TRHK Chapter 3

The man spouting things I couldn't parse seemed anything but well-disposed toward me. Had I interrupted his rest and made him angry?

I retreated for the moment, offering an excuse.

"S—sorry to bother you. You can deal with me some other time."

At that, something shifted strangely in his expression. I hadn't said anything wrong, as far as I could tell, but his reaction kept turning worse, and it unsettled me.

If this guy really was the "Red-Haired Knight" from the book, I'd gone and made a bad impression right out of the gate. Getting bewitched by his face and marching straight up to him with no plan at all—that had been my fatal misstep.

Tactical retreat, for now.

"I'll see you again."

I made my farewell and fled, skirts flaring behind me.

Even so, that flawless face kept surfacing in my mind. I'd genuinely never seen anyone who looked like that before. Granted, I hadn't met many people to begin with.

The tangled thoughts slowly faded once I'd made it back inside the manor.

"Ha, so how'd it—"

"That man's done, I'm telling you—"

Rounding a corner, I caught the voices of maids gossiping as they scrubbed the corridor. Eifel was easy to spot among them too, laughing and gossiping along with the rest.

Our eyes met; she flinched, then smoothly turned her head as if she hadn't seen me at all.

"Off gallivanting again? Where'd you run off to this time?"

Another maid, spotting me, spoke with an edge to her voice. She didn't sound like she really cared, so I ignored her and walked on.

At least they didn't seem inclined to throw another broom or rag at me today. Maybe giving it back the same way for days on end had actually paid off?

"I'll go to the Dowager, then."

Eifel's voice carried from behind me. So it was her turn tending the Dowager Countess today. The other maids offered up sympathetic noises.

"It's your turn today, Eifel? Rough luck."

"Don't say things like that. If the housekeeper hears you, you'll catch it."

Since we happened to be heading the same way, Eifel ended up trailing behind me. I heard a sigh from back there.

She really doesn't like it that much, huh.

Break time was nearly over, and I was on my way to find the housekeeper, but I stopped on the stairs and turned around. Eifel gave a startled gasp.

"Should I go to the Dowager instead?"

"……Why would you?"

"You don't seem to want to."

It made no sense to me. Compared to my mother, the Dowager Countess was hardly a difficult patient at all.

Eifel's expression, wary at first, gradually shifted into bewilderment as she seemed to register that I was serious.

"If you would… I'd appreciate it."

"Then you go tell the housekeeper I've already gone up to the Dowager. Break's over."

"Oh—right."

I took the bucket and cloth from Eifel's hands and climbed the stairs.

By the time I'd finished tending the Dowager Countess, the afternoon had slipped away entirely. When I got back to the room, Eifel, sitting on her own bed, greeted me with a stiff sort of awkwardness.

"You're back?"

Sharing a room with someone besides my mother was strange enough on its own that every part of it felt off to me. Eifel greeting me first, the way she just had—that was a first too, and it only made it stranger.

"Thanks. For earlier."

I spent a moment puzzling over what she meant before realizing, belatedly, that she meant the Dowager. Curious, I asked:

"Why don't you like tending her?"

"That's just…"

Eifel answered, a little uncomfortable.

"The smell. And she never says anything…"

I'd never once seen the Dowager speak, that much was true. And when she had an accident, there was a smell, yes. So that was why. Though if you cleaned her up properly, she seemed pleased enough. And she listened well when I talked to her.

"Should I ask if I can take over her care from now on?"

Somehow, the Dowager's situation felt close to my mother's. Though of course, no one here would ever say aloud that she'd been cursed.

Eifel looked at me, surprised.

"You'd really be all right with that?"

"Yes. I don't mind."

"……You seem different lately. You used to be—I don't know, more insufferable."

That one stung. I hesitated over what to say, and Eifel laughed, quietly. The first smile I'd seen her give me.

"Guess I've been carrying around some kind of prejudice about you this whole time, huh?"

I had no idea what prejudice she meant, but of course I couldn't explain that I wasn't the original Maylin at all, but a different one. She wouldn't believe it even if I told her.

Hm. Feels like the mood's gotten a lot softer…

I sat down on my bed, hesitated, then finally spoke.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Do you know anything about the Red-Haired Knight?"

Eifel, mid-way through lying down and getting ready for sleep, turned to look at me at the unexpected question.

"The Red-Haired Knight? Why?"

"No reason, really… I just want to get to know him."

Eifel studied me for a moment, her expression unreadable. Then she told me everything she'd heard about him.

She didn't know his exact name, only that it ended in something-ron. Young, handsome, and skilled, apparently.

I thought of the two red-haired knights I'd met.

Both of them had the build knights tended to have, and were good-looking. But the one I'd seen beneath the oak tree's shade had a face nearly impossible to compare to anyone else's. A kind of beauty you'd almost think was only allowed to exist inside a novel, I guess you could say. Though his personality seemed a bit of a problem.

"Do you know anything about his personality?"

"Hmm. Honestly I never really paid attention, so I don't know much. I've got a boyfriend, you know."

