“I already thought that was too much responsibility for me, but then I was given a formal invitation to the ball and asked to be your escort. I was totally out of my depth,” he had grumbled once while the two were walking through town together. That said, unbeknownst to him, formal wear for the ball had been included in his luggage just in case such an invitation happened, so it seemed the duke had been aware of the possibility.
At any rate, now that both his actual job and his unexpected participation in the ball had finished, there was little reason for the envoy from Bluheitz to remain in Redford. Misha had known they would be leaving sooner or later, but that wasn’t supposed to be for at least another few days. She had been hoping they’d have another chance to go play in the city together before he left.
“Why so soon? Did something happen?”
“No, it’s nothing serious, but...” Kite replied, patting her on the back in reassurance at the trembling in her voice as she took her seat. “Sorry, but this involves confidential information about the duke’s family. Would you mind stepping outside?” Kite asked, looking at the maid pouring tea for them and Kino standing ready at the far wall.
“As you wish. We will be just outside, with the door slightly open,” Kino replied with a polite bow of his head after a short pause, stepping outside of the room with the maid once she had finished serving the tea. He couldn’t leave Misha entirely out of sight, but he could at least step far enough away that he wouldn’t be in earshot. That was the best concession Kino could make for them with his jobs of both protecting and learning about Misha. At the very least, it would mean that publicly, this conversation never happened.
Once he saw the door was mostly closed, Kite leaned forward. “Just to make sure... Do you wish to know what happened to Lady Rosmaria and Lady Lyla?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Misha’s face stiffened. Rosmaria and Lyla, her father’s wife and her own half sister. They were the ones who had so persecuted Misha’s own mother and ultimately ended up killing her. Those names coming up out of the blue brought Misha right back to that moment.
The image of her mother, hand reaching out as she fell.
The sound of someone screaming.
And then...
She knew she had to respond, but her mind had gone totally blank, so her mouth just hung open, her voice coming out but failing to organize itself into words. As the memory of her mother spun in her head, her lip started to quiver, and she unconsciously bit down on it.
Her sudden stiffness and the hollowness in her eyes took Kite by surprise as well. And though he stood to move to her side, before he could reach her, Ren had jumped up on her lap and started licking at her face. He then pushed her over, rubbing his face against hers.
“Hey, Ren... Ren! Stop! Cut it out!” Overwhelmed by the sudden attack, Misha struggled to push Ren off of her, but there was no stopping his momentum. Giving her no room to breathe, Ren was a nonstop flurry of licks, nuzzles, and pokes with his snout.
Ren’s sudden movement had made Kite freeze halfway between sitting and standing, but as Misha started futilely protesting the wolf pup’s behavior, he started moving again.
“Hey, calm down. What’s with you?” Though he had grown, Ren was still considerably smaller than Kite, and so he could only growl softly as the knight swooped in and lifted him off the hapless girl.
“Ren! What’s gotten into you?!” Finally free from the fluffy menace, Misha was left with her hair a mess, her face flushed, and her breathing ragged from her failed attempts to save herself. But the shadow that had come over her face earlier was long gone. Kite instinctively gave Ren a gentle squeeze in his arms. And then, with the wolf pup still in his arms, he sat down beside Misha.
“Kite?” Misha tilted her head in confusion as she caught her breath, unsure as to why he had moved so much closer to her.
Kite gave a bit of a troubled smile. “Your hair’s a mess. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Ren’s never done something like that before. I wonder what got into him? Anyway, sorry. What were we talking about?” She gave an awkward laugh, softly patting Ren on the head where he sat in Kite’s arms. “Maybe the festival today was a bit too much stimulation for him. You can’t do things like that, Ren. If it was anyone else but Kite here, they would have gotten really mad at you.”
Ren gave a soft whine at the scolding tone, ears lying flat as if accepting her rebuke, but his tail was still gently swishing back and forth.
Though he didn’t let it reach his face, the exchange between the two of them had Kite rather troubled. He realized Misha had forgotten what he had said just before Ren had “attacked” her. It wasn’t like she was ignoring it; it was like it had completely slipped from her memory. After a moment of thought, Kite decided to let the whole topic slide. He didn’t understand what had happened, but his instincts told him this was ground he shouldn’t tread.
“No, it’s nothing. Sorry for the sudden change in plans. Actually, the wife of one of our men has fallen sick recently. It’s nothing serious, but since she’s pregnant, they sent a mail bird with the news. It’s their first child, so he wanted to go back as soon as possible. Sorry for surprising you.”
Misha blinked a few times at Kite’s awkward explanation.
“His wife? She’s pregnant? Oh, that’s terrible!” Pregnancy and childbirth were life-threatening endeavors. It would be all the more unsettling if it was their first child. For her to grow sick—and at a time when her husband was gone, no less—Misha could only imagine how harrowing that must have felt.
“I’ve got some nutritional supplements she can have! They’re leftovers from what I made for Lady Lalaya, so I can send some back with you. I’ll go get them right away, so please wait here a second!” she declared, jumping to her feet and bolting from the room, slamming the door behind her.
Kite gave a heavy sigh. “So it’s not that she doesn’t want to hear it—it’s just still painful for her to remember.”
It had been a sudden, unfortunate accident. However, those involved were all of the same opinion that it had been inevitable. Why had they come into conflict? Why hadn’t they been able to settle their differences? Those left behind had no recourse but to answer those questions for themselves, left to suffer quietly on their own.
Among all those suffering, Misha had seen her mother die right in front of her eyes. It went without saying that she would be hurt more than anyone. Kite understood that, but the bright smile she had worn over the past few days had led him to the wrong conclusion.
“I guess it’s still too early to talk about all that,” Kite sighed again, pressing his face into Ren’s fur. Apparently it was an unpleasant sensation for the wolf pup, as Ren’s nose scrunched up briefly before he wormed his way out of the knight’s arms.
“Oh, sorry,” he apologized, but his sighing didn’t stop.
The unfortunate reality was, given the current situation, he wasn’t sure he could afford to not say anything.
“Honestly, what a pain this all is...” Kite sighed again, eyes cast up at the ceiling.
Kite’s unit was being called back to Bluheitz after receiving a report that Rosmaria had disappeared from the sanatorium she had been forced into.