88.
‘Julie did it like this…….’
Not rubbing wildly, but pressing down firmly like this.
‘Pat, pat.’
Careful not to tangle his hair any further.
I was drying it with cautious hands when his head kept trembling intermittently.
When I quietly lowered my gaze, Prien swiftly dragged the corners of his mouth down.
‘Are you laughing?’
I bristled for a moment, then quickly accepted it.
Well, it wasn’t as though he was cursing at me. What was wrong with laughing…….
“Is there something you want to say?”
“No, there isn’t.”
“Doesn’t it take a long time to dry your hair?”
“Yes, it does.”
I didn’t know much about it, but wouldn’t long hair cause all sorts of trouble when swinging a sword and fighting?
What if someone grabbed him by the hair?
Well, as someone watching, all I could wonder was whether it was all right for someone killing people to look that beautiful……. Useless questions like that.
I was about to ask if there was a reason he naturally let his hair grow long, then closed my mouth.
‘Let’s not try to know more.’
Because it felt like there were landmines everywhere.
Besides, we were going to become strangers anyway. Even if I learned more here, it probably wouldn’t be something I could do anything about.
But his relaxed face looked better than it ever had.
I only had a small wish that from now on, even in places I couldn’t see, he would keep living like this.
“Um, I think I’ve dried it all now.”
“Thank you. You’ve helped me.”
Our eyes met naturally.
Now was the time to bring up the matter.
“……Um.”
“Yes?”
“Um, then may I ask one favor of you as well……?”
“Of course.”
“There’s the Great Festival next week. I heard there’s a custom of giving simple gifts to the people around you then.”
Of course, when I was young, I was too sick and hovering between life and death to have time to enjoy that kind of culture, and after I grew up……. Mm…….
I suppose you could say that by then, not enjoying that kind of culture had already settled in at our mansion.
It seemed like a good chance to revive it.
And I needed an excuse, too.
“And?”
Prien asked gently.
“So…… I’m thinking of going out to buy gifts for the servants.”
“…….”
“I want to give them as surprise gifts without anyone knowing…….”
Fortunately, Prien, who was gentle at least toward me, did not trouble me by asking, “Then is there no gift for me?”
“Are you asking me to help you choose the gifts?”
“Ah, yes! Yes! That’s right. Could you help me?”
“Of course.”
“Then are you free later?”
“Later? Today is……. The sun will be setting soon.”
“……Is that no good?”
He blinked slowly, then smiled softly, as though a skein of thread had come undone.
That smile somehow felt especially vivid today, or perhaps it had a hint of mischief mixed in…….
“Very well.”
“R-right. That’s a relief…….”
It was then.
Prien brought over a comb that had apparently been sitting on the shelf beside the sofa for who knew how long, and held it out to me.
“Then I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Ah…… yes.”
I took the comb in a daze and secretly swallowed hard as I held the ends of his hair.
Slowly, I combed down from the top of his head.
Every time the comb caught in the middle, I grew nervous.
But at some point, I found myself more absorbed than anyone.
‘This feels better than I thought.’
It wasn’t as if he received any special care for it, but every time his soft hair slipped through my hands, the texture felt so good.
“…….”
“…….”
And so I ended up combing it for quite a while.
Until Prien finally turned to look at me, seeming unable to hold back his laughter, and said,
“If we’re any later, I think the shops in town will close, Baron.”
Until he said that.
With my face flushed bright red, I handed the comb back to him.
“Th-then just a moment! I’ll go get ready too.”
“Yes. I will prepare myself right away as well.”
The two of us rose from the sofa almost at the same time.
I was about to turn around quickly, then stalled my steps.
Prien looked at me with mild curiosity.
“……Shall I tie it for you?”
It was only that I liked how he looked better when his hair was tied. I had no other intentions…….
‘Is this an ulterior motive too?’
As if aware of my confusion, Prien handed me a hair tie.
I gently gathered his hair and lightly tied it around the nape of his neck.
Prien lifted his tied hair over his shoulder and smiled brightly, as if pleased.
“Thank you.”
“Ah, yes, yes.”
I hurried out of the room.
My abdomen felt stiff, so my body seemed a little uncomfortable too…….
Now there were only five and a half hours left.
‘Choose the gifts as quickly as possible, then enter the reserved restaurant while pretending we happened to visit……. If cake happens to come out as dessert……. I’ll pretend to be surprised and take the candles out of my pocket…….’
I stood alone, blankly going over the plan, when—
“This is a set of candles I got as a freebie when I bought the gifts earlier…….”
“What are you muttering about like that?”
A voice suddenly came from behind me.
I flinched, furrowed my brows, and looked back.
“Nothing, all right?”
Jaka was leaning crookedly against the entrance to my room.
“Are you going out?”
He asked.
“How did you know?”
“Because, for once, you’re not sprawled out on the bed or the sofa at this hour.”
“…….”
