Chapter 19: Girl, Betted On
Chapter 19: Girl, Betted On
LOLO Village had two entrances, but Nichika headed, without hesitation, straight for the entrance she’d come through—the only one accessible by the ravine. The peaceful wind she had been enjoying until moments ago grew hair-raisingly disturbing as it whipped up dead flower petals and blew them overhead.
“Oswald!” Nichika aggressively shouted to the figure she spotted staring at the field of flowers just beyond the village fence line. The man slowly turned toward her and raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Where’d those clothes come from? Did you steal them?”
That was the first thing he had to say to her? Nichika tripped over a pebble, caught herself, and resentfully raised her head to face him. “For Pete’s sake! I’m not you! I don’t do things like that.”
“How rude. I don’t steal.”
“…Really now?”
“I merely borrow without returning.”
“That is theft!”
Within five seconds of reuniting, they were already bickering again. I knew it! I’m just not compatible with this guy! Nichika thought indignantly then gasped when she saw a dead rose petal floating in the wind, which reminded her of why she had run here in the first place.
“That’s not what matters now, anyway!” She accusatively thrust her finger at him. “Why did you kill the flowers? Those flowers were going to be used in Lolo Village’s festival!” Her accusation got her a snort and his usual pompous smirk in return.
He accepted her challenge to a showdown of words with a ridiculing look. “What are you gonna do about it?”
“Why do something so horrible?!”
“Who knows?”
“‘Who knows’? Shouldn’t you know? It’s your handiwork, isn’t it?”
“When, where, and who said it was?”
“Come again?”
Sneering as if to say she should hate the game and not the player, Oswald slowly closed the gap between them. “Where’s your proof? What’s the motive? What merit is there for me to kill the flowers in this godforsaken village?”
“Y-You could’ve been hired by someone to do it… Or it might just be your hobby…”
He walked right up to her and karate chopped her head. “Put more thought into it, stupid!”
“Ow!” She instinctively clamped her hands over the dull, aching lump. As she glanced up under her lashes, she saw him staring down at her in exasperation.
“Numskull. Don’t be swept up in rumors.”
“Ugh, sorry,” she said, her eyes still misty from the pain.
Oswald held his ground with a stern expression, but the corners of his eyes softened slightly at her honest apology. He roughly mussed up her hair and said in what could almost be taken as a kind tone, “I’m glad you’re safe.”
“……”
Astounded by his unexpected words, she stared at him wide-eyed until he added on with a nasty smirk, “The grand river doesn’t have to be contaminated with your corpse now.”
“I knew that was coming!”
I was an idiot for expecting something more! She puffed out her cheeks and irritably turned her head aside. Then, realizing that they were missing a person—or rather, missing a shapeshifter, she scanned the surrounding area for her furry friend.
“Where’s Wolfie?”
“Oh, he’s—”
“Nichika!” someone called for her from the village, cutting her master off.
Nichika looked behind her and saw the young man she’d left behind at the mansion running over to her, short of breath. “Makina?”
“It’s dangerous for you to run off on your own. Oh, who is that…with you?” Finally noticing Oswald’s presence, Makina’s expression darkened.
The man who looked like an embodiment of a pitch-black shadow certainly had a chilling aura that matched the villagers’ description. Pierced to the core by his shrewd, ice-blue eyes, Makina was seized by an illusion of being frozen to the ground. However, Nichika showed no signs of fear as she introduced the man to Makina.
“Ah, this thing is my master and teacher.”
“What’s going through that puny head of yours that makes you introduce the man you call master as ‘this thing’? Huh?”
Oh, the friend she got separated from at the ravine was this man? Makina had been under the misconception that Nichika’s friend would be another girl. Abruptly, Makina took Nichika’s hand in his and defensively tugged her toward him.
“Whoa!” she said, stumbling.
“Please don’t take offense at this question, but you are…human, right?”
Oswald’s face contorted slightly at Makina’s hostile gaze. But the reaction was immediately replaced with cold laughter and a scathing remark. “How can I not take offense? What do I look like aside from human? Please, do tell.”
“A devil…” Nichika muttered.
“Nichika, be ready for your punishment later.”
“Eek!” She hid behind Makina’s back.
Makina shielded her as if it were second nature and continued his accusation with an unyielding, rigid attitude, “The village flowers died all at once as soon as you arrived. Isn’t it natural to think that there must be some sort of connection between the two events?”
