90.
“There is something I have been wanting to ask you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Back then, by any chance… did you call for me?”
I didn’t want to realize right away what moment he meant.
After checking my expression, Prien’s face darkened.
I answered at once.
“No.”
Prien lifted the head he had half lowered.
“Did you just say you did not call?”
“That’s right. I didn’t call you.”
“…Do you know what moment I am referring to, to state it so certainly?”
I shook my head.
“Because I didn’t call you.”
The stick Prien held had burned more than halfway down, and the flame went out.
In its place, faint smoke rose.
“…Next time.”
“…….”
“Next time, I will be sure to hear it.”
“…….”
“Your voice, before anyone else.”
“Sir, you don’t need to go that far….”
Prien strode toward me. The murky smell of smoke swept over me.
And when even the stick in my hand burned out to the end,
“But that is what I will do.”
he said quietly.
It was then.
…Tap.
Something that had fallen on the crown of my head trickled down my forehead.
No sooner had it done so than another drop hit the tip of my nose, then another brushed over my cheek.
Patter, patter.
Night rain began to pour down.
Without either of us needing to speak first, we ran beneath the roadside trees and stood pressed close together.
He took off his outer coat.
“Ah, I’m fine.”
“Your clothes are thin. With your body still unwell, if you catch a cold, you truly won’t be able to hide it then.”
…So Prien knew too.
He had even guessed that I was hiding it from Julie.
Was that why he hadn’t reacted when he found me with Jaka?
I meekly accepted the coat he draped around me.
I thought it would be a passing shower, but rather heavy drops of rain began to fall.
Even beneath the tree, it was difficult to avoid the downpour completely.
People ran through puddles that had formed before we knew it, splashing through them.
We had to wait there for a while until the carriage we had hastily called arrived.
Prien placed me between himself and the tree trunk, stretching out his arm to shield me from the rain.
Raindrops dripped down his forearm.
I could see his hair beginning to soak through with rain as well.
‘After all the trouble I went to drying it….’
Shwaaa.
Except for the sound of the rain, everything around us was silent.
Aside from the people who had quickly run down the road and disappeared, everyone had taken shelter beneath nearby trees or under shop awnings, saying nothing.
Occasionally, someone would come to fetch one of the people sheltering from the rain.
The noise kept being buried beneath the sound of rainfall.
Raindrops fell without cease onto the bricks paving the square and the clumps of grass beneath the roadside trees.
The chill stirred up by the rain was unmistakable, and yet my body grew a little hotter than before.
As I blinked and wiped away a raindrop that had fallen on my cheek,
a voice came from above my head.
“Baron. May I ask one more thing?”
I didn’t bother to answer.
I simply looked up at him.
“Why are you willingly enduring this time with me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did you not pretend not to know me? Why… did you tell me that all of this was only false?”
“…And if I hadn’t?”
“If you had simply feigned ignorance, then at the very least, you would have been more comfortable than you are now.”
“Do you think you would have been more at ease if you had liked me without knowing anything instead?”
I clenched the hem of my clothes tightly.
He fell silent as if thinking deeply, then at last shook his head.
“…It is strange. For some reason… I keep liking you more and more. That is why I asked.”
“…….”
“Is this truly because of the potion?”
“Yes. It’s because of the potion.”
“Can it not be sincere?”
“It can’t be sincere.”
Each time I shook my head, it lowered little by little, and he bent at the waist as if trying to meet my gaze, bringing his face level with mine.
“Then why do you avoid my eyes?”
“…….”
“Are you not, at times, confused as well?”
I awkwardly turned my gaze away.
“That’s not it. I just know that, when the time comes, all of it will disappear.”
“A thought occurred to me today.”
“…….”
“Even if there had been no potion, I would have liked you.”
I was a little startled.
There was not the slightest hesitation to be read in his voice.
“…You know saying that now has no meaning.”
“After it gains meaning, may I say it then?”
“Prien.”
“Please call me Izanar.”
His hand lifted my cheek.
I could not tell whether his hand was wet, or my cheek was wet.
The rain was everywhere.
Strangely clinging.
And hot.
“Even if my feelings are real, is it truly true that you have no intention of accepting them?”
“…….”
“Not even a little?”
he said as if whispering.
“I want to know you better.”
“…….”
“I do not know you well yet, but rather, because of that….”
“…….”
“I am curious.”
His head came just a little closer to me.
I could feel his hot breath.
And that subtle touch, his fingers toying as if hooking around my wet fingertips.