While I clenched my fist after being struck right where it hurt, Jaka stepped into my room as naturally as could be.
“Then before you go out, just in case, let’s check your wounds and rewrap your bandages.”
“It did feel a little uncomfortable anyway.”
I answered as I walked toward the dressing room inside my room.
We had already done this a few times, so my movements were natural.
I went behind the partition and stood with my back turned.
Jaka sauntered in and placed his hands on the back of my dress.
As the strings and buttons came undone, the dress slid down over my shoulders.
I held the dress around my chest and slightly hunched my back.
Jaka fiddled a few times with the knot of the bandage at my waist, then quickly untied it.
Perhaps because it was a summer night, the air touching my bare skin wasn’t cold.
To begin with, the dress I wore as indoor clothing was thin and loose, with hardly any waistline.
I felt cold ointment being applied to my back and around my waist.
Only then did my back tremble slightly.
Jaka’s hand quietly slid along my waistline toward the front.
“I told you I’ll do the front myself.”
When I subtly pulled my waist away, Jaka withdrew his hand without lingering.
“What am I supposed to do when that side has the biggest bruise, so my hand naturally goes there?”
“You call that an excuse…… Never mind.”
I opened the drawer in front of me, took out the fresh bandage I had hidden in the corner, and tossed it over my shoulder.
I heard Jaka catch it with one hand, and then he strode closer and began wrapping the bandage around my waist.
“Raise your arms a little higher.”
“My arms hurt.”
“If you can’t even endure this little bit of pain, why do you keep coming back hurt like this?”
“I feel wronged too. You think I wanted to get hurt?”
I had been about to naturally bring up the results of what had happened there, but I closed my mouth.
It didn’t seem wise to share too much information.
My premonition that our opponent would be far from easy was growing stronger by the moment, and besides, with Jaka, I honestly had no idea what sudden thing he might do.
“You call that an excuse?”
Jaka slowly tugged at the end of the bandage.
What a nasty personality!
As though he found my being injured deeply displeasing, he would often tease me like this.
When I staggered, Jaka quickly supported me from behind.
“Too tight. Be a little gentler.”
When I whined again, the strength in the hand pulling the bandage eased slightly.
“No. Bear with it. What if they find out because it’s tied too loosely?”
He spoke with his mouth right by my ear, so I shook my head to brush him off.
“Ah, come on.”
“Then why don’t you try standing properly on your own, Baron?”
“I am. I’m standing properly on my own.”
“I’m still holding your waist, aren’t I?”
“Then let go. You can just let go, so why do you keep……”
It was then.
“I could hear signs of someone inside… but there was no answer when I knocked.”
I flinched and turned my head.
Prien was standing beyond the partition.
For some reason, he was not in his priestly robes.
No, that wasn’t the important thing.
The partition only barely reached the tip of my nose,
and he was, of course, at least a handspan taller than me.
Somehow, his gaze seemed to slide slowly downward from my eyes.
I once again clutched the front of my dress.
And shoved Jaka away as if kicking him with my heel.
‘Get away.’
‘Why should I?’
We had roughly that conversation with our eyes.
Jaka tied the final knot in the bandage and stepped back.
Then he took a couple of steps out from behind the partition, rested his arm on its edge, and looked toward Prien.
‘Is he really a servant? Is it all right for him to act like that toward a guest?’
I grumbled inwardly, but I was too busy hurriedly putting on my dress to pay any attention to that.
“No matter the reason, isn’t it rather improper to enter someone’s room without permission like this?”
“And yet it seems the only person who was startled is the Baron.”
At the back-and-forth voices, I had to fix Jaka with a hard stare.
‘You heard the knock?’
Jaka glanced at me sidelong and shrugged.
After struggling to fasten the buttons behind my back on my own, I had no choice but to gesture to Jaka from behind the partition.
Jaka gave a small snicker and came back behind the partition very slowly.
“You can’t fasten even this by yourself?”
“Shh. Be quiet. Shut your mouth.”
“……”
“Hurry up.”
“……”
When I glared at him, Jaka opened his eyes wide with an obedient expression.
“You told me to shut my mouth. Now you want me to talk?”
“Why are you so sly?”
But even at my scolding, Jaka did not seem the least bit affected.
“Does it not occur to you who made me this way? Ah, I suppose that person has no conscience at all.”
“Go over there now.”
I poked Jaka firmly in the back and pushed him out from behind the partition.
Then I realized.
Prien’s gaze had not left me for even a single moment.
At last, fully dressed, I poked my head out from behind the partition and emerged.
“It seems you are not yet ready.”
It suddenly occurred to me that the Prien I knew, if he had seen me behind the partition… half-undressed, would have looked away or left the room.
And also that he had not.
“Ah, yes. Before changing, I was taking care of something……”
Prien walked over to the sofa and sat down demurely.
“I will wait here. That is all right, isn’t it?”