Don't Concern Yourself With That Book
Chapter Side Story 4-3

Side Story 4-3

Translator: yun

‘I wanted to see what kind of person she will grow to be.’

Slowly raising his head, Ray found himself in a street filled with people. There were so many people here…

“Ray, why are you staring off into space? Hurry up. Over here!”

He wondered why he could only see her. He flashed a tiny smile to himself. 

He realised that he had already found out what his feelings were a long time ago.

“I’m coming.”

“Hurry, hurry!”

Ray was then given a bouquet of flowers. The centre of the pure white petals was sky-blue as though water had been dropped upon them. The blue on the petals soon morphed into green as they approached the stem.

“Ray, these flowers are Liarte.”

These were the flowers Ashley had bought with gold earlier. These flowers were so ridiculously costly they had to be bought with pure gold but anyone familiar with flowers would nod approvingly at the price.

“Aren’t these the flowers the head templar can only bloom once every 40 years?”

“Yes. They have made it so that it has various colours now so choose which one you’d like.”

Sky blue and green. The flowers Ashley had chosen would remind anyone of only one man.

“Amor has never seen flowers like these before in his life.”

“… I see.”

“Mhm. And this is for Dane.”

Ashley lifted her left hand. The luscious red petals they spouted were rare. 

“It is said that once it blooms, the flowers will not wilt for at least 100 years.”

“I know that too. But isn’t that just the story the Head Templar of Flowers had spread?”

“No, these flowers will do exactly that.”

Ashley flashed a faint smile. 

“Because I brought him here.”

Ray was more used to seeing her bitter smile now than her bright one. But that did not mean he wanted to see it anymore. Weren’t they now in times of peace?

“I’ll take a look around to see if there’s anything I can get other than these. I don’t have much time left here, do I?”

“Yes. It probably isn’t long before the Duke of Aventa notices your disappearance, right?”

Ray shrugged his shoulders as he recalled Rebecca who took her father’s place as the duke while her father resigned from the front lines and kept his position as the Head Templar of the Sword. 

“She might have already found out about this.”

“… Could you try not to scare me? You make it sound like she actually did.”

“If you knew you were going to be scared, then why did you still sneak out?”

Furrowing her brows and pouting her lips, Ashley shook her head. She was grumbling about how Ray had no sense of adventure as she turned around and walked away. 

“I don’t think I’ve come across a knight more arrogant than you.”

“It’s an honour.”

This back-and-forth was familiar to them. 

Afterward, they wandered the streets for a long time. As they walked around the streets, they bought some street food when they felt peckish and looked around stalls selling gem-cut flowers, luxury goods and flower-woven wreaths. Of course, Ray had no say in where they were going. 

“Ray! Ray! Go, go do that! It looks like it was made just for you!”

Ashley took his hand and pulled it towards the centre of what seemed like a simple gladiatorial ring. In the middle of the vacant lot with a simple fence to block out the spectators stood a professional gladiator. Ashley pulled him in.

“Go, Raymond!”

 “… What’s going on?”

“You don’t have to know. Just go and get first place, I’ll bet as much money on you as I can!”

“I mean, how can the emperor be gambling?”

Ashley grinned at Ray after he whispered softly into her ear.

“Oho, it is also the emperor’s duty to experience how her commoners spend their money.”

“What nonsense is that?”

“Hurry!”

After being forced to participate as he was unable to fight against Ashley’s shoves, it did not take long for Ray to knock out his entire competition with the exception of the experienced gladiators. 

‘Wow, he really doesn’t go easy on anyone.’

Ashley was about to die from laughter. Who knew this would suit a man as straightlaced as Ray so well?

“I became rich today thanks to you, Ray.”

“… What do you mean rich when you gave all that money away?”

Ashley waved his hand.

“But I was rich for a moment.”

The emperor, who owned everything in the Empire, flashed a smile that did not make her look like the emperor at all. 

“Because nothing lasts forever for me anyway.”

Ray paused.

“Huh?”

The expression he thought he saw on her face had long disappeared when he looked again. 

Before he knew it, the sun was setting behind Ashley’s shoulders. Her face was dyed in scarlet and her eyes captured the sun.

“I had fun today. Didn’t you? We bought a lot of presents too.”

“…..”

“I hope everyday could be like today. Did you have fun today, Ray? I hope you did.”

Ray’s eyes slowly turned downwards. Smiling wordlessly, Ashley waved her hands. Before he noticed it, she was holding a Liarte flower. 

“Isn’t it amazing? How an immense amount of divinity can make things like this possible. As long as I have divinity, I can have anything I want in my reach.”

“… Yes.”

“It’s amazing to see how templars are capable of this. But, you know, Ray. Actually, all the current Head Templars are, one after the other, losing their lives to incurable curses.”

Ashley turned around to face Ray with an expression that did not make her seem happy or sad. 

“The lord governing the city we are currently in, the Head Templar of Flowers, is said to turn everything they touch into flowers just as his predecessors did.”

