The Arrow of Destiny Cuts Through the Night

#29

The sound of birds announcing dawn was heard.

“…”

Kain Starchis, opening his eyes on the soft blanket, soon realized that he had fallen asleep hugging something large. He also realized he had fallen asleep tightly embracing a warm mass with both arms. Black hair and a round forehead.

This is…

Kain Starchis whispered, shaking awake the boy sleeping in his arms.

“…Lord Jersian?”

At that voice, Jersian’s cat-like sharp eyes twitched and moved. Soon after, his closed eyelids slowly lifted. Bright red eyes filled Kain’s view. Come to think of it, this seemed to be the first time they were facing each other so closely. The first thing Jersian said after opening his eyes was this:

“Move it.”

It was an extremely short phrase for a morning greeting.

“Pardon?”

Kain Starchis asked back with a blank face. Jersian spoke, biting each syllable inside his mouth.

“This arm, I said move it.”

It was a tone that seemed somehow angry. Ah, Kain nodded and released his two arms that had been embracing Jersian.

Come to think of it, how did I end up lying like this with Jersian? Kain said, watching Jersian quickly slip out of his arms.

“But why are you here?”

He clearly remembered hearing from the head butler that a new room had been prepared. He vaguely remembered walking outside the mansion with Jersian until the preparations were complete. What happened after that? As Kain frowned and rubbed his forehead, an arrow of blame was shot.

“You’re asking why I’m here? Are you joking?”

Kain’s eyes widened at the sudden arrow flying his way.

“…I don’t understand what you mean…”

“How nice. Not remembering anything.”

Jersian complained with a frowning face, roughly brushing off his wrinkled clothes with his palm. He needed to move now, before the people of the mansion woke up. Once he was presentable enough to go out into the hallway, Jersian turned his head and threw his last words before leaving the room.

“We’ll talk later. You’ll pay dearly for your drunken antics towards me.”

Thud, the door closed with a small sound so as not to wake others.

Still sitting up in bed just as he had woken, Kain Starchis muttered softly, looking at the closed door.

“Drunken antics?”

His tone still suggested he had no idea why Jersian was acting like this.

* * *

A certain rumor spread like wildfire through the Gerold mansion.

It was the absurd rumor that the youngest young master had fallen in love with an elf.

At first, it was dismissed as nonsense among those who had known Jersian for a long time, but…

Someone who witnessed the two taking a secret walk after the banquet. Someone who saw the young master leaving the elf’s room at dawn and returning to his own room.

With the testimony of a few people, the rumor was no longer nonsense.

* * *

Jersian asked Peter, the captain of the knights who visited the office:

“…What’s with that look in your eyes since earlier?”

After ignoring it for quite a while, Jersian’s patience had reached its limit. Peter’s gaze was impossible to ignore any longer.

Peter immediately showed delight. He had been waiting for Jersian to bring it up first.

“You know it’s just the two of us in this office right now, don’t you?”

“…What?”

Jersian, who had been sitting in a chair examining a dispatch that had arrived, raised his gaze.

“What’s that supposed to mean all of a sudden.”

Creepily. Jersian frowned as if he got goosebumps.

Although there was a difference in status, they usually treated each other comfortably when alone.

“Are you really going to keep this up till the end?”

“…I don’t know what you mean either, so speak plainly.”

What on earth are you trying to say. Jersian twisted his lips. It had been a while since he’d seen such a look in Peter’s eyes. Eyes filled with pride and mixed emotions, as if saying ‘you’ve already grown this much’.

When Jersian first met Peter, he was already a young but promising knight favored by the Marquis. Whenever he saw the gray hairs that had gradually appeared here and there, he often wondered if this was what it would feel like to have a father. In fact, Peter regarded Jersian as more than just the youngest son of the Gerold Marquis family.

“On my way here today, I heard a certain rumor.”

“A rumor? Is it related to me?”

Jersian finally showed interest. As expected, Peter wouldn’t act so strangely over nothing. Peter cleared his throat once briefly, then spoke in an uncharacteristically low voice.

“Where did you sleep last night?”

“…”

Jersian’s body jerked at Peter’s question. But soon he raised his head and met Peter’s gaze.

“You can’t be serious.”

Even as he spoke, he had a feeling that this ‘can’t be serious’ was probably right. Damn, as he always felt, nothing could be completely hidden in the Gerold mansion. Judging by the situation, he could roughly guess the content of the rumor.

“You’ve lived in the Gerold mansion for how many years, and you believe such nonsensical rumors?”

“Is that so? Seeing your reaction, I can tell the rumor is true.”

Jersian expressed his bewilderment with a surge of emotion.

“No.”

It was true that he had stayed in Kain’s room last night. But he didn’t expect to be swayed by such a ridiculous rumor. Huh, Jersian spoke with a sigh full of indignation.

“Really, nothing happened. It’s just that Kain was drunk from the banquet that day…”

“Drunk?”

Peter’s expression changed subtly.

“He kept drinking wine at the banquet. Anyway, he was drunk and rowdy, so I just stayed there for a few hours. It’s nothing.”

“I see.”

However, contrary to his response, Peter still looked doubtful. Although he didn’t know why he had to make excuses, Jersian continued speaking.

“I can guess what you’re imagining, but really, nothing happened.”

Jersian wasn’t even legally an adult. It was funny that people in the Gerold mansion, who should know this, believed such a baseless rumor.

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing at all.”

After answering firmly once more, Peter’s expression finally softened slightly.

“Now do you believe me?”

Jersian grumbled, pressing his forehead. Several people he would have to personally clarify this nonsensical rumor to came to mind. Of course, this included Marchioness Elmerila. She, who received reports on all rumors and gossip in the empire as if they were official reports, would have already heard this news. It was a bit of a headache.

“When we first met, didn’t he call you his ‘destined partner’? That’s why I thought even more, ‘It’s finally happened…'”

The captain of the knights of the Gerold mansion seemed to have a very rich imagination no matter how you looked at it. Come to think of it, he was also one of those who had been most accommodating to that elf behind the scenes.

“The knight duties must be quite leisurely these days for you to have such delusions.”

“It might be too early to dismiss it as just a delusion. As you ordered, I looked into the concept of this ‘partner’ thing among elves through external informants. Of course, no one knows perfectly, but there were stories passed down like legends. I was holding off on reporting because it wasn’t complete yet. Would you like to hear it anyway?”

Jersian’s eyes flickered, waiting for Peter’s next words. It was what he had ordered the knights on the day he first met Kain. He thought there had been no results since there had been no word since then, but if he was reporting like this, it meant he had found something.

“Go ahead.”

With Jersian’s permission, Peter nodded and continued.

“To cut to the chase, destined partners really do exist. There’s a world tree called the Galia tree that elves worship like a religion, and when the time comes, it makes them share each other’s names as a mark. Through an informant who claims to be a distant descendant of elves, we confirmed that most of Kain Starchis’s claims are correct.”

“…”

After listening to Peter’s words, Jersian pondered for a moment and then opened his mouth in a low voice.

“So that means…”

“Yes.”

As if he had anticipated Jersian’s next words, Peter nodded and said,

“It means that the mark on Kain’s body proves Lord Jersian’s lineage.”

“…”

Jersian Del Claude.

The name engraved on the snow-white elf’s chest.

Jersian sneered, recalling his real name that he dared not even utter aloud.