I listened to news of the dog while finishing off the rest of the dishes.
When we came out after the meal and I was about to say we should part ways, René naturally steered me toward the promenade.
I’d tried to decline, but I got caught up in René’s smooth way of shifting topics and guiding the conversation. In the end, I gave up on heading back early and decided to spend a bit more time with him.
…Well, the weather was nice.
Might as well take a breather today. Doesn’t seem like there’s much more I can prepare here.
I strolled leisurely after René, letting the breeze wash over me. Chatting back and forth as we walked along the promenade, I found we had arrived at the plaza before I knew it.
Perhaps because it was the central city, the sweeping plaza buzzed with energy even in the middle of the day. Children ran around in boisterous packs, and here and there people were enjoying their leisure in the shade of the street trees.
Coming to a place full of people made the hand holding feel all the more embarrassing. It didn’t help that the man beside me drew eyes. When two women who had come over to talk to us with shy smiles saw our joined hands and went wide-eyed, I desperately wanted to sink through the floor.
I’d never been through anything so mortifying in my life… I kept redirecting my gaze to random spots in the distance, doing my best to compose myself.
“You don’t seem very familiar with this area.”
“How could you tell? It’s only been a few days since I arrived in the Dukedom.”
“You keep looking the other way. Not even a glance at me while I’m talking.”
…He’d caught me in the act of deliberately looking away, in an instant. The timing was too precise to play dumb.
I felt my ears go hot. I shyly met his eyes, and he curved them into a playful expression.
“Over there — there was a performance at that corner, so I was watching it. Wow, they were juggling torches…”
“A performance, you say. Shall we go watch.”
René chuckled and let my terrible excuse slide. My ears went about ten times hotter.
Laughter gradually wove itself into the scattered exchange of words.
René was skilled at keeping a conversation going. Not even a trace of the awkward silences that sometimes crept in when I was alone in conversation with someone else.
If anything, I was genuinely enjoying myself. Looking at the shops and decorations lining the streets and talking about whatever came to mind just to pass the time — none of it felt dull.
The shopping district had the look of a market street in early modern Europe. We browsed the goods on display by sight, and bought street food — skewers and dried fruit.
René looked mildly appalled when I came back with a lamb skewer I’d bought on my own. How telling of a sheltered upbringing. I snickered, and René arched his eyebrows with a prim little look.
The tension that had been coiled in my body throughout my time at the manor loosened, if only for a short while.
René’s hand, which had felt unnatural at first, no longer felt out of place the longer we stayed like this. Five or six hours slipped by in the blink of an eye.
“Quite a bit of time has passed — I should head back.”
“How far are you going, Jun? I’d like to walk you there.”
“It’s where we were originally supposed to meet today. Would you like to come along?”
It was ten minutes from the carriage boarding spot. At my suggestion, René turned his steps in that direction.
The conversation drifted back to the dog we’d talked about over dinner.
René said the dog’s name was Antonio and that he was three years old.
“You said you didn’t know at the time — you seem to remember now.”
“Don’t laugh too much. I remember properly now.”
He answered my teasing question with a prim little retort. I was stifling a grin when I felt something coil around my wrist.
Looking down, I found that at some point René’s hand had fully closed around my wrist. I must have gotten distracted talking about the dog and not noticed.
…Something felt off.
I hadn’t noticed someone making deliberate contact with me? Me, of all people — not some ordinary person?
Had the senses I’d spent so long honing already gone dull? That couldn’t be right…
“Jun.”
“…Oh. Yes.”
“What are you thinking about?”
René called out to me as if pulling me back from somewhere far away.
Right. We were in the middle of a conversation. Focus on him.
I rushed to make some excuse about just spacing out for a moment. René studied me for a beat, then let it go and changed the subject without pressing further.
“Speaking of which — would you be willing to let me invite you to my home next time?”
“Your home?”
“You said just now that you’d like to meet the dog.”
“I said that…?”
“Yes. I’m delighted. I’m sure Antonio and you would make wonderful friends.”
Had I said something like that in the midst of everything? I looked at René with a puzzled expression. He continued cheerfully.
