Chapter : 14
Elsier raised his eyes to her face, which he had been consciously avoiding.
Their gazes met immediately. Wiz was smiling as she looked at him, but it also seemed—just a little—as if she were about to cry. Elsier smiled back reflexively.
He had been trained to treat people with courtesy, and as was the case with most nobles, the results of that education were deeply ingrained in his speech and behavior. As a result, most of his reactions were unconscious.
But now, faced with Wiz’s words, he could not grasp what kind of reaction he ought to show—whether consciously or unconsciously.
Throughout his life, the only people he had ever had to meet and converse with were nobles, subordinates, victims, or suspects.
What they showed outwardly was always fragmentary. His education, too, had been limited to responding to those fragmentary displays. He had never encountered someone as suspicious and enigmatic as Wiz—someone who spoke of deep, personal matters in this way.
Moreover, it was unwise to speak rashly without fully understanding the circumstances.
A faint sense of discomfort took hold of him.
The corners of his eyes lifted slightly as he waited for something else—another confession, a laugh, or even a foolish joke.
Even so, he was caught off guard when Wiz spoke.
“If you finish reading the book, you can just tidy it up yourself and head home. Um, you don’t need to rush. I was on my way out anyway.”
“…Where to?”
His throat had tightened without him realizing it. He was startled by the state of his own voice, but managed to feign composure. Once flustered, it was hard to stop. Perhaps it was because the source of this unease was not an event, but an emotion. He hadn’t even noticed that he had stopped breathing. Slowly, he let out a breath.
Wiz answered.
“For a walk.”
“At this late an hour?”
“Yes. I usually leave about an hour earlier than this. There are days like that. Nights when I can’t fall asleep easily unless I go for a walk. Not every day, but sometimes.”
As Wiz came around from behind the counter, he lightly caught her arm to stop her.
Three or four dim candles flickered. Their eyes met, one looking down, the other up. In the shadowed contours of her face, her eyes stood out, orderly and clear.
After a brief silence, Wiz smiled.
“Customer?”
The first time he had met Wiz had also been late at night, on the cluttered streets, outside the bookstore. No matter how much attention was paid to the capital’s security, it was generally better to refrain from wandering alone at night.
They had grown familiar enough that he could at least offer a warning like this now. Smiling, he spoke gently.
“It’s late.”
“……”
Wiz looked down at him without speaking. Elsier, wearing a faint smile, gazed steadily back at her. One candle suddenly went out with a soft whoosh, plunging the bookstore into half-darkness. The two of them were gradually swallowed by the shadows.
He remained still. The one who snapped fully awake was Wiz.
As if resigned, she smiled broadly, pouted slightly, and nodded.
“I know.”
Then Wiz politely brushed his hand away and stepped outside. A warning about the night road was enough between them. Elsier did not follow her.
“Oh? Marquis, is that you?”
Even when he heard the voice, Elsier did not turn around. In the meantime, the owner of the voice came closer.
“It is you, Marquis. What are you doing here?”
Though he had expected to hear this voice, Elsier still did not turn. He continued to watch Wiz’s retreating figure as she walked away without once looking back.
The moonlight was bright, but the darkness of the night was stronger. Lamps hung outside the library only near the main entrance; there were none behind them where they stood. He did not try to stop her as she quickly disappeared from view.
He had finished reading and was on his way back when he happened to see her and paused briefly. Wiz had not seemed particularly pleased by his company. There was no need to make a point of greeting her, so he had been about to pass by.
Wiz had been staring up at the Royal Central Library—for a long time, even after Elsier stopped upon seeing her.
“Marquis?”
Elsier took in the building she had been looking at one last time. It was grand—overwhelmingly so.
Only then did he finally turn toward the third prince, with whom he had been close even before being sent away as a hostage six years earlier.
“Lord.”
When he greeted him properly, Jay gave a mischievous grin.
“We’ve only met twice since I came back. Have you been well?”
“Yes. I apologize for not visiting you. Have you been well, Lord?”
“As for me… why do you think I’d be wandering outside the palace at this hour?”
There was a barb in Jay’s words.
By order of Valombrosa, he was pretending not to notice, but Elsier was well aware of the many watchful eyes—and even murderous intent—directed at Jay.
In truth, the situation could be resolved within days. They were merely waiting because the preconditions for action had not yet been met. The prince, who had grown up with him since childhood, knew nothing of this.
Even so, he could tell him nothing.
Elsier remained silent. Seeing this, Jay gave a bitter smile, but did not press the matter and sour their moods further.
Instead, the prince changed the subject.
“By the way, I thought I saw someone standing over there. Were you together?”
Elsier calculated in an instant. Wiz’s value. Jay was in a position where merely knowing someone could become a liability. Their situations were very different. So he had to weigh it carefully—whether Wiz would be of any help to Jay.
Then he answered slowly.
“I was just passing by.”
“Hm? But you were standing there watching.”
“……”
“Ah—are you lying because of me?”
“That’s not the case.”
He cut him off firmly, but Jay’s gaze grew suspicious.
The prince shifted his lips thoughtfully, then spoke, asking with a benevolent air as though he understood everything.
“Were you having a secret rendezvous?”
