THIS is the story of what happened shortly before Rose received the third letter from Lau. It took place two months after that terrifying run-in with the thief…and Harij’s accidental consumption of the love potion.
“Can you please explain what in the world has gotten into you to say such ridiculous things…?” Rose asked Harij for the hundredth time.
She sat down with her robe spread out on the floor beneath her as she turned the quern-stone. The rumbling crunch of the turning stone and the rhythmic clanging of bottles in the boiling pot created a unique kind of background music. Feeling the crushed ingredients spilling from the stone through the vibrations it conveyed to her hands, Rose shot Harij an annoyed look.
“I already explained it to you. I’m going to live here, too. Can’t I?”
“Ugh. A good-looking man is spouting nonsense in my living room…”
Spring sunlight spilled through the windows, adding an extra sparkling glow around Harij. Framing him with stunning lighting effects multiplied the attractiveness of his already handsome face fourteen times. Rose had the urge to worship Harij, who had risen in ranked from good-looking to godly good looks.
Surrounded by the forest and lake, the hermitage was at the center of a cheerful and glorious season. Spring ephemerals leafed out and flowered, extending the fresh, young green hue to the forest canopy. Birds heralding the arrival of spring hopped along the windowsill. Some of the small birds seemed to be fledglings, and they were hitting the walls of the hermitage while practicing with their wings.
“What don’t you understand?” Harij argued back, too serious to pay attention to their adorable little visitors. “Simply put, I can’t leave you alone in this hermitage after what happened. I can be with you right now because I’m on leave, but my new post starts in a few days. Someone can stay with you during the day, and then I will live here during the night as your bodyguard and—”
“You can’t… I seriously don’t get you…”
Rose crouched in her work area bent over the quern-stone. Her hands moved without stopping, powered by the firm belief that crushing things would help her forget Harij’s disturbing suggestion.
For many years, she lived in this flimsy hovel teetering on the edge of being blown away by a strong breeze, without any concern for her safety or living conditions. But after letting a dangerous man easily walk through her front door, even Rose started to feel unsafe in the home she had grown up in.
Ever since the thief barged into her house, Rose had declined nighttime visits out of a new sense of self-preservation. Naturally, she changed her locks to the latest version and tied the boat to the reel with a new rope. She asked Tien for one braided with iron so it couldn’t be easily cut. Tien hastened to make arrangements for it after hearing about the thief.
As an extra countermeasure, she also kept the boat docked at the island. Although it increased her workload, Rose fetched every client to cut down on unwanted visitors. Without a boat, there wasn’t a thief in the world who would risk their life swimming across a freezing lake to rob a dilapidated hovel. Winter protected the hermitage by turning the island into a natural fortress, but once spring came, things changed.
During the spring, the lake was crystal clear and mystical enough that it wouldn’t be strange to spot a mermaid swimming there. The water was still icy, but not life-threatening. Immediately after the thief broke in, Harij suggested that the vigilante corps watch out for the Witch’s hermitage, and requested that their patrol route be widened to include it. Harij easily took care of things that never even entered Rose’s thoughts.
To top everything else off, during his leave period, Harij visited the Witch’s hermitage almost every day. As a result, clients stopped coming by, dooming her business, but…of course it was reassuring to have him around.
And above all else, being with Harij brought Rose great joy. After all—
“Aaaaaah…!”
“What’s wrong?!”
“Nothing… I’m all right. I just…remembered a lot…of different things…various things…,” Rose mumbled, wiping away the sweat springing to her back and forehead.
This was yet another unfathomable thing, but for whatever inexplicable reason, Rose and Harij had mutual feelings for each other and were currently in a relationship. Undoubtedly, this was the magic called “Pinch-Hit Walk-Off Grand Slam” that she read about in a book obtained from a distant world.
She argued that with the power of the witches’ secret potion she could make a man or two fall for her, but when Harij confessed he had fallen in love with her before drinking the love potion, the witch who could only rely on the potions to refuse him had no choice but to wave the white flag in defeat.
