Rublier grabbed Satin’s arm. He led her forward without hesitation, bringing her to his bedroom. The bed was still disheveled from where he had been lying. The unmade state made it feel more real. Satin awkwardly sat on the edge as he directed.
“Don’t be scared. Whether it’s a person or a ghost, nothing will appear here.”
His first words made Satin realize why she had come to find Rublier. Instinctively, she ran to the place she thought was the safest. She sought out the person she believed to be the strongest in this house. That’s why she didn’t want to leave his side.
He was the only person who could protect her and this house from danger. Any discomfort she felt now was insignificant. The anxiety of being apart from him was much greater.
Satin cautiously lay down in the corner. Although the bed was large enough for three people, taking up space felt awkward in many ways. Curling up helped her feel more secure.
Pulling the blanket up to her chin, she caught an unfamiliar scent. Was he using a different soap? As she pondered this, she was surprised at herself.
Half of her surprise was at herself, for having such thoughts in a situation like this, and the other half was the quick sense of security she felt with Rublier right next to her.
Rublier lifted the blanket on the opposite side and lay down. The bed swayed once. Startled, Satin quickly turned her back to him.
It was dark and quiet. This made her more sensitive to his presence. Satin breathed shallowly, but her breaths were uneven. It was going to be a long night without sleep.
“Satin, are you asleep?”
So when Rublier spoke, Satin wasn’t really surprised.
“No, I’m not.”
“Still can’t sleep?”
Satin remained silent for a moment before answering his concern with a question.
“…Was I foolish earlier?”
“No.”
“Did I look like a child whining and waking up my parents because I was scared at night?”
Rublier chuckled softly.
“You’re quite realistic. Did you often do that when you were little?”
“When I was five or six and started sleeping alone, sometimes the nights were really scary. But I never saw anything strange. Never had sleep paralysis either. …Rublier, if your body can’t move, is that just sleep paralysis? If so, it felt like I had sleep paralysis with my eyes open. I don’t know what I saw. Was it really just a delusion like Larie said? But this house isn’t unfamiliar to me anymore, and I’m way past the age to be scared.”
She felt a bit embarrassed and awkward. As time passed, her feelings of embarrassment grew, and she mumbled whatever came to mind.
“I really thought something was with me… If it was just my imagination, it’s laughable, right?”
“Not at all.”
Rublier answered, erasing his smile.
“It’s much better to think you were mistaken than to think someone was actually watching you. What matters to me is that you weren’t really in danger.”
Maybe it was because she had heard his confession of long-standing feelings. Her feelings were completely different now. She believed no one could be more gentle than Gjorn, but maybe she was growing up. He felt new to her.
Satin spoke honestly.
“I thought it was fortunate you were in this house earlier. Isn’t it strange? Subconsciously, I believed I would be safe if I went to you.”
“I promise. If I’m around, you’ll always be safe. I’ll make sure of it. From now on, if you feel strange, don’t hesitate to call my name. It’s quicker for me to come to you than for you to come to me.”
That would indeed be the case. Remembering how he had burst into her room before any of the servants upon hearing her scream, it was certainly true.
Satin pressed her face into the pillow. Now that her rationality was returning, she felt increasingly embarrassed. She wished she could fall asleep quickly…
“Good night, Satin.”
But it still didn’t seem like she would fall asleep easily.
* * *
Rublier woke from a light sleep. Though he kept his eyes closed all night pretending to sleep, he couldn’t truly fall into a deep sleep. Satin, who had also tossed and turned for a long time, had fallen asleep at some point in the early morning and hadn’t moved since.
He could hear her gentle breathing. Rublier looked at the long, thin strands of hair turned away from him. The pale hair shimmered like silver threads in the sunlight peeking through the narrow gap in the curtains.
It was morning. A morning like any other, yet different. Rublier reached out and gathered her scattered hair. It was so quiet and peaceful that the ghostly disturbance from the night before felt like a dream. He felt a bit lazy, but it was time to get up. As usual, a servant knocked on the door.
