∴ ∵ ∴
ROSE went to deliver the basket of eggs to Tala while Yašm was changing. The Azm servants seemed quite used to the prince’s sudden visits. They prepared a change of clothes and a hot towel for him without even blinking an eye.
Rose accepted her lunch basket from Tala as usual. The sun shining in through the windows had begun its ascent. This was about the time Rose wanted to head to the hermitage.
She was welcome to leave without a word, but she headed to the drawing room because she wanted to let Harij know.
As she approached, she heard voices talking inside. She could see Harij through the open door. He seemed to be talking while standing. Yašm was likely seated on a sofa that she couldn’t see from her position. Judging from his relaxed tone, he had probably finished changing already.
“—You think marriage will solve things?”
“As long as we get married, then I’ll just have to wait for—”
“You dummy. That is nothing more than the convenient delusion of a foolish man!”
Yašm laughed off Harij’s short-sighted remark. The ensuing silence expressed Harij’s discontent.
Rose stopped in her tracks for some reason. Her heart felt strangely heavy, and her feet refused to move.
“As long as we get married, then I’ll just have to wait for—”
Wait for what? His voice grew too quiet to catch the rest—and there were countless possibilities for what could have followed. Wait for him to be able to live as he pleased? Wait until he could have his way with her? Wait until he could treat her however he liked? Whatever it was, she didn’t picture anything good.
It didn’t help that his comment had been countered with “That is nothing more than the convenient delusion of a foolish man!” The easiest conclusion to draw from that, and the most likely one, was that they were discussing another woman, was it not?
Rose was shocked to the core, as she had never expected her future husband to be engaging in a lively conversation with his best friend about having an affair.
Rose was a witch. Witches honor their promises.
To Rose, marriage was essentially a promise between two people who loved each other—a binding contract.
Witches didn’t require matrimony to bear children. As long as they received the necessary seed, they could raise a child on their own.
For Rose, who wasn’t bound by class or family, marriage was an unnecessary contract. She could survive just fine without it. Nevertheless, the only reason she’d assented to Harij’s proposal was that she loved him. To accept him was to accept his human customs, too, and she was fine with that.
Yet for being the man who had persistently asked for her hand in marriage, his words just now rang hollow, dishonest, and all too impertinent.
One of the grimoire’s her grandmother passed down spoke of a cursed text from a faraway land called Infidelity Is a Culture.
But, even without relying on such things, the nobles in this kingdom usually enjoyed love outside of marriage.
Rose had forgotten that witches continued to do business to this day because people had no scruples when it came to love.
“…se… Rose.”
Startled from her reverie, Rose lifted her head, which she hadn’t even realized had drooped.
“Did something happen?”
Harij seemed to have come to check on her when he noticed Rose standing in front of the open door in pensive thought.
“I was thinking of heading back soon,” she answered while slightly averting her eyes.
“Where exactly are you heading back to? A castle of needles? A poisonous swamp? You’d better not say ‘deep in the forest no one dares enter.’ It may be the royal family’s backyard, but there’s nothing much we can do with it ever since a bothersome queen bee built her nest there without permission.”
Rose had been speaking to Harij, but Yašm responded from where he reclined with his legs stretched out on the sofa.
Harij shot him a deadly, no-nonsense look. “Allow me to make myself very clear at this juncture: I will have no choice but to step down from being your knight the next time you slight her.”
Yašm had no issue leveling Rose with insult after insult, but one word of remonstration from Harij and his mouth fell open.
“…Harij, tell me this is just a bad dream.”
“Not only is this reality, but I am serious.”
“Then you must be an imposter. The Harij I know wouldn’t fall over himself like this for some witch.”
“Then I have become a new me you don’t know anymore.”
Harij stopped the conversation before it turned into an endless back-and-forth. Then he guided Rose into the room for Yašm to see while his expression was still steeped in shock.
“Yašm, she is the Good Witch of the Lake, Rose.”
“I see… Pleased to make your acquaintance. Should I call you Witch Rose or Lady Rose?”
“Witch.”
“Rose, then. Have you been living comfortably at this house?”
She’d told him to call her Witch, and yet he just called her by her first name. It was probably his petty revenge for Harij choosing Rose over him. Rose was honestly annoyed.
But she didn’t feel like getting back at him with a crafty retort. She wasn’t in the right state of mind to bicker with the chicken-crap man.
“As long as we get married, then I’ll just have to wait for—”
Those same words repeated endlessly in Rose’s head, distracting her from paying any attention to the exchange between Harij and Yašm. She could barely bring herself to look at Harij’s face.
“I need to water the field. If you will excuse me.”
“…Huh? Hey! Oi! Can’t it wait?!”
Rose didn’t spare even a single glance at the blustering Yašm before bowing and walking off in a swish of robes.