* * *
‘We’re here.’
Jedrier, completely unaware of what the fledgling knight who had guided him to the training grounds was thinking, smiled brightly. It really had been worth risking the danger and mustering up the courage to come outside. To think he had met such a kind person right from the start. Little by little, hope began to rise inside him that his meeting with the Knight Commander would go well too.
“Your name?”
“…I’m Wood.”
“Yes, Sir Wood.”
Once he returned to the Imperial Palace, he planned to tell Henry about him. There’s a knight named Wood in the Order, and he seems to think favorably of you. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, I bet he’ll become a dependable ally. He would make sure to give Henry the hint.
“Who have you come to see? I’ll call them for you.”
“Ah… I…”
“And may I ask your name?”
Jedrier was just about to speak.
In the distance, someone came running toward them, kicking up clouds of dust. In the blink of an eye, the man reached Jedrier and stopped right in front of him, his face deathly pale.
“Commander.”
Fortunately, Wood, who was standing beside him, addressed the man as ‘Commander,’ allowing Jedrier to realize that this was the Knight Commander he had been looking for. Seriously, today was almost too lucky. How could every person he was looking for just appear right in front of him like this? Was it a sign that everything was going to work out?
“Where in the world did you get those clothes….”
“Hello.”
Their voices overlapped, so Jedrier did not properly hear what the Knight Commander had said. He was pretty sure he had heard the word ‘clothes,’ though. Why was he suddenly talking about his clothes? Shouldn’t he be asking why Jedrier had come here first?
Surely wearing slightly oversized clothes didn’t look that strange, right? That would be bad…. No, this wasn’t the time to be thinking about something else. Jedrier familiarly pulled the corners of his lips upward.
“I’m Jedrier….”
Wait, what was the Emperor’s family name again? He was sure he had read it in the novel…. He couldn’t remember it properly. But he knew well enough that saying the surname ‘Olson’ aloud here probably wasn’t a good choice.
‘Let’s gloss over it.’
Jedrier smoothly brushed past the matter and looked at the Knight Commander. He was a man with rugged, strong-looking features. Put kindly, he looked steadfast. Put less kindly, he looked stubborn and so rigid that talking sense into him would be impossible. Hoo, hoo. Don’t be nervous. He had already come this far, so all that remained was to face him. Don’t be nervous.
“I am His Majesty the Emperor’s concubine.”
“…I know.”
Jedrier pretended not to notice Wood’s jaw dropping open beside him. He felt a little guilty, as though he had unintentionally deceived him. But right now, he had to think only about ‘Henry.’
“I came here because there is something I would like to speak with you about.”
“You wish to speak with me?”
“Yes.”
The emotions on the man’s face were ‘annoyance’ and ‘curiosity.’
“Could you spare me some time?”
What if he said no? Jedrier was pretending to be calm, but inside, his heart was drying up from tension. If he refused, should Jedrier just push his way through? If he tried throwing his weight around as a concubine, it would probably backfire.
“…I don’t have time to spare for private matters, but I can give you a very short while.”
The man seemed to think it over briefly before eventually nodding.
Fortunately, his office was not far away. The moment the door opened, Jedrier’s mouth fell slightly open in astonishment.
How could a room possibly be this filthy?
The dust was so thick that he could actually see pale clouds of it floating through the air.
“Ahem.”
The Knight Commander cleared his throat quietly. He gestured toward a chair, apparently telling Jedrier to sit. Then he filled a grimy cup that looked as though no one knew when it had last been washed and placed it in front of him.
Ugh, disgusting.
Jedrier vowed that he absolutely would not drink the water and met the gaze of the man sitting across from him.
“May I ask why you wanted to meet me?”
“Well….”
“I simply cannot understand why one of His Majesty’s concubines would wish to meet me.”
Now that there were no eyes watching them and the two of them were alone, the man revealed the hostility he had been hiding.
“You may speak now. Naturally, what happens today will reach His Majesty the Emperor’s ears, so I suggest you choose your words carefully. I have nothing to lose, after all.”
He really does seem to hate me.
Or does he hate ‘Olson’?
How was Jedrier supposed to know when he didn’t know anything?
