75.
The first thing that came into view was the acrid smoke billowing up on all sides, as if filling the sky.
Amid the flames rising everywhere, I simply stood still.
Watching a man.
A man whose snow-white silver hair hung down very long, past his waist.
Yet rather than an impression of beauty or splendor, what came first was a dry lifelessness that felt strangely out of place.
I suddenly realized what the “firewood” was that kept being thrown into the endlessly soaring inferno.
It was a heap of human corpses.
The man staggered down from atop that small mound.
His frame was large, but his body was so withered that his clothes hung loose on him.
Hollow cheeks, sunken eyes.
Our eyes met. He stared at me with cold eyes, then said,
‘Don’t wait.’
My eyes flew open.
I saw the dim interior of the room.
The window swaying now and then in the wind, and the sound of a light rain falling in the night.
“A dream……?”
I murmured blankly, then clutched one throbbing eye.
My eyelid trembled.
“Is it because I’m tired…….”
When I stayed still, the pain soon subsided.
The man in the dream had definitely been Prien Izanar.
But his hair had been far longer than it was now.
As if it were his appearance in the distant future, not the present…….
‘Come to think of it, does Prien not cut his hair?’
I scratched the back of my head, then turned over onto my side.
It seemed Prien’s staying at the mansion had made him appear in my dream for no reason.
I quietly pulled up the blanket I had kicked off in my sleep because it was hot.
The sound of rain was faint.
‘……Let’s not ask for no reason again.’
For someone who had woken because of a dream, I fell asleep again quickly.
* * *
“…….”
“…….”
The gaze piercing my cheek was almost stinging, but I did not yield.
The aide’s gaze as he looked at me had now gone beyond sourness and displeasure and was slowly revealing anger, but…….
What did that have to do with me?
I focused on the mountain of documents piled in front of the desk.
No sooner had one corner of the desk emptied than the aide placed another heap of documents on top of it.
“At this rate, the whole day’s going to pass with nothing but sorting documents again.”
The aide cleanly ignored my complaint disguised as a mutter to myself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I confirmed that he had returned to his own seat.
It was simple work that didn’t require me to use my head once I got used to it, but there was a reason I pretended to be unwilling.
That way, the aide who hated me would hand me document after document, if only to screw me over, wouldn’t he?
And at last, I ran my fingertips over the “opportunity” that had come to me.
List of Changes to Temporary Detainees and Interrogation Subjects.
When I turned one page, a long table of contents continued from the very top.
An arrangement of dates that seemed to follow no rules.
Below that were bundles of materials written in tiny letters.
I divided the materials according to date and person, then stamped “discard” on those whose deadlines had passed or that did not meet the standards.
The current status of my position was “standby.”
In other words, until there was a field mission, I had to help that narrow-eyed aide with his daily work for the time being.
Well, for me, since there was something I happened to be looking for, it was a good thing.
I skimmed quickly through the materials.
‘Here it is.’
A man with a somewhat gloomy impression, but features so ordinary they were common.
He had no noteworthy criminal record, but had been arrested at the scene and was currently being held underground.
I moved my eyes down and checked the man’s personal details and the address listed in the records.
It happened to be a street I had been to a few times.
I read it over and over, engraving the address into my mind.
Then I flinched.
It was because of a hand that suddenly thrust in from outside my field of vision.
It was the aide.
He was placing a scone studded with various nuts and dried fruits, assorted jams, and steaming black tea on my table along with a teaspoon.
“……What is this?”
“A snack.”
“A snack?”
“It isn’t poisoned, so you don’t have to worry about getting sick from eating it.”
The aide furrowed his brow as much as he could, then whipped his head away and ignored me.
“Why are you suddenly taking care of food for me? ……It’s creepy.”
But perhaps my appalled tone annoyed him, because the aide looked back this way.
“You like sweet things, don’t you? You can simply eat it. Why add unnecessary comments?”
“No, the one adding unnecessary comments right now is you…….”
My voice trailed off.
“How did you know I like sweet things?”
The aide replied in a sullen voice.
“How would I have known? His Excellency told me.”
“…….”
I pushed the documents aside, took a large bite of a scone topped with jam, and jerked my chin at the aide.
“Right now, I’ll understand no matter what you say, so if there’s something you want to say, say it now.”
“Something I want to say, what……”
The aide, who had been muttering, suddenly slammed his fist down on the table.
Goodness, that startled me.
