21.
“My lord, this way. I’m ashamed to say we simply couldn’t handle it……”
The soldier hurrying ahead broke off mid-sentence, his eyes widening.
The horses that had been running wild and scattering in every direction just moments ago had nearly all returned.
And the chief culprit of the commotion was standing quietly, reins entrusted to the hand of its groom.
The fine-blooded white horse, beautiful in form, leisurely raised its head and looked their way.
‘Huh? Then bringing the Count all the way here was……’
Cold sweat trickled down the soldier’s back when the groom, spotting the Count, came running over in a fluster.
“My lord! Y-you’re here! Well, what happened was……”
“I heard Adillo caused trouble.”
“Ah? Yes, yes…… Th-that’s right.”
The groom glanced at Adillo, then lowered his head.
“Was anyone hurt?”
“No! Thanks to her, fortunately not a single person……”
The groom, who had spoken that far, went pale as if he had made a terrible slip of the tongue and shut his mouth.
Rohwinas narrowed his brow and looked at the groom.
As he recalled, the boy’s father had been a fairly decent stablekeeper.
But this one, no matter how much time passed, had hardly anything about him to like.
“Thanks to her?”
And Rohwinas had no difficulty picking out the part of the groom’s words that grated on him.
Just then, a young woman who had arrived late approached Rohwinas’s side.
“Is the horse all right?”
It seemed she had followed Rohwinas here after he had left in haste while they were together.
Her face, catching her excited breath, was flushed and gleamed radiantly.
Vivid emerald hair upon which sunlight had settled, and bewitching violet eyes.
It was Meriana Peregrine.
While Rohwinas turned to look at his fiancée, the soldier who had brought the Count here called over a private.
The private who ran over saluted the Count, then explained the situation.
“The thing is, sir.”
In summary, some young lady had seized that frothing, rampaging horse in an instant and made it obedient.
Thanks to that, it seemed there had been no injuries either.
“……A young lady? Did you thank her?”
At the soldier’s question, the private fidgeted.
“Well, she disappeared while I was distracted for a moment.”
“What? Then you’re saying no one knows who that young lady was?”
“That is…… yes.”
“Still, you must have seen what she looked like!”
The private rolled his eyes in confusion, then answered forcefully in an extremely honest tone.
“She was like a jet-black…… a jet-black bird of prey!”
If the Count had not been standing beside him right now, the man would have struck that private on the back of the head.
The man gritted his teeth and asked again.
“When did I ask for your impression? I asked what she looked like!”
Just hearing that much, Rohwinas knew who it had been.
In truth, he had had an inkling from the moment he saw Adillo standing meekly, leaving the reins in the groom’s hands.
Meriana’s gaze fixed itself intently on Rohwinas’s profile.
Even then, the private was diligently trying to recall her appearance.
“Ah, ah, black hair…… Her build was small, but, how should I put it…… Ah! Her eyes were gold.”
“You didn’t mistake light brown for gold?”
“No, they were definitely a clear gold! I guarantee it!”
“……”
Unlike the bright-eyed private, who did not even know whom he was describing, the man could only let out a silent sigh the moment he heard that description.
Black hair.
Golden eyes.
And if she had easily calmed Rohwinas’s horse, notorious for its foul temper.
The glances cast toward the Count naturally became cautious.
Especially given that Lady Meriana was at his side.
If anyone said even one wrong word here, their head might fly.
Rohwinas’s cruelly cold methods had already spread in whispers.
Just then, Meriana smiled as if nothing were amiss and spoke to Rohwinas.
“It seems I should offer my thanks to that young lady as well.”
Her voice was clear and soft.
The soldier lowered his gaze, admiring that she was indeed a young lady raised without a single shadow, one who harbored no needless resentment.
“Meriana, there’s no need for……”
And just as Rohwinas was about to dissuade her in a gentle voice.
For whatever reason, Meriana stepped forward and reached out toward Adillo.
At once, Adillo lifted its forelegs aggressively.
Meriana let out a short scream.
Fortunately, before anything serious could happen, Rohwinas managed to seize Meriana’s arm and pull her toward him.
The groom, aghast, clung to the reins, and Meriana staggered back.
Adillo was snorting and pawing the ground as if it would ram its head forward at any moment.
Rohwinas sharply jerked his chin at the groom, ordering him back, then turned his head to check on Meriana.
“Meriana, are you all right?”
“……I’m fine.”
“I told you not to go near Adillo.”
“He looked so calm……”
“……He is, by nature, not one to tolerate another’s touch. Even if he looks calm, there’s no telling when he’ll turn.”
