Stay Away from Kailo (2)
The whole castle was abuzz with talk of the dragon.
And for a little while, that buzz even made the members of the Disciplinary Unit something of a novelty.
Curious maids and soldiers who'd seen the dragon's hauled-in carcass would seize every chance to corner a boy soldier who'd witnessed the subjugation and wring the story out of him.
"I'm telling you, I saw it with my own eyes...! That bastard Kailo, flying through the sky...!"
"Oh my, oh my...!"
It was a story especially popular with the maids.
I hadn't expected it, but the tale of having slain a dragon spread with far more relish among the women than the men. It was enough to make me wonder if this was the sort of thing that made knights so hungry for glory.
The boy soldiers, already boiling over with lust, used the story as a foothold to get closer to the maids — and a few of them even managed to reach their goal. Every so often, one who'd spent a pleasant stretch of time with a maid would come up to me and thank me for it.
"Kailo, if you're ever in a tough spot, just say the word...! I'll help you out for sure!"
"..."
I had a pretty good idea what they'd been doing before offering me that, so the whole thing was a little disgusting, and I spent most of my time shoving them away.
The way people looked at me had changed a great deal, too. That shift, likewise, was mostly among the maids.
Before, plenty of maids who didn't know me from a stranger would frown the moment they saw me. Lately, though, more and more of them greeted me first, or even smiled with their eyes. The distance had closed as well — fewer of them bolted at a quick walk when I approached, and some even seemed to match my pace. Yesterday, one about my age had waved at me, then flushed and fled.
I didn't mind the feeling of hostility turning into goodwill.
That didn't mean I could actually get close to the maids, of course. I had no particular desire to — but Vivian's attitude had become a problem.
"...Who told you to look after Kailo Allen?"
Everyone still remembered the fury Vivian had shown when Rona, who was at least somewhat friendly with me, offered to change my bandages. Vivian wasn't the type to explode like that under ordinary circumstances, so the shock the maids took must have been twice as hard. Rona herself — big, and about as far from delicate femininity as a person could get — had gone back to the servants' quarters afterward and cried, from what I heard.
...Crazy bitch.
I thought of Vivian and scowled.
Was changing a bandage really such an unforgivable act? I'd saved her from a dragon, and she couldn't even do that much? Was holding her when she was shaking with cold such a grave offense that I had to change my own bandages? When someone comes back from a hard campaign, isn't the decent human thing to show a little gratitude?
In any house, slaying a dragon was supposed to bring a generous reward. I hadn't received a thing — and on top of that, I had to tend my own wounds. Even as a hostage held in this place, it felt excessive. And the fact that Vivian was the one driving it only made me more irritated.
What frustrated me most of all, though, was that even while I was this annoyed, I still couldn't bring myself to truly hate her.
Why couldn't I hate a lunatic like that?
Thinking back on the dragon fight — it wasn't courage that made me act. I moved because I was afraid Vivian would die if I didn't. It was always like that. I never moved because I was brave. I moved because it felt like she would die if I stayed still. I was always irritated, and my body was always moving anyway.
...I was starting to seriously wonder whether some kind of curse had been put on me.
That suspicion was eating away at me.
Vivian had been busy of late. Whatever she was discussing with Robert Rondore, she spent a great deal of time with him. Sometimes my curiosity got the better of me and I loitered outside the conference room where they met, but as the eldest son of the Allen family, of course I was never allowed to listen in. If it had been Vivian's usual retainers barring my way, I might have forced through somehow. Robert's men were tougher and more stubborn, though, and I always had to back down.
Today marked the tenth day since the expedition ended. In all that time, I hadn't spoken a word with Vivian. At best we shared a meal. Even then Robert had made no secret of his displeasure, though Vivian's words had settled him somewhat.
"Kailo Allen checks my food for poison in my place. It's a fitting duty to assign the eldest son of the Allen family, don't you think?"
I knew that was empty talk on her part. She'd told me some time ago that I no longer needed to check her meals. Hearing her say it while the hostility between us still hung in the air had still managed to irritate me, though.
Vivian would occasionally glance my way, as if gauging my mood, but that did little to ease the frustration.
I was walking the grounds of Rondore Castle. With the expedition over, the Disciplinary Unit had been granted rest under the name of a reward, and with no training to attend, I was living a quiet stretch of days. Vivian's retainers, apparently busier than usual because of Robert, left me alone as well. It was peaceful — so long as I didn't think of Vivian.
"K-Kailo, sir!"
