17.
My shadow fell lightly over Jaka’s face.
Come to think of it, there was no shade from the trees, so if he really was sleeping, the glare must have been bothering him.
I shifted slightly so that my shadow covered Jaka’s face completely.
His achromatic face remained still.
Was he really asleep?
I crouched down in front of him.
To be honest, I knew it too.
That he was far too much of a man, in every respect, to dismiss simply because he was young.
I had met Rowhinas when I was his age too.
It was just that the words of refusal I could say aloud were rather flimsy.
My gaze slowly moved downward.
The straight nape of his neck beneath his round head, his broad line of shoulders, his chest rising and falling slowly, his forearms with muscles standing out because he had his arms crossed…….
And then I noticed his fingertips trembling ever so slightly.
“Jaka.”
“…….”
“Are you asleep?”
I reached out and gently stroked his hair, which was a little stiff yet meekly yielded to my touch.
Something soft and pliant brushed against the edge of my palm.
When I tilted my head, I saw the shell of his ear.
After lightly neatening his disheveled hair with my fingertips, I began stroking his head again.
“Are you really asleep?”
Before I knew it, the shell of his ear had flushed bright red.
Perhaps he felt my gaze as I stared down at him, because even the nape of his neck quickly reddened.
“You’re not asleep, are you?”
When I murmured that with laughter in my voice, Jaka had no choice but to open his eyes and glare at me.
The look he gave me, as if I were no better than a lecher, was dripping with resentment.
To be honest, with his face thoroughly cooked by the heat, he only looked cute.
“What is it?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Resting?”
“I see. Then, by any chance, are you done resting?”
At my manner, as if I were trying to continue the conversation gently, Jaka stared at me intently.
But the moment our eyes met, the face that quickly turned away was tangled with hesitation and wariness, a measure of expectation, and things like fear.
His healthy complexion drained away in an instant, turning pale.
“You want to catch the culprit, don’t you?”
“What?”
But when words unlike what he had expected came out, doubt settled in Jaka’s eyes.
“The culprit who fed you the potion.”
“Ah, yes.”
“You want to catch them, don’t you?”
“…….”
I narrowed my brows and asked again, putting emphasis into my voice.
“You want to catch them? Right?”
“……Yes.”
Jaka was quick on the uptake.
“And you want to get the antidote quickly and take it too?”
“……Why are you suddenly asking this?”
“Hurry. Answer me.”
“…….”
“Or are you planning to live like this for the rest of your life?”
I asked with a smile, but Jaka must have realized there was a barb hidden in my words.
With a face like he had bitten into an unripe persimmon, Jaka answered reluctantly.
“The antidote…… I should take it.”
“Then, morally speaking, it would be best for me to take responsibility until then, wouldn’t it?”
Jaka’s expression brightened at once.
His two eyes, rounded as if in surprise, stared holes into me as though trying to discern my true intentions.
“Stop staring. What you understood is correct.”
“Then…….”
“I was too harsh last time. I wasn’t in my right mind either.”
When I apologized obediently, feeling a little awkward, Jaka, who had remained quietly still for a moment, let out a long sigh and covered his face with both hands.
After slowly dragging his hands down his face, Jaka wordlessly sat up.
Then he jerked his chin toward the spot beside him.
So he was going to become this impudent right away?
I gave a small laugh and plopped down beside him.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Ask.”
“Where were you and what were you doing all this time?”
“Are you keeping tabs on me already? I’m not really fond of this sort of thing.”
As if he knew I was joking, Jaka merely shrugged.
“Were you thinking about that the whole time?”
“Yes. I wondered where you went in the middle of the night and why you didn’t come back. Well…… I was worried too.”
Jaka, who had closed his mouth for a moment, tossed out lightly,
“And jealous.”
“Jealous?”
“Because I thought the test solution you tried on me wasn’t the only bottle.”
Jaka turned his head and looked at me sitting beside him.
His eye for detail was clearly extraordinary. Or maybe he had heard the clinking.
It wasn’t something I could hide until the end anyway.
Nor was there any reason I had to.
Without thinking much of it, I nodded.
“That’s right.”
“……One? Or two?”
“Three people, including you.”
Jaka cursed out loud.
Dumbfounded, I glared at him.
“What did you just say?”
Keeping his gaze fixed on the surface of the pond, Jaka brazenly opened his mouth.
“I suddenly had to cough. Maybe I caught a cold. Cough, cough.”
Hearing even the perfunctory coughing sounds he made, my will to get angry wilted.
“……If you’re going to make an excuse, at least do it properly.”
