Episode 17
Andel watched Rania sink back into gloom, then spoke calmly.
“Rania, you just keep doing what you’ve always done. Don’t worry. Think of the guild members as ordinary customers…”
“Customers are kings, and I’m the emperor…”
“…Huh?”
Andel blinked — did he just hear that right? Rania was lost in thought and sighed a few times, then nodded bravely.
“Thanks. Um… could you maybe give me some tips on how to handle the Master?” she asked.
“You don’t have to overthink it. Some people show way too much attention to folks they like. The Master’s like that… It’s a bit much, but just think of him as that sort of person.”
Rania stayed quiet.
“And another way to think of it — treat it like the weather. If you go out and it suddenly pours, you’re going to get wet. The Master’s like a sudden shower…”
“Usually when it rains, people get out of the rain…”
“But if you have something urgent, you’ll get wet anyway, right? The guild has urgent business; the Master is downpour. Think of it like that.”
The weird comparison somehow sounded kind of right, and Rania made a puzzled face. The guild members really did treat Enoch like a natural disaster — storm, earthquake, tidal wave — so thinking of him as “the environment” wasn’t totally wrong. Andel calling him a “shower” softened the idea, because Andel liked Enoch — Enoch had once helped him out of a terrible mess.
Andel’s daughter — had she lived — would have been around Rania’s age. He kept seeing Rania and thinking of that lost child. A long time ago, a noble had courted Andel’s daughter; when she refused, soldiers were sent, and the family tried to stop it. They were stabbed. Andel’s wife bled to death. The daughter had been thrown from a carriage and trampled by the horses. Andel found only his daughter’s body. He couldn’t get justice — nobles always got protected.
Enoch heard the story and helped Andel; in the end, Andel killed the noble himself, leaving his hometown and coming to the Empire. Because of that, Andel felt a kinship with Enoch — but still, Enoch’s behaving as he did with Rania was something else; Andel hoped the connection would turn out well.
Rania took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. I’ll try. I have to take responsibility.”
“Responsibility?”
“Um… I kind of… forced myself on the Master when I was drunk…”
Rania’s cheeks reddened, and she drank some tea quickly. Andel got solemn — she still didn’t know there hadn’t actually been anything serious between them.
Rania hurried on. “I don’t remember, but if someone’s been harmed, I’m not the type to pretend it didn’t happen. He’s sometimes scary, but I don’t think he’s a bad person…”
“No, he isn’t. He’s mischievous and rough, but he’s a decent person… in his way,” Andel said with a smile, then pulled out a few bottles from his stash.
Rania’s eyes lit up at the labels — rare drinks. Andel, who’d wanted to be kind to her since her life was about to get tough, asked, “If you don’t have other plans, would you like to hang out with me? I’m free today.”
“Yes!” Rania replied quickly. Alone at home, with the café closed for renovations, she had nothing else to do. She left feeling warmer toward Andel.
“Pretty. Come here.”
On the evening before the café’s grand reopening, Enoch showed up as usual and called Rania over. She was moving heavy potted plants around (and making Yurion do most of the heavy work as a little payback), so she hurried to him. Enoch smiled like a sly fox and took her hand. He put something on her palm — cold metal touched her skin, and she flinched.
“A present,” he said.
It was a big necklace with a red gemstone. It looked old, with intricate goldwork and a glow that made it obviously valuable. Rania liked pretty clothes and accessories, but she’d never seen something like this. The gem was transparently lovely — and yet, inexplicably, it felt wrong.
Maybe the chain had odd discoloration, maybe there was a faint fishy smell, or maybe Rania just didn’t like that Enoch gave it — whatever it was, she felt uneasy. Her face went pale, and Enoch cocked his head.
“Don’t you like it?” he asked.
“…”
“Tell me honestly. I hate lies.”
Yurion, listening quietly and taking mental notes, added one more observation to his list: Rania was getting special treatment from Enoch. That mattered.
If someone showed the slightest reluctance to accept something from Enoch, he’d punish them with nasty grunt work. That made people afraid to refuse gifts. But Rania didn’t know any of that. She answered honestly.
“Well… It’s beautiful and flashy, but it just feels… strange.”
“How so strange?”
“Can I be really honest?”
“Say it.”
“I think it’s cursed.”
Yurion swallowed. He tried to hide any reaction, but Enoch’s face didn’t darken at all — if anything, he looked amused.
“How did you figure that out?” Enoch asked. Then he grinned and explained.
“This is the necklace the princess of the fallen Karin Kingdom treasured two hundred years ago. She wore it until she was beheaded. After that, the women who ended up with the necklace all met miserable ends. People call it the ‘Bloody Diamond’.”
Rania’s eyes went blank, trembling slightly.
