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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: The Charity Event
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“…”
Enoch had looked unwell ever since our tea time, so I quietly approached his side.
“Enoch, would you like this?”
“?”
His gray eyes, noticing what I was hesitantly offering, softened.
“Are you giving this to me?”
“Yes. You seemed to be in a bad mood… I thought this might make you smile.”
“Did Ariel make this?”
“That’s right.”
I placed the adorable little flower ring on his palm, which was easily two knuckles larger than my own, and nodded eagerly.
“She made it for you when I told her I was coming to see you today. I guess she misses you, since we haven't been able to see you much lately.”
“Oh, dear. I'll have to apologize to her first thing when I see her at dinner.”
Perhaps picturing her sulky, flour-like cheeks, Enoch gave an awkward smile and rubbed the corner of his eyebrow.
“The ring is cute, isn't it?”
“Yes. It's lovely.”
“This flower… Ariel said she wanted to find one that looked like you, so she skipped her nap yesterday to search for it.”
“Is that so? Do you think it resembles me?”
“Yes. It's a perfect match.”
When I gave him a thumbs-up as he held the flower to his cheek, a smile started at the corners of his eyes and gently spread across his face.
“I'll have to ask Arun to cast a preservation spell on it when he returns.”
“He's still not back?”
My eyes widened as I watched him wrap the flower ring, woven together by her tiny hands, in a handkerchief.
“It's taking quite a while, isn't it?”
“Yes. It seems he's having a hard time dispelling the magic cast on the lair's entrance.”
“He spoke as if he knew everything about magic, but it seems there are things even Arun can't do.”
“It's because they're dragons. The only one who could truly break their magic would be the Master of the Magic Tower.”
“I see.”
I fiddled with the lace on my sleeve cuff and scratched my chin.
“Um, you know…”
“? Yes. Go on.”
“That charity event Elisha mentioned earlier… I was thinking of attending.”
“…What?”
“There's something I want to confirm.”
“You can’t—”
Seeing he was about to refuse outright, I quickly raised my hand to stop him.
“Wait. Don't just say no. Please hear me out. The color of Elisha's ring seemed strange earlier.”
“The ring's color?”
“Yes. The last time I saw her, it was a vivid red, but today it seemed a bit faded.”
“So you want to check the color?”
“Yes. That, and I also want to talk with Elisha. Something about her keeps bothering me.”
The strange attitudes Elisha had shown from time to time.
As I recalled them, I looked at his elegantly set lips, which were stubbornly closed.
“You don't like it when I meet with Elisha alone.”
“That's because I'm worried you'll be in danger.”
“I know. So isn't this perfect? There will be plenty of people at a charity event.”
“…Even so, you can't.”
“Why not?”
At his still-firm tone, my upright posture deflated like a balloon losing air.
“But we still haven't found anything out. You said you've searched high and low and come up with nothing.”
“That's true, but…”
“It's not like a clue that's been hidden all this time will just pop out of nowhere. We need to find something to shut down that wish, or whatever it was Elisha mentioned.”
“…”
Seeing his reaction soften slightly, I pulled my chair a little closer.
“So, rather than you wearing yourself out looking for clues that aren't there, wouldn't it be better to ask the person herself?”
“…”
“Ah. Of course, it would be best if I could just search my own memories, but I can't.”
“…Even if you ask, do you think the Duke's Daughter will answer you honestly?”
“Come on. I'll have to lead her into a position where she has no choice but to answer! Very cunningly!”
“…You will?”
At his skeptical gaze, I widened my eyes.
“What's with that look? I can do it!”
“Hmm…”
Still looking unconvinced, Enoch eventually shook his head.
“If that's the reason, then I'll speak with the Duke's Daughter instead.”
“Wouldn't she be even less likely to talk to Your Majesty…?”
My reasonable question made his red lips press tightly together.
“Still, it would be better if I did it. Elisha doesn't know there's something wrong with my memory, so if something happened between us, she wouldn't try to hide it.”
That's been the case so far.
I only realized there was something between Elisha and me because of the clues in her words.
‘The problem is that I don't understand what it is.’
Seriously. It would be so much better if even a fragment of a memory remained.
There have been few times my blank mind has felt so frustrating.
“So, Enoch, I'll go and gather up some useful information, just like this. Please let me go, okay?”
I cupped my hands as if scooping something from the air and offered it to him.
Enoch stared at my hands for a moment before taking one in each of his own,
“Huh?”
and pulled them wide apart.
“Still no.”
“Ah! But why?”
“Just because.”
Ignoring my pout, Enoch swept his bangs back in frustration.
“I just don't like the idea of you meeting with anyone from the Herington family.”
“What?”
Seeing Enoch so uncharacteristically opposed to my opinion, my pouting lips froze in place.
“Enoch.”
“…Yes.”
“There's something you haven't told me.”
“…”
“You're not the type of person to forbid something without a reason. What is it?”
