Side Story Chapter 9

If you knew over how many days I have been writing this letter, you would be quite surprised. Taking moments while briefly apart from you to secretly write a few lines at a time, I somehow feel like a child who has just learned to write. Yes, like that child who confesses every day, “Teacher Rijan, I really like you.” If my words felt a little spiteful, please understand them as the grumbling of a pitiful husband who must share his newlywed wife with the neighborhood children.

Moreover, do not forget.

Though there are many here who say they like you, the one who loves you the most and always wants to be with you is always me.

Rijan.

I dedicate myself, everything I have, my life to you.

I hope you will fully possess me.

Whenever you discover and read this letter, come back to me without a word and express it simply with a kiss—

“Ah, damn it.”

It happened in the blink of an eye.

Thinking it was about time Rijan returned, he had just set down his pen nib and was checking for signs of movement when a pigeon that had been sitting with folded wings by the window suddenly bit the corner of the letter and fluttered away. Whether the rustling paper had seemed novel, or whether someone had tried and failed to train it as a messenger bird, it was clear the stationery had caught the creature’s interest.

To think a bird would snatch the letter away.

But he could not shoot the pigeon dead to retrieve the letter. Especially his wife, who had a strong compassionate heart, would not be pleased by a letter stained with bird’s blood.

Ezekiel could only stare blankly at the unfinished letter disappearing far, far away.

❖　❖　❖

“Ezekiel.”

Rijan, who by nature smiled bashfully more often than she rejoiced cheerfully even when something good happened, was for some reason smiling unusually brightly today.

Ezekiel first pressed his lips to the cheek of his approaching wife. Bringing his lips to her first wherever it may be was his habit.

“Did something good happen?”

“Hmm, I just started thinking about how many coincidences there are in the world, and it suddenly seemed so amazing that I laughed.”

“What is it?”

“Do you know that the cat Auntie Anna feeds is the boss cat of this neighborhood?”

“Was it?”

“It used to be a scrawny, tiny cat. But it stole and ate fish from our house, gradually grew bigger, and before long, started ruling the neighborhood.”

Ezekiel also remembered seeing that cat. It was a cute cat with yellow stripes from head to tail, plump with flesh.

“But to Auntie Anna, that cat acts so affectionately, like a baby. It seems to recognize the one who feeds it. It even brings gifts sometimes. Last time, it brought a mouse and caused quite a commotion. Of all people, I was the one who found it first and screamed in surprise.”

“That thing catches mice with that build?”

“Isn’t it strange? It doesn’t look agile at all, but you wouldn’t believe how well it hunts. Sometimes it brings snakes, sometimes birds. But what would I do receiving such things? Each time, I bury them in the corner of the garden. The day before yesterday, it brought a pigeon, so Auntie Anna caught it, sat it down, and scolded it. Told it to stop catching birds or mice already.”

Ezekiel nodded his head in bewilderment.

His wife continued.

“I told you Auntie Anna is learning to read, didn’t I? These days she’s reading thin fairy tales, and since she always carries her book around preciously, the cat must have been watching that intently. It must have wanted to give her something similar.”

His wife smiling so brightly was incredibly lovely, but the topic of conversation was hard to pin down. Ezekiel tilted his head curiously.

“Rijan, I can’t follow what this conversation is about right now….”

His wife, who had been uttering words he simply could not understand, brought her soft lips against his. Despite having no idea what was going on, Ezekiel gladly responded to her kiss. To begin with, Ezekiel never refused any sensation Rijan gave him.

Rijan whispered.

“The cat repaid a kindness.”

Side Story 4. Winter Rose

Do you know the Winter Rose?

I saw an unfamiliar flower blooming white and red in the corner of the garden, so I snapped its stem and took it to Auntie Anna, and she told me this flower’s name is Winter Rose. It’s pretty, but no matter how I look at it, it doesn’t look as splendid as a rose, so why is this flower called a winter rose?

Ah, Auntie Anna is the lady who manages the western estate our family comes down to every winter. I think usually people like her are called butlers or housekeepers, but this estate is just a small villa-like place, so unlike the main house, there aren’t many employees, and we comfortably call her Auntie Anna. Auntie Anna says she likes that better, too.

Our family comes down to this villa every winter. I don’t really know since when. According to Mom, it was like a promise between Mom and Dad that existed even before I was born.

This is a secret, but I like this estate much more than the House of Claris where Grandfather lives. There are so many rules to follow at the House of Claris.

My etiquette teacher says I shouldn’t call them Mom and Dad, but Mother and Father. She says I must learn to maintain dignity from a young age because I will inherit the house and command many people later. But Dad said when it’s just us, we absolutely don’t need to worry about such things. So our family is very different when staying at the House of Claris and when coming to the villa for vacation just by ourselves.

Here, I can act spoiled to Mom and Dad to my heart’s content and sleep in. Actually, when we come here, Mom seems like a different person, too. Everything from her clothes to her voice. At the House of Claris, my mom is a queen, but at the villa, she wears whatever comfortable clothes and waits for Dad to bring breakfast before eating in bed. There are many days she goes to bed before me and wakes up later than me. I want to sleep with Mom, too, but Auntie Anna won’t let me. She says at six years old, I’m all grown up and should be independent from my parents’ bedroom and sleep alone. But Mom and Dad are much bigger adults than me, so why do they sleep together?

This morning too, Mom slept in later than me. So I had breakfast alone with Dad. I asked, “What about Mom?” and was told Dad had tormented her, so she needed to sleep more. Could they have fought?