He desperately hoped the Knight Commander was simply someone who did not pay much attention to matters involving his subordinates. If he had sent Henry to Jedrier because he personally disliked Henry, then asking him to take Henry back would never work.
“Do you personally have much influence over personnel decisions concerning your subordinates?”
It was an important question to Jedrier, but apparently not to the man, judging by how deeply his brow furrowed.
“Are you asking me for a favor? I have far too much work to concern myself with such trivial matters, but perhaps I should start examining them more carefully from now on.”
Then that was a relief.
Jedrier craned his neck and glanced around the room before lowering his voice as much as possible.
“Do you happen to know Henry?”
“…Kgh.”
The man’s face instantly flushed bright red as if something had gone down the wrong way, and he began coughing.
Jedrier handed him the cup that had been sitting in front of him. The man seemed too flustered to think and hurriedly gulped down the water.
“Kh, cough, th-thank you.”
Even after finishing the entire cup, the man’s bright red face showed no sign of returning to normal.
Jedrier quietly waited for him to calm down.
The man cleared his throat several times, stared up into empty space, then tightly shut his eyes. He placed one hand over his chest and squeezed his eyes closed again.
“…H-Henry, you said?”
“Yes.”
At the mention of Henry, the Knight Commander could not hide his bewilderment. He stroked his sparse beard, then clutched his head again. Jedrier could hear him muttering something very quietly, but he couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying.
As more and more time passed, Jedrier’s already shallow patience gradually began to run out.
“I heard he worked under you….”
“U-Under me?”
There was no way Henry would have lied to him, so Jedrier nodded emphatically.
The man, whose previous cold demeanor had completely disappeared, took a moment to steady his breathing.
“Do you remember him?”
“Could you perhaps tell me what he looks like?”
The moment Jedrier thought of Henry, a soft smile naturally spread across his face, though somewhere deep inside, irritation rose as well.
He doesn’t even know who Henry is?
One of his own subordinates disappeared, and he didn’t even think that was strange?
Just from looking at him, he didn’t exactly seem like a benevolent master, and now it turned out he didn’t even pay attention to his people. If he could, Jedrier wanted to grab the man by the collar and shake him.
But he suppressed every last bit of that emotion.
“Our Henry…”
Jedrier clasped both hands together over his chest.
“When I first saw him, I thought he was an angel who had descended from heaven. He’s handsome, tall, and his shoulders are really broad. I thought he was a knight, but then he told me he was an attendant who had come to serve me.”
Back then, when Jedrier had first seen Henry standing stiffly in the middle of the room, he had been unable to hide his confusion.
‘Why are they giving me an attendant? Now, of all times?’
That had been his first thought, followed immediately by irritation that something like this had happened the moment he finally decided to escape.
But those negative feelings had not lasted long.
Because Henry was so, so kind and gentle.
“Ha ha.”
Even after hearing all that, the Commander still showed no sign of recognizing who Jedrier meant.
There was nothing else for it. Jedrier continued.
“His eyes are blue like the sea, and his hair is black like the night sky.”
“…….”
That should be enough, right?
Surely he knows who I mean now?
There couldn’t possibly be two men as exceptional as Henry.
Jedrier smiled brightly at him.
“Do you know who I’m talking about?”
“…Yes.”
Good.
The moment Jedrier saw the Commander’s reaction, he wanted to throw his arms into the air and cheer.
If he truly hated Henry, he wouldn’t be reacting with this awkward, uncomfortable expression. He would have scowled instead.
With hope gradually bubbling up inside him, Jedrier opened his mouth.
“Actually, Henry is a really good kid.”
“Pardon?”
“He’s kind, attentive, and very considerate….”
If possible, Jedrier wanted to tell him about every single thing Henry had ever done.
But if he did that, they would have to stay up for three days and three nights.
Jedrier forced himself to hold back everything else he wanted to say and finally spoke the most important part.
“But I think our boy has been misunderstood, and it really upsets me. People seem to think he’s cold just because of the way he looks. But actually, he’s a delicate and fragile child, like a young sprout that has just emerged in spring.”
But the Commander’s reaction was slightly different from what Jedrier had expected.
“That can’t possibly be…?”
It was only a tiny exclamation that slipped from his lips, yet to Jedrier’s ears, it sounded as loud as a clap of thunder.