“Well…”
His long fingers, which had been restlessly running through his hair, moved to loosen the cravat around his neck.
“I wasn't trying to hide it. I was just waiting until I was more certain to tell you—”
***
“Hmm.”
I sat upright, listening intently to Enoch, and nodded, my hair bobbing up and down.
“So, what you're saying is… my relationship with the Duke wasn't exactly a close one?”
I asked, softening the words with a gentler expression, and tapped my foot.
“Well, I guess I should have expected we weren't on good terms, since he resorted to violence so easily.”
Still, that's a bit much.
He supposedly took all my assets and everything else in exchange for raising me.
Even if he didn't cherish me, he could have at least acted as a proper guardian. What's so hard about that?
“But why is my reputation so bad? You said I never caused any trouble.”
“That also seems to have come from the Duke's side. It only takes a small spark for rumors to snowball.”
“Wow. Why would he go to such lengths to make me an outcast?”
Recalling the blue eyes that glared as if they wanted to devour me, my body shivered.
Noticing this, Enoch wrapped a large blanket snugly around me.
“I'm not cold.”
“Your hands. They're trembling.”
“Hm? Am I? No… Huh, why are they doing that?”
Confused, I looked down to see both my hands were indeed shaking slightly.
Flustered by my disobedient hands, I tried to make a fist, but Enoch gently took hold of them.
“I shouldn't have told you after all. It's not a pleasant memory.”
I stared blankly at his eyelashes, dark like the deep night, then rolled my eyes.
“Enoch, I'm really fine. Like you said, I don't have any memories of it, so what does it matter?”
“Just because your mind doesn't remember doesn't mean your body forgets.”
‘That… is true.’
I recalled my first meeting with Duke Herington, when I had frozen up so badly I couldn't even speak, and nodded.
“And do you know how pale your face becomes whenever you encounter the Duke or his daughter?”
“Oh… I didn't know that.”
Learning this for the first time, I awkwardly wiped my face with my free hand.
“Is it because my face is naturally pale…?”
“…Are you really joking right now?”
Sensing Enoch's incredulous stare, I deliberately changed the subject in a playful and exaggerated way.
“Oh? My hands aren't shaking anymore.”
I slipped my hands out from Enoch's grasp, which had been shielding them like a shield, and waved my arms for him to see.
“See? Perfectly fine.”
“Hah…”
“Enoch, thank you for worrying about me. But I'm really okay.”
Of course.
Even if this body remembered, I wasn't the Riana from the story Enoch told me.
As I deliberately smiled more brightly, Enoch, who had been studying me carefully, let out a long sigh.
“Haaah. You said the charity event is tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“It will be difficult for me to accompany you.”
“I'll be fine on my own. Do you have other plans?”
“Ah…”
His straight eyebrows furrowed, as if he wasn't pleased with the idea.
“I have something to ask my father… He's leaving the capital the day after tomorrow, so I plan to visit him tomorrow.”
“Oh, I see.”
Did Enoch ever visit the former Emperor in the original novel?
While racking my brain, I fluttered my hand to deal with something that kept bothering me.
“Enoch, come here for a second.”
“Hm?”
“It's been bothering me for a while now.”
My gaze fell on the messy cravat hanging in the center of his broad chest.
“Are you going to tie this, or take it off?”
“I'll tie it.”
“Then could you lift your head a bit?”
After a moment's hesitation, Enoch slowly raised his head, revealing the clean line of his neck.
“I didn't expect you to tie it for me.”
“Did you know?”
“Hm? Know what?”
“Sometimes, when you're frustrated, you pull your cravat loose like this, but you never retie it and just walk around that way.”
“…I do that?”
“Yes. It must be a habit.”
As if embarrassed at having been seen in a disheveled state, the back of his white neck turned slightly red.
“It bothered me every time, but it's not like I'd ever tied one before, so I couldn't fix it for you.”
Keeping my gaze fixed on his neck, I twisted the long, white cloth this way and that.
“So you know how to tie one now?”
“Of course. I learned very diligently from Dane. Want to see?”
With a very proud expression, I demonstrated a few different styles.
“How is it? I'm good, right?”
“Yes. You are.”
“Which style do you like? I'll tie it that way for you.”
“Hmm… Please tie it in the most complicated and time-consuming way.”
“The complicated one? The last one I did…?”
I inadvertently lifted my gaze and, finding Enoch's lips much closer than I expected, quickly ducked my head.
“J-Just have this one!”
“? Isn't that the simplest style?”
Just when I thought I was getting better.
My stomach suddenly churning again, I tied the cravat in a daze and began to back away slowly.
“W-Well, the basics are always the most stylish! I'll be going now.”
“Wait, just a—”
“Goodbye!”
“—moment… We have to go together anyway…”
Then, after a quick farewell, I scurried out of the room, my legs working hard beneath the tightly wrapped blanket.
I had completely forgotten that I would have to see Enoch again at dinner anyway.
