#02

“Are you coming to your senses……?”

Lemiere whispered to the eagle lying spread-eagled on the bed with its wings open.

“……”

The eagle blinked slowly, rolled its eyes, then suddenly flapped its wings and pushed itself upright.

“What became of the Monster Hunt?”

Kyle regained consciousness the following evening.

His response, that he remembered nothing, was enough to make Lemiere’s blood boil.

“Have some water first, Your Majesty.”

Lemiere brought a wide bowl of water for Kyle.

Only after Kyle drank from it with his beak and had calmed down somewhat did Lemiere recount what had happened at the hunting grounds that day.

“You came at me declaring you would cut off my breath, and you don’t remember even that.”

“I did that…… to you, Chancellor Lemiere? Why on earth……”

“……”

The guileless question left Lemiere frozen as if struck dumb.

Shaken, Kyle fluttered away from him and landed on the carpeted floor.

Lemiere continued in a calm voice.

“Inside the black fog, Your Majesty lost your composure.”

“……”

Kyle had been sitting in tight-lipped thought and finally looked up.

“The memories are coming back to me, bit by bit. To think I did something so vile to you, Chancellor……”

Kyle stared at Lemiere as if he couldn’t believe it.

“I’m glad you remember.”

Lemiere smiled bitterly.

Kyle bowed his head and let out one sigh after another.

Lemiere drew in a deep breath and offered his counsel in a grave voice.

“It seems Your Majesty’s willpower alone has reached its limit.”

Kyle’s gaze turned slowly toward him.

“Do you have a solution?”

Only then did Lemiere bring over the plate he had set on the nightstand and place it in front of Kyle.

What Lemiere had brought was the ‘premium line’ brunch set from Shiloh’s Bakery.

“We have to try everything we can.”

The main dish was a banana soufflé cake made with mashed banana.

Crispy bacon sat on top of the round, layered soufflé cake, and pineapple and various salads were arranged neatly around it, enough to make the mouth water.

“So this is how you grasp at straws.”

Kyle looked at the brunch set and let out a hollow breath.

“……”

But Lemiere was serious.

“For a straw, it’s been quite useful up until now, hasn’t it?”

“……”

Unable to deny it, Kyle let out a self-deprecating laugh.

“Eat well and rest.”

Even after Lemiere withdrew, Kyle did not touch the food for a long while.

He circled the plate, then settled on the sofa and stared at it.

‘What if eating this bread changes nothing?’

Fear gripped him.

If he, who had ascended to the throne as the proxy of the Sun God, were forcibly removed from it, surviving would be difficult, let alone living an ordinary life.

He would inevitably be treated as something on par with a demon.

But he couldn’t hesitate like this.

Kyle clenched his teeth and slowly approached the plate.

He cut off a piece of the soufflé cake with his beak and put it in his mouth.

Kyle tilted his beak toward the ceiling.

Chew, chew.

A texture softer and more moist than castella bread melted like a sponge between his tongue and the roof of his mouth.

Swallow.

‘The banana fragrance is wonderfully sweet.’

Kyle closed his eyes and savored the aroma.

Eating it together with the crispy bacon and fruit wove together the richness of meat, the saltiness, and the sweet-and-sour taste into something that wrapped around his tongue.

Before he knew it, the tension in his body had eased.

Knock knock.

An hour later, Lemiere returned to Kyle’s room, lit by candlelight.

Creak.

Strangely, the room was unlocked.

Lemiere felt his heart drop.

‘Don’t tell me someone saw His Majesty in eagle form.’

But Kyle was nowhere to be seen.

Lemiere’s mouth fell open at the sight of the curtain over the open window fluttering in the breeze.

“Your Majesty, have you turned into an eagle and flown off?”

He squeezed his eyes shut and his face crumpled, and at that moment,

“Chancellor Lemiere?”

He startled at the familiar voice and spun around.

Kyle was at his desk, turning through a large backlog of documents.

Lemiere let out a long breath of relief and said with a tone of reproach.

“Ha…… you nearly gave this old man a heart attack.”

Having gone two days without grooming, a thick beard had grown on Kyle’s jaw. It didn’t suit his usually meticulous nature.

