Chapter 181 Episode 27: Between Friends (4)

His turquoise eyes widened slightly when he saw Aristine but soon, it curved gently.

Hamill quickly walked over to Aristine, ignoring the person he was talking to.

“Princess consort.”

“Hello, Mr. Gold-digger.”

At Aristine’s words, Hamill sighed and laughed.

“Am I still considered a gold digger? We met coincidentally though.”

Hamill lowered his head towards her. Although he looked as gentle as a monk, he was an Irugoian, and his tall shadow covered Aristine completely.

Standing in his shadow, Aristine looked up at his face.

His long and bright platinum blonde hair brushed against her cheeks and neck.

“I thought we decided to be friends?”

His voice was a low whisper, filled with the warmth of summer.

Just as Aristine blinked, Hamill lifted his head. He took a clean step back and made a slightly sad face.

His expression was completely different from when he was looking down at her from up close.

“I have been waiting for the day I run into to you, Princess consort. Although I didn’t think it would be like this.”

He gave a faint smile.

The feeling he gave was a little different from someone who really didn’t know what to do when they met.

It seemed more like he knew they would meet, but didn’t know they would meet like this, in such a place.

“You were certain we would meet again?”

“I felt it was fated to happen,” Hamill replied.

Aristine’s eyes narrowed at those words, “You still seem like a gold-digger to me, all things considered.”

“It is said that a friend is a gift from heaven,” Hamill removed a petal from Aristine’s hair, “That’s why it is fate.”

He crushed the petal with a smile.

“Is that so?” Aristine asked.

“Of course.”

Seeing Hamill smiling as if this was a matter of fact, Aristine finally stopped narrowing her eyes and smiled.

‘A friend.’

She liked what that word meant.

And back then, she figured that she didn’t mind becoming friends if they really happen to meet again.

“Your name,” Aristine said.

“Huh?”

“Tell me your name,” she repeated.

Those words were practically saying she was accepting the offer of becoming friends.

Hamill’s lips curved into a smile.

‘I was going to use an alias but…’

He changed his mind when he saw Aristine’s purple eyes looking up at him.

“I am Lu.”

That was Hamill’s nickname when he was young. No one called him that anymore. Because he never allowed anyone to call him that.

“Lu…”

“Yes.”

“I was just saying it.”

“I know. It’s nice to hear.”

Aristine looked at him, a little dumfounded.

Was he saying his own name sounds good?

‘I mean, it doesn’t sound bad…but frankly speaking, it’s an ordinary, common name.’

It seems her second friend was a narcissist.

‘Well, I guess it’s better to like your name than hate it.’

As that thought was crossing her mind, she caught sight of a someone standing in the distance.

It was the person Hamill was with.

“Don’t you have to go back?”

“No, it’s fine. We were about to go our separate ways.”

He smiled and turned around. Once he made eye contact with the person, they flinch and left immediately.

“There, that’s good, right?”

Aristine frowned.

‘I feel like he chased them away. Am I imagining it?’

“Would you like to take a walk? To commemorate our fated friendship,” Hamill suggested.

Now that Aristine thought about it, she ignored him when he wanted to keep talking last time.

‘Because I thought he was a gold-digger. And I wanted to get some rest.’

Aristine considered the time.

She didn’t have much to do until the manastones arrived, anyways. Apart from waiting, that is.

“It is a friendship, not a fated relationship.”

Aristine replied, giving Hamill a slight glare.

Then a smile appeared on her lips as well. Honestly, she was a little excited to make a friend too.

Hamill extended his arm and Aristine placed her hand in it.

The two walked side by side, strolling through the garden.

Hamill matched Aristine’s pace; not walking too fast or too slow.

He was obviously more used to escorting than Tarkan, which made Aristine chuckle.

“By the way, what do you do?”

There were very few people that could enter the King’s garden. And considering the attitude of the person that left earlier, his status seemed to be quite high.

‘Is he one of the high-ranking aristocrats?’

But she didn’t see him at the welcome banquet.

Hamill smiled without so much as a flicker, “I work in administration.”

That wasn’t exactly false.

“The administrative office?” Aristine asked.

“Yes.”

Neither was this.

Aristine nodded in understanding. She thought he looked like a scholar but to think he really was one.

“Which family are you from?”

At that question, Hamill’s feet came to a stop.

Aristine stopped too and faced him.

The shadows of the trees hung over his face like a lace.

Hamill smiled softly, “A family that forbids getting close to you, Princess Consort.”

At that, Aristine frowned, “A family that forbids getting close to me?”

“Yes.”

What kind of answer is that?

Aristine thought to herself, but she kept her mouth shut.

‘Maybe it’s a family in the Queen’s faction?’

“Do you want to know?”

Hamill asked in a low voice.

Aristine studied him for a moment then she shook her head.

“No.”

He was probably saying it like that because the moment she knew his family, their relationship would have to change.

If that was the case, she wanted to remain ignorant and be friends.

‘He’s not deceiving me.’

He was trying to approach Aristine for information, he wouldn’t have told her about his family in that manner.

“Background isn’t necessary to become friends,” Aristine remarked.

Hamill laughed, “I will remember that.”

The two began walking again.