A year had already flown by since I started spending time with Ruena.
Today, as usual, I was dressed in a frilly apron,
flexing my forearms with all my might as I whipped the meringue.
That was when Little Brother approached.
"Celen."
"What."
"How come a scrawny little thing like you has so much muscle on your arms?"
"Because I've been doing this for over a year."
I glanced down at my arms, and sure enough, they were much more toned than they had been a year ago.
Why is my magic power staying the same while my strength just keeps growing?
I let out a light sigh and ignored Little Brother, continuing to whip the meringue.
Today—
I absolutely could not afford to mess up.
Ruena's ninth birthday. A chance to skyrocket her affection.
Yes.
This plan was all or nothing for me.
After more than a year, I had no remarkable achievements to show for it.
I met her about three times a week.
Practically every other day, but there hadn't been any real progress.
Not with information about the future,
nor with my relationship with Ruena.
To be precise, there had been progress, but it was agonizingly slow on both fronts.
The time I could glimpse into the future was gradually increasing.
The problem was that the futures I could see were irregular.
There were far more useless futures than useful ones.
This is such a rip-off... a total loss...
There were three ways for a Noir to use their abilities.
Using their own magic power,
providing a material price to someone else,
or providing a non-material price to someone else.
Among them, non-material prices included emotional responses like affection, love, or gratitude.
That's why Second Brother is always chasing after women...
Ruena did appreciate the desserts I made for her.
She always finished them completely,
and expressed her thanks in her small voice, hoping I'd come again.
The problem was that the scale of those emotions was far too small to glimpse the future.
Without a doubt—
Among the Noirs' abilities, 'Foresight' required the most power.
The future didn't flow in a straight line.
It was a complex web of countless possibilities intertwined like a spider's threads.
So, seeing even one future demanded a proportional price and intense focus.
Even Father, the head of House Noir, could only see up to three years ahead.
And that required vast magic power and meticulously accumulated prices.
I can see hundreds of years ahead, but I can't control what I see...
In my current situation, that was poison.
Hundreds of years in the future—
What use was a future where my bones had turned to dust?
Especially when I was in my prime, on the verge of getting stabbed to death by my childhood friend.
What I needed was the future within the next decade or so.
I didn't care at all about how Ruena's descendants made a living hundreds of years from now.
That's why Father serves expensive desserts when meeting clients...
Non-material prices like emotions were abstract,
but material prices had clear limits and converted directly.
The more money spent,
the more perfectly crafted,
the greater the value that immediately became the price.
It was straightforward.
A structure where results matched the amount invested.
Without a doubt, if you had enough money, it was the simplest price—easier than magic power.
But—
Emotions weren't like that.
The depth of gratitude, the weight of affection, the sincerity of love.
None of it could be quantified in numbers,
and sometimes, no matter how much effort you put in, it was useless.
It all depended on the other's subjective evaluation.
Ruena was the same.
We'd grown much closer than at the start,
but at some point, that distance stopped shrinking.
...Progressing further would be the weird part.
I sighed as I looked at the perfect meringue that wouldn't fall even if I shook the bowl.
If I summed up my daily routine with Ruena—
I greet her.
I go to Ruena's room.
I bring out the dessert.
I watch her eat.
I clean up the remnants neatly and say goodbye.
I'd repeated this for over a year.
The only thing that changed in our meetings was the type of dessert.
Some days cookies,
some days pudding,
some days tarts topped with seasonal fruit on the table.
Occasionally, Ruena would brew tea herself, but even that was...
"Wow, thanks."
"Yeah."
"Smells nice. What tea is it?"
"Dunno."
It was always like that.
I didn't learn the tea's name, but I certainly learned what silence was.
We sat across the table, sharing only the warm aroma without a word.
Isn't this too much?!
I might be shameless, but I wasn't crazy.
Even I wouldn't enjoy tea time mumbling to myself at a wall.
That's how I ended up talking to the parrot.
At some point, I couldn't stand the soliloquies anymore and trained the parrot.
Ruena's parrot,
the one that nearly crossed to the afterlife after eating chocolate.
"The dessert must be tasty. Ruena, you look happy."
"Ruena. Good. Good."
"Does Buddy like the almonds I brought?"
"Tasty. Tasty."
The parrot handled 80% of our conversations.
If I could see intimacy levels—
Ruena would be at 10, the parrot at 99 these days.
