“My lord, my lady’s close friend is not a woman, but a man.”
It felt as though his heart had plummeted to the very bottom with a crash. It was a sound like a bolt from the blue.
‘But I clearly saw long hair…….’
Asrahan recalled the long silver hair he had glimpsed, but at the same time, he realized that all he had seen was the hair.
—They say she spent the entire day today going around town with the High Priest.
—They say they ate cake together and looked around the market as well.
What had been a thorn that merely pricked him slightly until just moments ago had now become a large awl, stabbing at his nerves.
Asrahan clenched his fist tight without realizing it. Blue veins bulged atop his skin.
It was information he had no reason to find unpleasant. No matter who she wandered around with, no matter what she did, it was none of his concern.
‘Even if she connects her heart with that damned priest and becomes his lover.’
At that sentence, which had surfaced regardless of his will, Asrahan’s heart sank once more.
When Lariette’s bright smile and the clear voice that called his name came to mind, his heart ached with a dull pain.
It was an emotion he himself could not understand. Yet he desperately feigned composure and opened his mouth.
“I wish to rest now. Leave.”
“My lord, did you not know? You thought she was a woman…… Ah, that’s why……!”
“I told you to leave.”
Asrahan issued an order to expel his guest in a voice cold enough to freeze. It was because he did not wish to hear anything more.
On the other hand, Halshtein’s expression as he exited Asrahan’s room was drastically different from before, beaming broadly. Halshtein had clearly seen Asrahan’s shocked expression, and this was a very good sign.
“My lord, ask my lady to have a meal with you again! If you continue to leave her be, something truly terrible will happen!”
He chattered incessantly until the very last moment the door was closing.
Without looking back, Asrahan simply continued changing his bandages. However, his brow was distinctly furrowed.
“You never know what relationship those two might end up having!”
Halshtein’s desperate voice leaked in from beyond the closed door. Unable to endure that rudeness any longer, Asrahan struck the side table with his hand.
Bang!
A dull sound rang out, and the high-quality solid wood table was soon completely smashed to pieces, its life cut short. Only then did Halshtein close his mouth.
Yet even after he left, the words he had left behind hovered in the empty air, constantly tickling Asrahan’s ears. In his mind, the image of Lariette and the High Priest becoming lovers kept surfacing.
It is none of my concern. It is nothing I need to worry about. Asrahan continued muttering inwardly, but his mind only grew more complicated. He simply could not calm down.
“Huu……”
He let out a deep sigh and soon closed his eyes as if giving up.
***
The next day, Lariette held her dress and moved with exceptionally buoyant steps, very much in high spirits.
The dress was plain since she did not own many, but she had put considerable care into her appearance, neatly tying up her pink hair and wearing a sparkling necklace.
‘It’s working!’
She barely managed to control the corners of her mouth that kept trying to shoot up toward the sky. And she had every reason to, for Asrahan had been the one to first suggest having a meal together.
Upon waking and hearing the maid’s message of the meal invitation, Lariette had been overjoyed, as if she might take flight. It felt exactly like receiving a birthday gift she had been anticipating for an entire year.
There was no doubt that the jealousy operation proposed by Doha had succeeded. There was no other way Asrahan would suddenly suggest a meal! Her heart pounded with anticipation.
It was marvelous and moving that even that taciturn Asrahan could feel jealousy. And she was itching to quickly share this joyous news with Doha, her teacher in romance.
However, she recalled the advice Doha had given while eating cake with him. It was the warning not to grin foolishly just because he had paid attention to her once.
Doha had offered that advice without thinking Asrahan would pay her any mind in the first place, but Lariette, having seen an effect from his proposal, resolved to follow Doha’s words thoroughly.
‘Well, that much is easy!’
Lariette thought confidently. However, the moment the dining room door opened and she faced Asrahan, she realized it would not be so easy.
“……You have come.”
“Ah-s-! S-s…… It’s cold. Yes.”
Lariette, who had unconsciously been about to call out Asrahan’s name in excitement, hurriedly bit the inside of her lip to hold back. Then she quickly pretended that the sound had been due to the cold.
