Escape (10)
Escape (10)
A heavy silence filled the parlor.
The ripples left by Rineta's final words still hung in the air, refusing to settle.
Kyle said nothing.
Rineta, too, kept her silence.
They simply looked at one another.
I leaned back against the sofa, fingers idly stroking Rineta's hair, and turned my gaze out the window.
The late afternoon light stretched long, gilding the leaves of the back garden in gold.
Time passed.
Kyle was the one who finally broke the quiet.
His voice had softened considerably from before.
"So here, really..."
He turned toward me as if to speak, then let the words trail off.
I didn't answer.
Instead, I rose and reached for the teapot on the table.
I poured the warm black tea slowly into Kyle's empty cup.
The only sound in the room was the quiet stream of tea filling porcelain.
"I suppose the Academy wasn't the right fit for me after all."
Kyle looked down at the tea I had poured for a moment.
He lifted the cup, took a sip, then ran a hand over his face.
"What about dinner?"
I asked.
Levina had said she would stay for the evening meal.
Kyle let out a short, soft sound at that. Ah...
He hesitated, then shook his head.
"No. I think I need to go. I have something to attend to.
Give my apologies to the Heir Apparent."
Kyle rose from his seat.
He gave Rineta a brief nod of farewell and walked out of the parlor without looking back.
His footsteps faded down the corridor.
"Are you alright?"
I turned to Rineta and asked.
"Hm? Ah... about what?"
Rineta had been staring blankly at the door Kyle left through, and gave a startled jump at my voice.
Her face said she was anything but alright.
"You've been close since childhood, I heard."
I said.
Rineta's expression grew complicated. She let out a sigh and shifted closer, leaning her head against my shoulder.
I felt the small, warm weight of it.
"Someone I thought of as a brother has become such a stranger... I honestly don't know how I feel right now."
Her voice carried a faint tremor.
"And I don't really know what I'm doing anymore, either."
Rineta closed her eyes.
Her long lashes fluttered.
It was a complicated, unreadable expression — grief and relief and something like guilt all tangled together.
Dinner was just Levina and me.
The servants moved quietly, and only the occasional click of plates broke the stillness.
"Those desserts you mentioned."
Levina spoke first.
"I went to the most famous café in the capital. Bought the most expensive thing in every category."
Her voice was as indifferent as ever, and yet there was a hint of lightness to it.
"Thank you. Though... isn't this a bit excessive?"
The ornate boxes stacked beside the table easily numbered more than ten.
"Well, you can share some with that maid you keep around every day. Share with the servants here too. Throw away whatever's left."
The faces of the servants standing along one wall brightened faintly.
At Levina's gesture to take them away, they gathered the boxes with visible cheer and quietly withdrew from the dining room.
She watched them for a moment, then turned her eyes back to me.
"So. Kyle. What did you two talk about, that commoner and you? I didn't expect him to skip dinner."
She asked it with an air of utter disinterest — a question meant only to open a channel for conversation.
"Nothing much."
I gave a vague deflection.
Levina didn't press further.
We ate without speaking for a while.
"Father says he'd like to see you, at least once."
Levina set her knife down.
"I've been thinking it over. Whether or not to bring you."
"You'll be the one deciding either way. Why ask me?"
I countered.
"Because I'll take you with me, if you want."
Her voice was serious.
"Of course, going to the main house means a lot of preparation, and we'd have to avoid Mother's notice as much as possible. It wouldn't happen overnight. And once you're there, you wouldn't be able to use the Edelgard name. Still... I've been sorry to you for a long time—"
Levina faltered and fell silent.
She lowered her gaze, then picked up her knife and fork again.
"Noona."
"Huh? You— you just called me Noona."
"What else would I have said."
"Say it one more time."
"Noona, thank you for caring."
"...Ah. Right. Somehow, it feels better every time."
Levina answered with her head still bowed.
The tips of her ears were red.
And so dinner came to an end.
Before climbing into her carriage, Levina stood with me at the front entrance of the annex.
The night air was properly cold.
"Before I go. May I... just one embrace?"
Levina spoke abruptly.
Instead of answering, I stood still.
She seemed to take it as permission. She stepped close and wrapped her arms tightly around me.
It didn't quite feel like something one could call an embrace.
Her slender frame trembled faintly.
"Besides the desserts... is there nothing else you need?"
Levina whispered near my ear.
Her breath tickled the skin.
"Nothing."
At my answer, Levina pulled away, a trace of disappointment in the motion.
"...Next time I come, I'll find you something better. No matter what."
With those words left behind, she climbed into the carriage.
It vanished into the darkness shortly after.
When I returned to my room, Rineta was waiting.
She had been standing by the window, watching the night sky, and turned with a bright smile at the sound of the door.
