It was a windy afternoon. It felt like rain would come tomorrow. Walking along, she realized that Terion Iligen had not shown his face once in the past few days. She wondered whether he was getting on all right.

Thinking it over these past few days, Pamona had come to feel that if the guest genuinely needed help settling in here, she ought to actually help. The worry had taken root that if she did not help Terion Iligen, Heil, who had surely arrived in Ilion by now, might be left to find her footing alone as well.

If she helped Terion Iligen with a good heart, perhaps someone would help Heil in return, wherever she was.

In any case, had Terion Iligen not been pushed to this unfamiliar place against his will, just like Heil? Thinking of it that way, she found herself feeling a faint sympathy for the blue-haired guest.

She had decided to help, but in truth she had no real idea what form that help might take, so it remained only a thought. She could hardly take a grown man around and play with him the way she used to play with Heil. Perhaps tomorrow, when the day came, she could show him around the royal castle.

Since he was staying in the western wing, he would know relatively little about the eastern side. It was not something she particularly felt like doing, but she resolved to set aside a day and guide him through the east. Thinking of it as something she was doing for Heil made it feel less like a bother.

Before she knew it, Pamona was at the lakeside again. Ever since confirming that Sionel knew nothing, the woman’s whereabouts had continued to nag at her. Poor soul. Still, she wanted to believe that someone had found her and brought her back to her family. She could not have had no family……

Then, all at once, doubt crept in. Had what she seen that day truly been a woman’s body? No one else had seen it. She had been alone. What if the ghost was not the blue-haired figure from the other night, but the woman lying on the lake?

Yet even the thought that she might have seen a real ghost did not frighten her. Perhaps it was because she had already lived through the experience of mistaking someone for a monster walking toward her. If there truly was no dead woman in the castle, and no one had seen any body. If everything Sionel said was the truth. Then what on earth had that woman been?

Could she still be inside?

Pamona peered into the lake. Nothing was visible apart from the grass, flowers, and insects drifting on the surface. In there? The lake was too deep to fathom, and too murky to see into even with light.

Hmm……

On impulse, Pamona threw herself into the lake.

As the water closed over her head, sensations entirely unlike anything she felt on land washed over her whole body. The inside of the lake was warmer than she had expected.

She had assumed it would be cold, perhaps because she saw it every night bathed in moonlight. Something slick and unpleasant she could not identify brushed against her body. The water itself seemed to carry a viscous, slippery quality.

She considered opening her eyes, then remembered the unpleasant smell of the lake and abandoned the idea. The thought of those slick things getting into her eyes was horrible. She doubted there was anything worth seeing inside the lake anyway.

That day, the woman had her head submerged in the lake. Had her eyes been closed? That would have been the wiser choice.

It was far from refreshing, but Pamona swept her arms through the water and angled her head downward toward the lake floor. She dove deeper and deeper. She swam downward, as though she might find the woman if she reached the bottom.

She had not truly intended to find her.

No, intention was not even the right word. It was more accurate to say there had been no thought at all. If she had stopped to think, she would not have jumped into the lake alone.

Even so, she felt that jumping in had not been such a bad thing. The sounds of the world fell away, and all she could hear was the water breaking apart wherever she cut through it. Tiny bubbles gurgled and trailed behind her. It felt as though she alone remained in a small, small world.

She liked that feeling, and kept going deeper, deeper still. She could feel herself running short of breath. Surely this must be the end of it, she thought, kicking her feet, but no matter how she swept her arms, her hands never found the muddy floor.

She had not known the lake was this deep. Then again, whoever built a lake this large would not have made it a shallow imitation.

Surely by now. Surely by now she should have reached the bottom. However deep they had dug it, her breath gave out before her hands ever touched the floor. Startled, Pamona reversed direction and swam straight upward.

Swimming toward the surface was easier than going down. She had her eyes closed and could not be certain, but she felt the surface drawing closer.

Splash. The small world that had held only her erupted with a great sound and sent ripples spreading outward. The sound of water she had not parted came rushing at her forcefully. She felt the lake being churned by something twice as fast and twice as strong as herself.

The surprise made Pamona open her eyes in that slick water. Through her blurred vision, all she could make out was the swirling movement. A moment later, a blue light appeared between the currents.