Having seen his handsome face after so long, her joy had overcome everything and tried to burst out.
‘Get a grip! Get a grip! Pull yourself together!’
Lariette mentally slapped her own cheeks repeatedly. Her weakness for handsome men ran rampant regardless of time or place.
Asrahan looked at her making a strange expression with puzzlement and subtly signaled the servant with his eyes. A maid brought a shawl to Lariette, who had already taken her seat.
Though she was not cold at all, Lariette thanked her and draped the shawl over her shoulders.
“Why did you suddenly call for me?”
Lariette asked in a deliberately chilly voice. She could not show herself grinning foolishly just because he had called for her once, as Doha had advised.
Asrahan, who had never seen such an attitude from her before, was briefly silent before soon answering with his characteristic emotionless face.
“I thought we might converse after a long while.”
He was so expressionless and his gaze so indifferent that it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Still, Lariette thought positively of the fact that he had initiated conversation and began eating the salad set before her.
Lettuce, tomatoes, arugula, yellow bell peppers…… It was a salad with adorable, colorful hues. Unlike usual, it contained no cucumbers, which made it all the more satisfying.
“How have you been lately?”
He opened his mouth while picking at his own salad with a fork. Unlike hers, his contained cucumbers.
“I’ve been well. I’ve been going out with a friend.”
“Is that so.”
Lariette deliberately mentioned Doha while furtively gauging Asrahan’s reaction. She thought that if the jealousy operation was working, there would be a response.
However, contrary to her expectations, his face was utterly tranquil. Unable to find even a hint of jealousy in his expression, she flusteredly added an explanation.
“We ate delicious food together, looked around the market—it was fun. We even made plans to drink together later. There’s supposed to be a nice bar downtown.”
“……I see.”
Asrahan answered calmly and wetted his throat with champagne. A minute amount of force entered the hand holding the glass, but not enough to be noticeable.
Lariette’s heart began to grow increasingly impatient. She had thought the jealousy operation had succeeded and that was why he called for her, but Asrahan’s attitude showed not the slightest change.
As if it were none of his concern at all.
“Doha is coming again this afternoon. We’ll just be in my room, so you needn’t pay it any mind.”
“I do not pay it any mind. However,”
He continued, swishing his glass with an indifferent air.
“So long as it does not affect the purification.”
Upon hearing Asrahan’s cold response, Lariette clenched her fist and gripped her fork. Her following voice trembled slightly.
“……Do you really not mind?”
“Is there a reason I should mind?”
“Don’t you feel jealous?”
Lariette set her fork down on the table with a clack and stared intently into his eyes. In the end, unable to endure it, she had laid bare her inner thoughts.
She had been a straightforward person from the start, and it was impossible to speak in circles any longer. Lariette wanted to know his true feelings.
After hesitating briefly, Asrahan soon met her gaze with unwavering pupils. And he tried to open his mouth slowly.
There was no need to hesitate since the answer was already decided. Yet for some reason, speaking a single word was too difficult. His lips did not part easily.
“……Yes.”
After his answer, the atmosphere of the breakfast grew coldly subdued.
Lariette chewed on a salmon sandwich, swallowing along with it the surging depression and embarrassment.
She felt foolish for having hoped alone. He had simply come to warn her to leave mana for the purification.
Her cheeks flushed red with humiliation, but fortunately, she managed to avoid shedding tears.
Asrahan watched her, who had become quiet to the point of chilliness, and kept moving his lips. Without even knowing what words he wished to say himself. In the end, he bit his lower lip hard and maintained his silence.
The awkward breakfast ended just like that. Lariette said they should see each other during the purification and hurriedly left her seat.
Asrahan looked after her retreating figure with regret, but the time was already too late.
***
Doha arrived at Kandeljeu three hours later.
Unlike usual, he came wearing light brown glasses, entering Lariette’s room with a playful smile hanging on his lips.
However, he soon discovered her sitting slumped in her chair. Doha approached with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong, my lady?”
Doha sat down, leaning forward in the chair to meet her eyes. As she looked at him tilting his head, Lariette answered in a gloomy voice.
