♚Chapter 7: Kiss Me If We Make It to Dawn
♚Chapter 7: Kiss Me If We Make It to Dawn
ROCK was dreaming. It was a dream that brought up nostalgic memories, like reading an old diary.
The dream took her back to the small cabin she had called home when she used to live in the farming village with her mother. While her mother, Vale, got dinner ready, Rock mended clothes in the kitchen beside her. Her mother had taught her how to sew at ten, and this was a memory from the time she was finally getting used to using a needle and thread. She enjoyed making accessories with her needlework, she rejoiced when she succeeded in mending a tear, and she practiced on any piece of ripped clothing she found.
“Lookie look! I did it, Mom!”
Hearing her daughter’s voice, Vale stopped in the middle of cooking and checked her finished work. “You’ve gotten good, Roxy.” She would praise her and pat her on the head whenever she did a good job.
Always kind, her mother was a very beautiful woman on the inside and out. Rock had inherited her wine-colored hair from her. She taught Rock everything she needed to know about the art of making clothes, from how to make a stitch to threading a needle. There weren’t many tailoring jobs in a poor rural village, and it wasn’t an easy life by any means, but there was always peace in their home.
“I’m going to be a tailor, too, when I get bigger!”
Her mother always beamed at her whenever she said that. “Want to open a shop with me when you get bigger, then?”
“I do!”
“What kind of tailor do you want to be, Roxy?”
The young Rock pondered her mother’s question. She wanted to be a tailor, but she never thought about what kind.
She tilted her head to the side and tapped her finger against her chin. “A tailor who makes lots of money!”
Vale burst out laughing at her adult answer. “Your eye for money is just like a certain someone’s.”
“Who’s that? Who’s that?”
“No one… Making money is important, too, Roxy,” she agreed first, before softly telling her, “You see, I became a tailor because I wanted to make my customers happy.”
“Happy?”
“Yes, happy. There’s not a person in this world who doesn’t wear clothes, right?”
On normal days, on special days, on nights, and on weekends, everyone wears clothes.
The clothes Rock used to wear back then were all made by Vale. Everything from the everyday clothes she wore to work the fields, her work clothes for tending the shop, her nice dresses for attending church, her pajamas, and even her undergarments were made by Vale. Each piece of clothing her mother made fit comfortably and perfectly to Rock’s body.
“Clothes give a subtle, untainted happiness when someone puts them on and feels more comfortable or when they stand in front of the mirror and like themselves more today than they did yesterday.” Vale hugged her small daughter and kissed her gently on the cheek. “A tailor, you see, is a profession that offers modest happiness to people.”
It was a heartwarming, bittersweet, and very sad memory. Tears trickled down from Rock’s closed eyes, informing her that she was dreaming.
“Roxy! Roxy!” Ebel was calling for her somewhere close.
Snapping awake, she opened her eyes, and a big, black furball filled her tear-blurred vision. Sharp pain shot through her shoulder when she lifted her arm to wipe her eyes. “Agh!”
“Try not to move it. You hit your shoulder pretty hard,” Ebel said, exhaling a deep sigh of relief. “But thank goodness… I didn’t know what to do if you never woke up.”
Rock blinked away the tears in her eyes, and Ebel’s face peering into hers became clearer. His pointy ears were flat against his head with worry, and his golden eyes wavered with his inner turmoil. She saw an unfamiliar stone ceiling past his broad, furry shoulders.
“Ebel, where are we…?” She tasted blood when she spoke, but her pain wasn’t bad enough to prevent her from talking. Her back ached when she breathed in, but it didn’t feel like anything was broken.
“Inside the secret passage I brought you to before,” Ebel answered in a subdued voice. “The one connected to my study’s closet. Don’t remember?”
That was enough to bring the events before she passed out flooding back into her mind. Guido had unleashed the curse hidden within the statue, transforming into a full werewolf and going mad enough that he flung Iniel, Johanna, and Phoebe into the air.
“Wh-Where is everyone? What happened after I blacked out?” Rock tried to sit up, but the werewolf’s big paw stopped her.
“I don’t know. I focused all my efforts on picking you up and escaping in here.” Ebel weakly shook his head, a bloody gash marring his left ear from the time Guido was pounding him. Wet blood oozed from the wound, indicating not much time had passed since then.
“Then we have to make sure they are all—”
“I’ll go, so stay here for me,” Ebel said over her, quietly pointing out, “You hit your back and shoulder. You shouldn’t move.”
Just because she sustained injuries didn’t mean she could sit still and do nothing. She clung to his furry hand and pulled herself up, enduring the shockwaves of pain. She wasn’t bleeding anywhere visible, and while her joints ached, she was capable of standing.
“I’m coming with you,” she insisted. “I want to make sure everyone is safe, and I’m worried about that man too.”
“I’ll handle Guido,” Ebel asserted, speaking strongly for the first time. “He still isn’t in his right mind. It’s my duty to stop him.”
“The more people the better. I’m joining you.”
“You can’t. It’s too dangerous.”
Rock gleaned the urgency in his obstinate refusal. He didn’t want her coming with him no matter what.
“That’s how it is the first time. You lose your mind and self-awareness. Father stopped my rampage long enough for me to regain control and hold myself back, but…” His agonized sigh echoed in the narrow space. “It has to be me…who stops Guido this time.”
“You blame yourself too much if you feel responsible for his choices, Ebel,” Rock argued, drawing a pained half smile from him.
“Your kindness knows no bounds. But this is still my responsibility.”
“How?! The curse is at fault, not you!”
“Even so. As one who has been cursed, I shouldn’t have allowed another to experience that misery.” As Rock feared, Ebel blamed himself for what happened with Guido. “I should’ve noticed sooner that Guido was infatuated with the werewolf. I have to be the one to put him in his place before he harms anyone else.” Balling his inhuman hand into a fist, he wrenched out in a shaky voice, “I’ll stop him, even if it means we both go down.”
His grim determination struck Rock in the heart. What he had said before Guido unleashed the curse upon himself rang in her ears: “There’s nothing good about becoming a werewolf!”
She didn’t question that was how he truly felt deep down, but at the same time, it gutted her. Those were the feelings behind the man who was always optimistic and cheerful in front of her. Beneath his sunny smile and level composure was a man who lamented his fate.
Rock was a tailor. Before her mother died, she called it a profession that offers modest happiness to others. Even Rock should have the power to make the person suffering in front of her, the man she cared about, happy.
“Don’t think about going down with him!” Rock seized Ebel’s shoulders and brought her face to his wet, black nose. She stared into those cursed and glowing, yet still beautiful, eyes. “You have me, don’t you?!” She emphatically appealed to those wide-open eyes. “I only know the part of your life that I have been around for. But the you who smiled and had fun with me wasn’t fake. There will be even more fun and happy things to come! I will make you happy! I won’t be happy if you don’t continue to be with me from now on!”
They made a promise. She promised to put her heart and soul into the cloak he ordered, and he promised to come for it.
If her mother was right, and being a tailor meant giving others happiness, Ebel should experience happiness from putting on that cloak. The joy over donning new clothes and having them fit like a glove, and the blissful comfort of it, would surely bring him happiness.
Maybe, just maybe, Rock was capable of bringing him even more happiness than what her work alone was able to do.
“Please do me this favor and let me come with you,” Rock beseeched. Ebel stared dumbly back at her, so she took the honesty approach: “Even if you tell me no, I’ll follow you against all odds!”
Ebel wasn’t her only concern—her heart ached to know how Phoebe and the others were faring. She even worried for Guido.
“Mother used to say that tailoring is a profession that offers happiness to others.”
Various customers, good and bad, made use of her services. Rock wished happiness for them, regardless of who they were.
“I don’t wish misfortune upon anyone. Not even on Guido Linus… That man will surely suffer when he regains himself. Hurting many people and being cursed will be burdens he will forever carry. And that’s exactly why we must stop him before his mistakes become unbearable.”
Just as Ebel had regained his humanity, Guido wasn’t stuck inside the body of a werewolf forever. He should revert back to human with time. They had no way of telling what his thoughts would be like then. Perhaps he would taste suffering over being cursed as Ebel had. Even regret what he had done.
Stopping Guido from rampaging wasn’t the end, but only the beginning.
“It’s your turn to step in when he regrets what he has done, Ebel.” Rock moved her hands from his shoulders to cup his cheeks. The werewolf’s muzzle was soft to the touch, fluffy, and a little warm. Though his appearance was completely different, blood pumped through the veins beneath all that fur, and so did the same spark of life. “You are the only one capable of showing Guido Linus that while there is pain and suffering in being a werewolf, there is also joy and happiness.”