Already having met the cursed Head Templar of Flowers, Ashley smiled bitterly as she recalled their meeting. 

“This time, the head templar had turned his parents into flowers as well. Flowers that could not last for even a year.”

“…..”

“What can I do? I want to fix this era. But I cannot do anything to help those who are already suffering.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Ray, but are templars the only ones suffering? I often think about what lives are like for non-templars who do not have divinity.”

Her purple eyes remained directed at Ray. Her gaze held an unknown depth. 

“Some people think I am strange for thinking that far. And those people always happen to be old templars. Am I being weird?”

“To me, Your Majesty, you have always been different from other people so this is not news.”

“Really? Thank you for saying that.”

The moment she smiled, the serious expression she had plastered on her face vanished. Hahaha. After laughing openly, Ashley raised her head.

“I wanted to have fun with you but we ended up talking about something serious instead. What’s wrong with me?”

“You wanted to spend time with me?”

“Yes. It has been a while, hasn’t it? Taking a break like this. Didn’t it remind you of that day during the Founding Festival? At the time, we had no choice but to go out.”

“Yes.”

“But now, we are in times of peace.”

Thinking back on what happened today, Ray stared at Ashley.

What did he do with her today? They might have seemed like they were wandering around but Ashley had never done anything without reason. 

Did she really now want to bring Fleon here? What about Rebecca? He was someone who was well aware how much she valued them. And, yet she chose to come here with him…

“Ray, you know. Perhaps this flower will last for a long time.”

Ray raised his head. As Ashley spoke whilst waving the flowers in her hand. 

“A flower that will last 100 years, 200 or maybe even forever. So that I will always be happy looking at this flower… Thinking of the person who received it.”

Ray knew that the flower Ashley was holding in her hand belonged to neither Amor nor Dane. 

It was a new flower. 

“This is yours, Ray.”

The petals were indigo blue. A very deep blue. 

“Why are you giving me these flowers?”

“Just because.”

Lowering the flowers, Ashley grinned. A girl’s face overlapped with the one of the woman in front of him. Ashley looked 17 again. 

“I have a lot of things to apologise to you for, Ray.”

A gust of wind was blowing. As her long hair fluttered, she revealed a bitter smile.

“There was a day, a long time ago, where I couldn’t tell you something. I knew my heart didn’t want me to but I could not afford to do anything else at the time… I used you as a weapon to do cruel things, Ray.”

Just like she did that day, Ashley smiled. 

“I’m sorry, Ray.”

He recalled all that happened so long ago. He had always looked at the girl spouting a bitter lonely expression and hoped that a smile would appear on her face at least once. 

He, even back then… never thought that he would be the one for her. 

“And I will continue doing things to be sorry for, so I’m sorry.”

Ray accepted the flower slowly approaching him. 

“There is nothing to apologise for.”

He never had strong opinions about flowers. 

Flowers were just flowers. And trees were just trees. Eyes that were used to seeing the battlefield since he was a child rarely acknowledged beauty. But that was until he first saw the girl’s smile.

“The emperor has no need to apologise to a trivial existence Since when have you apologised so readily, Your Majesty?”

That was why, from that moment forth, this flower would be his most cherished item. 

“I was the one who offered to be your sword. A sword does not think and does not talk. But I’d like to ask you once.”

“What do you want to ask?”

Staring at Ashley, for once in a long time, Ray revealed his true feelings.

“Upon your command, I will serve Sir Dane with my utmost sincerity. Till death.”

“Yes.”

His gaze that had always been still and calm wavered. 

“… Have I been doing well?”

He knew he just said something that he normally wouldn’t. But it was something he had always wanted to ask at least once. 

After slowly closing her eyes, Ashley then opened them. In return for everything else, Ashley held Ray’s hand before flashing a broad smile. 

“You are the strongest knight I have ever met. And the best.”

Slowly closing his eyes, Ray smiled softly. He squeezed the flower in his hand before letting go. This was enough. No, he believed that he had received deserving compensation for everything. 

He was not greedy which was why he only wished for one thing. What he wished for was not a person or love. 

Just her words that were like the air that he breathed and the light that filled his seas.

“This is enough.”

***

“Hello, I am Ray Fleram Aquita.”

“Why are you being so polite? You never greeted me like that?”

“Stop it, brother. This is his first time meeting Ashley.”

It was spring. The season of blooming flowers but the young man who was indifferent to flowers would never know that. 

“Well, hello. I am Ashley Rosé Kaltanias.”

“It is nice to meet you for the first time, princess.”

He had been reunited with the princess. 

“Yes. I have heard a lot about you. I heard that you were really strong?”

“… It seems like it.”

The day they met, he acted like this was their first meeting and that he did not remember her.

“But I am not a templar.”

“Hm? Why does that matter?”

“…..”

The day he realised that this was fate. 

“Why would it matter if you were a templar or not? You are amazing.”

As soon as he heard the words no one had ever told him before again, his life had been decided. 

“It is nice to meet you too.”

“… Yes.”

To become the sword that will protect you.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.