12.
It was difficult to expect trustworthiness from a mage.
So difficult that it was better not to expect them to keep their mouth shut at all.
“I’ll tell you. In exchange, you must swear an oath with me.”
“An oath? Did you just say an oath?”
“Yes. I, too, will swear that I shall speak no falsehood whatsoever. So you must swear that you will reveal it to no one.”
“…….”
“Then I will tell you as much as you wish.”
“Are you saying that while knowing that if you break an oath, you will lose your life or pay an equivalent price?”
“I know.”
“I see. So it is a secret that must be guarded to that extent…….”
The old man slowly looked me over, as though taking me apart.
“Then I shall add another condition as well. I will hear the results of using the testing reagent, too.”
I nodded.
“If you swear to keep that secret as well.”
And then I added,
“If Rohwinas asks, there’s no particular need to hide the fact that I came here.”
“I am a retainer of House Kanesion to begin with, so that much is only natural.”
“But you must not hint at anything related to what you swore.”
“That, too, is only natural.”
Even so, the old man could be called one of the more reasonable mages among them.
That much was clear from the fact that he had lived for so long as a retainer of the Kanesion ducal family without any major trouble.
“Then when can I receive the reagent?”
“Come back tomorrow or the day after. I should be able to give it to you by then.”
“Even if you start preparing it right now?”
“Even so, it will take until tomorrow to complete. If you return and wait, I will certainly send word by messenger…….”
“I understand it can be made in about half a day.”
At my words, the old man stopped speaking and stared at me.
“Start right now.”
“You were testing me.”
“Is there a problem? You didn’t lie, and I merely want to receive the medicine as quickly as possible.”
“Very well. I will make it for you at once. Then…….”
“I’ll wait here until it’s finished.”
The old man’s gaze deepened.
He clicked his tongue, then slowly dragged himself out from among the piles of books.
Then he placed something like a large jar over the fire and began searching the shelves for ingredients.
“Would you even know anything by watching?”
When my gaze did not leave his hands as he set the ingredients down one by one, the old man asked as if he were genuinely curious.
“The fourth leg of a guwa, the eggs of a green tree frog with yellow spots, the stamens and leaves of Pullantas, a solution diluted with Omlan’s tears……. Need I say more?”
“…….”
“I know at least what the reagent’s ingredients are. I’m simply not a mage, so I can’t manufacture it myself.”
“You studied that even though you aren’t a mage?”
“It wasn’t particularly difficult.”
While the medicine was being made, the old man asked me one thing after another without pause.
The old mage of House Kanesion was famous for his desire to collect what were known as “precious and rare secrets.”
There were even rumors that if even one of the secrets he knew were revealed to the world, the empire would be turned upside down.
I did not know whether that was true, but at the very least, he certainly seemed to covet other people’s private secrets.
“Then, Baron, you must also know very well how a love potion is made.”
I replied indifferently.
“I do. Very well, in fact.”
“…….”
“Why? Are you dissatisfied even when I give you the answer you wanted?”
“How could that be?”
Even as the tedious chatter continued as though it might break off at any moment, time steadily passed.
At last, the morning sun was rising.
The old man held out three small vials to me.
While the pale morning light that had stubbornly seeped even through the thick tent lingered around our feet,
we finally formed the “Seal of Oath.”
I spoke the names of three people.
“You had best visit again to tell me the answer.”
“If I don’t, will I die, leaving you unable to learn the results forever?”
My question in return seemed to provoke the old man’s obsession.
I had to reassure the old man, whose sharp eyes were gleaming fiercely, by speaking again in a tone that told him not to worry.
I tucked the vials deep into my chest, then pulled my hood low.
“See you next time.”
What caught me by the ankle as I was about to lift the tent flap and leave was the old man’s question.
“Why have you only come to find me now?”
I laughed softly.
Then I glanced back and asked,
“Were you waiting for me?”
“Rather than that, I was curious. Seeing you now, Baron, you must have had many things to ask me.”
“…….”
“The fact that you came to find me in such urgency at this late hour, deep in the night, means you have known for a long time where you had to go to meet me.”
I turned back toward the old man.
The sunlight entering through the gap in the tent flap I held illuminated half the old man’s face.
Eyes of a blue so bright they seemed almost white were staring at me.
“Why did you not come to see me?”
“Because I was searching not for the person who made the antidote, but the one who made the potion.”
“Could I not have been the culprit?”
