TRHK Chapter 13

I'd heard that unlike the Count and Countess, who were said to have a fairly quiet temperament, Joel Coutner was a bright, upstanding young man. Maybe that was why the castle itself seemed to be stirring back to life after so long.

"Maylin!"

"Oh. You called?"

"Are you feeling sick or something? You've been so out of it today."

Following Eifel, a few of the other maids had started talking to me now too, and among them, small and pretty Beth eyed me with suspicion.

"No. I'm fine."

"The head housekeeper said to help out a little longer and then go back to the old lady."

"Right. Thanks."

"Get it together."

I did as the housekeeper ordered, helped out in the hall a while longer, then went to the Dowager Countess's room to attend her.

When I got back to the room that night, an utterly worn-out Eifel greeted me.

"Ah, today was really rough……."

I'd at least gotten small breaks in between attending the Countess, but the other maids preparing for the party probably hadn't had any real rest at all. When I handed Eifel the water I'd brought for her, she huffed a short laugh.

"Are you secretly some kind of healer? Anyway, thanks."

It was the same kind of herb I'd fed Seylon, but mixed differently with other herbs, it became a remedy for boosting energy. Eifel had already had it a few times and seen the effect, so unlike her wary first time, she took it without complaint.

Watching her drink, I asked carefully.

"When's Master Joel……supposed to arrive?"

"His letter said he'd hurry back. Still, with the distance, it'll probably take at least ten days, won't it?"

Could I really sever the servitude contract within ten days? To do that, I'd need to cure Kahron's madness within that window, and I'd also need to find the contract the Count had hidden away—no matter how I turned it over, the time felt far too tight.

Then again, I had no choice but to keep avoiding Joel Coutner. I prayed with everything I had that he wouldn't come to the Countess's room while I was there.

"Oh, right. About your red-haired knight."

Eifel changed the subject abruptly, even using that bizarre phrase—"your red-haired knight." She set the empty water bottle down on the side table and went on.

"He got called in to see the Count this time. My boyfriend thinks the Count means to formally grant him a title and bring him into the knight order."

Granting a title……? Right, even in the original novel the Count had tried to bind Kahron officially to the order rather than leave him a guest-in-status the way he was now. Kahron had refused every time, though.

"Isn't that great? You'd be a nobleman's lover, then."

The question that followed snapped me back to attention. No—it knocked me right back out of it.

"Lucky. My man never got any title."

"……What do you mean, 'lover'?"

"Huh? Me and my man?"

I shook my head fast.

"No. Before that."

"Ah," Eifel said, unbothered, and answered as if it were nothing.

"You and your red-haired knight—who else would I mean?"

That was when I finally understood why every conversation about Kahron with Eifel had felt subtly off. She'd been assuming, this whole time, that Kahron and I were lovers—the way she and Hwirozen were.

"We're not lovers, Eifel."

I denied it right away. I was worried about what might happen if it somehow reached Kahron's ears. I had no idea how he'd react if he found out other people saw us that way. None at all.

"……Not?"

"Right. Really not."

"Not? ……Why?"

Was there supposed to be a reason for not being lovers? We'd done some strange things together, sure, but I doubted either of us had taken any of it as some unspoken romantic signal.

More than anything—a lover wouldn't look that dead-eyed bored, surely! The way he dragged his feet whenever I suggested the forest. The way he only ever seemed to enjoy himself when he was tormenting someone or kissing me……

My thoughts were tipping toward something indecent, so I shook my head hard again. Eifel, apparently immune by now to my odd behavior, muttered to herself.

"You weren't lovers? But……"

"…….”

"Never mind. If you say so, I guess it's so. Let's sleep."

We pulled the blanket over ourselves and lay down. That night I lay awake with too many thoughts to sleep.

Kahron.

Joel Coutner.

Kahron.

Joel Coutner.

Kahron.

Two names had been running my head ragged lately. And one of them was currently in the middle of a fight with a monster.

"SKREEEEEE!"

Could I even call that fighting? Kahron's handling of monsters shaped like giant centipedes was so effortless it verged on one-sided—honestly closer to a slaughter than a battle.

I'd grown fairly used to scenes like this by now, and while he fought, I moved around the perimeter digging up whatever herbs looked usable. But the ones that actually mattered, I still couldn't find.

We'd found two kinds of herbs together that time, and after that we'd come back to the forest with each other several more times, but the rest still hadn't turned up. This was the only forest anywhere near us. Could it be that this particular forest just didn't have them?

