Episode 26
Until just before he climbed into the ferryboat, Isaac Pinscher had been repeating to himself, Why am I doing this right now? But once he had resigned himself to whatever would happen and stubbornly rowed all the way to the center of the lake, even he found the feeling rather different.
While Sasha was marveling at the surrounding scenery, Isaac admired her face. He stared at the way her face brightened, clear and radiant like a child’s.
So, what should he call this? He had never meant to bring her here in the first place.
Isaac Pinscher knew objectively just how strange he must have looked that day. That was why he had all the more sought out a quiet place, intending simply to have that conversation she had spoken of.
Originally, he had planned to receive her sullenly while sitting in his dusty, filthy office. But he did not know why the memory of her eyes, glowing golden beneath the yellow lamplight, had lingered so stubbornly in his mind. And when he imagined her—who had been delighted like a child by something so trivial—sitting in his office, which anyone could see was dirty, and offering yet another perfunctory compliment, something twisted unpleasantly inside him.
So, before he knew it, he had chosen the place he knew that she would most likely admire.
This small lake was Isaac’s refuge. Strictly speaking, it was the refuge he had found for himself after coming here.
Having been betrayed by General Thurston and all but conscripted into the Fourth Infantry Regiment, Isaac Pinscher had naturally been unable to adjust to Lance Field in the early days after his arrival. This was the place he had discovered back when he had neglected his duties and merely wandered around the area.
It had been summer then too, just as it was now. Isaac himself rather liked the scenery here, where everything was thick with greenery. After that, whenever his mind grew troubled, he would often come here, push the boat out to the middle of the lake, and lie quietly.
So, that was why.
As for why on earth he had brought this woman here.
Isaac thought that far, then simply folded the thought away. Looking at the face of the woman before him, whose eyes were sparkling as she exclaimed in admiration, he found he did not want to think about anything at all.
Isaac merely tightened his grip on the oars and turned his gaze away, pretending for no reason to look around at the scenery as she did. He avoided her so their eyes would not meet, then stole glances at her from the corner of his eye.
“Do you come here often?”
“Whenever I want to empty my head, sometimes.”
Sasha, who had been examining the creaking ferryboat, asked next.
“Do people often come here?”
“As far as I know, no one comes this far in besides me.”
At those words, Sasha smiled as though deeply touched and replied.
“That’s truly an honor. Thank you for showing me a place like this.”
“Not particularly.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than Isaac spat the words out defensively and sullenly, then stopped. But as if that alone was enough, Sasha quickly smiled, as though she understood and was trying to smooth things over.
“I know. I was simply thanking you because I wanted to. In any case, Captain Pinscher, you brought me here because this place puts you at ease.”
“……”
“I spoke with Mrs. Wells. She seemed to know in quite some detail where we had gone. Was it Mrs. Wells who recommended that place to you?”
“……No. It was the major.”
Ah. Sasha nodded as if she understood.
When Sasha fell silent after saying that, the surroundings grew quiet once more. The space between them became terribly still. For some reason, Isaac found it difficult to bear.
His black, wavy hair was disheveled as usual, though in truth he had spent a fair amount of effort that morning combing and tidying it in his own way. Isaac irritably swept that hair back.
In other words, he knew it too. Since he had called her out like this in the first place, he knew he should not simply let her enjoy the scenery leisurely as he had that day, then send her away.
Sasha had spoken of trust. She had said that he and she needed time to get to know each other. Did that mean that, just as he was suspicious of her, she had also come to feel the need to learn about him?
“……Are those bastards still at Miss Grayson’s house?”
Before he realized it, Isaac blurted out the question.
“Those bastards? You mean Mr. Cedric and Mr. Bloom, don’t you?”
“……Yes.”
Isaac answered in a voice that seemed to crawl into itself. Isaac could not understand why he felt so cowed. No, rather than cowed, this was…
For some reason, he simply found it difficult to look straight at that woman. He had definitely been fine at first, but at some point, he was no longer fine. Isaac could no longer bear the way she looked at him with those green eyes that seemed just as gentle as when she looked at anyone else.
“Didn’t I tell you last time? Not long after they visited here that day, they left the mansion.”
“Because of what I said?”
“Mm. To some extent.”
Sasha answered his question, which had been cut off ambiguously, in the same plain, clipped manner.
“Did those bastards confess?”
“No. They never told me what conversation they had to the very end. But they seem to think I know everything because I heard it from you, Captain. Isn’t that why they left as if they were fleeing?”
Sasha said. Then, for a moment, she cast a hesitant glance at Isaac. The curiosity she thought she had buried back then was writhing up again, scraping at her insides.
Sasha truly could not stand how badly her mouth itched to ask.
“If you don’t mind, may I ask exactly what you heard at that time?”
Sasha asked. Isaac stared at her face for a moment with an expressionless look.
He looked at her out of habit, as if weighing her.
“Miss Grayson’s murder plan.”
“……Pardon?”
Her reaction was slow for a moment. Sasha’s eyes widened at the revelation that the conversation had been more blatant and violent than she had expected.
Isaac, whether she did or not, was busy chewing over that conversation from then. Without even looking at her, he nodded in a manner that seemed somewhat indifferent.
“Yes. They were talking about whether or not to dispose of you after marrying Miss Grayson.”
For a brief instant, Sasha recalled where this man, Isaac, had gotten into a quarrel with those men during the birthday party in question.
“……They were talking about that in the central garden, where other people come and go?”
“At the time, I was the only one listening.”
“Ah, I see. If there had been someone else, it would have reached my ears sooner. No matter how brainless they were to discuss such a plan in a place like that, they really must have thought the only listening ears were each other’s.”
Sasha muttered to herself. As she murmured and looked down at the water’s edge, her eyes were quite gloomy.
“Specifically, ‘how’ did they say they were going to dispose of me?”
“……”
Isaac did not answer and merely gazed at Sasha. Sasha lifted her head and looked at him.
“It’s all right. Please tell me.”
“I didn’t hear the specifics. I only know that they had even arranged for people.”
“Ah, I see.”
Sasha nodded. Then she recalled anew that when she had last remembered Cedric Osmond, he had been unable to meet her eyes, as though he felt guilty.
Had Robert Bloom planned it alone? No, even if that were so, Cedric Osmond had still gone along with Bloom’s plan and conspired together with him all the same.
“I see. I had wondered, but it really was a murder plan. Hmm. They were greedier than I thought. Usually, wouldn’t someone simply think of marrying me and embezzling the property later? In the long run, that would be better.”
Sasha had unwittingly spoken as if it were someone else’s business, then belatedly lifted her head to look at Isaac, as though watching his reaction. His expression was quite strange.
For a moment, the two looked at each other with expressionless faces.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? What a waste of the money I spent treating them.”
“Do you think you would have believed me?”
Isaac replied without even meeting her eyes.
“Would you have believed the words of someone like me, who had one-sidedly committed violence against them? You were looking at me with frightened eyes that day too.”
“Well, if you suddenly throw a person into the middle of a party, anyone would be frightened.”
Wasn’t being frightened the normal reaction? When Sasha answered in a rather reasonable tone, Isaac fell silent.
Quietly, he gripped the oars and began to row.