The Lonely Wolf
The girl before me was a shock to the senses simply by existing.
I had never once in my life met a woman who could spew such vulgar language without a flicker of shame.
My mother went without saying—even the lowliest servant in our household would never have dared.
It struck me all the harder that the book she was holding was the kind of etiquette manual only noble young ladies ever touched.
I had offered a polite word of thanks and meant to turn away, but before I knew it, I'd forgotten my purpose entirely and blurted out,
"…Why on earth are you reading that?"
"Oh, this?"
And her answer was more astonishing still.
"I'm going to marry into one of the great houses of the Imperial Capital someday. A lady has to prepare in advance, you know—all the proper graces. Ballroom dancing, table manners, that sort of thing."
"…"
Her utterly matter-of-fact expression left me at a loss for words. I floundered for a moment, then managed to stammer out another question.
"…Why would you think that way?"
"Because I'm sick to death of being poor."
She answered without a moment's hesitation, swift as a blade.
"My parents sold me to a slave trader—said they had too many mouths to feed. If I'd been a boy, they could've put me to work in the fields or at hard labor, but I was a girl, too weak for that, so I couldn't even do that much."
"But slavery is illegal in the Empire…"
"Oh, spare me. What are you, some sheltered young master who's never seen the world? Even the priests run people-smuggling operations behind closed doors all the time."
The girl's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and she spoke with a note of disgust. Feeling oddly accused, I averted my gaze.
"If the Captain hadn't rescued me, I'd probably be selling my body in some brothel right now. No doubt about it."
"…Your parents were awful."
"Right? Well, I can't say I don't understand, honestly. Better to sacrifice one than have the whole family starve to death together."
As though it were nothing at all, the girl rattled off her past without a hitch, then gave a careless shrug.
"Anyway, I'm done with a life of digging up potatoes. My goal in life is to snare some handsome, gullible young noble and live in a grand mansion with a magnificent garden. I'll throw tea parties there, buy dresses ten at a time, and get myself a ruby necklace."
"…"
"The nobles of the Imperial Capital spend every single day throwing parties. Aren't you jealous? All they do is laugh and make merry—there's nothing to fight about, nothing to grieve over. And their families must get along beautifully, too."
At the boundless longing in her voice, a bitter smile crept across my lips. One moment she seemed wise beyond her years, like an old woman who had seen the whole world—and the next, she was unmistakably just a girl her own age.
"Well… I doubt nobles are really all that different—"
"That's hilarious. What would you know about it? You're nothing but an alley rat."
She cut me off outright, scoffing. I had no particular need to argue the point. At present, I was precisely what she said—a penniless beggar from the back alleys, through and through.
"So what were you doing back there anyway? Are you an orphan? Where's your family?"
"I was… abandoned by my parents, too."
At the sudden intrusion of her question, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
It wasn't exactly a lie. I had fled on my own two feet because I couldn't bear it any longer, but when it came down to it, abandonment was what it amounted to all the same.
"Tsk, tsk. I had a feeling that was the case."
Clicking her tongue lightly, the girl spoke in that same unconcerned tone. I'd worried she might press me for details, but mercifully, she seemed to have no intention of doing so.
She only asked, wearing a briefly annoyed expression.
"Anyway, why did you even come here? If you've got nothing to do, would you kindly get lost? As you can see, I'm busy learning to be a lady."
Only then did I remember my original purpose.
I hadn't hoped for her help in the first place, but having come all this way, I couldn't very well leave without saying anything.
I opened my mouth hesitantly.
"I just… wanted to thank you. For saving me."
"Oh, is that all? You made me sit through all that suspense just to say that? Fine, I heard you. Now go. I actually need to read this."
The girl buried her face in her book as if she couldn't care less, waving her hand at me like she was shooing away a fly. Watching her, doubt came flooding back into my head.
Could it be that Lenart lied to me? No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't imagine this girl being the one who'd dragged me all the way here.
"…"
In any case, I had done my duty. We'd exchanged our courtesies, and there was nothing left weighing on my conscience.
Just as I turned to leave with that thought in mind—
Another question, rising unbidden, stopped my feet in their tracks.
I hesitated a moment, and then found myself looking back at the girl.
"What now?"
The girl, who had been idly flipping pages at the sound of footsteps that refused to leave, snapped her book shut with an irritated scowl.
Then, expression dark and dangerous, she growled at me like a beast ready to pounce.
"I distinctly remember telling you not to bother me. Are your ears just for decoration?"
"…I have one question."
"What? You'd better make it quick. If it's something stupid, I'm going to kick you so hard you—"
"Why did you save me?"
"…"
And just like that, the momentum of the snarling beast drained out of her.
The girl who had been spewing coarse words at me all this while was nowhere to be seen.
Uncharacteristically, she stumbled over her words.
"Wh-why would you even ask something like…"
"Answer me."
"…"
The girl clamped her mouth shut like a man caught square in a weak spot, her expression contorting strangely.
