Distance

Reunion(part1)

Gaius had underestimated how much Linde had destroyed his usual rational thinking, and it was only when faced with Linde that the most primal nature in him flowed uncontrollably or even erupted.

The shock of seeing Linde again was, if Gaius knew it, of the same magnitude as when Linde saw him perform at the Academy Festival.

She had changed.

The contrast between her calm and generous demeanor and her previous easy shyness and blushing was strong, a closer look at her pale face still carried the invisible shyness of a young girl, yet his attention was more on the unconscious sensuality that came with her maturity due to her age. And to think that he had said to Linde, "Security is something you can only give yourself." There was a more or less educational tone to it, and he couldn't help but feel ashamed.

Since Rean was in the middle of the introductions, he still had time to hide the ripples in his heart. Linde also politely uttered a compliment, steering the conversation to a mutual friend, Clara Voce. He wanted to seize any opportunity to show off his accomplishments, but heard that Linde had stopped painting. He looked deep into Linde's face, trying to catch some message, but Linde's ARCUS went off without missing a beat, and she got up and left with apologies smile on her face.

Rean naturally sensed this unnaturalness, and being a martial artist, her sharp intuition naturally brought enough insight. Luckily, Rean didn't pursue the matter, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

At night he returned to the hotel in the Heimdallr alone, looking out the window at the stringed moon. He couldn't stop thinking about the rainy night he'd spent with Linde at the Imperial Hotel two years ago.

This time there were many surprises in this alone time. At the beginning, Vivi pretended to be Linde's face and asked him to buy Glen Roses. Looking at this identical face in front of him, his lips flicked, but in the end did not reveal this joke.

Knowing the flower language of the Glen Rose, he had also seen Linde copying it with it in the art club. Gaius had heard about Vivi's pranks, and for some reason, when he found out from Lindey that she didn't agree to the prank confession that Vivi had gotten up to, his heart felt indescribably pleasant and relieved. In Thors, the importance of the Art Club to him was second only rank after Class VII, he liked Linde standing next to his easel, smelling the faint fragrance of lilies on her body; he would occasionally draw the wrong perspective on purpose, so that Linde could correct his mistakes with more "scientific" techniques, Linde's delicate hand in his right hand, leaving a few light drafts on the drawing paper; he liked to see Linde blushing with shyness and joy; he also liked to see her in the dark. He liked to see Linde's shy and red face and her golden eyelids drooping unconsciously; what he appreciated most was Linde's inner strength under her weak appearance. He couldn't tell how different this fondness was compared to his guardianship of his classmates in Class VII. After that night he completely realized that Linde was the only special one. Unfortunately, at that time, he was incapable of responding.

Once again, Linde was anxious by Vivi's pranks of course, blushing bright red and accusing Vivi of still growing up.

Vivi, on the other hand, spat out her tongue without a care in the world, dismissing her sister's accusations as a deaf ear, and in the process continuing to mock her sister who was easily fooled every time.

He saw the opportunity and spoke at the right time to ask, "I'm almost out of paints, if you don't mind, would you like to accompany me to the Heimdallr to take a look around?"

"woah, isn't this a perfect date? I'm not going to be a light bulb for my brother-in-law~"

"Vivi!!!"

Seeing that Linde was truly angry, Vivi hurriedly left the battlefield, "Well, so you guys go ahead, have a nice day!"

Vivi's accentuated "brother-in-law" completely struck him in the heart, and for a moment he imagined a perfect family photo with Linde standing on his left.

"Taking care of your sister is hard work." Gaius pushed down his heart and stepped forward in a calm voice of relief.

"Hey, she is always like this." As if she suddenly thought of something, Linde raised her golden eyes with more or less helplessness in them, "Speaking of which, Gaius also has younger siblings in his family?"

"Yeah, but who didn't have Vivi's love of mischief."

The train to the Imperial Capital was quick, it only took 30 minutes to see the crowded Heimdallr Station.

"It's worthy of being the Heimdallr, there are so many people all the time." Gaius lamented.

"Is this the first time Gaius-san has come to Heimdallr?"

