Side Story: The Witch’s Shadow and the Cradle of Happiness
Side Story: The Witch’s Shadow and the Cradle of Happiness
THIS is the story of what happened shortly before Rose received the third letter from Lau. It took place two months after that terrifying run-in with the thief…and Harij’s accidental consumption of the love potion.
“Can you please explain what in the world has gotten into you to say such ridiculous things…?” Rose asked Harij for the hundredth time.
She sat down with her robe spread out on the floor beneath her as she turned the quern-stone. The rumbling crunch of the turning stone and the rhythmic clanging of bottles in the boiling pot created a unique kind of background music. Feeling the crushed ingredients spilling from the stone through the vibrations it conveyed to her hands, Rose shot Harij an annoyed look.
“I already explained it to you. I’m going to live here, too. Can’t I?”
“Ugh. A good-looking man is spouting nonsense in my living room…”
Spring sunlight spilled through the windows, adding an extra sparkling glow around Harij. Framing him with stunning lighting effects multiplied the attractiveness of his already handsome face fourteen times. Rose had the urge to worship Harij, who had risen in ranked from good-looking to godly good looks.
Surrounded by the forest and lake, the hermitage was at the center of a cheerful and glorious season. Spring ephemerals leafed out and flowered, extending the fresh, young green hue to the forest canopy. Birds heralding the arrival of spring hopped along the windowsill. Some of the small birds seemed to be fledglings, and they were hitting the walls of the hermitage while practicing with their wings.
“What don’t you understand?” Harij argued back, too serious to pay attention to their adorable little visitors. “Simply put, I can’t leave you alone in this hermitage after what happened. I can be with you right now because I’m on leave, but my new post starts in a few days. Someone can stay with you during the day, and then I will live here during the night as your bodyguard and—”
“You can’t… I seriously don’t get you…”
Rose crouched in her work area bent over the quern-stone. Her hands moved without stopping, powered by the firm belief that crushing things would help her forget Harij’s disturbing suggestion.
For many years, she lived in this flimsy hovel teetering on the edge of being blown away by a strong breeze, without any concern for her safety or living conditions. But after letting a dangerous man easily walk through her front door, even Rose started to feel unsafe in the home she had grown up in.
Ever since the thief barged into her house, Rose had declined nighttime visits out of a new sense of self-preservation. Naturally, she changed her locks to the latest version and tied the boat to the reel with a new rope. She asked Tien for one braided with iron so it couldn’t be easily cut. Tien hastened to make arrangements for it after hearing about the thief.
As an extra countermeasure, she also kept the boat docked at the island. Although it increased her workload, Rose fetched every client to cut down on unwanted visitors. Without a boat, there wasn’t a thief in the world who would risk their life swimming across a freezing lake to rob a dilapidated hovel. Winter protected the hermitage by turning the island into a natural fortress, but once spring came, things changed.
During the spring, the lake was crystal clear and mystical enough that it wouldn’t be strange to spot a mermaid swimming there. The water was still icy, but not life-threatening. Immediately after the thief broke in, Harij suggested that the vigilante corps watch out for the Witch’s hermitage, and requested that their patrol route be widened to include it. Harij easily took care of things that never even entered Rose’s thoughts.
To top everything else off, during his leave period, Harij visited the Witch’s hermitage almost every day. As a result, clients stopped coming by, dooming her business, but…of course it was reassuring to have him around.
And above all else, being with Harij brought Rose great joy. After all—
“Aaaaaah…!”
“What’s wrong?!”
“Nothing… I’m all right. I just…remembered a lot…of different things…various things…,” Rose mumbled, wiping away the sweat springing to her back and forehead.
This was yet another unfathomable thing, but for whatever inexplicable reason, Rose and Harij had mutual feelings for each other and were currently in a relationship. Undoubtedly, this was the magic called “Pinch-Hit Walk-Off Grand Slam” that she read about in a book obtained from a distant world.
She argued that with the power of the witches’ secret potion she could make a man or two fall for her, but when Harij confessed he had fallen in love with her before drinking the love potion, the witch who could only rely on the potions to refuse him had no choice but to wave the white flag in defeat.
Despite two months having passed since confirming each other’s feelings, Rose lived while trying the best she could to avoid all things romantic—she just wasn’t mentally prepared for it.
Perhaps he was relieved to know she felt the same for him, because Harij kept the raging billows of his desire hidden just below the calm surface.
But it seemed that Rose had made a place in his heart. He naturally protected her and treated her as a loved one.
“Nggh! Bah! It’s this flea-like heart that I despise…,” Rose groaned, still unable to accept her new reality, and pressed a hand over her hammering heart.
“You look okay to me,” Harij said wryly, pulling Rose to her feet. He dusted off her robe as he might for a child.
