SALP Chapter 27

Lanthe lost her own smile precisely because of the gentle smile that appeared on Vigo's face.

She thought of the adults she'd known when she was small. Aunt Louise had smiled like that when she talked about the family she'd lived with long ago, and the village chief had worn that same expression when he spoke of Raphlang...

"I'm not like that, okay? I'm not similar at all, you know?"

She pounded the pillow with her fists instead of Vigo. Thump, thump.

"Hmph."

Then she immediately stuck out her lips and sulked.

He keeps bringing up the past. So casually. Mentioning memories with people from his hometown—the ones he'd said weren't his concern anymore.

"Hey, prisoner."

"......"

"Rub my stomach."

"...No."

"You're not really in a position to refuse."

"I'm refusing anyway."

"Shouldn't a prisoner earn their keep?"

"You got 20,000 krone for handing me over, so don't be so petty."

Ah. She'd just invoked that shocking transaction herself—the very one she'd cursed Vigo for treating as a joke.

Vigo chuckled softly as he watched Lanthe bury her face in the pillow, drowning in self-reproach. Heh heh.

"20,000 is nothing. With Molheom included, it'll be over 100,000. We'll have to dig into the gold mines to know for sure, but either way, it's not a losing deal."

"I want to leave."

She sat up abruptly, overcome with emotion. But before she could even climb down from the bed, he grabbed her ankle.

"So how do you know Skaeli anyway?"

"Let go."

"Why does that bastard want to take you?"

"I said I wanted to go to Floretta, and that person's hometown is there."

"That person's not the type to do you favors for free. Didn't Princess Ana tell you she's a dangerous mercenary obsessed with money and jewels, taking whatever jobs come her way?"

"Dame Skaeli was docile with Princess Ana. She was helping me because the Princess asked her to."

Vigo's expression turned even sharper at that.

"Princess Ana is always causing trouble. Knowing full well what kind of person Skaeli is, and yet trying to entrust an innocent woman to her."

What? Innocent woman—is he talking about me?

"This is ridiculous, seriously."

Lanthe's eyes narrowed sharply.

"The troublemaker is you, okay? Making decisions about something my entire life depends on while ignoring my opinion completely and laughing it up with the Newbellan trash—that's you, Vigo Kiyer."

"Not every life you choose for yourself is a good life."

He scoffed as if he knew nothing of guilty conscience.

"What kind of life do you want? Do you have some grand plan?"

For a moment, Lanthe was at a loss for words.

Do people have to decide such things to live their lives?

She had no grandly dreamed future.

But there was a future she'd hate to see even in her nightmares.

"...At least I refuse a life where I marry a crazy murderer and bear his children."

Vigo's expression stiffened slightly.

"You insist Derek would make a decent husband. But that means you've either lost your conscience or lost your judgment—at least one of the two."

Even if he'd become a power-hungry person steeped in Penmark's cruel values, he must have some minimal conscience left if he was making that stung expression now.

"Would it be a decent life to bear a madman murderer's children and watch my own children follow their father around doing the same things? I would never think that's better than returning to empty Roas alone and surviving by digging up tree roots."

She refuted his values without taking a breath.

It was a rejection of Derek, and also an accusation against Vigo for telling her to marry him.

"You don't truly think someone like that makes a good partner either. Right?"

For a moment, he too seemed at a loss for words.

But.

"...Do you want to have children?"

He countered with a completely unexpected question.

"Are you asking because you don't know? That a madman who constantly goes on about bloodlines, bloodlines, might not demand I bear him children?"

"I'm asking about your usual thoughts, separate from the Gebimonde matter."

"Well..."

She fell silent for a moment before parting her lips.

"If I had my own home, and someone who cared for me."

Then having children would be nice too.

"But for me, that would require not just luck but tremendous blessing..."

For her, 'family' was the name of extremely precious and beloved memories.

For example, a nagging mother and a daughter like a foal would be good, or siblings like a spirited older sister and a gentle boy would be lovely too.

But would such a day come?

Would she ever have the right to possess such a happy everyday life again...

"Why someone who cares for you and not someone you care for?"

Vigo kept saying odd things as if he didn't know what she was thinking, watching her.

"Is that what's important right now?"

"It's important."

He's become so pointlessly stubborn.

"Liking each other the same amount is difficult, isn't it? Besides, if I like them more, it feels like I'm losing, so someone who likes me more seems better."

"That sounds like you."

What was so funny that he smiled slightly? He laughed without even noticing blood seeping from his cracked, parched lips.

"You're surprisingly picky. Gebimonde says he loves you too, but you hate him."

"Shut up. If that trash is so precious to you, why don't you marry him?"

Even though he kept spouting infuriating words at every opportunity.

Looking at him smiling like an idiot, she somehow found herself thinking of the dream she'd had a few days ago.