“His Excellency is worrying day and night about getting back the weight you lost, afraid you’ll be hurt if the wind blows, afraid you’ll catch a cold if it rains, and you! You go and bring some strange man into your mansion!”
“Mm-hmm.”
I gently closed my eyes at the sweetness filling my mouth.
It was so sweet it made my head ring.
“Are you done?”
“I am not done yet!”
The aide slammed his fist down on the table once more.
“Why on earth do you keep losing weight? Do you not even eat your meals properly?”
“This is all because of emotional distress. Because someone keeps giving me looks and making me uncomfortable every time I come to work.”
“…….”
The aide’s mouth twitched.
I blew on the black tea and took a sip.
The bitter yet sweet aftertaste was truly exquisite.
‘The aide is the only one suffering because of the duke.’
I gave a small laugh.
“Wasn’t it you who wanted me to get away from His Excellency’s side? If another man appeared, shouldn’t you be welcoming it?”
“Then please go to His Excellency and properly reject him first!”
“Hmm, that’s a bit.”
“Argh!”
The aide ground his teeth.
I burst into laughter, then hurriedly composed myself.
“All right, I’ll reject him. Happy?”
At my answer, the aide’s expression, which had been rotting away, turned blank.
“Did you just say you would reject him?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
I pushed the remaining piece of scone into my mouth and chewed diligently.
Meanwhile, the aide waited for what I would say next, a faint vein rising on his forehead.
“So probably……. before winter comes? I think it’ll be possible.”
“I should never have said anything.”
The aide turned his chair around with a jerk.
I muttered at the back of his head.
“I’m serious, though.”
I had said it because I thought I would have gathered all the remaining antidote ingredients by then.
Part of me also wanted to make it happen, one way or another.
Letting the sun go down was not a good thing for them, or for me.
Brushing the powder from my fingertips, I offered one last piece of advice.
“Sir, if you keep meddling in your superior’s love life like this, you’ll be hated.”
The aide did not answer.
But how had the duke known? That I liked sweet things.
For a while, I had lived without so much as looking at anything sweet.
The rich sweetness touching my tongue for the first time in ages seemed to melt my brain into a languid haze.
Maybe it was all right now…… to enjoy things like this again, once in a while.
The memories of how, whenever he went out and returned, he would visit every famous shop he could find and bring back desserts—those memories, now…….
Seemed to have become something I could smile about and let pass.
Looking back, that might also have been when my weight hit its all-time high?
In any case, by the time the sun began to slip downward, I made my escape from the mountain of documents.
“Where are you going? Can’t you see we’re not finished yet?”
The aide raised an eyebrow.
“I have an urgent appointment, so I’ll be off.”
“What did you say?”
The aide had his reasons to feel wronged, but I had something to say for myself too.
After all, there was nothing I could do for the duke more than catch the culprit and obtain the ingredients for the antidote.
Not that I could just come out and tell him that.
How unfair.
I quickly shut the door in case the aide chased after me to grab me by the scruff of the neck.
From inside the room came the sound of something slamming down on a desk, but I pretended not to hear it and looked the other way.
Stepping out onto the street like that, I hailed a carriage and gave the address I had checked a little while ago.
While the man was being held, I intended to search his house.
That had certainly been the plan at first…….
“Er, my lord, about the carriage following us from behind—it’s not with you, is it?”
At the coachman’s question as he turned back from the driver’s seat,
I lowered the window just a little and looked outside.
There really was a carriage following behind us.
But…….
It wasn’t hard for me to identify the source of the awkwardness in the coachman’s voice.
That carriage was not some ordinary carriage one saw in the streets.
It was a four-horse carriage, boldly emblazoned with its house crest.
The crest of House Kanesion glittered in the sunlight.
On top of that, the coachman holding the reins looked familiar.
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
For a moment, I wondered if I should stop the carriage, get out, and tell them not to follow me…….
But not only did I not feel like showing such an impassioned response, above all, it was terribly bothersome.
I had worked all day, avoided Julie’s suspicious gaze, and, to prevent Zaka from tagging along, had even brazenly bolted in front of the aide despite knowing there would be consequences.
I didn’t want to waste time on something like that.
‘Mm, then we proceed.’
I gave the coachman a small nod.
“Don’t worry about it. Just keep going.”
“Ah, yes, understood!”
After checking my expression, the coachman seemed much more at ease and focused on driving the carriage.