Chapter 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 22

BENEATH a luminescent starry sky, the lamplight flickered unreliably. Yuki stared intently at the shadows cast by the lamp.

I asked for something selfish again. Just thinking about it made her want to hide under the bedcovers, but she didn’t regret it. I never want to see Tita forced to make such a heartrending expression again.

Tita was the first female friend Yuki made in Aridol. She was a kind, gentle, and fragile girl who seemed like she would vanish with the cruel winds of this world. Tita already went to bed under the watchful eye of the others.

Yuki was on top of the inn’s roof. It took a lot of effort to climb up to the roof with a lamp in one hand, but the view of the twinkling stars made it all worth it. She put the flickering lamp—its candlelight threatening to vanish with the wind—aside and laid back on the rooftop. The triangular roof had just the right slant for a perfect view of the whole night sky. The massive fortress walls hid the city; she could only make out the candlelight of nearby buildings and the occasional lantern of patrolling guards.

A sense of serenity and calm settled on Yuki. She was going somewhere far more dangerous than when she entered Fol with Luca, and yet she didn’t feel terrified.

Open the prison cell and make a run for it. Talk about a piecemeal plan. Yuki racked her mind for a better plan, but she knew as long as they were in enemy territory without a spy on the inside, there was no way for them to go about this inconspicuously.

She shut her eyes. When she first arrived in Aridol, the end of winter was nigh and spring was sweeping in. The cool spring breeze once rustled her hair, but now the season had changed to summer—several months had passed. According to Tita, it was now the Season of Leaves, a season where the entire continent was covered in verdant leaves.

Yuki reminisced about Earth. What have my parents been doing since they chucked me off the balcony? How is Japan handling my disappearance when I never showed up for university? Are they saying I’m missing? That I was spirited away? An unexplained disappearance? Kidnapping? The rumors won’t be pretty.

Are my friends doing well? How about Aika who was all fired up about her college debut? Or what about Rin who was concerned about being in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend?

Yuki thought of her many different friends whose memory grew hazier with each passing day. What did they think of Yuki and her disappearance? Had they forgotten her as they pursued their new lives? Tears welled, and she fought back a sniffle.

“Doesn’t it work out well this way? If I die, one of the possible catalysts for full-blown war will disappear… Besides, there’s a chance I might return to my world if I die in this one, right?”

Yuki was the one who admitted her lack of value, and yet the words hurt her. They weighed heavily on her mind.

I wanted them to at least deny it a little bit. I don’t care if it’s a lie; I wanted someone to say they needed me.

“That’s not it,” she muttered to herself.

I really just wanted to be useful. I wanted to be useful and have there be meaning to why I’m in this world—even if it results in my own death.

“…What’s not it?”

Surprised by the sudden voice, Yuki opened her eyes to see Luca easily climb onto the rooftop.

“…Luca.” She kind of hated how easily he got onto the roof after how hard it was for her.

“You really are an unmanageable tomboy.” He brushed his hair back in irritation. The moonlight illuminated his golden locks as they blew in the gentle night breeze. Yuki immediately averted her eyes when she realized she was captivated by the sight.

“Shut up,” she spun away, her eyes catching view of several vagrants clad in tattered clothes sleeping on the ground below. The sight brought on an intense sadness. “…I might have become like that too.”

Luca must have guessed what she meant. “You may very well have. But your eye color is unique. I think you would’ve been captured and sold long before you became a vagrant stuck begging for scraps,” he said something cruel as bluntly as ever. But what he said was as close to the truth as you could get, which made Yuki smile.

“Sold? You mean to a perverted fox like Isis?”

“Either that or to the person a certain someone likes to call rotten and evil.”

“You mean to your endearing brother?” she asked.

“Or to someone in a similar position,” he laughed.

“If I have to get picked up by someone either way, I’d want to be picked up by some kingdom’s knightly fourth prince,” she muttered. She knew Luca was looking at her, but she was too embarrassed to return his gaze. She was certain her face was bright red—she felt hot enough for it to be.

She looked up at the sky to change the topic, “The stars are pretty.”

She realized just how lucky and blessed she was to be in the situation she was in on Aridol. She realized how blessed she was to have lived the life she did with her parents on Earth until now—and craved to return; her helplessness was maddening. Everything became precious to her when she considered she might die tomorrow—she wanted to wail aloud.

Yuki was stuck dealing with an unmanageable jumble of emotions, yet the stars continued to twinkle as though they hadn’t a clue or care about her worries. She thought the stars were similar to the young man sitting beside her with a calm expression, as if he knew nothing of the mess of emotions and thoughts racing through her mind.

Somewhere in the distance, the quarrymen were still at work. The convicts worked day and night to fulfill their quotas. Her heart ached when she thought they were being forced to work through the night. She stared absently in the direction of the sound, when she caught sight of something glowing from the corner of her eye. She looked at her ring reflecting the lamplight

This ring is proof of our contract…huh? Now that I think about it, he made this contract with me to spite his rotten older brother, she recalled.

“Thanks,” she said. Even if the contract wasn’t for her sake, she appreciated it. “I was happy you contracted with me,” she smiled sweetly. She finally worked up the nerve to look at Luca’s face. But she felt as if this were their final farewell.

“…I’ll pick you up.”

“Huh?”

“If you fall somewhere again, I’ll pick you up and make another contract with you,” he murmured, turning his face away from her. He stared into the distance.

Yuki had no idea what this man was thinking since the day she met him. They may have been together for months now, but she still didn’t understand how his mind worked.

“Contracting with you may have been a spur-of-the-moment impulse on my half, but I don’t regret it,” Luca said. Yuki was captivated by how the moonlight danced across his face. Her heart squeezed as if it were in vise.

What is this? Her heart raced. She was too embarrassed to look at Luca directly. She should have been happy, but wanted to cry for some reason. What is this? What is this? What’s with this?

She couldn’t understand her own feelings. When Luca’s eyes met hers, she thought, Don’t look at me.

“D-Don’t joke around with me.” Her jumbled feelings made it impossible to understand anything. Was she happy? Sad? Lonely? Did she regret what she was doing?

“‘I don’t regret it?’ Don’t put it that way,” she complained.

I don’t understand. Tears fell messily from her eyes. “Say you’re glad you contracted with me!”

Luca smiled—he smiled in a way she had never seen him smile before. “Good point. I’m never bored now—I’m glad you’re the one I contracted with, Yuki.”

Why is he smiling? What’s with that remark?

Her heart skipped another beat. Her heart kept leaping without knowing how to calm itself. “Stupid Luca.”

Before she knew it, she was laughing. She felt like an invisible load had been taken off her chest. At the same time, she was happy enough she wanted to keep crying.