Chapter 61
“This isn't very spicy.”
“What?”
Heter, who had eaten the pajeon, said this as though surprised.
After hearing his impression, I was honestly dumbfounded.
How many times had he eaten my cooking to say something like that?
If other people heard him, wouldn't they think I only made spicy food?
“That's a misunderstanding, Heter.”
“Is that so? Ruby told me that you generally make food quite spicy whenever you cook, my lady.”
“…”
That was, in fact, the correct answer.
I mean, Ruby was much better at making non-spicy food than I was, wasn't she?
When someone else did it better than me, why should I go to the trouble myself?
“I can make ordinary food too, you know?”
“So you've admitted that the food you usually make isn't ordinary.”
“Do you want to stop eating the pajeon?”
“I'm sorry.”
He apologized as soon as he reached for the plate, apparently liking the pajeon.
‘Good grief.’
Seeing him enjoy the food I had made did make me feel good, but that was as far as my commentary went.
“Heter, hold out your glass. You're supposed to eat this with alcohol.”
I had another, more important reason for making the pajeon, after all.
“Hmm.”
Heter accepted the wine I poured with an extremely reluctant expression.
“Even so, I think drinking alcohol in the middle of the day is a little inappropriate.”
“I suppose, but does it really matter whether we have it at dinner or now?”
I pointed out the window.
It was so gloomy outside because of the rain that, honestly, it didn't seem as though evening would make much difference.
“Besides, if not now, when would I ever get to drink alone with you?”
Once we returned to the territory, we'd be too busy to drink as leisurely as we were now.
“Well… I suppose you're right.”
“Right? Then let's make a toast!”
Heter soon nodded, lightly clinked his glass against mine, and drank the wine.
As we repeatedly downed wine with the patter of rain and pajeon for an accompaniment, empty wine bottles quickly lined the table.
“Whew.”
“What is it, Heter? Are you drunk already?”
“I'm a little light-headed.”
Heter's face reddened at much the same pace.
Then Heter stared intently at my face with dazed eyes.
“What? Is there something on my face?”
“No. You drank exactly as much as I did, yet your complexion hasn't changed at all, my lady.”
“Of course it hasn't.”
In web novels, Northerners being good at holding their liquor was a common cliché, and on top of that, my family had grown grapes and made wine for generations.
‘That means I have some pride in how much I can drink.’
If I had been a lightweight, I wouldn't have drunk diluted wine at every meal in the first place.
“So let's keep drinking!”
And so, we drank without pause from after lunch until late afternoon.
“I can't drink anymore…”
Of course, Heter did refuse the wine I poured him midway.
“Oh, my arm's going to fall off.”
“My lady.”
“Tsk!”
“…Sigh.”
Heter couldn't refuse my childish insistence.
By the time we had drunk almost all the wine we'd brought…
“That's impressive, my lady. Even in the order, I never met anyone who could drink this well….”
‘Oh!’
At last, Heter had begun spilling the past he had kept so tightly hidden.
“So you weren't a wandering knight from the beginning.”
“That's right.”
“Then why did you leave?”
“…Because I felt stifled.”
Heter, who had been resting his head on my shoulder, muttered.
“You felt stifled?”
“Yes. Every day without any stimulation was unbearably stifling.”
“I see.”
Long ago, I had once asked Sir Gold what the order of knights was like.
At the time, I had thought the order seemed similar to the military.
‘If it really is like the military, no wonder every day would feel stifling.’
Since there was no energy in his voice, it seemed best to move on from this subject.
“Then is working under me all right?”
“That… is fine.”
“Why?”
“Because I like you, my lady.”
“Heehee… Ah.”
I was startled when I heard the silly little laugh that came out of my own mouth.
I couldn't believe I was capable of laughing in a voice like that.
‘I think I'm getting a little tipsy too.’
Otherwise, I wouldn't have laughed like that.
Before I got any more drunk, I should hurry and ask about what I had been curious about.
“By the way, Heter.”
“Yes.”
“When did you start thinking about the terms of the contract you made with me?”
It was the question he had refused to answer a little while ago.
I wondered whether he would answer now.
“That…”
Heter blinked sleepily a few times, then began answering this time.
“I started thinking about it when you ran away, my lady.”
“When I ran away?”
“Yes.”
When I ran away from Heter?
‘There was a situation like that… Ah.’
Right, after I saved Heter from the snow worm, when he regained consciousness.
I had run away from him once when he said he wanted to have me.
“Why?”
“When you proposed marriage to me, I honestly didn't think very highly of you, my lady.”
“Urgh.”
Why was this guy suddenly bringing up my embarrassing past?
“At the time, as I told you, I didn't like being bound to anyone.”
I knew that very well.
That was why he had said employment was fine, but marriage wasn't.
“But after staying in Fortune and watching you from close by…”
Heter, who had been leaning his head against my shoulder, raised it and gazed at me with bleary eyes.
“I started wanting to have you.”
“Wow.”
“So I proposed it, but you ran away. At first, I thought I could gloss over it by pretending it had been a joke, but…”
In the middle of speaking, Heter intertwined his fingers with mine.
As though he were holding on to me so I couldn't run away.
“I simply couldn't give up.”
“Y-you couldn't?”
