Chapter 47

It had been two days since it began raining.

For two whole days, Vivian did not see Kylo.

In truth, it would have been fine if she had gone to see him.

If she was this curious about how he was doing, all she needed to do was pay him a visit.

She could sneak over to the Penal Unit barracks, hidden from the Dubos young ladies, and talk to him.

The problem was that she had nothing to say once she got there.

All this time, she had almost never gone to see him first on purpose.

If she had, it was probably to talk about changing meal times.

But now, she was in no position to use meals as an excuse, since she was dining with the Dubos young ladies.

In the end, Vivian had no choice but to wait until the rain stopped and the young ladies left.

Why had she tried so hard to hide him from those young ladies?

Vivian didn’t know the exact reason.

Still, ever since she learned that Rani was intensely interested in knights, her resolve had only grown stronger.

She knew she couldn’t keep things like this forever.

She knew that someday, if Vivian continued to attend social gatherings and ended up going to a ball, then Kylo Allen would inevitably be right at her side.

No matter how she treated him, the fact remained that he was the eldest son of the great Allen family of the Eastern Kingdom.

Politically speaking, it was impossible to completely ignore him and force him out of any ballroom event.

After all, he was taken as a hostage, a political pawn, but outwardly, he was still treated as a guest.

“Haa.”

The rain did not let up today either.

That meant only one thing: she would not be able to see Kylo tomorrow, either.

Even if the rain stopped at dawn, the ground would still be wet, so the carriages wouldn’t be able to move.

Vivian wasn’t sure why she missed him so much.

The mere fact that she felt this way filled her with a sense of self-reproach.

Was it because of the memories they had shared over the last two years?

She certainly couldn’t call that time idle or uneventful.

They had faced so many hardships together.

Sometimes, they overcame obstacles out of rivalry for one another or even hatred, gritting their teeth to leap over whatever lay ahead.

Perhaps in the midst of all that, some sort of affection had begun to form.

…She didn’t want to admit it, but in doing so, Kylo might have become the person she felt most comfortable around.

“...”

Vivian tossed and turned in bed, then got up to clear her head.

She simply couldn’t sleep.

Dressed in a thin nightgown, she left her room.

She thought maybe wandering around the castle a bit would help her fall asleep.

***

The rain was continuing even after two days.

So for two more days, I did not get to see Vivian.

Well, actually, it would have been fine if I’d gone to see her.

If I was this curious about how she was doing, all I had to do was pay her a visit.

The problem was that I had nothing to say once I got there.

And to avoid her wrath, I’d have to go see her at night at the very least... but that was even more impossible.

She already thinks I’m some sort of lust-crazed beast lately, and if I showed up at night, well, I could guess how that would turn out.

No need to see it to know it wouldn’t end well.

In the end, rather than deal with that discomfort, I kept telling myself, “Just wait one more day, just one more day,” but… this damn rain refused to stop.

I tried to vent my frustration through training.

Spending all day wrestling with Balon, Willas, and Martin meant I needed to come outside.

The downpour, falling like a waterfall, didn’t get in my way.

If anything, once I set my mind to it, the rain gave me a refreshing feeling.

But there was something I hadn’t expected in all of this, which was…

“Ah, this feels amazing!”

Rani also spent those two days by my side, braving the torrential rain.

Maybe she likes adventure, or she craves that refreshing sense of freedom…

But she was acting like some country girl, getting soaked in the rain and enjoying herself. And she’s a noble young lady.

I shouted at her:

“You’ll catch a cold! Get lost!”

I had no desire to take responsibility if she ended up sniffling all over the place.

“What? I can’t hear you!”

But Rani pretended not to hear, circling around me nonstop.

Our connection, which should have ended two days ago, kept dragging on because of the rain.

It was ridiculous.

It wasn’t Rani’s fault that it was raining, of course, but she was definitely the reason I couldn’t see Vivian.

I was beyond annoyed that Vivian was avoiding me over a mere girl like her.

Sometimes I wanted to smack her, but I knew she’d just burst into tears, so that wasn’t an option.

I never imagined that five days could feel so long.

It felt like twice that time had passed.

Even the memory of Vivian’s voice was growing faint.

I swung my wooden sword to clear my head.

—Whoosh!

Then Rani came over, tapping my arm.

The puddles on the ground splashed with each step she took.

“Hey, stop training, and let’s have some fun!”

Despite her cheery suggestion, I only repeated the same thing:

“Get lost!”

But as always, whenever there was something she didn’t want to hear, she simply ignored it.

“Kylo! How about this? How about we dance here in the rain just once? Wouldn’t that be so romantic?”

Her hand slid over to grab mine.

—Thump!

I roughly shook off her hand, then resumed swinging my sword.

For some reason, Rani only found that amusing and laughed.

She was acting like someone completely intoxicated.

My father or his knights sometimes got like that when they drank, and Rani was now bounding toward me nearly every day.

At our first meeting, she was simply curious about me.

At our second, we became casual friends.

At our third, she shared her secret with me.

At our fourth, she badgered me into giving her a rough lesson on handling a sword.

And by this fifth meeting—whatever was making her so excited—she was happily getting drenched in the rain and chatting away by my side.

I didn’t like this momentum at all.

It was moving too fast and felt unnatural.

As I was swinging my sword, Rani suddenly stepped in front of me.

I barely managed to stop the wooden sword near her forehead.

“Hey!!”

Eventually, my irritation hit its limit, and I shouted.

But even then, Rani acted as though she didn’t care at all.

