∴ ∵ ∴
THE rain stopped late into the night.
No fiacres operated at this hour. As such, they would have to go on foot if they wanted to return to the Azm mansion. They were contemplating whether they should risk walking back through the pitch-black forest right after it rained, when the bell rang.
Safina was waving to them from the forest dock with a large lantern in his opposite hand. He must have been terribly worried about them to come all the way out there to pick them up. The bell probably rang from his knocking the lantern against the metal pole.
Rose and Harij boarded the boat together. Neither of them could sleep a wink after the conversation they had. Sleepy, Rose let out a yawn.
“Tired? You should sleep a bit when we get home.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I might get rest, but you—”
A sleepless night had passed because of her, and he would soon have to go back to work. Her mumbled apology came from a place of concern that he’d have to work again that afternoon.
“Don’t worry, I received something a million times better than sleep.”
Harij patted Rose’s head as she climbed into the carriage. She decided it best not to think about what he was referring to.
As the carriage began to move, Rose rummaged through her robe.
“I brought a Wake-Me-Up Potion and an Energizing Potion I happened to have recently made at the hermitage. These will be a thousand times more effective than any pharmacist’s medicines.”
“Thanks.”
“You can have them on the house.”
Harij happily accepted the potion bottles Rose held out to him. She took a direct hit from his aura of handsomeness and wrenched her neck away from his face.
“You’ve grown soft, Sir Harij.”
“Soft?” Harij touched his cheeks as though he couldn’t believe his ears.
Rose shook her head to let him know she didn’t mean it physically. “Your speech and conduct have softened.”
“I haven’t changed.”
“You have. In the past, you…acted according to your feelings only.”
You were arrogant and never listened to what other people had to say. Obviously she couldn’t be that straightforward with him and went for the indirect approach, but the result was the same. Harij’s lips turned down at the edges.
“You’re one to talk. You were awful when we first met. Did you forget?”
“Awful how?”
“You deliberately sent me out on fetch quests for one bizarre ingredient at a time—”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Rose cowered in the corner from the dark history she wanted to forget ever happened.
“…What’s with the extreme reaction?”
Harij had no way of knowing she sent him on wild goose chases just to increase their time together. Rose shook her head hard, her hair smacking her in the face with the speed of it.
“Softer, huh? I guess you could say that.”
Harij averted his gaze from his fiancée’s odd behavior and stared out the window. Rose straightened up and joined him in looking outside. Nothing was visible in the lightless nighttime forest, but Harij seemed to see something.
“I do what I believe is right. I was raised to be that way in an environment that expected as much of me. That part of me can’t be changed this late in life. But…I have come to learn that what I deem as right might not be the right thing for you.”
Rose gave a slight nod, prompting him to go on.
“I have the power of a knight, the obligations and status of a man, and the confidence that I’m head over heels in love with you. By my society’s standards, I could force my will on you. As it stands, I had every intention of taking up residence in that hermitage until you agreed to come to my mansion.”
Rose had a hundred different corrections to make to his remarks, but she listened to him with her lips pressed flat together.
“But then I realized I should respect your thoughts and decisions,” Harij murmured, his face twisting with the bitter realization of how foolish he had once been.
“…What made you realize that?”
“You calling me Sir Harij.”
What significance does that have? Rose wondered, her head tilting with her unspoken query.
“If I had ordered you to use my name, you would have stuck to calling me Client or Lord Harij for life.”
Harij’s blissful smile turned Rose’s cheeks red.
“I only did it because the cityfolk called you Sir Harij... I was just imitating them…”
“Is that so? Well, even if you were to call me Lord, You, or Mister—I would still be happy. Because in the end, it’s something you decided to do for my sake.”
“…I see.”
What a killer line! Where does he learn these things?! Rose balled her fists and looked down. She’d be done for if she accidentally saw his face right now.
“And I also realized that you, too…have your own manner of thinking and living. I was an arrogant fool. I know. I got this stupid notion it was my duty to guide and protect you because I’m a man and more familiar with the ways of the world. And I thought it only natural to make you endure some things you might not like to make that happen… But today, after hearing you talk, I was relieved from the bottom of my heart that I didn’t follow through with any of those dumb notions. I also…want to walk toward the same destination with you, even if we have to take different routes to get there. That’s the kind of marriage I want with you.”