“That doesn’t give you the right to blame me without proof. It wasn’t me.”
“You can defend yourself all you want, and that doesn’t make it true either.”
“……”
Nichika was flustered by the tense mood rapidly growing between them. While she was racking her brains for some way to smooth over the situation, Makina turned to her and kindly said, “Say, Nichika, can I ask you to bring your master to my house? I want to hear him out.”
“Hmph,” Oswald scoffed, virulently answering before Nichika could reply, “That’s a nice way of trying to get me under your control. I’d consider dropping by if it’s a job request, though.”
His arrogant attitude stunned Makina and made his apprentice sigh. “Oh, brother…” Nichika commented, “You know, it’s because you act this way that you make enemies.”
“Job request? What’s that about?” Makina asked.
“Oh yeah, Oswald is a witch and—”
Nichika stopped mid-sentence, since Makina was staring at her with his jaw set on edge and his facial muscles taut. I forgot! Makina is researching a new energy source that’ll compete against magic and its users and might replace them altogether! I bet he doesn’t have a high opinion of witches.
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to hide it,” she said honestly. By saying her master was a witch, she had just admitted that she was a witch’s apprentice.
“It’s okay. I know you’re not a bad person already.”
“I can’t say the same for this fishy man though.” The words insinuated by his tone wound the tension between them even tighter. Nichika greatly lamented the fact that her wolf friend, who normally served as a great icebreaker, wasn’t there to disrupt the atmosphere.
“In any event, standing around talking about it outside won’t help us,” Makina pointed out. “Come to my mansion.” Firmly holding Nichika’s hand, he turned and headed for the mansion with her in tow.
“Eh? Hey!” Caught in his hold, she had no choice but to leave with him.
Uh, um? Am I being taken hostage here?! There’s no point! You’re wasting your time, Makina! Oswald is a man who’ll readily let go of his apprentice! See! He’s turning to go—huh?
Contrary to her expectations, her master was following them. And there, she could see a slight smile quirk his lips up in spite of the fierce coldness in his eyes!
Exposed to his penetrating, cold glare, Nichika screamed internally, Oh my gosh! He’s definitely furious with me! Because I got caught so easy!
Even so, she was hesitant to shake off Makina’s hand after all he had done for her, so the unlikely group of three plodded their way to his mansion together.
If we have a proper discussion about it, I’m sure they’ll both come to an understanding…I hope.
But Nichika had yet to realize what the real problem between them was—and that she was at the center of the ensuing maelstrom.
***
AROUND that time, professional icebreaker and mood-crasher Wolfie was trotting the village’s perimeter.
“We don’t know if this village will tolerate a shapeshifting beast like me. Better enjoy a walk until Master summons me.”
Ambling along while swaying his fluffy tail in the air, Wolfie eventually came across a flower field. The climate in the area seemed perfect for flowers, because they grew everywhere around the village, and where he found himself now was particularly a sight to behold. Blue and red flowers grew en masse, forming a multicolored rug, dyed crimson by the setting sun.
“Holy cow! So pretty! I wanna show Nichika!” Wolfie was enjoying the sweet aromatic flowers when he suddenly spotted something violet crouched down in the field. The violet-colored something abruptly stood up straight, and with its back to him, began laughing manically.
The freakish laughter paralyzed him with fear. Was it a person? But if they were, they were also clad in an awfully bewitching, disturbing aura.
The head slowly jerked toward him, multicolored flowers spilling from its mouth. Its lips were smeared with red as deep as blood.
“Haha…hahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“Y-YIKES!”
***
WHAT do I do about this mood?
In the end, not a word of conversation had been shared between them the entire way to the mansion garden. Fed up with the dreary silence, Nichika tossed out a random topic in hopes of lifting the antagonistic air.
“Err…oh yeah! The flower festival! Guess what, Master?! There’s gonna be a festival taking place in this village soon! Since we’re here already, I want to check it out. Can we?”
“There’s no time for frivolous sightseeing. We’re leaving this village the moment we gather everything we need.”
Nichika had expected that answer, but she was dejected she couldn’t persuade him. Despite Oswald’s refusal, Makina gently pulled her toward him and smiled down at her.
“By all means, please stay and enjoy the festival. It’s a sight you will never forget.”
