19 Age Ten – A Gesture for Three part 1

“Urie Loeth, nice to meet you.” the ashen-haired young boy slightly bowed and held his right hand out in greeting towards the crimson-haired young girl.

“I know...” the young girl mumbled in reply.

—Ah? She knows?

Urie wondered where she might have gotten his name from as this was their first real interaction. He quickly dismissed the thought after assuming that she must have heard it from someone else's mention.

His arm still extended, he started trembling as he waited for his gesture to be accepted.

—Isn't she going to introduce herself?

Raising his head slightly, he was curious as to why the crimson-haired girl had yet to respond. She seemed to be hesitating on placing her hand on his but as she did, her hand felt cold to the touch, shaking with nervousness.

Urie's eyes met hers but she quickly turned away from his gaze.

“Umm—?” Even before the conversation had begun, it had entered an awkward pause. He opened his mouth in an attempt to solicit the opposite's response when she suddenly bowed her head in imitation of his greeting. While her hand was still placed on top of his, that is.

“Celeste Vareth—“ she bit her tongue, and spoke again clearly to redeem herself, “Celeste Varethe.”

After a few seconds, Urie chuckled. The girl was clumsy, he thought. An amused smile showed on his face as he teased, “Don't you know what a handshake is?”

Celeste was puzzled. She had never really had much contact with anyone other than her mother, father, and uncle. When she had seen the smile on Urie's face as he asked, she took it as a sign of mockery and turned her handshake into a sudden grip.

“Ah! “ Urie winced, feeling the strength Celeste had put on her hand. He pleaded for her to let him off but was only forgiven after a few seconds of suffering.

“Ah, I wasn't making fun of you...” Urie said, shrugging off the pain, ”Celeste, you really don't know how to do a handshake?” Although he flinched when he saw a threatening glare, he reached out and took her pale hand. Shaking it up and down, he said, “This is how you greet someone when you meet them, it's called a handshake. Mother taught me this.”

Urie felt pleased as he saw Celeste nod in understanding, but when her hand continued to move with same repetitions seemingly without end, he added, “Ah, Celeste, you don't have to shake my hand this long, just a couple of times will do.”

Celeste's hand retreated and her gaze fell to the ground. Spotting a tinge of red on her cheeks, Urie scratched the back of his neck and his eyes shifted across the room.

—Ah, I should ask about the fountain while she's here.

A change in topic to push conversation, but he had no idea how to bring it up. His line of sight eventually arrived at his grandfather lying unconscious on the bed. From here, the old man looked entirely bald as his head completely buried his scant hair under the pillow.

Urie muttered inadvertently, “Why is grandfather is here?”

Celeste heard him and thought she was asked, “Ah, I came here with him," she answered.

“Huh?” Urie moved his attention from his grandfather to Celeste. “What were you doing with my grandfather?”

“We came here from the Erden Wall."

Urie scratched his nape, “The Erden Wall? Grandfather, I could understand, but why were you at the wall?”

Celeste pointed at his head and continued, “Same hair... He picked me up from the forest outside the wall.”

“Same ha... Father?” More questions popped up in Urie's head. It could have also been his brothers.

“More, people with the same hair and—“ Moving her finger from his head to the old man on the bed, Urie understood what Celeste meant. She must have met everyone stationed at the wall. Then his grandfather came to bring her here to the city.

“—But why are you both here at the Academy?” he asked.

Celeste gestured once again at his grandfather, “...Said I needed to play with others.”

“Oh...” rubbing a hand on his forehead, Urie felt worn out.

From the earlier debacle he experienced with his mana circulation, to being pulled into a dubious request by that scruffy, white-haired old man, to his current conversation with the reserved girl in front of him. Having to rack his head on what she meant by her incoherent sentences, he was just about ready to lay down on one of the vacant beds and take a long nap.

Intending to ask Celeste one last question, Urie tried to speak, “About the fountain...“ before being rudely interrupted by a sudden shout.

“That senile old freak!!!” A furious shout coming from the balding dead coming back to life.

—Ah... Grandfather's awake.

With bloodshot eyes, the old man jumped off the bed.

Taking a quick look around the room before spotting the two children, Sacha Vinney blinked numerous times before he finally cleared his head. He launched himself towards them and locked them both in a tight embrace.

“Urie, my dear grandson, Celeste, my lovely granddaughter! Did that old fool do anything to you?” Sacha spoke with such a serious enough voice that Celeste and Urie both wondered what had transpired between the two old men.

“Grandfather, we're alright,” Urie spoke while prying himself away from Sacha's hands, and at the same time wondered— granddaughter? He quickly dismissed the remark and asked a different question, “What exactly is so bad about that old man, grandfather?”

Celeste, who was listless as she was being hugged by Sacha, also became curious as she wanted to know what kind of person that creepy old man was.

Falling under the inquisitive gazes of the two children, Sacha grimaced as he recalled the past, “That old freak likes to hold grudges. When I was at the academy, he played pranks on me for two years until I left to enlist at the wall. As if it weren't bad enough, his grudge extended towards my daughter!”

Sacha grabbed at the remaining hair on his forehead and exclaimed, “Your mother became the target of his pranks. If it weren't for that child, Merea, keeping him away, my lovely Rivelle might've had to enlist at the wall as well!”

At the mention of his mother being bullied, a crease dug itself between Urie's brows, “What did you do that was so bad that he held a grudge for that long?”

“Well, that...” Sacha grumbled, “The sweets that were regularly delivered to his office, I replaced the sugar baked into them with salt. But, that— that wasn't bad enough to warrant a generational grudge, was it!?”

The bad blood had been initiated with salt. Urie rolled his eyes at the confession.

Celeste, however, was taken aback and Urie heard her mutter, “H-How evil...”

—Ah? Was it that wicked?

...With Sacha confined to the bed momentarily, Urie decided to take Celeste with him to class. Although there was the incident that had occurred, it seemed everyone was deemed fit to continue the rest of the lesson.

Sacha agreed and decided to nap until it was time for them to head home.

Urie spoke with high spirits while leading Celeste, “Practical magic class is continuing at the courtyard. We don't have to do much, but we can watch how the others do."

Contrary to his enthusiasm, Celeste quietly followed at a pace a bit faster than her usual. She stared at the hand leading her, holding her own within a firm grasp. With subtlety, she bobbed her arm, then smiled with a thought she had in mind.

—A handshake...