ESL Chapter 63

Arhvina was startled and sat bolt upright. When she found Zender looking down at her, she was so surprised that she began to hiccup. Zender’s expression did not change as he watched her hiccupping with eyes swollen from crying, but there was something in his gaze that was somehow soft.

“Would you like some water?”

“….”

Her face flushed red with embarrassment, she gave a small nod. At her consent, Zender lifted the pitcher resting on the tray atop the table and poured water into an empty cup, then handed it to her. Only after drinking the water he offered did Arhvina’s hiccups subside, and she looked around the room. White walls, a neat display cabinet and table — it was a simple but clean room.

“…Where is this, Zender?”

At her question, Zender took the empty cup and set it back on the tray as he answered.

“It is one of the Black Kavan’s safe houses. You appeared to need a place to hide, so I took the liberty of bringing you here.”

Only then did Arhvina realize that he had saved her from being dragged away by the attackers. Her beautiful pale violet eyes shimmered gently as they gazed at Zender.

“…You saved me again. Thank you.”

At Arhvina’s words, Zender answered with an expressionless face, as though he had never smiled.

“I was only acting on orders. I am one of the Black Kavan.”

It was, in one sense, a cold reply, but knowing well that he was naturally blunt by nature, she smiled a bitter smile where he could not see it. Who would ever know that beneath that bluntness lay kindness? He was the one man who, when she had been suffering because of Cheor, had been the only one to advise her to leave.

[Do you really need to stay here, suffering like this?]

His words had been what led her to be able to leave Cheor. If she had never heard them, she might still have been living with that beast of a man.

‘Seen that way, he is my benefactor… even if he saved me on orders… wait — on orders?’

Catching a word in Zender’s statement that snagged at her attention, Arhvina asked urgently.

“Could those orders have come from… Luciel?!”

“The only person currently able to give orders to the Black Kavan is Lord Luciel.”

“Is Luciel safe?!”

Watching her ask with such urgency, Zender answered honestly.

“I met with Berchel rather than Lord Luciel directly, so I cannot say what state he is in at present. The only order I received was to protect Lady Arhvina until he makes contact.”

“…I see……”

Feeling her hope crumble, Arhvina stared blankly into the air. Perhaps it felt all the worse because her mind had been so consumed with the thought that she needed to deliver the bracelet to him as quickly as possible. But the words Zender added next breathed at least a little strength into her drooping shoulders.

“I sent a messenger letter informing him that Lady Arhvina has been secured, so he will be in touch. Please wait a little while.”

“…That is at least a relief…”

Smiling weakly, she suddenly realized she was not holding the box against her chest, and began looking around in a flustered panic.

“Oh! The box! Did you happen to see a wooden carved box?! I had it clutched against me!”

As she leapt to her feet and hastily began to pull up the bedsheet, Razen silently held the carved wooden box out to her.

“It is right here.”

“Ah…”

Arhvina’s face turned bright red. How many embarrassing things had she done in front of him now… Accepting the box, she turned her head away in mortification and shame and sat back down on the bed.

“Does it contain something important?”

Zender spoke as he watched Arhvina clutching tightly to the box he had handed her. Her eyes were still swollen from crying and her face was crimson, but he found it unexpectedly endearing — and for a moment he found himself questioning his own tastes.

“Yes. With this, I can clear Luciel’s name. So I have to get it to that child somehow. Only then will Rosia be able to close her eyes.”

Watching her bite her lip and speak with quiet resolve, Zender nodded as though he understood.

“Rest for now. I will do what I can to arrange a meeting as quickly as possible.”

“…..”

As Zender turned and left the room, Arhvina let her hand — which she had unconsciously raised to call out to him — fall limply back down. It was a strange feeling. Every time she saw him, she felt a ticklish sensation somewhere around her chest. Like a feather brushing across it… She herself did not know when this unfamiliar feeling had first appeared. She only knew it was something she wanted to keep carefully hidden from everyone, something she wished to hold precious.

****

“Chief, is the lady all right?”

Zender, descending from the upper floor, gave a nod at the question from the woman sitting on the sofa on the first floor, tossing a dagger up and catching it in idle amusement. The woman, with her bronze-colored hair and eyes the exact same hue as her hair, was quite a beauty, though she unfortunately had a large scar across her cheek. Her name was Lu. Having been abandoned from birth, she had no surname, and so people simply called her Lu.

“Fortunately. More importantly — has a reply come from Berchel?”

“Just received one. Apparently Lord Luciel is at the royal palace.”

“The royal palace?”

