Fate Betrayed Me - ✿ dusk blossoms ✿

Kazerre was able to find the source of the scream not long after.

Inside a shadowy, secluded alley, a man was in a standoff with someone wearing a robe, gripping their arm.

The arm forcefully grabbed by the slovenly-postured man was thin enough to fit entirely in one hand. There was no need to use imagination to understand the situation.

The man, seemingly flustered by the woman’s sudden scream, blustered and yelled at her incoherently.

“I just asked if you had some time, why are you screaming?”

“Let go of me!”

“Come on, what did I do wrong?”

The man, though fidgeting at the woman’s resistance, didn’t release her arm. He was a pathetic creature in many ways.

Kazerre quietly approached them. Because he had suppressed his presence, they didn’t notice him until he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Ugh, what now?”

Irritated by the sudden weight on his shoulder, the man turned his head irritably. When he saw Kazerre looking down at him, he flinched in surprise and backed away.

“W-What, who are you?”

“……”

“W-Who are you to… Argh!”

The man screamed and let go of the woman’s arm, feeling an intense pain as if his shoulder blade was being crushed.

“Aaaagh! Let go!”

The man twisted his whole body, struggling and trying to shake off the hand gripping his shoulder.

But it didn’t budge an inch, as if a pillar had been driven into his shoulder. As he realized his merciless strength, fear slowly bloomed on the man’s face.

Unfortunately for him, Kazerre was standing with his back to the sun, so the man couldn’t look at him directly. However, the intimidating aura he exuded was enough to threaten the man.

“I-I’m sorry, I was wrong.”

Shrunk as small as possible due to the absolute difference in strength, the man finally apologized. It was survival instinct taking precedence over pride.

“Just this once, please overlook it just this once. I-I promise I’ll never do this again…”

“……”

“Please have mercy…”

While the man repeatedly begged for mercy, almost whimpering, Kazerre swept his terrified face with impassive eyes that showed no sign of emotion.

He had no intention of dragging him to the security forces anyway. This was the capital, not the north, and all the soldiers were directly under the imperial family. If he made a big deal out of it, it might even reach the ears of the Crown Prince, the current power holder of the imperial family.

Kazerre had no desire to upset the Crown Prince. He was even more reluctant to get involved in the capital’s political situation.

Kazerre murmured lowly as a warning to the man who was hunching his shoulders and holding his breath like a deer in front of a lion.

“I’ve remembered your face, so it would be best not to do anything foolish.”

“Of course, absolutely!”

The man nodded his head repeatedly with a face full of gratitude, as if he was about to enter a monastery and devote his life to service.

When the hand gripping his shoulder finally relaxed, the man immediately took to his heels.

Kazerre watched the retreating figure of the man fleeing in haste with a look of disdain. Judging by how he was running away with his tail between his legs, it seemed unlikely that he would ignore Kazerre’s warning.

Just as Kazerre was about to turn around to return to where he came from after roughly wrapping up the situation…

“Excuse me…”

A delicate voice caught his attention.

Kazerre turned back towards the woman standing in front of him.

Her face wasn’t clearly visible as she had her hood pulled down deep, but the hem of a brightly colored dress was faintly visible beneath the drab robe.

“Thank you for helping me.”

The woman bowed to Kazerre. Wheat-colored hair that had fallen out from under her hood swayed gently with her movement.

It was a composed attitude that made it hard to believe she was the one who had screamed earlier.

But Kazerre had already noticed that the hand clutching her robe was trembling slightly.

‘A noble woman wandering alone in the back alleys of Morbe Shopping District.’

While the main street of Morbe Shopping District was full of splendid and glamorous shops, the atmosphere changed drastically just a short distance into the alleys.

Heretical fortune-tellers, illegal information brokers operating without signboards, herb shops selling unidentified drugs — all sorts of suspicious shops nestled between the shadows as dark as the buildings were bright, reminding one of Morbe Shopping District’s reputation for having ‘nothing that can’t be obtained.’

And he was now at the entrance of those back alleys. Along with a naive woman who mistakenly thought her identity was completely hidden by a mere robe.

Whether she knew it or not, she was undoubtedly ignorant of the ways of the capital.

“It would be better to bring an escort with you in the future.”

Instead of prying into her circumstances, Kazerre left an appropriate piece of advice and turned around.

Or rather, he tried to turn around.

“Wait, just a moment please.”

The woman hastily grabbed the hem of his clothes.

Kazerre looked down at the hand that stopped him, then slowly raised his head to meet her gaze.

They were deep green eyes reminiscent of an old tree in the forest. The vibrant and tenacious life that survives in seasons of scorching sun and in seasons of raging snowstorms.

Perhaps that’s why. His gaze was unexpectedly held by those eyes for a long time. As if he had felt something like fate.

