Chapter 7
7
Something Even Scarier
For the first little while, she thought it was just her imagination.
Leila often mistook things like that. Her eyesight was so poor that she’d mistake fruit fallen on a forest path for a squirrel, or sometimes startle in terror at a tree branch floating in the water, thinking it was a person.
But the shape she saw was too unmistakably human to dismiss as a mere illusion. A man, no less. A large, naked man. Once even his wet black hair came into view, she could no longer cling to self-justifying excuses about it being a mistake.
Right now, that thing drifting along with the current was unmistakably Duke Matthias von Herhardt.
Leila gasped in shock and dropped the newspaper she’d been clutching in her hand. If she hadn’t reflexively grabbed the tree, she would have tumbled to the ground right after it.
Her mind raced. Close your eyes right now. No, get down from the tree and leave this forest at once. Or at least scream in surprise. But all Leila could do was stare blankly at the man who wasn’t wearing so much as a thread. The Duke of Herhardt did the same. As if he had no intention whatsoever of covering his naked body, he simply floated motionless on the water, gazing at her.
If only he’d just keep drifting away with the current like that!
Just as that desperate wish took hold, the duke suddenly turned and began swimming toward the riverbank where Leila was.
“No, don’t!”
Leila’s scream echoed high into the clear sky.
“No! Don’t come! You can’t come!”
Terrified, she shrieked as she scrambled down from the tree in a frenzy.
Politeness toward the duke be damned. She couldn’t even think about her basket or her hat. Leila just ran. She ran without even knowing how her legs were moving.
“Leila!”
About halfway along the narrow path leading to the cottage, Leila ran into Kyle. He caught the stumbling, wide-eyed girl just before she could collapse into the grass.
“Where’ve you been? I was on my way to look for you since you weren’t at home.”
“Kyle, Kyle, what am I going to do?”
Leila, gasping for breath laced with the metallic tang of fear, muttered like someone half out of her mind.
“What? What happened? Did you run into a wild animal?”
When Leila shook her head vigorously, Kyle peered suspiciously down the path behind her with even more puzzled eyes. Nothing was there. It was just the same peaceful forest as always.
“Then what? Why are you so scared?”
“……What am I going to do.”
Leila plopped down right there on the spot, her face crumpling. She lifted the hem of her apron to cover her face and shook her head furiously several times.
She didn’t want to remember, so why did it keep coming back?
Now Leila clutched even her own hair tightly.
“What am I going to do? What should I do, Kyle?”
“I can’t answer if you don’t tell me what it is. What on earth happened?”
Kyle narrowed his eyes and crouched down in front of her. When she finally lifted her head after a long moment, her face was red as a ripe mountain strawberry.
Her lips twitched as if she were about to say something, but then she buried her face in her apron again, her expression miserable.
“Hey, what did you see? A ghost?”
Kyle started chuckling now.
No.
Leila wanted to say it, but her lips wouldn’t move.
Something even scarier.
The words she only mouthed came out as a hot breath.
The scene before him was so absurd that Matthias let out a chuckle. A droplet clinging to the end of his wet hair fell with a plop, trailing down the bridge of his nose.
Having swum back to the pier at the annexe, Matthias had dressed and returned here. Leila had already abandoned all her belongings and fled.
Matthias carefully examined the traces she’d left behind once more. The large basket and hat left under the tree. The newspaper dropped on the ground. The damp handkerchief.
She’d picked so many mountain strawberries—enough to wipe out Arbis’s entire supply, it seemed—that he chuckled again. It was astonishing that someone so small had carried that basket around.
Come to think of it, that day when he’d nearly shot at what he thought was a bird with the child—it had been this same tree.
Matthias looked up at the towering tree. The image of that small face perched on a branch, staring right at him, made him chuckle once more.
Who would have thought she still climbed trees to play.
He considered chasing after her but changed his mind and turned toward the mansion instead.
That afternoon, he had a meeting with executives from Arbis. Until now, he hadn’t directly involved himself in the company’s management, but after his discharge, it would all fall to him. For that, he needed to grasp the overall structure and operations.
The Herhardt family had expanded from land assets into trade and resources. The vast fortune they now held had been built by Matthias’s grandfather, whose bold investment in the New World’s oil fields had proven key.
All the honor and power accumulated over long history now rested in Matthias’s hands.
He knew well that his greatest duty was to protect it and pass it on to the next Herhardt. He was confident he would do so more perfectly than anyone. It was an utterly obvious fact he had never once doubted.
Returning to the mansion, Matthias headed straight to his bedroom. He changed clothes and neatly combed his disheveled hair.
