Chapter 3: The Clear Lake, Silver Grass, Sukiyaki, and the Space between the Witch and Him
Chapter 3: The Clear Lake, Silver Grass, Sukiyaki, and the Space between the Witch and Him
“I want to readdress the matter of us getting married,” Harij said while they were seated at the table enjoying a pleasant chat after dinner, his voice cooler than a spring breeze.
Air rose from the back of Rose’s throat in an unladylike “GAK!” as she gagged on her tea. She quickly closed her mouth to prevent utter humiliation—this was not a sound she wanted someone else to hear, especially when that someone was her crush. When she finally managed to swallow back the tea, she pinched her stinging nose.
“Umm, certainly, yes, indeed. That was on the table, wasn’t it? It sure was.”
What is this?! A business deal?! Rose berated herself for coming up with such a stupid response. She had pretended not to care in the slightest, but she was actually very concerned about the matter of their marriage.
Rose may have been naïve about the ways of the world, but she wasn’t staying at the home of the man who had proposed to her without realizing what that entailed. Although she wasn’t currently residing there as his fiancée, she wouldn’t have moved in without being prepared to marry him in the future.
And while it was Harij who had proposed to Rose, he didn’t pressure her into marriage after inviting her to be his houseguest. But she was growing impatient, since nothing had changed between them even after Tien brought her dowry. But, at last, their time had come.
I see, I see. I just have to go along with it now that it’s time. Rose pressed her fingers into her cheeks to prevent them from spreading into a dorky grin, only to realize she was making an even weirder face. She promptly put her elbows back on the table, rested her chin in her hands, and hid her lips by pulling her hood closer.
If she wasn’t extra careful, every muscle in her face would give into her delight and move in a most unsightly expression. She would’ve jumped with joy and done a little dance to celebrate if she were alone.
Meanwhile, Harij, on the sofa across from her, appeared reluctant despite having been the one to bring up this marriage she had dreamed of. Rose tilted her head.
“Is there a problem?”
“No… I’ll move things along as long as there’s not a problem on your side.”
Well, that was vague of him. I wonder if everyone in the world has to deal with fiancés like that.
Fiancé. Rose was flustered by her own thoughts. She scrunched up her face to prevent her overflowing excitement from showing and ended up nodding with deep lines creasing her brow and nose.
“Yes, I believe it should be all right.”
“That’s vague of you.”
“Oh my goodness. I was just thinking the same exact thing of you.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Hahaha.”
Rose stood from the sofa, bowed, and escaped to her room. There was a little hop to her light footsteps.
∴ ∵ ∴
“I haven’t seen you before,” remarked an unfamiliar voice.
Rose carefully closed the chicken coop door behind her.
I haven’t seen you before, either. She stood in front of the coop and studied her rude new guest—a man around the same age as Harij.
Clothes fit for a gentleman tailored from the finest materials emphasized his tall and slender build. He had well-defined facial features and a sexy allure appropriate for his age, though it was a tad on the sweeter side. His long, glossy black hair was tied back with a few locks left loose around his face, increasing his overall charm. His eyes shone like well-polished jade in the morning light.
Two months had passed since Rose started living in the Azm mansion. In that time, there were only a few visitors: the miller’s son, the ash collector, and the mailman.
“That reminds me, Harij did say he hired a new maid. Hey, you. A young lady has recently moved in, right? Have you met her?”
Some might say he was a very unconventional man lacking in common sense to visit someone’s home without an appointment and at the early hour when the sky was still flecked with purple. Tala, at least, would deem him as such. She had been teaching Rose a lot about the world, which she’d had little experience with. Tala talked her ear off with warnings such as “Stay away from strange men” and “Don’t follow strangers even if they offer you candy.”
In this case, however, Rose suspected this unusual man came from a place where his lack of sensibility was permitted. Only someone of greater status than Harij, a nobleman, could skip out on the required formalities.
She wasn’t sure if he came at this early hour just to flaunt his close relationship with Harij, but she wished he would direct his insinuations elsewhere. After all, she was Harij’s fiancée, whom he wanted to marry soon. To repeat: she was his fiancée.
