Until Claire Opens Her Heart (2)
Claire Artifare was crouched in front of the entrance, staring at me, when she let out a hiccup and frantically tried to open the door and slip back inside her dorm. For some reason, I felt like I couldn’t just let her hide away like that. My body moved before I could think.
I pushed open the door she hadn’t managed to lock yet. Through the gap, I could see her trying to slam it shut, but I shoved the sandwich—still wrapped, with a bit of mud on it that made it hard to offer with any dignity—along with my hand through the opening.
I just… felt like I had to.
“Wait, eat this!”
Startled, she tried to close the door again, and my hand got caught in the worst possible timing. A groan slipped out.
“Ah—!”
The sandwich I’d gone through the trouble of preparing fell to the floor, still wrapped, and the wet splat echoed loudly in the quiet.
That was the moment. Claire, who had been sobbing so hard she couldn’t even meet my eyes, opened the door with trembling hands.
“…S-s-sorry, I’m sorry.”
What she was apologizing for wasn’t just words. It was the spot where I’d gotten stitches after being beaten in the Forbidden Library, the place that had taught me flesh could split open from a punch. The wound had split again when the door pinched it, and it was now dyed a horrifying, vivid red.
Once I realized that, the pain hit me so sharply it raised goosebumps. But I couldn’t scream, and I couldn’t even clutch the torn wound tightly while groaning. The white noise of rain falling outside, the steady tick of the clock inside, and Claire’s panicked, uncertain breathing filled the space beneath it all.
“…C-come in.”
In the end, Claire moved first. She picked up the crushed sandwich, grabbed my hand, and pulled me inside her dorm.
The room was incredibly bleak. A single table covered in a thin layer of dust that had turned it a pale gray. A blanket tossed carelessly aside. Tissues scattered everywhere, evidence of how much she had cried. And in one corner, small knives and blades that showed just how much pain she had endured simply for being born to the wrong parents.
It looked less like a place where a person lived and more like somewhere someone who wished to die would stay.
Still, there was one positive thing. The wrappers from the food I had brought her were neatly folded and stacked in the corner. She must have been afraid of getting pointed at if she threw them out, so she had carefully collected them inside.
…For a noble, she lives more like a commoner. Looks like she cleans by herself too.
Claire rummaged through a box tucked away in the corner for a long time before approaching me with bandages and disinfectant—the only things in the house that looked new. She carefully rolled up the sleeve of my right arm, revealing flesh that hadn’t been cut but had burst open from the beating.
Seeing her apply the disinfectant with a face that looked like she might cry any second made me feel bad, so I tried to play it off lightly.
“…It’s nothing. Doesn’t even hurt that much. I’m used to it.”
Claire finished applying the disinfectant, then brought out a small thread and needle to stitch the torn wound. I didn’t ask how a mere student knew how to disinfect and stitch a wound. The fact that those things had been lying near the blades and small knives was answer enough.
“…Why are you being so nice to me?”
Claire asked as she wrapped the bandage around my hand. Her tone was quiet and serious, nothing like the one she used in the classroom. I couldn’t tell her the truth—that I didn’t want her to kill me. But saying I had fallen for her at first sight would definitely sound strange.
…She’d definitely think I’m crazy.
Her eyes, looking up at me and waiting for an answer, were wet with moisture. I thought that dampness came from worry, guilt, a fair amount of sadness, and anger.
“…I know what it feels like to be alone. You looked like you were struggling a lot.”
When she asked why I was being nice, I simply answered with comfort. It wasn’t a lie—I really did think that.
But Claire must have never received comfort so freely before. Drop. Drop. The tears began to soak the bandage I had just wrapped.
“…I insulted you, Reyan. I even threw the bread you brought me. I threw tantrums at the nobles and professors that I could never have gotten away with… and you still think I looked like I was struggling? That you understand me…?”
Then, self-mockingly, she let out a sad little laugh.
“It’s ridiculous—”
She covered her face with both hands and curled into herself.
“It’s really… ridiculous…”
Her shoulders shook for a long time. Amid the white noise of raindrops, I listened to someone’s sobs for what felt like forever.
When she finally stopped crying, she picked up the sandwich whose paper wrapping was now stained brown with mud. She sat down in front of me, deliberately cut off the clean part and handed it to me, then took the part soaked in muddy water for herself.
“No, you don’t have to eat that. I’ll go buy something else right away…”
Before I could stand, Claire took a big bite of the stained sandwich and, for the first time, smiled at me.
“No, it’s really delicious. Thank you, Reyan.”
She said my name and expressed her gratitude for everything up until now. She didn’t stay silent, didn’t just acknowledge my presence, and she didn’t get angry either.
…A few days later, Claire started attending the academy again.
Naturally, she shared the classroom with commoners. Because she had skipped classes without permission, she received disciplinary punishment the moment she returned—something no ordinary noble would ever have to endure. Because of that, she couldn’t attend classes right away.
Occasionally, as part of her punishment, she would pass by our classroom on her way to do volunteer work at the library.
“Reyan, hello.”
Every time, she would draw a crescent with her eyes and greet me with a smile on her lips.
If I borrowed the description from the novel, there had been a point where she suddenly became vicious, as if possessed by some mental illness, and continued that way until she killed nobles. But the girl in front of me now looked nothing like that.
Her smile was simply bright and beautiful.
Maybe she won’t become the villainess like in the novel.
When I thought that, every time she smiled and greeted me, a smile would form on my face too. It wasn’t just because I had become her friend purely to survive. It was because I felt like I had helped pull one person out of the pit of despair, even if only a little.
“That’s all for today’s lesson.”
