Laughing, Vyce nodded back at Livio. It seemed they were both more than ready to take up arms. I’m really not a fan of anything violent, though, Sophie thought.
But still.
“We take him out before he can take us out,” Vyce said.
“Let’s put a smile back on Lunetta’s face!” Despite appearances, even Sophie was ready to rumble, and she certainly couldn’t have them underestimating her.
Sophie had never experienced the bloodthirstiness of seasoned warriors carving their way through a battlefield, so she’d worried Livio by revealing how clumsy she was with such. Though she hadn’t set foot on a battlefield, she had been fiancée to the crown prince. She hadn’t faced off against the gossips and the twisted adults in the castle for nothing.
You can talk all you want in the shadows, but I am a proper lady who was taught to show no mercy to those who committed unforgivable acts. Don’t confuse me for some meek little girl! Sophie gave a defiant snort and clenched her fists resolutely in front of her.
Vyce blinked and erupted into laughter. “That’s right. And keep that fire in you goin’.”
Sophie tilted her head to the side, wondering if she was being made fun of, only to jolt when she found that she was still holding Livio’s right hand—and she’d lifted it up as well.
Livio was scarlet, and Sophie was sure she was every bit as red herself. Vyce’s shoulders shook as he laughed at the duo.
They couldn’t wait much longer for Lunetta to return. So just when Sophie was about to have a cup of tea after her meal, she glanced up at Vyce, wordlessly asking for permission to go check on Lunetta.
Vyce noticed Sophie’s gaze and nodded. “Yeah. Go and check on her.”
Sophie stood straight up. She’d been waiting to hear that!
Sophie still didn’t have the best idea of how close she was with Lunetta. It had been around three days since they’d met, so trying to learn everything about each other immediately like that would have been too much. And of course it was. Sophie had never had anyone she could call her friend. Before she could even consider how she could go about bridging the distance between them, there was the question of whether she should even try to—and she didn’t even know the answer to that. She was stumbling around looking for answers in the dark. She was fumbling through pitch-black darkness.
But she wanted to see Lunetta feeling better. That much was how Sophie truly and unshakably felt. She didn’t care if she got any sleep. She could keep on walking. After all, she certainly couldn’t ride on a horse. She didn’t care how many days or hours it took—she wanted to hear Lunetta’s lecture on magic. And that was exactly why she wanted to see Lunetta’s eyes light up as they had before.
Desperately pushing herself onward, it wasn’t long at all before Sophie found Lunetta, with her back turned. Lunetta sat curled up in a ball, her long black hair spilling out onto the ground. Beside her stood Kataf, Vyce’s trusty steed. Noticing Sophie, Kataf lifted his muzzle and slowly shook his beautiful red tail.
Sophie exhaled and sat down beside Lunetta.
“Isn’t His Majesty angry...?”
“At what?” Sophie asked.
“I knocked my soup over.”
What?
Sophie tried to smile but couldn’t.
Who cared if she spilled her soup? Sophie wished Lunetta wouldn’t clutch her knees like that—why, it almost made it seem like someone had exploded on her over something so small in the past. Whatever dark and imposing past Lunetta had, she could just toss it in the river as food for the fish and be done with it. Oh, but, then again, even a fish wouldn’t eat something so unappetizing, huh? Or something like that.
Sophie tried to smile again but couldn’t quite manage it. “They say that the hard days...the sad days—they always stay in your memory more than the happy ones,” she said—not that she knew if that was actually true.
When was it that Sophie had read such an idea in a book? Where had she found the idea that stressful, agonizing times were committed to memory as a threat to one’s life and that the memory was stored as a defense to make sure that the individual could live to see another day? With these memories, when people felt down and out, their minds would recall that terror and stress and tell their bodies to run away. Yeah, glad you’re looking out for me, but that’s a bit too much. Not that I really get all that.
“That’s why you can’t help that your body remembers it any more than you can help feeling down,” Sophie went on. “After all...you’re alive.”
“It’s the same for you too, Sophie...?” Lunetta asked in a helpless, feeble voice.
A smile broke over Sophie’s face. Sophie had never been able to smile well, so she couldn’t help but wonder how she looked to Lunetta.
That night at the evening party, they’d all been there: her stepmother and half sister, famed throughout the castle for their beauty, and even her father and the crown prince, neither of whom had even the slightest inkling of interest in Sophelia. At the time, she had put on a flimsy smile, with a layer of put-on appearances so thick it might as well have been makeup. Just how had Lunetta seen Sophelia back then?
“It is,” Sophie answered. “So if you feel like running away, then you can. I ran away too.”
At the time, Sophie had practically been a walking corpse. But now that she’d made her escape, for the first time, she found herself grateful for the breath she drew.
Sophelia had resigned herself to it since it was her role, desperately clinging to her position, and yet even then, Lunetta had apparently told her fiancé that Sophelia had been “kind” to her. Sophie was grateful that Lunetta had seen her in that light.
“I did too...” Lunetta said, lifting her face from where it had been planted on her knees. “I ran away too. I left because...I had His Majesty with me.”
The black of Lunetta’s eyes made it seem like she was looking across the water—but she wasn’t looking at anything. She didn’t gaze at the ray of light refracting off the water’s surface, nor any of the small fish swimming around. Lunetta spoke dispassionately, her eyes revealing nothing. Sophie’s chest ached at Lunetta’s voice, emotionless yet somehow still steeped in pain.
“Guess that means we’re in the same boat then, huh?”
“The same boat...”
“That’s right,” Sophie said with a smile. She was sure she was making a terrible face. The one who was suffering, the one who was sad right now, was Lunetta, but Sophie had gone and gotten down herself now. She didn’t like that about herself—she wanted to be strong like Livio. Sophie squeezed her own right hand where Lunetta couldn’t see.
“I ran away from all the bad things, the hard things, and all the hurt, and now...I’m happy. What about you, Lunetta?”
“I... I’m...” Lunetta closed her eyes. Her slender eyelashes fluttered as her hair swayed in the breeze. A breath slipped out from Lunetta’s small lips. “I’m enjoying it too...I think.”
She slowly opened her eyes. Her black irises reflected the water before her. The witch’s eyes seemed to come alive with singular focus and joy when she spoke of magic. She blinked. “There’s so much I don’t know, but I’ve been able to try out so much, and His Majesty’s always there to nag me.”
“That’s why...” Lunetta continued, rising to her feet. Her black hair and black dress fluttered alongside her. The witch was covered in black from head to toe, her eyes just as round and gleaming and emotionless as ever.
Lunetta looked down at Sophie. “That’s why we have to crush him.”
See? She’s ready to rumble!
“I like the sound of that!”
And that was just how it had to be!
Sophie smiled.
In that case, there really was just one thing for them to do.