26.
It suddenly came to me.
‘The glass vial!’
There had been a vial the man was holding earlier before he dropped it, his body trembling violently.
I glanced in the direction where he had dropped it.
For some reason, I wanted to find it.
Those shoulders that had trembled intermittently, as if he could not control his own body.
His dilated pupils.
His strength, so great it was bizarre.
What if all of that was the aftermath of having ‘taken’ something?
It was an ominous sense of déjà vu.
What if it wasn’t a simple drug? What if it was connected to the heretics?
Then…….
‘What about the elixir?’
Sweat gathered in my palms.
I wanted to get my hands on that vial, no matter what.
But with the sound of something ripping, pain surged through my thigh, and I could not continue the thought. A groan escaped me.
Only after squeezing my eyes shut and groaning for a long while was I able to see what had happened.
The duke had torn the hem of his cloak and was binding my thigh with it.
His skill was extremely practiced, but at the same time his touch was so cautious it felt almost reverent, so I did not dare speak to him and only let out groans between my teeth.
Only after his hands had finished even the knot perfectly and withdrawn did I notice the blood-soaked bow stave discarded on the dirt.
The duke turned his head and whistled, and a hawk that had been circling high in the distant sky cried out before disappearing beyond the thick forest.
“Your Grace, that hawk……”
He looked down at me intently.
“I’ve called people. Stay still for a moment.”
“Ah, yes.”
It wasn’t anything particularly important.
It had simply been a long time since I had seen a trained hawk.
For some reason, I wondered if it might be one of the hawks I had raised.
As I leaned my upper body against a tree trunk and caught my breath, I felt someone hesitantly looking this way.
When I lifted my head, Da-something, whose eyes met mine straight on, flinched in surprise.
Then she inhaled sharply, choked, and broke into a fit of coughing.
I remembered the waterskin that had been hanging at my waist the entire time.
With a hand that had no strength in it, I barely managed to untie it and held it out toward the woman.
“……What is that?”
“Drink.”
When I stretched out my hand once more, the woman, her face deathly pale, slapped the waterskin away.
“H-how am I supposed to know what’s in there!”
I dropped the waterskin as it was, and water gurgled out of it where it had fallen to the ground.
Looking even more flustered than I was, the woman moved her lips.
“…….”
“…….”
I picked the waterskin back up and this time wet my own throat.
Only after the cool water passed down my throat did I newly realize that I had been thirsty.
Now that I had had some water, honestly, I wanted to close my eyes and rest just like this.
Trying to ignore the gaze fixed on my face, I eventually held out the waterskin again.
Da-something quietly accepted it.
Then, perhaps because the tension had finally left her, she began sniffling as she gulped down the water.
She sure drinks a lot.
I wanted to snort at the sight of her returning it only after nearly emptying the waterskin, but I didn’t have the strength even for that.
Just then, the duke, who had vanished for a moment as if to look around nearby, appeared with stream water cupped in a large leaf.
And as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he held it out to me.
I found it absurd, but I was in fact still a little thirsty, so I obediently accepted it and drank.
“……Thank you.”
The water was cool and delicious.
Soon the knights arrived and began collecting the corpses.
When Da-something said gloomily that she seemed to have sprained her ankle, one of the knights lifted Daena into his arms.
When the other knights’ eyes met mine, they very noticeably turned their heads away.
It meant they didn’t want to get involved with me.
No, who asked them to carry me?
But the duke approached as if it were only natural, bent down in front of me, and after meeting my eyes to confirm, lifted me without hesitation.
When I moved both hands awkwardly, not knowing what to do with them, he jerked his chin toward his shoulder bluntly.
Without even getting the chance to say a word of refusal, I meekly wrapped both arms around his shoulders.
After hesitating for a moment, I simply put my weight against the duke and rested my head on him.
Then, as if by magic, my body felt much more comfortable.
The strength quietly drained from me, and sleep suddenly came rushing in.
Even though I was being carried by a person, there was almost no jostling; it was far better than a horse, let alone a carriage.
As my consciousness flickered, the last thing I did was feel with my fingertips at my breast, where I had slipped the glass vial amid the bustle just now.
My thoughts were complicated, and my heart was unsettled.
I had lived my entire life in the capital, and half of that life had been spent in bed.
It was a life that should have had no point of contact with the heretics at all.
Then why?
If my guess turned out to be true…….
What was I supposed to do then?
The heretics were dangerous.
They had been secretly active throughout the continent for decades, until at last one kingdom had fallen, and in recent years the empire had been forced to suffer through years of war.
It was already an open secret that the rebellion that had broken out at the border was the work of the heretics.
There was no other reason so many priests and holy knights had appeared at this victory banquet.
But whatever the case…….
Thanks to that, I had survived for now.
“……Thank you.”
Even at the words I murmured like a whisper, I felt his gaze lower to me.
He seemed to answer, but I could not hear that much.
My consciousness went dark.
* * *
“Daena!”