“But that doesn’t mean he can stay like this forever.”
Meriana answered with a forced smile, but Rohwinas firmly shook his head.
“It is only a horse. Is there any need to go so far as to risk danger?”
“Still.”
Rohwinas realized why Meriana was being stubborn.
But it was not a matter even worth debating.
“Have you considered what might have happened today if I had not been beside you?”
Clicking his tongue, Rohwinas led Meriana farther away and stood there.
“……I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“So long as you are unharmed, my lady, I have no problem.”
“Then Adillo……”
“I won’t bring him out when you are present, so please pay him no further mind.”
In any case, he had only brought him out today to let him get some fresh air after a long while.
Because, as taking him outside the mansion had become rare, Rohwinas had happened to hear that the horse spent all day throwing fits in the stable.
Even now, looking at that horse that still insisted on suppressing its temper and obeying only in front of “someone,”
anger sometimes stirred through his mind.
His stomach churned, and a fierce revulsion surged up, making him sincerely want to cut off the horse’s head and kill it.
But he did not.
He did not know why.
After that, he had merely shoved it deep into the stable and treated it as if it did not exist.
Only today did Rohwinas truly decide that he must never let this horse outside again.
He should never have brought it here in the first place.
Meriana had almost been hurt.
Over something utterly trivial.
At his glance, the soldiers disappeared into the distance with the groom, leading Adillo away.
When the surroundings had emptied, and at last only the two of them remained.
Meriana’s voice became a little lower and colder.
“It hurts, so let go now.”
Rohwinas immediately lowered the hand that had been holding Meriana’s arm.
“I was discourteous.”
Meriana looked down at the arm that had been held the whole time and said,
“You could have embraced me instead.”
Her tone was unusually sharp.
Rohwinas slightly raised one eyebrow, but he did not look surprised.
Of course, he made no excuses.
“If it was dangerous, you could have pulled me into your arms. But you—yanked me by the arm.”
“…….”
“Did you want to humiliate me in front of everyone? Is that what it was?”
“What would I gain from humiliating you?”
“Adilo is your horse! Then why does he still hate me so much?”
“Adilo is like that with everyone.”
‘Except for one person?’
Meriana bit down on her lip.
“If you want to break up with me, just say so.”
“Meriana. Why say such a thing when you don’t want it either?”
“……Is that all? Is that all you have to say to me right now?”
Rohwinas closed his mouth for a moment, then soon said this.
“Meriana. I will try harder, so please don’t say such things.”
“…….”
“Getting angry will harm your body.”
Meriana pressed her lips together.
Like a finely crafted pearl, a strange dissonance settled over her soft, smooth cheeks.
She looked as though the blood were drying in her veins.
“How long must I wait?”
“…….”
“Yes, I said I would wait. I said I could wait. But it has been four years. Four years!”
Rohwinas stared at his fiancée as she shouted in a hushed voice, as though afraid others might hear.
He remembered that promise as well.
On the day of their engagement ceremony, Rohwinas had cupped Meriana’s cheek and tilted his head toward her lips…….
And stopped just like that.
Their faces had drawn so close they were almost touching, yet even after a long while, they never met.
Even so, Meriana smiled.
She said she would wait.
He had recently suffered a shocking ordeal, she said, so it was only natural that hesitation and fear would remain in a moment like this.
But afterward, what could grow infinitely close yet never touch
was not merely that kiss.
At times, Meriana had to be swept up in the feeling that she already possessed a heart gone cold and dead.
“……Even if you never loved that woman, it seems you can’t forget the intimacy of her body.”
Meriana felt the sharp accusation that flew from her own mouth claw at her own chest instead.
But at the same time, a wretched satisfaction welled up within her. At last, Rohwinas’s mouth hardened.
Seeing the first crack appear on his face, always so bored and indifferent, Meriana twisted the corners of her lips upward.
“Why? Was beating the man who dishonored her at that drinking party half to death not enough for you? Now it seems you’re angry at me too?”
It was a baseless assumption.
Meriana was the only one who thought so.
Rohwinas dismissed it inwardly as such and opened his mouth.
“Meriana. Do I look like such an irrational man that I would force myself to continue a relationship?”
Indeed, Rohwinas was not the sort of man with enough patience to do things he did not mean.
Rohwinas quietly took Meriana’s hand in his.
“I do not love that woman.”
“Then what about me?”
“…….”
“Do you love me?”
Rohwinas stared down into Meriana’s eyes, where tears were slowly welling, and answered.
“I do love you.”
It was the unvarnished truth.