“Wh-wh-what are you doing?”
“Ah……, I apologize.”
Good grief, how embarrassing. Kalian clicked his tongue silently. He hadn’t even touched skin, just lightly brushed against the collar—was there really a need to be that startled? He felt like he had become a pervert who had molested him.
“It seemed like there was a wound on the back of your neck.”
“What?”
His already wide eyes opened even wider. Seeing those eyes trembling in terror made it burdensome to say anything more, so Kalian shook his head with an awkward smile.
“Never mind. I must have seen wrong.”
“…….”
His face, which had turned pale white, hardened as if he would cry at any moment. For a person to be this guarded. The saying “a guilty conscience needs no accuser” fit perfectly. Anyone could see it was the behavior of someone harboring many suspicious secrets.
Even while seated, Elijah couldn’t take his hand away from the back of his neck.
Near the cervical vertebrae that he couldn’t see with a mirror, he felt a new wound that hadn’t been there before.
It seemed that last night’s events were not a dream after all.
* * *
Bailey glanced at Elijah with suspicious eyes.
Since midday in the middle of summer, Elijah had not only pulled his collar up to his neck, but also wore his cloak hood pulled down deeply, trembling like someone suffering in the dead of winter’s bitter cold.
He was always strange, but now he was even stranger. It wouldn’t be surprising if he rolled his eyes back and fainted right now. He leaned toward Kalian and whispered softly.
“Lord Kalian, why is he acting like that……?”
“I don’t know. He says he’s not feeling well.”
He really did seem to be in a state that required seeing a physician. Mental illness couldn’t be helped even with healing magic. Right now, Elijah seemed to have more of a mental problem than a physical one.
“Really……. It’s like we’re being led around by a madman.”
Strictly speaking, they were the ones who had led him first, and Elijah seemed to be the one looking for an opportunity to slip away from being led.
“Anyway Bailey, there’s something you need to do before we leave for the Royal Palace.”
Kalian placed his hand on Bailey’s shoulder.
“We’ll depart first. You go back and visit Gillie-ssi’s ranch.”
“……There again?”
“Gillie-ssi says he can’t show us anything without the person’s permission. Go there and snatch away Elijah-ssi’s letter, or steal it—just bring it somehow.”
A letter from someone suffering from delirium……. Wouldn’t looking at it just be a waste of time? Bailey earnestly conveyed his opinion with his eyes.
However, Kalian, who had no way of knowing his true feelings, was alone with his arms crossed, lost in deep thought.
“I have something I need to confirm with Elijah-ssi.”
* * *
Even after boarding the carriage, Kalian became anxious along with Elijah, who remained consistently nervous.
“I-is there anyone else in here besides the two of us?”
How spacious could a four-person carriage be—there wasn’t even space for someone to hide, yet Elijah continued to be restless. Looking out the window once every three seconds, and checking on Adam driving the carriage through the driver’s seat window once every five seconds, his questions were absurd.
“Elijah-ssi, there’s no one. Bailey has some business to attend to so he’ll follow later, and only three people have boarded this carriage—Adam, myself, and you, Elijah-ssi.”
“But…….”
His green eyes wandered anxiously in all directions as if they had nowhere to go. Elijah covered his ears with trembling hands.
“But, I keep hearing strange sounds…….”
“What sounds?”
No matter how much he listened, there was no noise that could be considered strange. There were only ordinary sounds like pebbles bouncing off the carriage wheels, the sound of horse hooves, and occasionally Adam striking the reins.
“Strange, v-voices, keep…….”
“Voices?”
“Elijah-ssi, please look this way. Are you alright?”
Kalian snapped his fingers in front of Elijah’s eyes. The eyes that had been shaking here and there finally turned toward his hand.
“Please tell me where you feel uncomfortable. If it’s something I can help with my abilities, I’ll help you.”
“……Just, a bit. My head, ……hurts.”
“I’ll give you medicine, so please sleep. You’ll be stuck in here for several hours anyway.”
Kalian searched for a medicine bottle in the luggage beside him. Among the luggage he was rummaging through, a long box popped out. Elijah knew what was inside that box.
‘That necklace…….’
The headache hasn’t gone away ever since touching that thing. Elijah stared at the box as if escaping from extreme fear.
It’s definitely because of that. The vicious hallucination relapsed because of that thing. Rose never came to him in the first place, and he just mistook the wound on the back of his neck for one that had been there all along.
Of course. That can’t be……. If I had really met Rose, there’s no way I’d be alive right now. There’s no way Rose would have disappeared so obediently…….
‘It doesn’t make sense……. It’s all a mistake.’
A medicine bottle was suddenly thrust in front of Elijah. The glass bottle, about the size of a finger joint, contained a transparent liquid.