“It didn’t work. The jealousy operation.”
Could it be he has no interest in me at all? Lariette mumbled, her lips moving slightly.
If he truly had no interest at all, continuing to pursue him might be rude. She had thought he favored her to some extent, but it seemed that had been a misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, Doha thought this was the expected result. It was because he believed that cold duke would never take an interest in anyone.
Lariette was quite a cute and interesting woman, but he did not think her enough to melt the duke’s heart.
Of course, she had been rather special to him. Doha hid such sly inner thoughts and drooped his brows as if feeling sorry.
“Oh dear, is that why you’re so dejected? How pitiful.”
“……What’s with the glasses?”
Doha offered words of comfort with a mischievous face. Only then did Lariette, examining his face, ask curiously how his appearance had completely changed with just a pair of glasses.
If the usual him had a seductive and playful look, wearing glasses now made him appear extremely neat and composed. Since his hair was tied up neatly as well, this was even more the case.
He looked somewhat like the handsome librarian of some library. Of course, had such a library actually existed in the world, visitors would never cease.
“Ah, I just felt like I should wear them today.”
“A feeling?”
“Yes, my hunches are usually right.”
To be exact, it was not a hunch but a prophecy. The power of prophecy was an ability possessed only by the most outstanding believers, and it was also an important criterion for being selected as the Pope.
However, Doha often used his prophetic power for trivial matters. Today, mimicking the horoscopes of third-rate magazines about which item he should wear for good luck was one such thing.
Had the other cardinals known, they would have poured out dozens of criticisms against him. However, Doha had more than enough prophetic power to avoid being caught, and even if he were caught, his authority was strong enough that it would not pose much of a problem, so he did not greatly mind.
“How do you like it?”
“Mm, handsome people look good in anything.”
“Hehe, thank you. I like it too.”
My own face? Lariette tilted her head in puzzlement but did not bother asking. With looks of that caliber, it was understandable to be filled with confidence.
“Shall we begin today’s healing?”
Doha smiled slyly and reached his hand toward her. Though she had already experienced this several times, Lariette tensed and stiffened her body.
At that, Doha chuckled as if she were cute and soon took hold of the back of her head. Thanking his past self for having chosen this posture as the healing method.
Lariette closed her eyes, and soon their faces overlapped.
***
After breakfast, Asrahan was trapped in an endless punishment. The name of the punishment was the Prison of Gazes, and its executor was none other than Halshtein.
Though there had been no need for him to attend, Halshtein, who had insisted on serving throughout breakfast, was greatly disappointed by Asrahan’s cold attitude.
‘How could you do such a thing to my lady!’
To say such things when he should be treasuring and treating her well in this short time! Halshtein’s eyes blazed with anger as he glared at Asrahan and followed him around persistently the moment breakfast ended. It was a gaze too strong to ignore.
“Do you have something to say?”
Asrahan spent nearly two hours pointedly ignoring him. In the end, however, he could not bear it any longer and raised his head to look Halstein in the face.
As if he had been waiting for just those words, Halstein promptly opened his mouth.
“You were too harsh.”
“I believe I told you to give up any useless expectations.”
“She looked as though she might cry.”
At the sharp rebuke, Asrahan fell silent for a moment.
The face he had seen at breakfast was vividly drawn in his mind. Her eyes, which had been sparkling brightly when she first entered, had lost their light soon after their conversation.
The corners of her eyes had seemed especially red, too. That was why it had weighed on his mind all this time, but there was nothing he could do to resolve it.
“If you were going to act that way, why did you ask her to have breakfast with you?”
“……If we are to continue the purification from now on, I thought we should maintain a reasonable relationship.”
“How could you and the young lady possibly have a reasonable relationship?”
Halstein struck his chest as if in frustration and continued.
“When the feelings the two of you hold are not like that, how could such a thing be possible?”
“You speak as though you know my heart quite well.”
“At the very least, I know that you are not looking into your own true feelings.”
A deep crease formed between Asrahan’s brows. He wanted to demand what Halstein thought he knew to speak of his true feelings, but before he could, Halstein moved first.
“The priest will arrive at the manor soon.”