Rock closed her eyes and slowly tilted her head toward his. She planted an awkward kiss on top of his werewolf nose. “…I will make you happy.” She had confidence that she was capable of doing that. “So you both have to live.”
For a long moment, Ebel stared at her as if his breath had been taken away. His golden eyes opened as wide as they could go, his triangular ears perked up, and he zoned out as if captivated by her.
After what felt like eternity, he blinked and croaked, “…Why the nose?”
“Is that really your first question?” Rock frowned to hide her embarrassment. “I didn’t know where to kiss your big mouth.” The werewolf’s black lips opened sideways, and she couldn’t figure out how to kiss them. Plus, it was strange for her first kiss to taste of blood. “But my lips would be buried in fur if I kissed you on the cheek or forehead.”
She pinched the black fur under her hands, and Ebel chuckled. “Then I want another one when I’m human again.”
“I’ll do it as often as you want if that is what makes you happy.”
“It will make me happier than I’ve ever been at any other point in my life.” He put his hands on her back and helped her stand as gently as he could. After sharing another look with her, he gallantly proclaimed, “I’m going to leave this passage, find Guido, and stop him if need be. I’m going to beat into him how to live as a werewolf. You’re coming with me, aren’t you, Roxy?”
“Absolutely, Ebel,” she agreed without a moment’s delay. Ebel’s change of heart made her happier than anything else could.
♚♚♚
THEY raced through the narrow passages winding throughout the manor. Along the way, they heard through the walls and floor beneath them howls, erratic footsteps, and the crash of things breaking. With every sound, Rock worried about Phoebe and the others.
After taking several corners, Ebel moved the wall at the end of the passage, revealing a familiar reception room for them to jump inside. The room Rock had waited in during her last visit was empty. Darkness still reigned outside the windows, and straining her eyes with the assistance of the starlight, she saw it hadn’t been wrecked yet.
“Looks like they haven’t come this way.”
Ebel’s ears flicked back and forth. “I hear people running. Likely Guido and…someone else.” The werewolf count’s amplified hearing easily picked up on who was moving through the manor. Though that didn’t guarantee the person fleeing was going to stay safe.
Rock and Ebel bolted into the corridor.
The erratic footsteps grew louder as they advanced through the corridors and neared the staircase leading upstairs. Rock warily peeked around the corner just as someone tall dropped onto the carpeted landing lit by the crystal chandelier. The person who was tossed on the landing, rather than willingly jumping down, rolled to their feet and cursed.
“Stubborn bastard!” Groaning with blood dribbling down his lips, Phoebe glared at the top of the stairs with his dagger out.
“Phoebe!” Rock cried out against her better judgment.
She knew he would be safe, but confirming it with her own eyes brought the first sense of relief she felt that night. His chestnut curls had been pulled loose from his ponytail, and his damaged leather armor was dangling off his muscular frame. For all that, he stood in one piece, which couldn’t be said for the rest of the manor.
Phoebe shifted only his eyes her way, and momentary relief swept over his brave face. His relief dispersed as he locked eyes on the monster closing in on him from above, and he bit down on his lower lip.
“Roxy, run! He’s coming!”
A deranged howl pierced the air, adding urgency to Phoebe’s warning. The inhuman roar steadily drew closer with the thundering beat of four limbs pounding the floor above.
“This way, Phoebe!” Ebel shouted. He threw open one of the doors downstairs and urged Rock and Phoebe to follow him in.
Rock looked over her shoulder at Phoebe, but Phoebe was already moving. He scooped her under his arm and plunged into the room after Ebel.
It appeared to be the dining room. The center of the room was taken up by a rectangular dark marble dining table, surrounded on all sides by upholstered chairs. Unlit candlesticks sat in ornate silver holders on either end of the table. A fire wasn’t burning in the fireplace when Ebel twisted his enormous body inside and quickly disappeared above. From the looks of it, another hidden door leading upstairs was built within the fireplace.
Rock and Phoebe peeked inside and saw golden eyes glowing within the dark, narrow passage snaking upstairs.
“Come in here for now.” Ebel reached down his furry hand and grabbed Rock first. He easily lifted her up with one hand and did the same for Phoebe next.
Right after they climbed inside the passage, they heard clawed feet scraping around the wooden corridors in front of the dining room. Did he lack the intelligence to realize the dining room door was open? The deranged werewolf’s howl and thundering steps passed right by and disappeared down the corridor.
Three sighs echoed within the small crawlspace above the fireplace.
Rock inventoried her surroundings. Ebel had pulled her into a small stone room similar to what lay beyond the secret passage connected to his study. The warm light of a lantern burned here too, hinting at someone’s frequent use of its confined space. The hidden passage continued beyond the room, but she couldn’t tell at a glance where it led around all the bends.
“What is this place?”
Ebel’s pointed ears turned toward Phoebe’s logical question. “This is a secret passage for emergency escapes. It’s mostly used to hide my true form.”
“Heh…” Phoebe drawled out that single syllable.
“Irony is, I never thought I’d need it to ward off another werewolf.” Gloom hung over Ebel’s voice, but his secret passage had saved their lives.
“Anyway, you saved my butt out there.” Phoebe flopped back on the stone floor and exhaled an exhausted breath.
“Are you all right? Hurt anywhere?” Rock scooted over to him, earning an indescribably bitter smile.
“I made it out alive by the skin of my teeth. I’m more or less in one piece, though the blighter clawed me more than once.” He made light of it, but Rock knew what he went through was anything but. If he hadn’t been wearing armor, he would’ve been torn to shreds. “Look at you, girl. You’re covered in cuts and bruises.” He rested his palm on her cheek.
Intense pain accompanied his warm and gentle touch. Stinging pain from the cuts on her lip turned her smile into a wince. “I haven’t looked in the mirror yet. But it’s not as bad as it looks.”
“I hope it doesn’t leave a scar… How could this happen to you before marriage?” Phoebe lamented.
Ebel quickly chimed in, “You don’t have to worry about her marriage prospects. I’ll take responsibility and marry her.”
“Nobody asked you to,” Phoebe quipped, while Rock hid her blush beside him. Ebel just dropped a crazy proposal in the middle of all the chaos. However, the idyllic mood ended there.
Ebel suddenly took a deep breath and asked Phoebe, “How are…Ludovicus and the others?” The werewolf’s facial expression didn’t change much, but fear audibly laced his words.
Phoebe shifted into a serious demeanor to answer him. “The butler is fine. The coachman and maid…were breathing the last I checked.”
“…They were?” Ebel clenched his jaw.
Wiping the bloody sweat from his brow, Phoebe ranted, “I couldn’t see to them with that wolf bastard bearing down on us. They wouldn’t have survived another attack, so I left them to the butler and lured Lord Wolf away. It was the start of a fun game of tag, where being caught means a nice blade to the throat.” His eyes drifted to Rock, and his tone softened by several degrees. “I wanted to check on you, but you weren’t in the study. Believing you were safe with His Excellency, I ran that mangy mutt in circles around the house.”
“It took everything I had just to get her out of there.” Ebel looked at Rock with sadness in his eyes.
Phoebe gave a slow nod. “That was the best choice. I would’ve done the same.”
Rock suddenly wondered what she would have done in their position. What if she could save only one person in that room? Bravery had her jumping on Guido’s back without thinking about herself, and still she knew she wouldn’t have been able to make the decision Ebel had. Chances were that she would’ve been rooted to the floor without choosing anyone at all.
What did she have to do if she wanted to save them all—not just one? Her next choices mattered if she wanted to make that happen.
Face set in a hard mask, Phoebe asked the most important question. “So? What do we prioritize next? How do you want to handle him, Your Excellency?”
After speaking with Rock, Ebel had his answer ready. “I won’t let Guido die. We’re going to save him and everyone else.”
“Are you sane…?” Phoebe swore. He knew how difficult that was going to be to pull off. With a bitter edge to his voice, he questioned, “Or rather, is there even a way to bring back his sanity?”
Ebel blinked his golden eyes. “A strong will can control the werewolf’s power. Though that’s beyond Guido in his current state.”
“How about we knock him out?” Rock interjected, drawing on her memory of what Ebel told her about his first night as a werewolf. He’d spent that night in solitude, sleeping on top of the cold stone floor. “You went to sleep and woke up back to normal after your first transformation, right? Won’t the same apply to Guido?”
“I hope it will, but the problem is how we get him to sleep.” Ebel stroked his furry chin, the lantern light reflecting off his thick claws. “If we’re lucky, we can exhaust him until he falls asleep, but it’s unlikely our stamina will last longer than his. We’re stuck with either finding a way to knock him out or punching him until he comes to his senses.”
