Home/My Youngest Keeps Bringing Me Male Leads/ch 20

Chapter 20

He must have already known she was approaching, but Silmare turned around with a radiant smile, as if he'd just noticed her now.

Smiling back, Agnes crouched down beside Silmare.

On the ground, small, tender leaves that had just taken root were swaying in the breeze.

"We're planting marigolds."

"Marigolds?"

"Yes. When summer comes, they'll fill this place with a light as bright as the sun."

Oliver quietly rose and slipped away to another spot.

Perhaps because Agnes was his employer, he seemed uncomfortable.

Watching Oliver's retreating back, Agnes asked, "You're always with Oliver, aren't you?"

"Yes. I find peace in his company—we're alike in some ways."

"When you were in the Naofa Forest, Sir Silmare, did you always plant and tend flowers like this?"

"Yes. I plant flowers I love in places I frequent and care for them."

"Sometimes I see you using what looks like magic, Sir Silmare."

"What kind of magic?"

"You can talk to animals, and it seems plants grow especially well when you've tended to them."

Agnes recalled the flowers Silmare had planted a few days ago.

In just a few days, they had grown strong and vigorous, as if Silmare had poured rich nutrients into them.

Even the tiniest plant by his side seemed to sing with happiness.

The marigold seedlings they had just planted were also sparkling.

Agnes looked at Silmare with fresh eyes.

The man shimmering in the sunlight was dazzling to behold, yet oddly, being with him was comforting.

It felt as if she had become one of the grasses or trees he cared for.

As much as that was true, there was one thing that had been on her mind. It was a thought that had come to her while clearing the overgrown grass in the garden.

"When you cultivate flowers, you have to pull out the weeds that get in the way. Does that not bother you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Back when we were in the carriage, you seemed uncomfortable with the idea of tying down a free horse."

"Ah, that."

Surprisingly, Silmare answered readily.

"Because the horse didn't like it."

"The horse that was harnessed to the carriage?"

"Yes. Horses also sense the hearts of those they accompany. Just as Royce willingly carried me and Agnes, other horses may also wish to help those who love them."

"Even with hard work like pulling a carriage? And wouldn't they be upset if you cut down even the useless weeds as you pleased?"

"That is true, but..."

Silmare's fingertips lingered on the nameless wildflowers that had to be pulled out to plant the marigolds.

"That's right. In the Naofa Forest, we don't deliberately pull out flowers to plant others."

"That's why it bothered me. While tidying the garden, clearing away the overgrown grass, I thought of the insects that must have disappeared along with them."

"I see you were concerned about that."

"Yes, a little."

Silmare's perspective was new to her.

What she had taken for granted as a human seemed to look different through his eyes.

What kind of world did he live in—a person who could hear not only the whispers of countless animals but also of trees and flowers carried on the wind?

Perhaps the way she lived looked like trampling over countless things.

Thinking that, Agnes laughed.

She was surprised by the change in herself.

"I must be feeling quite at ease."

"Pardon?"

"In the past, I didn't even have the leeway to think about things like this. I was too busy working."

As Agnes laughed wryly, Silmare watched her with quiet eyes.

"I didn't know you were having such thoughts."

"Is it strange?"

"No. Rather, I'm glad. It means you're carefully considering how I might feel. I'm simply grateful."

As if finding it difficult to speak lightly, Silmare hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

His voice sounded as if he were soothing her.

"Agnes, foxes eat rabbits. When they are eaten, rabbits scream. What do the elves do then? Do they save the rabbit, or leave it be?"

"Ah... I think you would leave it."

"Yes. And grasses and flowers all wither in winter. It's a pity, isn't it? But we wouldn't grow flowers in a warm greenhouse like humans do, would we?"

"I don't think you would."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because it's the way of nature. But it's not easy to stand by while someone is suffering. Do you not feel sorrow for such things?"

"That's true. But I don't love every rabbit in particular. Humans too might feel sorrow for the death of a stranger they don't know, but it doesn't last long."

"Yes, I suppose so."

