A Conversation Between Bodies (1)
Bathing in the small hours before dawn, when the sun was still a ways off from rising, carried a charm all its own.
The mansion of the noble who had introduced herself as Ceres was, true to its size, generous with rooms — so much so that it offered Yona's party one apiece.
And every one of those rooms came equipped with its own bathhouse, complete with a tub of endlessly flowing hot water and even a transparent screen that let you gaze straight up at the sky.
Is that... glass?
Since coming to this era, she didn't think she'd seen glass anywhere outside the cathedral. The thought crossed her mind that it really might be glass, but the curiosity fizzled out almost as soon as it sparked.
Rubina, sleepy-eyed and blinking, stayed glued to Yona's side and refused to be apart from her for even a moment. Even now, as Yona soaked in the tub, the girl clung tight to her — the shock of the day must have hit her hard indeed.
"Unni, what's wrong with this arm...?"
Rubina's small fingers rubbed at Yona's right arm. For a moment Yona wondered if the curse was spreading to her, but then, honestly, if it were going to spread, it would have done so long ago.
"...Unni just went through something bad, that's all."
Yona brushed it off with that much.
"Ohhhh..."
Whether Rubina actually accepted the explanation or simply gave up on it, she didn't pry any further.
"Rubina, are you getting sleepy?"
"A little."
A little my foot.
With drowsiness already fluttering at the corners of her eyes, Rubina looked far beyond a little tired. The day had been endlessly long, and the horrors that had befallen her would have been hard even for a grown adult to shoulder — yet the girl showed hardly a trace of it.
Was that a good thing, or a bad one?
Yona suspected it was probably not a good thing.
After Rubina slipped quietly asleep in the tub, Yona toweled her dry — silently marveling the whole while at how fluffy the towels were — then laid her down on the bed and returned to the bath alone. Partly because she'd wanted a little longer to soak by herself.
And then a memory rose unbidden.
— How dare you, how dare you lay a hand—!
The image of Alec striking down the cultist who had advanced on her with a dagger drawn. Even now, when her hand brushed the wound on her abdomen — the one that still throbbed with a dull ache — the memory came flooding back.
She had been pinned to the ground as the man closed in on her, terror gripping her even if she couldn't let it show. Violence she couldn't resist. Violence that exceeded anything she could hold back — she had been unable to respond at all.
And then there was Alec, hurling himself at the man who approached her, crushing him without hesitation with an even greater violence. Raging, how dare you lay a hand on anyone — beating the man mercilessly, as if determined to repay tenfold what the man had done to Yona.
If Yona hadn't stopped him. If Verbaria's cries of resurrection hadn't rung out at that moment.
Alec would surely have killed him.
— You damned bastard—!
The way Alec had roared, seized the man whole, and hurled him at the altar like a scrap of paper.
It had been nearly three years traveling at his side. Of course she knew his strength was nothing ordinary — but she hadn't known he could pick up a grown man and throw him like that.
...So Alec was trying to protect me?
Well, obviously. That's what partners do.
Still, it had been kind of cool. She had to admit that much, at least.
And so maybe it was time to ease up on the bald jokes— or so Yona thought.
*
"Sounds like Yona's still washing up."
"Seems like it. She always takes forever. And she's got Rubina with her, too. Or maybe she's already asleep."
"Then shall we go ahead and talk among ourselves first?"
"Aye. We'll just need to pass our decision along to Yona afterward."
Alec, Kayak, and James sat gathered in a circle. They had already knocked on Yona's door, but with no answer, she had to be either bathing or sleeping — one or the other.
"Two things need settling, I'd say."
"One's what that noble, Ceres, proposed earlier. The other's Rubina. Did I have it right?"
Kayak nodded at James's confirmation.
Taken over their extremely late supper, Ceres's offer had posed no real problem from the adventurers' point of view. The route from the Grand Duchy of Carpatia to the Wizard Community ran straight through the Infula Holy See.
They would be passing through anyway, and the pay was staggering on top of it. For adventurers, the compensation covered every preparative expense — food, lodging, travel costs, all of it came out of the payment, so pinching those expenses however possible was the only way anything actually stayed in your pocket at the end.
Against that backdrop, the terms Ceres had proposed were almost absurdly generous. But there was little room for suspicion either: Yona's party had played a truly extraordinary part in putting down that Grand Duke or whatever it was, and had they failed to buy time, there was no telling what massacre might have followed. Because they had clung on so tenaciously, the city had lost only a single building and the lives of several guardsmen — a bargain, frankly, by any measure.
Given such a showing, an offer like that was only natural, they reasoned.
"I see no room for debate here. We take it. Besides, the Hero and the Saintess will be traveling with us — that's practically free money for us. And it's two gold coins a day in pure wages, yes? Infula's a minimum two-week journey from here. That's twenty-eight gold."
For once, Kayak was worked up. So much so that Alec and James actually looked calm by comparison.
"True enough. When I go home, I want to return with my arms full of coin. Coming back empty-handed would shame me before my own kin, you understand."
James let out a hearty, rolling laugh. Alec had no objections either.
