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"Mm... I wonder where I kept it before..."
As I mumbled, I searched around my room. Aoi-kun said that he has trouble sleeping at night as of late, so I had offered to give him an aromatic candle that can help relaxing one's mind. Problem is, I don't quite remember where I had kept it, so I had to search various places in my room to find it.
Fortunately, after pulling open my drawer, I finally found it. But even after retrieving it, I don't immediately rise and left to give it to Aoi-kun, as I'd found something else was kept inside the drawer. Picking it up, I smiled a little as my eyes were fixated on the item: a small ring made of brass and decorated with pea green rhinestones.
"How nostalgic... how long has it been since I received this from Hajime?"
Letting out a soft chuckle, I set the candle down and tried to put it on. It still fit around my left hand ring finger, which caused the ticklish feelings inside my chest to grow stronger.
It has been years, but looking at it, I could recall the events that lead to me receiving the ring just as clear as yesterday.
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Hajime's condition seems a little strange lately.
Usually, when I wake up once night fell, Hajime would already prepared himself for a training session with me. That, or he'll be ready to help out with the family business―patrolling and warding off monsters that attempted to attack the town.
But, lately I often found Hajime hadn't woke up from his afternoon nap, or just woke up and rushed himself to get prepared. Even after he'd woke up, he doesn't look refreshed at all.
As far as I know, it's nothing related to our nightly activities, as there was no significant change in the amount of workloads given to Hajime. So he couldn't be exhausted because of them.
In other words, it has something to do with what he do during daylight.
As I'm a gokuzoku, a race with yin affinity, I can't stay awake after the sun rises, and thus I couldn't find out what is Hajime doing during the day with my own eyes. I could only rely to stories that Hajime himself told me, and sometimes from his parents.
But if I tried to ask Hajime about it,
"I just had extra practices with Mother."
will be the only answer I can get out from him.
So I tried to ask his parents, and I received different answers.
"He was helping out around the house. It's all good, since he uses his time not for planning prank on others," came from his father, accompanied with gentle chuckle.
"Perhaps you would rather wait for him to tell you himself. But you can be assured that it won't last for too long," was a far more mysterious answer from his mother.
If I were to trust their words ― and I knew I could trust them, since I couldn't think up any reason why would they lie to me about it ― then I could summarize them as such: Hajime is helping out around the house for a certain purpose, which will come to end soon and only after its end Hajime will tell me about what he'd been doing to cause him extra tiredness during nighttime.
I decided not to be too curious anymore since I came to the conclusion.
But in return, as long as Hajime still continue doing whatever it is that he does in daytime, I'm determined to be more lenient with him.
If he hadn't wake up when I already do, I would give him some more time to continue sleeping before waking him up.
I would end our training session earlier than usual, and ushered him to bed.
I would charge ahead during patrols, so Hajime wouldn't have to expend too much energy.
Just as I expected, though, he didn't appreciate my acts of consideration.
"There's no need to spoil me, Haru. It's my own fault, I got tired because I couldn't balance my time and the energy I used in my daily activities." Being a clever kid that he is, he could immediately guess why I was doing all that.
But I'm not going to back down so easily either. "No. Even if Waka-sama disagrees, I'm still going to do it."
Hajime looks even more disgruntled. "... I told you not to call me Waka-sama."
Despite being the young master of the household, and I'm practically his aide, he instilled a rule on me that I must call him by his name. Perhaps because I'm not officially employed by the family, unlike the servants in charge of maintaining various household chores. Still, sometimes I would call him as such whenever he's being stubborn.
"I'm just concerned that you'll collapse. Let me do it until you're done with whatever it is. After that, I'll have us return to our usual workloads."
Hajime opened his mouth, as if he wanted to utter another protest. But then he closed it again, seemed to be thinking, understanding my point, and gave up to my persistence.
"Alright... it's just a little more. Wait for it."
When Hajime said 'just a little more', he really meant 'just a little more'.
Three days later, when I woke up in the evening, I found him in my room, sitting up straight next to my bedding as he waited for me to wake up. He'd dressed for our usual practices and he looked refreshed. He had taken proper nap today.
"Good morning, Haru." He greeted me cooly as I rose into sitting position.
"Good morning," I smiled as I replied. "It feels like it had been awhile since I heard Hajime said it first. I take it that your hectic daytime schedules had calmed down now?"
"... Yeah. Yesterday was my last chance, so..."
Last chance? I wondered what is he talking about, and expressed it by looking questioningly at him with my head slightly tilted aside. Hajime seemed to notice my curiosity, and thankfully appeared willing to answer it ― finally.
"First... I want you to accept this, Haru."
One of Hajime's hands, which were curled into fists on top of his laps, opened up and revealed that he was holding onto a ring. It has a simple design, made of brass and has some tiny pea green-colored rhinestones on it. I wasn't sure what he intended to do, giving something like that to me, so I didn't immediately taking it away from his palm. Noticing my puzzled stare, he explained.
