10. What Happened One Night - 08
In front of Sarah's room at the Dekaraznan Ducal House estate.
Instead of going inside, Kain and Sarah stood facing each other before the door. Kain wore nothing but a single shirt. Sarah's clothes were soaked through from the rain, and to spare her from having to be seen in that state by anyone else, he had taken off his own coat and draped it over her shoulders.
'...Kain.'
Sarah was so acutely aware that she was wearing Kain's coat that her own rain-drenched clothes barely registered. It might have been nothing but her imagination, but the coat seemed to carry the faint trace of his scent.
'...Could I possibly smell strange?'
The coat unquestionably belonged to Kain. If later, when she returned it, Kain were to take it and say—
Goodness, Sarah, this coat smells a little odd, doesn't it?
—she might faint on the spot. And so Sarah could only wrap the coat around herself even more tightly. Now that it had come to this, she resolved not to give it back today, planning to use the excuse that she had gotten it thoroughly damp and would wash it before returning it.
Whether he knew her inner thoughts or not, Kain simply watched her with eyes that showed genuine concern. A delicately raised, frail noblewoman drenched in heavy rain like that—there was no way he wouldn't worry.
"Sarah, make sure you rest properly. Don't try to act tough or pretend you're fine out of stubborn pride and end up sick in bed later. Absolutely don't overdo it today."
"...Kain. Am I a child? Or are you my mother? Though I doubt even my mother would nag me like that."
Sarah answered in a voice that sounded inexplicably sulky. Kain let out a quiet sigh and studied her whole figure with a level gaze.
"...Wh-what are you looking at...?"
Sarah unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself, but regrettably, what Kain was examining was not the curves visible through her drenched clothing. His gaze swept over her. Her lips were bluish-pale, her complexion deathly white. Only her cheeks and forehead still held a faintly feverish flush—which looked unmistakably like the early symptoms of hypothermia.
That's a nasty symptom.
Kain knew firsthand how terrifying hypothermia could be, having spent a brutal year with the Winter Expedition. The closer they drew to the Estel Duchy from the Imperial Capital to subjugate the Winter Witch, the fiercer the snow fell and the more savage the cold grew. There were days beyond counting when fist-sized hailstones rained from the sky, or record-breaking blizzards far deeper than a man's height made it impossible to advance a single step.
If Bianca hadn't stabilized their body temperatures with magic, or if Ariel hadn't healed them with Divine Power, Kain would likely have lost every finger and toe to frostbite before even reaching the Estel Duchy, left unable to properly hold a spoon.
At any rate, there wasn't a single person in the Expedition Force who hadn't suffered from hypothermia. Bianca, whose constitution was naturally frail, went without saying—but even the Imperial Princess, whose physical abilities were monstrous, was sometimes laid low by it. The winter that raged across the continent was horrific beyond words.
Having endured such suffering himself, Kain could only feel sincerely worried for Sarah. Say what you would, but she was once his fiancée. A woman he had once loved, reduced to a shivering heap in bed—there was no way that sight could bring him anything but concern.
"...Anyway, I hope you take care of yourself. I'd rather not hear later that you've fallen ill."
So saying, he turned away from her without the slightest hesitation. Before she realized it, Sarah found herself clutching at his retreating figure.
"...Ka-Kain...!"
"What is it? Something else you wanted to say?"
She had called out to stop him, but the moment she realized she had nothing to say, the only words that came from Sarah's mouth were—
"...Th-this coat? What about it? You really don't need it back?"
—even she thought they sounded utterly foolish.
"You can return it later. Forget about that for now, just get inside and rest."
Leaving behind only words meant to comfort her to the very end, he vanished from sight.
"...What am I even doing..."
She felt nothing but contempt for herself. At this rate, she thought, she might spend the rest of her life doing nothing but circling around him until she died of old age.
****
Creeeak—
Wearing an expression of slight exhaustion, Sarah opened the door and stepped inside. She had just been thinking she could finally rest without worrying about anyone else's eyes, but most regrettably, a prior guest had long since taken up residence in her room.
"Where in the world have you been and what were you doing, that you only now decide to come in?"
"...Uncle."
There, in the center of her room, her uncle Gale Sernad sat in a chair, waiting for her with the arrogance of someone who believed himself the room's true master.
"Utterly preposterous. Do you possess any sense at all, or are you simply lacking? Did you somehow mistake this for a pleasure trip?"
He had entered his niece's room without a single word of advance notice, yet the only thing that issued from his mouth was blatant, venomous reproach. What mattered to him was solely the fact that he had come here because he had something to say, only to find Sarah absent and be forced to wait for her all this time. That Sarah's clothes were drenched, that her face was drawn from it, that his niece's body trembled from the cold—none of it concerned him. What interested him was Sarah Sernad as a "tool." Sarah Sernad as a human being was beneath his notice.
"...I'm... sorry, Uncle."
Even at the middle-aged man's truly insufferable words, Sarah could only bite her lip and silently bow her head. Bowing her head to a man like him was deeply humiliating, but right now she had no choice. Because in that man's hands—
"Well, never mind. I knew well enough that you were a reckless, hopelessly insolent wench who relies on nothing but her pretty face. If not for that half-decent face of yours, I wouldn't have brought you along for such an important matter."