“But I—”
“If you like,” Makina said in Oswald’s direction, “I can send her to catch up with you once it’s over. You are more than welcome to leave first. How does that sound, O Great Witch Master?”
Oswald’s cheek twitched at his taunting.
“Makina?” Nichika said hesitantly.
“Besides,” Makina continued, shifting his provocative gaze from Oswald to fondly look at Nichika, “I have so much I want to talk to you about still. I want to spend more time with you.” He lifted her hands to his lips. “Are you opposed to that?” he asked sincerely. Nichika couldn’t stop the heat from gathering in her cheeks.
Oswald’s displeasure and disgust was further amplified by his apprentice’s reaction. He took a step toward her, and—
“UHYAAAAAAAHH! NOOOOOOOO! IT’S ALIVEEEEEE!”
A brown fluffball suddenly leapt over the fence and onto Oswald’s back, knocking him to the ground.
“GUH!”
“Wolfie!” Nichika cried out.
“You stupid mongrel! How many times must you use my back as your landing pad?! Huh?!” Oswald snapped at Wolfie, angered by the repeated transgression, but his familiar was trembling for another reason entirely.
Foam frothed from the corner of Wolfie’s mouth. He was deeply agitated. “M-M-M-M-Master! It appeared! It’s ALIVE!”
“What is?”
“Miss Flower! I know that’s what I saw!”
Miss Flower? Nichika thought, Is that some sort of ghost? Monster? Or is it just a name for an unnatural phenomenon? Conveniently, Wolfie elaborated without prompting.
“Legends of Miss Flower were passed down in the village I was born in! She’s a beautiful woman who stands all alone in the middle of a flower field at nightfall.” The fur on his back stood on end. “If you find her eating blue flowers it means good luck, but death will come for you within a week if she’s eating red flowers. And I found her eating red flowers! Awoooo…” he howled with woe.
Oswald scoffed, “Sometimes, I just want to cut my familiar contract with you.”
Familiars shouldn’t believe in superstitions, Oswald grumbled in his head. At that moment, a woman came from the direction of the fence Wolfie had hopped right over.
“Hello, everyone. What are you all doing gathered here?” she asked, pushing open the gate leading from the flower fields into the mansion garden.
Nichika recognized her. “Violette?”
“SHE’S HEEEEERE! It’s Miss Flower!” Wolfie whimpered and hid behind Nichika.
Suspicion crossed Makina’s face as he looked in the direction his household maid had come from. “Why are you coming from the fields?” he questioned.
“I was picking flowers to decorate the dinner table with…”
She held up a flower bouquet, and the entire group stared down at Wolfie.
***
“I’M telling you the truuuth,” Wolfie yowled, “That woman was really eating flowerssss.”
Oswald coldly shot down Wolfie’s tearful plea, “Stop pestering me. What if she was? She might just be a woman who has a weird taste for eating flowers.”
The group was currently inside a guest room at Makina’s mansion, and it was the nicest room at that. The master of the house had temporarily withdrawn from the room with his maid, leaving them more than enough space to talk things out to their heart’s content.
“Oh, but Violette said she’s not even human anyway,” Nichika mentioned.
“What?” One of Oswald’s eyebrows rose skeptically.
“It’s true. She said she’s a homunculus. She even showed me the energy core embedded right in her chest.” Nichika pointed at her own chest to demonstrate.
“Homunculus? That woman is one?” Oswald muttered.
He said no more after that. Nichika worried she might’ve said something she shouldn’t have, but their conversation was interrupted anyway by the sound of the door opening.
Makina had finally returned to converse with the guests he had kept waiting. “Sorry for leaving you alone for so long. I had urgent paperwork to attend to.” He entered the room with a bundle of papers under his arm.
“You said your name was Makina something or other, yeah?” Oswald asked bluntly, “Are you the village chief here?”
Makina made a stiff smile at his question. Passing by where they were sitting, he placed his papers on a desk in the back of the room and humbly replied, “I’m not that important of a person. This is simply land my father owns. I have no authority over in my own right.”
In other words, his family owned the land the village was built on. No wonder why the villagers were so polite and courteous to Makina.
“Although, I should say, the final decisions for everything related to this village have been entrusted to me for some reason.” He took a seat on the sofa across from Nichika and Oswald. He pushed his glasses up his nose and broached the main topic, “I apologize for the rude attitude I took toward you earlier. From what I hear, you are a famous witch, Oswald?”