"I bought it with my own money... no, actually it's my parents' money, but I earned them after I helped with chores."
Ah, I see now. So that's the reason he'd been pretty tired lately.
I've heard from Hajime's parents, some of the family's subordinates, and also Hajime himself. As the child doesn't really go out and play around the town like the other kids, he never felt the need to buy things from stores and thus never had a pocket money. Besides, most of the time the adults bought him things even if he doesn't wish for it.
So this means that it's the first time he actually wanted to buy something under his own will. And, perhaps because he felt reluctant to suddenly ask for pocket money, he asked his parents to pay him for doing chores.
How cute. I felt my lips curved into a smile as I asked, "That's pretty admirable. But, why do you suddenly want to buy a ring?"
And why giving it to me?
Hajime looked away for a moment, looking hesitant but eventually answered, "Maybe you don't remember, but today is the day you and I met, one year ago. The day I decided that I want you to become my partner."
I mouthed an 'oh'. I don't really keep track with the flow of time, only knowing when sun will rise and when it will set. After all, time doesn't bound gokuzoku, who can live on for eternity and mostly has a carefree lifestyle.
"So, this is to commemorate that?"
"That's part of it... but I want it to symbolize something else."
What could it be? Just as I thought of it in my head, Hajime reached his hands out, holding mine and at the same time making sure that I accepted the ring.
"I want it to be the symbol of my vow. One day I'll be strong enough to become your partner, and then I will never leave you alone or make you feel lonely."
Looking at Hajime with wide eyes, for a moment I was wondering, what is this child talking about? Then I remembered that last year, in attempt to make him stop following me around, I had spouted something along this line before.
I don't want to feel attached and then be left alone again.
So he had been keeping it in mind this whole time?
Once again I fixated my gaze on Hajime. He looked very serious about what he said.
But, will he still be able remember what he said and repeated it again while looking at me the same way, when he'd grown up and learned much more about the world, about people and his surroundings?
"... We'll see," was what I said with the best smile I could afford at the moment, as I held tight the ring that became the witness of his vow.
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At the end of my reminiscing, I felt my sleeve got tugged. Tearing away my gaze from the ring, I saw a small panda was holding onto the fabric of my sleeve with his tiny hands, tugging at it as if he tried to drag me out from my reverie.
"Haju," I greeted the panda with a warm smile, picking him up from the floors and placed him on my laps. "Weren't you playing with Haruru and Shinshin? Do you need something from me?"
"... So you're here, after all."
Hearing the familiar voice, I tilted my head up and saw Hajime standing by the doorway. Clinging on his shoulder was another small panda with red cap, the twin of this panda I'm currently talking to.
"Ah, I see. Hajime is the one looking for me, and Haju helped searching for me?" I let out small chuckles as I came to understand what's happening here. Lightly petting Haju's head, I complimented him, "Good boy~ ♪"
"You took so long that Aoi was worried if something had happened..." Hajime left his sentence hanging. Judging from the direction of his gaze, it seemed he finally took notice of the ring circling around my ring finger.
"Nostalgic, isn't it? Hajime was still so small when giving me this ring." I let out a chuckle, rising my hand to let him have a better look at it.
Sporting a sheepish smile on his mien, Hajime took my hand and tugged me to get up. I picked the aromatic candle from the floor and embraced Haju with my other hand before letting Hajime pulled me up. Once I stood on my feet and now we can look at each other on the same eye level, he said cooly, "I thought you'd thrown it away, since I never saw you wearing it again."
"How could I? It's the proof of Hajime's vow, right?"
"... I'd renewed the vow and gave you something better, though?" He wasn't looking at me when he said it, but even without following his gaze, I could tell where his eyes had landed on: the ring that I had on my right hand ring finger.
Ofuda and pandas are two proofs that symbolized the contract between a human and a gokuzoku. But, for our case, Hajime decided to add something else: rings. Though, he only managed to purchase the rings two years after we legalized our contracts and allowed to take requests from townspeople all by himself. When I learned about that plan of his, I made him to let me pitching in as well. If we're both going to wear it, then it's only normal for me to pay too, right?
Thus the two rings had been circling around our finger ever since. Both are of platinum bands, with emeralds decorating Hajime's, and amethysts on mine.
When Hajime reached his hand out, Haju seemed to understand what his 'papa' wanted to do, so he climbed onto my shoulder, which allowed Hajime to take my hand in his. With his fingers, he lightly caressed the ring, and I felt warmth spreading in me as I noticed the fondness in his eyes.
"... 'From this day forward...'"
"... Hm?"
"'From this day forward, for better or for worse'..."
Though at first I was wondering what is it that Hajime started to mutter, I quickly realized what is it supposed to be and followed, "'For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health'..."
"" 'I promise to love and to cherish, and to be faithful to you until death parts us.' ""
Both of us couldn't help the bashful laughter that came as we finished the sentence together. Those are the words that we exchanged when we had slipped these rings into one another's finger. A renewed vow that bind us together ever stronger.
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ね、
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