Watching Zender’s face crease slightly into a frown, Lu pulled a letter from inside her clothes, tossed it into the air, and flung the dagger she had been playing with straight at it. The dagger skewered the paper and flew across the room, embedding itself in the wall directly beside Zender with a thud.

“Looks like he really is at the royal palace. He asks us to bring the lady there…”

This was clearly not the first or second time something like this had happened — Zender did not so much as flinch even as the dagger grazed past him, and calmly read the letter impaled on the blade. When he had finished reading, he reached out, pulled the dagger free, took the letter, and sent the dagger flying back to Lu.

“Wow~ There really is no one who throws as well as the chief~”

Lu caught the swiftly flying dagger with ease and began playing with it again.

“Where are the others?”

“After finishing up yesterday, they all probably went off to drink? Shall I call them?”

Lu, who had been quietly irritated that they had all gone without her — possibly to find women to spend the night with — brightened at Zender’s words.

“Assemble everyone. At dawn tomorrow, we escort the lady into the royal palace.”

“Yes, Chief!”

Watching Lu move faster than she ever had before, Zender let out a faint smile.

****

“It seems she was attacked, but my aunt is safe.”

Having confirmed the message delivered by the messenger bird, Luciel did not show it outwardly, but he felt relieved. If it had been even a little later, his aunt would have fallen into his uncle’s hands. Even for him, rescuing her in a situation like this would not have been easy. Thinking he needed to meet his aunt as soon as possible, Luciel had picked up his pen to write a reply when he looked up at the sound of Lea’s voice.

“That’s a relief.”

Unlike her usual self, her voice was a little unfocused, carrying a faint inattentiveness — as though her mind was somewhere else. On top of that, she had not noticed that he was looking at her.

Peck… peck…

Lea watched the messenger bird hopping across the table pecking up cookie crumbs with shining eyes. She had heard that messenger birds existed, but seeing one in person like this, she found she couldn’t look away. It was nothing more than a small, plain brown bird one could see anywhere, yet it was fascinating to think that such a bird could carry message scrolls.

“Do you like it?”

Lea had been following the hopping messenger bird with her eyes, and at Luciel’s words she nodded without thinking.

“Mm.”

“Hmm~”

Luciel watched her quietly for a moment, then swiftly wrote his reply and extended his left palm. He had no intention of standing by while anything captured her gaze — even if that something was a mere messenger bird.

When he held out his hand, the messenger bird trotted over and stepped onto his palm without the slightest hesitation. Luciel secured the miniature message scroll to its ankle, then released the bird. And with that, Lea’s beautiful red eyes also moved to follow the bird. Even that displeased Luciel.

“You’re curious about the bird hopping around, but not curious about what I wrote?”

At Luciel’s question, Lea drew her gaze away from the messenger bird flying into the distance and looked at him.

“What did you write?”

As those beautiful red eyes looked at him and him alone, Luciel finally let a smile come to his lips. Making a mental note to tell Zender to stop using messenger birds in the future, he answered.

“I told them to bring her to the royal palace.”

“Really?”

“Yes. She’ll arrive at dawn tomorrow.”

“Won’t it be dangerous?”

Lea thought back to the knights who had been inspecting carriages when she and Luciel had entered the royal palace. They would certainly know the former Duchess’s face as well. Luciel had gotten through by cross-dressing, and with her quick thinking, but she couldn’t help worrying whether the former Duchess would be able to arrive safely too.

“Don’t worry about that. They are the ones who carry on the name of the Black Kavan.”

Luciel said it as though it were nothing, then turned a displeased gaze toward Lanster and Thomas walking toward the tea table where they sat. Having removed the distraction of the messenger bird only to have a far larger distraction appear — of course he wasn’t pleased. And Lanster was not one to miss the meaning in that look of his.

“See that, Thomas? Really too much, isn’t it? I bring the information he asked me to look into, and he treats me like an uninvited guest. In my own palace, at my own tea table.”

Watching Lanster approach muttering complaints as though lodging a grievance, Lea rose to her feet and offered a greeting.

“My respects to Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Ahh… not something so distancing as ‘Crown Prince’ — please call me Lanster, my lady.”

Lanster’s vermillion eyes curved with pleasure, as though he had not just been grumbling a moment ago. Meeting a beautiful woman first thing in the morning was always a pleasure. Especially seeing her properly dressed in a gown rather than in men’s clothing.

‘I knew she was pretty, but I didn’t think it was quite to this degree… She’s a rare beauty even by the kingdom’s standards. Where on earth did that Luciel find a girl like this?’

Lanster had been looking Lea over from head to toe and sinking into his thoughts, when Luciel stepped squarely into his line of sight and pulled him out of them. His beautiful emerald eyes had gone cold and flat, suggesting something was not sitting right with him.