Before she had time to think about what it was, a large hand seized her arm and pulled her toward the surface at tremendous speed.

“Puhah!”

Pamona gasped and gulped down the breath she had been missing. Water had gotten into her eyes and her vision was blurry, so she wiped at them again and again. The hand that had brought her out now wrapped both arms around her thighs and gathered her up.

In an instant her body was lifted, and her backside landed on the footbridge. Pamona, whose body had seized up for a moment, looked with now-clear eyes at the owner of the blue light, who had not yet fully emerged from the water.

“Feeling hot?”

Terion Iligen asked a question in place of a greeting. He swept back his hair, which shone even bluer with the sunlight reflecting off it. Somehow the outer corners of his eyes seemed to carry a faint trace of amusement. His face, wet from the water, was beautiful in its own right and drew her admiration.

“It is not a warm day.”

“…… A little.”

She gave a halfhearted answer, but Terion Iligen did not seem to mind. He pressed a hand against the footbridge and vaulted up onto it with ease. He looked a little more disheveled and at ease than he had at the meal a few days ago. Then again, soaking wet as he was, it would have been stranger if he still looked as composed as he had then.

“The sea, a river, even a stream would do. A lake is stagnant. It is dirty.”

As if I did not know……

“I cannot go to those places.”

The awareness of her own circumstances struck Pamona without warning. A needlessly blunt tone came out.

“You did not need to pull me out. I was already on my way up.”

He shook the water from his hair and gave a soft smile. For a moment, despite her low spirits, she had the strange impression that the air around her had grown clearer.

Why does he smile so freely……

“I know. You were coming up just fine.”

With that, he picked up the garment that had been spread out on the footbridge, whether he had taken it off before jumping in or not, and draped it over Pamona’s shoulders. It was a pure white robe-like garment.

“Still, is it not easier with help?”

Their eyes met, and the blue of his startled her again, so unfamiliar even now. On top of that, with his outer robe removed, he wore only a single shirt underneath, and the water had plastered it to his skin. The thin wet fabric traced the outline of Terion Iligen’s shoulders, chest, and the thick shape of his arms without concealment.

His forearms…… are the size of my legs.

The men of Masion were obsessed with inflating their muscles to the point where their clothes looked ready to burst at any moment, and Pamona had never once thought that kind of body looked impressive.

Grotesque and unsightly, perhaps. She had always thought it was exactly the right body for someone desperate to look brutish and violent.

But strangely, Terion Iligen’s body brought none of those ridiculous thoughts to mind. His muscles were solid and compact. Broad, thick shoulders that looked sturdy, forearms that radiated strength even without being touched…… the clear outline of his abdomen visible through the shirt…… not exaggerated or artificial, yet strong enough and even beautiful……

I must have lost my mind.

She had been carefully tracing her way down his body without realizing it, and the realization startled her into ducking her head sharply. Her downcast gaze fell on her own sorry state. Pamona’s wet dress clung to her body as well, leaving nothing to the imagination.

This is too…… He gets soaked and still looks perfectly crisp and clean, and I……

“I, I should be going……”

Flustered, Pamona clutched the front of the robe wrapped around her tightly and stood up. Terion Iligen widened his eyes and rose to his feet alongside her. Standing close, his height forced her to tilt her head all the way back to look up at him.

“Like that?”

Yes, like this.

“The eastern side is crowded with people, you said, Pamona.”

The moment she heard that, a rush of thoughts darkened her vision. Head to toe. Even her shoes were soaked through. Payen Castle was still a long way from here, and the chances of passing at least one person on the way were high.

“And in broad daylight……”

Running into anyone in this ridiculous state would be a problem, but running into Reynard would be exhausting beyond words, and if she happened to cross paths with one of the princes she did not know……

A laugh suddenly reached her ears and she looked up.a

“It was not like this yesterday. Your hair is curly.”

He lightly swept Pamona’s disheveled hair back over her shoulder. His fingertips carried no thorns, yet Pamona’s body gave a small shudder.

“Yes, it is always like this.”

—

T/N: “His forearms…… are the size of my legs.” girl calm down sksksjdkfhs I’m cackling so hard