panicked stumble from the unexpected attack happened at the same time. The audience roared with laughter at Edward, who was watching with a huge laugh of his own. The chagrined Ritz gestured and complained, but Edward brushed it off and gestured for him to get back against the wall.
If he could speak, Ritz would probably be cursing at Edward, "You bastard! I'll get you for this, Ed!" she thought, looking at Ritz's frustrated face.
And then, the arrow released from Edward's hand as he once again drew the bow in perfect form, flew in a straight line without hesitation and pierced the center of the apple. A huge round of applause and cheers erupted.
With the three of them bowing with a disgruntled Ritz in the center, munching on the apple skewered by the arrow, they returned to the wings amidst the applause.
On the bright stage that the three had just left, an acrobat on horseback appeared to grand music. The circus's famous wild beast show had begun. After this, another pair of clowns, other than Ritz's group, would handle the scene change, and then it would be Anna and Constanze's turn. Ritz's group only had to do the cleaning, so their part was mostly over.
After that, the show proceeded smoothly as planned. After Anna and Constanze's turn, Ritz's group successfully finished their final act of cleaning while playing around, and the day's performance ended.
Despite a considerable number of people being out due to the food poisoning scare, today's show was a great success, Marguerite declared proudly before everyone. In other words, Anna and her friends had been of help to the Marguerite Circus Troupe. That made her very happy.
Ritz, Franz, and Edward had left ahead after their parts were over. Anna and Constanze were late returning their costumes and washing off their makeup. The dresses couldn't be handled as carelessly as the clown costumes, so they had helped put them away. As Anna was carefully wiping and putting away the drenched costume, Constanze's voice called out from behind her.
"I'm going on ahead."
"Okay."
Her dress wasn't wet, so it was easy to put away. She wanted to ask the departing Constanze if she was okay about Franz, but for the first time, she realized she didn't have the energy left. She hadn't noticed while she was busy, but Anna was completely exhausted.
"Thank you for your hard work~
"You too, Anna-chan, good work~
After saying goodbye to the energetic female costume manager, who hadn't gotten food poisoning, she left the dressing room.
"I guess I'm kind of tired…"
She was staggering toward her tent when she stumbled and couldn't get back up. It was only natural, having used healing magic all morning to soothe the pain of the food poisoning patients, used more power to heal Ritz's burns, and then used spirit magic on stage on top of that.
Just a little. After a little rest, I'll go back to the tent as cheerful as usual. I don't want to worry everyone. With that thought, she spotted a wooden box someone had forgotten to put away, sat down, and as she drowsed off, she began to feel happy.
She had never imagined that she could make so many people happy and receive applause with her own power. She had always, always thought about saving people, but she realized from the bottom of her heart that making people happy was also a great joy. Being able to entertain them was a happy thing for her too.
Like the birthdays of the children at the orphanage. The children celebrating, the child being celebrated, and herself watching over them all—it was so happy and fun. Her own satisfaction was forgotten in an instant, but the smiles of her beloved friends and family remained in her heart forever.
She was always lacking in power, her hands never reaching the people she wanted to save. But even if she kept regretting the hand that couldn't reach, her feelings would stay stuck forever. So if she tried her best to make more people happy with the power Anna possessed, maybe one day that unreached fingertip would gain something and be able to give strength to someone.
"There you are. Constanze was worried because you were late."
Suddenly, she heard a low, sweet, gentle voice.
In a fluffy, happy state between dream and reality, she opened her eyes to see Ritz there. He was kneeling in front of Anna, their faces at the same height. And he looked worried. She thought she'd seen this somewhere before and remembered. It was the same as when she'd run away from home, been locked in the dungeon, and he'd come to rescue her.
"Mm, sorry. I'm just so sleepy, and happy…"
"Are you tired?"
"Yeah."
"I bet. It's been a hectic day since this morning."
"Yeah."
It had been a long time since that night she'd been woken up from a nightmare, just the two of them alone. The thought made her feel strange. Being with everyone was so much fun, but for some reason, this was even happier, and her heart felt warm and full.
"Ritz."
"Hmm? You hungry? We haven't even eaten properly today. Damn, tomorrow I'm gonna make Marguerite feed us until we burst."
It made her happy just to watch Ritz grumble. She couldn't help but giggle, and Ritz tilted his head with a curious look.
"What is it?"
"I don't know. I'm just, so happy…"
"Anna?"
"Even the hand that couldn't reach has a place to go now. It's not the person I couldn't save, but still, my fingertips can reach. It's the first time I've known this."
"…Yeah."
She had told him about the nightmare she'd had the other day, so Ritz seemed to understand her abstract words. This person was the only one who tried to understand everything about Anna.
This person… only Ritz.
She gently reached for Ritz's cheek in front of her. Ritz's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but he silently let Anna do as she pleased. It had been a very long time since Ritz's face had been this close.
"I'm glad we came to Roshozu. I'm glad we were able to join the circus."
"Yeah, you're right. Your habit of sticking your neck into everything saved you for once."
"Saved me?"
"That's right. How can someone who's unhappy themselves save someone else who's unhappy? If you're happy, your hands can reach even more people."
"Really?"
She tilted her head as she cupped both of Ritz's cheeks in her hands. Ritz, directly in front of her, fell silent for a moment, his gaze wandering as if he were lost in thought. Eventually, he let out a small sigh and gently pulled Anna's hands away from his cheeks. It was a little disappointing, and as she watched Ritz, he, with a troubled look, put on his usual bright smile and stood up.
"Yeah. So get some sleep for today. I'll carry you."
Before his words had even finished, she was being held in his arms, bridal style.
"Tomorrow we're heading to the Fire Clan's village. Get a good night's sleep and get your strength back."
"I'll be fine. I'm not Franz."
"You've got a point there."
"Right?"
After their usual light conversation, she closed her eyes in his warm arms and was instantly caught by sleep. She had no energy left to open her mouth or her eyes. It had only been a year since they met, but how was it that Ritz's arms felt so warm and safe? It might even be more comfortable than her own familiar bed at the orphanage.
As her consciousness faded, something soft and warm gently touched her lips. She didn't know what it was, but it felt very pleasant and happy.
I wish I could stay this happy forever, Anna thought from the bottom of her heart, just before her consciousness completely faded away.