Rose snorted. He didn’t need to tell her that.
She didn’t think for even a second that Harij would come to her rescue. If anything, she felt it obvious he wouldn’t.
It was none other than Yašm who’d imprisoned Rose. Harij was a Royal Knight, and Yašm was his prince and current master. He had sworn fealty to his master—he made no such vow to protect his fiancée.
Thus why Rose only looked up at the sky and not down. Should she spot a certain someone among the guard detail outside—were it Harij himself keeping her locked in this tower—Rose knew she wouldn’t be able to live another second.
“Hey… Hey, Witch! Are you listening to me?”
Yašm was fussing about something or other by the door, but Rose had utterly shut him out. His hatred for witches must have run deep, or maybe he was just scared of getting cursed, because he wouldn’t take a step closer to her. He kept his bellyaching to his spot right beside the only way out.
Seated next to the window, Rose wiped off the apple with her robe and took a bite. A yellow hole opened up in the crimson apple.
What if Harij is down there?
Just thinking about it gave her the chills. She was a thousand times more afraid now than when that thief had come close to killing her. Did Harij also believe Rose capable of indiscriminately hurting many nobles with falsely advertised potions?
It was more painful to disappoint him. Harij surely held Rose in high estimation. He endeavored to trust the witch who called herself the Good Witch, and Rose herself.
Rose bit into the apple again. She concentrated on chewing to pretend she wasn’t affected by all this.
You needn’t fear being cursed, boy. Rose internally mocked Yašm, who was blabbing on and on about something from the safety of the doorway. I don’t have a single secret potion on me to curse you with.
She wasn’t dumb enough to think she could escape the tower alone, or that she could take Yašm and Geones down barehanded. It was obvious Rose wouldn’t be leaving this tower until her name was cleared.
It was difficult to prove that she hadn’t done what he blamed her for. And it deeply scarred her to keep insisting on a point he refused to believe no matter what she said.
Surely no one will ever believe me. She didn’t just start thinking that way since being thrown into the tower. That negative thought had been with her since the day she heard those men celebrating her grandmother’s death. “It’s for the better if the witch is dead!” Those words would disappear and return, fade to the back of her mind and come forward again, all along quietly tormenting her. As someone who was just drifting through this world, Rose couldn’t change a thing. The townspeople and the servants at the mansion decided to trust the Witch because of what Harij told them.
No one was willing to listen to what a witch—to what Rose—had to say.
“I really wanted to get married,” Rose quietly muttered as she stared up at the cloudless sky.
“What was that? Did you finally answer me, Witch?”
“No, I wasn’t talking to you.”
“What did you just say?!” Yašm shouted in anger. But Rose had already zoned him out again. She traced her lips with her fingertip.
Her own words startled her. It wasn’t as if she had been especially looking forward to the wedding ceremony. She simply thought it was an event that had to be cleared to marry Harij. Having to wear a dazzling dress made no sense to her, and the high heels were torture.
But it was only now that she realized she was actually looking forward to all of it.
A teardrop slid off her chin and splashed on her hands. Once the tears started, they wouldn’t stop. Rose ripped bite after bite off the apple. No matter how hard she concentrated on chewing so she wouldn’t gag, the waterworks wouldn’t cease.
Rose finally let go of the apple. It fell from the open window. She frantically dabbed at the waterfall of endless tears with her palms.
“…!”
Then she heard it—a slight gasp that sounded like someone stifling their pain. Rose stilled.
She recognized that voice—it was the one her ears loved to hear the most.
Holding her breath, she nervously looked down from the open window.
“Shh.”
A man was right there—clinging to the tower wall sheerer than any cliff.
It was Harij who signaled Rose to be quiet with that breathy utterance.
Forgetting even how to breathe, Rose blinked in disbelief. Her mind had a hard time processing the fact that the very man she had just resigned herself to never seeing again was right before her eyes.
Harij seemed to have scaled the tower by sticking something like an iron stake into the bricks’ gaps for footing. Tears spilled from Rose’s eyes when she blinked. The droplets landed on Harij’s cheeks.
As if powered by those tears, Harij slammed his hands on the windowsill and swung himself up and onto the frame. He hopped down from the sill into the tower.
“Darling, I’m home. I’m sorry it took me so long to return to you, love.” Harij pulled Rose into a tight embrace before he finished talking.
Rose moved her lips, but no words came out. Why did he have to make a joke now of all times? For the life of her, she could not understand his comedy.
Rose wasn’t the only person shocked by Harij’s sudden arrival. Yašm and Geones, who had his hand on his sword, stared at him wide-eyed.
“Wha?! Harij! Are you a lizard?!”
“What are you talking about? I’m human from head to toe,” Harij dryly retorted with an exasperated look.
“Yeah, right. Says you,” Yašm muttered, clutching his head. “You aren’t even supposed to be in the capital right now—”
“I wasn’t. I hurried back because I didn’t sense the same emergency there that you sent me to handle. I immediately handed in my leave of absence notice upon my return, so I’m currently off-duty. So, let’s talk, Yašm. I’m quite pissed with you.”