Someone called to me from up ahead. It was the maid who'd been waving at me lately — the one who looked about my age. Brown hair. A heavy dusting of freckles. A young face. A little shorter than me.
Behind her stood a few older-looking maids, who kept whispering something into the freckled one's ear. She drew a deep breath, set her face with resolve, and came toward me. But once she stopped in front of me, she couldn't meet my eyes again. Cheeks flushed, she spoke.
"Th-this..."
She held out both hands. Two cookies nestled awkwardly in her palms.
"I-I made them myself. F-for a snack when you're hungry..."
"..."
I'd heard about this kind of thing from Willas. Yanes had told similar stories. Maids sometimes approached boy soldiers this way. I still remembered the faces of my comrades, lighting up as they recounted their experiences.
...Strangely, though, this maid's approach left me completely unmoved. I was only surprised by her nerve. Had she not heard about Vivian and Rona? Getting caught like this by Vivian wouldn't end well for her.
I looked at the cookies and said,
"I don't even know your name."
"Ah...! Ah!"
She flustered as if she'd just remembered, then tucked her brown hair behind her ear and said shyly,
"M-my name is Serena... a-and I'm sixteen."
The way Willas had, the way Yanes had — I felt no urge to do anything with the maid who introduced herself as Serena. At the same time, I didn't want to coldly kick away the first clear show of goodwill I'd felt in Rondore Castle. So I put on a formal smile and took the cookies.
"Thanks. I'll eat them during training."
"Y-yes!!"
At my smile, Serena's face brightened, the corners of her mouth twitching upward. She turned to leave at once, then seemed to catch herself at a gesture from the maids standing farther off, and looked back at me.
"Ah, right... um..."
"...?"
Serena still couldn't look at me. Her face had gone scarlet. She covered her eyes lightly with one hand and asked, trembling,
"I-if... tonight... i-if you have time... th-th-the stables—"
"—And what exactly were you planning to do at the stables?"
A familiar voice cut between us. I turned toward the sound.
Red hair. A face that stopped the breath. A height that had grown of late. Legs that had lengthened of late. ...And a chest that had begun, little by little, to fill out — the head of House Rondore.
Vivian Rondore was coming straight toward me from a distance, her eyes full of cold steel. I almost couldn't understand what had made her that angry. No — I understood. She just couldn't stand the sight of her enemy looking like he might actually be living well. Whether it was something that warranted a face like that, I couldn't say.
The maids who'd been coaching Serena from afar all fled at Vivian's appearance. Serena herself seemed to realize she was in serious trouble; her expression went rigid and she stood frozen, not knowing what to do.
Vivian walked up calmly until she was right in front of me and looked up. Her red eyes looked as if they were on fire.
"...What."
I asked the silent figure standing there. Vivian turned her gaze away — then looked at Serena.
"You. What's your name?"
"Se... Serena, my lady..."
She lowered herself, calling Vivian her mistress, but that did nothing to spare her Vivian's anger.
"...I distinctly gathered all of you and warned you not to look after Kailo Allen."
...She'd gone that far? I was speechless.
Vivian's voice grew sharper.
"...The son of the man who killed my father and my brother... and you thought you'd look after him without my permission?"
"L-Lady Vivian...!"
"Should I treat you as a traitor to House Rondore? Is there still some idiot who doesn't understand my hatred for the Allen family?"
"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, just one chance...!"
Vivian, searching for somewhere else to vent her irritation, looked at my hands.
—Smack!
She snatched the cookies I'd been given and flung them out the window. Serena's cookies sailed into the open air in an instant. The pathetic arc they cut was almost funny, even in a situation like this.
I let out a hollow laugh and asked,
"...What the hell are you doing?"
At my question, Vivian seemed to come back to herself. She stared out the window, steadying her temper, then said to Serena,
"Go. Don't you ever do something like this again. And tell the other maids. I've been looking the other way, but if they keep disordering the morals of Rondore Castle... I won't forgive it any longer."
"Y-yes!"
Serena fled as fast as she could on Vivian's leave. Vivian looked up at me. She spoke like a warning.
"You keep forgetting... these maids are Rondore's maids. Not yours."
"I haven't forgotten."
"Then why...!"
"You think I ordered them? They came to me."
"..."
I asked her in turn.
"Why do you keep doing this?"
Vivian was struck silent in an instant.
"Was holding you really such a terrible crime? Our bodies have already touched more than a few times."
"W-what?"
"I saved you from a dragon, and you still have to throw a fit over something this small? Don't say you're cold, then. Don't shiver. Don't act like you want help and then pin all of it on me."
"...That's not it."
