Side Story Episode 4
In the blink of an eye, he collected himself and guided Rijan and the little girls onto the bed.
“Stay here and don’t move. Our army has secured this room as a base first, so it should be the safest place.”
“Yes, we will.”
Ejekail, having checked his weapons with practiced ease, was just about to leave the dormitory room.
“Ah, um.”
Rijan mustered her courage and called out to him.
“There are younger children hiding in the other rooms, too, just like us. If you happen to find them, could you protect them?”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
Ejekail gave a slight nod.
“……Please don’t get hurt.”
But whether that last small addition reached him, she could not tell.
Only after the door closed did Rijan let out the breath caught in her throat.
“Sister, your face is as red as a carrot.”
The younger girls, who had stopped crying, stared up at Rijan’s cheeks.
Rijan cooled the heat in both cheeks with the cold back of her hand. Her first love, whom she had run into by chance after so long, was still reliable and handsome.
❖ ❖ ❖
Rijan had no memory at all of how, or in what state of mind, she had run all the way to Claris.
It was unbelievable news.
They said her father and mother had been caught touching Valdemaera’s precious artifact. No one knew where they had been taken, and she had left the school in one breath to meet Akenaus of Valdemaera and beg forgiveness in their stead.
And this was the result.
“Take this and do whatever you can with it. Then perhaps the story may change.”
Rijan stared blankly down at the glass bottle Akenaus had placed in her hand.
“Choose. Whether three people die, or one person dies. And don’t try anything clever.”
He was a frightening man.
He had been frightening when she was young, but now he was especially so.
Rijan had also quietly heard the rumors that the brothers of Valdemaera did not get along. In truth, rather than saying they did not get along, it would be more accurate to call it the eldest son’s one-sided envy and jealousy. While the older brother was an idle wastrel, the younger was a soldier with a promising future. There was no one in the world who did not know of their contrasting reputations.
Of course, it was hardly remarkable information. The more honor and wealth a household had for its children to divide among themselves, the rarer it was for siblings to be close.
Even so, she had not known it was to this extent. The man she saw for the first time in a very long while, with an exceedingly radiant face, had commissioned Ejekail’s poisoning as if it were nothing at all.
Akenaus even seemed not to remember Rijan, who had briefly crossed paths with him in childhood. Then again, even Ejekail had only recalled her name after Rijan revealed who she was, so it was not particularly unreasonable that Akenaus did not recognize her face. But saying that her face suited his tastes, the man had groped her with sticky hands.
“What a pity. Virgins are stiff and boring, so they take a lot of time to teach. If it weren’t for a week from now, I would have taken you straight to my bedroom.”
A chill climbed up her back like a vine.
If she had been dragged into Akenaus’s bedroom then and there, she probably would not even have had the leisure to worry like this now.
At the same time, she belatedly realized why the woman who had been in the guest room with Akenaus had run out as if fleeing, her face brimming with tears.
That could have been her. No, it might be the image of her own future that had yet to arrive.
Rijan’s parents had enrolled her in school so that she might avoid, as much as possible, a life swept along carelessly by others. Thinking of it now, it had been an excessive desire. The school that had not suited their circumstances had now become the snare that caught the fate of her entire family by the ankle.
What should she do?
How could things be so hopeless?
No matter how she looked around, she could see no path. The world had become unfamiliar, like a maze.
She had lost the place she was meant to go. Rijan stood there blankly for a long while.
She heard that Ejekail, having finished the triumphal ceremony, had returned to the Valdemaera mansion.
One person, or three people.
Rijan repeated the choice Akenaus had forced upon her. Today was the day she had to bring this coerced choice to a conclusion.
The mansion she stepped into again was busy preparing a banquet to celebrate Ejekail’s victory and return.
“Where is Lord Ejekail?”
“The triumphal ceremony must have worn him out. He was asleep in his bedroom. I was afraid I might wake him if I made noise, so I only cracked the door open and came back.”
“No wonder. Why does the royal family hold a triumphal ceremony right away and keep someone who’s just come back from war from even resting…….”