Feelings of rivalry brewing within her, Rose decided to ignore the man’s question.
She set aside her basket, which was filled with the warm eggs she had just fetched from the coop, and commenced scraping gunk off the soles of her boots with a stick.
“What do you think you’re doing when a guest has just arrived—filthy woman.”
The man was visibly repulsed by the sludge caked on the bottom of her boots, which only fanned the flames of enmity she felt toward him. I don’t think I’m very compatible with this man. Resisting the urge to throw the stick at his face, Rose pulled her robe’s hood back on to hide her mounting displeasure.
His face stiffened when he saw her like that.
“…You’re a witch?”
The frivolous air about him instantly transformed into palpable tension.
A witch’s robe wasn’t defined by any specific design features, but normal people avoided wearing dark-colored robes with deep hoods—because they would be mistaken for a witch.
In other words, it was generally only witches who could don robes darker than night with hoods deeper than a net.
Rose tossed aside the stick smeared with chaff clumped together with chicken droppings.
She glanced at the man and slowly walked toward him. He shot her a sharp look. She took one step closer, then another—then bent over beside him. That was where she had left the wooden bucket she had just filled with water.
With the bucket tucked under one arm, she dipped her opposite hand in and sprinkled water about the coop. She had determined it would be a hot day from the state of the clouds and wanted to keep the chickens cool. I should probably hurry to the hermitage soon.
As the man gawked at her actions, he scowled as if he were watching something unfathomable.
“Are you—”
“Ah—”
Rose had no time to warn the man approaching her before he slipped and fell. The fresh sprinkling of water alone made the ground slick enough—add in the straw and chaff strewn about the chicken coop, and it was a recipe for slipping.
The man landed on his bottom on top of the wet soil with a dumbfounded look on his face. The chickens clucked with glee inside the coop as if they were laughing at him covered in their droppings and feed.
Rose glared at the man for a long moment. He was glaring back at her.
After what felt like an eternally long staring contest, there was a rush of frantic footsteps from the mansion.
“What are you doing?!” Harij strode through the courtyard with wide steps.
Rose quickly called out to him: “Sir Harij, please be careful. That spot is slippery because I just watered it.”
At her words, Harij slowed down.
“HUH?! Why didn’t you give me the same warning?!” the man complained.
“I was wondering what urgent business brought you here at this hour without warning… For nothing, apparently. What’re you fussing over?” Harij offered his hand to the man sitting in the mud. If this man was the same person Rose assumed he was, then Harij was awfully casual with him.
While she watched the inattentive way he was being helped up with surprise, the now-standing man scowled at the soiled state his bottom and clothes were in.
“You got yourself a witch, not a woman.”
There was no originality in his trite words of contempt. Rose continued looking straight into the man’s jade eyes without so much as a wince on her perfectly composed face. Harij raised an eyebrow to express his disapproval.
“A witch is always a woman.”
“No, I’m not talking about semantics here…”
The man looked as if he were about to explain what he really meant, seemingly under the assumption his initial comment had been misunderstood, when he saw the expression on Harij’s face. Then he must have realized Harij was deliberately pretending not to hear his slight against her.
Harij imparted his thoughts on the matter to the silenced man with an unyielding tone: “I have no intention of debating the matter with anyone—even you.”
“Harij, tell me it isn’t true you…”
Harij forcefully handed the man the handkerchief he pulled from his breast pocket. He then turned toward Rose, ignoring the rest of what the man was trying to ask.
“I’m sorry. This man said some rude things to you. I’m sure his sudden visit must have startled you. He is my friend. His name is Yašm.”
She expected that. Yašm was the name of the royal personage Harij was currently assigned to protect, the older brother of Lau—Billaura, the princess who had formerly been her client—and the second son of King Marjan, who ruled over this region.
“Did he do anything else to you?”
Rose glanced at Yašm, who was using Harij’s handkerchief to meticulously wipe the filth from his clothes. Harij likely didn’t treat him like a prince because he was here incognito.
“He said some uncivil things, but we are even, now that he bears the same look he scorned me for.”
