* * *
“Here.”
Henry’s gaze was cold as he looked down at the finished salad. It wasn’t as though Jeri was being evaluated, yet he still found himself growing nervous and swallowing hard for no reason. Was it really that strange? Even so, today’s batch had turned out pretty well. He had even used half of the carrots he had been saving so carefully…. Did Henry not like it? But there was literally nothing else to eat.
“Have you been eating… this all this time?”
As expected, he clearly didn’t like it. Henry’s voice sounded displeased.
“Mm-hm. It might look like this, but it actually tastes pretty good.”
Just feed him. There was nothing else he could do. Jeri glanced at Henry, then quickly piled vegetables high into his bowl. He deliberately put several large pieces of carrot on top. That made the impoverished-looking salad look ‘less’ impoverished. At least that was something.
“Here….”
Enjoy, and if you want more, just tell me…. Jeri quietly chattered away as he put his own portion into a chipped bowl. Since it was nothing but raw greens with no dressing whatsoever, the taste was extremely close to nature. Should he call it the taste of becoming healthier? Though if he kept eating this, it felt like he might end up returning to nature altogether.
“Lord Jeri.”
“Mm-hm.”
Jeri raised his head at the sound of Henry calling him. Seeing Henry’s bowl already completely empty, he felt like he knew what Henry was about to say. His mouth went dry. So it had finally come.
“Do, do you want more?”
Don’t get stingy over food, Jeri! You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you? After soothing himself like that, Jeri cleared his throat.
“It tastes better than you expected, right?”
Just look at Henry’s body. He looked like he could devour an entire slab of meat and still have room left. How could one bowl piled with nothing but vegetables possibly fill him up? Of course it wouldn’t.
‘Think positively, positively!’
When Jeri held out his hand, Henry placed the bowl on his palm.
“More, please.”
“Okay!”
Jeri began filling the bowl with vegetables. Because he was occupied with that, he failed to notice that the smile the man before him had been wearing disappeared.
Henry polished off four bowls of salad. In truth, if there had been more vegetables, he probably would have eaten even more. When Jeri scraped every last vegetable into the fourth bowl, he thought his hand might have trembled a little…. Henry probably hadn’t noticed, right?
“You’re still hungry, aren’t you?”
“…No.”
Judging by the slight delay before the answer came, it seemed like the food hadn’t even registered in his stomach. What was Jeri supposed to do?
“Sorry. I’m such a useless master….”
“…How long has it been since you entered the palace?”
“About a week?”
“Then have you been living on this for the entire week?”
Henry’s voice sounded a little angry. They hadn’t known each other for long, but Jeri’s chest swelled with emotion at the thought that Henry was still looking out for him because he was his master. He really was a good kid. Why had someone higher up taken such a dislike to him?
“Mm-hm.”
Would protesting unfair treatment make anything change? It wouldn’t.
He could have complained, but he hadn’t. He needed to live as quietly as a dead mouse and then run away without anyone noticing. He didn’t want to draw people’s attention for no reason.
He was going to leave anyway.
It was fine.
“I’m okay.”
“…….”
“And.”
Could the Emperor truly not know that Jeri had entered the palace? Jeri didn’t think so. Of course he knew. The fact that Jeri had been assigned this palace as his residence, and the fact that he hadn’t even been given a single ordinary attendant—weren’t all of those things the Emperor’s doing? In that case, couldn’t this cold treatment also be seen as the Emperor’s will?
Of course, Jeri was incredibly, incredibly grateful that the Emperor was leaving him alone like this!
“I think this is His Majesty the Emperor’s will.”
“…….”
Since he couldn’t reveal what he was really thinking, he had no choice but to speak vaguely around the subject. And he couldn’t exactly badmouth the Emperor in front of Henry, who belonged to the imperial palace. Everyone might think the same thing, but there was an enormous difference between thinking it inside your head and actually saying it aloud.
“So you mean you intend to overlook this kind of unreasonable treatment?”
“Mm-hm.”
“…Could it not be that His Majesty simply does not know?”
“Oh, come on. There’s no way.”
There really wasn’t.
Unless he was merely ‘pretending’ not to know.
The Emperor described in the novel was someone who knew everything, kept it all in the palm of his hand, and weighed which option would benefit him most. There was no way he genuinely didn’t know.
“I really am fine.”
“…….”
“Besides, now that you’re here, I’m less lonely. I was a little scared when I was here by myself.”
“When were you most afraid?”
“Hmm….”
Jeri began folding down his fingers one by one. When he first woke up here? That had been truly terrifying. When he knew how he was going to die but had no idea when, leaving him trembling in constant anxiety? He had even shed a few tears in a corner even though no one was there to see him.
