05. Do It With Me

“Do you think he’ll stay quiet?”

Terra asked grimly, polishing the blade of her beloved sword until it reflected her face like a mirror. She had last drawn blood with it at twenty, she had once said, during her mercenary days in the Sibell Empire.

“And if he doesn’t?”

Rose tried to fit the twentieth courtship handkerchief into the embroidery frame, failed, and flung it to the floor.

“I haven’t done anything wrong!”

It was infuriating. All she had done was make up her mind to marry Benyamin.

The promise with Jade Camelot had been not to get married within one year, hadn’t it? There was no clause anywhere forbidding wholesome dates, or even the decision to get married.

Rose had only made a decision.

When she told her parents, she had made it clear she intended to meet Benyamin gradually and make her final decision after that.

She had also planned to notify Jade that she was canceling their oath before sending any letter to Benyamin.

“But anyone looking at this would say you’ve betrayed him, Miss.”

“I haven’t betrayed anyone!”

Rumble, the sky growled like a beast lurking just overhead.

The distant thunder conjured images of some enormous monster, vast enough to blot out the world, gazing down at the earth and hunting for prey. Rose shuddered.

“I’ve done nothing wrong. I haven’t broken any promise. We hadn’t even signed anything yet. Isn’t that right?”

She picked up the embroidery frame and sank deep into the armchair. She took a slow breath to steady herself, then continued.

“Let’s hold our heads high, Terra. Are we going to let Camelot intimidate us?”

Rose forced a smile and stitched the golden rosemary, Melos’s specialty, one careful thread at a time.

“What can he do to me when I haven’t done anything wrong? If he makes unreasonable demands and comes after me, I’ll just have to fight back.”

The worst that could happen, in the most extreme scenario, was a duel.

It was a bitter thought that she might inadvertently end up doing something Anton and Piar would enjoy, but if some fool came picking a fight with groundless demands, she had no intention of taking it lying down.

Thinking it through that way, Rose felt considerably calmer.

“Fight him, Miss? Even as a joke, please don’t say that!”

Terra, uncharacteristically, was the one who couldn’t keep still.

“You must never fight that man. Going up against a monster whose arms are as thick as your thighs would be s*icide!”

“Don’t worry, Terra. I’m only saying that’s the worst case.”

Rose laughed lightly and reassured her.

“He’s an ape who reads poetry. He’s someone you can reason with. Stop fretting and let’s just go back to Hilude tomorrow.”

The book she had extracted from Jade at Princess Helen’s birthday celebration had been a collection of short prose and poetry. She had flipped through a few lines, decided it wasn’t to her taste, and left it somewhere in her bedroom.

In any case, according to Monthly Cultured Citizen, Jade would have left the imperial palace by now and returned to his domain. There would be an opportunity to clear things up within the next few days.

“I’ll write one letter and then sleep. Good night, Terra.”

Rose sent the fretful Terra off to her own room.

“Terra really does worry too much.”

Alone in the quiet, she took out the fine parchment and writing instruments she had been saving.

She spread the smooth, pale parchment on the candlelit table and lifted her quill.

The smell of ink always stirred something in her. The nib drawing across the parchment in careful strokes, leaving trails the color of night, drinking in just the right amount of ink. The sensation put her in a lyrical mood.

“Dear…… Sir…… Jade…… Camelot…..”

Which meant the pen might produce sentences that were somewhat more sentimental than her official position required.

“Sir Jade Camelot, who resembles…… the beautiful creation of Physis, blessed by the breath of the sublime wild…… Rosemaria Ordo, who has always held you in the highest regard, humbly begs your forgiveness……”

D*mn it.

Who doesn’t know his arms are as thick as my thighs?

Rose had no confidence she could beat Jade Camelot in a physical fight. She wasn’t certain, but if it came down to brute strength against brute strength, he had the advantage of sheer size, and that was a point in his favor before the fight even started.

“Today’s engagement celebration party…… arose entirely from a misunderstanding that had nothing to do with my wishes……”

Please, let this be resolved with words.

She wrote out her grievances in earnest, pressing her case sentence by sentence.

❀❀❀

Before dawn the next morning, Rose and Terra rode through the rain to Hilude.

“He’s not here today either……”

Jade Camelot was nowhere to be found.

“In my opinion, Miss—”

“Don’t, Terra.”

“Yes, Miss.”

The unsettling image of Jade quietly sharpening a blade somewhere crept into Rose’s mind like mist rising from a monster forest. Terra had probably been about to say something along the same lines.

Rose decided to leave a letter at Hilude.

She placed a waterproofed envelope on the rock just above the spot where Jade always sat, and pressed a heavy stone down on top of it to hold it in place.

There were no other visitors to this spot, so whenever Jade came, he would find the letter.

She had considered leaving it with the priest at the hot spring management office, but thought better of it. Jade was not the sort to go looking for a message at a priest’s office, and there was no ruling out the possibility that Hailion’s thoroughly worldly priests might spin some rumor about the two of them exchanging secret letters.

“There. I’ve done what I can. I’m innocent. Released!”

Rose dusted off her hands and mounted her horse.

“I’m back, Mother.”

Philiverden Castle was busy with a thorough cleaning after sending off the guests from the engagement celebration.

Anne was drifting among the servants moving furniture and sweeping dust when she spotted Rose and broke into a wide smile.

“Oh, my daughter’s been to the hot springs? You must be tired after such a long trip. Girls, prepare a warm bath and a refreshing juice good for fatigue. And don’t let anyone near the third floor so that Ordo’s noble heir can rest in peace.”

Anne greeted her with the same warmth she had shown Robert the day he came home after successfully securing the mining share contract years ago.

“It’s fine, Mother. I’ve just come from the hot springs, I don’t need another bath. I’ll have a snack with Shurelli and read.”

Rose brushed the raindrops from her raincoat and smiled pleasantly while fixing Anne with a silent, wide-eyed stare.

Let me have a quiet day. After all, thanks to you, I may very well be mauled to death by a thick-armed beast any day now.

And if that happens, please leave my position as heir to Shurelli. You know perfectly well that handing the family over to those blockheaded brothers would mean the end of us.

“Ho ho. Oh ho ho! There’s no aunt in the world as thoughtful as our Rose. I’ll have something delicious and fresh sent up to your room right away. Have a good rest, dear.”

Anne understood perfectly, rubbed her palms together, and backed away.

“And if you have time…… you’ll write a letter to Sir Benyamin, won’t you?”

“Of course. Right after I write a thank-you letter to each of the two hundred and fifteen guests who came to celebrate the engagement plans you announced without my permission.”

“Th, that’s right. Our Rose is such a diligent girl. Ho ho……”

A fine drizzle drew the evening in without a sound. The damp air carried what seemed like the distant smell of summer still far away.

Rose climbed the stairs with a heavy step.

Summer was the season when she missed Siset most. The summer she was fifteen. That year, she had lost the knight she trusted most, and with him the only friend to whom she had ever spoken her whole heart, the way a child does.

He had been like a friend and like a grandfather all at once. A knight she respected. A person she respected.

That irreplaceable family had been taken from her by a senseless, wretched fight.

“Don’t die. Don’t die and leave me alone. You’re my knight, Siset. You have to protect me until I’m old and grey.”

When Siset died, many in Ordo wept and apologized, to Siset and to Rose.

But of all those who had sinned that day, Rose could only accept the apology of one person.

If she had any right to forgive the wrong done to Siset, she thought she could only forgive one person. The one who had been there at the scene of the tragedy but had not taken part in the sin. The one who had tried to protect Siset. Jade Camelot.