Yašm’s cheeks twitched as the Witch snorted at him. “Okay, Harij. I’m begging you to laugh this question off as a bad joke. Your fiancée can’t possibly be—”
“Her, yes. Her name is Rose. I will formally introduce you later. Come change your clothes first.”
Yašm stood rooted to the ground, directing a stunned look at Harij for the unsparing affirmation of his worst fears.
∴ ∵ ∴
ROSE went to deliver the basket of eggs to Tala while Yašm was changing. The Azm servants seemed quite used to the prince’s sudden visits. They prepared a change of clothes and a hot towel for him without even blinking an eye.
Rose accepted her lunch basket from Tala as usual. The sun shining in through the windows had begun its ascent. This was about the time Rose wanted to head to the hermitage.
She was welcome to leave without a word, but she headed to the drawing room because she wanted to let Harij know.
As she approached, she heard voices talking inside. She could see Harij through the open door. He seemed to be talking while standing. Yašm was likely seated on a sofa that she couldn’t see from her position. Judging from his relaxed tone, he had probably finished changing already.
“—You think marriage will solve things?”
“As long as we get married, then I’ll just have to wait for—”
“You dummy. That is nothing more than the convenient delusion of a foolish man!”
Yašm laughed off Harij’s short-sighted remark. The ensuing silence expressed Harij’s discontent.
Rose stopped in her tracks for some reason. Her heart felt strangely heavy, and her feet refused to move.
“As long as we get married, then I’ll just have to wait for—”
Wait for what? His voice grew too quiet to catch the rest—and there were countless possibilities for what could have followed. Wait for him to be able to live as he pleased? Wait until he could have his way with her? Wait until he could treat her however he liked? Whatever it was, she didn’t picture anything good.
It didn’t help that his comment had been countered with “That is nothing more than the convenient delusion of a foolish man!” The easiest conclusion to draw from that, and the most likely one, was that they were discussing another woman, was it not?
Rose was shocked to the core, as she had never expected her future husband to be engaging in a lively conversation with his best friend about having an affair.
Rose was a witch. Witches honor their promises.
To Rose, marriage was essentially a promise between two people who loved each other—a binding contract.
Witches didn’t require matrimony to bear children. As long as they received the necessary seed, they could raise a child on their own.
For Rose, who wasn’t bound by class or family, marriage was an unnecessary contract. She could survive just fine without it. Nevertheless, the only reason she’d assented to Harij’s proposal was that she loved him. To accept him was to accept his human customs, too, and she was fine with that.
Yet for being the man who had persistently asked for her hand in marriage, his words just now rang hollow, dishonest, and all too impertinent.
One of the grimoire’s her grandmother passed down spoke of a cursed text from a faraway land called Infidelity Is a Culture.
But, even without relying on such things, the nobles in this kingdom usually enjoyed love outside of marriage.
Rose had forgotten that witches continued to do business to this day because people had no scruples when it came to love.
“…se… Rose.”
Startled from her reverie, Rose lifted her head, which she hadn’t even realized had drooped.
“Did something happen?”
Harij seemed to have come to check on her when he noticed Rose standing in front of the open door in pensive thought.
“I was thinking of heading back soon,” she answered while slightly averting her eyes.
“Where exactly are you heading back to? A castle of needles? A poisonous swamp? You’d better not say ‘deep in the forest no one dares enter.’ It may be the royal family’s backyard, but there’s nothing much we can do with it ever since a bothersome queen bee built her nest there without permission.”
Rose had been speaking to Harij, but Yašm responded from where he reclined with his legs stretched out on the sofa.
Harij shot him a deadly, no-nonsense look. “Allow me to make myself very clear at this juncture: I will have no choice but to step down from being your knight the next time you slight her.”
Yašm had no issue leveling Rose with insult after insult, but one word of remonstration from Harij and his mouth fell open.
“…Harij, tell me this is just a bad dream.”
“Not only is this reality, but I am serious.”
“Then you must be an imposter. The Harij I know wouldn’t fall over himself like this for some witch.”
“Then I have become a new me you don’t know anymore.”
Harij stopped the conversation before it turned into an endless back-and-forth. Then he guided Rose into the room for Yašm to see while his expression was still steeped in shock.
“Yašm, she is the Good Witch of the Lake, Rose.”
