3. A Sleepless Night
Episode 12
The daily life of a man who never had occasion to leave the mansion was rather simple. Yet it was not still.
Even while he leaned his head back languidly, intoxicated by the effects of opium-laced wine, he would suddenly spring to his feet and prowl all over the first floor. Having grown so accustomed to a soldier’s life, in which he drove his body beyond its limits, it seemed that even under the influence of drugs, he moved as if by inertia.
Rose followed close at his side, and the moment she saw any sign that he could not manage his steps properly, she was there to support him.
Nor had she ever really seen him sleep late. He woke at the slightest sound. Rather, it always took him a long time to fall asleep, and even when he barely managed it, his sleep was shallow at best; he suffered from chronic sleep deprivation.
Before long, Rose came to know the reason.
“An enemy’s surprise attack always comes when you’re asleep.”
One day, as he accepted the sleeping tea she had brought and drank it, Ezekail tossed out the remark in passing. In truth, on the day Rose had ruined his eyes, he had been asleep when misfortune befell him. It had even happened during a rare respite from the battlefield, when he had let his guard down for a brief rest at home. So to him, even home could hardly be a place where he could rest in peace.
That night, Rose too tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The night, as though his insomnia had infected her, was endlessly long.
Once again, rain poured down steadily from morning on.
When the seasons changed, the weather was bound to turn foul. Sometimes it was rain, sometimes sleet, and at times, mist covered the ground. Thus, beyond the windows, everything was generally gray.
Rose looked up at the sky beyond the curtains. Dense dark clouds had completely hidden the sun, making the surroundings as dark as dawn. It was fortunate, at least, that the rain was not accompanied by thunder and lightning.
“Major. The doctor has arrived. I’ve shown him to the drawing room.”
The mansion received guests every few days. All of them were doctors. Every doctor in the vicinity had visited the mansion at least once or twice, and lately, the search had expanded to bring in renowned doctors from other regions.
It was said that every doctor who had visited the mansion so far had examined his eyes, then shaken their heads and left.
On days when a doctor came, all the servants spent the day holding their breath. That was because Ezekail, having dismissed every doctor as a fool or a quack, would spend the entire day submerged in alcohol and drugs.
At such times, Ezekail did not overlook even the smallest mistakes made by the servants, but sharply called them to account. Even Rose, who had just entered as a laundry maid then and had no reason to face Ezekail, had vaguely sensed the tension drifting through the mansion. It was precarious and nerve-racking.
With calm hands, Rose straightened his appearance. Ezekail did not bend down to account for their difference in height, and of course, from his position, there was no way for him to know how great that difference was, so she often had to stand on tiptoe.
As she stretched her arms high to gather his disheveled hair neatly, she stole a glance at Ezekail’s complexion.
……What does this man think when he meets doctors?
The doctor visiting today was, in fact, the second doctor to come after she had been assigned as Ezekail’s exclusive maid. She had not even seen the first doctor’s face. After hearing the circumstances of the accident and his symptoms during an interview with Mrs. Serva, the doctor had waved his hands and given up on the examination.
“I do not know by what means I could make eyes that can no longer see see again. Those writer types who live off fantasies might say to attach someone else’s eyes to him…… but that is the sort of tale that would appear in a gothic horror novel. As a doctor, I cannot even imagine it.”
Rose had only heard, through Mrs. Serva, what the doctor had supposedly said. If he could not do it with his own abilities, he should have simply said he could not and left, but that half-baked doctor had treated treatment like some work of fanciful fiction, as if jinxing it; for once, even the gentle Mrs. Serva had been seething. Then she repeatedly urged Rose to be careful that it did not reach Ezekail’s ears.
“Rose, do you know how many doctors there are in the world? If we keep asking around, a doctor who can surely heal his eyes will appear. Don’t you think so?”
Mrs. Serva had held on to her and sought her agreement.
Rose could not answer at once and faltered. It was only a single syllable, yes, and yet her throat stung as though a thorn were caught there.
It felt as though she had been struck on the head by a sudden realization.
That was right. Until now, Rose had never considered the possibility that Ezekail’s eyes might heal.
Even though she had heard the rumor that every doctor in the North had visited this mansion at least once, even though she had come running here because that rumor had convinced her of the man’s whereabouts, and even though she had steeled herself to remain by his side as his hands and feet for as long as it took, she had never once calculated the possibility that his eyes might recover.
Why was that?
Was it because she had witnessed Akenaus’s malice with her own eyes? Perhaps the grim belief that an elder brother who had tried to kill his younger brother would never have used a poison that could easily be treated had rendered Mrs. Serva’s and Ezekail’s efforts futile in her mind.
