If You Wish to Have Me - Chapter 142

After that, at Mana’s suggestion, the general store closed much earlier than scheduled.

“My goodness, mister! You’re already here?”

Daisy, who had returned home after school, opened her eyes wide when she saw Gale.

“Wow, you didn’t forget the book I asked for! And even chocolate cake!”

She jumped with joy as gifts for her came out of his luggage bag one after another.

“Did you buy these in the capital? Mr. Gale, you’re the best!”

“Gale, really. If you give her everything she asks for, you’ll only spoil the child.”

While Mana grumbled, he replied that he would be more careful next time, but Kisa could predict that Gale would come visiting again with an armful of gifts.

The man who always had a stern expression during voyages became unknowingly gentle when dealing with this mother and daughter.

“Here, please accept this.”

But while Kisa was watching the three of them with satisfaction, a wrapped package was suddenly held out in front of her.

Kisa blinked for a moment and then asked the man who had offered it.

“For me?”

Gale nodded slowly, and Daisy urged her to quickly check what was inside.

Kisa, who had accepted it in bewilderment, unwrapped the luxurious wrapping paper.

What came out was a box of sweets with a familiar brand logo.

Daisy, who had quickly approached Kisa’s side to check the identity of the gift, let out a “wow” of admiration.

“Isn’t this foreign candy?”

Mana, who had been stumbling through reading the product name written on the surface of the box, agreed with her daughter’s words.

“That’s right. This is from Sorbi. It seems Mr. Gale bought it when he went there.”

The two knew that Kisa was not from this place, but they didn’t know exactly where her hometown was.

Mana might have roughly guessed from Gale’s action of giving Kisa sweets from Sorbi, but Daisy just smiled brightly with an innocent face.

“I want to try some too! Sister Bella, I’ll share my chocolate cake with you, so could you give me some sweets? Let’s trade.”

“Of course, as much as you want.”

After responding to the child with a smile, Kisa expressed her gratitude to Gale.

He briefly replied that it was nothing special, but Mana smiled mysteriously while looking at the two of them.

“Mr. Gale isn’t usually the type to do this sort of thing. Even if he had something to give us, he’s not the kind of person who would carry gifts all the way from a foreign country on a ship when he could just get things from the nearby capital.”

Instead of the silent Gale, Kisa defended him.

“He must have been that considerate of me.”

“Well, if Bella says so, then I suppose that’s what it is.”

However, contrary to her words, she continued to smile mysteriously while looking back and forth between the two of them, then disappeared to the second floor, saying she needed to organize the books she had received as gifts.

“…….”

“…….”

Thanks to this, Kisa had to feel awkward standing next to Gale.

To be fair, Mana’s misunderstanding wasn’t entirely groundless.

Since she didn’t know that Manoa was behind Kisa coming to this place, she simply knew Kisa as Gale’s acquaintance.

According to Mana, she had never seen him get close to women his age before, but one day he suddenly appeared with Kisa and even asked Mana to take good care of her, so how must it have looked to her?

No matter how you looked at it, they didn’t seem to be family or relatives, so it might have been natural for her to misunderstand them as having that kind of relationship.

‘It’s difficult to explain the situation in detail, and it’s awkward.’

Actually, since she was the one receiving help in various ways, she had no grounds to complain and didn’t feel particularly bad about it, but Gale was the problem.

It must already be bothersome for him to be stuck with Kisa on Manoa’s orders, and now he had to deal with unnecessary misunderstandings too.

Moreover, his bringing Sorbi sweets this time was likely just a simple errand or Manoa’s request.

She knew from having eaten them a few times before that the sweets he brought were quite expensive.

‘The store front is always bustling with customers every day, so even if you have money, it’s hard to buy them if you go late.’

Just from how he looked after Kisa’s welfare without showing it, Gale was certainly a good person, but honestly, it didn’t seem like he would voluntarily go to such trouble for Kisa’s sake.

On the other hand, since Manoa had looked favorably upon Kisa from the beginning, there was a possibility that he had sent the sweets along with Gale so she could taste the flavors of her homeland.

Well, regardless of how it happened, the fact that Gale had gone to trouble for her was clear, so Kisa decided to express her gratitude to him once more.

“It must have been inconvenient bringing it across the water, but thank you, Mr. Gale.”

“……Not really.”

Next to Gale, who answered briefly, Daisy could be seen with her eyes sparkling brightly.

Kisa gladly opened the sweet box and held it out in front of the child to meet her expectations.

“Choose whatever you want from here.”

“Would it be okay if I choose several?”

“Of course. Choose as many as you like.”

While watching Daisy excitedly choose sweets, she also put one in her mouth.

Anyway, since she was the one Gale had given the gift to, it would be rude to only give them to others without eating any herself.

“Does it suit your taste?”

Gale, who had been sitting in a chair watching the two of them, asked, and Kisa nodded vigorously.

“Yes, it’s delicious.”

She was about to add that it tasted just like she remembered from before, but swallowed the words that were coming out.

Partly because she was being careful with Daisy next to her, but also because she felt as if the presence of a certain man was right behind her.

Seyard Hillan. Actually, the moment she first saw this box of sweets earlier, Kisa’s mind had instantly been colored red.

On the day he had appeared with dozens of gifts, among the presents wrapped in fancy paper was this very sweet.

Although she normally didn’t particularly like sweet things, these had been strangely delicious, and after hearing this, Seyard had often given Kisa the same sweets thereafter.

She even had memories of eating them together during dates, so in short, these were sweets that held memories of the two of them.

‘Seyard…….’

Kisa was expressionless and silent for a short time, but the next moment, she quickly smiled and spoke.

“It’s nothing. It’s really delicious. Please tell Miss Manoa that I’m grateful too.”

“What?”

Gale tilted his head at those words, but soon nodded.

“I understand. I’ll tell her.”

Should it be called fortunate? The two of them had no opportunity to converse alone in awkwardness after that.

“It’s delicious! So delicious!”

This was thanks to Daisy, who was excited by the taste of the high-quality foreign sweets and chattered non-stop without rest.

Kisa stayed by the two of them for a while, then headed to the kitchen to help when Mana began preparing dinner.

“Oh my, your skills have improved quite a bit?”

She even received praise from Mana while cutting vegetables with a knife.

“It’s all thanks to Mana teaching me. And I still have a lot to learn.”

“That’s true. Prepare yourself from now on. I’m going to start teaching you in earnest.”

The two shared such light conversation and smiled at each other.

Thanks to Mana, her mood, which had sunk because of Seyard, improved considerably.

Pride swelled in Kisa’s chest.

Although it was still relatively simple work, she was steadily learning new things.

She hoped she could continue learning various things here in the future.

After the pleasant dinner ended, when she looked at the clock, it was already 8 o’clock, the time she had promised to meet Gale.

Since his figure had been nowhere to be seen for some time, he seemed to have already gone to the backyard.

Kisa checked on Mana and Daisy, who were each doing different things, then quietly headed to the backyard.

“You’ve come.”

As expected, Gale was waiting for Kisa there.

Kisa swallowed her dry saliva and immediately got to the point.

“In Sorbi…… there’s nothing wrong, is there?”

Gale readily answered.

“No, there’s nothing wrong.”

But Kisa’s questions didn’t end there.

“Really, there are no special changes at all? If you know anything, please tell me. About Count Vansfelt family, of course…… and about the Hillan Duke family as well.”

At that moment, Kisa didn’t miss the subtle expression that crossed Gale’s face.

“There is something.”

“Well…….”

“Please, Mr. Gale. Tell me what it is.”

She had to know.