Chapter 22
While Renzo was thinking about earning a little extra on the side,
Enya was taking her frustration out on some innocent food.
In a corner of the tavern, a sandwich lay torn apart by a fork on the table, its fish and vegetables exposed in a pitiful wreck.
Enya ignored the carnage on her plate and sneaked a glance at the window seat across the hall.
At the end of her gaze sat Tarmin.
She squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head.
She let out a groan beneath the table.
She tried to calm her pounding heart.
“Ugh….”
She’d pretended to be calm and sat far away, but the culprit was casually lifting his glass to his lips.
‘You bastard.’
She felt pathetic, even cursing him beneath the table.
The day after she’d drunk herself senseless, Enya was so groggy she could barely open her eyes.
Was this what the hangovers her companions had suffered from back when they were adventurers felt like?
She sat up and stared blankly around the room, then buried her face in her pillow and screamed.
There’s no way that happened!
She didn’t leave the house until after she’d spent a long time rolling around under the blankets.
People said you couldn’t remember what happened when you got drunk, but that didn’t apply to her.
With her muddled memories in tow, she arrived at the tavern and found Renzo and Tarmin sitting there as if nothing were amiss.
Keeping her distance like a scout surveying enemy territory, she circled the hall and sat opposite them.
And now she was picking apart the ingredients in her food one by one.
Vanel, the cook, would be angry if he saw her, but she wasn’t an employee anymore—she was a customer, so it didn’t matter.
Sorry, but she didn’t have time to worry about the cook, too.
Enya was annoyed with Tarmin.
‘Why aren’t you saying anything to me!’
But Enya hadn’t greeted him, either.
Taal.
Her friend since the days when they’d first learned to walk.
They’d done everything together, from playing in the dirt to getting into neighborhood brawls.
And then, with Taal…
When she’d clung to him, drunk on the scent of cake and wine.
When she couldn’t escape the strong arms supporting her unsteady body.
His unexpectedly greedy-
The fork struck the plate.
-Clang!
Miraculously, the plate didn’t break.
Startled by the unexpectedly loud noise, she lifted her head.
Sigona, the tavern’s waitress, had heard it and was approaching with her eyes wide.
Hiding the cloth she’d been using to wipe down an empty table, Sigona asked,
“Lady Enya, are you all right?”
“I’m sorry. It’s nothing.”
She apologized, embarrassed.
More than that, being called ‘Enya-nim’—the honorific attached to her nickname—felt terribly awkward.
Sigona was being even more polite than she was with the tavern’s other customers.
Enya understood that Sigona couldn’t help it, but it made her feel a little lonely.
“I’m sorry, but could you just call me Enya?”
“Oh, yes… No, no! You’re my benefactor. How could I? Besides, you’re my big brother’s friend.”
Sigona cut herself off and hurriedly shook her head.
At the sight of her girlish reaction, Enya smiled faintly.
Of course, by ‘big brother’ she meant Tarmin.
Sigona, the owner and waitress of the large tavern.
Though she drew customers in during the day with her calm, mature charm, she was also like a little sister to Tarmin.
Enya hadn’t known that before, but Sigona’s face took on a fresh, girlish look whenever she called him ‘big brother.’
Clutching the cloth in her hand, Sigona hesitantly asked,
“Then, then could I call you big sister?”
Big sister?
The unexpected form of address left Enya at a loss for words.
Since Sigona called Tarmin big brother, there was nothing technically wrong with calling his friend Enya big sister.
But ‘big sister’ was what one woman called another.
When Enya didn’t answer, Sigona asked again with a plaintive look.
“…Is that not okay?”
She looked like an ordinary human, not a werewolf, but for some reason she reminded Enya of a dejected puppy.
She could almost see a pair of invisible animal ears drooping.
Enya let out a quiet laugh at the sight, then finally nodded.
So Tarmin had been the only one who knew how cute she could be.
“All right. You can call me big sister.”
“Thank you! Big sister.”
Sigona smiled and beamed with delight, then seemed to remember something and asked,
“So, what happened? It’s about Tarmin, isn’t it?”
She whispered so Tarmin and Renzo wouldn’t hear.
Enya had only just been enjoying this new side of Sigona when a simple question trapped her in last night’s memories all over again.
Memories of the white dress and scented oil.
Memories of wine and cake.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Aren’t you sitting apart today?”
“W-We just thought we’d try sitting apart for once. It’s not like we have anything to talk about if we keep sitting together!”
She spouted nonsense and calmly took a sip of water.
Perhaps because the curse had kept them from becoming close, Sigona didn’t realize Enya was talking nonsense and just stared at her with her mouth hanging open.
“Is that so?”
Feeling a little guilty, Enya turned her head and peeked at Tarmin.
Even so, she couldn’t tell Sigona that she was too flustered because of that… could she?
Across the hall, Tarmin was writing something on a piece of paper.
His utterly unbothered manner made her feel a little sulky.
Had last night’s incident been nothing more than a trivial mishap to him?