“Master, it’s time to wake…”
“Shh.”
Rublier quickly brought a finger to his lips as he got up. The servant, seeing Satin deeply asleep, quietly retreated.
Satin did not wake up even as Rublier finished getting ready for work. Following his instructions not to wake her since she had slept late, Rublier’s bedroom remained like night even as daylight broke.
The stableman brought out his black horse. Rublier mounted. The household servants lined up to see him off. It was a routine part of his day.
When he was about to leave the house with a brief customary farewell, Rublier suddenly recalled Satin’s consistent claim that ‘something approached me last night.’
Turning halfway around was an impulsive choice. But he had enough time to check around Satin’s bedroom. The servants followed him, puzzled.
Turning along the wall, he saw Satin’s bedroom facing the distant fields. The room, which had been overturned and then tidied up with the curtains drawn, was empty and not visible inside.
Rublier rode closer to the bedroom. At first glance, there was nothing unusual. But he dismounted and thoroughly examined the area around the window.
Soon, Rublier’s expression changed. There were small drops of blood under the window frame. It wasn’t a lot, so it wasn’t very noticeable, but having spent three years training to become a Paladin in the Holy Knights, Rublier recognized it instantly. The brownish stains were definitely blood.
“Oh my, what is this!”
The servants who followed him and were now inspecting the blood, gasped. Larie, realizing what it was, covered her mouth in shock.
“Did Madam get hurt?”
“It’s not Satin’s blood.”
If Satin had been hurt, he would have known. Even if she hadn’t noticed in her panic, he would have seen it while holding her.
“Oh, over here! It’s over here!”
One of the servants, who had been searching the area around the bloodstains, shouted loudly. Rublier quickly walked over and asked.
“What’s there?”
“A goat.”
“A goat?”
Indeed, there was a goat lying stiff in the overgrown grass. Rublier knelt beside it. The goat had bite marks and scars all over its body, looking gruesome. It seemed to have been dead for quite some time, at least overnight. The body was cold and stiff to the touch.
It happened in the very scene Satin often gazed at with her head resting on the window. Larie, unable to hide her anxiety, speculated.
“There’s a ranch nearby that raises goats. It might have escaped from the pen.”
“Perhaps a predator attacked it. Madam must have heard the dying goat’s noise and got scared last night.”
While the servants found some comfort in knowing there was a reason behind Satin’s commotion the previous night, Rublier couldn’t agree.
Why was the goat’s blood near Satin’s window? Did the predator wander around? If there had been a real predator, Satin, who had sensed the dying goat’s noise, would have felt it more clearly.
He remembered witnessing animals dying mysteriously. The Archbishop called it the work of an evil spirit. Satin’s testimony had similarities. She had spoken of feeling an unseen threat.
If what Satin felt was an evil spirit, if the evil spirit had approached her, if it had lingered near her room…
Satin was a lady who had never experienced or faced danger in her life. If an unknown entity that harmed animals had been nearby and she only felt that level of fear before calming down, it showed she had considerable courage.
“Should we call the ranch workers?”
Rublier stood up.
“Satin will be anxious, so handle it quietly. Bury the goat nearby and go to the ranch to see if there was any suspicious activity overnight. And today, don’t leave Satin alone until I get home, and always move in groups of two or three.”
“Do you also think it was a predator?”
A predator. Rublier narrowed his eyes.
“…Yes, there is a predator to catch.”
The evil spirit that many archbishops in distant regions had denied the existence of had appeared on the outskirts of the capital where the Pope resided.
Even though it was quite far from the center, this unsettling sign in the supposedly safest place in Caldeblanca, near the home where he and Satin lived…
Rublier couldn’t shake off his frown.
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Usurpadora
Well, I have a theory. I guess that the young brother of supposed next pope, is the real one who had a premonition. Than, the fake one, manipulates the newest, he is poising the pope or deceiving him… I don’t have a good felling about him😬