10. What Happened One Night - 03
'...Damn it, for real.'
Walking out of the training yard after his spar with Noel von Dekaraznan, Kain noticed his hands were still trembling—the lingering aftermath of crossing blades with that woman in earnest. Her sword strikes had been so blisteringly fierce that he had nearly lost his grip more than once. If he hadn't deflected her final blow—the one she'd thrown as if she'd surrendered everything, for whatever reason—with 'Flowing Star,' he would certainly have lost.
Ten years from now, the Dekaraznan ducal daughter would be assessed as having swordsmanship and skill almost equal to the Imperial Princess's, though still a step beneath. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have been able to even meet her blade, let alone seize victory.
He owed it all to the experience of training under the Imperial Princess before his regression, grinding himself into dust sharpening his swordsmanship. Not that he had the slightest desire to thank her. She had beaten him so badly back then that she still made guest appearances in his occasional nightmares.
Kain was letting out a low, bone-weary sigh and massaging his quivering right arm when he noticed Aria's face beside him radiating inexplicable sulkiness.
"Aria, what's with that expression?"
Kain asked her, his tone curious. She let out a small huff and sharply turned her head away.
"It's nothing. There isn't any problem at all, so you don't have to concern yourself, Kain."
"......"
Not a single man on earth, however great a fool, would hear that answer and simply nod along.
'...What's gotten into her now?'
She had clearly been in a good mood before they entered the training yard together, so why she would suddenly react like this was beyond him. No matter how he racked his brain, he couldn't find a single element in his spar with Noel von Dekaraznan that might have offended Aria.
'Could it be... an adolescent girl's distinctive sensitivity or something?'
While Kain looked at Aria completely clueless, Aria herself was engulfed in rising irritation. She was so annoyed that she disliked everything apart from Kain, but what she disliked most of all was Noel von Dekaraznan, who had been gazing at Kain with a slack and giddy face.
'Filthy tramp.'
Aria frowned again, calling up the expression Noel had worn just moments ago—the look of a bitch in heat eyeing an attractive male. Did that woman have any idea how unsightly her own face had been?
Of course she didn't. The more whorish the woman, the more she insisted she was no whore. As an added bonus, such women always possessed a grubby inability to admit they had something nasty hidden beneath their floorboards.
The situation was already such that, even excluding Aria herself, more than a handful of women were swarming around him. And now a woman like that—a slut who made whore-eyes at a man she'd met for the first time today—was supposed to join the crowd?
'No. That, at least, is absolutely not happening!'
At this rate something catastrophic might occur, and she would have to draw lots with the other women just to decide which day of the week she could sit beside him. Kain's side was already crawling with women: Bianca del Castana, who was clearly not of sound mind, and that voyeuristic elf, Kirie El Denaris. How could she possibly tolerate some strange, unheard-of woman sniffing around him now?
Still, for a ducal daughter she sure had an eye for men—! This was exactly why serving an overly outstanding master could be absolutely exhausting. After that shift in perspective, Aria felt her mood improve somewhat. Of course, Kain, who was watching her expression change in real time, could only wear a look of utter bewilderment.
"...Ah."
It was then that Kain, striding without hesitation toward his own room, stopped dead at the sudden sight of a woman appearing around a corner.
Here, in the middle of a corridor with no adjacent corner to duck into, he had come face to face with Sarah Sernad.
"......"
"......"
They exchanged no words, simply staring at each other in silence with mutually stiff expressions. An unbearably awkward current formed between them in an instant. In a way, it was only natural. It was the way of the world: once a man and woman who had been lovers parted ways, they automatically became worse than strangers.
In the end it was Kain who admitted defeat, unable to endure the hellish silence any longer.
"...Lady Sernad. Please feel free to pass first."
"...No, Young Duke Estel. How could I possibly block the young duke's path by putting my own business first? Please, you go first."
It was the kind of exchange that would make even a bystander feel suffocated. The two of them were nothing if not painfully awkward. They clearly found even sharing the same space repulsive. Watching their behavior, the middle-aged man standing guard behind Sarah simply nodded, as if everything at last made sense.
Thinking it over, a relationship between those two was only truly normal when it was this wretched. If anything, the strange thing had been the Young Duke Estel a little while ago, when, upon meeting Sarah again after so long, he had inexplicably seemed eager to speak with her alone.
'...No, considering the young duke's youth, it isn't that strange.'
Weren't youths naturally swept up by impulse and unable to endure momentary urges? Besides, this middle-aged man had accompanied Sarah in and out of House Estel many times and knew all too well what a fool Kain von Estel was.
How could he forget? From the very moment Kain became engaged to Sarah, he had been utterly captivated by her looks, sending flowers and letters every single day—and that pathetic sight of him rushing at her, clinging and slobbering all over her.
Various rumors had circulated recently and slightly shifted the young Duke Estel's standing, but the young Duke Estel engraved in the middle-aged man's memory was still nothing more than a dim-witted bastard lucky enough to have been born into a ducal house. What sort of meaningful conversation could such a fellow hold with Sarah alone? He'd surely just seized her and wallowed in sordid remembrances of the past.