Loitering near the kitchen and quietly eavesdropping for news, Rijan placed a teapot and cups on a tray and went up the stairs. She had already heard the location of Ejekail’s bedroom from Akenaus. In truth, rather than having heard it, it was closer to saying she had not forgotten the rambling things Akenaus had spouted, claiming she ought to know at least the bare minimum about the mansion if she was going to carry out the deed.
“……This place is still the same.”
She had thought she would not remember the mansion, since she had only been here once, and that too when she was very young. But when the familiar scenery unfolded before her eyes, memories of that day came back one after another.
On her way up to Ejekail’s bedroom, Rijan stopped at the landing and looked down the corridor lined with guest rooms. Here, she had first met Ejekail, had been picked on by Akenaus and suffered terribly…… and then had escaped safely with Ejekail’s help once more.
“If you run into my brother again and it seems you’ll be in trouble, say you were running an errand for me.”
Even after that, in case the young Rijan might suffer further humiliation at Akenaus’s hands, he had willingly lent her his name,
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
and had even rescued her from the school caught up in the front lines.
And yet here she was, carrying an unidentified poison to the man who had helped her again and again. She could not bear how shameless and disgraceful this situation was. At the same time, she was worried about her family, whose whereabouts were unknown, and she was horribly afraid of Akenaus.
If she could, she would rather take all the karma upon herself alone and simply vanish like dust.
Dragging her heavy feet, Rijan arrived in front of Ejekail’s bedroom.
The door was ajar at a slight angle, leaving a narrow gap. Perhaps it was usually well oiled, for even though she pushed it only lightly, the door moved without a sound.
As soon as she stepped into the bedroom, the first thing she did was close the door.
The man was sound asleep. Without even changing out of his uniform. He had probably sat down in the chair to rest for a moment, only to be unable to overcome his fatigue and fall into the grip of sleep as he was.
Rijan set down the tray and stared quietly at Ejekail’s face.
The hardships of war were visible in the eyes that were firmly shut. It was only natural. Rijan herself had experienced, if only for a very brief time, how dry and blood-draining a battlefield was, a place where a life could vanish in the blink of an eye. Given his status, if he had wished it, he could have comfortably kept himself safe in the rear, and yet this man had volunteered for the front lines and led the battle. Truly, there was no one else like him.
And yet, and yet, she was being told to ruin such a man completely in a single moment…….
With these very hands, no less.
Rijan looked back and forth between the dark-colored tea and the glass bottle. The poison inside the bottle was colorless and odorless. If she dropped the contents of the bottle into the tea, it would be a perfect deception.
Rijan opened the lid.
Tiny tremors rippled like shadows over the surface. It was because her hand kept failing to find its balance, shaking this way and that.
It was like her heart. Her wavering heart, unable to find its bearings and wandering in confusion.
What if Ejekail did not believe her words?
What if he did believe her, but did not take immediate action?
What if Akenaus somehow found an opening and harmed her father and mother, whom he had imprisoned somewhere?
What if Ejekail declared that he was grateful for the information, but the crimes of her family ought to be dealt with by punishment?
Her chest tightened painfully at the possibilities of so many “what ifs.”
The easiest way to get through this moment would be to do as Akenaus had commissioned and dissolve the poison in the tea Ejekail would drink.
No…… was it easy?
Was hurting someone truly easy?
For some, it might be easy. Akenaus in particular, the man who had sent her here, had ordered the poisoning of his brother without the slightest sense of guilt.
For some, it might be something that must be done, or something that had to be done because there was no other choice. Ejekail was a man who had slain countless enemies on the battlefield and become a hero. But for Ejekail, who commanded an army, there were values he had to risk his life to fight for and protect. Things such as country, people, and honor—meanings that transcended personal motives. Rijan, too, owed her life to him.
Compared to that, Akenaus’s purpose in sending Rijan here was shabby.
But the shabbiest of all was herself, who had failed to reject that threat and had ultimately entered the mansion.
What was she to do now?
What was she supposed to do?
Even though nothing had happened yet, her spine kept prickling with a cold, chilling dread.