Rose knew he was naturally a physical person, but since confessing his feelings, Harij restrained from touching her. Each time, Rose recited the Herbal Basics for Witches in her head starting from page one until she calmed down.
“Anyway, let’s set aside this move-in talk for another day…”
“You’ve been setting it aside for so many days, winter is over. It’ll rot if you carry on into summer like this.”
“Conversations do not rot…”
“Then let me ask you this: Why are you so opposed to me living here?” Harij asked, sounding hurt and sullen. Until now, he’d shown plenty of tolerance for the indecisive witch, but it seemed he had finally run out of patience.
Rose looked away and painstakingly explained, “I could never make someone as noble as you live in this shack.”
“I don’t mind. I often stay in rustic inns or camp outdoors during expeditions. Though most of those places are cleaner than here.” Relief rung in his voice, which had lost its prior surliness.
“You can only fit one bed in here, and I’m still not ready yet to…s-sleep t-together.”
“Not ready yet? Does that mean you will be someday?”
There was a loud bang. Flustered beyond belief, Rose smacked her leg into the corner of the workbench. Deciding to take mercy on her, Harij changed the topic.
“I like it here. This is the home you were raised in, Rose.”
Stand and there’s a spiderweb; sit and there’s dust; walk and the floorboards creak—the house fit the definition of a run-down hovel word for word and it was still an important place to Rose. Regardless of what it meant to her, it was ridiculous to let a natural-born nobleman stay in such a ramshackle hut. It was worse than pouring cold water into boiling-hot oil.
“I’m a knight, I can take care of myself. I won’t get in your way. You can continue going about your work as a witch with me here.”
At her wit’s end, Rose didn’t argue back. She wasn’t used to experiencing kindness. Nor did she know that being treated kindly could be this bothersome.
Harij sighed, sensing how much pressure it was putting on her. “Fine. I’ll let it go for today. In return—”
“Eep.” Rose recoiled in an obvious way. For the past two months, she had been able to predict what he would say next.
“Stop playing games and call me by name, would you?”
Rose clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. “Lalalala!”
Something touched the top of her head as she sang over him. Something soft and warm. Realizing what it was, her eyes snapped open and she strained her neck back. Harij’s face was surprisingly close.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-What are—”
“Rose. I’ve been patiently prioritizing your feelings, but we’re actually in the kind of relationship where we can do intimate things. Did you know that?”
He was coming on strong. That was a pretty clear declaration that he was more than ready to take things to the next level, though she still hesitated.
Obviously, Rose wasn’t against being intimate with him. She was just too unfamiliar with these things.
“…Wh-What are…”
Raising his beautifully manicured eyebrows, Harij cupped her cheek. Then he slowly stroked her lip with his thumb, showing her exactly what he meant. Rose promptly gave in.
“Sir…Harij!”
“I’ll let it pass.”
Freed from his hand, Rose immediately fell to her hands and knees on the floor. She hugged herself as dust clouds puffed up around her. She was so hot it felt as if her blood was boiling.
“U-Ughhh, your face…it’s too beautiful…”
“Yeah, it is.”
Harij stopped being weirded out by her wacky comments and played along as he pulled her up off the dusty floor and plucked the specks out of her pale-pink hair.
∴ ∵ ∴
“WANT to go out for some sherbet?”
The next day, Harij, who had been out on business, invited Rose the instant he returned to the hermitage. She blinked at him.
“What is SHER-but?”
“A frozen dessert made from fruit. Think of it as a frozen sweet. A peddler from the north brought a large amount of ice. His Majesty is treating the whole capital with it to commemorate Princess Billaura’s marriage.”
“Dessert.”
“A sweet dessert,” Harij repeated to drive home the point.
Because of him, Rose had become woefully weak to the mere mention of sweets. Excited, she pulled off her robe to go into the city.
Together they climbed into the fiacre she usually rode into the city alone. As they swayed in the hooded carriage, Harij seemed as though he was in a great mood. “You take off your robe when you go into the city, right? I was surprised the last time I saw you.”
“…You’ve seen me in the city before?”
“Twice.”
I can’t remember a single time, but he says it happened twice? Rose fished through her memories until she realized he was talking about the time the children pelted her with mud balls. She couldn’t figure out what the second time was.
“At the forest dock and during Princess Billaura’s bridal procession.”
Now that he mentioned it, she remembered when he was talking about. Harij actually noticed her there? So it wasn’t just Rose’s hopeful imagination that their eyes met.
“I was surprised because I never expected to see you there.”
Rose was paralyzed in her seat because Harij’s whole face beamed with the memory of their encounter. Too much for her to withstand, she thrust both hands in front of her.
“…What is it?”
“You’re too radiant…”
“That again?” Harij sighed after she shoved his face away. Head turned, he caught sight of what was outside the window and tapped Rose on the hand. “Rose, look out there. Going straight down this road will take you to my house.”
