Chapter 16

 

 

 

Chapter 16

 

YUKI tossed a menacing look at Selena as she doubled over with laughter before finally letting go of her.

“Ahaha. I’m only kidding. Only about half end up married.”

“It’s not a joke then!”

The surprised children pushed out of their beds and ran over to the women thinking they were up to something fun.

“Yeah, but the sheer fact he contracted with you must mean he doesn’t have a bad opinion of you, I’d say,” Selena said, going over to the children’s bedding to roll it up and put it out of the way. “No sane Knight would bind themselves to someone they dislike, much less despise. Even if they were offered all the fortunes in the world.”

Yuki helped roll up Selena’s bedding where it lay on the floor. Since coming to the orphanage, they had slept in the big room with all the younger children. “If we go by that logic, then you must like Vigo too.”

“What?” A blanket slipped from Selena’s hands and tumbled onto the floor. The children running behind her as a game crashed into her muscled legs. She scooped up a little boy on the verge of tears and fixed an unreadable gaze on Yuki’s face.

“What’s that look for? Am I wrong?”

“No! You’re not wrong!” she spluttered. Yuki didn’t have a jot about what she was so flustered about. “Yes. I like him. I love him!”

Yuki smiled broadly as she set down the folded bedding and grabbed another shirt from the laundry basket. “Glad to hear it. You see, I like him too. He’s got a sharp tongue, but I like how he’s good at looking after other people despite it. Oh, for the record, I like you too, Selena,” she asserted.

A clearly despondent Selena collapsed onto a pile of blankets. “…Yuuuki, that’s cruel. Too unfair.”

“Huh? What is?”

Taking Selena’s dramatic collapse on the bedding as some sort of game, the children started piling up on her. They giggled as they dog-piled on top of each other. Selena laughed too and started wrestling with the children, knocking down their pile. Yuki finished folding the laundry and stood up with a pile in her hands.

“Rita wants to help too.”

Yuki turned toward the soft voice to find a girl around five tugging on her sleeve. The girl went by Rita and while she was the quiet type, she was very considerate of others despite her young age. She always offered to help with the chores. It was impressive how far Chiruka’s influence went with the children.

“Thank you, Rita. Can you take this amount for me then?” Yuki asked, placing a few shirts in Rita’s small, outstretched hands. “Rita, I forgot where you store your clothes. Do you mind showing me where to go?”

“This way.” Rita happily nodded and took the lead down the hallway. Yuki slowly followed behind her.

All the children here are really good kids. They walked down the hall until Rita turned around in front of one of the rooms.

“This is the place, Miss Yuki.”

“Oh, that’s right! Thanks, Rita.” Yuki pushed the door open with her foot and froze, her nails digging into the pile of clothes the only thing keeping them from slipping to the ground as her stomach churned at the man she saw inside.

Maruk’s prince.

The invisible burns and scars on her chest stung and stabbed. Her breath caught in her throat. Inside the room were the orphanage’s headmaster and Maruk’s second prince—the one who drugged her in the tower and sent her to be burned at the stake as the Witch he knew she wasn’t. Panic mounted inside her. Bile rose to her throat.

“Pasch!” Noticing the second prince—Pasch—Rita’s expression blossomed into a wide smile and she ran over to him.

“Rita!” he exclaimed.

“Come now, Rita. How many times must I warn you not to address him as such?”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind. What are you up to, Rita?”

“I came to put away the laundry!”

“You’re such a good girl,” he praised, patting the top of her head. He looked up from her when he noticed Yuki motionlessly standing in the doorway. Those familiar ultramarine eyes that haunted her nightmares locked onto her face. She instinctively turned her face away. “You—”

Oh no! Yuki regretted how blatant her action was. Did she give herself away? But I look different now. I-I should be safe, right?

She turned back and flashed him a brilliant smile even she was surprised she could muster under the tension threatening to cause a mental breakdown. Taken by surprise, Pasch’s eyes widened.

“She is an assistant accompanying a doctor who is currently staying here. She has done much good by us, looking after the children and handling the chores,” the headmaster mentioned, introducing Yuki.

“Is that so?” Pasch said in a perfunctory reply. His eyes kept drifting to her as if he had more to say.

Well, of course my sixteen-year-old self would resemble my ten-year-old body.

Vivi didn’t manipulate Yuki’s appearance to look like a completely different person. Aside from changing her eye color and height, not much differed from how she would have looked if she had simply aged six years.

“…Do you have a younger sister?”

“No…I don’t.”

“I see.”

He’s like a completely different person. He’s not showing any of the blatant malice he treated me with in the tower.

“Miss Yuki, this gentleman is—” the headmaster started.

“Pasch. I occasionally stay here. I’ll be here for a few days this time. I hope we can get along.”

He stays here? The second prince of a country as big as Maruk? And the way he’s talking…he’s clearly trying to hide his status. Why is a Maruk prince staying at one of Rvydom’s orphanages? Several questions raced through her mind, but she couldn’t bring herself to give more than a perfunctory reply.

“Pasch! Let’s play!” Rita said, returning from putting away the clothes to grab Pasch’s hand.

