Episode 17: Excessive Consideration (2)
“My mind is clearer than ever. As I said, I need a strong relationship with Durgtah if I am to live a long and peaceful life.”
Hashana, who had been watching Rsanda warily without relaxing for a moment, looked up at Iskandel with a baffled expression.
She had thought everything was ruined, but the moment Iskandel stepped in, things had circled right back to her original plan.
Her expression softened with a complex mix of emotions.
Iskandel, his own face unreadable, ostentatiously brushed off his cloak, as if to remind her of the words he had spoken when he’d draped it over her.
Though confused, she chose to trust him and follow his lead.
As the old saying went, it didn’t matter if the road was winding, as long as it led to the Capital.
“If you still can’t trust His Highness after all this… then from now on, I won’t leave his side for a single moment.
I will eat, bathe, and sleep with him, as if we were one person, and keep him under close watch until you are satisfied.”
“My standards for satisfaction are very high.”
“Is there anyone who knows that better than I do, to the point of being sick of it?”
The barb slipped from her lips.
Hashana, the priests, and Iskandel all tensed, expecting Rsanda to start shouting again.
But the war goddess, suddenly a different person, fixed Hashana with a clear gaze and pressed her to confirm her words.
“Hashana, you said it yourself. Until I am satisfied.”
In that instant, Hashana knew she had walked right into Rsanda’s trap.
In the blink of an eye, the drunken, belligerent goddess transformed into a dignified deity, lifting her chin with elegant arrogance as she smiled.
“I expect my creation to become more perfect. So you will take responsibility for your words.”
Rsanda reached out with a haughty smile and placed her hand on the crown of Hashana’s head.
Pure white light burst from the point of contact before sinking into Hashana like smoke.
Before the shimmering haze had fully faded, Rsanda raised two fingers and gave instructions to the priests, who were standing by blankly.
“Go and put a larger bed in Hashana’s room. If you can’t find one, at least bring another pillow.”
The priests staggered backward as if shoved by the mere twitch of the goddess’s fingers, then turned and ran, kicking up dust.
Rsanda snorted at their retreating backs, then tilted her head and stared at Iskandel.
‘A bomb tossed over my walls by Karasvati and Disorde… It seems they’ve forgotten that the goddess of war uses her enemy’s weapons as her own.’
Her conviction that Iskandel was a spy had not changed.
However, because she also trusted her creation’s certainty, Rsanda had already decided to make a show of using him.
‘If I stir the pot like this, Hashana will keep this slick bastard under control herself.
The strongest form of surveillance and confinement, dressed up in the Capital’s style, is called “protection.”
Getting her reliable creation to declare she would keep the suspicious man in her sights—this was exactly the situation Rsanda had engineered, and she was inwardly pleased as she sized up the flawless man from head to toe.
“Son of a human, they say that even in that filthy, depraved Capital, you are at the center of particularly obscene scandals.”
“…From my perspective, it sounds as though you’ve heard some unfairly exaggerated rumors…”
For some reason, Iskandel snuck a glance at Hashana as he offered his polite denial.
Rsanda dismissed his answer with a snort, grabbing his chin as if appraising an object and turning his face from side to side while growling low.
“True or not, I want you to take appropriate responsibility for those scandals.”
Her touch was a mix of curiosity, anticipation, and faint contempt.
“If you don’t want your head ripped off, do exactly as it says.
Understood?”
“…What is written where, exactly…?”
“You will find out soon enough.
I am going to stake our Hashana’s divine power on your devotion and effort.”
With that warning—half threat, half promise—Rsanda turned without a second thought and started toward the temple.
Hashana, quietly trying to decide whether things were going very well or terribly wrong, shouted after the goddess’s retreating back.
“What does my divine power have to do with His Highness?”
“From this moment on. The second I said it, the two of you became deeply entangled.”
While Hashana flushed bright red, clapped a hand over her mouth, and tried to apologize to Iskandel with her eyes, Rsanda turned back with a look of complete relief, as if she had finished her business.
“After fooling around with every bastard under the sun during the war, I realized it was all pointless. I’ve done all the bad things already, so I hope you appreciate my profound consideration in letting you enjoy only the good things in life.”
The war goddess drifted away, leaving behind the thick aftertaste of alcohol and laughter.
Hashana’s long, irritated sigh trailed after Rsanda’s back before fading into the distance.
When even that sigh died away and a stillness settled over the place, erasing all traces of the commotion, Iskandel looked down at Hashana and whispered in a voice barely loud enough for her alone to hear.
“That was quite the stormy introduction.