“Why? Are you no longer insisting that I was the one who administered it?”
Even at my sarcasm, the old man chose only to ask.
“So, did you find them?”
“…….”
I impassively gazed at the old man’s wrinkled face, where all manner of emotions had faded and vanished, leaving only curiosity behind.
“No.”
I lifted the tent flap and stepped outside.
* * *
“Where did you go all night? Julie was worried sick.”
Jaka asked as he took the hooded cloak from me.
“You weren’t worried?”
Jaka answered with a bewildered expression.
“……Of course I was.”
I could feel his gaze searching my face, as if he wanted to know why I had asked such a thing.
“Julie is still asleep, isn’t she?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Good. I have something to say, so let’s go to the drawing room for a moment.”
“What about breakfast? Were you drinking all night?”
Jaka, who had lowered his head slightly toward the cloak in his hands, looked at me.
“……You weren’t drinking?”
“No. Will you sit down for a moment?”
Jaka silently sat across from me.
“What is it?”
I took one vial from inside my clothes and placed it on the table.
“I’m sorry, but let me borrow some of your blood.”
Jaka opened his mouth as if to ask something, but in the end, he chose to hold his tongue.
Then he took a knife from his pocket and cut the tip of his finger.
The way he held the blade looked extremely practiced.
When I opened the vial’s stopper, Jaka let a drop of blood fall into it.
I would know if I waited just a little.
Now, truly, just a little more…….
The surface of the vial in my hand slowly began to heat.
Without a word, I tightened my grip on the vial.
So hard that my fingertips turned white.
But when the vial boiled up uncontrollably hot, hot enough that Jaka noticed something was wrong,
I could not withstand the sheer physical pain and dropped the vial from my hand.
The vial that had fallen to the floor shattered, and liquid splashed in every direction.
So beautiful…….
A golden spray of water surged up.
The liquid from the vial swam through the air as if it were a living creature.
The spray circled once around Jaka, then slid down to my side.
And the instant it touched my fingertips, a dazzling, five-colored light burst forth.
It was so blinding that I had to squeeze my eyes shut.
At last the light ended, and the swirling spray, the rising foam, vanished without a trace.
“……What is this?”
“A testing reagent.”
“A test? What kind of test?”
For the first time, a faint confusion could be read in Jaka’s eyes.
“When you look at me, isn’t there one thing that comes to mind?”
“…….”
“You drank it.”
Jaka sat there in silence.
“No, I didn’t.”
“You saw it just now, too. That radiant gold.”
Even as I said it, it didn’t feel real.
It felt as though I were listening to someone else speak.
“If you hadn’t drunk it, it wouldn’t have changed like that. It would have just stayed a clear liquid.”
“…….”
“You drank a love potion.”
A crooked laugh threatened to slip out, so I swept my palm over my mouth.
“Do you understand?”
I had almost believed it.
How could I be so stupid?
So stupid it was almost innocent.
Even after going through it once already, again…….
Was this absurd reality truly real?
Yes, it was.
I rose from my seat and picked up the cloak beside Jaka again.
“All the affection you feel is fake. So go back to where you belong.”
“Baron!”
Jaka sprang to his feet.
And grabbed my arm.
“You don’t have to worry. I’ll find a way to solve it somehow. So you…….”
“Was it you who made me drink it, Baron?”
“…….”
“It wasn’t, was it?”
“…….”
“Then don’t run away. And don’t tell me to leave.”
“Jaka.”
Jaka looked frightened.
“And…… it’s not…… it’s not as if I love you that much, Baron. I’m just, a little…… interested, that’s all. It isn’t some great feeling! So.”
“Do you really not know what you’re…….”
What this means?
Instead of asking that, I closed my mouth.
I was about to turn away when,
Jaka spoke.
“I don’t have anywhere to go back to.”
“What are you talking about? Even if you go back to the imperial palace…….”
“I can’t go back.”
“Why?”
“Because I almost killed someone.”
“…….”
“I very nearly did. Where would they ever take in an attendant with a record like that?”
“Then I would take you in?”
“……Take me in.”
He had lost even the leeway to worry about what I would think of him.
Simply in order to remain by my side, no matter what it took, he was confessing a truth he would normally have buried forever.
“……For now, let’s talk after I get back.”
I couldn’t even be sure whether what Jaka had said was really true.
I pried off Jaka’s hand as he stubbornly held on to me.
Then I left the mansion again.