“That’s a sketchy strategy. You want to capture him alive, I take it?” Phoebe assumed, exasperated.
“Sorry, but that’s the only option on the table.” Ebel didn’t want to consider the alternative.
“You think you and I can take him in a fair fight? Lord Wolf’s not to be underestimated, Your Excellency.”
“We have the upper hand here. Launching a surprise attack increases our chances of success.”
More than being a rough strategy without much thought, it was a strategy that clung to a faint hope. Neither Ebel nor Phoebe knew if what they were plotting was possible. Rock understood they didn’t have many options if they wanted to take him alive. Guido was no different from a wild beast incapable of understanding words. Even so, they had to capture him alive and bring back the man from within the beast.
“How about we lay a trap for him?” Rock suggested. Ebel and Phoebe turned toward her. She explained her plan to them with urgency. “I’ll make a bag you can capture Guido alive with. Whether it be sheets, blankets, or curtains, I’ll use whatever big fabrics we can get our hands on to sew a sturdy bag you can use to stop his movement.” She wanted to increase their faint hope of success to something with more certainty. “Our opponent is a werewolf. A bag won’t keep him tripped up for long, but if we can rob him of his sight and movement for a short time, our chances of success will double.”
“Good idea. We can turn the tides in our favor if we pull it off,” Phoebe said, approving the idea on the spot, and Ebel consented right after.
“Agreed. It’s a decent plan.” He scratched the spot between his pointy ears and hesitantly asked, “I know it’s rude to ask this, but…can you pull off such a quick sew job?”
“I am a tailor. You can rest assured I will have it done,” Rock answered with pride. This job was going to require more speed and accuracy from her than any other in her career.
The three of them crawled through the narrow confines of the passage leading from the small room and exited into a room on the third floor.
“This is my room,” Ebel explained. A bed fit for a king took up the back wall. The room, much larger than Rock’s entire flat, was decorated with étagère, decorative wall tapestries, and scenic oil paintings. Unlike the splendor of the reception room, only practical wooden furnishings filled his bedroom. “You can use anything you find.”
With the owner’s permission, Rock stripped the blankets and sheets from the bed. She had a sewing kit on her at all times. She pulled a needle and thread from the kit hanging from her belt and immediately got to work.
Just as she began sewing the blanket to the sheet, Ebel, ears twitching, alerted them of their target’s proximity: “…He’s come.”
Rock’s ears didn’t pick up on anything yet, but she felt a slight vibration through the floor she sat on. No one could guess what drove Guido now that he’d lost control, but he seemed to be searching high and low for someone to satiate his desire to rampage more.
“I’ll go play with him,” Phoebe proposed.
Startled, Rock’s eyes followed him when he stood up. “W-Will you be okay? Isn’t it dangerous?”
He laughed off her concerns. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to continue our game of tag.”
“But—”
“You don’t want him barging in here before you’re ready, right? We have to lure him away,” Phoebe said, trying to persuade Rock before she persisted in arguing, then he glanced over at Ebel.
Ebel nodded without any words passing between them. “I’ll protect Roxy. We’ll catch up to you as soon as she’s finished sewing the bag.”
“Let me know when you’re armed and ready. I’ll bring him to you,” Phoebe said, explaining the plan to Ebel. Then, seeing that Rock was still worried, he told her, “Work hard at your role in this.”
“…I will,” she squeezed out.
Phoebe flashed her a winning smile and winked. “Let’s pop open that bottle of wine when we get home. I love ya, Roxy.” He quietly opened the door, stepped into the corridor, and silently shut the door behind him. The sound of his running echoed through the halls until it, too, became out of earshot.
Threaded needle in hand, Rock’s gaze lingered on the closed door. She was dumbstruck by the words her father left her with. She had said the same thing to Phoebe when she thought he was someone else, none the wiser that she had directly told her father that she loved him.
“…Love, eh?” Ebel repeated in a deep growl, sending Rock into a panic.
“Um, he’s…well, he’s my father. Probably. I’m pretty positive,” she explained as best she could.
Ebel let out a short chuckle, not all too surprised. “For a while now, I thought that might be the case.”
Maybe her eyes were blinded to the truth because of how close they had been.
“I’ve got to say you’re a lot like your parents,” Ebel murmured, convinced they were father and daughter while Rock was still reeling in shock.
She hoped that was true. She wanted to be brave like her father, kind like her mother, and a tailor who did quick work.
Rock put her heart and soul into every stitch for her father and everyone else whose safety rode on this plan succeeding.
She finally finished sewing a large bag out of the blanket and sheets. Using bedding as the base material created a big bag she could fit completely inside. It was large enough to rob the werewolf of its sight and movement.
Rock and Ebel left his bedroom carrying the finished bag. They were on the third floor, while Guido and Phoebe were carrying out their game of tag on the floor below. Impatience coursed through Rock as she heard the howls of the werewolf who showed no signs of slowing down.
Tamping down her feelings, she prepared the trap with calm mindfulness. “I would lay a snare trap if we were trying to catch a small animal.” Growing up in a farming village gave her some experience with trapping.
“What’s a snare trap?” Ebel asked.
“It’s a hunting method that ensnares the limbs of the animal that stepped on the snare, or noose, and suspends it in the air. But it’s not great for something of werewolf size…” The biggest thing she caught in the village was a wild boar. Against a werewolf, the best it could manage was restraining his arms and legs, but suspension was unlikely with their tools. “The only methods available to us right now are to either drop the bag on him from above or to knock him down and pull the bag over his head and pull the straps tight.”
“Knocking him over sounds like it has a higher chance of success,” Ebel surmised while his ears twitched. “Launching an attack on a nine-foot-tall werewolf from above poses too many complications. Just dropping the bag on him from up high won’t cover a rampaging werewolf.”
“None of the options will be easy,” Rock concluded, preparing herself for what was to come.
“But we can do it,” Ebel cheerfully exclaimed to set her mind at ease. “God will show us the way.”
Rock didn’t believe in God. But if her prayers would reach Him starting now, she would gladly become His follower. “May your god protect you,” she said without sarcasm.
Ebel’s golden eyes flashed and captured her in their sights. “I also have the goddess of victory on my side. Everything will go well.”
“…Yes, yes it will.” She even wanted to believe in the sayings that set her teeth on edge. Setting aside her fear, she gave a steely nod and set about enacting their plan.
Mateus Manor’s third-floor corridor extended to the left and right of the grand staircase. Over ten rooms lined the corridor, and aside from Ebel’s bedroom, almost all of them were used for guests.
Rock and Ebel opened two guest room doors facing each other in the corridor and moved the beds in each room close to the doors. In the place of rope, they corded thin pieces of cloth they tore off the curtains and tightly tied the ends to the bed legs in each room. By pulling the cord taut across the corridor with each heavy bed as an anchor, they were setting a trap to trip the werewolf.
Guido was supposed to trip over the cord long enough for them to pull the bag over his head, pull the straps closed, and punch him until he settled down—that was the plan.
“I’m going to lure Guido over. Hide,” Ebel said before he ran for the stairs.
Rock darted into another guest room with the bag and left the door open a crack to keep an eye on the corridor.
Before long, heavy footfalls approached from the staircase.
“Up the stairs to the left!” Ebel shouted and appeared at the top of the stairs first. He was in the same werewolf form as Guido, but they ran completely different. Ebel ran with his shoulders back, his arms swinging, and his head held high—just like a person.
Phoebe followed right behind him. He had enough leeway for a quick glance over his shoulder at the werewolf charging him. Unlike Ebel, this werewolf’s back was hunched, and he tore across the floor on all fours like a savage beast. Pieces of the floor cracked beneath his claws and flew behind him.
“Phoebe, watch the ground!”
“Got it!” Phoebe responded to Rock’s warning.
Ebel, then Phoebe, jumped over the trap and hurtled into the guest room with Rock. Ebel took the bag and went right back into the corridor, while Rock and Phoebe watched over him from the doorway.
Rock’s warning to Phoebe didn’t register in Guido’s dish-like ears, nor did he notice the trip trap stretched across the corridor. His forelegs caught on the taut cord as he ran after them without slowing down. The cord pulled tight, slamming the beds loudly against the door frame. Werewolf Guido pitched forward, the cord not breaking under his weight, and his whole body lifted off the ground for a second before he dove muzzle first into the floor.
The impact shook the mansion and sent tingling shockwaves through Rock.
“Now!” Ebel sprung forward and pulled the bag over the downed Guido just as he was rising on his haunches, but the bag robbed him of sight, and he began violently struggling. He thrashed his legs and arms, howled louder than a stormy night, and shook his bulky frame like an enraged bull trying to throw off a rider. “GUH!”