Harij pointed out a lushly green road. Rose was surprised because she thought he lived in a more central residential area in the city.
“It looks like a nice and quiet area.”
“There are only a few houses on this road, so you’ll be able to get here quick if you use the black rooftops as a marker. Come anytime something happens.”
There are open places like this in the royal capital? The place I always thought was just infested with people and rows of cramped houses? Rose leaned against the carriage wall and stared outside.
“Sorry,” Harij suddenly said. “I lied.”
Rose looked over at him, reacting to the word lied.
“Come anytime you feel like it, not just when something happens.”
Rose shut her mouth first, thought about it, then slowly repeated, “Anytime?”
“Yeah.”
“Whenever I feel like it…?”
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
Harij flashed a wry smile. Seeing him smile out of the blue sent Rose’s heart clamoring in her ears.
“I want you to like that house, too.”
Tender love softened his eyes.
Inside the swaying carriage, Rose could only muster “Mmkay” as a reply.
∴ ∵ ∴
“IT’S over there.”
They climbed out of the fiacre and walked a short distance to their destination. A simple marketplace had been set up underneath a canopy.
Locals crowded the area seeking sherbet.
It had been a long time since Rose last visited the city with someone. In the past, she had trailed close behind her stooped-over grandma.
Today, however, she was not with her grandma.
Rose glanced up at Harij standing next to her and immediately turned her gaze forward. Letting down her guard risked her cheek muscles moving against her will. Without a robe to hide under, that was the number one embarrassment she had to avoid.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Rose chewed out, her lips failing to listen to her as well.
“Well, hello there, Harij! Thank you for always looking out for us!” someone said loudly behind them.
“Are you on patrol today, too?”
Several young men had called out to them. Residents who owned stores in the capital seemed to be handing out sherbet. Each of them wore an apron with their store name embroidered on it.
“No. As you can see, I’m with someone today.”
Harij tugged on Rose’s arm. She fell against his side and he put his arm around her.
Scandalous whispers spread from the people who saw. The ladies who were waiting for their chance to talk to him gawked in disbelief. The men working the stalls in front of them let out hearty laughs.
“Well, what do you know? Harij does indeed have a lady in his life.”
“Now that’s funny! My wife kept talking my ear off saying ‘There’s no way he has a lady friend when he patrols the city on his days off under the pretense of having nothing better to do.’”
“I see.”
It sounded as though the cityfolk didn’t know Harij’s occupation or social class. Evidently, they only thought of him as a great guy who kept watch on his days off out of the kindness of his heart.
“She’s quite plain to be your lady, Harij.”
In every world there’s always going to be that one old man or woman who says one word too many. Rose hardened her heart and stared at the old man. He winced instead of forcing an insincere smile at her completely flat, unchanging expression.
“She’s not plain,” Harij argued, then went on. “She’s cute from every angle.”
She wrenched her hand free and backed away faster than a feral cat. Her legs quickly carried her away. Harij chased after her, leaving behind the stunned shopkeepers and their wives.
“What’s wrong? It’s dangerous for you to suddenly take off like that.”
You’re the dangerous one here! Oh, how she wanted to shout at him. Her heart had all but stopped. Harij held out his hand to the Witch, who trembled in silent anger.
“Rose, I want to hold hands. Can we?”
One look at his offered hand and Rose flattened her lips in a straight line. Harij had a habit of asking for permission first. Since they were already in a relationship, she wished he’d just take her hand.
“You can say no if you don’t want to.”
Rose was a witch. Witches couldn’t lie.
Of course she wanted to, so she couldn’t say otherwise.
Grinding her teeth, Rose placed her hand on top of his. And then she uttered the special incantation she could only use on him.
“I don’t want to…say it!”
“Okay.”
Harij slipped his fingers through hers and squeezed. Together they walked through the throngs of people. Trying her best not to look at their connected hands, Rose awkwardly moved her legs and arms out at the same time. An unnatural amount of sweat seemed to be dripping down her fingers. She desperately wrestled with herself to suppress the urge to immediately wrench her sweaty hand away.
The sherbet was being given out for free. They patiently waited in the long line, and when their turn finally came, the sherbet containers were nearly empty.
“Oh, if it isn’t Harij,” the man scooping sherbet casually said. “Welcome, welcome. You’re in luck. We still have a little left— Oh, are you on a date? Then take two.”
When the man saw Harij and Rose holding hands, he grinned and held out two cups. Sherbet was packed into mismatched containers collected from the different restaurants in the area. They each accepted one from him. The tin cup was cold to the touch. They moved, hand in hand, somewhere away from the crowds to eat.
Rose didn’t mind holding hands with Harij now. Her full attention had been captivated by the tin cup she was holding, after all. The first sherbet she ever saw was a dreamy food that looked like a melting snowball.