"Just like that, we also know the feeling of favoritism. We love all living things, but among them, we hold special affection for certain ones."

Silmare wiped his hands on the towel beside him.

A bit of soil had gotten on the hem of Agnes's dress as she crouched, and Silmare very carefully brushed it off.

As if he were caressing something precious, even though it was just a piece of cloth.

Seeing that, for some reason, her heart tightened.

At that moment, Silmare whispered.

"That's why I'm happy to make this garden beautiful. Because you'll look upon it with happy eyes."

The emotions of another that washed over her like a tidal wave were as soft as foam.

At the same time, they were deep enough that she couldn't escape.

An unfathomably deep emotion.

It was wondrous, yet she doubted whether she was worthy of receiving it.

"Why do you treat me so preciously?"

Even if she was the 'Other Half of the World Tree,' it was just a mark, and she was just an ordinary person.

At that, Silmare's eyes softened tenderly.

He raised his hand as if to touch her, but realizing he had only brushed off the dust with a towel, he lowered it.

As if he regretted it deeply, the movement was agonizingly slow.

Even though she knew it couldn't be, time seemed to flow bizarrely slowly.

"In time, you will come to know everything."

"Do you know something more, Sir Silmare?"

"No, what I know is probably not much different from what you know. However, if my treatment of you feels special, it's likely because our longing for the World Tree is extraordinary."

"We didn't even know the World Tree existed."

"Humans live such short lives compared to us. A thousand years is long enough to forget."

"How long do elves live?"

"Very long. Long enough that I am still considered young."

If two hundred years is young, did they live five hundred years? A thousand?

Amidst that vastness, Agnes realized she was missing a very important core.

"Then what exactly is the 'World Tree'?"

It was precisely the question of what the World Tree was.

It was because of that that Silmare and Cesenor both remained by her side.

Then Silmare's gaze drifted from Agnes, wandering through the distant void.

As if something 'existed' where there was only air.

"The World Tree is... I've heard it is the very providence that exists in this world, involved in all processes—the flow of wind and water, the sprouting of life, and the exhaling of breath."

"Is it not a real entity?"

"I wonder. I don't know that much, but... isn't it fascinating? That you are called the other half of such an existence, and that he can become the World Tree."

Agnes nodded, but then realized that Silmare must have been pondering that very problem for two hundred years.

Yet Silmare had not found an answer.

Even in a life ten times longer than hers.

Because he had not been able to find any clue to obtain that answer anywhere.

And then Amy had appeared.

To reveal that the other half bearing the 'World Tree's mark' existed as 'Agnes.'

Agnes felt as if she could understand the longing Silmare showed her.

It was likely the same for Cesenor.

The joy one cannot help but feel when the object of such a long search appears before their eyes.

But the man before her was different from Cesenor.

His eyes held a blind affection for her.

Even though they had only met a few days ago, there was not a trace of hesitation in his certainty that Agnes was a special being, and Agnes didn't know what to say.

So she quietly averted her gaze.

Looking at the ground, the half-planted seedlings were waiting to be put into the soil.

Agnes awkwardly changed the subject.

"Could you show me how to plant the seedlings?"

"Are you curious?"

Though he must have known her intention, Silmare gladly showed her how.

She dug a hole in the right spot, placed the seedling in the depression, and covered it with soil again.

The whispering voice by her ear was ticklish.

So was the sunlight touching the back of her neck.

Absorbed in planting the seedlings, Agnes's upper lip jutted out slightly. Silmare quietly watched her profile.

Humans are not beings that can understand us, he had heard.

That's what he'd always been told.

'Why is it that you keep wondering about us, and about me?'

Was that precisely why the World Tree had chosen her?

Because she was a person who strived to understand and consider an unfathomable existence she had never once encountered.

The cries of all living beings that came from all directions were now as familiar as the sound of the wind.

Yet Silmare found it fascinating that she tried to see even the ordinary in a new light.

A while later, the two remained immersed in a distant warmth until the maid Lilia came to find them.

"My lady!"

"What is it, Lilia?"

"The Marquis is calling for you!"

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