“I see… Pleased to make your acquaintance. Should I call you Witch Rose or Lady Rose?”
“Witch.”
“Rose, then. Have you been living comfortably at this house?”
She’d told him to call her Witch, and yet he just called her by her first name. It was probably his petty revenge for Harij choosing Rose over him. Rose was honestly annoyed.
But she didn’t feel like getting back at him with a crafty retort. She wasn’t in the right state of mind to bicker with the chicken-crap man.
“As long as we get married, then I’ll just have to wait for—”
Those same words repeated endlessly in Rose’s head, distracting her from paying any attention to the exchange between Harij and Yašm. She could barely bring herself to look at Harij’s face.
“I need to water the field. If you will excuse me.”
“…Huh? Hey! Oi! Can’t it wait?!”
Rose didn’t spare even a single glance at the blustering Yašm before bowing and walking off in a swish of robes.
∴ ∵ ∴
IN the middle of the witch’s hermitage surrounded by the lake, Rose sat cross-legged, rotating the pestle. The mortar held firmly in place by her feet conveyed a slight vibration to her.
“Ah, shoot! I ground it too much.”
The ingredient meant for a witch’s secret potion became smaller than the desired size. Facing such an apparent failure, Rose threw herself on the floor. Dust danced around her.
“How many years has it been since I last…messed up a potion?”
It was extra mortifying because, while she had experienced countless failures right after inheriting the title of Good Witch of the Lake, in recent years she had become capable of results she could be satisfied with.
Rose knew exactly what went wrong.
“As long as we…get married…”
Her thoughts were entirely dominated by the words she’d overheard Harij saying that morning. Just letting her thoughts stray a little, she messed up her daily fieldwork and basic potion-making. This was a first for her, and she didn’t know what to do with herself.
“I want you to marry me.”
Harij had denied Rose’s accusation that he proposed only because he was still under the love potion’s influence. Was there actually still some chance that the potion drew that proposal out of him? Should she question his intentions now, after all this time?
It was fair to say Rose hadn’t once considered that possibility. Living most of her life with little to no interaction with others may have taught her that people lie, without the real-life experience to help her know when she was being lied to.
Rose even surprised herself by how easily she accepted the straitlaced and arrogant Harij’s love confession in earnest. Perhaps she had experienced too much of his kindness to ever think his proposal was just the passing whims of a nobleman.
She believed his words as naturally as a baby duckling does the first person they see.
And that was precisely why Rose absolutely could not believe what he said in the drawing room.
On the other hand, once the doubts crept in, she couldn’t stop viewing her prior wholehearted trust in him as folly. The part of her that had jumped to conclusions turned back around to sneer at the naïve part of her that blindly believed him.
Rose had trusted Harij. She wanted to put her trust in him. It was none other than she who had decided to take that leap of faith—and it was she who had to take responsibility for where that leap landed her.
Should she doubt him? Believe in him? What was right? What was wrong? Rose had lost all confidence in her ability to judge the truth.
“…I should just go home for the day.”
Staying at the hermitage any longer would only end in her wasting precious ingredients. Dust puffed into the air around her as she weakly stood. Too depressed to mind the dust, Rose shuffled out of the hermitage, her robe’s hem powdered gray.
Outside, the sun was about to drop behind the mountains. She hadn’t even accomplished a quarter of what she had set out to do that day. Rose looked from the lake, which had been dyed madder red by the sunset, to her messier-than-usual abode—and her shoulders sank.
She locked up the hermitage and flipped over the sign. With the key hanging from her neck, Rose picked up an oar, and her eyes widened with surprise.
Standing at the border between the dock and forest was Harij. She was shocked to see him there because, while he might travel to the hermitage with her, he never once came to pick her up.
Perhaps something terrible had occurred at the mansion that required him to fetch her. Rose paddled to the beat of her mounting anxiety.
“Did something happen?”
Though she managed to keep the emotion off her face, panic edged into her voice. Catching on to her concern, Harij slowly shook his head.
“I just came to pick you up since I’m off duty today.”
