# Chapter 44
Wariness and subtle fear rippled through Rite’s eyes.
“…Is it Pini?”
“No.”
Rite shook his head. How could he be so certain? I didn’t hide my doubt as I asked.
“How do you know?”
“Just a feeling.”
I let out a small laugh. Despite my bewildered response, Rite maintained his expression. As I tried to get up, Rite grabbed my wrist.
“No. Don’t go out.”
“I need to check who it is.”
“…I have a bad feeling.”
“It’s probably nothing.”
“How can Arden be so sure of that?”
Rite, who had been glaring at the door with hostility, turned that same look toward me. His face, openly displaying his emotions, appeared very unstable. Rite’s eyes, standing somewhere ambiguously between boyhood and young adulthood, wavered back and forth.
“Why are you so…”
“I hate it when someone else comes in and disrupts this house.”
“…”
“…Whenever someone visits, something bad always happens.”
It wasn’t an exaggeration. I recalled Rite when he was closer to being a boy, when he wouldn’t leave the house for a long time. I hadn’t been attentive enough. The contrast naturally formed between the Rite who ransacked the forest and cut off monsters’ heads and the current Rite who tensed up at just a knock.
For Rite, visitors to the house seemed more frightening than forest monsters.
“Let’s just… stay like this…”
Stay still. Rite lowered his voice and whispered softly. I wanted to check who it was. Thinking this only to myself, I stared intently at the door. I couldn’t see who was standing beyond it, but instead, other information was thrown that could help me guess.
“Arden?”
It was a familiar voice. Rite must have recognized the owner of the voice too, as the grip on my wrist tightened.
“It’s Jack. Are you in there?”
Unconsciously, I looked at Rite as if checking his reaction. The eyes that had shown fear were gone, replaced by a much more intense emotion shooting from his eyes.
“Rite, it hurts.”
“…”
“Rite. I said it hurts. Let go.”
“And if I let go?”
Menacing, gleaming eyes turned toward me. Instinctively, I tried to pull back from the hostility, but Rite pulled me back, bringing me much closer than before. Leaning forward while sitting in the chair, I dropped the book I had been holding in one hand. Thud. A small sound echoed.
“Arden, are you in there?”
Having heard that sound, Jack knocked on the door once more. At the sound, I tried to turn my gaze toward the entrance, but a strong force grabbed my chin.
“Ah, Ri…”
“Shh.”
He covered my mouth with one hand while holding my chin with the other. This was the first time he had acted so forcefully, so I just blinked in surprise. Though he had threatened me by cutting off a beast’s head, he had never tried to physically overpower me until now.
“Were you going to open the door for him?”
“Mm… mmph.”
“If you keep doing that, it really seems like it.”
I tried to remove his hand from my mouth by grabbing his wrist with both hands, but it didn’t budge at all. I could feel Rite’s skin squirming beneath my palm. Even if I wanted to shake my head to break free, the hand gripping my chin made that difficult as well.
“I’m not putting on a show for me to see, it really seems like it. Arden.”
Something pitch-black began to writhe and crawl out from above Rite’s head. Though it was my mouth that was covered, Rite breathed roughly as if someone was blocking his airway.
I needed to calm Rite down. When Rite gets excited, it’s dangerous even when I’m alone, but Jack was outside too. Unaware of this, Jack continued to call my name from outside the door, further provoking Rite. I felt urgent. I racked my brain for how to make this hand release me.
I looked down at my feet, which were relatively free. If I kicked Rite in the shin, he might let go, but that would only stimulate Rite further. Besides, I had never once raised a hand against him, and I didn’t want to kick him, even if it wasn’t a beating.
I released my grip on Rite’s wrist. I had squeezed so hard that scale marks remained deeply imprinted on my palm. I extended my throbbing hand and placed it against Rite’s cheek. Through the touched skin, I could feel Rite trembling as if having a seizure.
It’s okay. Calm down. Though I couldn’t say it aloud, I repeated it over and over in my mind. I cupped Rite’s cheek with my palm and slowly rubbed it, then traced down along the line of his neck. I slowly stroked all the way to his shoulder, then tapped his shoulder rhythmically.
The purple eyes followed my palm intently before looking up at me. I didn’t avoid the gaze but blinked slowly. Once, twice, three times. As I continued blinking like that, Rite’s eyes also began to blink slowly in time with mine. His long eyelashes, surrounding those purple eyes, fluttered languidly.