When her tightly pressed lips parted and wine lingered in her mouth…
The wine she’d held in her mouth then…
Held in her mouth?
“Pfft!”
She spat out the water in her mouth.
“Oh! Are you all right?”
“Cough, ugh, sorry. I’m sorry.”
Watching Enya frantically apologize to Sigona as she wiped the area down, Tarmin sighed from across the room.
“Good grief.”
**
In Dinahim Addis’s office, Eleanora was giving her report.
“…The guild’s report doesn’t match the number of members listed when they were granted residence permits. According to our agents’ reports, they’re armed with more than ordinary longswords.”
“And?”
“Their weapons exceed the permitted size for portable arms, so under imperial law we can confiscate them and expel them. Shall I carry it out?”
Dinahim sat behind his desk with a bored expression.
Leaning his chin on the armrest, he looked at his younger sister.
“No. Why bother?”
“If you’re asking why…”
“Does Ellie need someone to take her frustration out on again?”
Eleanora didn’t answer.
Seeing her fall silent, Dinahim was overcome with a sense of superiority and spoke gleefully.
“Ellie, minor discrepancies in paperwork are bound to crop up when it’s handled by people. They probably just left a serf or two off the list while putting them to work. And weapon restrictions—who even enforces those these days? The merchant company has already paid a considerable sum to prepare for any untoward incidents.”
It seemed unlikely Eleanora would ever get access to any of that money.
“Here, I think it’s better to be flexible than to stick to principle. It’s not as if they’ll start a rebellion in Quaalid just because the headcount is off by one or two. What do you think?”
“Do as you please.”
There was no point continuing the conversation.
Eleanora turned and left.
“Fine. While I handle it, go enjoy a date with that hunter. Hahaha!”
It took a great deal of effort not to kick the office door open on her way out.
After walking down the corridor for a while, she went outside the castle and confirmed that only a few of her subordinates remained.
As she put on the coat her adjutant handed her, she said,
“Pig.”
She couldn’t believe Dinahim was so happy just because he’d gotten one over on her.
And that thing was her brother.
He didn’t even know what schemes were afoot in Quaalid, yet Dinahim scoffed at the threat simply because it didn’t seem dangerous.
Even if their blades weren’t aimed at the Addis family, tolerating them was another matter.
The power of the Addis family didn’t come from papers proving their jurisdiction.
On their land, nothing should happen without their knowledge.
That was how she’d been raised.
There could be no exceptions when it came to keeping secrets.
“Father would be angry if he knew.”
“There’s still some time before he returns.”
She fell silent at her adjutant’s words.
Wasn’t this the mess Dinahim had brought upon himself?
He was practically saying it:
If anything untoward was going to happen, it would be right now.
For instance, one of her narrow-minded brothers might be killed by a stray arrow.
An arrow that would hit its mark without needing to be aimed.
“Tarmin.”
At the incident during the Garden Festival, he’d hunted a giant bear instead of a monster.
He’d explained that the bear had come down from the mountains, unable to endure its hunger, and attacked a horse.
Seeing him act as if he were trying to defend someone, Eleanora said nothing.
Not yet.
Perhaps Eleanora had no right to scoff at Dinahim.
She, too, had made an exception for Tarmin.
But the fact that he had once been the hunter in the Hero’s party mattered.
**
Tarmin sealed the letter he’d written to his former companions and stood up.
He’d borrowed paper and ink from Renzo, promising to pay him back later.
After a few simple greetings, expressions of how much he missed them, and vague promises to meet someday, he brought up Enya.
It was a casual question that, at first glance, sounded rather dull: hadn’t their Hero gotten a little cute?
Various events had delayed him, and he’d only managed to send the letter after the festival was over.
He stood and approached Enya, who’d been doing her best to stay at least five meters away from him.
Seeing her watch him warily like a cat, he sighed softly.
Had he gone too far yesterday after all?
“Enya.”
Sigona, who was sitting with Enya, also looked toward Tarmin.
The two seemed to have grown close as they sat together and chatted.
He’d planned to introduce them to each other anyway, so he was glad it had worked out.
“What?”
“Uh, well…”
Now that he’d called Enya over, Tarmin found it surprisingly difficult to come up with an opening line.
He thought he understood why Enya had been avoiding him.
They lived so close that there was no need to ask how she was doing.
After thinking for a long while, he finally managed to speak.
“About yesterday, um… did you get home all right?”
It was a greeting that would make anyone laugh if they knew how close their homes were.
He hoped she’d joke that they lived next door and ask what he was talking about.
“Yeah….”
But Enya only answered demurely and lowered her head.
When she responded like that, he had nothing else to say.
For some reason, he found it hard to tease Enya today.
He caught sight of her snow-white nape.
A ticklish feeling in his chest grew unbearable.
“Well, I’ve got a lot of places to check out today, so you can head home first!”
He blurted out what he’d come to say and fled the tavern.
Sigona watched Tarmin leave, then glanced at Enya with her head bowed.
***