He’d gone out of his way to pick her up. Rose was stupefied stiff. What a fantastic stage she had reached for her to be experiencing her beloved coming to get her. Such a miracle didn’t exist in the future she had vaguely imagined for herself.
Forgetting every doubt she harbored toward him, Rose quickly spoke to hide how terribly shy and delighted his gesture made her feel.
“Then he even forced you to work on your day off,” she said, thinking Harij couldn’t have sent the prince home without escorting him himself.
“No.” Harij shook his head. “He brought knights with him, so he isn’t my concern today.”
So even a man who tripped and fell in chicken poop still knew how to behave like a prince. Harij probably entrusted his friend to his guard detail after enjoying a pleasant chat and then had the rest of the day to himself.
Rose tracked Harij’s fixed gaze down to her feet. He seemed to be staring at her dirty robe hem. She schooled her features and dusted off her clothes as if it were no big deal.
“…Are you good for the day?”
“Good how?”
“Good to go home?”
“Yes. Staying there any longer won’t—”
—be productive. She shut her mouth just short of finishing her sentence. She wasn’t confident she could answer if he asked her why. Harij scowled, drawing perhaps a different conclusion for her awkward pause.
“Yašm said something to you, didn’t he?”
Rose was astonished he was still worried about that. “No, he didn’t do anything,” she reassured him.
“Then it’s something I did?”
She couldn’t give an immediate answer.
∴ ∵ ∴
HARIJ knew the sudden silence was Rose’s answer. He quietly closed his eyes.
She had been on his mind ever since she said she had nowhere else to go besides the Azm estate.
Born bearing the unique secrets of a witch, Rose had lived every day of her life since birth in quiet seclusion. He could only imagine the toll it took on her to interact with people every day after a lifetime of avoiding people and concealing her facial expressions.
That strain, however, wasn’t enough of a reason for her to go back to a life of hiding in fear under the floorboards every time she heard the slightest sound. Even if she was fine with it, Harij couldn’t bear the thought of her returning to such miserable days.
When he saw how well she was getting along with Tala, such anxieties were buried for a while. But when he chanced upon how the newly hired Mona treated her, they resurfaced.
His greatest fear was what would happen to her in the unlikely event something happened to him.
He hoped it never came to that, but he couldn’t guarantee he would always be there for her in the future, given his profession as a knight. Emergencies can’t be predicted in advance. And even if he could, knowing what was coming was no assurance that he could prevent it from happening.
Even the people closest to Harij looked at Rose funny when they learned she was a witch. He didn’t know how much he could protect her in the event he couldn’t be there to shield her anymore.
In which case, he wanted to give Rose legal status as soon as possible. Once she was legally married into the Azm family, the world shouldn’t be able to scorn her even in the worst-case scenario resulting in his death. His relatives would be too worried about public opinion to abandon his widow.
He took it as a good sign when Rose, who was initially hesitant about marriage, didn’t refuse Tien’s dowry on her behalf. Harij thought that meant she was open to getting married—interested, even.
Or so he thought—now in the past tense, because he had to admit he might have jumped the gun. Because from what he had seen, Rose didn’t seem too pleased whenever he brought up the topic of marriage.
“So what? You think marriage will solve things?”
“As long as we get married, then I’ll just have to wait for her to fall in love—with more than just my face.”
Harij didn’t mind being mocked as a foolish man. He was content to wait for Rose’s heart to grow more fond of him after they wed. As long as they were married, she would be protected if anything happened to him in the meantime.
Rose didn’t speak much, nor did her expressions change all that often. Harij was starting to learn how to occasionally pick up on when she was panicked, embarrassed, or delighted—but he wasn’t confident he was completely reading the emotions she was trying to conceal from him.
Due to her inability to lie, Harij was starting to suspect Rose changed the topic or didn’t say anything at all to hide her true feelings.
He didn’t think for a single second that she decided to get married on a whim after living alone for so long. But he couldn’t dismiss the possibility she might be regretting that decision.
It didn’t help that being with Harij likely meant more jerks like Yašm might appear again to judge her.
He thought it too cruel to come out and ask if she regretted her decision to marry him.
Harij knew that Rose—that witches—couldn’t tell a lie. He felt seeking the truth from her was the same as ordering her to pluck out her heart and lay it on a silver tray for him.