Despite being a werewolf himself, Ebel was weaker for being in control, and Guido nearly threw him off, so he hopped on his back to better restrain him.
“Is he a bottomless pit of energy or what?!” Phoebe flew out of the room and pinned down the arm about to throw Ebel off.
Guido truly seemed to have endless energy as a werewolf. A night of rampaging did nothing to drain him of stamina or rage. He continued thrashing about so violently, he nearly peeled Ebel and Phoebe off him.
The longer this dragged out, the more likely they were going to lose.
“Guido, cut it out already!” Ebel snarled, baring his fangs as he restrained Guido’s arms.
Casting off Ebel’s calls to sanity, Guido gave his body one big shake, sending Ebel and Phoebe flying off his back like a dog shaking water off his fur. Ebel’s back collided with the corridor wall, and Phoebe rolled head over feet into Rock’s guest room.
“No!” Rock cried, bolting out of the guest room past Phoebe.
With no one to hold Guido down, he’d rip the bag off in no time. She had to stop that at all costs. No one had pulled the cord to tighten the bag around him yet. That was something she could do!
“Roxy, don’t be reckless!” Phoebe yelled, but Rock lunged for Guido anyway.
Strangely enough, she wasn’t scared. I’ll become the real goddess of victory, she thought. I’m Fredericks Berwick and Vale Floria’s daughter. I have nothing to fear, and everything to save. I want to always be proud of my father’s strength and my mother’s kindness that course through me!
“You bloody wolf…stay still, would ya?!” She wrapped her arms around what was likely the thick neck of the werewolf wrestling with the bag, and squeezed with all the strength in her body. Her strength was nothing to write home about, but Guido howled like a wolf with a thorn stuck in its paw, and he twisted and bucked to knock her off. “I can’t pull it tight if you struggle, dumb wolf!”
Clinging on to the werewolf’s neck for dear life made it impossible to pull the string in her hand unless she wanted to be flung off her unwieldy mount. Then she spotted Ebel staggering to his feet at the end of the corridor.
“EBEL!” she shouted. What words suited a goddess of victory? She didn’t have the time to think about it, so she screamed the first thing that came to mind at the top of her lungs: “PUNCH HIS LIGHTSSSSSSS OUUUUUUUUT!”
“You got it!” Ebel launched off the floor like a wolf springing on its prey. The werewolf approached faster than her eyes could follow and swung back his fist without a moment’s hesitation.
Alas, Rock’s remaining strength gave out there. Guido flung her to the floor with ease, and she kept only her eyes locked on him as Phoebe caught her.
Ebel’s fist had already rammed through the bag into Guido. The bag made it impossible to tell where his fist landed a hit. A loud crack echoed down the corridor, and Guido rolled back on his arches, collapsing on the floor with a thwack.
“Come back to us, Guido!” Ebel slammed his left claw down on Guido’s shoulder, holding him down, and drew back his right fist for a second punch. His fist made contact with what he knew was his face this time, and the cloth bag turned red with blood.
“Urgh…” came a moan that clearly didn’t belong to a deranged beast.
Rock wasn’t the only one who caught that telling sound. After a second’s hesitation, Ebel ripped the bag off Guido, who was still in his werewolf form underneath. Blood dribbled from his big muzzle, but he cracked opened his eyes and faltered, “Ebel…why did you hit me?”
“You’ve regained…your mind?” Ebel gasped.
Guido blinked his golden eyes. “What are you— No, what did I… What have I…?” He looked at his hands, and a ragged breath was ripped from his throat at the inhuman claws there. “Why did I want to become this thing…this werewolf? I wanted this? How? I’d never…”
“Didn’t you become a werewolf because you wanted to?” Phoebe clipped, his arms protectively around Rock.
Werewolf Guido visibly trembled before them. “I-I don’t know. I definitely wanted that statue, but…!”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’ve been cursed now,” Ebel informed him in an even voice that hid his emotions. “You have no choice but to live with it. Prepare yourself.”
“You’re lying, Ebel! Tell me it’s a bad joke!” Distraught, Guido pushed himself off the ground and started shaking Ebel by the shoulder. That did nothing to change his answer.
“This is no lie or joke. You brought it upon yourself,” Ebel stated definitively, anguish in his voice.
Guido sat there in shock for a few moments before wailing like a man and an injured beast.
♚♚♚
GUIDO Linus was in terrible shock. Too haggard to walk by himself, Ebel and Phoebe assisted him to one of the undamaged guest rooms.
Shoved into one of the king-sized beds, Guido buried his wolf face into his paws. “I remember it all… From threatening you to forcing you to teach me how to become a werewolf.” While he spoke of it, he sounded as if he couldn’t believe his own actions. “Why did I want to become cursed…? How could I want this…?”
“Mayhap this is an extension of the curse’s power,” Ebel speculated in a whisper, not completely convinced himself. “I’ve heard the statue’s call before. Some other power aside from the werewolf’s curse may be locked within those statues.”
Unfathomable fear caused Rock to shudder as she listened beside them. She had come to the same conclusion a while back. What if everything was conducted by the curse? Their encounter Ebel called fate, the way the statues were collected into this one area as if inviting them to find them, and Guido becoming a werewolf—what if all of it was intentional?
“What will Michaela say if she sees me like this?” Guido was grief-stricken. “If she learns her brother was cursed to be a monster, she’ll—”
“Michaela loves you,” Ebel declared over his cry. “She will continue to protect you as she always has.”
Guido dropped his hands from his face, his eyes bulging. “Protect? Michaela will protect…me?”
“You won’t survive in the imperial capital without human allies. Just as I couldn’t have.”
Did Ebel’s advice reach Guido this time? For a long while, he wordlessly stared up at Ebel’s werewolf face, eerily similar to his own.
Peace had finally come to Mateus Manor after everything that had happened.
“Roxy, I’m sorry, but would you mind bringing a bottle of liquor from my room?” Ebel whispered in her ear after Guido fell silent. “He’s not going to fall asleep after what has transpired. Guido needs alcohol.”
“Sure.”
Rock left the guest room with Phoebe. She swept her eyes around the corridor and saw the sorry state they had left the manor in. Doors were bashed in, the plush rug was torn up, the floor was covered in scratch marks, and blood was splattered on the floor and walls. Flipped-over beds blocked the doors to the two rooms they anchored their trap to. Thinking about the cleanup made her head spin.
Even Ebel’s bedroom had been wrecked by ripping the curtains off the windows and stripping the bed of its sheets and blanket. She had a perfect view out the curtainless windows of the dawning sky.
“Another day is dawning, Phoebe,” Rock commented, drawing a sigh from Phoebe, who was rummaging through the antique liquor cabinet.
“Bloody hell, that was one miserable night. I didn’t get a wink of sleep.”
“You’d have some talent if you did,” Rock said, bursting out laughing, the exhaustion finally hitting her now that the adrenaline was running out. Sleep was the first thing she wanted to do after they helped Guido settle down. “I didn’t sleep either, but I dreamed while I was unconscious.”
“What kind of dream?”
“A dream of the time I lived with Mother in the village.”
Phoebe’s hand froze around a bottle.
“From the time I still dressed and acted like a girl. We were talking about Father too…I think.”
Did she feel a little self-conscious because she was talking about her early childhood? Or was it because the father in her mother’s stories was standing right in front of her?
Face in a hard mask, Phoebe glared at the bottle’s label. It was difficult to tell if those blue eyes were actually reading the letters on the label. After what felt like forever, he turned toward her with a gentle smile. “Sounds like a good dream, Roxy.”
“…It was.” Rock nodded.
Phoebe’s eyes thoughtfully wandered away from her face. Then, after a pause, he asked, “By the way, what did Vale say about—”
“YOUR EXCELLENCY! MASTER ROCK!” A shrieking voice bounced off the walls, erasing Phoebe’s question. “This is Johanna! Where are you?! Are you all right?!”
They heard her running up the stairs with all the commotion of a parade. At least they knew Johanna was safe now.
“Here comes the loud one.” Despite his grimace, relief washed over Phoebe.
Rock was also relieved from the bottom of her heart. A noisy but peaceful dawn was breaking over Mateus Manor.
♚♚♚
JOHANNA appeared before Rock and Phoebe in much higher spirits than they expected. Bandages were wrapped around her ankles beneath her skirt and purple bruises swelled under her eyes and on her chin, but a smile burst onto her face when she saw Rock.
“Oh, Master Rock! I am so very relieved to see you safe!” She ran up the stairs, and when Rock met her in the third-floor corridor, she jumped into her arms. Rock staggered back but caught her. Johanna’s openly expressed emotions had a way of making Rock feel shy.