Just then, a carriage wheel ran through a puddle, splashing water heavily toward us as it announced its arrival.
The hem of his trousers and the hem of my skirt were soaked together with muddy water.
A chill ran over my ankles.
“Let’s go back now.”
He drew his hand away and answered.
“Yes.”
It was then.
On the other side of the carriage, someone was standing.
A man wearing a cloak that had been soaked by the rain and stained dark all over, as if he had been standing in the rain for a long time.
“Your Grace?”
I called to him, but as if he had not heard, the moment our eyes met, he turned sharply away.
And then he vanished in an instant into the darkness beyond the alley.
As I stared at that place, soaked in a strange feeling, Prien, who had opened the carriage door, quietly urged me on.
“You are standing in the rain right now, Baron.”
In the end, I followed him into the carriage.
* * *
The next day.
I stared in dismay at the enormous pile of letters stacked before me.
“Who did you say all of these came from?”
“Miss Daena Greengale.”
The letters had begun arriving yesterday evening, and while I was out and had returned late at night, then slept soundly all morning, they had continued to fly in without pause and pile up, until
At last, the intervals grew shorter and shorter, until just now they were coming almost every few dozen minutes……
“Huff, here, another letter…….”
A servant of our mansion, looking half-dead, gasped for breath as he handed me the piping-hot letter that had only just arrived.
Rummaging through the pile of letters, I let out a sigh.
“What an utterly impatient human being.”
Considering what had happened when we last parted, and because of Romi, I knew she would have many questions, but still.
By the time I had grudgingly managed to get through about half of that heap of letters.
I rose from my seat.
If I kept sitting here reading letters, I judged that Daena might eventually storm all the way here with Romi in tow.
Somehow, Romi had found out and was insisting that she absolutely had to meet me; since last evening, she had apparently attached herself to the Greengale mansion and refused to return home.
And Daena, tormented all night, had described Romi as “a clingy drowned ghost with madness in her eyes” and finally sent a threatening plea for rescue in handwriting that had grown very sharp indeed.
As far as I could tell, if Daena had denied it to the very end, Romi would probably have remained unsure, but it seemed Daena had shown an opening while Romi was questioning her.
Well, I had once secretly visited Daena’s mansion and asked after Romi, too……
In any case, it seemed I would have to secretly visit Daena’s mansion once more.
I was also curious just how much Romi had caught on to.
“You’ve been going out quite often lately.”
Julie watched me with narrowed eyes, as though waiting for the moment to teach me a lesson.
But this time, I had something I could say with confidence.
“I’m going to see a friend.”
“A friend you meet by secretly climbing over walls?”
“…….”
I whistled and hurriedly slipped out of the mansion.
* * *
“You, seriously! Why are you only coming now!”
As soon as Daena saw me climbing in through the window, she rushed over and started smacking me on the back.
Unfortunately, that happened to be where I was injured, and I collapsed face-first onto the carpet without even managing to scream.
“H-Huh? What’s wrong? Why are you doing that? Are you in pain? Are you really hurt somewhere? Huh? Are you badly injured?”
Daena’s voice grew louder and more urgent.
I lifted a hand and barely stopped her from speaking, then awkwardly pushed myself back up.
“Yes, I’m hurt. Not badly. Got kicked in the stomach a little, and stuff…….”
“What?”
Daena kept trying to lift the hem of my clothes, saying she had to take a look, and just as it was about to turn into a scuffle.
Someone knocked.
“Miss Daena! Why do you keep avoiding me? Miss Daena? Miss Daena!”
It was Romi.
……But there was a hint of madness in her voice.
“I’m telling you, this won’t solve anything! I just want to see for myself that she’s alive, that’s all! Hm? Miss Daena? You said she was a ‘relative,’ didn’t you? Even if she’s a ‘relative’ whose very existence your family and relations know nothing about!”
Daena turned her pale face toward me.
“She’s been like that since last evening.”
“B-But revealing my identity right now is probably…….”
“Didn’t you get my letter telling you to come after changing your hair color?”
Only then did Daena’s gaze land on my hair, and she asked in a rush.
“There wasn’t anything like that in the letters I read.”
“You came without reading them all?”
“You haven’t forgotten how many letters you sent in total, have you?”
“I sent it last!”
That was when it happened.
“Huh? Why do I hear voices inside?”
“…….”
“…….”
“Miss Daena? Miss Daena? How about we open this door and talk?”
Romi began knocking on the door at an alarming speed.