"I didn't find them……."

I told him the truth when he came back from killing the monsters. I'd wanted to give him something to trust. My confidence kept slipping instead.

"This isn't working. I'll have to go to the black market and ask if they carry those herbs."

The moment I mentioned the black market, Kahron—who'd been indifferent up to then—reacted.

"You know about the black market too?"

It wasn't as if the black market was some deeply guarded secret. Still, my nerves twitched, and I checked his expression.

"It's—c-common knowledge……."

My unconvincing answer made Kahron huff a short laugh. Fortunately, he seemed willing to let it go.

I looked at his sword, still smeared with blood. Braced for him to wipe it on my skirt again, I watched—but he only flicked it a few times and slid it back into its sheath. He hadn't wiped his sword on my skirt again, not since that very first time.

"Do you hate the Coutner house, Kahron?"

Talking to myself on the way back had become as much a fixed part of the routine as him killing monsters. Then, remembering that Eifel had told me he'd turned down the Count's offer again, I asked, casually, on impulse.

Honestly, I wasn't entirely in the dark about why Kahron wouldn't take the bait of a title. As far as I knew, he'd probably already been a noble to begin with. Letting on I knew that much would only put him on guard again, so I kept my mouth shut.

"What's there to hate. They feed me, and they feed me monsters."

Surprisingly, Kahron answered readily. I'd never met anyone who lumped meals and monsters together like that, but it was a reasonable enough explanation regardless. Was that, in some strange way, why he listened so well to Knight Commander Landale's orders?

"Then what about me?"

I'd only meant to get one more clear answer out of him—that if I cured his madness, he'd actually put in the effort to deal with my magical servitude contract—but the words came out wrong. A silence followed, and cold sweat ran down my back.

"S-sorry, I misspoke. That's not what I……"

"What'll you give me?"

Kahron asked that with a smile, and the smile was dissolute in a way that went too far. Someone who looked like a painting even standing still, smiling like he'd made up his mind to seduce someone—it was very bad for my heart.

"I already told you, I can cure your madness, and in exchange you'll have to gather all the herbs……"

"Not that. Maylin."

Why was he saying my name like that all of a sudden? He stepped closer. I stepped back exactly as much. Something about it didn't feel right.

"Gonna keep spouting nonsense?"

Nonsense, he says. As if anything mattered more to him than curing his madness.

Eventually he pinned me against a tree, blocking my way—then blew a breath, warm, right against my ear. Gooseflesh rose in a single sweep—not ordinary gooseflesh, either, but the strange, unpleasant-pleasant kind. I couldn't tell what I was even thinking anymore.

"Wh-what do you want."

"……Who knows."

Kahron dipped his head. Kissed my neck—quick, smacking. Bare skin, his mouth right on it—so stark it made me shudder, all over.

"I had a dream."

"…….”

"You were crying in it."

The abrupt turn to a dream loosened the tension in my shoulders. Kahron went on, his mouth near my ear.

"So do you know what I did?"

I didn't mind talking, but I wished he'd put some distance between us. Every time his breath landed on the shell of my ear, it kept twitching involuntarily.

I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Did you kill me?"

"…….”

Something like bewilderment spread across his face. Wait—hadn't he just said I was crying……? Wasn't it more likely dream-Kahron had killed me and that was why I'd cried? Or maybe he'd killed me because he hated the sight of me crying. Somehow dream-Kahron seemed to have an even fouler temper than the real one.

For some reason, Kahron pulled back with the look of someone whose interest had suddenly cooled. He looked faintly put out, too.

We walked on together again after that, but I never did understand what had just passed between us. I couldn't even read people properly to begin with, and Kahron was simply too difficult a figure for me.

"Kahron."

"…….”

"Thanks for coming with me again today."

I'd be even more grateful if he'd just skip the strange stuff. But I wasn't even confident I truly disliked the strange stuff, which only left me more confused.

"I'm not coming back."

He grumbled it out. I knew he didn't mean it, but just in case, I launched into a long-winded explanation all over again about why we had to keep coming to the forest. Kahron looked like he let it go in one ear and out the other the whole walk.

We got back to the castle relatively early that day. But if I'd known ahead of time that a party for Joel Coutner was underway in that castle we'd returned to, I never would have come back so early.

"Maylin! Come quick. Master Joel's back!"

The maids' faces were bright with color. It seemed Joel Coutner was welcomed by everyone except me. No—Kahron too. He wasn't the type to welcome anyone, whoever showed up.