“Don’t worry,” he says after a beat, “the handkerchief you made for me is here. I didn’t want to soil it.” He tugs at his breast pocket and I glimpse the handkerchief I embroidered tucked inside. It’s folded in a neat square, the Monster King’s legs splaying nicely.
“But handkerchiefs are to be used.”
“This one is precious, so it’s different.”
I guess it can’t be helped. I swallow the rest of the rice cracker. Delicious.
“So, what do you want to do with this? Maybe get it polished and shaped into an ornament?”
“The dragon gave it to you, my lord, so it’s yours. Besides, I’ve never been friends with the dragon.”
“What? I mean, I thought the dragon really liked you, Abby.”
“No, it never let me touch anything. It always grabbed its stones and ran away from me, then turned around just to show them to me again. I thought it was a bully.”
My lord husband smiles wryly. “O-Oh. I see. Maybe it wanted your attention… Abby?” Abruptly, he pauses, peering closely at me.
What is it? I eat another piece of rice cracker and feed one to him as well.
He rolls it around in his mouth, the sparkling blue of his eyes shifting unpredictably. “…Maybe?” he mumbles, so softly that I’m not certain he’s talking to me.
The cracker is tasty yet makes my tongue and the insides of my cheeks tingle. I want to eat more, so I remain quiet.
“Anyway, I thought it’d be a good idea to bring you to meet the dragon sometime.” Moving me onto his lap, he hugs me and rubs his face against the top of my head. “Remember you said that humans can’t live in the forest? You told me I can’t live there, and that’s why you don’t either.”
I nod. Yes, I did say that, on our way home from Drewett the year before. My lord husband has already finished his rice cracker. How quick.
“I understand that logic, but humans have done horrible things to you, ever since you were the Monster King. If I were you, I’d want nothing to do with humans. Maybe I’d even grow to hate them. But you, I don’t understand you. You still want to stay with me.”
I don’t understand why he doesn’t understand. “Becush my lurd ish kind,” I explain around the rice cracker in my mouth, trying not to drool. That would be bad manners.
His arms tighten around me slightly, the sensation like an enveloping blanket. I wrap my arms around him and squeeze too.
He sighs. “I don’t know. Brianna and her men have been arrested, and those in Longhurst who used to bother you may soon suffer the same fate, yet I just feel it’s not enough… You like forests, right, Abby? We’ll go where you want to go. Anywhere in the world you wish, I’ll take you there, on the condition that we go together.”
He sounds worried—but about what? I’m his wife; of course I’ll stay with him.
“It’s embarrassing to admit this, but I’ve always feared that you’ll go back to the forest one day. That’s why when I thought the dragon wanted to see you, I figured you would want to see it too. And I didn’t want that to happen. I’m not as kind as you think.
“I’m so pathetic,” he mutters with a quiet snort.
I swallow my rice cracker. “That’s because I’m important to you, my lord.”
“Hmm?”
“Like how you try to keep the handkerchief clean! You’re just like Little Piyo!”
“L-Little Piyo…?”
“Little Piyo is a rust beryl thrush. They keep the things they like close to them, so nobody can take those things away.”
“I’m like that…? I-I guess so.” He doesn’t seem totally convinced, but Rodney once said the same.
And yes. The dragon.
While my lord husband was on assignment, I chatted with the bosses in his vicinity. The dragon lives in a different direction, so I didn’t bother to contact it. Before then, I rarely talked to monsters because only the smart ones know how to reply. And dragons are bullies.
Monsters used to try to communicate with the Monster King too. Sometimes, on a whim, I’d respond, “Yes, I’m here.”
When I first became Abigail, I struggled to sense them, though eventually I could locate them with ease again. I’ve spoken to quite a few of the bosses, so perhaps I’ll try asking the dragon, since my lord husband is so concerned.
“…Yes. It wants you to have the stone, my lord.”
“Huh? Did you just speak to it?”
“Yes. It says the ore is a thank-you gift, since you gave it acorns.”
“That’s very…generous?!”
“You made it happy, so happy it danced. It really likes acorns.”
“O-Oh, yes, I see… It’s not very straightforward, is it…”
Is he still worried? I shift so that I’m kneeling between his thighs and looking down at him. The light from the lantern above makes his eyes shine and shimmer. I really love this blue.
“My lord.”
“Yes?”
“I can sense everything that happens in forests and mountains as long as there aren’t any humans in the way.”
“…Yes.”
“That’s why I don’t need to go back. But if you want to go, I can take you there. I’m strong, so you don’t have to worry.”
His mouth drops open. “That’s what you’re thinking?” He begins to laugh. After a while, he buries his face in my neck, still chuckling.
I pat his back. “Do you feel better?”
Smiling, he kisses me. “Yes. It’d be ungentlemanly of me to doubt your strength,” he whispers against my lips.
He tastes sweet and salty, so delicious.