For better or worse, her answer would be her unfiltered true feelings. She might say the words he longed to hear—or the complete opposite. Either way, it would only result in hurting Harij—and Rose, by default for having hurt him.
But… Harij opened his eyes. Rose stood expressionless before him. Even so, she held his gaze without looking away. Surely she must have been a panicked mess on the inside.
Harij cracked a smile. He took her slender fingers, which were like rose stems, in his hand and went down on one knee. Her deep-forest-green eyes rounded.
“Rose.”
Sometimes, people need to move forward prepared to be hurt and to hurt another.
“There’s something I haven’t been able to say to you.”
“…Do you want me to leave?”
“Not even close. Don’t even joke about that. It’s not funny.”
Rose stared at Harij after his instant reply without so much as a crack in her stony mask.
“Then are you asking me to share your values for what our relationship will be like after marriage?”
Rose hit him with a second question when it was already rare enough for her to ever interrupt someone when they were speaking. It almost seemed as though she thought it would be easier to say it before he did.
“Oh? You were listening in?”
Her hand stiffened at his nonchalant response. The eyelashes bordering the eyes he was staring into quivered and immediately cast dark shadows underneath. His heart nearly shattered for causing her expression to darken, but he decided to boldly declare his intentions.
“I’m in love with you.”
His first ever confession seemed to echo in his ears, perhaps because of the humid early-summer air. Rose’s hand trembled in his.
“I want you to live in that house with me now and forever.”
Rose’s large, round eyes opened so wide, he feared they might fall out. Her pale skin, which always made him worry, was stained a peachy pink. With tremulous lips and cheeks flushed red, she squeezed out a hoarse reply.
“A-A witch always keeps her promise.”
“I know.”
That was probably her way of saying she wasn’t going to go back on her word about living with him in that house. Her roundabout way of speaking was the weapon she had carefully cultivated to protect herself until now. He wasn’t going to force her to stop for him.
“I’m human, so I will lie at times. The day may come when you doubt my words. The only unchanging promise I can give you is marriage. Okay?” Harij’s next words came out husky. “The fact that you were willing to leave the hermitage to come live with me must mean that…you like me, if only a little more than the next guy.”
Rose’s eyes bulged as she gaped at him with an expression that screamed “What is this guy going on about?” Harij felt his courage wither, a frown creasing his brow.
“…You do, right?”
Rose bobbed her head three times in the affirmative.
“Then we should just get married first. I made things more complicated for us by worrying about the laws and legal status, but it turns out—I just want to marry you. You can fall in love with me after that.”
Rose’s knees buckled. Harij pulled her into his arms by the hand he held before she could sink to the ground.
“What’s wrong?”
“My legs, my legs, my legs…” Rose repeated those same two words in a delirium. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and buried her face. He couldn’t see her side profile hidden under the hood.
After uttering her sixteenth incoherent “my legs,” Rose fell silent for a while. Then she muttered, “I understand now,” straightened up, and took a step away from Harij.
“I think I finally understand what the problem was. I see… I seem to have a habit of avoiding openly voicing my feelings because I’m a witch… So that’s why, yes. Please give me a moment.”
Several seconds passed as she contemplated how to convey her thoughts before she finally spoke again.
“That mansion is very comfortable. I’m very…fond of it. If possible, I would love to continue living there now and forever. I am also pleased about the prospect of our marriage. And…”
After raising and lowering her hands, squatting and standing, and pacing in restless circles, she finally looked at Harij.
“I-I also…”
Harij assumed he knew what words her quivering lips and misty eyes were trying to weave. He stood up straight in anticipation.
“…lo…lov…”
The scene wasn’t much unlike a grandparent watching their grandchild trying to stand for the first time. Harij swallowed hard as he waited for her.
“Lo-lov… Lovely clear lake, isn’t it?”
A cold breeze blew over the clear lake.
“……”
“……”
“…Sure is.”
“…P-Please wait a little longer.”
How else could he respond to her teary voice than with “All right”?
“I…I lov...love how silver grass grows year-round.”
“That’s nice.”