“Th-Thank you. Did you get out all right?”
Johanna lifted her face from Rock’s chest and answered her with mock seriousness. “I wasn’t the least bit all right! I don’t want to go through such a horrible experience too many times! The whole night felt like a scene right out of a play!”
“…Why does it sound like you enjoyed yourself?” Phoebe muttered behind Rock.
Either not hearing Phoebe or simply ignoring him, Johanna stared worriedly into Rock’s eyes. “Oh, Master Rock, your beautiful face has been injured too… What a shame!!”
Ludovicus and Iniel trudged up the stairs after her with several bruises and lacerations on their faces also. Everyone was going to see the morning injured, but in one piece.
“It’s just a few bruises. I will be fine. His Excellency is doing fine as well.”
“Where is His Excellency?”
“The room down the corridor.” Rock pointed at the closed guest room door. “Lord Linus has finally calmed down, so he is sitting with him right now.”
The butler and coachman ran down the corridor and into the room. Hearing their master was okay wasn’t the same as confirming it with their own eyes.
Only Johanna remained clinging to Rock. She trembled as large teardrops filled her eyes.
“Johanna? Are you sure you feel all right?” Worried, Rock looked the younger girl over again.
Johanna sniffled and whimpered, “I-I am all right… K-Knowing everyone is safe for real…suddenly brought the tears…” Unable to keep it in any longer, she broke down crying.
Johanna had bravely swung around the fireplace poker last night, but she looked quite a bit younger than Rock. Rock didn’t know how she had ended up working for the Mateuses, but it seemed unlikely she went through traumatizing events like last night often. It must’ve been a terrifying and crazy night for her too. Rock fully sympathized with the desire to cry after being surrounded by a peaceful morning at the end of a nightmarish night.
So Rock stayed with her through the tears, rubbing soothing circles into her back. Left out of the girlie moment, Phoebe uncomfortably shifted but didn’t interfere. Rock saw the corners of his eyes crease when he averted them from the hugging girls.
“I’m fine now. Thank you.” After crying her eyes out, Johanna took a step back from Rock and finally smiled. It was a bashful, girlish smile. “I can never apologize to His Excellency enough for monopolizing his Master Rock.”
“Rock doesn’t belong to His Excellency yet,” Phoebe groused again.
Johanna completely ignored him as a sparkle danced in her teary eyes. “You two have just overcome a daunting obstacle together! Now is the time to thoroughly express and test your love for one another! Please do it right here and right now! Preferably in front of me!”
Though Rock was relieved Johanna had stopped crying, she was overwhelmed by her confusing statements yet again. “Uh…what are you talking about?”
Ebel happened to appear at the other end of the corridor just as she was stuck for an answer. He strode quickly over to them in his werewolf form and asked, “Roxy, did you find the liquor cabinet?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Reuniting with Johanna and the others made it completely slip her mind. Fortunately, Phoebe had chosen a bottle and brought it with him.
Ebel accepted it from him, and his sharp wolf features softened when he noticed Johanna. “I’m glad to see you aren’t seriously injured either, Johanna.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency…,” she absently answered. Her prior excitement vanished as she curiously studied Ebel’s face. Since she was a maid in his service, Ebel’s werewolf form shouldn’t have been too surprising for her, but she seemed to be in shock.
“Is something the matter?” Ebel promptly questioned, finding her behavior strange as well.
She looked from Ebel to Rock and mechanically moved her lips. “Your Excellency…did you…just call Master Rock ‘Roxy’?”
“…Ah,” Ebel uttered as if he’d just screwed up monstrously.
Rock quickly caught on too. Johanna had no way of learning about Rock’s true identity last night. She couldn’t fault the girl for being baffled by hearing Ebel call her by a woman’s name.
Ebel and Iniel had already found out. She had little reason to hide the truth now.
“Right, about that, Johanna, I’ve actually—”
Ebel and Phoebe spoke over her at the same time.
“Save it for later, Rock.”
“I wouldn’t say anything ’bout it right now.”
They quickly tried to stop her, but they were too late, for Rock said the rest.
“—been pretending to be a man all this time. I’m sorry for keeping it a secret from you.”
Johanna stopped blinking. “Y-You are a woman?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yes.”
“In other words, you were cross-dressing as a man?”
“That would be correct.”
Phoebe’s and Ebel’s eyes rolled skyward at her courteous reply.
All the muscles in Johanna’s face froze. “Ah…!” she cried and fell backward.
“Ack! Johanna! You were that shocked?!” Rock quickly caught her as Johanna fainted in her arms.
“This is serious. Let’s carry her to a bed.” Ebel was alarmed, and Phoebe exhaled a worn-out breath.
“That’s why I told you not to say anything!”
Ebel assisted Rock in carrying Johanna into a different room from Guido, and they laid her on the bed. According to her employer, Ebel, Johanna had a slight tendency to become histrionic.
“Apparently she saw a thrilling play in town a while back. It was a forbidden love story between two men set during Ancient Empire times…”
Influenced by that story, Johanna entertained a great interest and personal attachment to Ebel and Rock’s romance. The excitement of being able to see the same situation as her favorite play unfold before her very eyes overstimulated her.
“I think I have the general idea now…,” Rock vaguely replied, then followed it up with her honest thoughts: “She must’ve been disappointed to find out I’m a woman.”
Ebel rolled his broad, furry shoulders. “This is just my guess, but…I think once she has a little time to calm down, she will exclaim, ‘Cross-dressing is just like something out of a play too!’” he said, mimicking Johanna’s excited voice.
“Whatever her reaction, it won’t be a quiet one,” Phoebe opined with a scowl.
Guido was able to fall asleep after a bottle of strong liquor, but it was too soon to leave him unguarded. So the men, including Phoebe, decided to take turns on watch duty. Everyone needed sleep and time to rest.
Meanwhile, Rock, who wasn’t strong enough to deal with Guido should he rampage again, watched over Johanna instead.
“You must be exhausted too. Use any room you like to get some rest, should you need it,” Ebel recommended, but Rock felt partially responsible for the unconscious maid. She didn’t have anything better to do at the moment, so she wanted to stay by Johanna’s side as long as her fatigued body allowed.
But Rock hadn’t slept a wink in over twenty-four hours either. Exhaustion pressed in on her as she sat alone on the chair during her first moment of true rest after a long, painful night. She shut the curtains against the bright morning light blazing into the room, bringing about a comfortable darkness.
She slumped back into the chair and began dozing off before she knew it.
♚♚♚
HOW much time had passed since she nodded off? During her shallow sleep, she felt someone lift her off the chair and carry her somewhere. Her eyelids were too heavy to open, but she felt someone’s arms around her.
Rock experienced a floating sensation while she was still partially asleep. She heard soft footfalls and a door creak open, and she sensed her body being gently lowered inside a dimly lit room. Cool sheets and a soft pillow welcomed her into their embrace.
Someone’s smooth hands gently stroked her hair.
“Mn…” She wrenched open her heavy eyes because she wanted to see who that hand belonged to. Beyond her blurry vision sat a handsome young man with burnt sienna hair and glowing golden eyes. He perched on the edge of the bed and was leaning across the space between them to look down at her face.
“Did I accidentally wake you?” Surprise flashed in his golden eyes.
Rock blinked repeatedly as her eyes traced every curve of his human face. When she finally noticed she was lying on a bed, she quickly pushed herself upright. “Shoot… I accidentally fell asleep!”
“Don’t feel bad. You should sleep longer,” Ebel softly persuaded as he looked fondly down at her. “Don’t worry about Johanna. She’s sleeping very comfortably.”
“She is…?”
Johanna had fainted from a night’s worth of fatigue and stress. The shocking truth she learned about Rock just added the final brick that knocked her out.
“I see you are back to normal too, Ebel.” Rock pointed out his change since she’d fallen asleep.
Ebel threaded a hand through his hair as he gave a crooked smile. “I can’t be running around the house naked all day long, after all. I wanted to put on some clothes.”
He had pulled on a new white shirt and dark trousers. His three-piece suit had ripped right from his back during all the chaos last night, leaving him covered in fur, but naked, ever since.
When he had been a covered werewolf all that time, she hadn’t been conscious of his nakedness, but now her cheeks flushed. “Now that you put it like that, you make a good point…”
Ebel roared with laughter at the look on her face. “I can’t have you getting embarrassed on me. I’ll have a hard time transforming around you.”
Uncomfortable, she drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
His laughter quickly died off, and his gaze dropped to the blankets. “I’m sending word to Michaela once the sun rises.” Imagining her reaction stiffened his face and tightened his voice. “I plan to invite her here to see Guido. Would you mind being there for it?”