I had no idea why she'd suddenly brought up having a boyfriend. I thought for a moment about what a normal person might say to that, then clapped my hands.

"Congratulations."

"……Are you mocking me right now?"

Wrong response, apparently. Thankfully Eifel let it go with a laugh. Once she'd started laughing, she kept doing it easily after that.

"Anyway, my boyfriend's a knight too. Should I ask if he can arrange for you two to meet? You and that knight?"

My eyes went wide.

"You could do that?"

"Depends on whether he agrees, but asking's no trouble."

"Thank you!"

Eifel seemed like a good person. Not that I should trust her completely, of course. Even thinking that, something in me went soft and warm anyway. Even after everything I'd already been through.

We talked a while longer before drifting off to sleep.

"Hello."

"Y—yes? Ah, hello, my lady."

The knight who'd rescued me from the pestering merchant was named Seylon. Today too he wore his hair tied back, and his cheeks still carried that faint, red-tinged flush.

"You said there was something you wanted to speak with me about…"

Called suddenly into the storeroom, he looked entirely on edge.

Eifel had said the rumored Red-Haired Knight's name ended in something-ron. This knight's name was "Seylon"—surely he had to be the one.

I felt a certain relief at how much gentler he seemed compared to the other red-haired knight, though a faint, strange disappointment sat alongside it.

Was it because his beauty had struck me so hard, raised as I'd been in a forest? Maybe I simply wanted to confirm that face once more. As if anyone else's beauty could save this body—the one that was now, somehow, mine.

"Ah, here. Have this."

I held out the paper bag I'd brought. Bread bought with what little a maid's wages could stretch to—fresh out of the oven, and the smell was downright seductive.

Eifel had tipped me off to bring it. If I wanted to get close to someone, I should look after them with little things like that, she'd said. Then, for some reason, she'd brought up her boyfriend again.

"This is for me?"

Seylon's cheeks, already flushed, went redder still.

"Yes. My name's Maylin."

I seized the opening and got my name out quickly.

"Ah, I know. You're well known, my lady…"

"I'm well known?"

"Yes. You're—you're so beautiful…"

This world's red-haired knight really did have a way with pretty words. If this body hadn't shared my last life's face, I might not have felt much of anything—but as it happened, they matched exactly, and I felt an odd flush of self-consciousness.

"So I, too, at first sight—"

"Hh—hah, hh."

Seylon's stammering broke off as his breathing suddenly turned ragged. Startled, I watched him turn his back to me, struggling to steady his breath in short, gasping pulls. Watching him, I recognized the symptoms—a hyperventilation attack.

"Are you all right?"

"F—fine…… huh, this happens, sometimes, hh, hh."

I pulled the bread out of the bag right away and pressed the empty paper bag into Seylon's hands.

"Hh—wh—what's this for, huh?"

"Breathe into this."

Seylon didn't seem to fully understand what I was asking, but he followed the instruction anyway, breathing into the bag. It shrank and swelled with each breath, and gradually his breathing settled. Something like astonishment crossed his face.

"H—how did you…?"

"My mother had something similar."

When a body's confined to bed for long enough, other problems tend to follow. I smiled, remembering what I'd learned nursing my mother, and Seylon sucked in another sharp breath.

"Hh, I—I—it's too much, I should—hh."

"……"

He really did seem to be struggling. I watched, somewhat at a loss, as he fled the storeroom, more or less at a run. A baguette still clutched in one hand.

Getting to know Seylon proved genuinely difficult. Not even in the way I'd expected the difficulty to come.

I'd thought my own lack of social grace would be the problem.

"G—good to see you again too, gl—glad…… hh! Hah."

At first, it had seemed the hyperventilation only came on when I smiled. But it kept worsening, until eventually just running into me was enough.

"L—lady Maylin! Hh."

Just like that, the breath about killed him.

"……"

How the hell was I supposed to get close to someone like that? I'd nearly managed a meeting with him, once, near the training yard… and today too, I just stood there blankly, watching Seylon's back as he scurried off in a panic.

"Maylin, was it?"

Hwirozen, the knight who was Eifel's boyfriend and the one I had to thank for arranging Seylon's introduction, called out to me.

"That one's a lost cause. Can't handle your face."

What was wrong with my face…

"Why not try Kahron instead? Temper's filthy as hell, but at least he's not the type to go soft over a pretty face. Ha!"

He laughed heartily, like he'd just cracked a great joke.

"Kahron……?"

"Ah, yeah. There's another red-haired fellow."

Another red-haired knight. If there weren't more than two, that had to mean the man from under the oak tree.

Kahron……. So his name had also ended in "-ron"?

My expression must have gone serious, because Hwirozen's laugh slowly faded.

"Hey…… you're not actually taking that seriously, are you? Don't even go near that Kahron guy. I wasn't kidding about his temper being filthy."

Having already been near him once myself, I wasn't entirely in the dark on that count.

"Tell Eifel I said hello, then."

Hwirozen disappeared, and I was left alone.

……Kahron, is it?