Despite two months having passed since confirming each other’s feelings, Rose lived while trying the best she could to avoid all things romantic—she just wasn’t mentally prepared for it.
Perhaps he was relieved to know she felt the same for him, because Harij kept the raging billows of his desire hidden just below the calm surface.
But it seemed that Rose had made a place in his heart. He naturally protected her and treated her as a loved one.
“Nggh! Bah! It’s this flea-like heart that I despise…,” Rose groaned, still unable to accept her new reality, and pressed a hand over her hammering heart.
“You look okay to me,” Harij said wryly, pulling Rose to her feet. He dusted off her robe as he might for a child.
Rose knew he was naturally a physical person, but since confessing his feelings, Harij restrained from touching her. Each time, Rose recited the Herbal Basics for Witches in her head starting from page one until she calmed down.
“Anyway, let’s set aside this move-in talk for another day…”
“You’ve been setting it aside for so many days, winter is over. It’ll rot if you carry on into summer like this.”
“Conversations do not rot…”
“Then let me ask you this: Why are you so opposed to me living here?” Harij asked, sounding hurt and sullen. Until now, he’d shown plenty of tolerance for the indecisive witch, but it seemed he had finally run out of patience.
Rose looked away and painstakingly explained, “I could never make someone as noble as you live in this shack.”
“I don’t mind. I often stay in rustic inns or camp outdoors during expeditions. Though most of those places are cleaner than here.” Relief rung in his voice, which had lost its prior surliness.
“You can only fit one bed in here, and I’m still not ready yet to…s-sleep t-together.”
“Not ready yet? Does that mean you will be someday?”
There was a loud bang. Flustered beyond belief, Rose smacked her leg into the corner of the workbench. Deciding to take mercy on her, Harij changed the topic.
“I like it here. This is the home you were raised in, Rose.”
Stand and there’s a spiderweb; sit and there’s dust; walk and the floorboards creak—the house fit the definition of a run-down hovel word for word and it was still an important place to Rose. Regardless of what it meant to her, it was ridiculous to let a natural-born nobleman stay in such a ramshackle hut. It was worse than pouring cold water into boiling-hot oil.
“I’m a knight, I can take care of myself. I won’t get in your way. You can continue going about your work as a witch with me here.”
At her wit’s end, Rose didn’t argue back. She wasn’t used to experiencing kindness. Nor did she know that being treated kindly could be this bothersome.
Harij sighed, sensing how much pressure it was putting on her. “Fine. I’ll let it go for today. In return—”
“Eep.” Rose recoiled in an obvious way. For the past two months, she had been able to predict what he would say next.
“Stop playing games and call me by name, would you?”
Rose clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. “Lalalala!”
Something touched the top of her head as she sang over him. Something soft and warm. Realizing what it was, her eyes snapped open and she strained her neck back. Harij’s face was surprisingly close.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-What are—”
“Rose. I’ve been patiently prioritizing your feelings, but we’re actually in the kind of relationship where we can do intimate things. Did you know that?”
He was coming on strong. That was a pretty clear declaration that he was more than ready to take things to the next level, though she still hesitated.
Obviously, Rose wasn’t against being intimate with him. She was just too unfamiliar with these things.
“…Wh-What are…”
Raising his beautifully manicured eyebrows, Harij cupped her cheek. Then he slowly stroked her lip with his thumb, showing her exactly what he meant. Rose promptly gave in.
“Sir…Harij!”
“I’ll let it pass.”
Freed from his hand, Rose immediately fell to her hands and knees on the floor. She hugged herself as dust clouds puffed up around her. She was so hot it felt as if her blood was boiling.
“U-Ughhh, your face…it’s too beautiful…”
“Yeah, it is.”
Harij stopped being weirded out by her wacky comments and played along as he pulled her up off the dusty floor and plucked the specks out of her pale-pink hair.