At least the parrot answered when I spoke.
Maybe dying by the scenic lakeside is the best future after all...
It hadn't been long since I'd thought even a gravesite should be comfortable.
Still, that day I had high hopes.
Father had ordered an expensive cake for my birthday.
I glanced at Ruena eating the cake.
I held my breath, hoping for even a slight change in her expression.
Maybe I can see a bit further this time...
At least its material value far exceeded the cakes I made.
Just as I was resigning myself to her blank face—
Ruena, who had been eating the cake, slowly looked at me and spoke.
"Celen."
"Yeah?"
"This cake is different from usual."
"Oh, yeah. Tasty, right? It's made by a famous patissier."
Ruena set down her fork silently and murmured very softly.
"...The ones you make are tastier, Celen."
"Huh? R-Really?"
Ruena nodded slowly, her head bowed deeply.
This was her real problem.
She almost never showed emotions, but when she did, she was brutally honest.
I'm the one who needs to win her affection, so why...
I calmed my inexplicably flushing face and forced a smile.
"Thanks for saying that. Father splurged on this expensive one for my birthday."
"Birthday...?"
"Oh, yeah. It was my birthday not long ago."
I hoped she might feel sorry for not remembering.
Even if not, I at least wanted a 'Oh, I see.'
That's why I'd mentioned it—to get some kind of reaction.
But—
What came out of Ruena's mouth was quite different from what I'd expected.
"On your birthday... you eat cake?"
"Huh?"
"...Why?"
"Why what?"
She could understand me, yet it felt like she couldn't.
We stared at each other in bewilderment, trying to grasp each other's thoughts.
Ah, right. Her father hates sweets.
I was the first to remember and broke the ice.
"Oh, your father doesn't like desserts. Guess you'd just get presents then."
"...Get presents?"
"Huh?"
"Why?"
...Hold on.
This was more serious than I'd thought.
Cold sweat dripped as I realized our family environments were worlds apart, and I hurriedly chose my words.
"...Well, a birthday is the day you were born."
"Yeah."
"To celebrate that day, you eat what you like or get presents you want... That's how you celebrate."
"Why?"
Ruena looked genuinely baffled.
Her eyes made it seem like I was explaining some bizarre religious ritual.
Only then did it hit me.
This child had no concept of being celebrated by anyone.
It's bad. Really bad...
Even the gentle Grand Duchess,
had she never once celebrated this child's birthday?
It was the first time I felt sorry for the heir to Grand Duke Eliad.
"Ruena."
"Yeah?"
"When's your birthday?"
"Two months from now..."
"Got it. Then, on that day, I'll make it a proper birthday for you."
Ruena nodded quietly.
Her ear tips redder than usual.
And so, the long-awaited birthday had finally arrived today.
I'd prepared a gift for her,
and even set up a birthday spread to create some atmosphere, amateurish as it was.
Couldn't do it inside or it'd be found out, so I prepared it outside.
Yes.
Today was historic in many ways.
Ruena's first proper birthday party in her life.
And our first time spending time outdoors together—a monumental day.
I vowed to make it unforgettable.
"Oh, this is good. Really."
"Ah, don't eat the cream with your fingers!"
The cream on the cake vanished in an instant.
Little Brother grumbled as he snatched a strawberry with quick hands.
"Scrawny little punk's got an attitude. It's your birthday, and I went all out buying something expensive."
"Hey, stop—! Quit picking strawberries off the cake! Eat from your plate!"
"That's not snatching!"
"You trash."
Leaving Little Brother—the trash—behind, I finally finished preparations.
A little while later—
The arrival of the Grand Duke Eliad's household.
Ruena stood quietly in front of the large gate.
"Ruena!"
"Hello."
"Happy birthday."
"...Yeah."
"Come on. This way."
Ruena walked beside me without a word.
But her steps seemed a bit lighter than usual, somewhat excited.
Good start.
I smirked and led her slightly ahead.
A forest path a short distance from the Grand Duke's residence.
Turning off the road we always passed by carriage—
A small lake appeared.
Where the blue sky reflected on the calm surface.
Beside it, I'd set up a modest birthday spread for Ruena.
Now, take her there, celebrate her birthday, and then...
I reviewed the plan I'd thought up over the past two months in my head.
A perfect plan for perfect timing and perfect reactions.
Alright. Just stick to the plan.
But—
An unexpected intruder had arrived at the birthday spread first.