“I wanted to have you, no matter what it took. That's why I came up with that contract. I thought that even if you refused to give me everything at once, you might accept giving it to me little by little.”
“Yeah… I see.”
Heter had been exactly right.
In fact, I had thought that, if I was lucky, I might be able to employ him without handing over all the ownership.
But that wasn't what mattered right now.
‘He… wanted to have me.’
I had heard Heter confess that he liked me and loved me, but this was the first time I had heard him say something like he wanted to have me.
On top of that, learning that the reason he had thought up such a contract was purely because of me made my ears heat up of their own accord.
“Whew, it's hot.”
I fanned myself with my hand, trying to cool down.
Maybe it was because this wasn't the North after all?
All I had done was drink some wine, but the air was as hot as a sauna.
‘Hmm… I've satisfied my curiosity about that. What should I ask now?’
No matter how I thought about it, I doubted there would ever be another moment when Heter would answer my questions as readily as he was now.
In an ordinary romance-fantasy web novel or shoujo manga, the question would be something like, ‘Do you really like me?’
I had already gotten my answer to that from the question I had just asked.
“Then… Heter.”
Eventually, what I had always been most curious about came to mind, and I cautiously broached the subject.
“…Yes.”
“Your… real name?”
I was curious about Heter's name.
His family? I wasn't curious about that, since I would learn it someday anyway.
But not the surname that indicated his family—the name itself.
I couldn't help wondering about his real name, not the alias Heter.
“You mean my real name?”
“Yeah.”
“…”
When I asked for his real name, Heter looked at me with clear eyes.
‘Could he have sobered up in the meantime?’
Certainly, as a knight, it wouldn't be strange for him to recover from being drunk quickly.
If that was the case, what excuse could I make?
Just as I was wondering what I should say, since even I had to admit this situation was a little underhanded…
“Yes. I suppose I can tell you.”
Heter, who had been looking at me, smiled sheepishly.
“I wouldn't tell anyone else, but because you're Alice, I'll tell you. My real name isn't Heter, but….”
‘Not Heter?’
***
Chirp, chirp-chirp.
“Urgh.”
Heter, who had been frowning because sunlight was shining directly into his eyes, slowly sat up.
“What happened yesterday… Urgh!”
Then, as he tried to remember why he was lying there like this, a terrible headache interrupted his thoughts.
The only thing he could barely remember was Alice making something called pajeon, returning to the room, and pouring him wine.
After that, his memory was torn apart as though someone had ripped a letter in half.
‘What time is it?’
Heter turned his head to look outside the window, and saw a bright landscape now that the rain had stopped.
No matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem to be evening.
There was no way only a few hours had passed since he drank himself into this state.
‘It seems a whole day has already passed.’
The last time he had been rendered this senseless by alcohol was when he joined the order of knights.
It would probably be best to avoid drinking alone with Alice whenever possible.
“Ugh.”
Just as he was getting out of bed to drink some water while clutching his aching stomach—
“Ah? You're awake?”
“My lady?”
Alice opened the door and entered carrying something steaming.
“Perfect timing. This is best eaten while it's hot.”
“This?”
“Hangover soup!”
‘What is hangover soup?’
Every now and then, Alice used a word he had never heard before, and this was another such instance.
Judging by the nuance, it seemed to be something eaten after drinking alcohol.
‘It's red.’
He didn't know what it had been made with, but it was red as blood.
“I wanted to make bean sprout soup, but there weren't any bean sprouts here. So I made a soup with tomatoes and onions instead. This should settle your stomach!”
“I see…”
Come to think of it, Alice, who was handing him the bowl, seemed unusually excited today.
Normally, he would have viewed her liveliness favorably, but today he couldn't.
“My lady.”
“Yes?”
“Did I do anything embarrassing after drinking yesterday?”
“Hmm… Not particularly?”
Something had definitely happened.
Otherwise, Alice's eyes wouldn't have been wavering like that.
“Whew. Could you tell me what happened?”
“Rather than that, eat the soup first. It isn't very good once it gets cold.”
“…”
Apparently, she intended to tell him only after he had finished it, so Heter downed the soup in one gulp.
Hot food shouldn't have been a problem for him, so why…?!
“Cough! Cough!”
“Why are you suddenly coughing? Did you choke?”
Alice patted Heter on the back as he suddenly began coughing.
Even while coughing, Heter looked up at her and asked,
“No—cough—why is the tomato soup spicy?”
“Because you're supposed to eat something nice and spicy after drinking?”
“…”
When he looked at Alice as though dumbfounded, she gave a little snort of laughter.
“Still, doesn't your stomach feel a little better after eating it?”
“…Yes.”
It might have been because something other than his stomach hurt more, but he decided to let it go for now.
“I'm glad. Ah, s—mmph.”
“?”
Alice, who had been about to say something, suddenly covered her mouth.
But… the word she had been about to say.
“May I ask what you were about to say just now…”
“Sorry! I only came to bring this. I'll be going now!”
“Ah.”
Alice darted out of the room, but Heter couldn't stop her.
His thoughts had become tangled because of what she had just been about to say.
“She must have simply misspoken.”
But Heter soon shook his head.
What she had been about to say sounded similar to his real name, but there was no way Alice could know that name.
“Now… I must be the only person in the world who knows that name.”