Chapter 165: Love?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 165: Love?
Today was one of those rare, once-in-a-lifetime days when Azyeth was by herself. Karami had left to attend to other matters, saying he had much to prepare.
—Don’t wander off alone, and if you need to go somewhere, make sure you go with Perka.
He hadn’t forgotten to give her a stern warning.
Following Karami’s words, Azyeth kept Perka within her sight. Perka, having nothing better to do herself, sat on a bench and watched the people at work.
“People are truly busy. It seems we are the only ones in Doomheim with nothing to do.”
This entire scene was Karami’s creation.
Perka herself had witnessed Karami persuading the dwarves. With his characteristic, plausible way of speaking, he had created a situation where they couldn’t help but be convinced.
The thrill, the shiver that ran down her spine as she watched him command people as if they were his own limbs.
Perka felt it instinctively.
An awe that transcended mere respect.
And fear.
“I simply cannot comprehend what that man’s goal is.”
On the surface, he was a man doing his utmost for Azyeth, but in reality, he was a reaper who toyed with the lives of slaves.
The gap between the rumors and what she saw with her own eyes was so immense that a normal person’s mind couldn’t possibly grasp it.
Her only worry was that this man, Karami, was Azyeth’s master. If he truly cared for Azyeth, he could just free her from her slave status and treat her as an equal.
“He most certainly has ulterior motives.”
There was no telling what he might do to this innocent soul.
It seemed Karami’s negative influence had already reached Azyeth. She was tilting her head, repeatedly placing a hand on her chest and then removing it.
What’s wrong now?
Perka asked in an anxious tone.
“What is the matter?”
“This place… feels strange.”
“Pardon?”
Perka jumped in surprise.
The place Azyeth’s hand rested was right over her heart.
She quickly pressed her ear against her chest.
Thump… thump… thump….
As if taking after its master’s leisurely nature, the heartbeat was painfully slow, but it was beating steadily.
“It seems perfectly fine. Are you perhaps in pain?”
Azyeth shook her head.
With her hand still on her chest, she recalled the sensation from yesterday.
“It… it got fast. Ba-dump, ba-dump. My body… it got hot, too….”
When she’d felt that sensation, Azyeth had swallowed her surprise. A warmth she thought she’d never have a connection to, her body being a vessel of cold, had flowed from within her.
“Is it not a cold? No, can a snow woman even catch a cold?”
Azyeth, who couldn’t feel the cold, catching a cold?
That in itself seemed ridiculous, but in any case, Perka thought it was unlikely to be a cold.
“You are not feeling that way now, are you?”
“No.”
“When did the symptoms appear?”
“Yesterday… when I was looking at Rami….”
“Your heart started beating faster and your face grew hot when you looked at him?”
Perka quickly found an answer.
“Is that not anger?”
“Anger…?”
“That man made you his slave, did he not? That is why you get angry when you see him.”
There was a collection of emotions Karami had once written down for her by hand. It was an item made so that Azyeth could easily recognize the corresponding emotion when she felt it.
Azyeth recalled the book of feelings and mulled over yesterday’s sensation.
Was that the emotion called anger?
The symptoms seemed to match, so she thought it might be right.
“Or, there is one other possibility….”
Perka, who had been hesitant because it seemed unlikely, spoke up cautiously.
“Something like… love?”
“Love….”
Azyeth murmured the word softly. The unfamiliar syllables brushed past her lips.
But this was different from when she’d considered anger.
The word “love” didn’t scatter but slowly settled, landing in the center of her chest.
A sensation that gently knocked on her heart.
Her pulse, always steady and cool, felt strangely irregular. She had merely spoken the word, yet why did it shake her so?
Azyeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. But the feeling was not so shallow as to be exhaled away. A story from a fairy tale surfaced in her memory.
The prince who kissed the sleeping Snow White.
Then, a series of scenes played back in her mind. The way he had looked at her once. His kindness that demanded no explanation, his smile, his tone, even his touch.
‘Ah….’
By the time she recalled those things, her chest was already reacting. The same feeling as yesterday. Her heart was pounding.
“Well, it might not be, so you do not have to think too deeply on it. And even if it were true, it cannot be Mr. Karami.”
“…?”
Just as she was becoming aware of that warm, fuzzy feeling, Perka interjected.
“That man is the Slave Reaper. He is a villain who should be eliminated. You cannot like such a person, and you must not.”
“Is that so…?”
“Yes. Absolutely. You must keep that in mind.”
Perka admonished her with a stern expression.
Her advice, intertwined with the curse, tried to erase the emotion, but before the feeling she had just felt could disappear, Azyeth cherished it in a corner of her heart.
*
“Therefore, love between a master and a slave cannot exist. Who would keep someone they love as a slave?”