“I…I lov…lov…love that the food called sukiyaki was first created in a faraway foreign nation.”
“I see.”
“Lo…lo…” Eyes brimming with determination stared up at Harij. But the second he returned her passionate gaze, she clammed up. “Lo…Lotta…space between us…”
“Want me to fill it?”
“W-W-Wa-Wai-Wait! Not that! Stop! Wai—”
The rest of her words disappeared into Harij’s chest. He embraced Rose to fill the space between them, stealing her breath away to the point she seemed to have difficulty breathing.
“What’s next?”
“I-I-I’m not m-messing with you!”
“I hope not.”
As if I could survive this if it was just a game to her. Harij tightened his arms around her. Does she understand how deeply I want to hear those words from her lips?
Rose must have heard the seriousness in his voice, as she sank into silence once more. Dammit. He bitterly regretted that slipup. He sensed the witch wouldn’t be able to say what he wanted to hear if he didn’t make things as natural and comfortable between them as possible.
But Rose surprised him by tightly clutching his shirt and breathing out an answer in a voice so hushed he would have missed it if he weren’t straining to hear her.
“…I love…you.”
Bliss spread through his chest. Driven by a joy unlike anything he had ever experienced before, Harij hugged Rose close to his chest.
She was irresistibly adorable. Harij never knew someone this precious and lovable existed.
He pulled down her hood and caressed her light-pink forelocks. Then he pressed his lips against her hairline.
His fingers trailed down her cheek and brushed the hair behind her ears. As he kissed her temples, he buried the tip of his nose in her hair. He inhaled her unique feminine fragrance permeated with the smell of herbs.
She’s too adorable, and I want to adore her so much, I can’t stand it.
As he began losing himself in massaging her earlobe with his fingers, he felt two light raps against his chest. He ignored them, continuing to enjoy the feel of her, but then he found himself shoved away.
“What?”
“Wh-Wh-Wh-What? Really? ‘What’ is my line, buster!”
When he saw her looking more shaken than someone who had seen a star falling from the sky, he cupped her cheek in his hand.
“I can touch you now that we feel the same about each other, right?”
Just rubbing the tip of his nose against hers filled him with pleasure. While Harij was at the height of bliss, Rose’s eyes swam, her cheeks redder than the apples she loved.
“I-Is it possible…you love me, too, Sir Harij?”
“Huh?” he grunted, too baffled by her ridiculous utterance to temper his reaction.
Just how many times do I have to tell her for it to stick?
“B-B-Because it seems that way, with the way y-your eyes look…and hands are…”
What kind of eyes and hands does she think I suddenly have? I’ve lived to this day with the same exact eyes and hands I was born with.
Was she trying to say that, even though she finally learned his heart belonged to her, she was only now realizing what that entailed?
Harij tried to stop her lips from uttering anything more outrageous by sealing them with his own, which he’d been trailing down her face.
“N-No! Wait! Wait, wait! This should wait!” Rose pushed Harij away with her slender hands and muttered, “I can’t take any more. I’ll die.”
All the blood drained from Harij. Because he knew Rose couldn’t tell a lie.
“Why? What’s wrong? You aren’t going to suddenly tell me that it’s forbidden for a witch to kiss before marriage, right?”
“No, no, there’s no rule like that, but I-I’m at my limit…”
“And what limit is that?”
“I’m not ready!”
“Phew. That’s all it is?”
This time Rose grabbed Harij’s cheeks and nuzzled hers against his to stop him from stealing her lips.
“…Please, Sir Harij,” she begged in a teary voice. “I want to wait.”
Harij clenched his fists. No one had ever asked him to endure this much before. This was tougher than the time he nearly died on the job.
“Dammit…”
Gritting his teeth, Harij somehow managed to respond with “I understand.” Rose breathed a sigh of absolute relief. Even her sigh tantalized him, tempting him to give in and just take her lips.
“Be ready for what happens after we get married,” Harij stated firmly, having made the decision to respect her wishes over his own.
“……”
“I won’t hold back anymore after we get married.”
“……”
“Do you understand?”
“……”
“Do you understand?”
“Uh-huh.” The witch breathed that reedy acknowledgment.