“Sure, I don’t mind,” she readily agreed, having come too far to turn back now. It was probably her fate to see this through to the end too. She had only just promised Ebel that she would be there for him.
“Thank you. I need someone there giving me emotional support too,” he admitted, relief easing the tightness from his voice. He caressed Rock’s cheek with his soft human hand. Her heart tripped a beat from his gentle, warm touch. She covered his hand with her own, bringing a blissful smile to his lips. “You truly are my goddess.”
“You exaggerate.”
“I’m not exaggerating. I, this manor, and everyone in it were saved by you.”
Abashed by his high opinion of her, she buried her head in her knees. Not even she understood why she’d taken action when it counted. She never knew so much courage and bravery slept within her. If asked whether she could do the same thing again, she’d have to think about it.
In the end, everything worked out. There was so much left to think about and do, but for now, she earned a few moments of rest. Sleep rapidly closed in on her when she knew she could relax.
Ebel chuckled at her stifling a yawn. “Get some sleep. Ask if you need anything. I can have a bath and food prepared for you whenever you like.”
“Please let me sleep for a bit, then.”
Exhaustion was the only thing she felt right now. This was normally the time she woke up feeling hungry, but her body vehemently hungered for sleep over food.
“Of course.” Ebel’s hand left her cheek as she rubbed her eyes. His fingertips brushed over her lips next. “Won’t you make me the happiest man alive with your lips before you sleep?” Rock gaped at him, not following what he was implying. He flashed a roguish smile, unwilling to back down. “You promised to do it as often as I want, no?”
“Ah! I-I did, didn’t I?” She turned even redder with the memory.
“I want you to keep your promise from then,” he coaxed with a joyous expression.
“R-Right now?”
“Right now. Promises should be fulfilled sooner rather than later.”
Ebel looked determined to leave with a kiss, so she steeled herself to do it. “In that case, I-I will…” She awkwardly bobbed her head.
“Please do.” Ebel quietly closed his eyes.
Kissing a werewolf was different from kissing a man.
The count’s handsome face, capable of stopping people dead in their tracks, was right before her eyes. His long closed eyelashes framed his beautiful features, which were seemingly molded from granite and took Rock’s breath away. The man’s lips were easier to find than the wolf’s, and she shouldn’t have needed a special technique to press her lips against his, but she felt daunted as she leaned her face closer. Growing more embarrassed the nearer she drew, Rock shut her eyes as their noses were within touching distance.
Then she leaned in a little closer. She was positive her lips were lined up with his before she closed her eyes, but they missed their mark and pressed against the corner of his lips.
“That’s not right…,” she said aloud unthinkingly, and she knew Ebel was holding back his laughter. Flustered, she gave it another go. Drawing back her lips, she went straight in for another kiss. Except this time their noses collided before their lips did, and Rock groaned from the pain. “Ouch! …S-Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
She opened her eyes and saw Ebel holding his aching nose as well. He must’ve been hurting from their collision. “I’m not a very good kisser,” she admitted with a dry laugh, but Ebel didn’t laugh at her.
“I prefer it this way,” he said, pulling her into his arms and stealing her lips.
She couldn’t breathe through her roughly sealed lips. He greedily devoured her mouth, though his touch was soft. He sweetly nibbled on the tender side of her bottom lip and twined his fingers in her hair. In no time, she lost all bearing.
“Ah! Ebel! Wai—,” Rock feebly cried out between ragged breaths when he pushed her down on the soft bed.
All of a sudden, his lips left hers, and he drew away from her. She timidly opened her eyes and saw his lips curved in a seductive smile. Gazing down in satisfaction at her chest rising and falling with the breath he stole from her, he said, “Good night, Roxy.” And then he sauntered out of the room with a hop in his step, leaving her in a daze on the bed.
After the door quietly closed behind him, Rock stared at the stucco ceiling and muttered, “I’m wide-awake now, though…” She meant that as a complaint against him, but curiously enough, her lips spread in a big smile, and her voice didn’t sound at all dissatisfied.
Dissatisfied or not, he’d still made her unable to sleep. Half an hour later, she was still tossing and turning on top of the bed where he’d left her.
♚♚♚
ROCK thought she would never fall asleep, but her fatigue won the battle. The bed inside the count’s guest room was more comfortable than clouds, and she slept like a log.
When she woke up, sunlight the color of candle flames filtered into the room. Confused momentarily by the unfamiliar stucco ceiling with a cherub relief, she stirred in bed and felt all her bones and muscles twinge with a dull ache. With the pain came a slow reminder that this wasn’t her bedroom. She was sleeping inside Mateus Manor, located in the aristocrat district.
“You’re up?”
Beside her, she heard a voice she could never mistake. Rock shifted her eyes to the left where Phoebe was peering into her face. He had dragged a chair over to the bed and had been sitting with his legs crossed.
“Have I been asleep long…?” she asked, though her parched throat told her the answer first. With how dried out she felt, she must’ve been asleep for a long time.
“It’s evening now.” Phoebe jerked his chin toward the window across from the bed.
The glowing sun painted the imperial capital’s sky in deep shades of orange and red like a fire burning in the sky and spreading to the white clouds. The fiery orange sunset alerting the capital of the day’s end pierced through the room’s windows.
Blinded by its brightness, Rock returned her gaze to Phoebe. She realized he’d let down his chestnut tresses. He’d cast off his shredded leathers in exchange for a white button-up shirt and beige suspender trousers she didn’t recognize.
“Ah, this?” he said, tugging on the suspenders under her assessing gaze. “His Excellency lent them to me. I said I wanted a dress, but he said they didn’t have any my size.”
“I’d think not.”
The only lady residing in Mateus Manor was Johanna. Her wardrobe wouldn’t contain any dresses that’d fit the full-head-taller Phoebe.
The shirt wouldn’t button all the way up for him, so he left the first three buttons undone. The twining cords of muscle in his calves peeked out under the trousers, and he looked very uncomfortable inside the tight clothes. The clothes themselves were tailored from fine materials, which meant they likely belonged to Ebel.
Thinking about him filled her chest with an unscratchable itch. Rock sat up in bed and tossed a question to Phoebe to distract from her thoughts. “Anything happen while I was asleep?”
A line appeared between Phoebe’s brows. “Guido Linus returned to normal.”
“To normal? You mean back to being a man?”
“Yeah. He just came to, and His Excellency is with him now.”
His form returned to normal, but that didn’t mean the werewolf curse had lifted. Rock’s frown pulled a torn expression from Phoebe too.
“Also, Lady Michaela will be arriving late tonight.”
What kind of conversation would these close siblings have when they saw each other? What would Michaela say to her cursed brother, and how would Ebel feel watching them from the sidelines? Rock’s heart ached for them.
I promised Ebel I would be there for him.
“Then I better get a move on it.” Rock stretched on the bed, shifting her thoughts to what she could control. Her bruised back and throttled bones ached like a knife in her side, but lots of sleep washed away her fatigue. With her sleepiness gone, she felt her hunger, and she bashfully stated, “I want to have something light to eat before Lady Michaela arrives.”
“I thought you’d say that, so I brought the goods.” Phoebe cracked a devious grin and picked up a dark amber glass bottle from the round rosewood table next to the bed. It looked like an expensive bottle of liquor. “His Excellency said we could have it. It’s a pricey bottle of wine.”
He apparently wanted to have that promised drink now.
“Is it better than the one you’ve stashed all these years, Phoebe?”
He grinned at her. “Good question. We’ll have to drink that one later to be sure.” He raked a hand through his silky locks to hide his sheepishness. “You have questions for me, right? I have some stuff I want to tell you too.”
“…Yeah.” Rock gave her head a big nod.
The guest rooms on the third floor all had large bay windows. Phoebe opened the bay window, carried the round table over to the windowsill, and laid the bottle, wine glasses, and several snacks on top of it.
“The maid’s still zonked out.”
Which meant all the food he could get them was premade or raw. He put out a platter of hard bread, goat cheese, salted nuts, and apples. To the starving Rock, it looked like a feast.
They leaned against the windowsill and held up their wine-filled glasses. Phoebe brought it to his lips without hesitation, but Rock sniffed it first. The liquor her hair shared its color with had a fruity smell that wasn’t quite grape.
She took a small sip, and a shifting kaleidoscope of flavors different from grape juice spread across her tongue with tingling vibrancy. The full-bodied, mellow spices of the wine left a talcum-like trail on the tongue and inner cheeks.
“Tastes better than I thought it would,” Rock admitted, giving her honest opinion, and Phoebe laughed.