Refusing terms like these would be idiocy.
"Then I'll talk it over with Yona. I'm a bit worried she doesn't much care for His Heroship and the Saintess girl, but... thirty gold coins, well..."
"Twenty-eight, no?"
"If it comes to it, I'll toss her my two."
"Well, aren't your purse and Yona's the same purse at this point, Alec?"
"Not yet, they're not."
And so, with no dissent whatsoever, the first matter was settled — all that remained was Yona's agreement.
"Which brings us to Rubina..."
The moment James raised the topic, silence settled over the room. Each of them knew perfectly well what needed saying; they simply balked at being the one to say it.
"...I, er, I think we ought to bring her along to Infula, actually."
"That's a surprise, Kayak. I'd have bet you'd be the first to suggest leaving her behind."
At Alec's words, Kayak scratched at the bridge of his snout. Embarrassed, is he — Alec hid a smile at the sight.
"W-well, word travels fast. 'That Rubina girl was to be a sacrifice,' and so on — even in a city this size, rumors like that spread in no time."
"That they do. Among children it spreads in the blink of an eye, and with no orphanage here to speak of and no guardian to claim her, all the worse."
James, too, was against leaving Rubina behind. How many days would it take for the rumor to circle this port of Carpatia — that the girl had been offered up as a sacrifice for a demon's resurrection and barely rescued? Three days, he'd wager, no more. And once those three days passed and the rumor ripened, how would Rubina — without a single guardian in the world — bear the malice that would come for her?
"What difference does taking her to Infula make?"
Alec was mildly opposed. "That noble, Ceres, is here. Couldn't we just ask her to stand as Rubina's guardian?"
"No, that won't do. A noble playing guardian wouldn't spare the girl a second thought. And besides..."
That woman — something about her is off — the words went unsaid. It was only a feeling, and there wasn't a shred of evidence, so Kayak judged it better not to stir up groundless talk.
"But tell them at Infula that she's a child who nearly became a sacrifice to a demon's resurrection, and they'll move heaven and earth to protect her. It's practically certification that she's a child of the Heavenly God Herself. Can't say for certain about this city, but Infula will be far safer than a place that's already been breached by cultists once."
"...That's actually persuasive."
"It holds up, aye."
"I thought you were just a lizard, turns out you're a scholar lizard..."
"My intellect outranks your surviving hair follicles, at any rate."
Dammit.
Alec badly wanted to smack the grinning Kayak upside the head. Of course, he knew perfectly well he'd end up with his skull planted straight into the floor if he tried, so he swallowed it.
"Anyway, we're agreed then — she comes with us to Infula?"
"That's the shape of it."
"Then I'll put it to Yona that way."
Alec rose from his seat, sorting through the evening's conclusions in his head. Sleep was beginning to tug at him, but he meant to stop by Yona's room once more before he closed his eyes, however briefly.
"By the way — just when exactly are you planning to confess to her?"
"Confess? As if we're like that. Yona would throw an absolute fit if she heard it."
"Aaah, and one day someone will snatch her away while you dawdle. Why not settle it the manly way — duel for her hand? Afraid you'd lose to Yona?"
"I am not!"
Alec snapped.
"Everyone around you already knows, so I don't see what you're dragging your feet over. Is that a human thing?"
"...Ugh, enough, enough. Drop it. Everyone back to your rooms. I'm stopping by Yona's once more, then I'm turning in."
"Right you are. Rest well, then."
After Kayak and James snickered their way back to their own rooms, leaving Alec behind, he stood alone in the hallway and scratched furiously at his bald head.
"...Snatch her away. As if anyone could. Tch."
*
Yona stepped out of the bath, gave herself a cursory toweling, and returned to her room with a towel wound around her hair.
Rubina, exhausted beyond measure, was fast asleep — snoring softly, a rare occurrence for her. Yona gazed at her sleeping face for a while before taking the chair before the vanity.
The large mirror, broad enough to show her whole upper body, reflected her image back at her. The long, luxuriant hair that was a small ordeal to dry every time she washed it, and the dull golden eyes that knew nothing of sparkle.
She is pretty, though.
Every time she looked at the beauty in the mirror, she caught herself marveling inwardly. Honestly, everyone who saw her gasped and called her a beauty, and she couldn't entirely blame them.
And then there was her chest — so large that back in Evian, she'd been politely asked whether she might wear something a little looser, since her nun's habit was frankly too scandalous. She had refused, of course.
"...Tch."
It was a body that would be gone soon enough, one way or another. What good was a woman's shape when the man inside it hadn't changed?
Clicking her tongue, Yona rose from the chair and began rummaging through her pack for a change of underclothes.
— Knock, knock.
"Who is it?"
— It's me, Alec.
"You haven't slept yet?"
— I've got something to talk about. Can I come in?
"Something worth talking about at this hour... fine, come in."
The door swung open and Alec stepped inside. He'd washed up too, apparently — his unusually gleaming scalp caught her eye first. And then, as their gazes met, Alec's eyes went wide. Very, very wide—
And it was right about then that Yona realized she was standing there completely naked.