Bloodline (7): The Misunderstood Confession
The next day, during meal preparation.
"Hey, pass me the salt shaker."
Jain spoke as if nothing had happened, flipping the meat. When Ren handed over the shaker, their fingertips brushed for a moment. Ren's face flushed bright red as though someone had slapped paint across it, and she stumbled back a step. Jain, however, simply continued sprinkling salt over the meat with complete indifference.
"Then I'd appreciate it if you washed the dishes."
"O-okay."
After everything that happened yesterday, he's acting exactly like always.
A faint pang of disappointment twisted inside her. As Ren scrubbed the plates under running water, she kept stealing glances at Jain's back. Her thoughts drifted back to the night before.
Jain lay buried in his sleeping bag, moaning softly and tossing restlessly. His back was drenched in cold sweat.
"Father..."
It looked like a nightmare. It would have been better if he just woke up, but despite all the thrashing, he remained asleep. Ren, who had not expected anything like this, knelt beside him in helpless panic.
"The will must..."
He mumbled again in his sleep. His sweat-soaked face looked utterly tormented.
After a moment of hesitation, Ren decided to shake his shoulder to wake him. The instant her hands touched both shoulders, Jain shot upright, gasping for air.
"A-are you okay? I'll get you some water!"
Ren quickly poured from the canteen and handed it over. Jain brushed back his damp bangs, took the cup, and drank it down in heavy gulps before wiping his mouth. Only then did his expression ease.
"Thanks. I'm a little more awake now."
Still pushing back the hair that kept falling into his eyes, Jain returned the cup. Ren placed a hand over her heart and let out a long sigh.
"Thank goodness."
It was only after hearing those words that Jain realized something was off.
"Wait, why are you in here?"
"You always barge into the girls' tents without asking. So... I thought I'd do the same."
"Oh, for crying out loud. Is that all you came for?"
"Huh? Y-yeah..."
"Don't come in like that again. Go sleep outside."
With that, Jain rolled over once more.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. She had come to confess today. She had even worked up the courage to wear underwear.
Flustered, Ren shook him again.
"Th-that's not it. I came to repay you. With... myself..."
"Repay me? What are you talking about?"
Jain sat up, visibly annoyed. Only then did he notice Ren was wearing nothing but black underwear. He let out a small snort of laughter.
"Did that cum-guzzling, big-titted brat corrupt you too? What kind of thinking is that?"
It would have been better to just admit she had come to confess. But Ren, raised in sheltered purity, could not bring herself to say it. She fidgeted with her fingers.
"W-well... you fought for me. You saved my life... so, as thanks..."
"The cup of water you gave me after waking me up is thanks enough. I appreciate it. That damn nightmare I keep having almost ruined my sleep for the rest of the night."
Jain stroked the head of the now-downcast Ren, then paused as he was about to turn over again. An expression of almost fearful worry crossed his face.
"I'm trusting you here, but I have to ask just in case."
"Wh-what?"
"You are a virgin, right?"
Ren's face burned scarlet again. She had never spent this much time alone in a room with a man before; the answer was obvious. She nodded stiffly like a wooden plank. She even relaxed her core in case he pounced on her.
But Jain only breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed his chest. He made no move to approach.
"Thank god."
"Wh-what for?"
When Ren protested timidly, Jain gripped her small shoulders firmly and spoke with deadly seriousness.
"Listen. A virgin is not something to be traded or transferred. Just like air, the sky, or sunlight, it cannot be owned. Don't ignore the person you truly love and try to repay someone else by offering yourself like an object. You'll regret it. Do you understand?"
It sounded like a lecture on how precious purity was and how she must protect it. That person you truly love is you, you idiot! Ren wanted to scream it at him. But with Jain's face so close to hers, her courage failed. All she could do was nod.
"I-I understand."
"Good. Then I'm relieved."
For some reason, Jain wore a satisfied expression. In the end, Ren could only flee the tent as if escaping.
So... this is what being rejected feels like?
Ren, still washing dishes, hung her head. Just thinking it made her nose sting and her eyes burn with oncoming tears. After everything he had done, after risking his life for her, she had been so sure he would accept. That was why she had gone to him...
Her nose stung again. She sniffled. The mere memory filled her with such embarrassment she thought she might die. Why act so kind and then raise an iron wall the moment she approached? After agonizing over it all night, Ren reached her own conclusion.
She glanced at Jain's back and thought, Maybe he just believes now isn't the right time for something like that.
The number one reason adventurer parties fell apart, in any era or any land, had always been romantic entanglements. She remembered what Jain had said when he first joined their party: that he had a reason he must defeat the Demon King. The sleep-talking last night, the sorrowful look on his face right after waking from the nightmare, everything seemed connected.
He must be carrying some heavy burden that requires him to slay the Demon King.
Once she thought of it that way, many things made sense. Nodding to herself, Ren scrubbed the last plate until it squeaked and set it down.
Yeah. Thinking about it calmly, it would be terrible if a couple suddenly formed inside the party right now with marriage in mind.
Before she knew it she had drunk an entire bowl of kimchi soup, yet Ren herself remained completely unaware of the irony.
At that moment, Jain's gruff voice called from behind her.