'Lanthe Entridhal.'

It had been an even more foolish dream than the idiot Vigo beside her.

'...The girl next door I used to like.'

Even though the Vigo in the dream wasn't the real him.

"Rub my stomach, prisoner."

Why did she feel strange, her heart stirring?

"Why do you keep asking me to rub your stomach when you don't even have indigestion?"

"The air is pressing on my stomach and it's hard to breathe. Hurry."

"Ugh, seriously."

Lanthe pressed firmly with her palm on the uninjured side above his bandages.

Vigo groaned and grimaced.

"Be gentle, would you?"

"I am being gentle."

"That was full of emotion."

"Don't be a baby. You're built like a mountain but acting like a child."

"I asked you to rub, not press hard. Ow. Ow."

"Are you a worm? Why do you keep squirming?"

Just as she was about to burst out laughing despite herself.

"If I collapse and get worse because of strong Lanthe Entridhal, Gebimonde will chase you down and carry you... Ow!"

She pinched his cheek hard instead of his stomach and pulled.

"I told you not to make jokes like that."

"I'm sorry."

"Watch your mouth. Try it one more time."

"What'll happen then?"

Instead of answering, she grabbed both his cheeks with both hands and pulled, and he glared at her with eyes faintly misted with tears.

"I didn't even say anything yet."

"Be careful. I think the medicine you took contains ingredients that regress mental age."

"Damn..."

He rubbed his reddened cheeks and let out a deep sigh.

"It's because of you."

He muttered as if to himself, but being right next to him, there was no way she couldn't hear, and her eyes widened.

"It's all because of you anyway."

"I can't believe..."

She was about to give him one more scolding when he suddenly froze his expression coldly while glaring sullenly at empty air.

Is he really angry? When he crossed the line with jokes first...

"Having fun, Rix?"

"Y-yes? No, sir!"

Rix's startled voice came from outside.

"If you brought the book, just leave it. Why are you standing there grinning?"

Ah. He'd sent him on an errand.

Lanthe's ears burned hot as she squirmed and sat a little farther from Vigo.

"Haha, my apologies. It seemed like I might interrupt you two having a good time..."

Rix came in with the book and approached the table.

"I-it's not like that."

She protested with distaste, but Rix wiped under his nose with his finger and grinned.

"Don't worry about it. I'll go wait far away, so feel free to talk comfortably!"

"......"

The atmosphere became even more awkward after he left saying strange things.

Vigo was also silent, perhaps sulking from having his cheeks pinched.

If she spoke to him first, he'd obviously respond smugly, but she didn't particularly want to do that.

Might as well read the book he brought.

Lanthe brought the scripture to the bed—though she doubted she'd absorb anything—and opened it on her lap.

"Read to me."

Vigo spoke as if he'd been waiting.

"It's the Iditi Scripture?"

"I know. I want to sleep deeply."

"You ask for a lot."

Lanthe grumbled but continued reading from where she'd left off with a bookmark a few days ago.

"Hmm... And thus the Angel Akaiel met the prophet from foreign lands and spoke..."

Before she'd even read a few lines, Vigo fell asleep. After chattering on like he wasn't sick at all. His sweat-dampened bangs stuck to his forehead, and with his mouth slightly open, he seemed to have fallen into deep sleep looking just like when he was a child.

"Idiot, you're asleep?"

The regular sound of his breathing was pleasant to hear. Compared to the infuriating, aggravating words whenever he opened his mouth, it could only be pleasant.

She stopped reading aloud and began quietly reading the lines to herself.

It was the first passage where an angel named Akaiel appeared. She remembered Father Conor at Hestan Church mentioning it was an angel that showed visions, which sparked her interest. But Angel Akaiel soon exited after a brief scene. When the familiar maxims and doctrines appeared afterward, Lanthe turned pages half-heartedly.

Truth be told, she'd been hoping a little. That there might be secrets only she didn't know written there—stories about some angel that performed miracles, or a paradise the angels guarded, or secrets of the world, such things...

Before she knew it, her eyelids grew heavy too. Nodding off, she kept repeating the same line infinitely without finishing it, then snapped her eyes open at Vigo's low groan.

"Ngh..."

"It's okay. It's a dream."

She pushed back his damp hair and wiped the sweat beading on his forehead with her sleeve. Then, relieved to see him regain peaceful sleep, she turned her eyes back to the scripture. After a while, she'd comfort him again as he suffered through another nightmare, then return to absorbed reading...

"Phew..."

Lanthe set down the thick book by the headboard and lay down in a spot a little distance away from Vigo.

Sighing over the anxiety stirred by an uncertain future shrouded in darkness, and the mysterious emotions that capriciously changed and churned whenever she looked at Vigo.

Another day was passing helplessly.

The season she wished would never end was indifferently deepening.