“You may not know this, but headaches can’t be helped even with healing magic.”
“……Thank you.”
Elijah fingered the medicine bottle. He didn’t want to readily accept and drink medicine given by someone he couldn’t trust, but it was awkward since the other person was watching right in front of him.
“To Adam-ssi, ……could you please tell him to drive the carriage more gently? I’m getting motion sick…….”
Kalian readily turned his head and opened the driver’s seat window.
“Adam, drive a bit slower. I’m dizzy.”
In the meantime, Elijah poured the medicine from the bottle under the seat. Kalian, who had turned his head back to face forward, checked the empty bottle in his hand.
“Please sleep. I’ll wake you later.”
Elijah pulled the front of his cloak up to his neck and curled up close against the wall. It wasn’t a situation where he could comfortably fall asleep at all, but if he didn’t want to be caught having poured out the medicine, he felt he should at least pretend to sleep.
Kalian watched Elijah for a moment as he curled up his body tightly like a bean weevil and buried his head between his knees. How much time had passed like that? His shoulders, which had been stiff with tension, drooped down, and his limp body soon swayed lightly following the carriage’s vibrations.
“Elijah-ssi.”
He called out to Elijah in a lowered voice. However, the round head hidden under the cloak hood showed no signs of waking up. Kalian very carefully moved his seat next to him.
He wanted to check again the wound on the back of his neck that he had seen in the morning, but it wasn’t easy since he was wrapped up too tightly in his clothes. Kalian very slowly grabbed the edge of Elijah’s cloak hood. The appearance was like a pervert secretly molesting a sleeping person, so his self-loathing was considerable.
He began to carefully remove the hood with the feeling of touching the whiskers of a sleeping lion—no, a sleeping flying squirrel. Just when the disheveled dark brown hair on his crown was becoming slightly visible, Elijah suddenly lifted his head smoothly.
“……Huh.”
“Wh-what are you doing?”
His green eyes, which had no trace of sleepiness, shook uncontrollably. Kalian hastily waved his hands and made excuses.
“Whatever misunderstanding you’re having, it’s not that, Elijah-ssi! I was just…….”
Suddenly, with a bang! the vehicle body tilted and sank down. Because it happened to tilt toward Elijah’s side, Kalian’s body also swayed sharply in that direction.
“Hik……!”
Elijah went wild, throwing punches and kicks wildly at Kalian’s shoulders and chest that had fallen on him. Kalian felt like his eardrums would burst from the screams he let out frantically. Elijah, with his fist clenched, pushed his shoulder with all his strength and hit him repeatedly.
“Get, away! Aah! Don’t, touch me, hk, you bad, you bad person!”
“El-, ugh……, Elijah-ssi, wait a moment, please ca-, aah. Please calm down and listen to me……!”
Inside the vehicle body that had completely fallen on its side, a struggle—or not quite a struggle—between Elijah and Kalian began. The luggage that had been neatly organized scattered and rolled around everywhere.
The punches and kicks that Elijah desperately threw were no threat to Kalian at all, but the magical power surging through his body was beyond dangerous and lethal.
“Elijah-ssi, please calm down! Your magical power, ……aah!”
With a thunderous boom, Kalian was flung out of the carriage door. On the sloped road where the carriage wheel had unfortunately come off, the carriage that had been lying diagonally on its side completely overturned.
In that chaos, Adam, who had rolled down from the driver’s seat and nearly been trampled by the horse, was startled to see Kalian suddenly thrown out of the carriage.
“Lord Kalian……?”
“Uh, haa……. Adam, th-the, the flying squir……, catch Elijah-ssi!”
“What? Where?”
Adam thought Elijah was running away somewhere. However, from the groaning sounds inside the carriage, he could tell he was still inside.
Meanwhile, Elijah was trying his best to somehow escape from inside the overturned carriage, avoiding the direction where Kalian was. However, the carriage door half-pressed against the sloped ground wouldn’t open no matter how hard he tried.
“Please…….”
Like how he had just blown Kalian away, if only such luck could happen one more time……. As Elijah tried to somehow gather the magical power that wouldn’t work according to his will into his hands, a long box fell next to his head.
“…….”
From inside the box that had half-opened, a blue-green light leaked out.
You have to look only at me and cherish only me.
It felt like all the nerves in his body were being pulled into it. By the force that seemed to powerfully draw his senses, his hand that had stretched out irresistibly dug into the gap of the open box.
Look only at me, only me……. It would be good if it had a bell……. There needs to be sound so I can know where you are……. Am I pretty? ……lijah is prettier. I’m yours……. And you’re mine.
Too much noise poured out from the pendant small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. The sound that had rushed in enough to deafen his ears soon dug into his head.
Pitch-black silence covered him.
