“Hah. Hah!”

A short while later, Layla staggered into the edge of the forest, gasping for breath with her legs shaking. The sun hung at its highest point in the sky and bore down on her with scorching rays that seemed to mock her. She wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and looked miserably down the narrow path.

Following the small trail branching off to the side of the path, a log cabin came into view at the far right end. She rarely had reason to come out here, but the previous year’s hunt had been held in the Devon forest, so she at least had a rough idea of where things were, and she was grateful for it. Layla pressed a hand to her heaving chest, tried to steady her breathing, and slowly made her way around to the back of the cabin.

She gathered her skirt tightly to keep it from catching on the underbrush and crept along, glancing around for somewhere to hide.

She soon found a suitable tree and stuck only her head out to peer carefully at the area around the cabin. A shaggy, dark-haired, large man…… She was running through the description Helena had given her and scanning the surroundings with hawk-like attention when a large figure slowly approaching from the direction of the forest came into view.

“Is that him?”

She squinted and tried to get a better look, and the blurry figure drew closer and grew clearer. Layla felt goosebumps rise on her forearms and rubbed them quietly with her crossed arms.

“He’s real.”

He was a man she had never seen before. She knew Morris the gamekeeper by sight. Morris was a big man, but not so tall as a door, so she could tell at a glance this was not him. Just as Helena had described, the man was as tall as her bedroom door, with glossy black hair hanging loose and covering one side of his face, and he was striding toward the cabin with a deer the size of a small house slung over one shoulder.

When she had first heard the description, she had pictured someone like a bandit, but this man was less a bandit and more…… Layla felt something she couldn’t quite put into words and stared at him. He was clearly shaggy and dark and unkempt, yet something about him radiated an air that felt impossible to approach. She found herself idly curious about the face hidden behind that hair, and her neck stretched forward on its own to get a better look.

Morris was nowhere to be seen, so who on earth was this man who had appeared out of nowhere? Layla shifted her footing little by little to observe him more closely. Her plan was to move quickly behind the tree trunk ahead and get a better look at him from there.

Careful not to step on any dry grass, she placed each foot with great caution and settled herself safely behind the tree trunk just ahead. She peeked out just her head, the same as before, and was about to observe the man more closely when she froze stiff and held her breath.

“……!”

The shock was so great that she couldn’t even scream. From between the man’s jet-black strands of hair, a pair of amber eyes was looking directly at her.

She clapped both hands over her mouth and stumbled. The pressure she felt was like coming face to face with a wild predator. She had been so careful, and yet he had found her. The shock was all the greater for not having expected to be caught so easily.

“Who’s there?”

The deep voice that reached her added to the weight pressing down on her. Layla hesitated, then shuffled out from behind the tree. Never mind how he had noticed her so quickly, what was she supposed to say? The large axe resting beside the man looked ready to come down on her neck at any moment.

“I asked who you are.”

She stood there unable to say a word, hand still clamped over her mouth, and the man asked again in a heavy voice. A bead of cold sweat was tracing a line down her spine when a voice reached her ears like a ray of light.

“Eddie. What are you doing over there? You need to bring that this way…… Wait, you?”

She glanced quickly at the man, then spun around and ran toward the one who had called out to her.

“Morris!”

Morris was approaching with his curly dark gray hair tied back, and he pointed at Layla with a look on his face like he was trying to place her.

“Right, uh. Good to see you, but who are you again?”

“It’s Layla, Morris.”

“Ah, the one who helped carry the rabbits at last year’s hunt!”

“That’s right!”

Layla did her best to ignore the man’s gaze on her back and nodded quickly with a bright smile.

“What brings you out here? I was told someone would come for the venison for tonight’s dinner later, but do you need it already?”

“Ah, no, that’s not it. Hmm.”

She needed an excuse for both of them, it seemed. She made a miserable face at the awkwardness, then glanced over at the man called Eddie in an attempt to change the subject. Morris followed her gaze and looked back at the man now hoisting the deer back onto his shoulder, nodding with evident satisfaction.

“I’ve never seen him before. Who is he?”

“Ah, Eddie? He’s the assistant I brought on recently.”

“An assistant?”

“I’m not getting any younger, you know. About time I thought about retiring.”

Morris, whose muscles were still impressively thick despite his words, scratched at his rough beard with his index finger and went on.

“Look at him. Strong as anything, isn’t he? It’s a waste to have him just as a gamekeeper’s hand. With that build, he’d be more than fit to be a knight. But he says he has no interest. Imagine that. Anyway, he’s a fine hunter. Really something.”

Morris had been going on unprompted about his assistant’s merits when he waved a hand in Eddie’s direction.

“Eddie. This is Layla, a maid from the main estate. You’ll probably run into each other from time to time.”

“Oh, hello.”

She hadn’t expected to be formally introduced…… Layla curved her lips into an awkward smile and looked at the man. Seeing him head-on, she could take in his peculiar appearance more clearly. He wasn’t just covering one side of his face; his long fringe nearly obscured the eye on the other side as well. If she hadn’t seen him up close earlier, no one would have been able to tell whether his eyes were amber or anything else. And then there were the ill-fitting clothes that looked patched together, and the dark smudges on his face.

What made it even stranger was that, for all the absurdity of his appearance when you looked closely, the man did not look absurd or odd in the least. That said, it was undeniable that he was far from tidy or presentable.

How hard was Morris working him, for him to look like this? She greeted him with a small pang of sympathy, but all that came back was a movement so slight it was debatable whether it even counted as a nod, and no reply. She looked over at Morris without thinking, and Morris scratched his beard with a sheepish look and shrugged.

“He’s a man of very few words. Still, from what I’ve seen these past few days, he seems like a decent enough young man, so don’t take it the wrong way.”

“Ah, yes…….”

“Right, Eddie! Introductions are done, so get a move on. We need to start dressing it now if we’re going to have it ready in time.”

Morris spun around in an instant, as though his business with her was finished, and began waving Eddie along. Layla took the opportunity to slip away quietly and set off on the long journey back to the manor.

* * *

If she had to run this kind of errand twice, she would surely be bedridden before the month was out. She had made it back from the Devon forest to the manor as quickly as she could, but the sun had already begun to sink low in the sky.

“I only just washed these clothes…….”

The thought of having to do the tedious laundry again in less than two days put a small cloud over her mood. Layla scrubbed at her face with her sleeve, whether the wetness was sweat or tears she couldn’t tell, and deliberately squared her shoulders. She thought of her father’s words, telling her never to lose her cheerful and positive spirit no matter the situation.