"Nope. There was also a transfer here the first time I came to school, and I was wrongly taken aback then."

"Oh, me too, I from a small village, it's the first time I've seen so many people." Linde said and smiled embarrassedly, "I was also following Mint, Becky and the other people before, and almost got lost."

"It doesn't matter, does it?" Gaius subconsciously frowned.

"It's fine, I found the road sign for the conduction tram later and took the car to meet up with them." Linde naturally gently pulled up the sleeve of Gaius' right hand, "Because of this incident, I found very nice art store in an alley, I'm sure you will like it."

"Sounds good." Gaius followed Linde's slightly force that was seemingly resting on his sleeve all the way through unknown alleys to a gray looking store.

Gaius reached out his hand and pushed open the wooden door the moment it was opened accompanied by the sound of wind chimes tinkling. The owner behind the counter glanced up at them and went back to looking down at his newspaper, occasionally snapping his cigarette ash into the ashtray to his left.

It was a very unique store, and the owner didn't seem to care about making a profit and wasn't as enthusiastic about the customers coming to his door as he was about the salesmen.

On Linde's recommendation, he bought a reference book on painting and a white face. When checking out, the owner extinguished the cigarette he had just smoked and asked the two people in front of the counter, "There's only one can of white color paint left, which one of you wants it?"

Subconsciously, he was willing to let Linde have the paint, but Linde waved her hand, "Oh, remember, I just bought the white color, just give it to him."

"Ok." So the boss put both the reference book and the paints in Gaius's handbag, printing a receipt along the way.

Walking out the door towards the main road, the two of them were a little uncomfortable with the sudden sunlight, the wide road seeming less real than the dark and claustrophobic alley they had been in a moment ago. Linde squinted her eyes and raised her right hand to block the sunlight. However, she didn't want to see a speeding conduction car come out from the side and run across the road like nobody's business.

"Watch out!" Gaius was quick to pull Linde out of the way and shielded her behind him. Before Linde could say thank you, she realized the train was heading towards an old gentleman on horseback, the frightened horse jumped high and directionless, the old man on the horse held the reins tightly but the horse's temperament kicked in and he didn't know how much longer he could hold it up on the horse's back.

Driving the originator of the arrogant and loud laughter echoed in the road, this is not the main road of the Heimdallr, usually not too many people pass by, is the recent crazy motorcycle g**g favorite route.

Linde darted over after Gaius who was already running towards the old man, the gangster sitting in the passenger seat of the conduit car stuck his head out of the window and whistled in mockery of the old man's panicked appearance, and when he saw that Gaius and Linde had helped to bring the situation under control, he began to make light of Linde with his words:

"Look, green school uniform, a low-born commoner woman.”

"Not bad looking, how about giving us some fun? (whistling)"

"Shut up!" Gaius, who had managed to hold the horse in check, erupted into a roar of rage that Linde had never seen before, "Take back what you just said!"

The air froze for half a second.

"Hahahahaha, so scared man, keep your girlfriend and horse."

"Bhaaahh, foreign yokels really think highly of themselves~"

......

Gaius grimaced and asked Linde to help the old man off his horse and take him to the hospital, while he himself flew onto his horse and started chasing after the conductor car just now, leaving behind only a blast of wind.

"Thank you, thank you." The old man gasped for air and covered his chest with his hand, unable to say a complete sentence in half a day except for thanks.

"It's alright, sir. I'll send you to the hospital now." Linde patted the old man's back, smoothing out his breath, seeing that his complexion was slightly slowed down, and then took out a water bottle from the bag, letting the old man drink water.

"I'm fine ...... just shocked." The old man is still gasping for breath, "You gotcha to help your boyfriend, find Captain Claire Rieveldt, you are still a student, do not know ...... that this group of people are all the sons of the nobility, only the chancellor's can control."

Linde wanted to explain that Gaius was not her boyfriend but looking at the old man's still in weak look, it was too late to say anything more, insisting on waiting for the ambulance to come to put to send the old man to the hospital, and then go to the Railway Military Police (TMP).