Before long, she spoke, her gaze fixed somewhere far away, mumbling as if to herself.
"You looked like… some rain-soaked mutt. A stray puppy. That's all. Happy?"
"What?"
"At first I was just going to walk past you, but… somehow I couldn't…"
"I can't quite hear what you're saying…"
"ARGH! I said it's because I figured if you dropped dead right in front of me, it'd bring me bad luck!! There, satisfied?!"
The girl, whose voice had been shrinking to a crawl, abruptly bellowed loud enough to rattle the trees.
I blinked in blank astonishment and saw her face—flushed crimson from ear to ear, yet still bristling defiantly.
For the life of me, I couldn't fathom why she was angry. I had only been curious about the motive behind her act of kindness.
"Ha. Honestly, what is wrong with people these days…"
The girl fanned her face repeatedly with her hand, shot me a look of pure venom, and then changed the subject.
"By the way, what's your name?"
"Huh?"
"You ought to at least know the name of the person who went to the trouble of saving you, no?"
As if trying to bury her earlier embarrassment, she pressed on all the harder.
"I asked your name. Out with it. For the record, I'm Elise. People who know me just call me Ellie."
"…"
Even under her continued prodding, I couldn't open my mouth. A dull, aching throb pulsed in my chest for no reason at all.
The heir of House Aramis receives his name formally only after the succession is complete. And by now, that name had long since become another man's.
A defeated good-for-nothing who'd been cast aside had no business carrying a name at all.
"…I don't have one."
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
"I don't… have a name."
"…"
I shook my head. Ellie, who had been about to press me a second time, seemed to sense something subtle in my tone and merely furrowed her brow.
Soon, she spoke again in a somewhat quieter voice.
"You're serious? About not having a name."
"Yeah."
"Ha. Unbelievable…"
Confronted with a situation she'd never anticipated, Ellie pressed a hand to her forehead and fell into thought for a moment.
"You really are high-maintenance, you know that? Honestly, I wonder if picking you up was a mistake."
She let out a long sigh and grumbled as if the whole thing were a nuisance. But for some reason, her voice sounded softer than her words—gentler, almost kind.
After a moment's hesitation, Ellie seemed to reach a decision.
"Then… shall I give you one? A name."
"What?"
"I can't exactly keep calling you 'beggar boy' forever, can I? You need something, at the very least. Let's see, now… what would be good…"
Without so much as asking my opinion, Ellie buried herself in deliberation, muttering to herself. Left with no choice, I stood waiting beside her until at last she clapped her hands together with a smack and cried out,
"Kallen! How about Kallen?"
"Kallen…?"
"It's from the word Eda Kallenite. It means 'lonely wolf.'"
Ellie was already bounding along in an excited voice, explaining in a breathless rush.
"It's one of the old words from my hometown. When we spotted a male wolf roaming alone, without a pack, that's what we called it. Well—we'd hunt them down on sight, of course. Left alone, they'd just keep raiding the livestock pens."
"…"
"Anyway… the more I thought about it, the more that word just kept coming back to me, strange as it sounds. So? It's a pretty good name, isn't it?"
It had never once occurred to me to think about a new name at this point in my life.
To someone whose life had been stolen from him, such things were nothing but unnecessary, cumbersome ornamentation.
And yet, somehow, the sound of it kept echoing in my ears. A poor wolf that wandered alone, without a pack. I could think of no word in the world that suited me better.
Before I knew it, I found myself nodding in a daze, entirely without meaning to.
"Done! Your name is Kallen from now on!"
Ellie, whose face had been wound tight with needless anxiety, finally let out a breath of relief and shouted it in a bright, ringing voice.
"Kallen, Kallen. That's really not bad at all. Nice on the tongue, and you could even shorten it to—"
Ellie, who had been practically humming a song, suddenly froze mid-note. She had belatedly realized that she was holding my limp hands in hers, bouncing up and down as though dancing with me.
"…"
Grasping the situation in an instant, she did her best to restore her usual prim scowl and casually slunk back against the tree.
"…Anyway, as long as you understood, we're done. Stop bothering me and actually leave this time."
Ellie reopened her book to hide her face behind it and flapped her hand at me. Then, in a stern tone she clearly didn't need, she added a warning.
"And I told you, didn't I? I'm destined to be a grand lady of the Imperial Capital someday. Don't you dare come sniffing around with talk of saving me or love at first sight. If you do, I'll burn every hair off your head with a torch."
I had no intention of doing any such thing.
I truly was walking away from her when Ellie called out loudly at my back.
"Hey. And don't go getting any strange ideas, got it? I saved your life and even gave you a name—you'd better live an honest life to pay it back."
"…"
"Glad we understand each other. I'll be back by evening, so pass a message to the Captain for me, will you?"
Ellie's face remained buried in her book, hidden from view. I debated for a moment whether to tell her she was holding it upside down, then ultimately just turned and walked away.
Glancing back from a distance, I saw that Ellie—for some reason—was clutching her own hair in both hands, tugging at it in frustration.