“That’s because it’s a good wine. Though it doesn’t hold a candle to the one I’ve got at home.” He looked affectionately at Rock as she tipped back the glass. “Maybe we should save that one to celebrate a bigger occasion.”
“What would be a big occasion?”
“Won’t there be all sorts coming in the future?” Phoebe answered ambiguously, the night breeze gently tousling his hair.
From the window, they had a perfect view of the manor’s garden and the darkening cityscape. Under the sky where the stars began to twinkle, the aristocrat district and the emperor’s castle looked stunning in the lingering sunlight. Now Rock gazed out, with curious attachment, on the scenery she had thought otherworldly during her first visit. She took in the nightscape as she savored each drop of her first glass of wine.
“I wonder if I’ll get drunk from a single glass,” she joked, expressing her fears, but Phoebe answered her seriously.
“You won’t. Whoever you take after, you’ll have a strong resistance to alcohol.”
“Neat.”
“Vale, especially, could hold her liquor.”
“No way!” Rock’s voice cracked. That was an unexpected side of her mother she never knew. Thinking back, she couldn’t remember seeing her mother drink once.
Did she drink a lot with Father? Having a hard time believing it, Rock looked questioningly up at Phoebe.
He tipped back his glass again and faintly smiled. “Where should I start? What do you want to know?”
Rock wanted to know so much. But what she wanted to know most had to be—
“How you met Mother!”
“…It’s not an exciting story.” Embarrassed, Phoebe uncomfortably pushed his hair off his face. He didn’t speak until he took another long sip of wine. “I met Vale during one of my mercenary missions.”
That was what she’d thought. Rock nodded along as she munched on a loaf of bread, when Phoebe suddenly asked an unexpected question.
“Did you ever learn her real name?”
“Her real name? It’s not Vale Floria?” Rock always believed that was the name her mother was given at birth.
“Floria was her mother’s maiden name. Her real name is Valencia Alexis. She was the daughter of a lower-ranking imperial nobleman.”
Phoebe blurted information so absurd that it nearly knocked the piece of bread out of Rock’s half-open mouth. She scarfed the rest of it down and swallowed so she could cough out, “You’re joking, right?”
“You think I would joke at a time like this?” Phoebe chided her with a dry smile. “As it stands now, a lot went down, and she fled her father’s home, so she’s no longer considered Alexis’s daughter anymore. You won’t get roped into anything complicated because of it.”
Either way, it was still a shocking truth. She’d never fathomed that her mother was born and raised in the imperial capital, much less as a nobleman’s daughter. She had a hard time believing such noble blood coursed through her.
“Did you guys elope or something?” Rock asked, thinking it was the obvious answer when he said she fled home.
Phoebe gave his head a big shake. “That’d be asking for a death sentence. I didn’t think she’d chase after me either.”
“Mother left her family on her own?” Catching his slip of tongue, she pressed in further: “Because she fell in love with you, right?”
Phoebe averted his eyes, struggling to answer. “Well…you could put it that way.”
“Hmm.”
“Stop grinning, Roxy.” His large, bony hand ruffled her wine-colored hair until it was a mess. Rock giggled from the tickling. He smiled a little too. “But you know, things weren’t so clear-cut for me.”
Phoebe fell silent for a while after that.
With his hair down and his mouth shut, he possessed impeccable beauty that would have him mistaken for a gorgeous woman. Under the gradually fading afterglow, Rock studied every facet of his profile. She wanted to know how her mother had felt when she looked at him.
Once the evening breeze shifted into a night breeze, Phoebe solemnly cut to the topic he had the hardest time expressing. “…You see, I…” He picked up an apple and cleanly split it in two to distract himself. “From the day I became self-aware, I never knew if I was a man or woman.”
Rock accepted his confession with one half of the apple. “You didn’t?”
“Yeah. I wanted to grow out my hair and wear dresses. I hated hanging around crass men, but I also hated being all clingy with women. I left my hometown because I wanted to live free of those restrictions.”
Phoebe’s past wasn’t full of pleasant memories. Plenty of people mocked him in the imperial capital—and this city was a hot pot of races and cultures. There was no telling what horrible treatment he had received for being different in a smaller city or town.
He devoured his half of the apple in three bites and inclined his head, his curls cascading over his shoulder. “That’s why I didn’t think anything was possible between Vale and I when we met. She was practically the most ladylike woman I ever met. I was like, ‘I’ll never fall for her.’”
“But you fell for her,” Rock supplied, relentless in getting the story out of him as she bit into her apple. Phoebe shot her a vengeful glare.
“How could I not? She chased after me and wouldn’t go away when I told her to, insisting she was happy with a feminine man like me.”
“She wore you down.”
“Pretty much.”
Rock wished she could have seen how her parents interacted back then. Her thoughts traveled back to something Phoebe had said before. “But wait, aren’t you the one who said, ‘A man who lays his hands on a woman before marriage is the scum of the planet’?” That was what he’d said when he found Ebel naked in her room. “You aren’t a hypocrite, are you?”
She asked it only as a leading question, but it had an immediate effect, as Phoebe playfully ground his knuckles into her cheek with the look of someone who was caught with their pants down. She let out a tiny yelp, and he laughed as he gently stroked her face.
“…I was scum,” he admitted under his breath. “I wasn’t with her in the end. That makes me the scummiest.”
That was the part Rock was most bothered by too. She always thought her father abandoned her and her mother. But he actually loved his wife and daughter. And her mother loved her father until her dying breath.
Why did two people who loved each other have to be apart?
“Why didn’t you live with her?”
Phoebe downed the rest of his glass when she hit on the heart of the matter. He deeply inhaled before answering. “Simply put, I was dumped.”
“WHAT?!”
“Vale wasn’t suited for living in the slums.” Another sigh. “She left her family and her riches and opened a tailor shop in the imperial slums. I helped her with her work while we lived together. But Vale was a little too softhearted to do business in such a rough area.”
Rock understood what he meant by her mother not being suited to the slums. Living there for just a few years had turned a country-girl like Rock into a cheapskate. She couldn’t see someone as gentle and kindhearted as her mother adapting to that rough and gruff environment.
“That’s why I planned to buy our citizenship.” Pain edged into Phoebe’s voice. “We could’ve opened a shop in the fancy business district as citizens. But you need a small fortune to buy one. So I returned to my mercenary work and tried to earn gold fast.”
Rock could guess the reason for her parents’ separation after hearing that. “Mother hated you doing that.”
“Yeah. She thought I’d never come back one day.”
“I’m sure she must have been scared. Worried sick about something happening to you.” Rock could understand how she felt after yesterday. But Phoebe might not have at the time.
“I always planned to come home alive, though,” he said in a lonely whisper and stared at the stars hanging in the distant sky outside the window. “Vale seemed to have finally made up her mind once you were born. She thought she had to leave the imperial capital to make me quit being a mercenary. She shot me down when I told her I was coming with her. She said she wanted me to live free…and then she left.”
As long as he had a family to look after, Phoebe would continue taking on high-risk, high-reward mercenary jobs. Vale knew that and left him, hoping that would stop him.
“You never thought to chase after us?”
Phoebe hesitated before answering, “I did… Or rather, I visited you guys many times.”
“No way! You came to that rural village?”
“Yeah. I snuck in without anyone noticing.” His sigh had a melancholy ring to it. “Whenever she found out I was around, she would always smile for me, but she magically saw right through the fact that I hadn’t quit being a mercenary. She worried about me every time we met. I really am scum.” He filled his empty glass with another round of wine and derided himself. “But I couldn’t quit. I planned to go get her as soon as I saved up enough to buy our citizenship. Problem was that there weren’t any big wars these past few years for me to earn real money off of.”
Rock assumed that was around the time the previous Count Mateus hired him to go ruin hunting and the money he had saved up was the “inheritance” he had given over to her when she showed up.
The more she learned about the truth, the more she found herself a captive of irritation and heartbreak.
“You should have just stayed together if you loved each other,” Rock griped, blurting out her frank opinion. “All you get is loneliness if you separate after falling in love.”
Saying that now wouldn’t change the past. On the contrary, her frankness may only hurt her father. Even so, she had to raise her objections after overcoming the craziness running amok in her life lately.
But Phoebe only quietly smiled. After downing his second glass of wine, he looked down at Rock and reasoned with her. “That’s a sound argument, but it’s easier said than done. What would you do if someone forced you to pick between the man you loved and your shop? You’d hesitate to choose, right?”
Rock pondered it, but this wasn’t a decision she could put on a scale. She established her shop with the money her father risked his life to earn—she would never let it go to waste. As for the person she loved—he wasn’t someone she could talk about in theory yet. She simply wanted to be with him and wanted to support him. That was it.