The middle-aged man clicked his tongue and heaped absurd abuse upon her, yet Sarah merely kept her expression blank, letting her uncle's torrent of insults in one ear and out the other. No—she tried to let them flow out.
It's fine. This is familiar. Ever since that man who was head of House Sernad and her own father assigned her 'discipline' to the man before her, an insult of this sort was truly nothing compared to what he had already done to her. So she only had to endure this time as well. ...Yes, endure it. This moment was nothing more than something to get through however she could.
"Be that as it may, Sarah. How goes the task of seducing the Young Duke Dekaraznan? I hear the young lord has a fiancée, but with a body like yours, making him fall shouldn't have been so difficult, should it?"
As he spoke, the middle-aged man swept his half-lidded gaze over her entire figure. That revolting look, as though his eyes were licking across her body, made Sarah instinctively recoil with physical loathing. ...It genuinely made her skin crawl. How could he look at his own niece with such lecherous, insidious eyes?
In that moment, she knew all too well what answer the man called her uncle wanted from her. He was pressuring her. For the family, he was blatantly compelling his niece to seduce a man like some red-light-district whore and get him under her thumb.
"...Uncle."
Ah, if it were my past self, I might have meekly accepted a proposal that nauseating. I would have acknowledged that this body, cultivated only to be sold off elsewhere at a high price, meant nothing at all, and could have obediently spread my legs for the Young Duke Dekaraznan.
But—
"...I..."
—Because I was worried. With the rain pouring down outside like this, how could I possibly stay still after hearing you had suddenly vanished?
She was no longer the woman she used to be. The past version of her, weary and cynical toward the world itself, had vanished without a trace. She was hardly trying to harbor any desire to monopolize him now. What she wanted had never truly existed in the first place.
...She had simply found herself yearning. Yearning to stay at the side of the man who had reached out for someone like her without a moment's hesitation, if only a little longer. She only wanted to lean a little more on the support he provided. Nothing more than the faint hope that perhaps even someone like her might be allowed that much.
She desired nothing beyond that, and she firmly believed she must not desire more. A man like him had no business with a woman like her.
"...I will not do it, Uncle. I absolutely cannot do something like seducing the Young Duke Dekaraznan."
"...What did you say?"
"I can do anything else. But whispering sweet words to a man I do not love, and seducing him—that is the one thing I cannot do."
Because deep within her heart, she had already let another man take root. Though she knew perfectly well that love would not be returned, she no longer wanted to harbor any regrets toward him.
She shook her head at her uncle's words with firm resolve. It was a clear declaration of refusal.
In an instant, nothing but a cold silence hung in the room. The middle-aged man's face showed utter incredulity, then quickly twisted into an expression brimming with rage.
"...Hah. You've grown rather talkative today, Sarah."
Unable to contain his fury, the middle-aged man shot to his feet and strode toward her. Her uncle's arm slowly rose. Watching it, Sarah reflexively squeezed her eyes shut.
He had always been like this. The sort of man who, whenever things didn't go his way, didn't hesitate to use violence even against his much younger niece. Imagining the blow that was about to follow, Sarah's hands trembled ever so faintly. The shame she felt at herself—for being struck by such a man yet unable to say a word—was worse than the pain from the violence itself.
"...You conniving little thing."
...But that man's hand never struck her cheek. No, he was forced to restrain himself. Whatever might happen within House Sernad, striking his niece inside the Dekaraznan ducal residence was far too great a risk.
"...No, I can't do that. Yes, I truly cannot. Other places aside, I absolutely must not touch that face of yours. It's a precious 'product,' a precious asset that could captivate the Young Duke Dekaraznan at any moment. Isn't that right, Sarah?"
Her uncle's hand gently traced along the nape of her neck, over her shoulder, and up to her cheek. His touch was utterly unlike the touch Kain had once used to care for her. To put it plainly, it was revolting. Every time his fingers touched her skin, Sarah had to endure the crawling sensation of what felt like dozens of snakes slithering across her entire body.
"Don't put on airs like some haughty, precious thing, Sarah. You know it well yourself, don't you? You are nothing but a product. A mere ornament carefully raised by House Sernad to be valuable, and nothing more. You know that perfectly well, so what is the point of balking at spreading your legs now?"
"....."
"Well, as a fond uncle to my dear niece, I'll grant you about a day. Use that time to think it over carefully. Use your own judgment to decide what course of action will bring you favorable results."
The middle-aged man, who had fixed her with a greasy stare to the very end, left her room at a leisurely pace, not bothering to hide his sneer until the final moment.
"...Ah."
The instant her uncle left the room, the strength drained from Sarah's entire body, and she crumpled to the floor.
"...Ka...in..."
She was afraid. Just moments before, Sarah had attempted 'defiance' for the first time against her uncle. But at the final moment, she hadn't been able to make any objection to him at all.
It was not that she feared pain. It was not that she feared the man himself. It was only that she feared the version of herself that might, because of that fear, end up complying with his demands in the end.
"...I'm sorry..."
In the end, Sarah covered her face with her hands and wept. But no sound escaped her lips at all.
That was the last shred of pride left to the woman called Sarah Sernad.