PAGE 11. On Your Side

“Ah, so. This place is……”

“Yeah, my room.”

At the answer that was hearty to the point of being simple, Asha’s lips repeatedly opened and closed. Only after crying her heart out and eating soup did Asha return to her usual self and try to accept the current situation in her own way.

When she thought about it, it was natural, but examining each detail, there wasn’t a corner that wasn’t embarrassing.

“Your, your family members, how did you……”

“I explained everything while you were lying down. Don’t worry and rest well.”

“Still, being in the same house, how……”

Asha, who had been pressing her forehead due to a familiar headache, looked around the unfamiliar bedroom again. So, a room whose scale was embarrassing to even compare on the same level as Asha’s ‘bedroom.’

Bed, desk, chair—those were fine. The bed was wide enough that Asha could roll around five times without falling off, but that didn’t change the essential nature of a bed.

But things like the tapestry hung large on the wall or the couch whose material could be guessed even without the help of glasses were absolutely not sizes that could fit in Asha’s room.

Only then did Asha recall that Carol had referred to his home as a ‘mansion’ and that guests frequently came and went.

The ‘guests’ the boy mentioned weren’t at the level that could be solved by offering a married sister’s empty room like Asha.

“Um, Carol.”

“Yeah?”

“Where do your family members stay?”

“Grandmother and grandfather are in the room at the western end. Mother and father have their bedroom next to the office. My brother is next to this room, but you probably won’t run into him often.”

Asha had been trying to absorb information she couldn’t memorize completely and decided to stop thinking. Too much had happened in the past few weeks to tremble over her friend’s family.

“Since you said it’s okay, it must be okay……”

Accumulated fatigue made her give her trust easily. She leaned against the headboard and frowned. Her blurry vision seemed to become somewhat clearer, but only for a brief moment.

Carol had been watching that behavior carefully and belatedly clapped his hands.

“Come to think of it, your glasses. Did you drop them when you fell?”

“Probably.”

“What should we do? Can’t you see much?”

A broad hand filled her entire field of vision. Asha lightly grabbed the solid wrist and put it down, then answered casually.

“I can’t read letters. From far away, it’s hard to distinguish who is who.”

“What should we do? There’s no optician here.”

“There isn’t one in Iota either. There are hardly any people with bad eyesight.”

“You can’t see properly even at this distance?”

Carol had pulled his chair up to the bedside and waved his hand again and blinked.

This is why kids with bright eyes are like this. It was a clueless test typical of someone who couldn’t even grasp ‘how’ vision deteriorates.

Asha had been quietly watching that appearance and stretched out both arms to grab her friend’s cheeks.

“Wait a moment.”

Even without tracing the outline with her fingertips, she could see a vague shape. Moreover, if he was close enough to grab by reaching out her hand.

But the lines overlapped thinly and appeared hazy as if wrapped in fog. Asha, who leaned her upper body forward as if about to spill out, carefully swept the eyebrow bone hidden by bangs, the long eye corners, and the flushed cheek.

The index and middle fingers that had been moving slowly wandered near the lips without touching them, then fell away.

“This much is fine.”

Her gently curved eyes sparkled with mischief. Her bright blue eyes blinked as if witnessing musical notes flying out the window from sheet music.

“D-did you just tease me?”

“Yeah.”

At that innocent reply, as if at a loss for words, a chuckle leaked out as light as spring sunshine.

Strangely, everything felt okay. Asha, who slowly rolled up the blanket and gripped it, pulled her lips into a small smile while watching that laughter.

It was really strange.

That a friend she met for the first time could be this trustworthy.

※※※

Only after six days had passed since damaging one of Kasoche’s tall, tall trees did Asha recover enough to come out of the room.

“That tree, it’s not private property, right?”

“If you really want to get into it, it’s kingdom property. At least when I saw it, the tree was fine.”

Long fingers lifted up the back of a hand where scabs had formed. The pale hand was mottled with blue-black bruises and rough scars.

“It’s not healing well.”

“It’ll fall off in about ten days, it’s fine.”

“Ten whole days?”

“That’s normal.”

At his excessive reaction, Asha shrugged her shoulders awkwardly. Carol belatedly recalled his attitude and shortened his words, saying he would ‘bring some effective ointment.’

Carol’s mansion truly lived up to the dignity of being called a ‘mansion.’ Asha, who had been walking down the wide corridor following Carol, stopped every ten steps to look around.

Without her glasses, she couldn’t notice the thickness of the glass or the colors of the embroidery on the carpet unless she looked closely.

Though her eyes were blurry and her legs were not injured, Carol anxiously grabbed Asha’s wrist and kept his senses sharp.

In truth, after nearly tripping a couple of times on unrepaired floors and curled carpet edges, Asha quietly accepted the host’s support.

If she hadn’t, she might have grabbed Carol’s hand first herself.

Unlike Iota, Kasoche had a cool chill circulating even indoors, and maintaining body temperature by rubbing skin together wasn’t entirely strange.

“If you go down from here, there’s the office. If you go up, there’s the corridor I mentioned. Ah, want to go see it?”

“Really? I’m curious. Let’s go quickly.”

Asha, who had recovered her energy, smiled at each of Carol’s suggestions and quickened her steps. Though she wasn’t usually someone who smiled easily, she kept twitching the corners of her mouth up and down without realizing it herself.

Since she didn’t know, the person who knew that appearance best was Carol. Carol looked at his sleeve being lightly tugged and nodded his head cheerfully.

This was the first time the boring and even harsh severe cold had been this enjoyable.

Carol, who had faithfully comforted his friend over the sad news that had befallen her, rattled off all sorts of things to lift Asha’s spirits now that she had come to her senses.

Fortunately, or naturally, Asha focused on every word Carol uttered. Probably even if Carol had gone on about how to swim well (common knowledge that a child born and raised by the seaside would have learned with their body) she would have done the same.

“Steps ahead.”

“Yeah.”

I can see that much, Asha thought about giving a brief reproach but closed her mouth. Though she couldn’t quite grasp it, the hand that affectionately grabbed her wrist wasn’t unpleasant.

“Oh, Carol?”

What broke the moment of the two birds chattering was an older man.

“You haven’t shown your face in the dining room at all lately. No matter what, isn’t it wrong to skip family appointments?”

“……Mr. Caprun.”

“This kid still calls me so formally. Ah, that person is……”

The aged eyes narrowed thinly.

Though she couldn’t examine the expression of the man standing at the bottom of the stairs precisely, she could feel the person standing right next to her tense up.

Asha easily realized that the middle-aged man before her was the ‘C’ that her friend had found so detestable.

“I did hear about it from Carol. You’re that a—anyway, you’re Carol’s friend?”

“Yes.”

“I heard you weren’t feeling well. Even so, if you have the energy to giggle like that, you should greet the adults first.”

“Um, yes.”

“I was going to do it at dinner. Since we all gather then.”

When Carol stepped forward as if to protect Asha, the man moved his mouth as if he’d been waiting.

“You too, Carol. No matter how urgent the situation, how can you do such rude things? Bringing in guests on your own during times like these, really. She’s not even family. Ah, I’m not saying anything to you.”

It was an explanation worse than none at all.

The man rattled off ‘advice’ as if he’d been waiting and preparing, not even wetting his tongue.