Interlude: Never Let You Go

Gina was already waiting in the room, it seemed. She beckoned Reggie in after cracking open the door, and he stepped inside.

Curled up under the blankets of the bed was the small figure of a girl, her soft, chestnut hair spread out over the bedding. Her profile stood out against the light of the distant lamp, her skin still a paler hue than it ought to have been.

Kiara stayed completely still, breathing rhythmically in her sleep. She had been out cold for two days now.

“She isn’t crying today, I see,” Reggie murmured.

Gina nodded. “I’ve been keeping watch over her the whole time. She’s doing fine.”

Ever since she had fainted on the battlefield, she would cry in her sleep with alarming frequency.

It wasn’t like that at first, Reggie reflected.

It had all started after Kiara finished healing Isaac. She’d held on tight to Reggie’s fingers, refusing to let him go; thus, he had left Alan to handle the aftermath and carried her away to a house they’d requisitioned just before the battle.

Reggie had then left Kiara in the care of Gina, who had tagged along with the freshly retrieved Horace in hand. Judging that he’d reached his limit himself, he’d taken a seat on the floor next to her bed and fallen fast asleep. He recalled that, at the time, she had managed just fine even after he let go of her hand.

It had been the middle of the night when Reggie finally woke up. After checking to make sure Kiara was sleeping soundly, he had left the room to find out what had happened in the wake of the battle. Once he’d spoken to Alan, who had forgone sleep and taken care of most matters of import, he had procured himself a change of clothes and returned to check on her one more time... only to find her crying.

She was whining in her sleep like a fussy child, tears occasionally seeping from her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. Gina, who had been staying by her side all this time, was at a loss for what to do. She’d been standing watch in shifts with the lady of the house, and according to her, Kiara had ended up like this shortly after he left. And yet, she still hadn’t shown any signs of stirring.

“Given how much magic she used, she’ll probably be out for another day yet,” Horace said, rapping his tiny hand against the soundly sleeping girl’s head.

That was when Reggie had noticed Kiara’s fingers twitching as if they were grasping for something. No sooner had he brushed his fingers against hers on a whim than she grabbed on tightly to his hand—just like she had right before she passed out.

The crying stopped.

Reggie couldn’t help feeling a little pleased. A mysterious burst of pride welled up within him, but he set that aside to glance over at Gina.

“Is she lonely, you think?”

“Maybe... But you can’t just stay like this indefinitely, can you?”

“Perhaps not. Let me test a little something, then.”

He lifted Horace up and nestled him in her arms like a teddy bear. Now that she had been forced to let go of Reggie’s hand, Kiara furrowed her brow with a moan, started sniffling all over again... and for reasons unknown, sank her teeth right into Horace.

“Wha—are you trying to eat me alive?!”

There came the sound of gnawing. Reggie did his best to stifle a laugh at the comical scene, while Gina rushed to snatch Horace out of his predicament.

“This is no time to be laughing, Your Grace! If she bites down on him too hard, her teeth might crack!”

“Apologies. I didn’t see that one coming, so I just couldn’t help myself.”

“Tch. I wish she’d taken a bite out of you instead. She didn’t take a chunk out of me, did she?” Horace asked, a tinge of exhaustion in his voice.

Gina examined the top of his head. “Nope. You’re fine, Sir Horace.”

Considering that he was sturdy enough to have fallen from a second- or third-story window and come out of it unscathed, according to Kiara, there was no chance he could have been whittled down by such a delicate girl’s teeth.

“Still, if even Sir Horace can’t stop her from crying, it must be fairly dire.”

“If she’s crying the whole time she’s asleep, she’s not really getting proper rest.” After heaving a sigh, Gina went on, “Since we don’t have many other options, I think it’d be best if you stayed with her. We can take shifts, if that suits you better.”

Gina proposed turning Reggie into the equivalent of a stuffed animal to pacify a crying child. There was just one problem with that plan. Reggie was—as anyone could tell you—not only a living, breathing human being, but a male one at that.

“I don’t mind, but are you sure this is appropriate?” he asked, several different implications to his question.

Gina just grinned. “Sure; I’ll leave this to you guys. Master Horace will be here with you and all, so it’s not like you’ll have a chance to try anything naughty.”

“Listen here, you dogkeeper! I’ll have you know that this prince doesn’t give a damn if I’m watching!”

“It’ll be fine. His Highness would never do anything to make Kiara cry,” Gina responded, then gave Kiara a pat on the head. “So you finally figured out who you really love, hm?”

Reggie found it a touch reassuring to hear her come out and say it.

“Look after her until morning, okay? I’ll make sure everyone else knows what you’re up to.”

With one last bow, Gina promptly took her leave. Despite his lingering hesitance, now that she was gone, Reggie had no choice but to go along with her plan. Having made up his mind to stay, he took off his jacket and hung it over a nearby chair. Just to be on the safe side, he likewise removed the belt and sword he always walked around with.

“Whoaaa nelly, little prince! Let’s not rush into things here!”

Horace flapped his arms with a clack-clack-clack, alarmed by this turn of events. Reggie just barely kept himself from cracking up at the sight of it, instead sitting down on the bed with an air of nonchalance. “My, you seem so concerned, Sir Horace. Based on what I’ve heard, you’ve had your fair share of experience yourself. What has you so panicked?”

“Wha...?!”

Horace quite literally sprang into the air. Reggie was impressed to see that a doll had such powerful legs on him.

“What’s that got to do with it?! This is a matter of my disciple’s safety!”

“Haha. You’re usually so good at keeping your cool, yet you fall apart when your disciple here enters the picture.”

“Ugh...”

Reggie hated to leave Kiara crying, so he entwined his hand with hers, poking fun at Horace all the while. To his great amusement, the doll fell dead silent. Being made of clay and all, the look on his face didn’t actually change, but he somehow gave the impression of a furrowed brow.

