Helos casually glanced around the workshop, her gaze sweeping over the towering piles of failed products as her silver hair swayed gently with the turn of her head.
Suddenly, as if she had just remembered something, she spun around sharply and fixed her eyes on Julius, a sly gleam flashing in her pupils.
The boy was startled by her sudden stare and took a half step back, accidentally bumping his back against the doorframe.
The knowing smile on the girl’s face tightened his throat, and beads of sweat began to seep into his palms without his control.
“I have a question for you, Julius-kun~”
Helos clasped her hands together and stepped forward with a playful smile.
Sunlight slanted in through the window behind her, casting her in silhouette and making her smile seem all the more dangerous.
“Y-you said…”
“What?”
“I remember you said yesterday…”
Helos edged closer, her boot tip nearly stepping on his shoe tip. “You came to be my sister’s squire, right?”
“Yeah?”
The boy swallowed nervously, his Adam’s apple bobbing violently.
“So if you have time to bring me breakfast,”
Her finger lightly propped her chin, “and you’re still around here at this hour…”
“Doesn’t that mean—”
The deliberate pause made Julius’s heart leap into his throat.
He felt like his heart was about to burst out of his chest.
What she said was true—he wasn’t exactly good at lying.
Had he been exposed so quickly?
Those two sisters were definitely not to be underestimated!
Julius clenched his fists, already scheming in his mind how not to get caught.
“—Doesn’t that mean you’re pretty free?”
Julius froze in place, his tense shoulders suddenly dropping.
“Yeah, I’m free.”
He nodded like a broken record. “I’m so bored I’m fidgety. Otherwise, why would I be here?”
Helos’s eyes immediately lit up. She grabbed Julius’s wrist and dragged him toward the workbench. “Then just help me out!”
The boy stumbled a few steps under her pull, frantically steadying the wobbly tool rack.
“Wait! I’m not helping you spy on Miss Eleanor!”
“Why would I spy on my own sister? Do you think I’m that bored?!”
“…Maybe?”
“Julius-kun, what did you just say?”
“I said, is there anything I can help you with?”
Julius cleared his throat and finally relaxed his expression.
His voice regained the calm steadiness befitting a Saint Knight Squire, if you ignored the leaf still stuck in his hair.
Helos suddenly became shy, unconsciously kicking at the clutter on the floor with her toes.
She pointed toward the twisted metal scraps piled in the corner of the workshop, her voice softer than usual.
“What… what do you think these look like?”
Julius followed her finger and gazed at the pile of charred, warped metal chunks that no longer resembled anything recognizable.
He answered honestly, “Garbage.”
Helos’s lips instantly sagged, even her hair seeming to droop a little. “I hate you.”
“Eh?”
The boy blinked in surprise and hurriedly added, “B-but it’s really creative! Like that…”
Quick on his feet, he pointed at the nearest scorched iron block. “This… this looks like… uh… abstract art?”
“That’s the Magic Power Switch I made!”
Helos raised a finger, looking a little furious. “You clueless fool!”
Julius instinctively stepped back half a pace and scratched his cheek.
“Who could tell?”
He added awkwardly, “By the way, what exactly is a Magic Power Switch?”
“It’s something you lot with your magic can’t understand.”
Helos let out a long sigh, kicking the metal scraps by her feet with a dull clank. “Anyway, I want to ask you to help me throw all this trash out.”
Her voice dropped a few octaves suddenly.
“I really can’t move this stuff by myself.”
Actually, she had considered tidying the workshop before, but every time she saw the Stone Steps at the workshop’s entrance, she gave up the idea.
It was easy to bring things in, but moving them out was difficult.
Without any magic, her physical strength was far below her peers. Even the slightly heavier metal parts required the Skates Assembly’s collective effort to drag onto the workbench.
But moving these heavy metal scraps outside was just too much for her young, magicless body.
Helos put her hands on her hips, puffed out her cheeks, and pointed angrily at the Stone Steps.
“These steps are literally my arch-nemesis!”
“So I want you to help me throw all this junk out.”
Julius blinked, suddenly remembering something.
“Then why don’t you use Floating Spell?”
He recalled the last time Miss Eleanor used it to pass him a notebook—she moved heavy things without lifting a finger.
“If I could, would I need you? Dummy!”
Helos flushed red with anger and grabbed a tool from the workbench, pretending to throw it, then sulkily put it back—after all, those tools weren’t easy to come by.
“True.”
Julius nodded in sudden understanding, bits of grass falling from his black uniform with the motion.
The girl pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed deeply, her pale purple eyes filled with helplessness.
Why did this guy look so dumb?
She began to wonder if she had set her expectations too high for a twelve-year-old.
Just as she was self-reflecting, Julius bent down and lifted a pile of twisted metal parts.
Watching his back as he headed toward the door, Helos suddenly squinted.
“Wait, why don’t you use Floating Spell?”
The boy stopped at the steps, turning back with an awkward smile.
“I don’t know how either.”
Sunlight streamed through the doorframe, stretching their shadows long.
Helos stared at the black-haired boy’s foolish grin and suddenly felt like the two of them were just a couple of idiots, forced to rely on the most primitive way to move heavy things.
“Alright, you win.”
The girl sighed and rolled up her sleeves, revealing slender wrists. “I’ll help you carry them.”
Julius froze for a moment, then gave a sincere smile.
“Thank you.”
“It’s because I need help… and don’t get the wrong idea!”
Helos hurried over, bending down to pick up a lighter pile of scrap. “I just don’t want to owe you a favor.”
They carried the workshop’s trash together, one after the other.
Helos’s movements were clearly clumsier than Julius’s, nearly tripping over scattered parts several times.
The boy always reached out just in time to steady her, then quickly let go once she was steady, pretending nothing had happened.
“By the way, Julius-kun, you could’ve just said no.”
On their fifth trip back and forth, Helos suddenly asked.
Julius stopped, sweat dampening his black hair on his forehead.
He thought for a moment, looked into Helos’s eyes, and answered earnestly.
“Because… you need help?”