“You’ve tried her cooking?”
“I have.”
Norn’s home cooking? When even I’ve never tasted it?
“You don’t say…”
I wondered what she’d cooked. Meat and potato stew? Curry? Maybe beef stroganoff? I wanted some too. I wanted to taste Norn’s home cooking!
Never mind, this wasn’t about me.
He said it “wasn’t bad,” which meant it hadn’t been a disaster. Maybe she wouldn’t find her way to his heart through his stomach, but it seemed she wasn’t a total failure in the kitchen. I wouldn’t see Ruijerd waste away after the wedding, then.
“Has something happened with Norn?” Ruijerd asked, cutting through my thoughts. How perceptive of him.
Well, okay. After I’d come in here looking all serious and brought up Norn out of nowhere, I guess it was the obvious question.
“No, um… Nothing in particular. I was just, you know, making small talk.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t quite have the courage to ask him straight-up yet.
Do you like Norn? Do you love her? Could you take her in your arms right this second and kiss her?
What if I asked, and he said he didn’t like her at all? That he couldn’t marry her, and even if he did, he wouldn’t love her…? I couldn’t help but wonder. It’d be a major shock for me, for sure. I might start a fight right here. You saying my Norn isn’t good enough for you?!
“Norn’s an adult now and even has a job, but in some ways, she’s still very much a kid… I mean, she doesn’t seem to have any interest in guys at all. I sometimes worry if she’ll be able to find a husband, you know?” I said, then looked at Ruijerd. Maybe I’d been too obvious—Ruijerd looked suspicious.
Eventually, he said, “Is it not human custom for the choice of marriage partner to be left to the head of the family? Are you not the one who will choose Norn’s husband?”
“No, no, no. We aren’t nobility, you see. I kind of feel like it might be good to let Norn choose a husband for herself, kind of, um…” I stole a glance at Ruijerd, but his expression hadn’t changed. Actually, no. There was a hardness on top of the suspicion now. He didn’t think I was shirking my responsibility, did he?
“No, don’t worry! If Norn brought back some good-for-nothing, I’d throw him out on his ear. I’d tell him, ‘If you want Norn, you’ll have to go through me first!’ I’m not about to hand Norn over to just anybody!”
I rushed to make an excuse. It’d be a disaster if Ruijerd thought I was irresponsible just before I offered him Norn. I couldn’t think exactly how it’d go wrong, but it absolutely could.
“You mean to say that anyone who wishes to take Norn for a bride must defeat you first?”
“No…! He doesn’t absolutely need to be strong or anything! But! It’s just, well, how should I put it… Grit! That’s it, I want him to show me he’s got grit.”
Heck, I was a coward, but I didn’t run. Anyone who wanted to marry Norn had to have the guts to stand and fight even when he knew he couldn’t win. That was it.
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
Obviously, Ruijerd had nothing to worry about there. I tried to convey that to him with another surreptitious glance, but his face was immobile—the hard look hadn’t wavered…
Maybe he wasn’t interested in Norn after all. It was probably only natural. To him, Norn was a child. Ever since they’d met when she was little, she’d always been a weak child. And Ruijerd wouldn’t lust after a child. He wasn’t that sort of guy.
“Ruijerd, I… I’m just going to ask straight-up.”
“Very well.”
I mean, I still had to ask. Just in case. Even if it ended up being too bad for Norn. I couldn’t jump to conclusions based only on his expression. Time for me to bite the bullet.
“How do you feel about Norn?” I asked.
Ruijerd was silent. He glared at me, not saying a word, his expression hard as stone. The suspicion was totally gone.
Hmm. That was weird. Usually, I’d have expected Ruijerd to answer straight away. Did he consider her a child or an adult?
I steeled myself.
“Do you…have feelings for Norn?” I had to be blunt. Had I made a mistake? Maybe it would have been better coming from Norn.
“Ah,” Ruijerd murmured. Then, as though making up his mind, he got to his feet. He took his spear from where it stood propped up.
“Rudeus,” he said at last. “Go out the front.”
I looked up at him, not comprehending what he meant.
In response to my hesitation, Ruijerd said in an even stronger tone, “Go out.”
“All right.” The intensity in his voice left no room for argument. I readily obeyed.
We left the Superd village and walked for fifteen minutes or so into the forest of the Ravine of the Earthwyrm. Deep in among the trees, the forest suddenly opened on a clearing. There, Ruijerd and I faced one another.
Ruijerd’s expression had been grim the whole time. Maybe I’d made him angry somehow. It seemed that asking him if he had feelings for Norn after that talk had been a mistake after all. I guess he thought I was offering Norn up for the sake of politics or something. This was Ruijerd. He’d be a man and say, “As her older brother, Norn is yours to protect. Do not use her to curry favor with some stranger.” He was reliable like that.
“You realized long ago, then.”
This was unexpected. I stared at him blankly. What had I supposedly realized? What was I supposed to have realized? Me, the guy who right now, at this very moment, was totally lost and confused? Me, who you couldn’t call perceptive even to be nice?