Perka’s sermon continued for the entire walk home.
If Perka had taken an aptitude test, wouldn’t she have a high probability of becoming a school principal?
Azyeth had long since blocked her eardrums with a thin layer of ice, tired of the lecture that felt like it would make her ears fall off.
“Mr. Karami is a man who suffers from habitual-flirting-with-women syndrome. He did it to me, too. Pushing that face of his on others, it must have worked on most. Of course, I did not fall for it.”
“Mm-hm….”
“I am saying this for your benefit, Sister. Just in case. I am telling you this just in case. You must take it to heart.”
Azyeth had developed enough sense to protect her own well-being. She had learned that if she just said she understood, she could finally stop hearing those tiresome words.
She nodded with a soulless expression.
As they walked, their house came into view.
The sound of hammering iron reached them.
Azyeth and Perka headed for the smithy.
Thorvar was pounding a hammer, enveloped in heat.
“What are you making?”
“Makin’ a ring.”
“A ring? Who are you making a ring for? Father, surely not?”
“It’s not like that.”
A new stepmother?
Thorvar dismissed Perka’s thought.
It wasn’t as if Karami had asked him to keep it a secret, so there was no reason to hide it.
“That Slave Reaper bastard asked me to make it.”
“Pardon? Mr. Karami, you say?”
Perka was surprised for one simple reason. A ring, more than any other accessory, tended to carry a special meaning.
While some were for decoration and others for friendship, they were overwhelmingly famous as tokens of love.
And she had just been talking about love with Azyeth (a one-sided sermon, really). The fact that Karami had ordered a ring at such a time could only point in one direction.
“Don’t tell me?!”
Perka whipped her head around to look at Azyeth.
To give her a ring?
A proposal?
From a master to a slave?
And from the Slave Reaper, no less?
Should she call this romantic or perverted? Was he planning on making a ghost bride?
No, perhaps even for the Slave Reaper, Azyeth was too precious to kill. He might be planning a heartfelt proposal.
“Sister. You must not accept it. Do you understand?”
“Why…?”
“Why? I have been explaining it to you this whole time. Have you forgotten already? This will not do. I will explain it again from the beginning.”
“—Ah.”
Azyeth belatedly realized her mistake, but it was too late. Perka’s sermon had begun.
*
I finished my meeting with the dwarven warriors and artisans about how we should approach the battle and returned home.
“What’s with the atmosphere?”
The house I returned to had a different air than when I’d left.
Azyeth’s eyes were downcast.
Her shoulders drooped listlessly, like a puppy cornered by a pack of kids during the holidays. She looked utterly dejected.
Next to her, Perka, the apparent cause, was glaring at me with narrowed eyes.
What the hell is wrong with them?
Well, they were a peculiar pair.
Was there anyone in this world as normal as me?
Getting involved would just be a pain.
I shouldn’t waste my thoughts on it.
“Miss Azyeth. Pack your things. We’re going on a trip.”
“A trip, you say? At a time like this?”
“Yes.”
“Surely not—”
“We’re not running away, so don’t you worry about that.”
I cut her off before she could spout any nonsense.
Just as I thought, Perka, who had assumed the two of us were escaping, shut her mouth.
“Where are you going? I wish to go, too!”
But she couldn’t hold it in and started running her mouth again.
“Not this time. Just me and Miss Azyeth are going, so you stay put.”
“How can you be so unfair? What, are you two going on a honeymoon or something?”
What was this sudden talk about a honeymoon?
Engaging with her felt like it would make me an idiot, too, so I just ignored her.
“Miss Azyeth, have you ever wanted to visit your hometown?”
“Hometown…?”
“Her hometown, could it be?!”
Perka, who had become a massive Snow White fan, was quick on the uptake.
“It’s the place you’re thinking of. We’re going to the Winter Kingdom, which was cursed by a dragon and became part of a fairy tale.”
At that, Perka’s spirit, which I thought had been dampened, flared up once more.
“The Winter Kingdom! I want to go, too!”
I understood how she felt.
Perka had been hearing stories about the kingdom every day since our time at Lake Fortress. At first, she thought it was the delusion of a senile old woman, but it was real.
A fairy tale that had become reality. She wouldn’t want to miss the chance to see it with her own two eyes.
“No means no.”
But you can’t come.
Your noisy chattering would just interfere with Azyeth’s experience.
And didn’t you glare at me with impure eyes just now?
I could tell you were having some useless thoughts. This is my revenge.
Ignoring Perka as she whined about how unfair it was, I met Azyeth’s eyes.
Azyeth, who looked as if she’d never even considered it, had a look of bewilderment on her blank face.
“What will you do? You’ll be able to see many things if you go.”
Azyeth, who had been frozen, moved her head as if mesmerized.