6. Much Ado About Nothing - 14
6. Much Ado About Nothing - 14
The first light of dawn was breaking. Beyond the eastern horizon, past the jagged peaks of the Ibarencia Mountains, the morning glow was spreading. From early morning, the song of a cuckoo—trilling like a canary among the green leaves—tickled every ear. A single leaf, bathed in the warm golden radiance, curled in on itself ever so slightly and let a glistening dewdrop fall from its surface—plink—onto the ground below. The morning at House Castana was, by all appearances, shaping up to be as tranquil as ever.
Today, however, proved decidedly different. From House Castana—a den of unsociable mages that had always been more eerie than quiet—a clamor like a bustling marketplace spilled forth.
The chief source of this commotion was none other than the preparations for my engagement ceremony with Bianca.
...Hasn't this gotten a bit out of hand?
I stood at the front of the main road leading to the main House Castana building, staring at the chaos of carriages with eyes that could only be described as jaded.
As far as I knew, precisely thirty-two nobles had been invited to today's engagement ceremony between Bianca and me. Given the weight the names Estel and Castana carried, these guests were the very definition of the north's true power brokers.
Still, as I looked over the guest list, I couldn't stop myself from pressing my fingers to my temple. No matter how I thought about it, this felt like something rather different from the "contract" I had made with Bianca.
Weeks ago, when I accepted Bianca's proposal, I had assumed the engagement was simply a pretext to flush out the rats skulking behind House Castana. I had never imagined the ceremony would be staged on such a grand scale.
And that was not the only problem. What was truly driving me mad at this very moment was the simple fact that I, the groom-to-be, had been saddled with greeting all the guests.
By custom, close family members from both houses handled the reception at such events. Unfortunately, I had come here alone from House Estel. And Bianca's own father, Marquis Castana, had merely glanced at me before offering this excuse:
—My apologies, Young Duke. Regrettably, I have other matters to attend to. I would ask my wife to assist you if I could, but she is presently bedridden and in no condition to receive guests. So, troublesome as it may be, I must ask you to shoulder the burden.
.....
And that is how I came to be bestowed the glorious duty of standing at the very front of the engagement hall and welcoming everyone.
"Congratulations on your engagement, Young Duke Estel. I am Train Driad, eldest son of House Driad, which holds lordship over a territory called Rendel."
"Ah, I see. In the name of House Estel, I bid you welcome for gracing my engagement ceremony with your esteemed presence, Lord Train."
"Ha ha, there is no need for 'Lord.' I have yet to be formally named my father's successor, you see. Please, feel free to simply use my name."
Oblivious to what was going through my mind, this fellow who had materialized before me at some point wore an oddly smug expression and began babbling all sorts of unsolicited nonsense. Since I stayed silent, he seemed to grow quite pleased with himself.
"You may not be well acquainted with this, Young Duke, but our House Driad is a region that produces a great many furs, which can be considered a specialty of the north. In some sense, one might even say our house serves as the very face representing the entirety of the northern territories..."
'What a load of crap.'
I had to exert considerable effort to suppress the sigh threatening to escape as I endured this fellow's ridiculous boasts about his family. Honestly, the world these days seemed full of dolts who mistook their family name for their own and couldn't find the privy without it.
...Could it be that Marquis Castana had stationed me here precisely so he wouldn't have to witness this spectacle himself? Admittedly, if I were in his position, I too would refuse any role that involved entertaining these imbeciles.
Just as my patience was reaching its limit after dealing with an endless parade of fools, a certain woman—the kind whose mere existence draws every eye in the room—came into view, approaching me with soft steps.
Rustle—
"...Kain. There you are."
Accompanied by the whisper of her garments, the woman who had sought me out was none other than my betrothed, Bianca del Castana.
****
The moment Bianca revealed herself, the hall sank into an endless silence. The men in particular could only rub their eyes, as though they had witnessed something utterly beyond belief.
