The Collar and the Sleeping Blue
"Rest well today. From tomorrow on, you'd better steel yourself."
The old steward wrapped up the contract with brisk efficiency and slipped out of the room.
Starting tomorrow? Right away?
So he's thoroughly decided to work me to the bone, has he.
Honestly, going by the contract alone, there was nothing unfair in it for me.
And then there was the collar.
Clank. I fiddled with the necklace fastened around my throat.
It's almost the same color as my eyes right now, isn't it?
The gem hanging from the golden chain certainly was. A sapphire? Or some other special stone that gave off a blue glow?
The steward had called this necklace a safety measure.
"You will not breathe a single word about anything concerning the Grand Duke's household. You will not set foot anywhere beyond the permitted areas. And naturally, leaving the Grand Duke's estate itself will be impossible without permission."
Goodness, the list of things I couldn't do was endless.
But it was true that my unspoken-of identity, my current circumstances, had backed me into a corner where this was the only option available.
The chains are off my hands and feet, and something worse than those chains is now around my neck.
So this was how it felt to be a dog wearing a dog collar.
Though it's a little—quite a little—too pretty to call a dog collar.
Still, the fact that he'd given me this collar at all meant he had no intention of killing me right away, presumably.
Keep my mouth shut and behave, and I'd be allowed to live. Was that the idea?
Right. It's a nuisance, but it beats wearing shackles and being locked back up in a cell.
Whew. Only then could I let out a breath of relief.
So this is the room I'll be living in from now on.
I took a look around. A generously sized window let in plenty of sunlight. A bed in decent shape, a desk that looked sturdy enough. It wasn't a spacious room by any means, but for the me of right now, it was more than I deserved.
The voices of people drifting in through the window mingled with the warm air of the room, weaving a quiet, peaceful atmosphere. As I stared blankly up at the sky beyond the glass, stray thoughts crept into my head, seizing on that stillness.
So much has happened in so short a time.
I'd been consumed by black magic and died—only to come back to life.
I was glad to be alive—only to find myself in enemy territory.
And now I was inside the mansion of the most dangerous man in that enemy nation.
Me. A maid. I'm a maid.
And not just any maid—a maid to the Grand Duke of Ballot, whose notoriety was the stuff of legend...!
I buried my face in both palms. With a soft jingle, the necklace around my neck swayed along with me.
Dammit. Dog collar.
Thanks to the thing's very existence, my situation was driven home all the more clearly.
Wearing the dog collar the Grand Duke himself fastened on me, having become the Grand Duke's maid, standing right in front of the Grand Duke.
Well, this is fun. Truly hilarious.
If Serhin ever found out what a state I was in, how hard would he laugh?
Sia, I told you to bring me the Grand Duke's head, and instead you've got his chains locked around your own neck?
So that was your type, Serhin?
Somehow, I could almost hear that mocking voice of his right beside my ear.
Even if I make it back, everything that happened here stays a secret. Forever.
Whew...
Whatever. I was alive, wasn't I? That was what counted.
Yes. All things considered, this isn't a bad situation at all.
I remembered with perfect clarity every word I'd hurled at the Grand Duke in his office. Casual speech was the least of it—I'd practically fanned the flames of his suspicion with my evasive answers.
And even so, the Grand Duke had let me live.
As I thought.
The Grand Duke seemed to know whose body this was.
Otherwise, there's no way he'd have spared my life after I committed that kind of insolence right to his face.
It had been the second question.
"Do you... remember me?"
Of the three questions, that one had been intensely, unmistakably personal.
The Grand Duke definitely wasn't asking, 'Do you have any idea who I am?'
He'd asked whether I remembered him.
Glanced at carelessly, the two might sound alike, but the meaning hidden beneath them was entirely different.
Unless the Grand Duke is catastrophically full of himself, he wouldn't ask a question like 'Do you even know who I am?!'
And he'd sent both the steward and the priest out of the room before asking it.
Which means that question is deeply, intimately, utterly private.
A relationship he kept secret even from his closest confidant, the old steward.
Ah, how I'd love to crack open the Grand Duke's skull and have a look inside.
Or perhaps, on some nicely chosen day, I could slip the Grand Duke some sap and see what happened.
And then I'd ask him.
Do you remember that day? Do you know me? Do you know who I am?
Not a bad plan, honestly.
But even that scheme could only happen if this body of mine proved itself useful enough to keep around.
I climbed down from the bed and settled myself in the middle of the hard floor.
The immediate danger to my life is behind me.