So as not to lose to her father, Rock downed the rest of her wine in one gulp too. Taking charge of that boldness, she flat-out declared, “I’d choose both. I don’t want to lose either.”
Phoebe’s eyes opened wide, as if to take in something amusing. “Heh.” He cracked a smile while he refilled her glass. “That’s an ambitious choice. Must be nice to be young.”
“You make it sound like you aren’t young anymore!”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m already past forty. I ain’t young.” Before Rock could argue further, he leveled with her: “There are some things love can’t solve. Both Vale and I had things we couldn’t give up on. That’s why we couldn’t stay together. That’s all there was to it.”
Rock couldn’t accept that that was all there was to it. Was it really that difficult to obtain everything that mattered to you and hold on to it?
“I never thought someone like me could have a real family.” Surrender seeped into that admittance. “I had it made just having that joy for a couple of years. I was happy.” Tipping back his glass, he lovingly looked at his daughter. “Especially now that I have such an adorable daughter with me. There’s nothing more I could want.”
Rock wordlessly stared down at her full glass. She didn’t know what kind of life Phoebe had lived before he met her mother. But from the way he’d declared that his marriage of only a few years was the happiest time of his life, what led up to it had to have been miserable. Short-lived and full of strife as it was, he was undeniably happy during those days.
Yet now the woman who brought him that happiness was gone forever. Rock was all he had left in the world.
“What were Vale’s last days like?” Phoebe asked the painful question this time.
Speaking about those days wasn’t easy for Rock. But Phoebe looked at his daughter, determined to learn what happened to the woman he loved. He had every right to know, so she told him.
“Her fever was so high, she was moaning and thrashing through it. She kept deliriously repeating…Father’s name.” The memory of looking after her mother in her final moments haunted Rock to this day.
“…I see.” Phoebe sunk his teeth into his bottom lip. She heard his throat work as he tried to swallow back the emotions surging through him.
Thus, the two people who continued to love each other never had a chance to live together again. Not only Phoebe, but her mother, Vale, regretted that in the end. How she must have regretted not being there for the man she loved and for leaving her daughter alone in the world.
In those final moments, Vale told Rock, “Your father lives in the imperial capital. Find Fredericks Berwick. I know he will help you.”
Her words became reality. Since she’d found him, Phoebe was always at Rock’s side. He encouraged her when she was down and did whatever it took to help her when she was in trouble. Just last night, he came to her rescue, and it was only because of him she was able to march in a dress into the fancy foray.
“Mother told me to go find my father.” Rock needed her father to know that. “She believed from the bottom of her heart that you would help me.”
“Well, yeah. I’d do that much at least.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. Unfazed by his third glass of wine, he calmly nodded. “Like I told you earlier, I’m a person who doesn’t even know if I’m a man or a woman. It’s as much of a mystery at this age as it was when I was a kid, and I might never figure it out.” The wind swept back his beautiful long hair. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m your father.”
The final vestiges of sunlight disappeared below the horizon, and the stars illuminated his pretty face. Not an ounce of doubt or loss was reflected there.
“You’re the one steady family I’ve gained after all this time. As long as I have this relationship, as long as I have you, I don’t have any reason to doubt who or what I am.”
“…Father,” Rock called in a shaky voice.
Am I getting tipsy? A mess of emotions that made her want to both jump for joy and break into sobs fought for supremacy inside her. She felt the same way as her father. She had lost so much and gone through so many painful experiences, but at long last, she had found the person she was always looking for. And it was someone she’d thought was out of her reach forever.
“I always wanted to meet you. I constantly imagined what kind of person my father was.”
“Then you must’ve been disappointed with this.” He waved a hand over himself.
“I’m not disappointed!” she firmly denied. “My father turned out to be even nicer, stronger, and cooler than I ever imagined!”
Phoebe choked on his sip of wine, her admiration too much for his ears. “…I planned to take the secret to my grave,” he admitted after he cleared his throat. “Wouldn’t most kids be appalled to find out their da’s a cross-dresser?”
Rock told him the truth. “I was in real shock at first.”
Following her mother’s last wishes, she’d visited the last known whereabouts of her father and found his beautiful lover, who turned out to be a man, there instead. Anyone would be surprised by that.
“It didn’t help to be told that my father was dead and Phoebe was the only one there. I was shocked and sad.” She had thought she really was all alone in the world now. “But ‘Phoebe’ became like family and stuck around with me. As time passed, I started to see how my father could fall in love with Phoebe. Because Phoebe was such an amazing person.”
It never occurred to Rock that Phoebe was her father, but now that she knew, everything made sense. Especially the reason why he always saved her, even at risk to himself. Devotion to another even in the face of danger came from love.
“Thank you for being with me all this time.”
As if to slowly digest his daughter’s gratitude, Phoebe closed his eyes. “I’ll always be there for you. At least until you get married.”
“Then you’ll be stuck with me for a while,” Rock asserted without batting an eye.
Phoebe half-jokingly and half-searchingly asked, “You mean it? You don’t have plans to marry already, do you?”
“Wh-Why would I?!”
Rock and Ebel had confirmed their feelings for each other, but they hadn’t discussed the future yet. He was a count. Taking a wife probably wouldn’t be as easy as a romantic fling. Problems would surely arise when that time came—though she had a feeling Ebel already knew how to solve every problem that came their way. After all, he was the very same man who proclaimed he didn’t mind courting another man.
So Rock didn’t let it get her down. She wanted to enjoy the love she had only just awakened to.
“I’ve decided to work even harder at being a tailor.” Remembering her dream, Rock cheerfully continued, “Mother used to say that being a tailor is a profession that brings people happiness. So I want to make lots of people happy with the clothes I create.”
“I see. That’s a great dream,” Phoebe responded, as if he wasn’t included in that dream, so she rushed to make it clear to him.
“You’re included in that too, Father!”
“Me? I’m more than happy enough just having you—”
“Not good enough! I’ve decided to be a good daughter who’s devoted to her father!” After all they had been through, their wish to be father and daughter had finally come true. She wanted to repay him for all he had done for her and bring him the happiness her mother couldn’t. “I’m going to make you happier than ever before, Father!” She looked him square in the eyes and vowed, “You’d better look forward to it!”
Phoebe smiled fondly at his daughter with a softness she had never seen before. Those deep blue pools of his eyes glistened and rippled. “You grew up into a fine woman, Roxy.”
Rock was tickled pink by his moving compliment. “I’m so happy to hear you say that.”
“Yeah. For the first time in a long time…I’m truly happy. I feel like this is the dawn of a long night.” He hid his broad smile behind another sip of wine.
Watching him ignited Rock’s mischievous side. She placed her right hand on his shoulder and stretched up on her tippy toes. And, just like her mother used to do to her, she gently pressed her lips against his cheek. An affectionate kiss given to a precious family member.
“Oh…” Even Phoebe didn’t know how to react to that one. After Rock pulled away, he couldn’t wipe the giddy grin off his face. “Don’t tell me you’re drunk, Roxy?”
“I’m not drunk. Family members show affection this way,” she instructed, taking his challenge head-on, knowing it was his way of hiding his shyness. “Mother often kissed me on the cheek. So it shouldn’t be a problem for me to kiss you on the cheek, Father.”
“I never said it was wrong.” Phoebe desperately fought to keep his face straight, but it was a losing battle. In the end, he let his bliss show through when he said, “But you shouldn’t be handing these out left and right. You should save it for the man you’ll love someday.”
No problem there.
Rock held her glass up as she replied, “I already did, so I’m good.”
Phoebe’s head jerked toward her. His dopey grin slipped and he blandly asked, “…What did you just say?”
“Hm? About what?” Rock played dumbed, but her father wasn’t going to accept that response.
“You did it?! With who? His Excellency?” he asked with torrential speed.
Rock laughed at his panic. “Father, I’m already twenty. You don’t have to worry about me like I’m a child.”
“Didn’t you just say you aren’t going to get married yet?!”
“And I’m not saying I’m getting married now either.”
“It’s even worse if you did it with someone you aren’t getting married to!” Phoebe went into a fit, blind to his own past.
He really is my father, Rock felt anew.
“Thank you for worrying about me, Father,” she said in gratitude and planted another kiss on his cheek. Every human emotion flashed across his face.
“D-Don’t distract me! When did you learn to use these womanly wiles?!”
“It’s not womanly wiles. I mean everything I said.”
Rock had lots of people she cared about in her life now.
Maybe she was getting a little tipsy. But she was on cloud nine. She had so many people in reach that she wanted to make happy. She couldn’t pick just one person after all, but she didn’t have to—she would make them all happy.
Having the leisure to think that way brought her untellable bliss.