Watching Kain and Sarah, the middle-aged man thus drew a tentative conclusion in his mind. Nothing worth calling a relationship remained between those two.
And as she confirmed the glint of contempt in the middle-aged man's gaze toward Kain, Sarah let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Thankfully, their performance seemed to have been quite successful.
****
"What do you think, Aria? Can the curse be dispelled?"
After deciding to extract Sarah from that wretched household, the greatest obstacle to their plan was that damned curse wrapped around her. The only thing Kain knew about the curse surrounding Sarah was that it prevented her from speaking certain specific keywords whenever she tried.
If the curse also had a location-tracking function, any escape attempt would clearly be futile, so discovering whether it could be lifted was essential.
"...With my current ability, dispelling it seems impossible. The curse is too vicious. Though perhaps a pope-level cleric might manage it somehow..."
"...Hm."
He had expected as much, really. If it were a curse that a mage who had reached the Master Realm could casually dispel, Sarah would have dealt with it long ago. She might be a figurehead, but she was still the daughter of House Sernad, one of the five wealthiest houses on the continent.
'...I suppose I could ask the Saintess for help at a later point.'
But by now the Saintess would have already left House Estel and returned to the Holy See. There was no way to summon her, which meant there was no method to break the curse at present.
"Mm, still, analyzing the curse itself produced some results. It doesn't seem to have any special function beyond interfering with the subject's nerves to prevent her from uttering specific keywords."
Kain nodded understandingly at Aria's explanation.
"Then we can consider it safe to discuss your rescue plan openly without worrying about information leaking."
Sarah shook her head at Kain's words.
"Like I said earlier, it's a truly reckless plan. Kain, this place is the Dekaraznan Ducal House, of all places. One of the four most powerful ducal houses in the empire. The level of security and its severity exist on an entirely different dimension from some run-of-the-mill noble family. This is seriously insane."
At Sarah's words, Kain merely let out a short laugh.
"Is that so? Then let me ask one thing. If we had met somewhere else, made this plan, and attempted your escape from there—would you think your odds of rescue had gone up? I bet you couldn't claim that at all. From where I stand, precisely because this is the Dekaraznan Ducal House, there's a clear advantage: the rats stuck to your side can't recklessly make a move either."
"......"
Kain was right. Sarah herself was aware that she was a 'product' carefully raised by House Sernad. To make sure such a 'product' wasn't damaged or lost, the 'Hunting Dogs' raised by the family were always trailing behind her.
And even those 'Hunting Dogs' didn't dare move recklessly inside the Dekaraznan Ducal House. The very fact that she could talk to Kain at this moment without any interference served as proof.
...But that wasn't what I was trying to tell you. I asked because I was worried you might get hurt—or end up in danger—while rescuing me. Why can't you understand how I feel?
"Now, then. For the rats who are chomping at the bit to eavesdrop on this room even now, I think our first priority should be creating an excuse for what sort of private conversation a lone man and woman are having in this cramped space."
They couldn't exactly go around announcing to everyone within earshot that they were devising a plan to break Sarah Sernad out of here.
"If it's that, I've already thought of something."
"What?"
"A love scandal."
As she said this, Sarah mussed her tidy hair and at the same time let the dress she was wearing slip slightly downward. The gesture looked so provocative that Aria's eyes lit up with fury where she stood beside Kain. What kind of shameless act was this woman pulling right in front of her very eyes—
"We used to be lovers. And we're now a broken-up couple. There's no need to offer excuses. Give them just a few subtle hints like this, and people will infer and accept whatever they think happened in this room, won't they?"
Kain stared quietly at Sarah, who was smiling at him with coquettish eye-smiles. Then he let out a small sigh and removed the outer coat he was wearing, draping it over her.
"...Even so, you shouldn't show yourself in such disheveled form to other people like that. Be kinder to yourself, Sarah."
At his words and the gaze Kain directed at her, Sarah reflexively averted her eyes. Why was this? She had never avoided meeting anyone's eyes before, no matter who she faced. Why was she so afraid to look him straight in the eye?
...She was trembling. Even when she had been engaged to him, they had been alone together countless times, yet she had never once trembled like this. Her heart was in chaos. She couldn't even understand why she was acting this way. Why, just why—
After that, Sarah exchanged many words with Kain, but regrettably his voice didn't reach her ears. She couldn't even properly register what words she herself was saying to him. All noise lost its meaning beneath the loud pounding of her heart.
Their conversation ended. Though it might have been quite long in objective terms, to Sarah it had felt like a fleeting instant. As she stared at him in a daze, Kain, assuming she must be tense, spoke to her again in a gentle tone.
"...At any rate, I'll create the opportunity. So."
Kain's eyes as he looked at Sarah held only firm resolve. Seeing his serious expression, a faint flush rose to Sarah's face before she knew it. She caught herself once more timidly avoiding his gaze like a coward.
"All you have to do is trust me and follow. Simple, isn't it, Sarah?"
Sarah's heart began to pound fiercely at his words. Her lips quivered for a moment before she bowed her head deeply.
She had no idea what sort of face she should show him.
"...Thank you."
Until the very moment they parted, Sarah could not look Kain directly in the eyes.