Rose didn’t suffer much because they hadn’t fallen from that high off the ground, and Harij had shielded her from most of the impact.
But, in return, Harij took the full shock to his back. Her legs were weaker than jelly, so Rose rolled herself off him. The moment she pulled away, Harij scooped her up and hid behind a nearby tree.
He glared at her, more furious than any forest demon, before she could get a word in edgewise.
“That was dangerous!” Harij yelled. Although his voice was suppressed to a hushed shout, the same couldn’t be said about his anger. “Why would you put your hands behind my head?! Did you want me to crush them?!”
Rose was startled into shaking. She only understood what she had done after he pointed it out to her.
She stared dumbly at her hands. Those hands were her most important tool of the trade—and she only had two. Even if she managed to escape the tower safely, it would be difficult to continue making the witch’s secret potions and cast magic without those hands.
As someone who had lived her entire life as a witch, being a witch bore tremendous significance to her existence. She stubbornly clung to the ways of a witch because she didn’t know who she was without that identity. She took pride in being a witch. That was why she planned to remain one even after marrying Harij. And yet…
“…I wanted to protect you.” Tears spilled faster than the words. “I acted before I thought…”
Rose stared at her hands in disbelief. The reason her arms were still intact was simply that Harij had reversed their positions in midair.
“…Did you cast a spell on me?”
Harij looked at Rose as if he had been struck by lightning.
He must have sensed her confusion. He gently pulled her tighter against him.
“You already know that I can’t cast magic.”
“Then…how do you explain my behavior?”
“That’s what we call love, darling.”
Rose was stunningly convinced by the words of the man who had just undertaken a stupidly selfish and illogical course of action for the sake of love himself.
How scary love can be!
Rose shivered after experiencing the horrors of love herself. To make me act without logic or reason…why, that’s just like magic!
Rose thought of all the different stories Tien used to read to her as a child. True love was always tossed around as the sole power capable of breaking spells. Perhaps that was because love was the only magic humans were capable of.
“…I’m sorry. You must be hurt.”
She gently rubbed Harij’s shoulders where he took the brunt of the fall. He might have fallen in a worse position because of Rose’s thoughtless actions.
“The pain went away.”
“Because of love?”
“That’s right.”
“Guess you don’t need a witch’s help, then.”
“But I need you.”
Harij embraced Rose. She gently hugged him back. His arms wrapped even tighter around her until he suddenly went ramrod stiff.
“What’s wr—”
“Harij, you’re there, aren’t you?” asked a voice quieter than Rose’s own hushed whisper.
The speaker had neither shouted nor raised their voice, but their words sliced through the overgrown trees straight down to where Harij and Rose hid.
The owner of that voice—Lulu—looked down from the tower window at them while ignoring her brother’s attempts to pull her away. Even if Rose looked up, the shadow cast by the high sun obscured the princess’s expression.
“Come on out.”
She beckoned in a honey-sweet voice as if she were trying to lure out a lost cat. Her tone was that of someone far too used to ordering others around.
“That damn prince with a sister complex… He failed to slow her down.”
Harij clicked his tongue. While Rose maintained her silence as he cursed his boss, Harij pocketed the leather bag he had tightly covered with a cloth. Then he left Rose hidden in the bushes to go out below the tower alone.
“Did you call for me, Princess Lulu?”
“Why, Harij, whatever might you be trying so hard to conceal?” Lulu asked in a childish, cutesy voice, seemingly dissatisfied he hadn’t brought Rose out with him.
“My fiancée. I was lavishing her with my unending affections just now.”
“Oh my! Aren’t you the cutest? I must greet her.”
“She is too bashful for that right now, so you would do us a great service if we could save the introductions for another day.”
“Stay right there! I’m coming down!”
Harij clutched his head—Lulu refused to listen to his plea. She had already vanished from the window and was probably on her way down. Harij sent Yašm a killer smile when he poked his face out the window. Sensing his best friend’s seething rage, Yašm quickly departed from the window, too. He was likely racing down the stairs after his sister about now.
“Sir Harij…?”
“I’m sorry, Rose. You’re going to have to meet her after all.”
“I don’t mind… For that matter, why did you escape the tower in such a reckless manner anyway?”
Meeting Lulu posed no issues for Rose. She wasn’t feeling particularly bashful right now, either. Fleeing like that only worsened their position when she wasn’t guilty of anything.
“It wouldn’t have been wise to have you meet Princess Lulu under those circumstances. And it wouldn’t have looked good on Yašm for imprisoning a witch when you weren’t responsible for those cases, Rose. I’m sorry for putting you through something scary because of that.”
“I see… Well, I resent the last reason, but I will let it pass.”
If what Harij had said was true, then Yašm let them leave the tower because he believed Rose was innocent.
“Besides, without the queen’s permission, you can’t even come close to this forest, much less enter it. I let down my guard because most people avoid the area due to its shady history, but I should have guessed Princess Lulu wouldn’t mind that. I forgot how much she loves things like this.”
“She’s full of curiosity, isn’t she?”
“She’s usually very mild-mannered for her age and is incredibly easy to get along with, but…when it comes to witches, she—”
She’s prejudiced against witches? Rose reached that conclusion relatively easy. She thought back to the contempt Yašm showed her when they first met.