The Arrow of Destiny Cuts Through the Night

#28

However, except for stumbling once when getting up, Kain Starchis stood up straight and normal. Rather, he looked at Jersian with an expression asking what was wrong.

“Are you okay?” Jersian asked Kain with a suspicious face.

“… Are you drunk?”

“What do you mean?”

Kain asked back, not understanding Jersian’s question. To begin with, elves had no concept of alcohol.

Realizing this, Jersian asked more specifically.

“I meant, does your head hurt and do you feel nauseous?”

“Ah.”

Kain immediately made a sound as if he understood something.

“So it was spoiled after all.”

“What?”

“I felt the distinct taste and smell that comes when fruit goes bad. Why do you drink such a thing?”

“… You’re fine.”

After confirming that he had said something unnecessary, Jersian left the banquet hall where the feast had ended.

It was the moment when Kain and Jersian finally came out of the banquet hall.

“Lord Kain.”

Someone called out to Kain.

It was the head butler Medis, whom they had met before.

“I’m glad to see you again like this.”

“… What is it?”

It didn’t seem like they were on friendly terms to exchange such greetings. When Kain asked with an indifferent face, Medis answered while maintaining a friendly expression.

“The Marquis has instructed to move Lord Kain’s room from the annex to the main building. The servants are currently moving your belongings, so if you wait a moment, you’ll be able to enter your new room.”

“The main building?”

Jersian was the first to react to Medis’s explanation.

“Yes, the main building will be more comfortable for guests to stay in than the annex. You’ve also been assigned a few maids to attend to you.”

“…”

Of course, the main building would be more comfortable to stay in. The reason they put that elf in the annex wasn’t to make him comfortable.

Jersian’s eyes narrowed slightly. He couldn’t imagine that elf freely ordering the servants around.

“Where in the main building?”

“Since you’re the young master’s guest, we’ve placed you near his quarters.”

“… I see.”

When Jersian gave an ambiguous response, Medis cautiously asked back. It was a point where he might be upset that Marchioness Elmerila had arbitrarily moved his guest’s quarters.

“Um… Is there any problem?”

“No.”

Jersian answered briefly and then looked at Kain.

“Let’s take a walk while your room is being prepared. Follow me.”

“Yes.”

As soon as he heard Kain’s answer, Jersian headed towards the main building’s garden.

“Thank you very much for understanding.”

Medis’s businesslike voice was heard from behind as they left the corridor.

* * *

Outside, after the evening banquet, it was already a dark night. The sound of their footsteps mingled with the sounds of insects in the surrounding bushes.

It was when Kain was thinking that the jet-black hair of the boy walking ahead of him seemed like it would melt into the dark sky.

“Is it that difficult to stay quietly in your room?”

A sharp tone flowed from the boy’s mouth.

“…”

Oh no, he seems upset. Kain secretly made a troubled expression behind Jersian. Whether he sensed this or not, Jersian, who was walking ahead, suddenly turned around.

“Um…”

Is he asking for an answer? Kain Starchis stopped his moving legs abruptly and answered, drawing out the end of his words hesitantly.

“… I don’t think it’s a difficult thing.”

Immediately, a deep furrow formed between Jersian’s eyebrows.

I don’t think I answered well. Kain thought to himself after confirming Jersian’s frowning expression.

Meanwhile, Jersian changed the subject of conversation.

“What did you talk about with the Marquis?”

In the dark night, Kain Starchis, who had been looking at the trees surrounding them and the bright moon above, tilted his head.

“What do you mean by conversation?”

“I mean all the talk you two had from when the Marquis entered your room until you appeared before me.”

“There wasn’t much important conversation.”

“I’ll be the judge of whether it’s important or not after I hear it.”

“Ah, yes.”

Kain complied with Jersian’s words in a docile manner. He even slightly lowered his much larger frame compared to Jersian, who was standing proudly right in front of him. He could tell his young destined partner anything he was curious about.

“It was an ordinary evening when suddenly the head butler came. He said the Marquis had summoned me before the banquet.”

Jersian’s red pupils moved as if listening intently to Kain’s words.

“I met the Marquis where he led me. As soon as we met, she asked what kind of relationship I had with you, Jersian. She wondered what kind of relationship it was that made you hide me like this.”

The question was more direct than expected. Jersian’s cat-like eyes widened slightly at Kain’s words.

“… So what did you answer?”

“To the Marquis? I told her that we’re not in any kind of relationship yet. Of course, she said she couldn’t believe it.”

“…”

The corner of Jersian’s mouth twitched slightly. Kain’s answer was the most moderate among those Jersian had imagined. It was true that they weren’t in any kind of relationship, as he said.

