Chapter 23
In western Quaalid.
Enya was walking along the lake.
Looking back on yesterday, she wondered if her illness had flared up again.
Her chest felt tight, as though she had a fever.
She didn't know what expression to wear, so she lowered her head.
She knew Taal very well.
To exaggerate a little, she knew him so well she could draw him from memory without even looking at him.
They'd known each other for that long.
It wasn't as if seeing him now was anything new.
Perhaps it was the peaceful atmosphere by the lake.
Pressing a hand to her pounding heart, she glanced back over her shoulder.
Tarmin was walking behind Enya.
**
Their strange standoff continued the following day.
They arrived at the tavern separately, sometime between breakfast and lunch, and began eating without a word.
They weren't sitting apart like yesterday, but a strange silence had settled over the table.
Tarmin looked as though he'd forgotten how to use a spoon.
Enya, too, was barely taking a spoonful of stew now and then.
Meanwhile, Renzo was sampling the tea Sigona had made instead of drinking alcohol.
“This tastes bitter. Was this the rose tea?”
“Yes, that's right. I must have steeped it too long.”
Tarmin looked around the tavern, where a few customers were seated, then out the window at Quaalid's forlorn streets, his expression troubled.
He seemed to be the only tense person in this peaceful city.
After finishing his meal, he took a few deep breaths and did his best to look as natural as possible before speaking to Enya.
“Ahem, Enya. I'm going to check out the hunting grounds today. Come with me, will you?”
Enya had been fiddling with her fork. Startled, she answered,
“Ah, n-no.”
It was an ambiguous answer.
Did she not want to go, or couldn't she?
Even Enya herself didn't seem to know.
He watched her, then finally frowned and said,
“Just come along, will you?”
“O-Okay.”
Renzo watched the two of them stumble through the conversation.
He finished the rose tea he'd been complaining about all the same, then let out a breath scented with tea.
Then he offered a brief comment.
“You've gone right back to how things were before the festival.”
He surely wasn't commenting on Sigona's tea-making.
Tarmin's face scrunched up.
“Don't mind us.”
That wasn't going to scare a mercenary into silence.
“Or are things even worse than before?”
Renzo prodded him again.
In the end, Tarmin relaxed his expression and sighed.
He couldn't hide what was going on between them.
Even without Renzo pointing it out, he was struggling to figure out where he stood with Enya.
Like a child who'd reached out without realizing something was hot and gotten badly burned.
He glanced at Enya, and she was looking at him, too.
When his eyes met hers, damp with tears, his heart gave a lurch.
He whipped his head away, only to find Renzo watching with smiling eyes.
He didn't know where to look and felt awkward.
Renzo got to his feet.
“Well, this old man will leave you two to it.”
“H-Hey, Renzo. Where are you going?”
Tarmin asked in a fluster, his voice hurried.
Right now, he didn't want to be alone with Enya.
“To work.”
It was the first time Renzo had ever left his seat.
“Make up or whatever you need to do. See you around.”
“Work? Weren't you an unemployed loafer? You're lying, aren't you? Hey!”
He tried to keep Renzo there by asking him anything that came to mind, his eyes pleading, but Renzo waved and left.
He looked around the hall for Sigona, too, but she happened to be serving another customer.
He turned to Enya with a vague expression.
“…Why?”
Fortunately, Enya wasn't sitting there demurely like she had yesterday.
If she'd blushed and shown him the nape of her neck, he might have run away, too.
He'd gotten up a little earlier than expected.
It was only a little sooner than planned. He had to do it eventually anyway.
**
Winter was a good season for hunting.
The nobles who'd been busy with festivals and the like would soon start heading for the hunting grounds.
On the other hand, it was also the season when poachers were everywhere.
It wasn't unusual for farmers who'd finished the year's harvest to dig out the bows or slingshots they'd left in their sheds and go poaching in their free time.
The rule was that poachers had to pay a hefty fine or have their fingers cut off to prevent overhunting.
Keeping poachers at bay and managing the hunting grounds were also part of a hunter's job.
Having grown up together, Enya knew those circumstances very well.
From what she could tell, Tarmin had no intention of going around catching poachers today.
Tarmin was following Enya as she strolled along the lakeshore.
“It's been ages since I've been here.”
“You were here when we saw Sigona, weren't you?”
“That was at night. I was so distracted, I didn't even get to look at the lake.”
The two of them walked while gazing at the calm waters of Lake Dumo.
Yellow daffodils bloomed in the sunny spots, while birds drank from the far side of the lake.
They could see the pebbles on the clear lakebed.
Now that the weather had warmed, Lake Dumo looked dazzlingly beautiful.
It was peaceful. Except for her.
It was about time he called her.
“Enya.”
“Uh, yeah.”
She turned around with a calm expression, but her heart was pounding.
Enya had been trying to sort out her thoughts ever since they'd been at the tavern.
If he wanted to talk alone, there were plenty of other places he could've taken her. Why invite her to the hunting grounds?
