Chapter 31
“What……did you say……?”
My voice trembled.
I had planned to let it slide, pretend I didn’t hear. It was familiar treatment, after all.
But it’s a different story when you say the thought right to my face.
“What exactly do you mean by ‘someone like you’?”
“……”
Ignoring me again?
I can’t take this anymore.
Even if I’m indebted to him, this is too much.
“Answer me!”
I grabbed Rosier’s arm.
“L-Let go of me.”
As Rosier tried to shake me off as if burned, I clung on with all my strength.
“I’m not letting go until I get an explanation.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I’m not convinced!”
“Such stubbornness…”
“Are you upset because I misunderstood you for a monster in the closet?”
Of course, it must have been an absurd experience for Rosier, who had even taken me to the dispensary, to be screamed at and pointed at by his patient.
But his appearance, with thunder and lightning in the background, was undeniably that of a beast descended from the mountains.
Even thinking back, it was beyond my control.
“Monster in the… What is that?”
“……”
So he doesn’t know about ‘The Midnight Monster in the Closet’.
Well, that fairy tale was imported from the Jennenhaft Empire. It was a terrifying fairy tale told to me by a maid, a book from the country where I was born.
There’s no way Kanis, even if it formed an alliance with the Euphorian Kingdom and traded with the Taweila merchants, would have imported the culture of a foreign nation.
I overlooked that fact.
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Surprisingly, a look of curiosity flashed across Rosier’s face.
“You demand an explanation from me, yet you evade answering my question?”
It seemed that offering a clumsy explanation would only worsen the situation.
“Then how about we nicely explain things to each other? You first, Mr. Rosier.”
“……Is that what this is about?”
Tch, he’s not falling for it.
By the way, the atmosphere has become quite different from before. I could see the hostility fading from his eyes.
I was planning to interrogate him harshly.
Sigh.
I should be the one to endure. Getting worked up alone will just make me look like a fool.
“I came to thank you. For the day of the thunderstorm, and at the country estate. You took me to Grandma Bianu, didn’t you?”
Rosier’s lips parted slightly, as if he hadn’t expected to hear this. A complicated mix of emotions smeared across his face, which he wiped with his remaining hand.
It would have been nice if ‘Lacey’ herself could have thanked him, but I hope he’s satisfied with receiving it from me.
The reason I looked for Rosier was solely to convey my gratitude.
I should also stop wandering and focus on my original purpose now.
“You really are consistent, aren’t you.”
A candid sigh mixed with an easily missed self-deprecation.
“Wait a minute, you… by any chance…”
He definitely said ‘consistent’. It sounded as if he was recalling something familiar.
Could he possibly know ‘Lacey’?
“Lacey, hi?”
Then, a familiar voice greeted me from behind.
“Daniel, what brings you here?”
“I came to pick up some herbs on the caretaker’s orders.”
As he claimed, he was approaching, carrying a large basket.
“What brings *you* to the dispensary? Isn’t it not time for your medicine right now?”
“Well, yes… but how do you even remember such details?”
“Haha. Well, that’s…”
It was a reaction as if asking the obvious.
“Are you done with work for the day?”
“No. I have to go make sheet music now. Speaking of which, Daniel, you?”
“I have a little time, so I wanted to talk for a bit.”
“You have free time because there are no warhorses?”
“You could say that.”
Still as easygoing as ever.
If only Rosier had resembled Daniel’s personality even a little, it would have been easier to talk to him.
Well, now that the impregnable fortress has just crumbled, maybe it doesn’t matter.
I don’t know the reason why his guard has faded.
“Enjoy your current freedom to the fullest…”
Huh?
Feeling a sharp gaze, I turned my head again. The moment my eyes met Rosier’s, who was looking down at me, I realized.
It wasn’t my imagination.
He had indeed left the room of consciousness and made eye contact.
His gaze seemed almost accusatory, and now I was caught in it again.
“Are you done with your business?”
His voice had turned cold, and I knew the barrier he had briefly lowered was now rebuilt more solidly than ever.
Somehow, it felt like we were back to square one.
“Ah, yes…”
“Then let go.”
He neatly retrieved his caught arm.
Having lost my hold, I stared at him blankly.
Why did a chill wind suddenly start blowing?
The only thing different from a moment ago was…
“Did something happen between you two?”
…Daniel’s arrival.
It didn’t seem like anything unpleasant had happened between the two, given Daniel’s expression was far too bright.
