“It seems like it’s time to cut your hair, Rose. It’s grown a lot already.”
“Elijah’s too.”
Rose giggled and touched Elijah’s hair. The hair that had been cut to the right length two months ago had already grown down below the neck for both of them.
“This time I’ll cut it. I want to try.”
Rose said with an innocent face. Though it was questionable whether these fern-like hands could properly use scissors, Elijah readily allowed it. Hair grows back quickly anyway.
“Elijah…, hug me.”
When he dressed Rose in clothes roughly dried in the sun, Rose whined like a child and tightly pulled Elijah’s waist. Elijah’s breath caught at the tightly squeezing arm strength.
In contrast to becoming stronger and bigger, Rose was still like a baby. It was natural since he’d only lived for three years.
Elijah, no longer having the strength to carry him on his back or lift him up, just bent his waist and hugged him tightly. Red eyes bathed in summer sunlight looked up at Elijah and curved gently.
Rose extended his hand to him.
“Hand.”
Elijah interlaced his fingers and clasped that hand. It was fortunate that he no longer whined to be carried, perhaps knowing now that he’d gotten too big.
***
「August 13th.
Are you well, Master?
I haven’t been feeling well these past few days, so my letters were short. The rain has started falling, perhaps an early rainy season has arrived.
It’s already been four years since Rose came here. As I always say, these days it seems like Rose grows more between when I go to sleep and wake up.
I realized yesterday evening that now Rose and I are almost the same height. When I measured a month ago, there was about a hand’s span difference.
I expected the growth rate to be faster than humans, but I didn’t know it would be this much. If you could see it with your own eyes, Master, you would be truly amazed.
I’m happy that Rose is growing up healthy, but I’m also a bit disappointed.
Why do books describe vampires as cunning and vicious beings?
Rose has been consistently kind and pretty from when he was young until now. Sometimes I want to show his existence to the world. I want to let them know that vampires aren’t unconditionally evil beings.
But reality wouldn’t be easy. If Rose’s existence became known to the world, the one who would become most endangered would be none other than Rose himself.
As you said, Master, I know well that we must never go out into the world to protect ourselves.
Then, I’ll end here for today.
Rose and I are doing really well.
—From your inadequate disciple, Elijah.」
Elijah carefully folded the letter. Because he’d been suffering from a terrible cold for several days and lacked hand strength, the shape of the paper boat was a mess.
But rain or snow, he couldn’t skip his main daily routine that he’d always done. Even if he was sick like now, or even if the river froze and yesterday’s letter was stuck in the same spot until today, Elijah floated a letter once a day without fail.
His body, chilled from the cold, trembled finely. Elijah, who had wrapped his long cloak tightly, looked up at the ceiling that had been filled without gaps. A few days ago, he couldn’t even get up despite seeing rain leaking through that hole in the ceiling.
When he opened his eyes again, Rose had already neatly patched the ceiling. It was even better than Elijah’s handiwork. Elijah, who had been looking at the ceiling so solid it seemed it would never collapse again, turned at the sound of someone’s presence.
“Elijah, are you feeling better now?”
A hand the same size as Elijah’s approached and covered his forehead. At the coldness seeping from the palm, Elijah trembled slightly. Rose looked at the paper boat in his hand.
“Give me the letter. I’ll float it for you.”
“No. I’ll do this myself.”
“…”
They’d had a similar argument yesterday. Yesterday his condition had been even worse than today, and Rose seemed to have gotten a bit angry because of Elijah, who insisted on going out to float a letter on the river with his feverish, burning body.
Elijah felt unnecessarily sorry looking at Rose, who no longer tried to stop him, and lowered his eyes. He could feel the gaze staring intently at his face from an eye level now similar to his own.
“Then eat first and let’s go out together.”
Rose, who had wrapped his arm around Elijah’s shoulder, sat him down in front of the dining table. Igrit was sitting across from Elijah as always. Rose, who had set down bowls filled with stew in front of Igrit and Elijah respectively, sat next to Elijah.
“…”
Elijah, who had been stirring the contents that were thick and dense unlike usual, lifted an unfamiliar lump with his spoon.
“Turkey.”
Rose, who had answered the unspoken question, gestured toward the kitchen with his eyes. Next to the sink were a raw chicken that couldn’t be found in Elijah’s cabin, the internal organs of some unknown beast, the bone remains of a turkey with all the meat separated, fruits that couldn’t be obtained around here, and among other things, unfamiliar glass bottles lined up.
