Episode 4
That man, Akenaus Valdemaera, was……
“Please forgive them.”
She saw him for the first time that day.
It was around the time the crimson sunset was staining the sky. With the large glass window at his back, the man’s silhouette, sunk in backlight, was a gray close to achromatic. She remembered squeezing her eyes shut because they stung.
She did not know much beyond that. The moment she entered the room, she had dropped to her knees.
“They were poor and uneducated, and they committed a wrong they never should have committed.”
The travel bag she had set down carelessly toppled over with a thud. The moment she set foot in her hometown, she had run here without even stopping by her house. Not that there would have been anyone there to welcome her. Her parents had been caught stealing their master’s belongings and dragged away to some unknown place. It was because, on a servant’s wages alone, they could not afford the tuition for their daughter, which swelled day by day.
It had been an education beyond their station from the very beginning. Even so, her parents had insisted on it. They themselves could neither read nor write, and even if they tended to their masters’ daily lives, cleaning, laundry, and cooking were all they could do. But those who had learned anything at all were assigned easier tasks with higher pay. If one could read and write, one could read books aloud, sort mail, or write letters on someone else’s behalf, and with luck, one might even be introduced to a position as a governess teaching young ladies from wealthy families. And so she had enrolled in a boarding school far from home.
Studying was enjoyable. The more she learned, the more she desired to learn. But if she had known that her parents’ crime would be pledged as collateral for that education, she would have thought differently.
Upon hearing news of her parents, she hastily packed her things. She borrowed cargo wagons day and night to return, then first sought out the eldest son of the Valdemaera family, their employer.
“Whether you spare me or kill me, please let my life atone for theirs, and show mercy to my foolish parents just this once.”
“Why should I? Why would I do that?”
His tone was so light that, for an instant, she thought he was joking.
Only after listening a while longer did she realize. That was simply the way the man naturally spoke. Come to think of it, there had been rumors that compared to his younger brother, a war hero, the eldest son of Valdemaera lacked dignity. It was talk she had not paid much attention to when she believed she had no particular reason to be entangled with the Valdemaera family.
Even so, Akenaus’s question itself was difficult to call wrong. The disposition of the matter was entirely within Akenaus’s authority. Far from begging for forgiveness, the daughter of thieves could, according to Akenaus’s will, be implicated and punished as well.
She knew all too well how shameless this plea was, and it tormented her.
“Besides, if I accept one person as payment for the lives of two, I lose out.”
“I am…… still, I…… am young, and I attended school. I can do many useful things for you. I will do anything.”
Even so, as their child, she could not bear to stand by and let her parents die. Moreover, all the money gained through the theft had been used to pay her tuition. Because she had been the one to benefit, she felt even more wretched. And so she could only kneel with her head bowed and plead.
“Anything, just because you went to school for a bit? Your confidence goes beyond excessive and straight into impertinence. What do you think you can do?”
“I will try. I will try my hardest. Anything you wish.”
“I wonder. Wouldn’t I, the eldest son of Valdemaera, be capable of far more than you, who are nothing but the daughter of a mere servant?”
“……”
In truth, he was right, and she bit her lip hard. The studies and refinement she had acquired at school were sufficient for her to work as a governess for boys and girls. But to Akenaus, who must have received far more education than she had, they would be nothing special. What could the eldest son of Valdemaera possibly need from the hands of a woman who, at best, might become a governess……?
It was just as her mind was about to go blank for a moment.
“Mm, but if you insist on helping me……”
Rattle. The man opened a drawer, took out a small bottle, and flicked it toward her. The transparent glass bottle struck the floor and bounced a couple of times, then rolled over with a clink until it touched her knee and stopped.
For a moment, she did not understand the meaning of the glass bottle. She stared blankly down near her knee.
“In one week, he returns to Cleris.”
One week? What did that mean?
As she counted the time, she suddenly started.
Realization struck like a bolt of lightning. One week later, the triumphal ceremony for the army that had distinguished itself in battle was scheduled to take place.
“Take this and do whatever you can with that talent of yours. Then perhaps the story will change.”
Had they said that the eldest son of Valdemaera was seething with venom because the family might be inherited by his younger brother, who was returning after achieving military merit?
There had been many families that, following the old custom of primogeniture, handed the house over to an incapable firstborn only to suffer a great crisis, or even to disappear without leaving behind so much as a rumor. Even in the history of the royal family, there had been reversals against the natural order.
