Chapter 31
Rose traced the raised, uneven scars with her fingertips. Ezekiel, who had called her an exception, leaned back loosely and savored the touch of Rose’s hand as it roamed over the center of his chest.
It felt strange, now that she thought of it. When had things changed so much? It seemed like only yesterday that she had earned his glare for brushing against a wound while helping him dress.
There was only one thing he had slightly wrong.
To Rose, Ezekiel was less an exception than something closer to transcendence. Unlike an exception, which was exempted within a given standard, he was a transcendent being to whom no standard applied at all.
He was not someone whose every action toward her was acceptable; he was someone she could do anything to. That conclusion had never changed.
“Major, how did you get hurt this badly? Your life must have been in terrible danger… Are all soldiers like this?”
At Rose’s question, Ezekiel answered without much change in expression.
“Not all of them are the same. It depends on which unit you’re assigned to, and there are some bastards who spend their whole service hopping around rear units like cowards. But the company I served in was an independent detachment chosen for build and stamina and sent into rough terrain, so it was usually dangerous. And…”
“And?”
“There was a bounty on my head at the time.”
His tone was casual.
But to the listener, it was a chilling story. Startled, Rose’s eyes widened. Of course, considering his reputation, it was not impossible to understand. It meant the enemy nation of Davis had considered Ezekiel, who had swept across the front lines with such unrestrained brilliance, a thorn in their side.
As though he had anticipated her silence, Ezekiel continued as if it were nothing.
“It made planning operations easier, though. I just had to be the bait.”
“You were the officer responsible for commanding a unit, yet you planned such reckless operations.”
“War is dangerous at every moment by nature.”
“Even so…”
“In battle, there are only two kinds of operations. Good ones and bad ones. And a good operation is one that succeeds.”
Ezekiel’s definition was clear. After listening quietly, Rose carefully brought up a fragment of a conversation from before.
“You said you had never fought a battle you lost, Major.”
“If I had, someone would be living in luxury right about now after collecting my bounty.”
“Ah, that’s true. A person who loses wouldn’t be alive…”
Then what will happen to me from now on?
Rose recalled Captain Mongkam’s letter, which had tangled up her thoughts. It was the very letter she had read aloud just a short while ago. Even now, when she remembered each line of the report it contained, it felt as if her blood ran dry.
“Major Valdemaira, this is Mongkam. I am reporting the compiled results of our inquiries into that woman.”
“That woman.”
Even if she did not say it aloud, when the matter concerned that woman, Ezekiel’s gaze changed first. A clear, unusual gleam flashed over his irises. Though his eyes had lost their sight, the change revealed itself dramatically.
If she had followed her heart, she would have wanted to check the contents of Mongkam’s letter in advance, but she had no chance to do so. With only a towel wrapped around his waist, he sat on a simple chair before the bathtub and had Rose open the letter. Then, while gripping tightly the hand she was not using to hold the letter, he listened to his subordinate’s report.
“We asked around about the women Akenaus Valdemaira kept as mistresses, but among the women he had recently met, there was no one whose appearance matched exactly the woman we are looking for. Therefore, we changed the direction of the search and looked into whether any strange incidents had recently occurred at the Valdemaira mansion. It seems that a married couple who had faithfully served the Valdemaira family for quite a long time suddenly vanished. From what I heard, they were taken somewhere on suspicion of stealing valuables, but it is unknown what punishment they received.”
Even with no guarantee that he would be able to return to the 37th Regiment, his subordinates were remarkably diligent in helping Ezekiel trace her tracks.
Now she knew why.
Had he not said that when a bounty was placed on his head, he made himself bait and lured the enemy into battle? There must have been many officers of noble birth who put their own lives first, but if he was a commander who ate and slept in the same conditions as his soldiers and set an example by leaping into danger before them, then naturally his subordinates would trust and follow him. The loyalty and bonds forged while rolling together across the battlefield were strong.
But as a result, the theft committed by her parents had finally been dragged up to the surface. Afraid that this trembling might be conveyed through her hand, Rose did not even breathe as she read the letter.
“They are said to be a middle-aged couple, so their appearance does not match that woman’s, and the time when they disappeared without a trace is, in truth, somewhat early. However, there are parts suspicious enough that we cannot simply pass over them just because there is no suitable connection. There were people who knew the couple had been taken away, but no one knew what punishment they had received. Usually, in order to discipline the employees’ thieving hands, a maid or servant who lays hands on the master’s property is punished harshly as an example, and the result is displayed. But they disappeared as though they had literally been erased from the world. It is hard to believe that Akenaus Valdemaira, with that temper of his, would have shown mercy.”