“I’ve never called or considered myself famous, but if that’s what people have to say about me, then it must be so.”
With the confidently snickering witch in sight, Makina dropped a bomb by offering an unexpected invitation, “How would you like to play a game with me?”
“A game?”
A smile still plastered on his face, Makina crossed his legs and put a hand on top of his knee. With his other hand, he pulled out the flower sticking out of his pocket and spun it by its stem. Petals drifted from the withering flower with that ever-so-gentle movement.
“I have received reports from the villagers that the flower fields are steadily decaying, beginning from the west. They fear that the flowers won’t manage to survive even the two days before the festival. So, I was thinking of hiring you to investigate the matter for us.”
“You sure about that? I don’t come cheap,” Oswald mockingly warned. “Scraping together loose change from your piggy bank ain’t gonna cut it—”
THUD! A pouch Makina tossed landed on the table between them with a distinctive noise. Even Oswald’s eyes bulged a little at the weight of the bag, his condescending grin suspended on his face.
“This is advance payment. If this isn’t enough to cut it, shall I add in a little extra to top it off?”
Oswald’s eyebrow twitched. To him, the heavy sound of gold coins clinking against each other inside the bag seemed out of reach for such a slender, helpless-looking boy like Makina. Regardless, Oswald pulled the pouch across the table and checked the contents, before pulling the string taut and tossing it back to Makina.
“Nah, this is enough. You can pay me once the job is done. Anyway, why don’t you tell me the terms of this ‘game’ of yours?”
Makina cracked a crafty smile and proposed the unanticipated, “Should you fail in your investigation to pinpoint the cause of the flower decay, will you give me her—give me Nichika?”
Having been reminded on countless occasions not to interrupt Oswald’s negotiations, Nichika had been patiently listening to the conversation—but now she had suddenly been dragged into the middle of it. She was flummoxed.
Panic rose in her as she wrapped her head around what Makina had said. “Eh? M-Me? Whaaaaat?!”
“I don’t know where she studied it, but Nichika is surprisingly well-informed when it comes to technology and machinery. I want to have her stay in this village as my assistant, by all means possible.”
“J-Just because you want me to, doesn’t mean I—” Nichika hurried to turn him down, but one look from his sad eyes shut her up.
“You acknowledged my ideal world. Is it selfish of me to wish for you to stay by my side?”
Oswald glanced at the frozen Nichika, snorted, and agreed to the terms. “I have no idea how this carefree idiot could possibly help you achieve your dreams, but I’ll take you up on your bet.”
“Hey!” Nichika reflexively protested.
There were so many things she wanted to bring up, like what about her opinion on the matter and what about their contract, but her master quickly stood and strode to the door.
“Master?” Wolfie was waiting by the door, cocking his head.
“Wolfie, we’ve got work.”
“Aye aye, sir!”
Oswald whispered something to his familiar, and his familiar promptly bolted from the room.
“Wait for me!” Nichika called, trying to catch up to them, but a hand caught her wrist and held her back. When she glanced down, she saw her own reflection in Makina’s serious gaze.
“What I said wasn’t a lie or a joke. Please think it through.” He let go of her wrist.
“…!”
Her face dyed redder than a rose, Nichika lightly bowed her head and ran out of the room. After closing the door behind her, she brought her hands to her hot cheeks.
What should I do? How do I react? This is the first time a man has ever said something like that to me! How am I supposed to respond?!
She slapped her cheeks to clear her thoughts and pursued the tall black figure disappearing around the hallway corner.
“Hey, Oz!”
He continued walking fast despite her call; she had to jog to catch up to him.
“What do you think I should do?” she asked, walking next to him. The way he wouldn’t even glance at her stung. “Answer me…”
She reached out to cling to him, seeking his help, when he startled her by grabbing her hand. Yanking her into a narrow passage, he shoved her against the wall. Frightened, Nichika slowly raised her eyes to meet his. He was looking down at her face with ice in his eyes, almost close enough to touch.
“So, how far did you go with him?”
The moment she registered what Oswald meant by that, the heat that had finally receded from her cheeks flared back up—or more like exploded onto her cheeks.