In a word, she was simply beautiful. No adjectives were needed—no florid phrases. Her voluptuous crimson hair, her ruby-bright crimson eyes, her face which was simply beautiful—all of it harmonized to reflect the supreme beauty she possessed.
And that, in its entirety, was the woman called Bianca del Castana.
'...It can't be. I'd heard the rumors, but... such a woman actually exists in this world?'
'Kain von Estel, you truly are a fortunate man. There must be countless men in this world who would carve out their own hearts if it meant they could be engaged to a woman like that.'
Yet, in stark contrast to the thoughts running through the young noblemen's minds, the very man who had secured a woman far beyond his station—Kain von Estel—was merely looking at Bianca del Castana with an utterly indifferent expression.
"Oh, Bianca. You came?"
"Mm."
Not only his expression, but the way he addressed her was remarkably curt. Watching Kain's response to Bianca, the young nobles felt their brows twitch involuntarily. If they had been standing in Kain von Estel's place, they would never have behaved that way.
...Bianca del Castana, however, paid not the slightest attention to whether Kain von Estel's expression was indifferent or not. She simply smiled at her fiancé.
"...Kain, my father was looking for you. I believe he has something he wishes to discuss with you regarding the ceremony."
"Is that so? You didn't need to trouble yourself to relay that. Anyway, thank you for telling me, Bianca."
With those words, Kain von Estel gave Bianca del Castana a light pat-pat on the shoulder. And in that instant, the nape of Bianca del Castana's neck flushed bright red. Whether he noticed this change in her or not, Kain unconcernedly walked past her and vanished into the marquis's main building.
"....."
Bianca had been quietly gazing at Kain's retreating back, and as she let out a small sigh and turned to leave—
"L-Lady Castana! Lady Castana!"
The same young noble who had been deep in conversation with Kain earlier frantically called out to stop Bianca. His reason was exceedingly simple: he wanted to establish a connection with the eldest daughter of House Castana, arguably the most influential house in the north today. He also calculated that with so many eyes upon them, Bianca del Castana would not easily be able to dismiss him.
"...A pleasure to meet you, Lady Castana. I am Train Driad, of House Driad. First, allow me to offer my congratulations on your engagement. And while I deeply apologize for stopping you so abruptly, there is something I wished to tell you personally..."
That was when it happened. The expressionless face Bianca had worn while regarding the young noble shifted, turning as cold as a sheet of ice.
"That will be quite enough."
"...I beg your pardon?"
Leaving the young noble's bewildered query behind, Bianca's frigid voice rang clearly through the hall.
"My apologies, but as of today, I shall not engage in private conversation with any other man. For I am already his fiancée, and nothing more."
With those words, Bianca del Castana turned her back on the young man without a hint of hesitation. The coldness of her dismissal left no one in the hall bold enough to call out to her recklessly. And for her part, Bianca had not the slightest desire to exchange words with anyone here. Without a single backward glance, she gracefully disappeared from the hall.
****
"Damnation! What kind of utter humiliation is this!"
In a secluded alley of House Castana, far from prying eyes, the young noble who had been so thoroughly rebuffed by Bianca del Castana was now pouring out his grievances about the incident to three of his friends, fellow young aristocrats.
"Blast it all! It wasn't even in private—I was humiliated like that in front of so many people! The honor of our House Driad has surely been trampled into the mud!"
"Ha ha, if you mean to approach a beauty of that caliber, surely you should have expected to shoulder that much risk. At any rate, she was a remarkably haughty woman indeed. The rumors that she ranks among the three greatest beauties in the empire were clearly no idle talk."
"Exactly. And in that sense, isn't the Young Duke Estel—the man who gets to be engaged to such a woman—the truly staggering lucky bastard?"
As such talk circulated among the young nobles, the one who had been rejected by Bianca could no longer contain his indignation and began to spew slander. After all, when a group of callow men gathered together, it was all but inevitable that the conversation would devolve into running down others.
"Hah, having spoken with him myself, I can attest that the Young Duke Estel is a man of no particular merit whatsoever. All looks and nothing more—a discourteous fellow who couldn't even meet my eyes once during our entire exchange."