What I needed now was a decision—a step toward the next stage. Making this body into one built for survival.
And to do that, I had to start carving up my time, shaving off hour after hour, and training. Starting now.
Work starts tomorrow, he said.
He'd told me to rest well today, too.
Then this moment was exactly the opportunity I needed. The chance to wake the Aura said to be sleeping inside my body.
I stole a glance at the sky beyond the window. This single day had felt impossibly long to me, and yet the sky was still bright and serene.
A little past the lunch hour.
Time is money.
Wake the Aura before night fell—and if that failed, stay up all night if I had to, until it woke.
This body has already manifested Aura before. All I have to do is rouse it. Gently. Just a tiny bit.
An ordinary person could never awaken Aura with an untrained, undisciplined body. Far from awakening it, the reckless ones who tried were more likely than not to lose their lives in the attempt.
That's true for an ordinary person, anyway.
I was different.
True, even for me this was the first time waking Aura in an unconditioned body. But as long as I had my iron-willed mind, I wasn't going to die easily.
Still, I won't get careless.
I slowly closed my eyes.
Whew...
My consciousness began to move of its own accord, groping instinctively for the Aura sleeping within.
Drawing only the barest of breaths in and out, I gathered every scrap of my senses and focused.
Darkness. My field of vision was black.
Naturally so. A body that had never accepted anything could only be a void.
In a way, it was a blank page. Like an untouched field of snow no one had yet walked across, or the hollow emptiness of a universe before a single star had ever been born.
Within the human body exist tens of thousands of channels invisible to the naked eye. Sending Aura through that dense, intricate web to circulate it through the whole body—that was the most fundamental step of using it.
So I decided to begin with that most basic of steps.
Feeling my way through the darkness like someone groping blind, I cautiously focused on the energy I could feel at my heart.
And there it was—the faint pulse of my heart, and within it, another energy, fast asleep.
A thread-fine wisp of power wrapped itself around my heart and rippled there, almost as if it were tickling me.
Blue Aura.
Blue as a cloudless autumn sky, pure and clean. It could have been the water of an emerald lake so clear you could see straight to the bottom. There was a crisp coolness to it, as though drinking it in would clear my head from the inside out.
That color—I know it...
Strangely enough, it was the same shade as the Aura I'd used in my old body.
Pfft, no way. It's just an Aura that happens to look similar.
An Aura's color was determined by its bearer's temperament—but that didn't mean every Aura color was unique, like a fingerprint. The odds were slim, but you could still run into someone whose Aura was the exact same shade as yours.
Or maybe it settled on a similar color because it's the same soul.
Maybe because it resembled the Aura from my old body, it felt... nostalgic. Like I'd gone back to the way things were, somehow.
I reined my emotions back in and quietly studied the blue energy.
Anyway. That's my Aura, apparently.
Right then. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Nice to meet you. Let's get along from here on out.
Everyone has a first meeting that's awkward at the start.
Who knows? Maybe today's meeting will go down in history.
Soothing the mist-like wisp of Aura, I approached it with the greatest of care.
There now. Good girl—or boy. Behave yourself, all right?
I drew a slow breath.
Then, very, very gently, I wrapped my arms around the Aura nestled beside my heart.
That's it. There you go.
As tender and soft as I could manage. Delicate and careful, the way you'd soothe a small child. Reverent and solemn, the way you'd welcome an honored guest into your home.
Perhaps my sincerity had finally reached it.
The Aura that had been drifting aloof began to seep down into my heart, every last thread of it.
Wait—what? You were a much better-behaved thing than I worried you'd be?
Phew. Thank goodness.
And that was the exact moment it happened.
KRA-KOOM?!
...Huh?
Something shattered inside my chest.
What on earth was that sound? Did I crack a rib?
No. No, this is more like...
The sound of a hairline fracture spidering through something small and thin, like a pane of glass.
Don't tell me—my dog collar?
But I had no leisure to check. Forget opening my eyes—the instant that shattering sound began, an overwhelming agony crashed down over my heart, and I couldn't do anything at all.
The Aura had gone berserk.
Even drawing breath in and out was a struggle.
I take back what I said about you being well-behaved! I take it back!
I scrambled to seize hold of my mind and forced my focus back onto the Aura raging inside me.
Fine then. Let's see what you've got.
I'd survived in enemy territory—survived standing in front of the Grand Duke himself—and I was going to die over a little Aura? Not a chance!
I have to survive.
No matter what!
And in that very instant—
FWOOOOSH!
Huh?
Blood burst from my mouth, and I toppled over backward.