“I’m sorry for the worry, Chancellor Lemiere.”

Kyle gave a faint smile.

“Not at all, Your Majesty. I am truly relieved to see you back.”

Lemiere looked up at Kyle.

Whether it was the candlelight or not, Kyle’s eyes appeared faintly glistening.

*

“Now we must bid farewell to our sister. Though it is sorrowful to part, let us pray that our sister may enjoy eternal bliss in heaven.”

Shiloh held a small candle and stared blankly at the coffin.

She couldn’t believe that Shuriel was lying inside it.

The abbess finished speaking and the sound of the pipe organ filled the air.

The mournful singing of the choir mingled with the quiet weeping of the mourners.

Among them were relatives of Shuriel whom Shiloh did not know.

Shiloh swallowed the tears rising in her throat.

Everything had felt unreal from the moment she heard that Shuriel had died in a fall in the mountains.

‘When she goes for walks, I or another sister is always with her, so you don’t need to worry.’

Sister Mellis’s gentle voice was still vivid in her ears.

‘Hasn’t Sister Mellis come?’

Shiloh wanted to speak with her, but she was nowhere to be seen.

It was strange that Shuriel, who needed a companion even for walks, had climbed alone to a rugged part of the mountain behind the convent.

The convent said she had taken her own life, but when Shiloh had last seen Shuriel, there had been no sign of that at all.

Shiloh wondered if she had simply been too oblivious, and went over their conversation again and again.

But no clear clue came to mind.

Shuriel had even been in the process of recovering her health.

No matter how she looked at it, none of it made sense.

‘I didn’t even get to say goodbye……’

Shiloh bowed her head and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

The coffin holding Shuriel was carried out again.

With every step Shiloh took following the coffin, a tear fell to the floor.

*

After the funeral, Shiloh had no time to collect herself from grief and confusion before she had to return to work.

She had made promises to customers who had pre-ordered bread, and those had to be kept.

Customers often noticed her vacant expression and offered words of concern.

“I hope you’re holding up. It must be so hard, and yet you’re here working.”

Each time, Shiloh gave a faint smile.

“I’m all right. Working actually seems to help.”

She was grateful that being relentlessly busy meant she could forget the pain and sadness.

She went through her daily tasks like someone whose emotions had broken down, or like someone too tired to feel anything at all.

Shiloh put a tray of round, flat cookie dough into the oven, then sighed with exhaustion and rubbed her face.

Shuriel’s death still didn’t feel real.

‘Well done. Just get through tomorrow the same way.’

She encouraged herself all day long, and late at night when she finally finished work, she lay down on the worn bed, placed her hand on her chest, and praised herself for making it through.

But strangely, sleep wouldn’t come.

The suffocating stillness of the night made her uneasy.

“……”

Shiloh turned restlessly.

She felt as though she had been set adrift alone in the middle of the universe.

Who am I?

Why did I even come here?

Questions fit for an adolescent churned through her mind.

Her body was exhausted but sleep wouldn’t come.

She kept tossing and turning, and just when she thought she had finally drifted off, a rustling sound from downstairs made her open her eyes again.

“What’s that sound?”

At the rustling from downstairs, Shiloh held her breath and strained her ears.

“Surely it’s not……?”

An ominous thought crossed her mind, but she quickly repositioned herself, squeezed her eyes shut, and drew in a steadying breath.

‘I must have imagined it because I’m feeling so hollow.’

But the sounds from the first floor were too vivid.

There were even footsteps, exactly as if someone had slipped inside.

If someone had actually broken into the confectionery, there was nothing stopping them from breaking down the old door and coming up to the attic.

‘Would it be safer to sneak out?’

Countless scenarios played out in her mind.

Shiloh quietly sat up.

She picked up the broom kept in the attic, ready to use it as a weapon if it came to that.

She opened the door without a sound and crept down the dark staircase in a rigid posture.

Shiloh turned her head toward the shop floor and froze at what she found.

There really was a silhouette inside the kitchen, lit by a lamp.

She moved closer to the kitchen and couldn’t believe her eyes.