The moment the professor announced the end of class, I headed to the library. Even though Claire had brightened up, she was still hated by everyone, and the rumor that I had helped her meant I was in the same boat. Besides, she was pretty much the only person I could call a friend.
And honestly, I had a feeling Claire would be waiting for me.
The sandwich shop owner said Claire came looking for me.
On the day she had been waiting at my door, she had heard that I got hurt a few days ago and took a potion, and that I had dueled a noble. She must have thought I was badly injured. So she went to the sandwich shop to find me, and the owner, realizing our relationship, had chased her out.
“…Reyan!”
Claire, who had been organizing books in a corner of the library, spotted me and greeted me carefully. The way she glanced around just to say hello, and the dust on her clothes, made it clear she had been bullied again.
I walked over and brushed the dust off her shoulders.
“Sorry I’m a bit late.”
“…It’s okay. It’s not your job to help me, is it?”
“You have to organize all of these?”
Next to her were boxes filled with what looked like hundreds of books, all with titles ending in the same letter. It meant she had to put them on the very top shelf, higher than even two tall men stacked together. It seemed far too harsh a task for a fragile girl in a skirt.
These bastards were truly pathetic.
“…Yeah. But I understand. I abandoned the duties I was supposed to uphold as a noble. At least I wasn’t expelled.”
Watching her in front of me—where there was no harassment, malice, or discrimination, where I simply saw her as a friend—made me feel, at least a little, that the empire was impressive. To think they had driven an ordinary girl like this to commit the ultimate immorality of “racial cleansing.” Enough that even after fleeing to another country, she couldn’t forget that grudge.
“No, don’t understand it. Once you graduate from the academy, just leave the empire and live somewhere else. There’s no need to stay in a place like this.”
The moment I said that, Claire’s mouth fell open.
“…Huh.”
“…What?”
“…I don’t want to.”
Then, realizing I was staring at her, she waved her hands in a fluster.
“…W-well, I’m still a n-noble, after all. Even if it’s my family’s fault, I need to atone, and if I want to keep seeing you, Reyan, the empire is better…. Ah, I-I should finish this quickly.”
Claire’s face turned bright red as she made excuses I hadn’t even asked for. She picked up a couple of books and tried to climb the ladder. Normally, one should be completely focused when handling ladders or work tools, but because she was rushing in a panic—
Clatter—!
The ladder shook, and soon Claire’s body tilted sideways from a height that wasn’t too high but would still hurt quite a bit if she fell.
“Kyaa!”
A scream born of instinct. Fortunately, I caught her so she didn’t get hurt, but…
“…Is the Artifare family so incompetent they can’t even handle simple organizing?”
“…Disgusting. Now she’s clinging to a commoner. That lowly bitch dares call herself a noble.”
“This is a library for nobles in the first place. I don’t know how that lowly thing even got in here.”
“…There are no social classes in the library.”
“Is that so?”
The nobles who had gathered because of the scream all clicked their tongues. Claire squeezed her eyes shut and hung her head low. As if fear and terror had been conditioned into her, her body trembled and she let out rough breaths, as though even drawing air in was difficult.
“Reyan…. I-I’m fine, so please go. Okay?”
She tried to push me away with her slender hand, telling me to abandon her and leave. The nobles laughed mockingly at her.
“You know what? That commoner who was taking care of Artifare is this guy.”
Among them was the bastard who had brought his lackeys to the Forbidden Library and beaten me.
“A lowly thing not knowing his place and protecting a cursed bitch like Artifare. This is what happens.”
Nobles were originally supposed to duel other nobles, but I had dueled that Gerox guy. The reason? Probably to show off to the young ladies that he was stronger than a commoner who was making a name for himself in the adventurers’ guild.
But a duel between a noble and a commoner was an ill-fitting match. So Gerox had used taking care of Claire as an excuse to challenge me to a duel, saying he would make her suffer.
That’s why I couldn’t understand it.
That guy lost to me, didn’t he?
He was the one who had lost to me in that ridiculous duel with a twisted justification. So why was he provoking me—the opponent who had defeated him in front of noble young ladies and heirs?
“Didn’t I ‘kindly’ teach you in the Forbidden Library? That getting involved with that girl will only get you hurt.”
The moment Gerox’s next words came, everything made sense.
“So that’s the commoner. The trash who ambushed Gerox right when he offered a handshake and won?”
“The guy who went to cheer him up while he was being punished in the Forbidden Library, then charged at him the moment Artifare was mentioned? That’s him?”
“He thinks he actually won with skill. Hilarious. Look at Gerox staring right at him.”
The bastard who couldn’t accept his defeat in the duel and even took revenge had twisted the story and spread it among the nobles like some heroic tale?
“…Claire, I can’t go alone. Let’s go together.”
The moment I thought I should get Claire out of there as quickly as possible because this was all so pathetic—
“Gerox, were you the one who hurt Reyan this badly?”
Claire, who had been sobbing and trying to push me away, lifted her head and asked while looking at Gerox.
Gerox smirked and nodded.
“If you’re talking about fixing up that idiot who was helping the cursed girl in the Forbidden Library, then yes, it was me. Why, are you going to get revenge for him?”
At that moment, Claire glanced briefly at my hand, my neck, and the bruises still lingering on my face. Then she stepped in front of me as if to protect me.
“…Yes.”
Even though her shoulders were still shaking, her breathing was unstable, and she was on the verge of tears, she did it anyway. Her slender hand grabbed the hem of my clothes as if to say not to worry.
“…C-Claire Artifare. I request a duel with Gerox Luneira.”
For a moment, silence fell over the entire library.