“No, no. Of course not. I am just worried they might get back up and attack again. I think we should at least tie up their hands and feet…”
“They will not be getting up right away. I will have Ris bind them in a bit.”
Having been through war, he seemed able to judge from their condition alone when they might recover.
Aside from trusting him, what else could I do right now?
Like soft taffy in the summer heat, my body sagged helplessly, and I had no choice but to lean fully against Rastan.
Carrying me like that, he went straight up to the second floor, to Ris’s room.
The faintly lifted corner of his lips looked strangely like that of a predator satisfied after a full meal.
Rastan set me down on the bed and pulled a chair over to sit beside it.
“If you are tired, lie down. You must have been badly shaken.”
“Thank you for the consideration, but please stop turning me into a noble young lady who casually lies down in front of an unrelated man.”
I smiled at him and sat upright, leaning against the headboard. Seeing me like that, Rastan returned a faint smile.
“I hope the day comes when I am no longer an unrelated man to you.”
His smile as he said it held a faint trace of both bitterness and hope.
“Pardon?”
Startled by the unexpected remark, I asked again, and Rastan, much like I had earlier, responded with a slightly playful question of his own.
“Did you not say we were friends? Or do you perhaps see me as a man?”
At his words, I realized it anew. No—deep down, I had no choice but to admit it.
‘That’s right. Even as I tried to define our relationship as friends, honestly, I think I’ve been seeing Rastan as a man all along.’
It wasn’t that I had some particular liking for him as a man.
But we weren’t truly childhood friends who’d grown up together, and it wasn’t just that Rastan was somewhat attractive.
And even the kind of charm he had wasn’t the wholesome, pure, or cute sort, but rather…
‘No! Don’t go there!’
Stopping myself there, I tried not to dwell on the sensuality he couldn’t quite hide even with his neat features, the inexplicable air of decadence about him, and the faintly tragic aura he sometimes showed.
Seeing me squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head in embarrassment, Rastan finally burst out laughing.
“Hah—ah, I’m sorry. You were just too adorable.”
Flustered, my face warmed as I shot him a resentful glare.
In response, Rastan’s cool gaze softened into a gentle curve.
It was a look warm enough to feel almost affectionate.
“Evelyn, I understand very well that you do not see me as a man at all.”
At his softly teasing tone, my face grew even hotter, and I turned it away from him at once.
Then Rastan took my hand in his warm grasp and spoke in a lower voice than before.
“I am sorry for teasing you. But if you see me even a little as a man, I would be truly happy.”
‘Why…?’
Rolling my eyes in slight confusion, I soon found the answer.
‘Ah, right. He’s someone who needs to be engaged to me, so it would be easier for him if our relationship were defined as romantic rather than just friendly.’
Perhaps, since I’d rejected his proposal, he was trying to persuade me indirectly like this.
As he watched me fall briefly into thought, he opened his mouth in a heavier tone.
“That aside—do you have any idea who might be behind what happened today?”
Pulled back to reality by his words after briefly drifting off into other thoughts, I realized his intention.
‘Because I was shaking so badly, he was deliberately making small talk to help me relax.’
Thanks to that, I was in a much calmer state now.
Still fiddling with Rastan’s large, warm hand that was wrapped around mine, I thought it over carefully.
“…I am not sure. I wondered if my father might’ve gotten into debt again through gambling. There were creditors before who said they’d recover the money by selling me if they had to. That was the day I first met you.”
Rastan nodded slowly, his gaze sharpening as he considered it.
“Or it could have been orchestrated by my father or my older brother.”
“Why would they?”
“Somehow they may have found out that I left House Lansval and decided to sell me off somewhere else.”
At that, Rastan’s brow creased darkly.
“They are foolish and wicked, but I never thought they would go that far. If that is true, they are truly irredeemable trash.”
Hearing him curse my father and Huan with those neatly shaped lips that usually spoke only refined words made me feel strangely pleased.
“It could also have been Baron Lansval or his mother behind it.”
They might have planned to sell me off—or perhaps to quietly kill me and erase me altogether.
With a serious, contemplative look in his eyes, Rastan spoke again.
“All of those are plausible theories. The problem is that this kind of operation costs quite a bit of money. Judging by the scale, it is not something small-minded people could easily pull off.”
He was right. If a significant amount of money was involved, then my father’s creditors were still the most likely suspects.
“Seeing how many men they sent, they might have known about Ris’s abilities.”
Rastan nodded in agreement.
“Or they were determined not to fail.”
I gestured toward the window and said,
“Either way, I think we will need to question the people lying outside.”
“Leave it to me. I will investigate while keeping all possibilities open.”
“But…”
This was my problem, and I hesitated, wondering if it was really right for someone who had nothing to do with it to take responsibility for finding the culprit.
Noticing my hesitation, Rastan looked into my eyes and added,
“Please let me do this. I do not want to leave those who harmed someone precious to me unpunished.”
Whenever he wanted something, he would look straight into my eyes like this.
And when he did, I always felt as though I were being drawn into those blue eyes, unable to refuse.
‘If this kind of charm is a special ability, then I suppose it counts as one.’
In the end, I changed my mind. I didn’t want to owe him, but realistically speaking, keeping those burly men locked up and interrogating them was impossible for me anyway.
‘I’ll just consider it repayment for helping him in his nightmares last time.’
“…Thank you. Then I will leave it to you.”
Rastan smiled in satisfaction, lifted my left hand, and lightly kissed my knuckles.
Watching that familiar gesture, a thought I normally would have had finally surfaced.
“Ah, now that I think about it. I am late in saying this. Everything was so chaotic… Thank you so much for saving me. I really thought I was going to be dragged off by men whose faces I had never even seen.”
“There is no need to thank me for every little thing. Your affairs are my affairs as well.”
“Why…?”
I wanted to ask why my affairs were his affairs, but I gave up. Judging by how he’d been speaking, the answer was obvious.
‘Thinking of him as a friend is my choice. Thinking of me as something more special is his choice. Let’s leave it at that. Still…’
Earlier, Rastan had said he hadn’t assigned extra guards because he’d planned to come himself.
It wasn’t surprising that he knew I’d be staying here, since Ris would report to him anyway.
What I was curious about was something else.
“Ah, right. What we were talking about earlier. Why did you come here?”
“The security at a Baron’s estate and that of an ordinary house in the outskirts of the Capital are bound to be different. I thought something might happen when the level of security dropped.”
“What kind of thing did you think might happen?”
“I didn’t have anything specific in mind. I just thought there might be people who, for whatever reason, would covet you.”
So this man had come looking for me simply because he vaguely felt that I might be in danger.
If nothing had happened and I’d been fast asleep, he might not even have been able to see me before turning back.
Rather than calculating the chances of meeting me, he had made the long trip purely out of concern for my safety.
Something swelled inside me, filling my chest to the brim.
“…Thank you. Thanks to you, I survived.”
“No. You were the one who nearly suffered something terrible. I should have come earlier.”
The phrase “suffered something terrible” brought back the image of the assailant who had held me from behind.
He had suddenly released his grip, as if attacked by someone, but when I turned around in that instant, there had been no one behind him.