Rose understood how much he cared for her, however poorly he worded it.
Harij’s eyes sparkled as if they had gathered all the light given off by the carriage’s small lantern within them. The eyes she was staring into softened at the corners. Unable to control herself, Rose pinched and pulled both cheeks as far as she could.
“…What are you doing?”
“I figured if they’re going to burst open at the seams anyway, I might as well pull them apart with my own two hands…”
“Huh?”
“Your face, it’s your face…”
“Oh, come on. You really think now’s the time for—”
“You don’t get it, Sir Harij. You don’t understand the destructive power of your magnificent face during times such as this. I am of the right mind in this matter. Your face’s brilliance is just—”
“Yeah, all right. I get it. I do. I understand just how much you’re in love with my face.”
Rose couldn’t argue with that statement. She clenched her teeth, as she was incapable of refuting the undeniable truth he tossed at her.
“You dried slug turd…!”
“It’s indisputable, isn’t it?”
Rose was a witch. Witches didn’t lie. She trembled from head to toe.
“You giant pile of dried sea slug turd!”
Harij remained unfazed in the face of Rose’s angry outburst. He leaned against the carriage wall with a pensive look until he seemed to strike upon a genius thought and sat upright.
“…I get it now.”
“Get what?”
“Rose, after all is said and done, you’re just embarrassed because you haven’t gotten used to my face yet, right?”
“Excuse me?”
I’m not embarrassed. I’m absolutely, positively not acting out of embarrassment. But Rose couldn’t say that out loud.
Perhaps his standards were skewed because he was born with such a beautiful visage. No matter how much she saw his face and tried to resist, she would surely continue to melt into a puddle every time he smiled in front of her. This man didn’t have the slightest clue about her plight.
“In that case, you can stare at my face up close to your heart’s content. Why don’t we start right now? You can get your fill until we get back home.”
“Huh?”
“Come here,” Harij beckoned, patting his lap invitingly. Rose was lost for words.
For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out this man’s sensibilities. His suggestion was as wicked as if he had shoved a whole roast goose in the mouth of someone who had just said they were too full to eat.
“I absolutely cannot.”
“Why not? Children do it all the time. You know, that game where you stare at each other until someone cracks first and starts to laugh.”
“I don’t know anything about the divine games good-looking people play, and I definitely can’t do it with you, Sir Harij.”
“Ro—”
“Not happening in a million years.”
“…Don’t keep rejecting me like that.” Harij sank back against the carriage wall after being declined for the third time. “My niece often makes me play it with her.”
“Your niece does?”
“Yeah. She lives back in our domain with my brother and parents. Heizlan is known for its breathtaking scenery and boundless nature, so…she turned out to be more of a little explorer than a proper young lady.”
“She sounds like my kind of girl.”
“Yeah, she’s a good kid. I guess it’s been five years since I last saw her…”
Five years struck a chord with Rose for various reasons. For one, her grandmother had died five years ago. Rose had been frazzled and overwhelmed just trying to figure out how to get by. And that was the state she was in when she fell in love.
Staring at the man who had been the object of her affections for all those years caused her to mutter without thinking.
“…Five years ago I never thought my love would come true someday.”
“…You were in love with someone back then?”
Shoot! I picked the wrong topic. Rose’s mouth hung open as she turned red up to her forehead.
“Please disregard what I just said. I need you to forget about it. Please.” She pressed her hands together in entreaty, but Harij was scowling.
“…I make it a rule not to get hung up on the past, but…”
“…But?”
“Make sure you never tell me who it is if you ever happen to run into the guy you loved again. Got it?” Harij insisted, his miserable expression revealing days of exhaustion slamming down on him at once.
“……”
Rose sealed her lips when she realized the misunderstanding. His scowl deepened when he saw her alarmed expression. Reading her face sent his instincts working in ways she didn’t need them to.
“Please don’t tell me it’s someone I know.”
“…Sadly, yes.”
“……”
“……”
Heavy silence enshrouded the carriage. Rose kept her lips sealed per his request that she never tell him who it was.