A Silence as if Time Had Stopped
A silence hung in the air as if time itself had frozen. Just as my lips were twitching uselessly, a familiar voice drifted over from across the way.
“That’s Shen, right? The one who sits next to me…”
“No, it isn’t.”
I handed over the sack with a curt reply, then spun on my heel, flatly denying the question that had been gently posed. My deliberately twisted voice came out thicker than necessary—the result of frantically contorting my body in a desperate attempt to hide my identity. But ten seconds of staring at each other in silence was more than enough. No matter how different the clothes were, assuming she wouldn’t recognize me was simply shameless.
“That outfit…”
As expected, Arian leaned in with a knowing look, tilting her head as she examined me. I’d only meant to do a favor by delivering the herbs, and now look at the mess I was in. Was there any other excuse I could spin?
Right—I remembered mentioning that I exercised as a hobby. The conversation flashed through my mind, and an excuse presented itself.
“You said your hobby was exercise, didn’t you…?”
“Ah, that’s true… So you really did say it was a hobby?”
When I tied the hobby to the current situation, Arian echoed the words without finishing her own sentence, subtly handing the conversational lead back to me. I nodded and continued, keeping my tone as polite as possible—using “father” instead of “dad,” and softening “so” into the more formal “so he asked.”
“My father wanted me to experience firsthand what it means to earn money with one’s own body…”
I spoke only after thinking it through, casually dropping my father’s name while making it sound as though I hadn’t wanted to do this at all. If he ever found out I’d said such a thing, he’d probably fly into a rage and smack me over the head. Just imagining it made my scalp ache.
…Sorry, Dad.
“Heh, he sounds like a strict father.”
Apparently my hastily cobbled-together story was convincing enough. Arian brought her index finger to her lips and laughed softly, looking far more relaxed than I felt with my nerves stretched taut. Whether she truly believed me or was simply pretending to, I couldn’t tell from that faint smile. All I knew was that I wanted to escape this needle-covered seat as quickly as possible.
“I suppose so…?”
Even as I gave that clumsy reply, a question crossed my mind. She was clearly from a wealthy family—why was she personally running errands to the request office? If she only needed the herbs, couldn’t she have just sent a servant?
I should have swallowed the question, but my mouth moved on its own.
“But why go out of your way for something like End-roll Grass…?”
“Out of my way? The difference between wild End-roll Grass and cultivated End-roll Grass is enormous! It’s so significant that some say using only cultivated herbs means you can’t call yourself a true apothecary…!”
Arian didn’t take kindly to my dismissive remark about End-roll Grass. She closed the distance with an intensity I’d never seen before, her voice rising passionately. For a brief moment, she spoke with genuine fervor about the herb.
“Ah…”
Realizing what she’d done, she quickly shut her mouth, swallowing the rest of her words. Anyone could see she was deeply passionate about this field. After witnessing that unexpected side of her, I began inching away, feeling as though I’d glimpsed a secret I wasn’t meant to see.
“Um, a…all right, then.”
I glanced over my shoulder to check if anyone was behind me, then started backing away. Please don’t grab me. Please don’t grab me… I repeated the silent plea as I put more distance between us. But my wish went unanswered—Arian strode straight toward me and seized my wrist.
“Just a moment.”
Damn it!
My body jerked to a halt as if caught on a hook. Arian looked up at me with narrowed eyes, her lower lip caught between her teeth. The expression made it clear she had no intention of letting someone who’d discovered her secret walk away unscathed. I probably looked like I was apologizing even though I wasn’t sure what I’d done wrong. All I’d said was “something like End-roll Grass,” and the price for that was apparently steep. I hadn’t expected her to react as though I’d touched a reverse scale.
“Would you spare me a little time and accompany me?”
While I was still reeling from the thought, Arian hid her glare behind a bright smile. The expression was clearly forced—more unsettling than her earlier glare.
“Huh…? Ah, sure…”
“A simple ‘yes’ is enough.”