The smallest snow crystals glittered under the sunlight. The melted spots sparkled like flower nectar, making her mouth water.
Noticing her eyes glued to the sherbet, Harij stopped walking. Rose didn’t remove her eyes from the sweet treat when she asked, “Can I eat it now?”
“Yeah.”
Permission granted, Rose picked up the little tree branch sticking out of the sherbet. The tip had been flattened into a simple spoon.
She scooped the frozen dessert onto the spoon. She ran the spoon over the top gentler than if she were petting a frightened baby rabbit and gingerly brought it to her mouth. The sherbet was snow white, so she assumed it’d taste like snow, but it actually tasted like apples. It quickly melted on her tongue like the fleeting end of spring.
Seeking another bite of the icy goodness that melted the instant it touched her tongue, Rose brought the spoon back to her mouth. Then she took another bite, followed by yet another. She didn’t know what was so entertaining about her eating, but Harij watched her without taking a single spoonful of his.
As Rose became entranced with eating, she heard a fierce shout. “Don’t cry!” Shoulders jumping, she finally wrenched her eyes from the sherbet to look at the noise.
“B-But…I w-want…wanted…to e-eat it!” a young girl cried through her sobs. Beside her stood a slightly older boy.
“What do expect from me? They ran out!”
The boy also sounded as if he was trying to hide his disappointment. From the look of it, they had run out of sherbet to hand out. Spoon hanging from her mouth, Rose watched the siblings.
Like the older brother said, he can’t do anything about it for her. But I also understand why the little sister is sad. You don’t get to taste something this delicious every day.
Someone cut in front of Rose. Harij approached the siblings and patted the girl on the head. Then he did the same to the brother and handed them the sherbet he was holding. The boy was flustered to suddenly receive the dessert, but Harij left before he could reject it.
Rose eyed Harij with the spoon still dangling from her mouth.
“This is mine.”
“I never planned on taking yours.”
Satisfied by his answer, Rose busily moved the spoon from the cup to her mouth. Every bite was just as delicious as the first.
Rose continued eating, full of satisfaction over the taste and Harij’s response, but her spoon soon hit the bottom of the cup with only a small bit left. Depressed, she stared at the remaining sherbet, glanced over at Harij, and then back at the sherbet.
“…Just one bite.”
“I’ll take it,” he instantly responded, bending down and opening his mouth.
Rose reluctantly stuck the spoon in his mouth.
∴ ∵ ∴
“S-STAMINA monster…”
Finally leaving the festivities, Rose crouched down inside the fiacre and cursed Harij. Dragged around here and there after finishing the sherbet, she was exhausted.
Don’t underestimate a shut-in’s lack of stamina! Rose was tired enough to resent the crow crowing at the sunset.
“Sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you near the forest,” Harij offered, not at all bothered by her grumbling.
“Don’t want to.”
I never want to experience the shame of him seeing my stupid just-waking-up face again.
Reality cruelly ignores wishes. Rose was fast asleep within a few minutes.
She awoke in the forest. The first thing she saw was her swaying feet. Stupefied, she blinked until she realized Harij was carrying her on his back.
“Wh-Wha?!”
“Awake now?” Harij asked, sounding no different from usual despite giving her a piggyback ride. Her face went paper white.
“Why? Carry? Heavy…!”
“Stay put for a bit. I know you’re tired.”
She was dead tired, but she would rather walk home with her feet covered in blood blisters than make him carry her. But Harij wouldn’t let go no matter how much she squirmed and struggled. Rose gave in and knocked her cheek against his back. Now that it came to this, she wanted to get back at him and flexed.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to make it so I’m too heavy to carry.”
“You aren’t heavy. You’re lighter than a feather.”
“Humans lie so easily. Hmph,” she snorted.
Harij’s throat shook with laughter. Rose was curious what kind of face he was making as he laughed.
But she was positive not being able to see each other’s faces while they were in close contact was what allowed her to keep calm enough to be open with him.
Rose quietly said, “Harij.”
His grip loosened on her legs. He held her back up before she could even feel as if she was falling.
“…What is it?”
It seemed to be quite the shock for him to hear her call him just “Harij” after how stubbornly she refused to say his name even with honorifics. His voice had cracked.
Today, Rose had heard countless people in the city call him Harij. Everyone spoke to him affectionately. The trust he had built up with them until now was kindly returned with the way they said his name.
Rose loved the ring of it.
“Is it all right if…I stay at your manor only during the night?”
This time she felt her bottom drop without anything to hold it up. But, naturally, he supported her before she could slide all the way down his back.
“…Of course.”
His answer was concise, as if he feared she would withdraw her request if he ruined her mood by asking a question or said anything more than that.
Rose rubbed her forehead into his back.
One long shadow walked through the forest.
I remember seeing a shadow like this as a kid. Rose quietly closed her eyes while being rocked to sleep in the cradle of happiness.