Only then did the hand holding me finally release.
“Arden!”
Jack didn’t give up and continued knocking on the door. Rite, who had seemed to be calming down, once again looked at the door with flashing eyes. Taking advantage of that moment, I quickly stood up before being grabbed again. Rite’s gaze immediately followed, but I had already put some distance between us.
“…Don’t open the door.”
“I can’t just leave him like that either. I’ll go out and just talk briefly…”
“Why can’t you leave him like that?”
“It’s raining outside, and if he stays out there like that, he’ll catch a cold.”
“What does that have to do with you, Arden?”
Rite looked like he might pounce on me at any moment. Sitting in the chair with his upper body lowered, looking up at me, he resembled a predator just before hunting. Though his breathing was more stable than before, he still had horns on his head and scales on his arms, and his eyes remained fierce.
“So you’re saying we should just let him keep knocking on the door?”
“What if he comes in when you open the door?”
“He won’t come in. Even if he did, it would just be for a moment. During that time, you could hide…”
“Why should I hide?”
“No, that’s…”
I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have used the word “hide.” Rite’s expression became even more ferocious. As Rite rose from the chair, our eye levels immediately changed. Though the difference wasn’t great yet, his different bone structure made him appear much larger.
After staring silently, Rite opened his mouth.
“Why should I hide?!”
I flinched at Rite’s explosive shout. Of course, Jack outside would have heard it too.
“Arden! Is something wrong? Arden!”
After the sound of several knocks, the doorknob began to turn. Since it wasn’t nighttime, the door wasn’t locked. I had a moment of regret, but opening the door took only an instant. When the door gap opened about a handspan.
“…”
With a loud noise, the door closed again.
“Arden? Arden!”
Jack tried to open the door again but failed. It was a repetition of the door opening a little and then closing with a loud noise.
As I stood there dumbfounded, unable to grasp the situation, I suddenly felt something off. Rite was too quiet. When I turned my head, I saw Rite staring intently at the door. His face was calmer than before, but that was even more frightening. Like the night just before a storm hits.
“…You…”
The flow of air was turbulent. Especially around Rite. To be more precise, the flow of Aether floating in the air was turbulent. It wasn’t that Rite was directly moving the Aether in the air. Rather than manipulating it directly, the Aether in the air was being pushed around by something else.
There was nothing blocking the door, yet it wouldn’t open. In this house, there were only Rite and me, and I hadn’t touched the door. The same was true for Rite, but the area around him seemed unusual. What could affect another object without touching it? Only one thing came to mind.
But still.
“Rite…”
At my call, Rite turned only his eyes to look at me. Yet still, the door wouldn’t open.
Could it be explained by anything other than magic? But could the magic power, called the Goddess’s blessing, manifest in a future traitor who was born with the destiny to devour the country, someone who wasn’t even human? Would it make sense for the Goddess who protected the country to bestow a blessing on Rite’s body?
I recalled the puppet show I had watched with Rite at the Founding Festival. Artalis, who helped a child trying to defeat monsters. Most myths took that form. But why.
“Why should I hide, Arden?”
“…More importantly, you…”
“Why should that person come in here?”
Come to think of it. This isn’t the first time this has happened, is it?
I didn’t know what should take priority. If I asked Rite if he was using magic right now, would he even know? I’d never taught him about magic.
Regardless of my confusion, Rite’s excitement was gradually increasing.
“This space is just for me and Arden. Yet you’d let that person in here?”
“…I didn’t say I would let him in.”
“You know, Arden.”
There were too many things to worry about. The spirited Rite confronting me was a problem, but I was also concerned about Jack standing outside the door. Had he seen Rite through the door gap? He must have at least heard his voice. What would he think was blocking the door now? Did he have the ability to sense magic? More importantly, was it even magic? I looked at Rite with my head spinning in complexity.
“The reason I quietly stayed when Arden met Jack outside was because Arden met him in a place where I couldn’t go.”
Rite spoke like someone teaching a small child. Like an adult explaining while suppressing their anger.
“Rummaging through someone else’s territory, not our territory… being extremely generous, I can tolerate that. Because you’ll come back eventually.”
When were you ever quiet, and what did you tolerate? I grimaced at these ridiculous words, but Rite didn’t care and just continued speaking.
“But this is different. You’d let him in here? How can I just watch that happen?”
“I didn’t say I would let him in.”
“You told me to hide.”
The voice flowing through Rite’s clenched teeth was savage.