Maybe he maintains a personal distance like Sonia.
“Why on earth would the family head take in a woman like this…”
The words Rosier muttered as he stepped away scratched at my ears.
It felt like nitpicking at every little thing.
I thought once my objective was achieved, the rest wouldn’t matter.
That was purely my mistake.
It seems like I really need to settle things with this man.
“Mr. Rosier, what exactly did you mean just now…”
At that moment, a feeling of tightness gripped my chest and my breath caught simultaneously.
Then, as strength left my body, my vision blacked out.
Sounds buzzed as if I were underwater.
“…cy! Lacey!”
“Hey, snap out of it!”
Why is my body suddenly doing this?
Sensation gradually returned. Only after gasping for air did I see relief wash over Daniel’s face.
“I’m, okay…”
I took a ragged breath.
“Does this happen often?”
What the, why is Rosier holding me?
“Huh? What business is it of yours—”
“Answer the question.”
First he changed his attitude, and now he’s playing protector?
He had a serious expression, as if facing a critically ill patient. Serious enough to infect even the onlooker with a sense of crisis.
No matter how prickly he acts, it was Rosier who witnessed ‘Lacey’ dying.
Maybe he got some trauma from that.
“Don’t tell me that day you collapsed during the thunderstorm too…”
“What’s all the commotion out here? Has something happened?”
Grandma Bianu opened the dispensary door and stuck her head out.
I thought Rosier would welcome her like a savior.
“Don’t just sit there on the floor, bring her inside and lay her down.”
However, he was looking at Grandma Bianu with an even more murderous glint in his eye than when he had been wary of me just moments ago.
* * *
There was nothing particularly wrong, according to Grandma Bianu’s opinion. She added that I shouldn’t overexert myself by walking around.
“Are you sure you’re okay? No, I think it would be better if I carried you.”
“Mr. Rosier is one thing, but you too, please stop treating me like a patient!”
“Ah, sorry.”
If I’d known it would be like this, I would have run away on my own.
After the examination, an argument broke out between Rosier and Grandma Bianu. From what I could gather, it was about whether the chromium antidote had been properly administered.
Perhaps because the atmosphere turned dangerously hostile, I couldn’t stay in the dispensary any longer. Daniel and I practically fled outside.
For me, it was also time to go make sheet music anyway.
“By the way, it’s been almost four years.”
“What has?”
“Sir Rosier. I hadn’t seen him since he went to the Euphorian Kingdom following the family head. I heard he occasionally visited the castle…”
If it’s been four years, that means the year my father passed away.
“Wait a minute? Going to the Euphorian Kingdom means you’re among the elite knights, right. He was a knight?”
“That’s right.”
He said he found ‘Lacey’ collapsed while inspecting the country estate, so I thought he was just an errand boy…
If he hasn’t run into Daniel, who has been living at the castle all this time, then where has Rosier been all this while?
“Grandma Bianu was incredibly disappointed. When the grandson she raised as the next dispensary head suddenly declared he would become a knight.”
I never would have guessed he had such a background.
No wonder he meddles in medicine recipes.
“Even though he’s much younger than me, Sir Rosier’s tenacity is truly amazing. Picking up a sword past the age of ten and becoming a knight is absolutely no easy feat.”
There was a strange note of envy in Daniel’s voice as he spoke about Rosier.
“From what I see, I think even you could do it if you started now?”
“Huh? Right now, what, ah, that tickles…!”
Just by pressing his arm like this, you can tell. He has a natural, well-trained physique even better than Rosier’s.
Such muscles couldn’t come from ordinary labor alone.
“W-We’re almost there. Well then, Lacey, see you later!”
“Uh. Huh? Yeah, take… care.”
We just arrived at the front door and he’s leaving?
Did I tickle him too much?
I think I may have found Daniel’s weakness.
* * *
That night.
Someone infiltrated the dark records room of the dispensary.
“Not this one… not this one either…”
Familiar with the darkness, they quickly identified the names on the prescriptions using only the moonlight filtering through the window.
Before long, their hand stopped.
“……Lacey Thiel.”
Having found his target, he quickly read through the prescription.
“So a little rat thief has gotten in.”
The voice came before the lantern light illuminated the records room. As the darkness lifted, Rosier’s face was revealed.
“Grandmother.”
Far from being surprised or flustered, his expression was rather accusatory towards Bianu.
“What did you do to her, to Miss Lacey.”
