Chapter 3

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

THE clothing Rifaenotis brought back for Yuki clearly belonged to someone several times her size. The large shirt he handed her easily slid over her head and to her knees like a short dress. It hid enough for her to lie in bed without revealing anything immodest.

Satisfied by seeing her lie down, Rifae left Est’s room and came back a minute later with some clay tools. He moved a table and chair from the other side of the room to her bedside. He placed a mortar and some unfamiliar herbs on top of the table where he set about his work.

“……”

Yuki lay on her side, silently watching him grind herbs. He began talking without looking at her. “I’m making your medicine, Yuki.”

“Medicine…?”

“Yup. You won’t die from a Buibui’s bite, but the poison will keep you in an elated state for a long time, and if it worsens you will become intoxicated by it. This leads to eventual addiction.”

Rifae added leaves and oddly shaped nuts to the mortar and started grinding. He got up in the middle of his work to go to another room and came back with a vial filled with an eerie liquid. He added the liquid to the mortar and grinded some more. Yuki absently watched him work. She was enduring an unrelenting headache that felt like hammers pounding against her skull.

“…Hey, Yuki, why were you in the middle of the forest?” his gentle voice echoed in her ears. When she couldn’t figure out what he meant by his question, he explained in more detail. “You see, not many people travel out here. Location-wise, it’s about dead center between the three countries’ borders. It’s about halfway up the mountain.”

Halfway up the mountain? Meaning I entered the mountain range without realizing it? Makes sense why I never saw any mountains in front of me then.

“There are no villages or towns anywhere near here. Why were you in a place like this with such light equipment?”

Rifae took the paste he ground up in the mortar and smeared it on a leaf. He made Yuki roll over and pressed the leaf against her wounded neck. An electric current rushed through her neck the moment the paste made contact.

“…!” Yuki gasped.

“You have to endure the pain.”

She spotted something white out of the corner of her eye—a cloth bandage. Rifae deftly wrapped her neck and began on his next concoction.

“I have my doubts about you, but I’m also grateful,” Rifae admitted.

Grateful?

Yuki rolled back over to watch Rifae as he grounded up berries. She found him very handsome with his pretty wavy hair. His eyes met hers when he felt her gaze.

“You see, I got into a tiff with Est.”

Yuki remembered how he mentioned being in a fight with someone when he was carrying her. Through her fevered daze, Rifae appeared somber and like someone from out of this world. Then again, she too was from another world.

“The fault lies with me, but still…secrets are a difficult matter.” Rifae gasped and glanced at Yuki as his hands went about their work. Her eyes met his intense gaze; he forced a doleful smile.

“Oh, dear me. Whatever am I saying? …You have such mysterious eyes, Yuki. They make me feel like spilling my deepest secrets to you.” Rifae scrutinized her. “You remind me of someone I knew well.”

“…...”

His voice and expression filled with nostalgia. It almost sounded as if he had given up hope of ever seeing the person again and it killed him on the inside. Yuki felt as if she saw some deep part of him she shouldn’t have.

“Don’t get me wrong—the person you remind me of is a man,” Rifae said with a hopeless smile that took Yuki’s breath away. His smile was just too ephemeral.

***

YUKI had seen many different smiles since coming to Aridol. Tita’s smile was ladylike, while Luca’s feigned smiles were pretty in a way only something fake can be, like the smile painted on a glass doll. Rifaenotis’ smile was one filled with pain. Not that he himself was in pain, but rather it pained all those who witnessed it. Perhaps that’s what people call a heartrending smile.

The door was clumsily shoved open. A mouthwatering scent wafted into the room.

“Food’s ready.”

Yuki gulped. Her stomach howled, only now remembering its raving hunger. Saliva filled her mouth. Est came to the opposite side of the bed from Rifae and placed a tray of food on Yuki’s lap once she sat up.

“Be careful, it’s hot,” he warned curtly. Something resembling porridge let off steam on top of the tray.

“You…made this?”

Green dotted the whitish-brown porridge from the thinly chopped vegetables added to make the porridge more nutritious.

“You got a problem with that?”

Yuki looked up at Est in his oversized shirt and baggy pants. His expression bluntly bared his irritation.

“You’re amazing!”

“N-Not really! Just hurry up and eat before it cools down.”

Spurred on by his remark, Yuki put her hands together in prayer and picked up her spoon. Her stomach sought food to the point she felt it knotting. She scooped the soup and blew on it with all the air in her lungs. She blew on it several more times until she couldn’t wait anymore.

Hot! Her face twisted with pain from the searing heat, but she was more enraptured by the savory taste spreading across her tongue than the burning sensation. It’s so tasty…

Scoop after scoop, she ate until even the spoon wasn’t enough and she could only lick the bowl clean.

“You must’ve been quite hungry, dear…” Rifae said in awe as he watched her.

Yuki nodded several times.

“You want…another bowl?”

Yuki’s eyes turned to Est like a hungry dog to a fresh slab of meat. Est showed the first signs of happiness since she met him—he was happy she enjoyed his food so much.

“I can have more?” She quickly gobbled down all the food leaving nothing behind. But her stomach still gurgled.

“Yeah, I don’t mind. Rifae, why don’t we take this chance to eat too?” Est asked Rifae with such awkwardness Yuki could sense their tension even though she just met them.

“S-Sure,” Rifae agreed with a soft smile.

“Just wait. I’ll bring the whole pot over,” Est said and left the room.

Yuki watched him go as she scraped the corners of her bowl for any remaining morsel. Rifae smiled at the door Est left through.

I wonder if they made up.

Yuki thought they had a curious relationship.