I think I’ve earned the price of this cloak, don’t you?”
“The price of the cloak?
I should say you practically saved my life.
I lost my temper for a moment and showed you something terribly embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing?
Watching you stand up for me like that was incredibly reassuring.”
Belatedly wanting to crawl into a hole over her and Rsanda’s disgraceful behavior, Hashana’s ears turned scarlet as she held out her hand to him.
Iskandel did not refuse; he took the slender hand that was offered to him.
The salty sea breeze came roaring between them as they walked in silence.
During those few steps, the quiet felt so suffocating that Hashana gave his hand a small tug and apologized again.
“Um, please don’t take what Rsanda said to heart…”
“If it were a contest of crude humor, I’m confident I could beat Rsanda, so don’t worry.
I spent my days being toyed with like a plaything by the god who presides over every brothel in the world and the god who prefers art of a truly indecent level.
This is nothing.”
“Even so…”
“Since I was already suspected of being a spy, I did consider using my charms to become Rsanda’s lover.”
Hashana was speechless.
“It was a valuable experience. I learned that’s the sort of thing you only attempt if you have at least ten lives to spare. For now, I’ll behave like a proper spy and look for openings while getting close to the saintess. So I’ll be counting on your help.”
The words were far more truth than joke, but Hashana harbored not even the slightest suspicion.
She just gave a small snort of laughter and lightly bumped his arm with her shoulder.
“If you can tease me like that, I suppose we have Rsanda to thank for growing a little closer.”
He said nothing.
“In any case, I can’t tell you how relieved I am that things are going the way we agreed, thanks to you.
Rsanda got so worked up that my heart nearly jumped out of my chest, worrying you might not be able to return to the Capital.”
At her half-laughing remark, he stopped walking and asked, “Are you planning to send me back?”
“Pardon?
Aren’t you supposed to return to the Capital in three months…?”
A moment ago, you said you would confine me to your bedroom, so I was already preparing myself, thinking, Ah, so I’m staying here after all.”
Blinking as she tried to understand what Iskandel was saying, Hashana finally caught the barb hidden in his words and shook her head and hands at the same time.
“No!
That’s not it at all!
It’s not confinement, it’s purely a protective measure!”
“Ah.
Protection.”
“Yes!
Protection!”
“I was looking forward to it.”
“To… what, exactly…”
“To paying for the cloak with my body, perhaps.”
His long, smooth fingers caught and released the thin violet fabric, and the noisy sea wind wrapped around the cloak, whipping it wildly.
Between the pale yellow outer wall and the deep blue sky, Hashana found herself helplessly captivated by the sight of the dazzling man lifting one eyebrow.
He was more beautiful than all the flowers she had ever seen in Durgtah combined.
When the corners of his eyes crinkled with a faint pink warmth and he smiled in a way that seemed almost bewitching, she stared at him blankly, as if admiring a painting, forgetting it might be rude.
Then she suddenly came to her senses and bit down hard on her lip.
“…You were teasing me just now, weren’t you?”
“About half?”
“And the other half is serious?”
“Yes.”
He answered without a moment’s hesitation, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
As he did, he slid his fingers between hers, completely capturing her gaze.
“If anything, I might be a little more than half serious.”
She was stunned into silence.
“If my brother becomes the next emperor, my fate is one of two things. Either I’ll be falsely accused of something absurd and executed, or I’ll be married off to some absolute hellhole as if I were being sold. If I’m going to be sold anyway, I’d rather be sold to the person who, upon our first meeting, declared she would carry me away in her arms to the top of the temple.”
This time, there was not a speck of falsehood in his words.
However, Hashana just scrunched up her nose, shot him a quick glare, and blew away his sincere confession with a single sigh.
“Oh, honestly.”
Iskandel did not press the matter.
He merely rolled his shoulders once, as if to shake it off, then gave her hand a light swing and started walking again.
The two of them continued up the steep path along the outer wall, exchanging idle chatter, but the closer they drew to the temple annex where Hashana lived, the less they spoke.
And the moment they came face-to-face with the bed planted squarely in the middle of the bedroom—and the two books neatly laid out on it—their conversation stopped altogether.
“Um, these are, Your Highness…”
Iskandel glanced at Hashana, whose face had flushed an even deeper shade of pink than before, then picked up the books that had been so conspicuously displayed on the pristine white bedding.
He carefully read out the splendid golden titles.
“One Hundred Recommended Techniques for Ecstatic Coupling.”
“…Ha.”
“The First Step to a Safe Adulthood: A Practical Guide for the First Night.”