“Sure, let’s do that. Are the others in the big room right now?”

“Yeah!” Rita held her arms out in a bid to be picked up. Pasch gave in to her wishes and lifted her into his arms.

“All right, Headmaster, please take care of what we discussed.”

“Very well. I shall.”

With Rita in his arms, Pasch looked from the headmaster to Yuki before leaving the room. The room suddenly felt larger with him gone. And Yuki could finally breathe again.

I had the same impression in the tower, but he’s someone with a presence you can’t ignore. Yuki straightened out the laundry crumpled under her grip and placed it in the cupboard.

***

THE headmaster summoned Yuki to his office later that day. “Miss Yuki, I need to speak with you.”

It didn’t take much to realize he wanted to talk about Pasch. No doubt he caught on to the tension between them.

“What about?”

He stood and straightened his posture. “Do you hate Maruk, Miss Yuki?”

“…Excuse me?” she squeaked, his question not the one she expected. “Ah, s-sorry. Umm, hate is…”

The memories of the time she spent in Maruk came rushing back to her. Invading the prison tower with Luca, breaking Dante and Galian out of the underground prison and rescuing them. Running from Luca only to watch a boy be slaughtered by Orga and find herself a prisoner to be burned and used for his schemes. Then she met Padi and found herself propped up on a stake, its flames licking at her legs. Remembering the place where she was to be executed still caused her to tremble with unthinkable fear and to grip at the now invisible seal seared into her chest as it groaned with a piercing ache.

“I do not hate Maruk,” she confessed.

“Why not?”

Why? Because the only reason they executed me was because of that vulgar older brother’s machinations. Her thoughts stopped there as she realized there was something faulty with her thinking. Rvydom was at war with Maruk. They conscripted their citizens and sent them off to war.

The war between Rvydom and Maruk brought about the loss of friends, family, and loved ones for many people. People who were weighed down with more sorrow than they could bear still despaired in large numbers across Aridol even after the war.

Yuki felt terrible. “I…believe it is because I haven’t experienced the war between Maruk and Rvydom.”

The headmaster didn’t hide his shock at her confession. Aridol was embroiled in enough wars and skirmishes no child alive today knew anything but war.

“I recently came from a faraway place—another country. There hasn’t been a war for decades where I come from. I’m traveling with Vigo and Selena to increase my knowledge of this land.”

I don’t think I’m lying.

A quiet smile touched his face. “Is that so? Lord Pasch…Lord Paschwell was placed in charge as the governor of Rvydom once it was absorbed into Maruk.”

Yuki was shocked a boy who didn’t look much older than her served in such an important position. Padi said he governed Cele too. Is it a prince thing? She remembered the young man with long pale-blue hair and icy-blue eyes as clear as glass.

“As you would expect, the scars of war have left deep-rooted hatred. Most people do not take fondly to Lord Paschwell at first.”

“I don’t see why they would…”

Even with how peaceful Japan was, wars still erupted across different regions on Earth. A long time was necessary for things to recoup to even half of what they were in prewar days. People couldn’t travel to some regions because it still wasn’t safe.

“Despite the hatred he receives, Lord Paschwell has taken pity on the people of Rvydom. He has done much in the way of charity for us. This orphanage is but one example. Lord Paschwell is the one who has supported and supplied us with the necessary food and equipment we need.”

“He…has?” Yuki choked. The man who told her—someone he thought was but a child—to die for Rvydom, was a benefactor of orphanages? What irony.

“I don’t mean to mislead you into thinking no one has been against Lord Paschwell… Quite the opposite really. Everyone hated him. His country invaded the peaceful land of Rvydom and mocks us by offering alms? Are they trying to further squash our pride by waving what we once had back in our faces?” the headmaster spat and continued as if something bitter was on his tongue, “But, regardless of how the people disparage him, he frequently visits us, bringing food and supplies. He is kind to our children. And still apologizes fervently for not being able to do more for us…”

Though she tried, Yuki couldn’t imagine his efforts on behalf of the people of Rvydom. But the headmaster’s voice quivered from reliving Pasch’s consideration for them.

“When Rvydom lost the war, Lord Paschwell hadn’t even reached his seventh year. Yet after all his attempts, he wiggled his way in and won our acceptance. It is not just this orphanage that feels this way either. All the citizens of Rvydom have come to support and back him. So please do not loath him—”

Stop. Please stop it. Yuki begged with her eyes.

“I’ll try…” she barely managed to squeeze out as her throat constricted around the words. Panic and confusion fought for dominion over her emotions. After all he had done to her, she had to hear others praise her executioner? The man whose daily mantra was telling her to die? That same man was helping Rvydom?

“What a relief to hear. That is all I wanted to say. I have other business to attend to, so if you will excuse me here,” the headmaster said, nodding to her as he slipped out the door behind her. If it wasn’t just her imagination, he seemed to be in high spirits.

Left all alone in the office, Yuki stood unmoving.

“…Why?”

Why had he been so cruel to her? Why were people singing his praises now? Why did she have to see him again and relive those nightmarish days?

In the distance what sounded like laughter echoed.