Afterward, families that entrusted succession to the capable child regardless of gender or age, or openly set siblings to compete with one another, began appearing often enough.
If the firstborn acknowledged the result and submitted, there was peace. But if not, tragedy was conceived.
Her stomach churned. She felt she knew what was inside the bottle Akenaus had thrown without having to ask. It was an order: if you want to save your family, kill someone else instead. She was not a soldier who had gone to war; there was no way she had ever experienced harming a life, whether human or animal. Far from harming one, wasn’t it ordinary human feeling to pity even a passing dog or cat?
It was too much to ask. She could never do it. She immediately pressed her forehead to the floor and prostrated herself, begging.
“How could I do such a thing……? If you would rather have me work without pay until the day I die, I will. You may bind my entire life in debt.”
“Didn’t you say only moments ago that you would do anything?”
Akenaus sneered. She tried to shake her head a couple of times, then let it fall limply.
“Then shall I tell you one other way?”
“What……”
“Open the lid and drink what’s inside, right here and now. All of it.”
She felt the blood draining from her face by the second. Deathly pale, she looked up at him.
“If you wanted even yourself to live, you shouldn’t have come to find me. Then perhaps it would have ended with only your parents’ heads flying.”
Akenaus made a gesture of cutting his throat. His tone and his attitude were unbearably playful. But a light attitude did not mean his intentions were light as well. He was someone with the power to harm her parents as easily as he pleased without dirtying his own hands.
“You still don’t get it? Now that this conversation has taken place, you have no choice. It would be troublesome for me if you were to slip out of here and go scurrying to him.”
Ah.
Only then did she realize. Akenaus’s proposal had not been a proposal.
It was the command of one who held another’s weakness in his grasp.
“Choose.”
Akenaus walked up to where she sat collapsed, unable to move. He seized her arm tightly so she could not flee and personally placed the bottle in her hand. Startled, she tried to shake him off, but it was no use.
“Whether three people die, or you kill one person. And don’t try to be clever. He has no idea where I’ve imprisoned your parents anyway.”
Unexpectedly, Akenaus waited leisurely for her answer. Unexpectedly…… As that thought crossed her mind, she soon shook her head. He already knew that there was no choice in this matter. To Akenaus, she was nothing more than prey driven into a corner. Prey inside an iron cage blocked on every side was bound to fall into the hunter’s hands.
“……How can I trust that you’ll keep this promise?”
After a long while, she raised her gaze and asked. Akenaus was not someone she could trust. What if this proposal was nothing more than wordplay? What if, after Ejekail died, he intended to silence her by killing her and her parents together……?
“For starters, you will certainly live. Once the deed is done, you won’t come running straight to me. After the result has been confirmed, if only to keep your mouth shut, I’ll have no choice but to let your parents live and send them away. After that, wherever your family flees in the dead of night is none of my concern.”
For the first time, an answer with considerable sincerity returned. He showed not the slightest concern about handling the aftermath.
I see. Whether or not rumors spread that he had harmed his younger brother, Valdemaera had only two children. There was no chance the sole remaining child would be cast out of the family, so was there any reason for him to worry about what came afterward?
“……What if I fail?”
“That’s why I even got you the drug. So there won’t be any trouble afterward.”
“……”
“You asked me to let your life atone for your parents’ crime, didn’t you? In that case, I’ll take your sincerity into consideration.”
She quietly curled the hand holding the bottle into a tight grip. At the action, whose meaning was clear, Akenaus smiled.
“Then, since we’ve become accomplices, shall we exchange names?”
She remained silent.
“I’m asking what your name is.”
But her silence did not last long.
“……is my name.”
After forcing her to answer and hearing her name, Akenaus gave a faint laugh.
“The spelling is far too refined, isn’t it? It seems your parents did want to raise at least you with some care. They gave you quite the name, far too much for your station. You might stand out for no reason, so for the time being, let’s use a common name that’s easy to call. Rose. How about Rose? It’s appropriately common, and the initial roughly matches your real name.”
Rose.
Rose…….
She rolled the alias Akenaus had assigned her at will around in her mouth. It seemed similar, yet different. It was unfamiliar. Even so, she continued repeating the name. If she did not want to flinch in surprise whenever someone called her Rose, she had to memorize it as quickly as possible and grow as accustomed to it as if it were her real name.
“Ro……”
It was then that Akenaus abruptly seized Rose’s cheeks and lifted her face.