Once fully prepared, Matthias leaned obliquely against the chair by the west window of the bedroom. There was still about an hour until his appointment.
Just as he judged the time too long to waste and moved to stand, a bird sang.
Matthias turned his gaze toward the sound. Inside the birdcage on the table, the canary was chirping. He’d thought it was a bird that didn’t know how to sing because it was so quiet, but it sang so beautifully it made that notion seem foolish.
Matthias slowly approached and opened the cage door. The canary stopped singing and fluttered its clipped wings to escape the cage.
Changing his mind about leaving the bedroom, Matthias leaned against the window frame and watched the bird. How tirelessly the little thing moved. It flew a short distance before falling, then fell again and again, yet tirelessly circled the room.
Finally exhausted, the canary settled obediently on the arm of the chair. Matthias picked it up to return it to its place. Instead of shrieking piercingly and thrashing like before, the canary meekly let itself be held.
Curious about the change, Matthias placed it on his finger. He expected it to fly away as a matter of course, but unexpectedly, the canary stayed still. Boldly staring right at him.
“It feels like I’ve discovered a whole new world.”
Leila, dazed as if in shock, whispered. The silver-haired optician burst into a cheerful laugh.
“Your eyesight was quite poor, so that makes sense. You must have had a hard time of it.”
“No, it was fine. Reading books was a bit uncomfortable, but that was all.”
Replying brightly, Leila gently put her newly fitted glasses back on. The blurry world sharpened like magic. Overwhelmed by the simple miracle once again, Leila marveled.
The bounty of mountain strawberries the forest had gifted her became jam under her fingertips. And so, when she’d finally saved enough for new glasses, Leila hopped on her bicycle and headed straight to town. She’d noted the shop beforehand, so she found it easily.
After chatting a bit more with the optician, Leila left the store. The excessively sharp scenery felt a little strange and wondrous.
With every light step, Leila infused her gratitude and love for Arbis forest’s wild berries, which had opened a new world for her. She added praise for herself, too, for stirring pots endlessly by the fire on hot days.
But why, on such a perfect day, did that indecent memory have to resurface?
The day she’d unwittingly seen the duke naked flashed in her mind, and Leila suddenly frowned.
How mortified and terrified she’d been. It wasn’t until nearly sunset that she finally went back for the basket she’d left behind.
The forest was quiet, and the river sparkled peacefully.
Only then did Leila relax, gather her basket and hat, and leave the riverbank. That was all it took for heat to prickle at the edges of her cheeks again. Distracted by it, she didn’t even notice how heavy the basket in her hands was. For a while after that day, she’d been so embarrassed she could hardly face Uncle Bill or Kyle.
Even if it was his own territory, why on earth would he go skinny-dipping in the river in broad daylight?
Leila shook her head vigorously, as if to erase the unwelcome memory.
She wouldn’t go to the riverbank until the duke left.
Reaffirming her resolve, she took a step just as a familiar voice called out.
“……Leila?”
That high, clear voice belonged to Claudine von Brandt, no doubt.
Yes. What had to come had come.
Leila steadied her breath, then slowly turned around. She’d even prepared a smile befitting proper etiquette. But what entered her vision unexpectedly was the very man who’d been cluttering her mind moments ago—the Duke of Herhardt.
He stood there in a world that was now so sharply clear it felt a bit unfamiliar.
Leila startled and shifted her gaze to Claudine standing beside him. Claudine hadn’t visited Arbis while the duke was away, so it had been quite some time. In the interim, she’d transformed into a perfect young lady.
Leila bowed politely in greeting, and the two responded with elegant nods.
“Since when do you wear glasses? I almost didn’t recognize you.”
If only she’d leave now, but Claudine spoke again.
Leila faced her with the smile she’d prepared. She strained not to glance toward the Duke of Herhardt.
“How have you been?”
Claudine’s narrowed eyes scanned Leila slowly from head to toe.
“Yes, miss.”
“We were on our way for tea.”
Claudine, a bright smile on her lips, gestured with her eyes toward the hotel across the street.
Yes, miss. Or, I see, miss.
While Leila pondered an appropriate response, Claudine said graciously,
“Come with us, Leila.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. Let’s have tea together. Would that be alright with you, Duke Herhardt?”
Claudine addressed not Leila, but Matthias. He indicated his agreement with a light smile at his lips. Leila Llewellyn’s feelings apparently didn’t matter. It had always been that way, so there was nothing new about it.
The two resumed walking. The attendants who had been waiting followed quietly behind.
Leila swallowed a sigh and turned her bicycle around. The creak of its worn wheels mingled with the sound of their steady footsteps.