The woman who spotted her friend emerging from the forest surrounded by knights cried out in alarm.
She had not expected the knights to move so swiftly when told that someone had disappeared.
Since they told everyone else to leave the forest for now because it was late, she had done so.
Only after twilight fell did her friend return safely. Grabbing her hand, she stamped her feet and urged her on.
“What happened? Did something happen? Why didn’t you come back right away? Where’s your horse? Wait, what is that? Is someone hurt?”
At the woman’s questions, belatedly noticing the bodies the knights had carried out and laid down, Daena answered weakly.
“They’re dead.”
“W-what?”
“And…… and she saved me.”
“What are you talking about? Who saved whom? Speak so I can understand.”
Daena pressed her lips tightly shut, then looked back.
She saw the woman sleeping deeply, oblivious to the world, in the duke’s arms.
She also saw that the trousers the woman wore were soaked through with blood.
And the nape of her neck, half-hidden by her collar, bruised a dark blue.
Even just this morning, she had never imagined she would feel this way toward that woman.
‘You make me sick.’
When she had spat out those words, she could not remember what expression that woman had worn at all.
All that came to mind was the vivid look in the woman’s eyes from a moment ago, as she clenched her teeth and pulled Daena up onto the bank.
She had thought the woman would let go of her hand.
The moment she realized that the man was aiming for her from behind.
That was why she had been afraid, and why she herself had tried to hide even the slightest sign of surprise.
But the woman had not shaken her off down the cliff and fled.
Even at the moment the broken bow stave pierced her thigh.
She remembered the strength of the hand that had gripped hers so tightly it hurt, as if afraid she might slip away.
Thinking back slowly, there were other moments that were strangely impossible to forget.
Like the moment when she had been frightened too, yet had struggled to hide Daena behind her back.
Why?
Why was that?
‘Serves you right for trusting me. I thought you knew very well what kind of person I am.’
Her entire body trembled.
Whether it was anger, fear, gratitude, or else…… shame.
Daena was afraid she would come to realize it.
‘Trash like you, who only knows how to do disgusting, gloomy things…….’
‘You make me sick.’
Daena sank down on the spot and retched dryly.
There was no strength in her legs.
“Good heavens, look over there.”
At the whisper of the friend who was holding her by the shoulders and supporting her, Daena lifted her head after a long while.
She turned her gaze after her friend’s.
She saw the duke standing firm with a woman in his arms.
What about that?
Daena soon realized.
The physician standing before him, looking troubled, came into view.
“If you would simply lay her down, I could…….”
And the duke answered.
“Impossible.”
As though he believed anyone but him would harm the woman in his arms.
That face, like a plaster statue that seemed incapable of being scratched by even the sharpest blade in the world, was swept up in self-reproach and fear so plainly that even Daena’s ordinary eyes could read it.
“Just treat her.”
“But, Your Grace, then your clothes will be dirtied…….”
As if asking what on earth the problem with that was, a deep vertical line carved itself between the duke’s brows.
His pitch-black eyes, without even a glint in them, stared at the physician as though crushing him beneath their weight.
As if that gaze might split him in two, the physician hurriedly lowered his head.
“Y-yes, understood.”
In the end, the physician had no choice but to examine the woman while she was, of all places, in the duke’s arms.
* * *
The carriage door opened, and I carefully stepped outside.
But before my foot could even touch the ground, an arm shot into the carriage, and I was scooped up around the waist.
The person who then pulled me naturally into his arms was, well…….
“Jaka.”
I came out of the carriage and looked around.
Perhaps word had already been sent ahead, because people were gathered in small clusters at the entrance to the mansion.
I could even see, for the first time in a while, the face of the coachman who had been shut away for the past few days with a cold.
The only cleaner in our mansion had been dabbing at her tears with a handkerchief for a while now.
Every last one of them wore a solemn expression.
I’m not dead, though…….
Looking awkward, I greeted them while being held in Jaka’s arms.
“Why is everyone acting so burdensome? When people start doing things they never do…….”
“How can you joke right now?”
Julie, her face gone white, shouted fiercely, then clamped her mouth shut.
“……Why are you yelling? I’m not the one who caused trouble this time.”
“……I know.”
Julie’s eyes reddened.
If I said even one more word, Julie looked as if she would burst into tears, so I chose to shut myself up.
Instead, I lightly tapped Jaka on the shoulder.
“Jaka.”
“Just stay in my arms.”
His flat voice was one thing, but the arms holding me were stiff as stone.
Julie was a problem, but somehow, this one too…….
“That’s not it. Turn toward the carriage for a moment. I want to say hello.”
One of Jaka’s eyebrows arched high upward.
But he quietly turned, and I looked toward the duke as he followed us down from the carriage.
When the people confirmed the duke’s blood-soaked clothing, they sucked in sharp breaths and retreated a good three or four steps.
“This isn’t His Grace the Duke’s blood.”
I had said it to reassure them, but at the same time, everyone’s complexion grew twice as bad.
……Was that not the right thing to say?