No Favors Without Payment
We moved Rebert onto the sofa instead of the bed, because Jenice had insisted so desperately that she'd changed the bedspread just that afternoon.
Laid out on the enormous, ornate sofa, Rebert somehow looked even smaller.
His gaunt arm dangled off the edge of the sofa. I lifted it properly back into place and ordered Jenice to fetch a basin of warm water.
Jenice prepared the basin and towels, then also brought a blanket for Rebert and a fresh change of clothes.
Meanwhile, I listened to Choe's account of how he'd brought Rebert here. It hadn't been easy exactly, but neither had it been particularly dangerous, so I half expected Choe to demand a bonus.
Yet once he'd finished his report, Choe simply stood there watching Jenice work.
She wiped Rebert down with practiced hands. Her touch was kind; her mouth, not so much.
"He's filthy. Did you fish him out of a garbage bin? Oh my, this blood isn't even his. Blood spattered everywhere… Is he involved in a murder case?"
Every time Jenice found a bloodstain or a smudge of filth on Rebert's body, her imagination ran wild.
"Is she always this loud?"
"She's overexcited. Normally… she isn't like this."
Sorry, Jenice. I wavered just now.
But honestly, so much has been happening around us lately that's worth getting excited about. It had been ages since I'd seen you this quiet.
"She does good work, though."
"That's Jenice for you. She works even better when she's worked up. I'd say her efficiency triples."
According to a paper I once read, excitement improves circulation, which sharpens the mind, which speeds up the work. Or so it went.
"Might need a bit of stimulation now and then, then."
I nodded at Choe's remark. While the two of us chatted, Jenice had Rebert looking respectable in no time.
He had dried off, but Rebert was a grown man taller than Jenice — how on earth had she managed to change his clothes too? Remarkable, really.
"The sedative should be wearing off about now."
The moment Choe spoke, Rebert's fingers twitched. I stepped up to the sofa and shook him.
"Rebert, are you with me? If you're awake, open your eyes."
"Aah……"
A thin moan escaped him — a moan thick with pain.
"Rebert!"
A deathly pale face, trembling lashes, and a groan full of agony.
"Where does it hurt—"
"……I'm hungry."
Rebert's eyes snapped open. They met mine — I had leaned in close for a better look.
"Food. It smells good."
His eyes gleamed. The instant I found myself staring into those maddened eyes, he grabbed me. His red lips parted.
His canines looked as big as fists. Bracing for the pain that was about to come, I hunched my shoulders.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"AAAAAARGH!"
Jenice shrieked.
Dallas, the Ehrenberg house physician, grimaced as he gripped her wrist tightly, preventing her from pulling her arm away.
"Don't be melodramatic."
At his stern words, Jenice jumped.
"Melodramatic? Can't you see this? Look how clear the teeth marks are!"
She waved her freshly bandaged hand back and forth.
"I can see them. Quite clearly. But it's nothing worth screaming over. There's barely any blood — an animal bite at this level is in very good shape. That said, do we keep an animal in this residence that bites people?"
Dallas asked the question while diagnosing her condition with perfect detachment.
"Judging by the wound, it must be a rather large animal. I can't tell what kind, but it needs to be caught and killed immediately. An animal that bites a person once will bite again."
Rebert, who had been sitting meekly off to the side, flinched. The animal that had bitten Jenice was, of course, Rebert himself.
Here's what had happened.
Waking from the drug, Rebert had been ravenously hungry — and my room just happened to contain the dinner Jenice had brought up.
The smell of food had made him hallucinate that a meal sat right in front of him. And on pure instinct, he'd grabbed whatever was within reach.
Which was me.
The moment Jenice saw Rebert hauling me toward his gaping mouth, she had thrust her own arm between his jaws a hair before I got bitten. And so Rebert had bitten Jenice's arm instead.
He'd chewed it so thoroughly, so deliciously, that the teeth marks were smeared beyond recognition — Dallas couldn't even tell whether they'd come from human or beast.
"I'll handle it just fine, Dallas. More importantly — is there anything I should watch out for?"
I asked quickly, before suspicion could take root in his mind.
"The wound mustn't touch water. But since it's hardly practical for a maid to keep her arm dry, she's in for some hardship, I'm afraid."
Dallas finished wrapping the bandage and packed up his doctor's bag. I was about to ask whether he'd found anything about Cassion's condition, then stopped myself. With Rebert here now, there was no need to trouble the man further.
"Keep a close eye on it so the wound doesn't fester."
He walked Jenice through every precaution in detail, then tucked the bag under his arm. Dallas bowed politely to me and left the room.
When the door closed, Rebert got up, watching Jenice warily — and she instantly planted herself in front of me.
"I-I won't bite. But… where is this?"
