38.
In the silence, I quietly walked toward Zaka.
As soon as I perched on the edge of the bed, I lowered my head and protested in a low voice.
“Why are you suddenly calling me by name?”
“Have you forgotten? You were the one who asked me to call you by your name first.”
“Keep your voice down….”
I let out a sigh.
Still, his complexion was much better than before, so I supposed that was enough.
“Where did you go, leaving me behind?”
“Ah, well.”
When I looked back at Prien, he strode over as if he had been waiting.
Then he knelt on one knee beside the bed and took my hand.
The action was so calm and natural that I had no time to stop him.
“Was this the other person who was unwell?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes.”
Prien gave a slight nod, lifted the hem of the clothes he had newly changed into, and quietly began wiping my bloodstained hand.
“Once I have cleaned this, I will examine him as well.”
“……Then I’ll leave it to you.”
I felt a gaze on me.
When I lifted my head, the captain was watching us from behind as if he had encountered something utterly bizarre.
A little farther behind him stood Duke Gladineer. Our eyes did not meet, but….
Somehow, the atmosphere was.
Coming to my senses under a gaze that seemed to poke at my cheek, I lowered my head and found Zaka staring fixedly at me.
“Were you that worried about me?”
At the question that came in as if he had been waiting to ask it, I deliberately sharpened my gaze in warning, but it did not seem to have much effect.
Fine, do as you like.
“Anyway, even if you seem fine, you never know, so let’s have you examined one more time.”
When I rose, Prien took the spot where I had been sitting.
“What about you, Asha?”
Zaka did not even look toward Prien and kept speaking to me.
“I’m fine. More importantly, would you go back to calling me what you used to?”
“I don’t want to.”
Zaka pulled up the corners of his mouth and grinned.
With my arms crossed, I stood behind Prien and watched as he examined Zaka.
After hesitating, the captain spoke.
“Then, Sir, we will take our leave now.”
Without even turning his head, Prien gave a small nod.
Far from taking offense at that cold, arrogant response, the captain instead seemed relieved as he quietly withdrew.
He even quickened his steps, as though he no longer wished to remain here.
This opportunity made one thing clear: the position of a heresy inquisitor was an invasive species that destroyed the usual hierarchy.
The bigger problem was whether it was all right for an ordinary person like me to know Prien’s true identity….
As I turned my head back, I felt someone come to stand beside me.
That cool sensation was unmistakable.
“Are you acquainted?”
The duke asked while looking at Prien.
“Well, we just happened to get to know each other.”
“…….”
Normally I would not have done it, but feeling strangely uneasy, I furtively looked the duke up and down.
I saw the duke’s hands clasped loosely behind his back.
And I saw those hands tighten so hard they turned white.
I quickly looked away.
I had seen something I should not have.
Prien was just rising from his seat.
“How is he?”
“There is no particular issue.”
“So he’s all right?”
“He is exceedingly fine.”
Just as I finally let out a sigh of relief, Zaka called me again.
“Asha.”
I rushed over at once and clamped my hand firmly over Zaka’s mouth, making sure my feelings came through.
“How about you stop joking around?”
I could feel Zaka smiling beneath my hand.
Then his mouth slowly opened, and something….
“!”
Startled, I snatched my hand back.
Zaka let out a breath that could have been either a cough or a laugh, then smiled broadly.
“Why are you watching yourself? There’s no one here the Baron needs to be wary of.”
“…….”
“If anyone should be wary, shouldn’t it be the other party? Making people uncomfortable like that.”
It was obvious who that remark was aimed at.
‘Honestly, you’re the biggest problem here, you know?’
And Prien ignored the words as if he had not heard them.
“Are you truly all right, Baron?”
“I’m fine.”
Worried he might offer to share his divine power again right here, I hurriedly answered.
“A few of the knights who were putting out the fire earlier seemed to be in bad shape from inhaling smoke. Is it all right for you not to go see them?”
“There is no need for me to go personally.”
My attempt to send even one of them away ended in failure.
Prien quietly looked me over, then began a long admonition.
“Heretics are those who enjoy burrowing into a person’s mind, weakening it, and then breaking it down.”
“…….”