She looked away, denying my words.
"What do you mean, 'that's not it'? You've been weird ever since then."
"I said it isn't...! I just..."
Vivian looked at me. Her expression wasn't the face of someone trying to hide something. Even to my eyes, it was pure, unmistakable confusion floating there.
She said,
"...I just... get angry when I see you smile. I don't want to see you looking happy."
"..."
Vivian gave a shallow shake of her head, then looked up at me as if accepting a fact.
"I told you, didn't I? Don't even think about being happy on this land. Have you already forgotten? You have to be miserable. How many times do I have to say it?"
Then her face flushed and she pressed on.
"And did you think you were going to g-g-get sexual experience? I-it's disgusting. Are all men like that? You're not even an adult yet, and you're already shaking with lust like a monkey?"
"...Who said I wanted to do that?"
"A-anyway. It's filthy. Vulgar. Savage. Revolting."
"..."
With hostility laid out that bare, I had nothing left to say. The grudge between us was no secret. Maybe this was the natural reaction. Looking at it coldly, the mistake was mine for thinking we'd grown closer.
But getting angry at the sight of me smiling — how was I supposed to answer that?
"..."
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Whatever I'd been about to say, I let it go. I meant to get angry and hesitated; meant to snap and stopped. There was nothing to say.
I stared hard at Vivian.
...Crazy bitch.
And even like this, I still couldn't hate her. I was going insane. I couldn't tell whether I was the crazy one or she was.
To top it off, absurdly, I found myself thinking that Vivian's hair looked especially soft today.
In the end, with nothing left to say, I turned and walked away.
"...Where are you going...!"
Vivian called after me, irritated, but I ignored her.
That evening, I faced Vivian again. The awkward atmosphere from the afternoon still hung between us.
Robert Rondore was not at the table tonight. He was dining with his own retainers for once. As it turned out, Vivian had asked Robert for financial help. As lord of a port city, Robert seemed reasonably wealthy. In return, he'd asked her to allow him to become regent... and from what I heard, Vivian was refusing the proposal for now.
It was an unsettling offer. Was he truly seeking the regency out of concern for House Rondore, or did he have some other design? To my eye, the latter was overwhelmingly more likely. But Vivian didn't share political talk with me. Even what I'd just learned had been information wrung out of the spymaster, Nesto.
Whether she was truly serious about raising the family again or not, she no longer confided her worries in me the way she once had.
"..."
"..."
I went on eating, ignoring Vivian completely. She ate her food, ignoring me completely. We were ignoring each other — and yet we couldn't have been more conscious of one another. Every little movement came through the corner of the eye.
Then Vivian opened fire.
"...We'll have guests in a few months."
"...Again?"
The place was already crowded enough with Robert's people. Vivian nodded.
"...The young ladies of House Dubois are coming as guests."
House Dubois. One of the vassal houses sworn to Rondore. Their visit — was it a first step toward beginning social activities?
"So? Why are you telling me about guests?"
"I hear they're both beauties. The older sister and the younger."
I couldn't understand why she was saying this. She looked up at me. Our eyes met.
"...If, by any chance, like today... you g-get in heat... and ruin my meetings..."
"...Have you lost your mind? Did I call a maid to the stables? Stop spouting nonsense."
—Clack.
I set down my spoon in warning, and Vivian shut her mouth at once. Whatever they were teaching her in her lessons, she seemed to be learning more and more about sex — and those fantasies of hers had clearly exploded, making her look at me in increasingly strange ways. ...Granted, it was an open secret that boy soldiers and maids got up to things. Still, constantly tying me into that was irritating. Or maybe the fact that Serena had tried to call me to the stables had simply hit her hard. Maybe that was why she'd reacted so violently even to a hug. It was hard to believe that pure-faced girl was spinning fantasies like that.
Whatever the case, at my rebuke she went back to picking at her food, pretending not to know anything. I wiped my mouth and stood. Another surge of irritation, and I meant to leave her.
"...Kailo."
But Vivian called my name. She wasn't even looking at me. She pulled something from her pocket. Two cookies appeared out of nowhere.
"..."
"..."
Without a word, she held them out to me, wiped her mouth, and rose from her seat. Then she left the hall ahead of me.
Left behind, I stared quietly at the olive branch she'd left behind.
Three months passed.
My height had finally caught up to Martin's. Nearly two years had gone by since I arrived in this land. I turned sixteen, and Vivian turned fifteen. We were becoming adults, little by little.
And to Vivian, who was growing up step by step like that, the young ladies of House Dubois came calling.