Rebert was mortified that he'd mistaken a person's arm for a meal. He glanced around, straining to make sense of his situation, rather like a meerkat standing sentry.
He must have been terrified.
"This is the Ehrenberg residence."
I answered as kindly as I could. Rebert murmured quietly, "Ehrenberg. Ehren…"
"House Ehrenberg, the ducal family. Don't you know it?"
"I… I know it."
Thank goodness he knew of my family. If he hadn't, I'd have had to start with an introduction to the whole lineage.
"Then why am I here? I was definitely—"
Rebert broke off mid-sentence with a start. Fear drained the color from his face as he backed away. Caught dealing in contraband — I could guess exactly what he was imagining.
"Relax. I have no intention of handing you over to the constabulary. Sit down and eat this first."
I slid a plate of food toward Rebert, who stood rooted to the spot, guard still firmly up.
"Sit, and I'll explain why you're here. Eat while you're at it."
Only then did Rebert move.
He perched hesitantly on the very edge of the sofa. I pushed the plate closer so he could eat comfortably and set the fork within easy reach.
"That's the young lady's dinner!"
Jenice glared at Rebert with a face on the verge of tears.
"He looks hungrier than I do. Besides, is your name written on the food?"
Just as I was scolding Jenice, Rebert spoke.
"I don't touch children's food."
He turned his eyes away from the plate.
But judging by the way his Adam's apple bobbed, he wanted it badly enough that his mouth was practically watering.
Remarkable self-control. And the reason behind it was unique, above all else.
The age gap between Rebert and me was a mere three years. What's more, he'd been starved and neglected so badly that his growth had suffered, so he didn't look all that different from me, someone who'd been fed and pampered her whole life.
Granted, Rebert was taller than me. Only his build… wait, should I be offended by this?
'Even so, he thinks I look younger than him, so he won't eat my food?'
Was he trying to protect me?
Between ordinary people, the mere feeling of being protected is pleasant enough. But Rebert and I were anything but ordinary. We could never be ordinary, absolutely not.
'Rebert is someone I intend to use. At the very least, to deal with.'
"You think I'm weaker than you?"
"You're smaller than me, and younger, so……"
Rebert murmured. He caught the chill that had crept into my voice and deflated.
Why would he cower before a girl so small and young that he felt the need to protect her?
Still, the sentiment was admirable — but I couldn't have him treating me that way.
I wanted Rebert to fear me. Ideally, I wanted him to believe that I could be useful to him.
"This is House Ehrenberg, a ducal family. And I am going to be the head of House Ehrenberg. Do you understand what that means?"
Rebert's eyes clouded over with a dozen tangled thoughts.
"Ask if you're curious."
"Um… you can become the head of the house?"
Rebert raised his hand to point at me, then seemed to belatedly remember that one shouldn't point carelessly at nobility. His finger hovered awkwardly in the air before dropping.
"Yes, I can."
No one my age had ever become head of a ducal house in the entire history of the kingdom — not once. But I fully intended to be the first.
"You don't need the details. Just know this: I have more money than you, and more power. So there's no need for you to protect me. I'm going to protect you."
"Protect… me?"
Rebert's eyes wavered, wide and trembling.
"That's right. Here, you can eat whatever you want, do whatever you want. You do have something you want to do, don't you?"
I knew exactly what Rebert wanted. He wanted to make cheap, effective medicine. And he wanted to become a physician who performed proper surgeries.
'Because treatment that relies on magic or divine power isn't something just anyone can afford.'
Rebert stared at me as if to ask why I would say such a thing, and his gaze was steeped in suspicion to boot.
If I were in Rebert's position, I'd have been suspicious too. Here was his kidnapper telling him to go ahead and do whatever he pleased.
"Mm. No need for complicated talk right now — you don't need it, and I don't need to give it. Eat first."
Would he shed tears of gratitude? I hoped not. That would be a problem.
I was just about to tell Jenice to have a handkerchief ready when I heard an answer I hadn't expected in the least.
"I don't accept kindness without payment."
His voice was utterly resolute.
I had failed to charm Rebert. At the unexpected refusal, a sigh escaped me first.
'Not a single thing about him comes easy, does it?'
But I didn't give up. From the moment I'd taken him, there was no option of sending Rebert back where he came from.
'He was living under a smuggler. How am I supposed to just send him back there? Knowing full well what awaits him, sending him back would be abandonment. It would be abuse.'
"Then pay me back. Simple."
If he hated getting something for nothing, he could give something in return. It was a problem that solved itself. And Rebert had plenty to offer me.
I'd never intended to run a charity for him in the first place.
Perhaps because I'd spoken so readily, the space between Rebert's brows narrowed.
"I… have nothing to give……"