When he discovered the food storeroom was empty? That had felt less frightening and more hopeless.
“…Were there really that many?”
“Huh?”
Only then did Jeri realize that he had folded down all ten fingers. He quickly shook his head as though that wasn’t the case.
“Not this many…. Maybe about three times?”
Henry’s lips moved as though he had something he wanted to say. But in the end, he said nothing and merely let out a deep sigh.
“Should we go to bed now?”
The sun was beginning to sink dimly toward the horizon. Once it set completely, darkness so thick that he couldn’t see even an inch ahead settled over the palace. It would be a disaster if he tried moving around somewhere with no light and ended up getting hurt. So as soon as the sun began to go down, he had to hurry back to the bedroom.
“Let’s go.”
Jeri reached out and tugged on Henry’s sleeve.
“Yes.”
He could tell that Henry’s voice had sunk even lower, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask why. He was a little afraid Henry might answer that it was because he was hungry.
A huge pile of clothes was stacked on the large, old bed. Jeri picked up the pillow that had at least managed to retain something resembling its original shape and handed it to Henry. Then he gave him some of the cleaner, thicker clothes as well.
“Hurry and lie down.”
“…Am I truly allowed to sleep together with you?”
“Mm-hm. I’m serious, Henry. You’ll freeze to death.”
Henry let out a deep sigh and lay down on the bed. He was so tall that his ankles stuck clean off the edge of the mattress.
There was still room left when I lay down…?
No. Let’s not think sad thoughts.
“You must be tired, so sleep well.”
“…Yes.”
“You don’t need to wake up early in the morning. There’s nothing to do anyway.”
Sleep late, wake up, wash, eat…. What else was there to do? One fortunate thing was that there was no labor to be done. Well, there had to be something here before there could be anything to do. Hah. The thought that he would have to feed Henry another tasteless, insufficient serving of vegetables tomorrow made Jeri a little depressed. It would be nice if there were at least something substantial to chew on…. Jeri himself didn’t care, but now that Henry, who was built like a door, was beside him, it felt like he needed to find a solution as soon as possible.
‘It’s warm….’
There was only one more person here, and all they had done was lie down on the same bed, so Jeri had no idea why it felt this warm.
Had he been missing another person’s warmth?
Until just last night, he had been completely consumed by thoughts of running away. And now, far from escaping, he had somehow ended up saddled with a naive attendant who knew nothing about the ways of the world.
‘Henry is kind, though.’
He hadn’t frowned even after seeing this old palace that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
‘And he isn’t picky about food.’
He hadn’t complained about how anyone could possibly eat something like this. He had simply eaten it in silence.
Four bowls, no less.
‘And he doesn’t criticize me.’
It would have been understandable if he thought his master looked pathetic for silently accepting unreasonable treatment and doing nothing but avoiding trouble. But Henry hadn’t acted that way.
‘He is a little slow on the uptake, though.’
That was something he could learn.
Jeri’s eyelids quickly began to droop. He forced strength into them and turned his head slightly to the side. Henry was lying beside him flat on his back. Jeri had thought he would be unable to sleep because the bed was uncomfortable, but….
“You sleep well.”
What a relief.
Jeri surrendered himself to his falling eyelids.
* * *
Thinking that he had slept deeply for the first time in ages, Jeri opened his eyes.
And found himself face-to-face with an unfamiliar chest.
He was so startled that he sucked in a huge breath.
Having committed the atrocity of blowing his breath directly against an unfamiliar, hard chest packed with muscle, Jeri slapped both hands over his mouth.
‘W-What is this?’
Thinking he might still be half-asleep and seeing things, he blinked several times. But the sturdy chest before him, as though painted by a brush, refused to disappear.
H-His body is really good?
Jeri swallowed hard.
It looked like a masterpiece that some famous sculptor had spent an entire year painstakingly carving.
Carefully lifting his head, he was able to confirm who the owner of the chest that had inspired so much admiration was.
Henry.
Unlike Henry, whose arm hung loosely at his side, Jeri had his face plastered firmly against Henry’s chest.
Like a pervert.
‘Have I lost my mind….’
He must have lost it completely.
How could he possibly have made such a ridiculous mistake?
No matter who saw him like this, what he was doing was exactly the kind of thing a pervert would do.
Right up until just before he fell asleep last night, he had been lying quietly with his eyes closed and a pile of clothes between them.
Even if Henry confronted him about this, Jeri had no excuse he could possibly give.
‘What do I do…?’
He wanted to get up as though nothing had happened, but the problem was that he was stuck far too tightly against Henry’s chest.
If he carefully pulled his body away, it felt like Henry would open his eyes immediately.
And if that happened, things would become unbearably awkward.
Jeri’s eyelids trembled with tension.
He took a deep breath.