“No.”
This was bait, designed to extract the answer he wanted.
Elsier had fallen for and deflected many such tricks over the years, but he was certain none had been quite this mischievous.
To reinforce that certainty, Jay smiled slyly.
“So it was a rendezvous.”
“It was not.”
“Then which noble family’s young lady?”
“No.”
“Oh? Then which family’s young master?”
“……”
…The thought began to creep in that Jay was picturing Wiz with her gender flipped.
As if expressing the belief that “anyone else might change over six years, but not you,” Jay treated Elsier exactly as before. He didn’t know where this faith came from, but Elsier found it humbling—almost as humbling as the trust of the reigning king.
Yet, six years and four months later, the fact that this teasing didn’t feel entirely unfamiliar—and was even less unsettling than before—nearly made him laugh.
After dealing with someone far more formidable, he must have gained composure. Jay was mischievous, but he didn’t cross back and forth between common sense and nonsense with the breathtaking ease Wiz did.
Still, one thing was clear: if he didn’t tie this up neatly now, it would be brought up again and again. As long as it didn’t cause Elsier serious harm, Jay tended to hold grudges—especially when something amused him.
Elsier organized his thoughts and spoke. He would acknowledge just enough.
“She is an acquaintance.”
“So you did know her! Hmm. Hmm.”
“She does not belong to any noble family.”
“Oh, then—”
“She is not a head of a household either. She is a commoner who runs a bookstore.”
“That’s all fine. All fine. But then—so, is she a woman?”
“……Yes. She is.”
Jay clapped his hands—clap, clap, clap—wearing an expression of immense satisfaction as he savored the situation. Even the applause seemed deliberate. He looked delighted at having found something to tease, and it was certainly not applause of blessing. Alarm bells rang in Elsier’s mind.
Only after finishing the explanation did he realize that he would have been caught either way.
Normally, Elsier was not rash—but in front of these two people, he kept losing his bearings. They truly resembled each other. Like master and disciple. He frowned briefly, then smoothed his expression. Jay, seeing this, grinned.
“All right, all right. So it wasn’t a rendezvous. Even though you stopped in the middle of the night. And that woman didn’t run off because someone else showed up.”
“Lord.”
“I said I understand. But you know, Marquis—your romantic affairs are hardly a private matter, aren’t they? There’s no harm in being precise. I’m sure you’ll handle it yourself, but do be careful. Your acquaintance might get dragged into trouble for no reason. Of course, you already know that.”
“…Thank you for your concern.”
He thanked him for the trouble of pointing it out—twice.
Indeed, although his relationship with Wiz was very far from a romance, there was more than enough room for gossip to satisfy other nobles. He was aware of that.
Lowering his eyelids, Elsier dipped his head once.
This prince, who resembled the king more than any of his siblings, was not only similar in appearance but also in speech and conduct. As someone who served both of them closely, Elsier could not fail to notice it. His skill in wielding such gentle blades was part of that resemblance.
Rolling his shoulders and letting out an audible sigh, he asked the question he was obliged to ask as a servant of the royal family.
It was night. And the prince had no visible escort.
“What happened to the banquet, that you came out incognito?”
“Incognito? This is just a normal outing. An outing.”
“……”
His attempt to change the subject failed completely this time. Clicking his tongue at Elsier’s unamusing response, Jay shrugged.
“The banquet’s over. Or rather, I ended it. I flipped the table.”
“…Pardon?”
“And still ended up indigested, of all things. I even prayed to the gods that my dear siblings—and my stepmother—would all suffer indigestion along with me.”
He flipped the table? Seriously? He actually did it?
Elsier had never seen Jay act so violently. He was genuinely stunned into silence. But the third prince, the freest soul in the current royal family, laughed darkly.
“Today just wasn’t the day.”
“Lord.”
“It really wasn’t. Today.”
“…What happened?”
A sudden worry took hold. He had a general grasp of Jay’s movements since returning to Arioro, but anything after six in the evening would only be reported the next morning. He asked what had happened before the banquet.
Jay was fully aware of his own position and did not usually act recklessly by going out without guards. Knights of the Silver Fox Order followed him discreetly; they would protect him if necessary, but even so, facing a large group alone would be difficult.
A prince as clever and cautious as Jay would never overlook that.
So if he had gone out like this regardless, it meant his emotions had been stirred beyond endurance.
Jay watched Elsier’s worried face for a while, then smiled faintly.
“It’s a birthday.”
It was a short answer. Elsier did not understand. The prince added,
“A friend I made in Onnevalle.”
“In Onnevalle…”
“Yes. You know him too, Marquis. The former Duke of Roheol.”
Ah. Elsier nodded.
The former Duke of Roheol, said to have been attacked by bandits on a mountain road while traveling up to the capital. Due to an artifact the bandits possessed, he had been killed in an explosion along with them.
Elsier had never seen him in person, but the duke’s mastery when dealing with magic and artifacts was renowned throughout the world. When the news arrived, not only Valombrosa but even the commanders of all three knightly orders of the realm—including Elsier himself—had doubted their ears.
Especially Elsier, who owed the former duke a personal debt, had been deeply shaken.
(To be continued in the next chapter)