As Horace lapsed into silence, he gazed at the miraculously pacified Kiara for a few moments. Eventually, he muttered, “Just between you and me, this is the first time a kid like her has ever taken such a liking to me.”

According to Kiara, Horace had been a “ghastly old geezer” in life, so it was indeed hard to imagine that he would be popular with children. Reggie suspected that having a lonely girl like Kiara grow so attached to him had slowly but surely melted the old man’s heart.

“I wouldn’t do anything to make an enemy of my own father-in-law—and certainly not right in front of his very eyes. I only took off my sword because I wouldn’t be able to sleep while wearing it.”

“Huh?!”

“If it’s still too much for you to handle, just stay under here.”

“Ggh!”

Reggie crammed Horace underneath a pillow. Though he kicked up a bit of a fuss at first, it wasn’t long before he stopped struggling. That was probably his idea of a compromise. He did have a certain amount of trust in Reggie, too.

Such a worrywart, Reggie thought with a soft laugh.

Frankly speaking, Reggie was hardly in peak condition himself. A fever similar to what he’d felt after getting shot with that assassin’s arrow was still smoldering throughout his body. The moment he closed his eyes, he was likely to drift off into a deep sleep.

Before he could let that happen, Reggie reached out to wipe the tears from Kiara’s face. Her grasp on his hand as firm as ever, she remained dead to the world.

Kiara had never objected when he kissed her. Two times it had happened now, and she had never once tried to dodge him. What’s more, if she actively wanted him to stay by her side, the notion that she felt something for him was clearly no delusion of his. Even Gina had come to the same conclusion.

Still, Kiara had yet to give him an answer. There was something she was having trouble working past. She was the sort of person who couldn’t take action unless she’d come to terms with her decision, so that was all it would take to make her falter.

For his part, Reggie planned to wait for however long it took.

“It’d be nice if she came to a decision sooner rather than later, however. Until then, I’ll just have to make do with this.”

After pressing a kiss to the trails of her tears, he laid down next to Kiara and wrapped his arms around her. Though it was probably just a subconscious gesture, Kiara responded by nestling closer. For a fleeting moment, the sweetness of her fragrance nearly left him woozy.

He’d figured he might have trouble falling asleep like this, but he was so exhausted from casting his magic that he drifted off in no time.

After two more days had passed in that manner, Kiara finally began to mumble in her sleep. Based on what he heard her say, she was dreaming of a scenario where Reggie had been killed in Évrard.

Not only had Dream-Reggie given her a ring as a present, but he owned a matching one himself, so it was easy to tell how attached they were to one another. Horrifyingly enough, the queen had chopped the fourth finger off of Reggie’s corpse, ring and all, and presented that to Kiara. If that was the dream she was having, it suddenly made sense why she kept trying to feel around for Reggie’s fingers.

In fact, it was almost cute how she kept tracing over his finger in her sleep, then looking relieved by what she found there. It made it so oh-so-tempting to start teasing her.

That said, there was something that struck him as odd about Kiara’s memories. When they had first met, she had described it as the story of a time she had lived in an entirely different world, and she hadn’t seemed to be keeping any hidden secrets about it.

It was ever since she had become a spellcaster that Kiara had started remembering these “what-if” scenarios.

◇◇◇

“Going to stay with Kiara today?” Gina asked with a sly grin on the day Kiara finally regained consciousness.

Reggie shook his head. “If I hung around while she was awake, I’d be tempted to wheedle my way into bed with her, so I’ll refrain.”

With that, Reggie briskly headed back to his own quarters.

His return seemed to catch Groul off guard. “Oh! Erm, will you be sleeping in your own bed today?”

Reggie had to wonder about his reaction. Had Groul assumed he would be sharing a bed with Kiara indefinitely? The thought of it was so amusing that the prince felt compelled to have a little fun at his knight’s expense. “Yes, I will. Kiara seems to have gotten a hold of herself again. For my own part, I find being around her so relaxing that I can’t help myself from... fooling around, if you will. Best to stay away.”

Fooling around by poking her cheeks, to be precise.

“Hold on, Your Grace... Have you already made a move on her?!” Groul’s eyes went wide as saucers.

Stifling a laugh, Reggie went on, “When a girl would let you do anything to her, conversely, it makes it harder to try anything at all.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it.” Groul exhaled a genuine sigh of relief.

Of course, to be so openly suspected of taking advantage of Kiara was starting to grate on Reggie’s nerves. He sniped back, “My, do you have so little faith in me when it comes to these matters? I don’t recall doing anything so untoward as to warrant that reaction.”

“Most certainly not! It’s simply that—pardon me for saying so, but you do seem rather attached to her.”

“You’re not wrong there,” Reggie bluntly replied, sitting himself down in a chair with a soft laugh. “But I’m not interested in deflowering her just yet. The time isn’t right.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I die, I will have taken her chastity and left her nothing to show for it. Of course, Wentworth doesn’t seem like the type to care about that... but there’s no guarantee that he’ll come out of this alive, either. I’d prefer to at least wait until the war is over.”

There was no telling when and how he might fall on the battlefield. As the time he’d been shot back in Évrard had shown, he couldn’t stay perfectly vigilant 24/7. If he set that aside and pushed things forward purely for his own satisfaction, Kiara would be the one to suffer for it later.

Groul looked satisfied with his answer.

Reggie then declared that he was going to turn in for the evening, requesting that Groul leave the room and encouraging the knight to get some rest himself.

Once he was gone, Reggie finished his previous thought by murmuring, “Or until she gives me her answer, I suppose.”

He had it in him to keep on waiting until then. After all, he knew he had already won her heart.