“What are those?”
Elijah pointed at the bottles.
“Spices.”
“Did you go down to the settlement? …When?”
Rose smiled and swept Elijah’s hair back behind his ear.
“While Elijah was sleeping.”
It seemed things like this happened when he slept almost all day because he wasn’t feeling well. He poked at the meat he was seeing for the first time in nearly 200 years with the tip of his spoon.
It wasn’t that meat couldn’t be obtained at all in the forest. Though they didn’t come near here because of human presence, there were birds and four-legged beasts. However, Elijah, who couldn’t even think of hunting and was even more averse to butchering, chose not to eat meat at all.
Later, even filling his belly became bothersome, so his entire meal consisted of clear soup boiled with just roughly cut mushrooms, but in the few days he was half-asleep from illness, the table had become abundant.
“…”
It felt very unfamiliar to Elijah that his meal was entirely born from someone else’s hands.
That there was someone who would patch the ceiling for him just by lying still, and someone who would prepare meals by filling the pot with all kinds of ingredients—it was naturally something to be grateful and happy about, but that didn’t mean this situation was entirely welcome.
“Recklessly dangerous without any fear.”
Thinking that Rose had gone somewhere alone while he slept, somewhere he didn’t know about, made him feel unpleasantly annoyed. He was fortunate to return safely today without incident, but it seemed his heart would ache terribly if Rose wasn’t by his side when he woke up someday.
Originally there had only been Igrit and himself in this cabin, and even though he’d lived like that for 200 years, Elijah no longer wanted to think about life without Rose.
“What if something had happened?”
“To whom?”
Elijah cupped both of Rose’s cheeks with an incredulous expression and pressed down.
“To you, of course. There are so many bad people in the world.”
At his firm answer, Rose only smiled with an indecipherable expression. Elijah seriously admonished the utterly innocent child.
“You’re still young. You don’t know the ways of the world. Outside, there are far more bad people than you can imagine.”
“I’m worse than those people.”
He was really saying useless things. Elijah couldn’t even laugh at his absurd joke. In any case, despite Rose’s admirable actions, he still didn’t feel very good.
“…From next time, don’t go anywhere without telling me. I don’t need to eat things like this.”
A cold hand gripped Elijah’s chin and turned his head. The red eyes he met curved round like a crescent moon.
“You need to eat well to get better quickly.”
Smack, smack, smack. Lips fell lightly in succession on his forehead, the bridge of his nose, and around his mouth.
“When Elijah is sick, I’m so sad…”
Rose’s head rested on his shoulder. Fine silver-white hair tickled Elijah’s cheek and chin.
“Get better quickly and hug me, Elijah.”
Rose’s face, looking up at him with a questioning “Hm?” was as innocent and lovable as always. Elijah’s firmly set expression inevitably softened.
If I hadn’t been sick, Rose wouldn’t have had to go through the hardship of going down to the settlement…
Though it was annoying that he’d gone alone without saying anything, strictly speaking, he had no right to be angry.
“…Thank you. I’ll eat well.”
Perhaps from how carefully and long he’d boiled it, the meat crumbled finely with just the touch of a spoon. It was a luxury he hadn’t enjoyed even when living with his Master before.
Elijah, finding the meat he’d rarely eaten unfamiliar and fascinating, poked at it repeatedly, then carefully took a spoonful. Rose, who had been carefully watching from the side, tilted his head again and kissed him.
As he stirred the stew while receiving the kiss on his cheek, Igrit’s gaze from the front was piercing.
If he went outside, which side would really be in danger?
“…”
No matter how bad the people in the world are, would they be worse than a cannibal? He’s a vampire, Elijah. Vampires can’t be kind from the start… They eat humans.
Igrit sharply criticized Elijah’s complacency. This time too, unable to overcome that nature, his body fell backward. The heavy pomegranate head rolled off the dining chair and finally fell to the floor.
“Elijah.”
At that moment, Rose gripped his chin and turned his head toward him.
“I hurt here.”
Elijah, who had been unable to take his eyes off Igrit fallen on the floor, finally looked at the palm held out before his eyes.
“You…”
He grabbed Rose’s hand with a surprised face. The indescribable anxiety that had been rising because of Igrit disappeared in an instant far away, and something else came into view.