‘Fate, huh.’

Kazerre scoffed inwardly.

If fate were a tangible object, he was the very person who would want to smash it to pieces in an instant.

But he’s unable to do so. Wasn’t he in the position where he has to return like a dog on a leash to that ‘fate’ even now?

He cut off all the thoughts that were creeping up and asked the woman impassively.

“What is it?”

“Ah, well…”

The woman, flustered, quickly let go of his clothes that she had grabbed. As if she herself didn’t know why she had done it.

There was something about the bewilderment that the woman showed, despite trying hard to maintain her composure, that made it impossible to doubt her good intentions.

Instead of urging her to state her business, Kazerre waited for her. Perhaps realizing this, the woman, now much calmer, straightened her posture and opened her mouth.

“I couldn’t properly thank you earlier, so if possible, I’d like to express my gratitude formally. If it’s not too presumptuous, may I ask for your name…”

“Kazerre!”

But the woman’s carefully voiced request was cut off by a sharp interjection.

Kazerre, well aware of the owner of the voice, turned his head indifferently towards the direction of the sound.

Aveline was standing at the entrance of the turning alley. Her golden eyes, blazing like molten lava, bore down piercingly.

Kazerre concluded the conversation that had been abruptly interrupted by the intruder with a small sigh.

“My companion is waiting, so I must take my leave now.”

“Ah…”

“Please be careful.”

The woman seemed regretful but didn’t try to stop him again.

Finally, as Kazerre stood beside her, Aveline linked her arm with his ostentatiously and turned around. She didn’t forget to glare coldly at the unidentified woman until the very end.

“I told you to wait.”

Aveline looked up at Kazerre as his low reproach settled over her head.

He wore a slightly incredulous expression. As if he couldn’t understand at all why she had followed him despite his instruction.

In contrast, Aveline, who quickly regained her composure, pointed out in a relaxed tone with a gentle smile on her lips.

“Well, you shouldn’t have left me behind then.”

“……”

“I only followed you, so if we’re assigning someone to blame, isn’t it your fault?”

Her voice was so confident that he felt as if he had really made a grave mistake.

This was another of Aveline’s bad habits — shifting the responsibility for all her actions onto him in this way.

“You couldn’t even wait for that short time?”

“Who knows if it would have been just a short time.”

Isn’t that right? Aveline asked, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

Kazerre couldn’t even sigh.

Every time she showed this level of obsession, he was acutely aware of how incomprehensible they were to each other.

Sometimes that gap felt suffocating, as if it was choking him.

But engaging in an argument by retorting to her words would only prolong this stifling feeling. Just as trying to understand would only make him more aware of the unbridgeable distance between them.

As Kazerre, having lost the will to argue, closed his mouth and was about to avert his gaze, he suddenly stopped walking as if something had caught his eye.

“Why did you stop?”

Aveline sharply prodded him, seemingly criticizing Kazerre for blatantly avoiding her gaze. Meanwhile, she firmly gripped the cuff of his sleeve to prevent him from leaving her again.

However, Kazerre, as if he couldn’t hear anything, fixed his gaze on her feet and asked out of the blue.

“Are your feet alright?”

“What?”

“It must have been quite a distance to here.”

Kazerre asked, slightly furrowing his brow, trying to see through her ornate shoes.

The back alleys of Morbe Shopping District were not properly paved, with many stumbling blocks and places where feet sank in. It was a rough road for a refined noble lady who had only ever walked on spotless marble floors.

Moreover, Aveline had sensitive skin and would easily get blisters if she overexerted herself even a little.

And she had walked hurriedly to catch up with him, so there might be blisters on those small feet.

Kazerre’s face was quite serious.

“……”

Aveline couldn’t respond immediately and awkwardly moved her lips before closing them again.

The sharp edge she had honed, ready to retort to whatever he might say, had now wilted like a drooping leaf.

Instead of speaking again, she lowered her head following his gaze.

“…It’s fine.”

Aveline mumbled in a small voice, curling in on herself.

Kazerre stared for a moment at Aveline’s hair, which took on a deep apricot color in the sunset light. Because she had her head bowed low, he couldn’t see what expression she was making.

He let out a small sigh and a response simultaneously.

“Then that’s good.”

Kazerre easily accepted her answer.

She wasn’t the type of woman to hide an existing wound, after all. The opposite might be a different story.

As if he had never been concerned, Kazerre skillfully tucked away his interest and started walking again. His gait was still that of a stiff, knightly stride.

However, his pace was noticeably slower than before.

“……”

Following his broad back that no longer turned around, Aveline tightly gripped the hem of his clothes, putting strength into her fingertips.

It was a gentleness she never wanted to let go of.