But he was slightly disappointed by the fact that the elf, who had brazenly said in front of him that they would be together forever, had answered like that elsewhere.

Did I make a mistake? Kain carefully asked, as if trying to soothe Jersian, who was slightly lowering his head.

“Should I have said we’re destined to be partners?”

“Are you crazy?”

Jersian quickly answered, raising his head.

“If you had spouted such nonsense in front of Marchioness Elmerila… you would have been beheaded for daring to deceive the Gerold Marquis family.”

Elmerila was probably more than capable of doing that. Even if the other party was an elf, if she judged that it would harm her nephew, whom she saw as the next Marquis candidate, she would get rid of them in an instant.

“…”

Right, destined partners. Honestly, no ordinary person would believe it. Looking up at the somewhat mysterious elf under the night sky, and the moment their eyes met. The feeling that only two people exist in this world on this quiet night.

The two shared their moment without saying a word, their gazes locked in mid-air. It was a brief instant, but it felt like it would last forever.

It was then.

A servant approached from afar.

“Lord Kain, your room is fully prepared.”

It was time to return to the mansion. Jersian slowly turned his head away from Kain and said,

“… Let’s go in.”

“Yes.”

Kain answered in a clear voice.

* * *

The place the servant guided them to was the room located at the outermost part of the corridor where Jersian’s room was.

“It’s a nice room.”

Kain, who knew nothing about interior design and furniture, said as if for Jersian to hear. The servant who had guided them this far had already left after introducing the room to the two.

“This? It’s just a spare room, nothing special.”

Jersian had been speaking in a snarky tone since earlier. Then he pointed at various furniture in the room, pretending to know about them.

“That side table is way out of fashion, and this bed, what is this? It looks at least several decades old.”

“Is that so? It looks good enough to me.”

Kain touched the bed that Jersian said was old. It felt soft and crisp like sun-dried fabric.

“…”

Hm? For a moment, he felt dizzy. Along with the headache he had felt after drinking the wine at dinner. Was it because he drank something that had gone bad? He thought he was fine until now, but it seemed he wasn’t.

“I need to…”

Kain threw himself onto the bed with a thud. His large body sank into the soft blanket.

“I need to lie down for a bit.”

“What? Already?”

Isn’t it too early to sleep? Just as Jersian was about to say that.

Kain Starchis lay with his eyes closed, not moving. Only regular breathing sounds escaped between his lips.

He had fallen asleep.

“… Is this how you sleep?”

Jersian said dejectedly. After pretending to be fine and chattering for a while during their walk, he ended up being drunk after all. To think he had been seriously listening to drunken ramblings all this time.

He was about to return to his own room with a sigh.

“Don’t go, I’m just resting for a moment.”

Tap!

A large hand grabbed Jersian’s arm.

“What?”

Jersian frowned and tried to shake off his arm.

Or rather, he tried to.

Huh?

Grabbed by the elf’s arm, he couldn’t turn his body in the direction he intended to move.

He didn’t particularly want to compare strength like this, but the elf’s hand was as big as his height and build. Moreover, why is he so hot?

“… Kain?”

Jersian called out to Kain, who had thrown himself onto the bed, with an incredulous face. However, the elf with his eyes closed showed no signs of waking up.

“Hey.”

He roughly shook the arm held by the large hand, but Kain’s hand only swayed limply as Jersian shook it.

“… Mmm.”

Rather, as if annoyed by the movement in his hand, he pulled Jersian’s arm with more force.

“Ugh!”

Jersian, who had been standing next to the bed, had to struggle ungracefully in Kain’s arms. While doing so, he muttered through gritted teeth.

“Are you pretending to sleep?”

But the more Jersian moved, the worse the situation became. This was because Kain had completely embraced Jersian’s body as it squirmed.

“Please… stay still.”

“…!”

Jersian’s red eyes widened as his entire body, not just his arm, was trapped in Kain’s thick arms. The sentiment ‘How dare you?’ was the first to cross Jersian’s mind.

There was a way to call a servant by shouting, but Jersian postponed that method as a last resort. The boy’s pride wouldn’t allow him to call a servant in such a state yet.

After struggling like that for a while, Jersian realized that he could never escape from these arms and completely relaxed his body. Then, the frown on Kain’s face in front of him smoothed out.

“… Haa.”

Jersian let out a resigned sigh in Kain’s arms. Kain, who had closed his eyes completely drunk, showed no signs of waking up. Thinking that it might be better to sleep in this room and return to his own room early in the morning, given the situation.

“We’ll see about this tomorrow morning.”

However, the next morning, Jersian regretted his decision.