“……And?”
“Go and see for yourself. The sight of the priest and the young lady together.”
“Why should I go out of my way to do that?”
Asrahan furrowed his brows and leaned back against the sofa. A chilling gaze poured down upon Halstein.
But Halstein was the man who had raised him since he was an infant. Even that vicious gaze, capable of subduing someone in an instant, looked to him like nothing more than a baby throwing a tantrum.
“Because then you will be certain. Of what your true feelings are, Master.”
“……I am already sufficiently—”
“No. If you were, you would not have listened to this old man’s words for this long.”
Halstein smiled gently as he concluded.
If Asrahan had truly considered it useless talk, he would have ignored him without granting him the slightest attention. To Halstein, the emotion was far too obvious, but it seemed difficult for his master to acknowledge it.
‘And it was his first time ever giving instructions about food.’
He recalled the sight of Asrahan before breakfast, wearing an indifferent expression as he ordered salmon sandwiches to be prepared.
The way he had added that the cucumber should be left out of the mage’s salad was certainly not ordinary.
Halstein gave a short bow and left his study. He knew that any further advice would be meaningless.
Left alone, Asrahan sat motionless for a long while.
And when he finally arrived at some conclusion, he rose and slowly walked toward her room.
With each step he took, countless memories and worries churned through his mind, then slipped away, over and over.
—I’ve been doing well. Going out to have fun with a friend.
She had said she had been doing well. If she was doing well, her mana would stabilize, so that was a good thing. It was certainly a good thing for the sake of the purification, and yet he could not understand why his heart felt uneasy.
—We decided to drink together later, too. I heard there’s a good bar downtown.
Was she good at drinking? Seeing how bold she could be, it seemed she might drink well enough, but her body was so small that it also worried him.
A crowded bar downtown was a place he could not go. Not only bars, but many places were like that.
—Does it really not bother you?
It bothered him more than he could possibly say. It was the first time. The first time he had ever cared this much about something other than his curse, and the first time his work had been so impossible to focus on.
But he thought it was merely a passing breeze brought about by a small change. It had to be.
—Are you not jealous?
When he recalled that voice asking him while looking straight at him, Asrahan stopped walking. Before he knew it, he had reached the vicinity of her room.
When he had heard that question, Asrahan had desperately feigned composure. Because it was a ridiculous question.
Jealousy was something one could only feel if one harbored affection. Therefore, it was not his to claim.
‘There is no way I could love someone.’
The emotion of love was something he had cast aside long ago. So long ago that he could no longer even remember.
As long as he had this cursed body, he had never thought he would possess it for eternity, nor had he expected to.
‘There is no way I could be jealous.’
Clenching his molars tightly, he muttered inwardly as though reciting a spell.
The door to Lariette’s room happened to be open. Through the crack of the door, the sound of a man’s laughter leaked out. Asrahan approached the door very slowly.
And what he saw through that gap was the sight of a silver-haired man grasping Lariette’s head and pulling her toward him.
Lariette gently lowered her fine lashes, and the two faces overlapped.
As if they were kissing.
In that instant, Asrahan seemed to hear something inside him snap. Before he knew it, his body had moved.
Bang!!
Lariette’s door shattered with a tremendous sound.
***
Lariette closed her eyes, and soon her face overlapped with Doha’s.
Seen from behind, it was a posture that made it look as though their lips would touch, but in truth, only their foreheads had bumped together.
Crash!
A loud sound, as though something had been smashed, rang in her ears. At the same time, the faint sensation she had felt against her forehead vanished in an instant.
“That hand.”
At the familiar voice that suddenly reached her, Lariette opened her eyes wide in surprise.
“Let go.”
And standing before her was Asrahan, who had seized Doha’s hand. His expression looked as though he might kill someone at any moment, and he exuded a terrifying aura.
‘If you do not wish to have your limbs cut off.’
Because he was in front of her, Asrahan barely managed to swallow those words. But he could not suppress the murderous intent that surged within him. A black aura poured sharply toward Doha.
At last, Asrahan’s blue eyes and Doha’s golden eyes met for the first time.