She brushed aside her wet brown hair and yelled over the pounding of the rain:

“Did you know, Kylo? Honestly, I didn’t believe you were really Kylo.”

“…Haa.”

I let out a sigh, wondering what she meant by that this time.

“Well, it’s because I heard that Kylo was supposed to be quite small. But look at you now. You’ve got a huge build. You’re way more handsome than I expected.”

The rain kept splashing across Rani’s face.

Smiling brightly, she stepped closer to me, one step at a time.

“You’re totally… manly.”

With that trademark lack of regard for personal space, Rani closed in and placed her hand against my chest.

Her palm pressed an uncomfortable warmth there.

I grabbed Rani’s wrist and pulled her hand away in an instant, but she still didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.

“Look at these muscles. They’re huge. I can see them even more clearly now that you’re soaked by the rain.”

Her usual mischievousness felt oddly sensual today.

And I found that distinctly unsettling.

“What, did you eat something weird?”

As always, she ignored anything she didn’t like hearing.

“I thought about what you said last time. And you were right: I wasn’t looking for adventure… I guess I just wanted to escape my current situation. I hate the idea of being sold off to some strange man.”

Rani was still smiling. Yet now, for some reason, her face seemed to hold a trace of sadness.

She raised her voice, brighter than before.

“I think I’ll remember today for a long time! Playing in the rain with a friend from the Eastern Kingdom isn’t something I’ll easily forget.”

“…Haa.”

I said nothing, just looked at her.

A faint sense of pity slowly welled up inside me.

Maybe it was because I understood the feeling of being dragged somewhere I didn’t want to go.

As I stayed silent, Rani also ran out of words. For once, she closed her mouth.

She met my gaze without looking away.

With nothing but the sound of rain around us, we stood there together.

Before long, Rani’s demeanor changed.

Her expression suddenly turned serious, her eyes drooping slightly.

Nervousness showed clearly on her face.

She swallowed hard, then asked quietly:

“Kylo, do you… have someone you like?”

“…You…”

“If you don’t, then… could you give me just one more memory?”

Rani approached me with a grave look in her eyes.

There was a strange intensity to each step she took.

Her face shifted—no longer that of a girl, but of a woman.

Thanks to the relentless downpour, even though we stood in a wide-open training ground, it felt as if we’d slipped into a private room of our own. It was almost intoxicating, and perhaps Rani was caught up in that feeling.

She spoke.

“…Kiss me.”

It was a sudden request, though her earlier expression had hinted at something like this.

“Honestly… when you protected me from that falling spear on the first day, I think that was the moment you stole a piece of my heart. And over just a few days, that feeling grew.”

She claimed it was affection, but I knew it wasn’t.

This was merely an unsteady desire.

It was the same sort of feeling the young soldier boys had shown toward the maids.

“I know it’s sudden. I know you don’t feel that way about me. But I’m still asking. Please, just leave me with one good memory. I think you’d call it a fling, maybe? I just want to experience something like that, just once.”

“…”

“Before I’m sold off to someone in the future… I’d like to have my first kiss with someone I chose myself. I want that first time to be like this.”

Like the boy soldiers, both Rani and I were at that age when we were just discovering our sexuality.

The more amazed we were by our changing bodies, the more curious we became about the body of the opposite sex.

And it seemed Rani felt the same way.

“You’ve never kissed anyone, right? Wouldn’t it be fun if our first kisses were each other’s? We’d carry that truth with us until we died, remembering that we were each other’s first. Since we’re secret friends… let’s keep it between us.”

Rani began to trace her hand over my muscles, exploring them with a curious touch.

That touch was both deliberate and strangely natural, tempting me.

A moment later, she moved in suddenly. She came so close that I could feel her breath on my skin.

“…If it’s you, I think I’ll be satisfied.”

She tried to embrace me.

As she leaned in, throwing herself toward me completely, my heart pounded before I even knew it.

Then, at that moment, I reflexively pushed her away.

—Thud.

Both of us gasped in surprise at the same time.

My hands were already pushing against her shoulders.

As Rani’s warmth gradually faded from my fingertips, a wave of belated embarrassment hit me.

My body had moved on its own before I even realized it.

Rani blinked at me in disbelief.

A faint hurt and confusion flickered in her eyes.

The moment I saw her expression, something inside me burst forth on its own.

“…There is.”

My words slipped into the air, sounding like a hushed confession.

I could hardly believe I’d actually said it.

“…W-What?”

Rani hesitated for a moment, then asked again.

Without knowing what I was saying, I simply continued.

“…I said there is.”

But that long-restrained feeling had already started pouring out of me.

“What is… there?”

I didn’t know exactly what that feeling was, but my mouth was already voicing it.

“…There’s someone I like.”

…Maybe I was just making excuses to push away Rani, who was starting to feel like a nuisance.

“…Kylo.”

At that moment, I doubted my own ears.

A familiar voice—one I’d been missing—pierced through the rain.

I jerked my head in the direction of that voice.

Red hair.

Breath-stealing beauty.

Red eyes that seemed to shine even in the darkness.

…The very person I’d been thinking about just a moment ago.

The presence I’d been aching to see for the past five days was now standing about ten paces away.

“…Why… are you here…?”

I mumbled without meaning to.

No distance could have felt farther than the space between us at that moment.

The only thing filling the gap was the sound of the pouring rain.

—Shaa…

Standing there in a thin nightgown, Vivian looked back and forth between Rani and me.

She asked,

“…W-What are you… d-doing out here?”

Vivian seemed so furious that she stumbled over her words, just like she used to.

– – The End of The Chapter – –

 

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