"It's been quite an eventful day, Young Master!"
I smiled faintly at her remark.
I pointed to the boxes of desserts stacked in one corner.
"These are a present."
"What? All of this, for me?"
Rineta's eyes went round.
She hesitated briefly, then moved toward the boxes.
"Is it really alright? The Heir Apparent bought these for you..."
"She said to share with the servants if there's too much. And you once told me you wanted to try every famous dessert in the capital, one by one."
Rineta carefully opened one of the boxes.
Inside, an assortment of sliced cakes and pastries in a rainbow of colors was arranged beautifully.
A sweet fragrance spread through the room.
Something sad flitted across her face.
But she turned back to me with a teasing, delighted look.
"Wow! Then I'll accept them gratefully! I think this is the first time you've ever given me anything — you're always eating for free at my family's house!"
I scratched the back of my head at that. I wanted to argue, but nothing clever came to mind, so I kept quiet.
She scooped up a bite of chocolate cake with a small fork and put it in her mouth, eyes closing as she savored it.
"Wow... this is really delicious! People who live in the capital must eat things like this every day, right?"
She marveled like a child.
"Only the ones with heavy pockets live like that."
I answered indifferently.
"Aww, in that case I should've told the Heir Apparent I was quitting last time. With the severance pay she offered, I could eat this every day, couldn't I?"
Rineta said it as a joke.
I just laughed instead of answering.
"The more I think about it, quitting really wouldn't have been so bad."
"If you had, you probably wouldn't have gotten this close to me. And you wouldn't be eating these desserts."
"That is a shame! But still, quitting wouldn't have been bad at all."
I considered a waspish retort, but the strange look on Rineta's face stopped my mouth.
As she ate the dessert, her gaze drifted to the box of liquor Levina had brought earlier.
She rose and approached it. She examined the contents for a long while, then pulled out the smallest, prettiest bottle. It was an elegant bottle filled with amber liquid.
She wandered the room for some time with it, hesitating.
Eventually, she took a glass from the cupboard. She set it on the table and poured the drink carefully.
"I've always wanted to try something like this... you know. Late at night, in the same room, alone with someone you like. That's exactly what this is, right now!"
Rineta murmured, bringing the glass cautiously to her lips.
"You're still a brat. What do you think you're doing with alcohol."
I took the glass from her hand.
I drank a mouthful.
A sweet yet bitter fruit flavor, along with something faintly metallic, spread across my tongue.
Just as I swallowed—
"Ah, no! Don't!"
Rineta panicked and grabbed my arm. On the verge of tears, she snatched the glass from my hand.
"What's wrong?"
I asked, and she stammered in confusion.
"That... that, I mean..."
She wavered for a long moment.
Then her shoulders began to shake, little by little, and she started to cry.
She wasn't crying aloud. She just stood there, shoulders trembling, tears falling one by one.
Somehow, the entire atmosphere in the room shifted in an instant.
"Is it alright if I call you Ravin?"
The distinct sense that something was wrong.
"...When it's just the two of us, it's fine."
"Thank you. I've always wanted to call the person I like by their name. Honestly, I've hated calling you 'Young Master' every single morning."
She spoke softly and cried without making a sound.
"But you know... I don't even know what I'm doing right now."
Rineta wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and looked up at me.
The reddened skin around her eyes was wet.
"Young Master, thank you for coming here. Thank you, truly, for meeting me."
She said.
"And I might end up hating you, Young Master."
I couldn't say anything at all.
My insides felt raw.
A wave of nausea surged up my throat. I clamped a hand over my mouth in a hurry.
Hot, metallic liquid touched my palm.
Blood.
My vision blurred slightly.
The world seemed to spin.
"If you had come just a little sooner. No, even just a few weeks sooner."
Dizzy, I stumbled and collapsed onto the sofa.
Rineta's voice sounded distant.
Her face swam in my unfocused sight.
She was crying.
With an expression that could have been sorrow or relief.
"Whether the villagers lived or died, even if my mother was dying, I would have chosen you, Ravin."
Rineta watched me vomiting up blood and paid it no mind.
Instead, she took a container of dried petals from the cupboard. She placed a few petals in the teacup meant for herself and poured hot water over them.
Then she lifted the cup with an awkward grip — like a clumsy child imitating an adult.
"Did you drink it like this? No, was it like this? They say it's best shared together. I always think this, but it really doesn't taste good."
Muttering to herself, she drank the flower petal tea — the tea that was watery and astringent.
After that, she set down the liquor glass I had touched and filled it to the brim with the amber liquid. She raised the glass and drained it in one go.
The small column of her throat worked rapidly.
I wanted to stand, but my body was too occupied retching blood.
My vision slowly washed red.
Amid it all, the ring on my finger caught my eye.