‘Then I should try again in tonight’s dream. I’ll be able to check the day after tomorrow.’
Taking comfort in the fact that Rastan was scheduled to return sometime today, I had lunch alone for the first time in a very long while.
‘It’s nice to have free time, but… eating alone is still a bit lonely.’
It seemed I had grown accustomed to always being together with Rastan before I knew it.
Just as I finished my meal and was about to stand up, the head maid, Joanne, hurried over.
“Madam, His Grace has returned.”
“He’s back already?”
Since I had expected him to return in the evening, several thoughts flashed through my mind all at once.
‘Did he come back midway because he was badly injured? Or did he forget something important? …No. If that were the case, he would have sent someone to fetch it.’
When I hurried outside, sure enough, Rastan was coming in.
As he walked inside, he was removing his helmet and cloak, both soaked in blood.
‘The Empire’s greatest swordsman, injured this badly?’
Startled, I ran toward him.
“Rastan! What happened? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Seeing me, Rastan handed his helmet and cloak to the butler and strode toward me in long steps.
The face revealed beneath the helmet was simply smooth and flawless, like a porcelain doll.
“No. I am not injured anywhere.”
I quickly swept my eyes over his entire body.
I inspected him with hawk-like focus, wondering if his clothes had been torn like last time, but he truly looked completely fine, without a single wound.
“Hm, it really is true.”
“It seems I have lost some of your trust.”
“I trust your skills. It is just that, since there was a precedent last time.”
He seemed to immediately understand which incident I was referring to.
“That was… a rather special case. I was not dealing with an ordinary human or monster. This time, it was merely high-grade monsters.”
As he said that, he lightly spread his arms while facing me, as if to show that he wasn’t injured.
At that relaxed attitude, I finally let go of my doubts.
“Alright. I will believe that you are not hurt today. Oh, right, what about lunch?”
“Rather than that, I would like to simply be with you. And talk.”
“Then let us talk while you eat. I will stay with you.”
I took hold of his sleeve and led him toward the dining room, then signaled with my eyes to the head maid, Joanne.
She immediately understood that it meant to prepare Rastan’s meal and hurried off to the kitchen.
“I thought you would be back in the evening. How did you return so quickly?”
“I wanted to be with you even a little sooner.”
“Do not tell me you pushed yourself for that.”
“Not to the point of pushing myself… I simply hurried a bit. Both in the battle, and in riding.”
At the implication that he had shortened the time it normally took by more than half just by ‘hurrying a bit’, my mouth fell open on its own.
“I ended up bursting all the monsters in my haste, which is why so much blood splattered. Normally, I deal with things a bit more cleanly.”
When one was impatient in battle, mistakes were bound to happen, and those often led to defeat.
And the monsters he had burst today were high-grade ones, strong enough that the territory had been unable to subdue them themselves and had requested Rastan’s support.
‘Indeed… he’s someone with high enough skills that I never need to worry about sending him into battle.’
I clicked my tongue inwardly. It felt as though I had just concretely confirmed the strength I had only vaguely believed in before.
Near the end of the meal, Rastan looked at me gently, as always, and brought up a topic.
“Evelyn. Would you like to hear about the Malia War?”
It was a completely abrupt remark, utterly unrelated to the conversation we had been having until then.
‘Oh, this…’
Without realizing it, I widened my eyes and listened closely to his words.
“How I fought, and how my unit members all made it back safely.”
‘That’s exactly what I told Rastan to talk about in the dream. If that’s the case…’
My heart began to pound.
“Yes, I want to hear it. Are you going to tell me now…?”
Rastan nodded and added,
“For some reason, all day today, I had a strong feeling that after lunch, I needed to tell you this story. That is why I ran at full speed from the moment I set out there this morning.”
“…I see.”
It wasn’t something that had suddenly come to mind just now; from the moment he woke up this morning until now, that instruction hadn’t left his head all day.
It wasn’t right after waking from his dream, nor had it been a calm, ordinary day.
After riding for hours on horseback and fighting monsters, it would have been only natural to forget something that had happened in a dream.
‘At this point, shouldn’t this be called not just an instruction, but control or brainwashing…?’
I recalled the time I had been eating with Helga and Gerald and had given them strange instructions in my mind.
‘Put salt in the juice and drink it all.’
‘Pour all the pepper from the shaker into your mouth and chew it.’
I had told them to do it right then and there, but it hadn’t gone according to my intentions.
‘They only dreamed of doing those actions, and the next day complained with twisted expressions that their mouths still tasted salty and peppery.’
So even when I planted the instruction in Rastan’s mind in last night’s dream, it had been half a joke, and I hadn’t truly expected it to work.
‘I did feel that my ability had been growing stronger lately, but I thought it was still just a power I used within the dream world…’
And yet, to the point of being able to control someone’s actions in reality. That was a direction I had never considered.
‘It’s exciting and makes my heart race… but even though it’s my own power, it’s a little frightening.’
As I discreetly brushed down the arm that had broken out in goosebumps, Rastan began his story.
Yet despite saying that he had hurried back after wrapping up his work because he wanted to tell me this story, his war tale was calm and concise.
“Even when facing enemies, I tried to destroy buildings or weapons rather than people. And whenever possible, I stepped forward to fight myself instead of sending my unit members.”
“You were an excellent leader.”
“It was not like that. It was simply that it was faster for me to do it, and it avoided unnecessary sacrifices.”
To say it again, he was a war hero praised throughout the entire Empire. He could easily have boasted about his brilliant achievements, yet he showed no such inclination at all.
“That must be why your unit members all came back safely.”
“That is partly because I took on all the most dangerous battles myself…”
He hesitated briefly, then finally spoke.
“It is also because I have a healing ability. When my unit members suffered serious injuries, I healed them.”
“What?”
This was something I hadn’t known. I asked with widened eyes.
“You… were you a healer?”
“Not quite.”
I had once suspected that Rastan’s ability might be to control people, so the fact that he possessed healing powers came as a great surprise to me.
“You are not a priest, are you?”
“Of course not.”
He smiled, for some reason, with a bitter tinge.
With the answer not coming out directly and the conversation feeling like it was circling around, I was seized by the urge to bluntly ask, “Just what are you, exactly?”
‘Or should I try instructing Rastan in tonight’s dream to ‘tell me your true identity honestly and in full’?’
As I thought that, I suddenly recalled how he had looked every time we had a similar conversation up to now.
‘Each time, he hesitated and wavered, and at times he looked distressed.’
He could have easily wrapped it up with a rough lie and deceived me well enough, yet he had never lied to me.
‘There’s something that’s hard for him to reveal on his own, but he doesn’t want to lie to me.’
I didn’t want to control him and force him to say things he didn’t wish to say.
‘Just as Rastan supported me without forcing anything on me, letting me decide and act on my own, I want to do the same for him.’
Having made up my mind, I changed what I was going to say.
“Then please tell me that part later. When you feel comfortable.”
Rastan’s lips curved into a gentle smile that, at a glance, also seemed faintly lonely.
“Thank you. In my life, I think you are the first person who has shown consideration for me in any form.”
“You have never been shown consideration?”
“I have always been in the position of protecting others, never in the position of being cared for.”