"What are you doing? If the dishes are done, bring the plates over here. Hurry up."
"Right!"
Carrying a tall stack of plates, Ren hurried over with quick steps and stood beside Jain, transferring the cooked meat onto them. Then, as if nothing were out of the ordinary, she asked,
"Hey... how many children do you want?"
"Why are you asking that?"
"I don't know, just curious."
"Hmm. About five?"
"F-five? That's... a lot. Why so many?"
"The more older and younger siblings, the better."
"I-I see. Then I'll have to work hard."
"You will. Child-rearing expenses are no small matter."
Ren absently stroked her lower belly for a moment, then fanned the meat to cool it and spoke again as though the question were casual.
"Oh, and I overheard Karin doesn't seem to want many children?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. I once heard her talking with the Hero. When he suggested having five, she got furious. Whenever I see a child I think they're so cute and that I'd love to hold their hand and walk with them, so I was surprised someone could feel differently."
"I see. That's impressive."
And with that, she made up her mind. Once this party, which had grown genuinely determined to defeat the Demon King, accomplished its goal and everything was over, she would confess her true feelings once more, with all her heart.
"The writing is fucking terrible. I can't read a thing. What did you even write?"
"It's a secret! I'll tell you tomorrow!"
So, on the eve of the Demon King subjugation, she had secretly poured her true feelings into a cake.
Let's be together forever.
She had planned to have everyone read the message aloud, then confess before anyone else could speak.
"From now on, let's just live without ever seeing each other's faces again. Like strangers who never met."
Yet that cake had been brutally destroyed in less than a day. All Ren had been permitted to do was kneel and stare at the ruined remains with dead eyes.
"This concludes the full account of the adventures the young lady experienced."
In the information room of the Sonnet family, the silver agent who had compiled every detail finished his report and carefully studied Soria's expression. The reason a core operative of the Silver Lily Division was watching her so closely was simple: today, Soria had stormed in demanding to know exactly what had happened inside the Hero's party.
"I see. So the young lady has fully recovered. That explains why the head of the family was so relaxed. Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness."
Soria had removed her glasses and was now sobbing openly.
"To think our young lady was hiding such immense sorrow from even me..."
She wiped her tears vigorously, then suddenly froze. A wave of enormous anxiety crashed over her.
"Wait! Then the reason the young lady has shut herself in that room is..."
For an entire month she had not seen Ren's face, and Soria was now in a state of extreme anxiety. Losing all reason, she began leaping to hasty conclusions.
"It can't be! Lovesickness! The cure for lovesickness is medicine! Could she be locked away in her room, taking dangerous drugs to ease the pain of rejection?!"
"Come now, what drugs... Would the young lady ever do such a thing?"
"If not, then why would she order something through an ultra-secret service? From the lawless city that serves as the Thieves' Guild headquarters, no less!"
No mistake. This is a woman's intuition.
Soria's suspicion rapidly hardened into certainty. The pitiful moans she had overheard while leaning against the door earlier only poured fuel on the fire of her imagination.
"This is definitely drugs. There's no other possibility, is there?"
"Head Maid, where are you going?"
When Soria shot to her feet and headed for the door, the silver agent reached out in panic, trying to catch her sleeve. But Soria was already in full rampage.
"We must open that door and drag her out immediately! Otherwise she could truly harm herself!"
"Um, Head Maid. The head of the family specifically ordered us to leave the young lady alone so she could have some private time..."
"How can we do that?! Not even the head of the family, not even the Demon King, no, not even the True Demon Emperor could stop me!"
"Head Maid! Where are you going?!"
This required breaking down the door and dragging her out. Then they would feed her delicious food, let her sleep deeply, and stabilize both her mind and body. With firm resolve, Soria burst from the room and raced toward Ren's quarters.
In the blink of an eye she stood before the door. Once again she pressed her ear against it and listened. The same pitiful moaning echoed from inside. Soria could no longer restrain herself.
"Young lady! Come out of that room right now! Being rejected once is not the end of the world!"
"S-Soria? Wh-what's going on?"
"That bastard is in Rotern! The other party members are all riding carriages to go pick up that mentally and physically exhausted man! And you're just going to stay locked in your room?!"
"I-I got it, I got it, so stop shaking the door! It's going to break!"
"I'm breaking it! I will rescue you from this cruel fate!"
"No! Do not open it! If you open it, I'll, I'll die!"
Ren's reaction was somewhat different from what she had expected, but none of it reached the ears of the rampaging Soria. She yanked dozens of throwing stars from the holster on her thigh, fanned them in her hand like a deck of cards, and hurled them at the door.
The mahogany door shattered helplessly into dozens of pieces under the maid's strike.
"Now, young lady, first let's take a bath togeth—"
And then Soria froze like a stone statue at the sight revealed beyond the broken door.
"What in the world is this?"
The state of the room where Ren had barricaded herself was utterly astonishing. Soria felt as if she had been struck in the head. The shock was so great that the country dialect she had abandoned after joining the Sonnet family came spilling out again.
"I-I told you not to open it..."
A deathly silence wrapped around the two women. Ren's frail plea drifted out, but Soria remained frozen, staring blankly into the room.