The objective circumstances were not on Ezekail’s side either. Though so many doctors had come and gone, not a single one had begun treatment. Among the mansion’s servants, aside from Mrs. Serva, there were many who could not bring themselves to say it aloud but thought that needless effort and money were being wasted.
And also…….
Rose swallowed a short breath.
For now, she did not want to imagine such a clear future. If, truly if, such a miracle occurred, she had no confidence she could bear the price of the fury the man would unleash once he regained his sight.
Even though, from Ezekail’s perspective, he must long far more for the chance to regain his own life, stolen along with his sight, than for a maid who would care for him, blind, for the rest of his life.
In the end, it was a cowardly evasion born from the fact that, as the perpetrator, she could not escape responsibility.
Rose only barely nodded. Even at this passive agreement, Mrs. Serva burned with renewed fighting spirit.
“I will not give up.”
Mrs. Serva truly did not give up. She raised the consultation fee and sought out even more doctors. If the doctors of the North could not solve it, she seemed ready to widen the range and bring in doctors from the East, West, and South as well. She had even asked the doctors who had already visited to recommend others.
The doctor who visited this time was a young man with a timid impression. Though he had passed Mrs. Serva’s interview and entered the drawing room, he could not sit still and kept busily looking around. It seemed he was overawed by the mansion’s gloomy atmosphere, with black curtains covering every side so that day and night could not be felt. Moreover, the person he was to examine was a once-renowned war hero; even for a doctor who had experienced all kinds of patients, this case must be a difficult and awkward problem.
“I-it is an honor to meet the hero of the Rose War in person.”
The doctor, upon spotting Ezekail and Rose, sprang to his feet and greeted him.
Without Rose’s help, Ezekail strode across the drawing room and sat down on the examination couch.
“Oh…….”
The doctor betrayed a hint of inward admiration. Rose understood his surprise. In the early days after she had been hired at the mansion, she too had been surprised by Ezekail as he roamed about the first floor. In a space he knew as intimately as the palm of his hand, Ezekail behaved no differently from people who could see. Of course, behind that was the labor of the servants, who kept the tables, chairs, and furnishings arranged as precisely as if measured with a ruler.
“Begin.”
Ezekail, reclining obliquely against the backrest, gave the order.
The doctor began taking instruments one by one from the medical bag he had brought and laying them out on the table. Forceps and needles of different sizes, a roundly curved knife, a magnifying glass, and, after other ominous-looking tools whose purposes were hard to guess, a lamp was placed at the end.
“Wait a moment.”
Rose, who had been watching the doctor from a few steps behind, hurriedly stopped him.
“Lamps are not allowed to be used here.”
“P-pardon? But how am I to examine him without light?”
The doctor asked back in bewilderment.
Rose hesitated as well. He had a point. Because light was the foremost taboo in the mansion, she had instinctively restrained him, but she had no idea how all those doctors had conducted examinations in this pitch-dark drawing room without lighting a lamp.
Ezekail let out a crooked chuckle. Unexpectedly, Rose had a side that felt not merely diligent but even rigidly honest. Enough that he understood why Mrs. Serva, leaving aside the other servants, had specifically chosen a newcomer like her to place at his side.
“My maid has no flexibility, befitting a soldier’s maid. Do as you normally would.”
Rose’s face flushed slightly, and she stepped back.
Unfortunately, the doctor shrank even more at Ezekail’s order to do as he normally would than he had at Rose’s attempt to stop him from using the lamp.
The doctor lit the lamp. Orange light bloomed, cutting through the blue-black darkness. It was dazzling. Before she knew it, Rose had squeezed her eyes shut. No matter how bright the lamp was, it could not compare to the natural light beyond the window, and yet her retinas, accustomed to darkness after staying in the dim mansion, reacted sensitively even to that gentle glow.
If perfectly fine eyes are like this, then truly…… I don’t know if he’ll be all right.
Rose glanced across at Ezekail.
He was a man who avoided even pale moonlight on ordinary days. In his bedroom, he lived with two layers of curtains drawn. Even so, the man accepted the doctor’s examination as though it were nothing. Then again, having met dozens of doctors, he must have already resolved to endure as much as he could.
The doctor brought the lamp close to his eyes and inspected their condition. The pale shadows created by the light mottled the skin around his eyes.
Even while receiving the lamplight head-on, Ezekail remained silent. He did not move so much as a finger, to the point that one might wonder whether he had fallen asleep. Wondering what was going on, Rose carefully looked at him and flinched when she noticed the beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead.
He was simply enduring it blindly.