If “fuck” and “cough” had even the slightest thing in common, I wouldn’t say a word.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I let out a deep sigh.
“Anyway, then.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s stay together for the time being.”
“……Yes.”
Jaka’s eyes trembled like the rippling surface of the pond before us.
Well, it would be fine.
Things would work out somehow.
I hugged my knees and rested my chin on them.
A muggy wind blew, but it was not unpleasant.
“The garden is pretty.”
After a long while, Jaka’s answer came from beside me.
“……It really is.”
We sat there for some time.
* * *
“So what do I need to do?”
Jaka really was quick on the uptake.
“When do you think you took the potion?”
“Most likely at the imperial banquet. Honestly, I can’t even guess at any other possibility.”
“That’s what I think too.”
Jaka gave a slight nod as if he understood.
“It won’t be easy to shake down every noble who was there, will it?”
“That’s why you’ll have to handle the servants who were there.”
“That much won’t be hard.”
“Wait. You can’t let the other party catch on to what you’re trying to find out.”
“Yes. I understand.”
“I’m saying it one more time because it’s truly important. Absolutely do not bring up the potion.”
“Do you think I’m that clueless? They absolutely won’t find out, so don’t worry.”
I let out a deep sigh.
“There probably won’t be anything worth finding by digging into the nobles’ side.”
“Don’t tell me you think the culprit isn’t a noble?”
“No, the opposite. If they’re a noble, they naturally wouldn’t have needed to move personally.”
“So, whichever side the culprit is on, you’re saying there must have been a problem among the servants that day.”
The mere fact that they dared to make a move at an imperial banquet meant they were no ordinary person.
Of course, I couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that they weren’t a noble, but…….
In my mind, I added one piece of information to the silhouette beyond the hazy fog.
Highly likely to be a noble…….
“For the time being, I’ll pretend I need work and cling to them while I poke around.”
“And if you can move to a place that pays a lot while you’re at it, all the better?”
“I told you, I got kicked out. Don’t you know most noble families won’t even take you without a letter of recommendation?”
“Ah, so I don’t count as one of those ‘most noble families’?”
I lifted my head with a playful sneer, only for my heart to drop.
Jaka was smiling quietly with his eyes lowered.
It was an incredibly soft smile, the kind that came when tension finally drained away, as though he had only now fully relaxed.
‘I nearly killed someone.’
And almost at the same time, those words came to mind.
‘I almost did.’
Jaka, when he said that, had looked ashamed and aware of his wrongdoing, but at the same time, he had also been chillingly ruthless.
……Well.
In any case, once we caught the culprit, we would naturally part ways and never meet again.
For a relationship as brief as that, I didn’t want to become any more curious about anything.
We would catch the culprit together,
obtain the antidote,
and then neatly go our separate ways.
That was enough.
“But…….”
Jaka hesitated, unlike himself, then glanced at me to gauge my reaction.
“What?”
“Who are they?”
“Who?”
“Those…… other bastards who drank the potion. I mean…… yes, those bastards.”
He could have at least not hesitated like he was going to correct himself halfway through.
As if he gained certainty while speaking, by the end Jaka even put a faint killing intent into the word “bastards” as he spat it out emphatically.
“I honestly know one of them, okay? But the other one is…….”
“The duke.”
“Pardon?”
“Duke Gladinear.”
“Why is he coming up here?”
“Exactly. I’m wondering that too.”
“Then the other one really is that holy knight bastard?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
Jaka’s mouth was clearly forming a particular curse, but perhaps because he was conscious of me being in front of him, no sound came out this time.
Even so, as if he still didn’t want to believe it, Jaka asked again.
“The one ranked first as this year’s beauty?”
“……Uh, yes.”
Jaka must have clenched his teeth, because his jaw stood out, sharpening the line of his face.
Wondering if steam might start rising from the top of his head, I raised my hand as high as I could and stroked Jaka’s hair.
Jaka flinched, then raised one eyebrow and twitched his lips as though something displeased him.
“Good boy?”
“……Am I a dog?”
But the fierce air about him, as though he might bolt out at any moment, softened considerably as if it had all been a lie.
As expected, this was the way.
“Why does the way you treat me keep getting worse?”
Even as Jaka complained, instead of telling me to move my hand, he kept hesitating and then tilting his head toward me several times.
He was probably embarrassed and didn’t want to make it obvious,
but when I glanced at him, there was no regret on his flushed face.
My arm was starting to hurt, and I had been about to lower my hand, but seeing that, I decided to endure it a little longer.
Because these were the only things I could do for him.