“Moreover, the illegal drug being spread here is the sort that gradually causes addiction without the victim even realizing it. That is how they come to be controlled.”
“……I understand. I’ll be careful next time.”
“You must not take this lightly.”
Prien’s gaze flicked toward Zaka, then returned to me.
“If there is something you absolutely must do, then call me instead.”
“…….”
“I will help you at your side.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
“Do you still remember what I told you last time?”
“Mm, yes.”
“I will be waiting.”
Prien smiled faintly.
It seemed he was referring to what he had said before, that I should come find him once I had fully recovered.
When the situation seemed to have more or less settled, I finally glanced up at the duke.
The duke was standing exactly where he had been before.
“Your Grace.”
He slowly lifted his gaze.
“Thank you for helping today.”
“If anything, I….”
The duke, who had been replying in his usual monotonous voice, abruptly broke off mid-sentence.
For some reason, he seemed to have closed his mouth of his own accord.
His eyes, black as though they had swallowed all light, looked at me without a word.
Suddenly, I realized I had received that gaze somewhere before.
At the victory banquet, when our eyes met for the first time.
He had been looking at me like this then, too.
Back then, I had vaguely thought it was simply a pitch-black gaze,
but now, beyond it, there was something….
The duke broke his gaze and turned his eyes away.
“You should return now. It’s already daylight, and after going through so much all night, you must be tired.”
He was certainly right.
As soon as I heard those words, aches suddenly began spreading all over my body.
“I’ve called a carriage, so you can take that back.”
The duke’s gaze swept over the cane I held in one hand.
“Do you need someone to support you?”
Prien immediately stepped closer to my side.
Zaka, too, who had been faithfully playing the role of a “sick person” until just moments ago, sprang up from his seat as if none of that had ever happened.
I looked around at the three people who had, before I knew it, taken positions as if surrounding me, and trailed off.
“Uh… so….”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
I was at a loss for words.
If I wanted to brush this situation off lightly, I should have answered at once, without even taking a breath.
How awkward would the atmosphere become if I chose one of them now?
Honestly, if I could, I wanted to refuse all three of them, but…….
Everyone was staring only at me, as if waiting for the words to fall from my mouth, and the pressure was considerable.
“……More importantly, Your Excellency, do you still have business here?”
I barely managed to change the subject.
“I do. Why?”
“Because I thought I ought to explain what happened today.”
“There’s no need to rush. You should take care of yourself first.”
“……Yes, I understand.”
And then I naturally landed my empty hand atop my cane.
“Then I’ll be going for today.”
Clutching my cane neatly with both hands, I played dumb and began walking toward the entrance.
……What else could I do? I had no choice but to slip past it like it had never happened!
Jaka, who had somehow come up beside me, was laughing silently.
“You know the whole situation, so how come you didn’t help me even once?”
“I am on your side, Baron, but don’t get your hopes up. I have no intention of helping with this sort of thing in the future either.”
Since it was a rarely firm tone for Jaka, I could not protest any further and lamented inwardly.
Others might say I was drowning in good fortune, but in the end, it was all fake anyway!
Come to think of it, this was the first time all the people involved with the elixir had gathered in one place.
Surely, even from now on…… it wouldn’t keep being like this every time we ran into one another, would it?
No way. Surely not.
……Right?
At this point, one thing was certain.
A four-way confrontation was truly dreadful.
* * *
I asked in the carriage on the way back.
“Would it have been better to tell the other two about the situation too?”
“What, the fact that there are two more people besides themselves who were affected by the elixir?”
“Yeah.”
Jaka, who was sitting across from me and rolling his shoulders, snorted.
“Is there any need to say it?”
“What do you mean?”
“They probably already know, so why bother?”
“……Really?”
“Do you think they’re so oblivious they wouldn’t have noticed?”
“I suppose so. Who would ever expect someone to sincerely like me?”
“……That’s not what I meant.”
Jaka lifted his head with a slightly flustered expression.
“I just mean, given the timing and all. And judging from your attitude too, Baron.”
I straightened my upper body, which had been leaning crookedly against the carriage wall.
“Ah, come to think of it, I saw some sort of pattern there today.”