Bright-red, she immediately protested, “A-Are you stupid?! I don’t have that kind of relationship with Makina—”
“But it looks like he’s come to think very highly of you, in such a short period of time.”
“…!”
Nichika didn’t know what excuse she could make; his accusation was accurate. Searching for the right words, she directed her gaze at the floor and answered, “Even if he has feelings for me, we haven’t done anything…” Her voice dropped off. Then, in a barely audible whisper, she said, “I told you I’d believe in the contract I made with you…”
Oswald heard her quiet voice, but kept his silence.
Is he mad? Is he going to ridicule me again? With those fears coursing through her head, she stiffened at his sudden touch—he had put his hand on her cheek. Instinctively, she lifted her eyes to his. His expression wasn’t the angry glare or mocking smirk she had feared, but one of unshakable seriousness. I can’t tell what he’s thinking or feeling. What is he thinking about right now?
He slowly closed the space between them…
“Wait!” Nichika threw out both hands to push him away just before their lips touched. Trying to justify her actions to her now scowling master, she said, “I have the candy you gave me. See? I’m good today.”
Nichika quickly pulled out the round, folded paper she had retrieved from her skirt pocket before Violette had washed it that morning. Oswald had given her the candy wrapped in unexciting, plain paper right when they had left Cherry Blossom Kingdom. He had made three of the candies that would serve to placate the Fake Lover seed if she put them in her mouth.
“I told you those were for emergencies only. Save it for when you have no other option.”
“Let’s just make a ton of them instead! I’ll make it myself if you teach me how. Okay?”
“……”
“That way is much—mph!”
His lips swallowed the words right off hers. Her thoughts instantly melted into pleasure, and the hands that had thrust him away progressively lost their will to resist. He kissed her much longer than usual, and she lost herself entirely in his insistent kisses.
“Haah…haah…” She gasped for air when he finally released her lips. But then, “Ahhh!”
She cried out in the most exaggerated moan when he lightly nibbled on her ear. Not sure what had just happened, she reached a hand toward her ear, but Oswald swiftly caught it, entangled his fingers with hers, and pushed her hand against the wall.
“And I gave you such a stern warning about not tempting men, too. You didn’t keep your promise.”
Nichika shuddered as the breath from his deep voice tickled her intimately sensitive ear; it racked her body with a thrilling tremble. Though she tried her best to deny his words, her voice melted into a feminine moan. “No…I didn’t tempt….”
“You need to be punished.”
His icy eyes penetrated her whole body, and she tensed. It was like she had been doused in cold water—her mind recoiled, but her body was burning like fire, pulled flush against his body.
“Ahn! Don’t…!”
Oswald playfully nibbled along her earlobe and blew on it. Her excited, high-pitched voice didn’t sound like it belonged to her any longer.
“He’ll hear you if you moan too loud,” he whispered in her ear.
“…!” She clasped her hands over her mouth.
Oswald laughed. “Well, not like I mind him hearing.”
Nichika felt like she could hear the sound of her blood draining away before his satisfied grin, an expression she’d never seen him make before. Now stifling her physical voice, she screamed as loud as she could internally—
This sadistic jerk!
***
SEVERAL minutes later. Released at long last, Nichika’s palms hit the ground when she sunk down the wall, panting so hard that it shook her shoulders. Red flushed her cheeks, while her balled fists trembled with rage.
“Haah…! Hhaa…! I’ll never forgive you for this…!”
“What are you complaining about, at this level? There’s a limit to how horny you can be, getting all hot and bothered by a little ear nibble.”
“…I’m not horny! It’s this blasted curse!”
She shot him a death glare, but Oswald had already lost interest in her and simply continued on his way. Lifting his hand to nonchalantly wave farewell without turning around, he left with a word of warning in his wake. “Learn from this and be more careful next time you go near men. It’s time for work now.”
Upset by the collision of feelings she couldn’t even identify from his hot-and-cold behavior, she stamped her feet in frustration. She furiously rubbed at where the sweet ache lingered on her ear and shouted at him, wishing her anger could materialize to skewer him through the back, “For crying out loud! I can’t believe you! Demon! Devil! Sadist! Inhuman trash!”
She threw every insult she could think of at him, but he didn’t so much as glance back. “Go help out Wolfie if you’ve got so much time on your hands,” he coolly replied.
“Oh my gosh! I hate you!”