He said he unfortunately had things to do tomorrow, so we could meet again the day after. He also said that if I told him where I was staying this time, he would come pick me up himself.
René rattled off his plans one after another without a single hitch, as if he’d written them out in advance. The atmosphere was gradually shifting toward the meeting in two days being settled.
“Since we’d have to go to where the dog is, around the time the sun sets—”
“Um — René. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be able to meet again.”
René stopped walking.
The smooth curve of his lips went rigid.
“I’m planning to leave here in a few days. I have a lot to prepare, and I can’t afford to take time out again.”
“…Where to?”
“Somewhere — far from the Dukedom.”
It was a lie. I wasn’t leaving — I was going to end up trapped in the manor’s banquet.
But going on about knowing the future or some such thing would only get me written off as a lunatic. There was no reason to tell the truth.
“So I’m sorry, but—”
“That’s a problem.”
“Pardon?”
“…….”
René looked down at me in silence… then suddenly stretched his lips into a long smile.
“No, it’s all right. I understand. If you’re busy, there’s nothing to be done.”
“I’m sorry. I’m quite disappointed myself—”
“Then let’s meet tomorrow. I’ll find a way to clear my schedule.”
“What?”
The conversation felt like a broken pulley — the gears weren’t catching.
When I asked again, René replied with a calm smile.
“It was a mistake on my part not to have prepared to receive Jun today. I should have just taken you with me the moment we met.”
“No, what I mean is—”
“Is there truly no way?”
René curled his fingers like a hook and gently laced them through mine.
He leaned close and whispered, asking again with a soft, lingering tone.
“Just — one day.”
What do I do with this.
After today, there would be seven days left until the banquet. If it was just one day, I could technically spare the time — but…
This person and I are going to part ways regardless.
Whether I died inside the manor or cleared the game and returned to my original world — we were never going to meet again.
I had no intention of wasting any of the seven days I had left on someone I would be saying goodbye to, and I didn’t want to grow attached to each other either.
Above all else.
I can’t let this person get entangled with the manor.
If René spent another day with me, he might notice that I was staying at the manor — or, however unlikely, he could end up affected by the game’s system in some way.
He was an innocent person who knew nothing about any of it. My gut told me I couldn’t let him get any closer.
Not for my sake — but for René’s.
He was the kind of person who said even the memory of being chased by those mannequins still frightened him, someone who had asked to hold my hand. There was no way anything good could come from getting mixed up with me — someone fated to be dragged into the manor no matter what.
I was just about to shake off the hand he had caught and make my refusal clear when—
“I really can’t keep letting you do this—”
His downward-slanting eyes met mine head-on. That beautiful face shone with a helpless kind of glow that tugged at every protective instinct.
God, he’s so pretty…
Without realizing it, my resolve began to soften.
Perhaps sensing my hesitation, René kept at his persuasion with quiet persistence.
He had no idea this would be our last meeting, he said — he had only been looking forward to seeing me again, and he couldn’t bring himself to accept that this was now a permanent farewell. His melancholy voice pulled at something in me.
It was at this moment that I became sharply aware of it — that I, too, had been quietly hoping René and I could become friends.
From our first meeting until today, I had been far more drawn to the time we’d spent together than I’d realized. Talking with him made me forget even that I was a participant in a horror game.
If this had been my original world, there was no doubt it would have been me approaching him first, not the other way around.
…….
How? How had I let myself get this absorbed, and this quickly?
“If setting a separate date is really too difficult, what about right now. There’s my studio nearby.”
Stop.
I needed to focus on the conversation with René.
“Couldn’t you stay for a cup of tea before you go? I didn’t prepare anything in advance, but I can put something simple together.”
“Hmm…”
The relentless persuasion kept eroding my will.
It had been roughly eight hours since I’d left the manor. The sun was beginning to set. I had to be back within twenty hours to avoid the penalty starting…
“…How long would it take to get to your studio?”
I asked casually, and René answered at once: “It won’t take long. Less than an hour.”
“Then — are you saying you’ll visit today?”
“Yes. I hope it won’t be any trouble, coming by so suddenly…”
“Of course not. I’m so glad you agreed.”
He smiled brightly. I had the faint hallucination of light radiating out from somewhere behind him.
