The fact that Rose could perfectly make him out across the lake proved that he had fully glimpsed her in her immodest lack of attire. Her head felt as if it were going to explode in panic.
Harij rowed the boat across the lake and tied it to the iron dock cleat. After confirming that the boat was secured, he turned around.
“Please forgive my grave indiscretion.”
He hadn’t done anything wrong, but she could distinguish the depth of his regret from the deep lines in his brow. She couldn’t bear to look at him and instead lowered her gaze to the deep-forest-green robe she wore.
I’m naked under the robe. I’m standing in front of him in an outrageous state. Realizing it made all the blood rush to her head, instantly frying her brain.
“N-No need for apology. I simply didn’t think you would pay me a visit, Sir Harij…”
“…You know…who I am?”
A muscle in Rose’s cheek twitched. Uttering the name of a client she kept to her internal thoughts only was a huge mistake she would have never made under normal circumstances.
Harij’s voice was tight. His apologetic expression was nowhere to be seen—and instead became the stern countenance of a knight.
Rose bit her lip in frustration over her blunder. He hadn’t once told her his name. She should have been fully aware of that important detail, and yet she foolishly let it slip out. It appeared the upset over being seen naked was still affecting her. Panic gnawed at her thoughts. In her heart, Rose prayed she could regain her sanity.
“Yes. Indeed, I do.”
“Since when?”
“……”
Rose turned down her head in fear of another slip of the tongue. She couldn’t come up with the right words to evade the question. This was a first for her, which only served to further sink her into confusion.
“Answer me.”
But she wasn’t capable of misleading Harij, who had switched into knight mode. Telling the truth was the only option on the table when she lacked the mindset to cleverly talk her way out of it.
“…Since four years ago.”
“…For that long?”
“Yes…please spare me.”
Aaah, you fool. Stop. Rose wanted to cast a spell on her mouth. But her lips, only capable of telling the truth, tried to find a way out of this situation with words.
“I never divulge my client’s information, I can promise you that. I am in a very unusual situation right now. If you keep asking more questions, I will be forced to come clean about everything.”
Rose became so panicked she lacked oxygen. Her head spun. She couldn’t stop blabbing.
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Harij gave her a dubious stare.
Rose saw the look in his eyes and was propelled into further inner chaos. After all, she was naked under the single piece of cloth she wore.
“W-Witches cannot tell a lie! Such is the price of using magic!”
Oh no. I’m a failure. I’ve exposed the witches’ greatest secret that is never to be spoken of.
Rose turned around and banged her head against the wall. She couldn’t come up with a better idea to silence her panic.
“H-Hey.” Harij was confused by the sudden drastic change in Rose’s behavior caused by his questioning.
“Please don’t ask. I truly…am sorry,” she confessed breathlessly, no longer slamming her head against the wall. Her forehead turned bright red where she had been hitting it repeatedly, and it was covered in small scratches. If Harij kept querying her, Rose would definitely reveal all her secrets, without leaving anything out. She couldn’t let that happen.
She felt guilty toward all the other witches for exposing their weakness, but what was done was done. They would just have to protect themselves in the unlikely event that Harij spread their secret. Witches were capable of doing so; they could absolutely look after themselves. Rose strongly believed that.
For that reason, Rose was far more frightened of Harij discovering her feelings than the witches’ deepest secret. She would rather die than suffer the miserable plight of him—the strong, handsome nobleman blessed by the sun—discovering that she—a mere witch who was neither a noblewoman, a beauty, or a village girl—loved him.
“That’s right…”
It was such an obvious fact, it entirely escaped Rose’s mind that she was a witch. Witches specialized in potion-making, and potions were used for more than just healing. One of their many uses was poison.
Eyes reddened from her crazed mental state, Rose rushed to the back of the hermitage and ransacked the small vials on the shelf. The glass vials collided with each other, loudly clanging and clinking. She snatched up the potion she sought: one that could bring down the biggest ox in a matter of seconds.
Rose was putting pressure in her fingers to pop the cork when Harij hugged her from behind.
“What are you doing?!”
Rather than a hug, it was more accurate to say she was being restrained from behind. Harij swiftly snatched the vial away from Rose, the same way he might confiscate the murder weapon from a culprit.
It happened so fast, the momentum knocked Rose to the ground. In the process, her robe spread open, exposing her bare thigh. In a flurry, she pulled the robe back into place.
“I’m not trying to put on a show here. I may be a witch, but I’m not a slut. Most of my earnings go toward ingredients for the next potion, and, um…I don’t care much about fashion…so that’s why I don’t have a change of clothes.”
“I understand. Just wait before you do anything foolish,” Harij said to calm her, a hint of exasperation on his face. “I’m sorry. Truly. I can see that you are far more disturbed by what happened than you appear, Lady Witch.” He placed Rose’s poison vial on the workbench. Then he offered his gloveless hand to her, where she was still crouched on the floor.
Rose stiffened with her eyes locked on that hand. How long had it been since someone last reached out to her? She was positive it had happened while her grandmother was still alive, but it was so long ago, she couldn’t remember.
Harij didn’t scorn her for being too scared to take his hand. On the contrary, he gently put an arm around her shoulders, helped her to her feet, and escorted her to a chair as he might a noblewoman.
He knelt down on one knee before the Witch, whose head was spinning too hard to keep up with what was happening.
He—Harij Azm, the man Rose had been crushing on for four long years—was kneeling before a mere witch. An even worse wave of dizziness crashed over her.
“I apologize for exposing a secret that would make you choose death, Lady Witch. I swear on my honor as a knight that I will take it to the grave with me. You have my solemn oath. Please believe me.”