At the same time, it was absurd that the reason suspicion had fallen on her parents, who appeared to have no connection at all, was because of Akenaus’s uncharacteristically lenient handling of the matter.
Rose barely managed to read the letter line by line.
“The problem is that those inside the mansion seem to have been firmly ordered to keep silent. No matter how much I questioned them, everyone only shut their mouths, and no one was willing to say more. So I went to the house where the couple was said to have lived…”
She still could not forget the shock of that part.
…What?
“The door was locked and no lights were on, so from the outside it appeared to be a house no one lived in. However, after breaking the lock and entering to examine it, I found it strange that the household goods and luggage were in disarray. It looked as though they had fled in the night. However, it is not clear whether they had been planning to flee before they were taken away as thieves, or whether they were fortunate enough to survive and then carried out their escape by night.”
She did not know how much effort it had taken to read the clues of their escape, left behind in the empty house, while pretending as hard as she could that nothing was wrong.
She had not expected that his subordinates would go so far as to search inside the house. When they were disappearing in secret, there was no way they would have had the presence of mind to tidy up the house neatly. Rose and her parents had fled with only the items and valuables they needed immediately.
After the report ended, Ezekiel was lost in thought for a while. His firm fingers tapped the back of her hand at a steady rhythm.
“I should send a reply to Mongkam.”
“…A reply?”
“There was controversy that he spoke like a merchant despite being from a family of long history, but my great-grandfather always said the easiest way to control people was money. That is why the Valdemaira family is not stingy with its employees. The employees are also quite loyal. Yet the fact that they laid hands on money means there was an amount leaking from that couple that their wages could not cover. Tell Mongkam to question the neighbors and look into the couple’s detailed appearances and circumstances, such as whether they had debts. There is nothing to gain from provoking Akenaus’s guard, so tell him not to stir up the employees too much.”
It seemed the last shred of conscience Akenaus possessed was that he had ordered the employees throughout the household to keep silent. Or perhaps it had been a precaution for his own sake, since troublesome issues would arise if the household scandal kept spreading outside. In truth, the latter possibility was greater.
In any case, thanks to that, her identity, which could have been easily exposed, had still remained more or less hidden, so in the end, it had helped her.
But once Mongkam received Ezekiel’s orders and began questioning the neighbors, he would soon discover that the vanished couple had a daughter, and that the daughter’s appearance matched perfectly with that of “that woman” they were so desperately searching for now.
The future that would soon arrive felt dizzyingly far and bleak. Rose avoided Ezekiel and set her gaze somewhere distant.
Perhaps I…
May not be able to stay here for long.
❖ ❖ ❖
“Would there happen to be any spare lemons in the kitchen?”
Rose took a brief moment to linger near the kitchen and look for Anna. Covered in flour, Anna had come out in the middle of kneading bread, and at Rose’s question, she nodded.
“Lemons? We always have plenty of lemons. They’re a basic ingredient, after all.”
Lemon slices were always placed on the table to enhance the taste and aroma of food. It was a relief that they were easy to obtain. Rose quietly sighed in relief.
“What do you need lemons for?”
“I was thinking of making lemon tea.”
“Lemon tea? You need something like that now, too? Do I just slice them thinly and steep them in honey? Or tell me how to make it. I’ll make it for you quickly.”
“Everyone looks busy, so I’ll do it myself. I happen to have time right now.”
“Ah, then wait just a moment.”
Anna went inside to get the lemons without showing any particular suspicion. It seemed all the folk remedies Rose had resorted to while nursing Ezekiel, who could no longer use painkillers because of opium withdrawal—water decocted from tree bark, herbal teas, and everything else—had paid off. Anna did not even ask why she needed lemon tea.
“Do you need a lot? Or is this much enough?”
“This is enough.”
Rose accepted the three lemons Anna had brought her and smiled with a casual expression. Then she avoided the busy servants and took a seat in a corner of the kitchen. Fortunately, everyone was too occupied with finishing their assigned work to pay close attention to her. The fact that Rose usually helped with various odd jobs as she came and went also played a part in their indifference. Everyone simply assumed in advance that she must be helping with someone’s work.
With quick knife work, Rose thinly sliced the cleanly washed lemons and set aside the round pieces of lemon peel.
Sweat beaded from tension.
…Please let it work.