The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)
Chapter 16: Moonlight and Berries

Chapter 16: Moonlight and Berries

LEO

I was having a hard time sleeping, not least because Dimitri snored like a drunk bear. I was thinking about the training earlier—the room, the mirror, and me.

I was very confused back then. But I was praised for it. The gentleman said that I had potential, just as the traveler said that time.

I didn’t know what was going on. Seeing all the others in the class who looked so strong and comfortable being here at the Academy—I felt like I was the only one holding a spoon at the dinner table while everyone else was cutting their meat with a fork and knife.

The meat at dinner was great, though. But potatoes were definitely better back home. And god, Mario was really scary there for a moment. He looked so angry, all because I wasn’t eating my vegetables. But then again, he brought me a donut later and said I didn’t have to eat the vegetables anymore. Then he even gave me those biscuits later. They were really nice. Especially the one with a strawberry jam topping. Yeah, the berries somehow reminded me of those we get in Erdville. I wonder if those berries were from the South. I was told you could buy anything in the capital, that all the good things from all over the empire were brought to the capital. So maybe Mario’s family was buying berries from the South to make those biscuits. Maybe I’d ask him.

But nah. That would be weird, wouldn’t it? What was I going to do?

’Mario, does your family buy berries from the South?’

That’d sound so weird. I didn’t want to be weird. Not more than people probably thought I was already.

’Stop thinking silly stuff, Leo,’ I told myself and lightly slapped my cheeks.

I didn’t know how long I had been lying in my bed trying to fall asleep. Maybe this bed was too comfortable. The bedsheets were so clean, they made me feel dirty.

Then I realized I really had to go pee.

So I finally got out of bed, doing my best to be quiet and not wake up Briant, sleeping in the lower bunk, as I climbed down (I wasn’t worried about Dimitri at all considering how he was sleeping so well). I tiptoed out of the room and walked down the hallway, which was thankfully not too dark.

I was too in a rush to notice anything on the way to the toilet, but once I was more relieved, on my way back, I thought I heard some heavy huffing and puffing sounds from outside. I walked over to the window in the hallway and peeked out, and saw a man swinging a stick repeatedly.

It was Mario.

I stood by the window and kept on watching him. First just out of simple curiosity (what was he even doing outside at this hour?), then out of even more curiosity (why is he doing the same thing over and over?), then simply because I found it a little comforting to watch the same motion repeat in a cycle, like watching a windmill turn.

Then I was suddenly startled by a little rattle, and the realization that I had bumped my head on the window.

I had dozed off sitting on the window sill while watching Mario swing.

It was also then that I noticed that Mario had stopped abruptly and looked over in my direction.

’Yeek, did he see me?!’

I quickly lowered myself to hide, but made a fatal mistake of peeking out again—fatal because that was definitely when he saw me.

So there we stood, Mario with a stick in his hand, standing like a statue under the moonlight, looking up at the window I was sitting by, and me at the window looking out.

Neither of us moved.

’Now things are really weird...’

I didn’t know how much time passed like that, but it was Mario who made the first move. He started to walk back toward the dormitory door.

’Oh no, is he coming up here?’

I tried to get up to rush back to my room, only to realize that I had given myself a dead leg by falling asleep earlier while sitting on it.

I heard Mario’s footsteps coming up the stairs and getting closer through the hallway in the darkness, and before I could figure out what even to say to him, he was already standing next to me as I whimpered in pain.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

"My... leg hurts."

He surprised me by suddenly kneeling down and taking my foot in his hands.

"What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?" he asked.

"Just a dead leg... I fell asleep sitting on it..."

I was lucky that the moon hid behind the clouds for a moment so I didn’t have to see Mario grinning at my stupidity.

He held my heel in one hand and the toes in the other, and began to rotate my foot slowly. It hurt a little at the start and I let out a little yelp, after which his movement got a bit gentler. Then he helped me bend and stretch my leg, squeezed my calf a few times, rotated my foot again, and repeated the whole process again.

"It should feel better now," he said, finally letting go of my foot.

I got off the window sill and tried to stand, and he was right. My leg was better now.

"Thank you..."

"You couldn’t sleep?" he asked.

"No."

"I have some extra pillows if you find your bed uncomfortable."

"It’s not like that..."

He then looked at me, his face asking ’What is it, then?’

"I was just wondering if you get the berries from the South."

"...pardon?"

GOD, I’M SO STUPID!

"NEVER MIND!"

I ran back to my room, leaving confused Mario behind.