It seemed there was only one choice available in this situation. Faced with that spine-chilling smile, I had no choice but to agree. She declared that one answer was sufficient, then began dragging me along by the wrist. Her speech remained as polite as it had been at the academy, but the sudden shift in attitude carried an unmistakable edge that made me tense up. Resisting or running away here would only make things worse—after all, we were classmates. Even without the strength to fight back, I followed obediently. This was the middle of the royal capital; surely she wouldn’t bury a fellow student alive. Clinging to that single word—“surely”—I let myself be half-dragged through the city streets.
Our mismatched steps carried us far from the mercenary request office, through the residential district, and into the commercial district.
Where is she taking me…?
I trailed after her delicate yet strangely familiar gait, trying to guess our destination. After walking for some time, the grip on my wrist loosened. The sound of a key turning in a lock was followed by the creak of an old door. Only then did I lift my gaze from the ground.
There was no signboard. From the outside, it was impossible to tell what purpose the weathered wooden building served. I followed Arian inside without hesitation, my footsteps echoing softly.
The moment I stepped fully into the building, a familiar scent tickled my nose.
Huh, this smell…?
“Please have a seat for a moment.”
At Arian’s words, I pulled over a chair without a backrest and sat down, still sniffing the air. The scent was fainter than before, but it was definitely the same one I’d smelled at the apothecary not long ago. Only then did I understand the building’s purpose. Even without a sign, it was clearly a place for making potions.
Inside the quiet building, the clear chime of glass bottles rang out. I turned toward the sound and saw Arian approaching, colorful vials tucked between her fingers.
“Take these, and forget everything you saw today… Understood?”
“Ah, y-yeah…”
She stopped in front of my chair and held out both hands, the vials balanced between her fingers. It felt like a bribe being passed from hand to hand. I still didn’t know exactly what she was trying to hide, but I couldn’t refuse in the moment, so I nodded. Everyone had their own hobbies, after all… Brewing potions seemed like a perfectly wholesome one.
“Why do you have to hide that you make potions…?”
The question had barely left my lips when Arian shot me a sharp glare. It was a warning look that said to watch my words, even when we were alone. I swallowed the rest of my question and simply observed her reaction.
“Haa…”
Arian let out a resigned sigh, as if accepting that the secret was already out. While answering, she rummaged through the shelves.
“…My mother is against it. She says a lady should focus on socializing and refinement. This building was provided by my father, who respects my dreams.”
“Hmm…?”
After hearing her brief explanation, I let out an intrigued sigh. In my case, my dad had been firmly opposed, but her family seemed to be the complete opposite. I felt a strange sense of kinship—until I remembered that “supporting her dream” here meant providing an entire building. The feeling quickly dissipated. As expected, when you had that much wealth, the scale of support was beyond imagination.
In the quiet interior, empty glass bottles clinked softly. Arian placed the sack on a wide table as though accustomed to the noise, then continued in her usual flat tone.
“Anything said at the academy can reach our parents if it holds any value as information.”
It was a world I knew nothing about—and had never cared to know. Just as school was a small society, the academy functioned as a miniature social arena. Even casual chatter between students could become information that eventually reached their parents. In other words, if I ever happened to mention that Arian brewed potions as a hobby…
That story would travel from mouth to mouth until it reached her mother.
“And that would be most unwelcome for me.”
“Ah, right…”
Just as the thought occurred to me, Arian slammed her hand on the table and fixed me with a glare. Startled, I answered reflexively, but that look in her eyes… If such a thing ever happened, it promised a lifetime of curses.
“So the events of today… don’t speak of them to anyone until the day you enter your grave.”
Her sharp gaze softened as she finished speaking. Until the grave seemed a bit excessive, but remembering the day I’d let slip my dream of becoming a traveler and gotten beaten half to death by my dad, I understood how she felt. I nodded. Strangely, my past self and the current Arian overlapped in this moment. Of course, I’d only managed to keep the secret for a single day before the village kids found out.
In the end, we reached a mutual agreement: “Shen will not reveal Arian’s potion-making hobby.”
As I opened the door to leave, the faint scent of potions still lingering in the air, Arian’s voice drifted after me.
“Ah, thank you for the End-roll Grass. The quality really is excellent.”
Just as her words faded, I turned to see the door click shut, her face disappearing behind the narrowing gap. Arian had worn nothing but formal smiles the entire time… but in that final moment, I thought I caught a glimpse of a genuine, unguarded smile.