I stared at the ground.
The newly fallen snow had erased even our footprints.
As if our existence had never been.
"Being lonely is hard, isn't it?"
The ghost of the library.
The librarian who had fallen to stablehand.
Giles Smore was an overbearing, arrogant, stubborn, and rigid man.
Having lived only within the library his whole life, his life was only books.
I hated him very much, but I hated the sight of him silently weeping alone even more.
I knew that escaping into the forest would only lead him to weep in a deeper place, so I had no choice but to hold him back.
"That's all."
I didn't bother adding any explanation.
"Yes..."
Giles Smore didn't seem to understand my words, but he didn't ask any further.
And so, only a desolate wind lingered between us.
Not knowing what else to say, I kicked at the ground and stared at it, when suddenly...
"Achoo...!"
The sound of a sudden sneeze made me turn my head.
He was warming his hands with his breath, shivering.
Now that I looked, he was dressed lightly for being outdoors in the middle of winter.
I didn't even have to see it to know. He must have rushed out without thinking after hearing the news of the library's magical transformation.
"D-Don't mind me!"
He shouted hastily, noticing my gaze.
"You look cold..."
"Not at all! This is nothing."
It wasn't something to say with the tip of his nose bright red.
'Sigh.'
I just realized this man requires a lot more care than I thought.
If we just got to the front of the library, I could ask the knight guarding it for help.
'Then he'll tell me not to go again, or ask if I'm going to abandon him.'
I didn't want to repeat the same argument.
But I couldn't ignore someone shivering in the cold right next to me, their teeth chattering.
'I have no choice.'
This is all I can do for him right now.
I unwound the scarf I was wearing.
And held it out to him, who was looking at me with a bewildered expression.
"...! W-Why are you giving this to me?"
"Because you look cold."
"I clearly said I wasn't cold at all...!"
"You have snot running down your nose."
"Hmph!"
He quickly wiped under his nose with his hand.
Even so, he refused, his face red.
"No matter how cold I am, I won't steal a child's scarf."
"Is that so?"
"Yes!"
Then I have no choice.
I have no intention of forcing it on someone who doesn't want it.
I took the scarf back.
And hopped down from the bench.
He looked at me in confusion.
I said in a cheerful tone.
"Then I'll go call someone, so wait here."
"W-What, didn't you say you'd stay by my side!"
"But Sir Giles Smore refused my scarf."
"What does that have to do with it!"
"If Sir Smore, shivering from the cold, gets sick or gets frostbite, it'll be my fault for just standing by and watching. I don't want to get in trouble. So I'll go call someone."
"..."
"Don't worry. I'll be back soon. Wait here. Well... you can't move anyway."
"!!"
Giles Smore lives here. I'm going.
With that meaning, I gave him a bright smile and was about to move when.
"T-Then I'll take it!"
A desperate voice pierced my back.
I glanced at him.
He mumbled with his head bowed.
"I'll take it... so don't go."
So this is how you get him to listen.
He's not a child, really. He's a man who requires a lot of care.
He's making me do such laborious acting when he's just doing it for his own good. I feel a little resentful.
"Hmm, that's strange?"
So I tilted my head like an innocent child.
"W-What, what is it now?"
"The head butler told me that that's not how you make a request."
"..."
"How did he say to do it?"
I looked at him with a blatant gaze, talking to myself as if I really didn't know.
His face flushed...
Giles Smore turned red up to his neck.
His lips moved, and then soon.
"Please... lend me... the scarf..."
He bowed his head to me.
His shoulders were trembling.
He was a man who had lived his whole life with pride as the librarian of Rodbel, holding his nose high, but asking me, of all people, to lower his head and make a request must have been so frustrating that it was tearing him apart.
'Should I let it go at this point?'
"Yes, since you asked so nicely, I have no choice."
I shook my head as if defeated and returned to his side.
I sat down with a thud and held out the scarf again.
Giles Smore stared at the scarf for a moment with a complicated gaze before taking it.
He mumbled.
"It's a terrible scarf."
It wasn't a criticism, just a sincere assessment.
He looked at me with a frown.
I don't know what it is, but he seems to be misunderstanding something...
"Didn't you receive a proper scarf?"
'As expected.'
He seems to think that Rodbel mistreated me and made me wear a shabby scarf.
'That's not it.'
If it were before, I wouldn't have cared what he thought and would have let it go.
"It's a gift."
Because the meaning of the scarf was special to me, I didn't want to pass it off as evidence of mistreatment.
"Excuse me?"
Giles Smore looked surprised at my words.
This as a gift?
He looked back and forth between me and the scarf with a disbelieving face.
But with my following words, he could no longer make a suspicious face.
"It's precious to me."
It may only be a grimy scarf that's embarrassing to give as a gift to others in his eyes, but it's more precious than anything to me.
"Ahem."
Realizing that he had been rude, he cleared his throat.
Then he said with an even more difficult to understand expression.
"It's so precious, so it's okay to lend it to me? I am..."
His voice trembled slightly.
"I hated... you. Don't you know?"
Surely. How could I not know that? He openly hated me.
I didn't answer.
But Giles Smore's eyes trembled violently, having already read the answer in my eyes.
"Why do you... even though you know?"
I don't know.
"I don't know either."
"What..."
He had a bewildered look.
But it was true.
I could just step back at a reasonable point, but why am I even lending this man a precious scarf?
I didn't understand all of my actions either.
It was almost an impulse.
"I just thought Sir Giles Smore looked too cold."
"..."
"That's all."
Yes, that was all.
It wasn't a grand or special reason. I'm not cold now and he's cold.
I can withstand this cold even without a scarf, so I'm just lending it to him for a while because he has nothing.
"..."
Giles Smore looked at me with a face as if he had been hit with a hammer after hearing my answer.
He stared blankly at me with a stunned face as if he was in shock.
Swoosh, swoosh.
Slowly, he wrapped the scarf around his neck.
The long and thick scarf that seemed to cover my entire upper body was just right for Giles Smore.
After wrapping the scarf around his neck, Giles Smore didn't say anything for a long time.
He just fidgeted with the end of the scarf and then spoke in a small voice.
"...I'm sorry..."
He mumbled.
I pretended not to hear those words and shook my feet slowly.
Suddenly, I raised my head.
As expected, heavy snow was slowly falling on the quiet world.
The quietly falling snowflakes were serene.
How long had it been since then?
Around sunset, Giles Smore said.
"We should start getting up now."
"Can you get up?"
"I feel much better thanks to you. I'll give this back to you too."
He carefully unwrapped the scarf and handed it back to me.
As I wrapped the returned scarf around my neck, Giles Smore suddenly asked.
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