The windless, mild weather felt like spring.
“Why'd you call me, Taal?”
She asked as naturally as she could, tucking her hair behind her ear.
She'd meant to look calm, but she couldn't help fidgeting and shifting her weight.
Even so, she thought she'd done all right.
After that kiss, there could only be one reason he'd brought her to such a beautiful place, couldn't there?
‘H-He’s going to confess!’
The oblivious hunter had finally learned the meaning of romance.
The place was perfect, and so was the person. All that remained was deciding how to answer him.
The clear lake, blooming daffodils, the scent of spring.
Tarmin finally bowed low.
“I'm so sorry!”
“I like you t—what?”
**
Renzo walked through the streets of Quaalid.
The streets after the festival were forlorn and empty, as if they had never been filled with lovers' laughter.
It was an unnaturally profound silence for a city at midday.
What was happening beneath the surface of this little city?
What were the people who'd slipped into the city while the circus drew everyone's attention plotting?
Figuring that out was part of his mission, too.
Renzo opened the door of a small shop.
‘Tilly's Vegetable Shop’
He ignored the sign that said the shop was closed and went inside.
He'd come in after checking the sign that said it was a vegetable shop, but there wasn't a single leaf on the display shelves.
The person sitting behind the empty shelves said,
“We're closed.”
“Is that so? I thought they had good cabbages here. What a shame.”
The man's eyes narrowed at the blatant provocation.
“Oh, were the cabbages at the shop across the street? My mistake.”
“Who are you?”
When Renzo turned to leave, two men blocked the door.
They were holding daggers.
They threatened Renzo with grim expressions, but seemed a little surprised when faced with his large build, after assuming he was just an old man.
It was a look Renzo had seen plenty of times before.
He smiled and grumbled,
“Guarding the best seats in the house isn't easy.”
**
Tarmin bent forward at the waist.
“I'm so sorry!”
Maybe she secretly despised him.
Maybe she hated him, but they'd been friends for so long that she didn't know what to do about it.
That was what he thought as he apologized.
“I told you not to drink, but I was at fault, too. If you can't stand the sight of me, I'll stay away from now on!”
There had been any number of other ways to handle it, but he'd given in to his desire and taken her lips without her permission.
And then he'd tried to act as though nothing had happened. Of course it hadn't gone well.
If they were going to go back to the way they'd been, Tarmin had to apologize.
He stayed bent over, but Enya didn't answer.
“Um, Enya?”
Even after waiting a little longer without hearing a response, he hesitantly raised his head.
He cautiously lifted his head just enough to look at her.
Enya was as pale as if all the blood had drained from her face.
The moment their eyes met, her face turned red as a ripe apple.
Enya's body was trembling.
Seeing her eyes glisten with tears, he somehow had a feeling a fist was about to come flying at him.
“Die!”
-Thwack!
Just as he'd expected.
He took an uppercut and tumbled onto the grass, and found himself thinking it was better this way—at least she'd hit him.
It was better than her finding him so disgusting she wouldn't even touch him.
“I'm sorry! If you want me to die, I'll die!”
“Die—no, just forget everything, please!”
Enya grabbed Tarmin by the collar and shook him.
Trying to ignore the world swaying before his eyes, he said whatever came to mind.
“Uh, forget it? How do I do that? Should I ask the witch?”
“I don't know! If you don't know, just die!”
“Anyway, I'm sorry!”
He thought the reason he was apologizing didn't quite match what she was angry about, but he couldn't think of anything to do except apologize.
A little while later, the two of them were sitting on the grass.
Enya sighed as she looked at her skirt, a mess of grass and dust.
“This is the worst.”
“Sorry.”
He reflexively apologized to Enya's grumbling.
“What are you so sorry for?”
Enya looked up at him and shot back.
He flinched at her pointed question.
“N-No, it's just that I made you feel uncomfortable.”
He fumbled for an answer.
“You must've felt awful when I forced myself on you and kissed you, right?”
Enya didn't answer. She turned her head away.
At a loss for words, Tarmin looked out at the lake, too.
Ripples were spreading gently across the water, as if something had touched it.
Enya asked casually,
“How about you?”
“Huh? What?”
“How did you feel?”
How did he feel? When they'd kissed?
There was no need to say.
“If I didn't like it, I wouldn't have done it.”
It wouldn't have happened in the first place.
When Enya heard that, she squeezed her eyes shut.
A little later, she opened her eyes and said,
“Taal.”
“What?”
“You're still impotent, after all.”
“What?”
Enya seemed about to get up, but suddenly threw herself into his arms.
Then she brought her face close to his.
Tarmin cried out in surprise.
“Enya?”
Enya, her face flushed, said to Tarmin,
“Shut up, you impotent bastard.”
While Tarmin shut his mouth at her words,
Her soft lips touched his lightly, then pulled away.
A smacking sound.
“H-Huh?”
He screamed, touching his lips.
With her face bright red, Enya ran off in the direction they'd come from as if fleeing.
***