I had no idea he was so good at carrying people.
That was the thought that occurred to her when, half a beat later, she’d been whisked off to another part of the castle.
This is really…an incredible place.
Everything was designed to catch the eye, and the care taken with each and every item was evident.
There was an imposing statue of a warhorse that practically looked real. More fresco paintings that were so new, the smell of paint still hung in the air. All of the art was clearly only producible by human hands. They were made with great skill and intended not to be disposable but to be kept and passed down through generations.
She had attempted to stand up and stumbled back to the floor. Before she knew what was going on, the knight had scooped her up and was carrying her through the castle.
“What do I do…?”
He gazed down at Yura, who was lost in thought, and inspected her mud-covered skirt. When he spotted that one of her heels had broken, he asked, “Are you in a hurry?”
She could guess what he’d say next.
“Perhaps it would be better for you just to head back.”
Yura had nodded emphatically. She nodded so low, her chin seemed like it would bump her chest. Holding herself back, she added, “I’m in a great hurry.”
He stared back at her blankly. Then, after thinking it over a bit, said, “I beg your pardon then.”
She couldn’t tell if he’d accepted that or not, but he lifted her up and walked on.
“I-I’m sorry…” she mumbled, lowering her head. Having someone carry her…felt rather disgraceful. To say nothing of the fact that the mirror chamber was the opposite of the north side where they’d been…
“I’m really very sorry. If I’m too heavy, you can put me down…”
Her ears turned bright red as she apologized, but he merely stared back at her curiously. Yura shrank down further.
“Still, I never would’ve thought this place was so large…” Yura breathed, transfixed by a garden on her right. The garden had been maintained almost neurotically so, and within the brush bloomed vivid flowers. A corridor stretched out past the garden, and she could see several people there.
“How much farther to the mirror chamber?” she asked.
“We’re about halfway there…”
Yura’s eyes grew wide. She thought she saw his mouth slacken a bit.
“The castle is so big that each section is furnished with stables for horses in the event of an emergency.”
“H-Horses? Really?”
Wow…
He gave a slight laugh, seeing Yura so easily impressed.
Having been raised in the city, Yura had never even been near a horse. Perhaps it was a normal thing to the people here, but Yura was excitedly looking all over in the hopes of spotting one.
“Wow…are there any close by? I know, maybe when I get home, I’ll take riding lessons!”
He was startled at her words. He gulped as if something were caught in his throat.
“…What do you plan on doing?”
Yura frowned.
“What? I’m going to ride them. I mean, I’ve never ridden a horse before. When I get good enough, I’ll ride them anywhere I like, yes, dashing off at full speed!”
He burst into laughter. Tears playing at the corners of his eyes, he picked up the conversation.
“They say ‘the Goddess of Spring chases away the Silver Wolf of Winter to bring on Spring.’ You riding a horse wouldn’t be that strange, Lady Yuura.”
“What does that mean? Are you making fun of me? I know I’m not really in shape…” Yura muttered. He laughed and then looked forward.
It had been like this the whole time. No matter what happened, he always looked away. Even when their eyes met, it was like his attention was quickly called off somewhere else. Yura decided to sate her curiosity.
“Hey, why do you always look away?”
When she did, his head immediately swiveled toward her.
He stopped walking, like he just realized he’d forgotten something. Yura frowned at him in surprise.
“Wh-What’s wrong?”
He tried to look at Yura—to peer into her eyes. Yura felt her chest tighten.
“Have I said something wrong? If I did, I’m sorry!” she apologized in a panic, but he just continued to stare at her in silence.
Yura stiffened up. Perhaps it’d only been her imagination, but she felt afraid of what he would say next.
Instead—
“You may laugh if you like.” A bitter grin appeared on his face and he looked down again.
Yura’s mouth dropped open. It was like being apologized to for something you didn’t remember happening.
A seemingly obvious question leaped right into Yura’s mind.
“Laugh at what?”
There was neither snark nor malice. It was an ordinary question.
But still, it seemed to catch him off guard.
The knight’s eyes shifted in bewilderment.
It was all so mechanical. Whenever one movement was off, the gears seemed to stop altogether.
He looked at her as if she were something incomprehensible to him. It was like he was suddenly experiencing a malfunction. He just stared at her in silence.
“…What?”
“Hm?”
He seemed to have a hard time finding the right words. Closing his mouth, he swallowed back whatever he was about to say and fell silent.
Yura waited patiently for him to continue.
“I said ‘Laugh at what?’”
“Yes?”
They fell silent again. She tugged his arm. When she did, he looked even less likely to respond. After hesitating for some time, he lowered his brows apologetically.
“My…appearance…”
Yura was taken aback. So much so that she couldn’t speak. But she remembered something just then and instinctively waved her hand.
“That’s it! Yes, that was it. Now that you mention it, there was something else I found strange! Umm, I happened to hear something about you being ugly yesterday, but I don’t see you that way at all…”
“…Huh?”
This time, it was his turn to frown. He gave her an incredibly dubious look. She prattled on in a panic.
“I-I mean you don’t look ugly! Okay, I mean, maybe people’s aesthetic tastes are different here? Maybe that’s it. Because I can’t believe you could be considered ugly… Not where I come from, at least…”
She was desperately trying to explain. He twisted his lips and sighed as he listened. Giving a slightly fed-up frown, he also looked irritated and maybe a little hurt.
Yura blinked. He seemed a bit sulky.
She burst into laughter at his complicated expression and lifted her hand to his eyes. When she did, his face stiffened.
“You’re making a weird face. You’ve such a gentle look, but then you frown, and it gets scary.”
His eyes widened.
“Also, you look like you’re about to cry. If you always look like you’re gonna cry, you’ll end up looking pitiful like me. The mix is really weird.”
“…Pitiful…”
“It is,” Yura retorted back.
She searched her heart for what she wanted to say. Was there anything? It was so strange, she felt as if something like this had happened before. Somehow, it seemed like so long ago.
“Have you ever heard, ‘There’s no truly blank expression?’” she asked and he looked at her curiously. “You always have an expression. People who always smile will look like they’re smiling, even when their face is neutral. And people who always cry…even if they don’t mean to, they’ll look like they’re crying.”
Yura pointed to her own face. Her downturned eyebrows. Her sad eyes.
Was I really born like this?
“When I was younger, I was such a crybaby, my mother always fussed at me and told me to get myself together. It’s the truth. In older pictures, everyone’s smiling…but lately, her eyebrows look angry and her eyes sad.” Yura looked down and gave a wry grin. “…So, you have to stop, before someone who means a lot to you has their face changed forever.”
Perhaps her greatest sin had been making the people she cared about most sad. There was something in Tomoko’s smile that could fix anything…but perhaps Yura’s own sad face had its own malevolent power.
She knew that. Yet, she was still such a coward.
She suddenly realized he was looking at her. His eyebrows were still downturned, but when their eyes met, he flashed her a smile that was neither happy nor sad.
“I’ll keep that in mind…but honestly…please don’t call yourself pitiful…Lady Yuura.”
He stopped walking. There was an imposing door straight ahead. It was like the massive door she’d seen the day before, one worthy of belonging to the mirror chamber.
For the first time, she was feeling disappointed. Surely, that was because her time here had been so short.
Yura blinked. It was time to say goodbye.
He helped her onto the floor. Yura turned back and, with nothing else to do, smiled.