34.
“I noticed a back door on our way in earlier.”
After leaving the room, Jaka slipped deep into the corridor, avoiding the people coming and going, and whispered softly.
“So we can run whenever we need to.”
I had thought Jaka might oppose it.
After all, he had kept acting as though there was no need to achieve anything today at all costs.
But Jaka did not object to my suggestion that we risk being discovered and spy on this place.
“Should we check the kitchen or the food storage first?”
“Rather than that, it would be better to watch how the people here move. Or find the places they’re guarding heavily.”
We found a staff-only passage and crept along it.
I looked at Jaka anew.
Whenever someone passed by, he would quickly find an empty storeroom to hide in, or locate a blind spot and press himself against the wall. He was far too practiced at it.
Only, perhaps he had never moved around with someone else before, because he would pull me after him a beat too late or keep shoving down on the crown of my head first.
If I had still been growing, my height would have given up before it even tried.
Crouched behind Jaka as he watched the way ahead, I grumbled under my breath.
Then I unconsciously glanced back, and there was someone at the far end of the corridor.
I let out a soundless scream and tugged at the back of Jaka’s neck.
‘There’s someone over there!’
But…….
That someone was a little strange.
He had his head pressed against the wall and was not moving an inch.
After exchanging glances, Jaka and I approached the man.
He reeked terribly of alcohol, and his wide-open eyes had no focus.
Then, in a faltering voice, he began to mumble something over and over.
“I’m, I’m not an idiot, not an idiot, Brother, Brother, you’re the one who doesn’t have the right to…….”
Without realizing it, I stepped back.
‘Is it him? I think it is.’
The madman I had seen at the Hunting Festival.
I was pretty sure he had been exactly like that right before he suddenly rolled his eyes back and lunged.
Just as I was about to tell Jaka that.
From below the stair landing directly connected to the corridor came the presence of people and the sound of conversation.
“Then that friend from back then really did see results?”
“Of course. You can think of it as something like a health supplement. It eases the mind and boosts confidence…….”
One voice was smooth and confident; the other hesitant, yet thick with curiosity.
And just then, of all times, a sudden commotion broke out at the far end of the corridor on the opposite side.
The path was blocked both ahead and behind.
In the midst of that, a strange gleam appeared in the eyes of the man who had been pressing his head into the wall, and focus abruptly returned to them.
Jaka quickly pulled me away from the man and clicked his tongue.
Then he dragged me to the stair landing, lifted me without hesitation, and moved upstairs.
His swift, unhesitating movements made almost eerily little sound.
Clutching my cane, I obediently let Jaka carry me.
A monstrous cry rang out behind us, followed by the sound of the man suddenly attacking someone as if in a seizure.
Soon after came the familiar sort of uproar that accompanied subduing someone.
I also heard a shrill scream.
I tugged at Jaka.
‘I think we need to follow those people.’
We hid on the stair landing for a short while, watching the situation.
But.
The people who had bound the man began drawing closer and closer to where we were hiding.
When they even started climbing the stairs, we eventually went up to the next floor and began looking for somewhere to hide.
Fortunately, there was an empty room with no one inside, so we hid there.
But the moment Jaka set me down on the floor, we had no choice but to meet each other’s eyes in astonishment.
The scene inside the room was far from ordinary.
On one side, finished products that looked exactly like the very glass bottle I was carefully keeping in my arms were piled up like a mountain…….
On the other side, booklets that looked like ledgers lay open, as if someone had been examining them until just moments ago.
There was even a row of weapons along the wall, all of them seemingly well maintained.
Anyone could tell this was a space used by the people involved with this place, or by its guards.
In the end, the presence outside reached right up to the door of the room we were hiding in, and without either of us saying a word, we opened a small door we found in the corner and slipped inside.
The instant we barely managed to close that door, the door outside flew open.
The man who had been dragged in was struggling and making a racket the entire time, but whatever they did, he suddenly went quiet.
‘Th-they didn’t kill him, did they?’
Jaka read the shape of my mouth and only furrowed his brow without answering.
“This prototype is not stable. No matter how addictive it is, it’s useless if it behaves like this.”
“Indeed. If we can’t mitigate the side effects, then even if we later turn them into followers, what use would such a half-finished thing be?”
Feeling sick, I covered my mouth with my hand.
Jaka touched my hand, and the crease between his brows deepened.
Then he drew my hand over and silently clasped it.
Only then did I realize that my hand had gone so cold it made his feel hot.
Anyway.
What we needed to focus on right now was,
the fact that the moment they discovered us hiding here, neither of us could be sure of keeping our lives.
I had moved with him because I knew that even if I told him to go back alone, he wouldn’t listen in the slightest…….
If I had known this would happen, I should have at least tried telling Jaka to go back.
The cramped storage room, surrounded by shelves, had barely enough space for the two of us to crouch down.
The two who had been conversing outside soon left the room.
After that, the guards, who seemed to be the owners of the murmuring voices we heard, also left the room before long.
Even so, we did not dare move.
From the way Jaka looked down at me, I knew he had realized it too.
The guards had not gone somewhere else.
They were guarding this place—this room that served as their base…….
Standing right in front of the door, the only exit.
Feeling my legs grow stiff, I carefully sat down on the floor.
“You sit too.”
I whispered in a voice as small as an ant, but fortunately Jaka understood and shook his head.
“I’ll stand, so you should at least stretch your legs a little, my lord.”
“It’s fine.”
From below, I tugged at Jaka’s sleeve.
Jaka sighed and, led by my hand, sat down on the floor in an uncomfortable posture.
There were so many things on the shelves that one accidental touch would be the end of us, so we sat pressed together for a while, unable to move an inch.
Was our only option to wait for another disturbance outside?
If that did not work, we could also aim for the moment they changed shifts.
In any case, there was nothing in particular we could do right now.
Quickly growing bored, I asked in a small voice.
“Why are you so used to this?”
“Used to what?”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Don’t tell me you…….”
“…….”
“Ah, never mind. What would I do with knowing, anyway?”
“Why stop after asking?”
“If I ask, will you answer?”
“…….”
Jaka frowned, paused for a beat, then said,
“Because I ran away often.”
His voice was very low, but perhaps because everything around us was so quiet, it reached my ears clearly.
“Did you succeed?”
As if my question was unexpected, Jaka stared down at me for a moment through lowered eyes, and the corners of his mouth lifted.
“If I said I still haven’t succeeded even once, would you believe me, my lord?”
“I’d have to. Who else is here?”
“If someone else were here, would you believe what they said?”
“Do you want me to believe you no matter what, in any situation?”
“……That would be impossible.”
I crossed my arms.
“It’s certainly something that’s hard to guarantee.”
“I know. You don’t make promises easily without certainty, my lord. And you aren’t the type to say empty words.”
As though he had never expected anything in the first place, Jaka shrugged.
“But I know because I’ve been desperate too. In the end, the person I most wanted to believe me didn’t believe me.”
“…….”
“So at least once, when no one else believes you, I’ll believe you.”
When I turned my head, Jaka was smiling faintly, the corners of his mouth slightly drawn up.
“You trust me that much?”
“Everyone deceives others. In the end, choosing whom to believe is my decision, isn’t it?”
“It isn’t a bad thing not to have faith in the first place. If you don’t expect anything…… you won’t feel betrayed either.”
“Why? Are you scared I might feel betrayed now?”
“You won’t, my lord.”
Jaka hesitated, then slowly added,
“Because you don’t love me.”
I hesitated over what answer I should give, then replied calmly.
“Soon, you won’t either.”
That was the only truth I could promise Jaka.
One that was bound to come.