39 - The Time of the Blind Beast (15+ Revised Edition)
Chapter 39
It’s a mess outside, so there wouldn’t be much to see, but I should have instructed Madam Serva to restart the garden landscaping in advance.
When something is out of sight and out of reach, it tends to slip from one’s mind. Ezekiel felt a slight regret about this.
“Just a moment. I’ll get ready then.”
Rose’s voice brightened slightly.
“I’ll be right back. Please stay here.”
He thought they would go out holding hands, but Rose left him standing at the doorway and disappeared somewhere.
She must have left the front door slightly ajar in the meantime. The airflow was distinctly different from the bedroom.
Pipipipi. Pipipipi.
The chirping of grasshoppers and the calls of the scops owl, which had been sheltering from the intermittent spring rain, enveloped his ears. As the silence receded, his hearing awakened.
It was unfamiliar yet welcome.
Ah, the world was originally this full of vivid commotion.
He had forgotten. He had lived so isolated from the outside.
Listening to the sounds of nature, which flowed like a melody, he raised his hand to cover his eyes.
Then, with a single step, he strode beyond the threshold.
After a moment of gauging his senses, he slowly removed the hand covering his eyes. Then he blinked. As Rose had said, the darkness was quite deep, and there was little pain.
It was a night without the moon or stars.
Though he had only crossed one doorway, the scent of wet grass was strong. He inhaled the damp air deeply. Unlike the stagnant indoor air that had accumulated inside the mansion, it was refreshing and fragrant. He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he last breathed the outside air like this.
When he had hidden in trenches, enduring the night dew and spending the night, he had longed for the day he could lie under a roof again, but now, lying under a roof every day, he wished he could return to the past if only he could.
Even if that past was a battlefield.
Rose was busily moving about somewhere. He leaned loosely against the doorframe, focusing on her footsteps from behind. Thanks to her distinct, quiet footsteps, he had noticed a significant increase in the quietness around him since Rose had replaced Madam Serva as his attendant. She was as light as a feather.
“Major.”
Rose, who had approached with light steps, called him.
He turned his head in the direction where she was likely to be. Rose’s fluttering fingers brushed against his hand, confirming her position, and then she placed a soft-feeling object into his grasp.
“What is this?”
It felt like something rolled up, so he unraveled it to find a piece of cloth about a span wide. It had been cut into a long strip and twisted like a rope.
“I didn’t know where to find rope, so I substituted it with cord. I’m going to make a walking path with this.”
Rose explained as she tied one end of the cord to a pillar outside the mansion.
“Now, I’ll tie this cord in various places as we walk through the garden.”
He immediately understood the method Rose had devised. By tying cords between the garden’s trees and ornaments, they would serve as safe guides, replacing stepping stones.
Rose continued,
“Then, you’ll be able to take night walks as much as you want, even on nights like today with no light, or on moonlit nights if you cover your eyes with a handkerchief.”
Ezekiel pulled on the cord. Tied at the height of his waist by Rose, the cord immediately stretched taut, becoming a firm handle.
“When did you prepare something like this?”
“When I was working in the laundry room, a lot of old, worn-out cloths that couldn’t be used came out. Madam Serva told me to throw them away, but I felt it would be a waste. I thought there might be a good way to use them, so I collected them.”
When Rose mentioned working in the laundry room, a specific day came to mind. Ezekiel recalled the memory of bumping into her in the hallway while she had her eyes covered with a handkerchief. He had sensed someone’s presence but had deliberately not avoided her, and Rose, her vision obscured, had not seen him and had fallen with a thud that echoed through the hallway.
What had he said to Rose then?
“Are you not trying to mock me by imitating me when no one asked you to?”
“I was merely trying to know and prepare for the discomforts you don’t tell me about…”
Perhaps one of the discomforts she wanted to prepare for was his garden walks. Judging by the fact that she had cut and twisted each piece of cloth into cord to use instead of rope.
“I thought you would feel stifled if you just kept wandering around inside the mansion. I wanted to make a walking path sooner, but I haven’t had the chance until now.”
You truly wanted to help me from the very beginning.
And I treated you so cruelly, so foolishly.
There must have been moments when she felt wronged and hurt, but the tight-lipped Rose had never uttered a single complaint about it. Instead, she had apologized first and retreated.
His chest felt a strange ache. Ezekiel found Rose’s hand and squeezed it tightly.
“I’m content just walking like this, holding your hand.”
“Still… there might be times when I can’t go for a walk with you, and if it’s too dark, I can’t see well either, so it’s safer for me to have a walking path too.”
Rose gently took his hand and led him.
“I’ll go ahead. Major, please follow behind, holding the cord.”
“No, give the cord to me.”
“It’s quite large and heavy.”
All the more reason to give it to him; a frail woman with no strength should not be carrying such a heavy and large burden.
Ezekiel snatched the bundle of cloth Rose was holding in her arms and took it. The length required to encircle the entire large garden meant it was substantial in volume and weight. Casually shifting the load to one arm, he linked his free hand with Rose’s and began to walk in the direction she was guiding him.
At first, it was complete, pitch-black darkness. It felt similar to walking into the void when his sight had first failed. However, Ezekiel soon realized that was not all.
The senses of nature, forgotten while confined within the windless house, came alive. The wet dirt path was slippery, and the ground underfoot was muddy. Tall, overgrown weeds brushed against his shins. Rainwater collected on the trees dripped from above. Each sensation was a powerful stimulus.
As the weather was not clear, the night’s presence felt even more vivid. The chill of midnight, the green scent of the garden, the touch of raindrops falling across his face, the sound of clumps of mud crumbling under his soles…
Everything evoked a sense of wonder.
However, he hoped it would be a wonder for her too, but the stiffly grown weeds and the branches that randomly brushed his forehead and the back of his head did not seem like a particularly beautiful sight. In fact, Rose paused intermittently, tidying up her surroundings. He could sense her breaking off branches that obstructed their path.
“This is less a garden and more like a jungle. It reminds me of my days as an officer.”
Ezekiel summarized it in one sentence.
Though he had grown up in Claris, a place with a meticulously maintained garden, as a soldier, he was more accustomed to such unkempt environments. The base of a sturdy tree trunk or densely leafed branches were excellent hiding spots, perfect for concealing oneself and sniping at the enemy.
Unexpectedly, Rose resonated with his memory.
“It reminds me of my school days too.”
“Really?”
“My school was located in the mountains. I used to wander through the mountains, which were like a jungle, in the dead of night.”
“Through the mountains, you?”
His tone conveyed disbelief. Rose smiled faintly.
“Young children who enrolled early at the school would often read adventure novels and then sneak out of the dormitory in the middle of the night for adventures in the mountains. They were at an age where they couldn’t distinguish between books and reality. Also, the school was like a monastery, not very interesting for children that age. So, older students like me would secretly find the children and bring them back without the teachers knowing. Otherwise, we’d all get in trouble. That’s why this kind of scenery feels more familiar and welcome to me than a well-maintained garden.”
Ezekiel was pleased to hear Rose’s rare reminiscence. She was a woman who rarely spoke about herself.
He imagined a young Rose, sitting demurely and studying with a prim expression. He felt that girls her age would generally look like that.
“I don’t have any sisters, so I didn’t know, but girls play in such a cute way.”
He could clearly picture the young children with sparkling eyes, sneaking out of the dormitory with their novels, and Rose, who would have quietly called out their names with a lantern, searching for her younger siblings so they wouldn’t get caught by the teachers, even in the darkness.