Spurred on by his friend's disparagement of the Young Duke Estel, another young noble eagerly chimed in. Truth be told, he too felt jealousy boiling within him toward Kain von Estel, who was holding an engagement ceremony with a woman of such beauty.
"Ahem, I've heard rumors about him as well. Merely rumors, of course, but there is talk that something rather unsavory lies behind his broken engagement with the daughter of House Sernad."
"Heh, how perfect. The man is nothing but a lucky bastard. A lucky bastard who happened to be born into a crumbling ducal house and, for that reason alone, lucked his way into snagging a woman like her!"
And so for a long while, they merrily maligned Kain von Estel. In truth, badmouthing someone behind their back in a place where the subject was absent—that was something anyone could do, something done so casually and so often that it was utterly unremarkable. For feeling jealousy toward those more accomplished than oneself and speaking ill of them was simply human nature.
...Today, however, their luck was spectacularly poor. If they had any sin at all, it was nothing more than their ignorance—their utter failure to realize that Death's scythe had been poised behind their necks from the very beginning.
Fssss—
The wind shifted. The surrounding atmosphere grew steadily heavier. And at last, even they realized something was wrong. Because every "sound" of the engagement preparations—so bustling just moments before—had vanished. As though they alone had been abducted into a separate world, cut off from reality.
".....!"
No voice came from their mouths. And it was not only their voices. In this space they occupied, silence alone reigned as absolute law.
Tap, tap.
In a world from which all sound had been erased, footsteps approached—tap, tap. Whoever was walking toward them seemed exempt from the law of silence.
But they did not even possess the freedom to confirm who was approaching. By now, they could no longer so much as blink of their own volition.
"...Men truly are creatures beyond comprehension."
A languid, unsettling voice tickled their ears. It was deeply intimate, and utterly lethal.
"Men are always like that. Forever indulging in endless fantasies about thrusting something into a woman."
Shunk—!
Something—its nature indiscernible—pierced through them. There were no screams. She had not permitted them the freedom to scream.
"...And yet, you never seem capable of imagining being pierced yourselves. Isn't that right?"
Giggle—
The unidentified woman was unmistakably laughing.
"You have committed a deed that should never have been done. And what might that be, you ask?"
Creeeak—
Their wrists and ankles were slowly rotating in directions that human joints were never meant to turn. Unlike before, there was no pain. Yet that very absence was more terrifying. The horror of their bodies becoming something alien consumed them.
"It is because you stole away my rights. Even the right to speak of him."
Snap, pop—
Tendons, unable to withstand the rotation of their wrists, finally gave way. But everyone here knew—this was only the beginning.
"To receive the emotions that overflow from him. And to be the one who may wound him. All of it."
"Those are my rights alone. The rightful rights of his fiancée—of me, and me alone."
So saying, Bianca del Castana turned a frigid smile upon the insolent whelps before her.
"And on top of that—on a day like today—you dared to insult him right in front of me. Truly insolent. To slander him in a place where the eyes and ears of House Castana are wide open. You are utterly out of your minds."
As she spoke, ghostly flames blazed fiercely in both of Bianca's eyes.
"Worry not. No one is coming here to help you. And you will remember nothing of what occurred in this place. Naturally, I won't kill you either."
"...But even if your minds forget, your bodies shall remember what happened here for all eternity. The memory will remain deep in your unconscious. I imagine the lesson that you ought to guard your tongues will be drilled into your very marrow as you go on living, won't it?"
Crrrack—
No sooner had her words ended than they realized the bones throughout their bodies were being broken, each in a different direction. More despairing still was the fact that, with this horror unfolding before their eyes, they could not lose consciousness, nor could they go mad. For from the moment they entered this space, Bianca alone held absolute dominion over their life and death.
Of course, Bianca paid not the slightest mind to their plight, and with a truly benevolent smile, she whispered in a very small voice into their ears:
"Well then, shall we start with the tips of your fingers, ever so gently?"