A Three-Week Reprieve

I swallowed. I wanted to clamp a hand over his mouth—stop talking, don't announce my death with those lips—but my body would not move, as if a spell had been laid upon it.

And in the end, the death sentence fell from his mouth all the same.

Ah, please. Don't do this...

What was he saying? He wouldn't break the engagement? Worse, he wanted to escort me to the banquet as my fiancé?

"Did you eat something you shouldn't have...?"

Unless I asked outright, there was no making sense of the Grand Duke's change of heart. But Asad shook his head in perfect earnest.

"Surprisingly enough, I'm in my right mind."

He himself seemed to find it difficult to understand. Even so, just as he claimed, his expression was firm and grave. Mine, by contrast, was thrown into chaos. There had been hardship enough along the way, but I had been certain that the tie with Asad, at least, was cleanly severed—and now he was telling me it wasn't. If anything, the bond felt as though it had only grown more intense.

No. I can't die like this.

"I simply cannot understand you, Your Grace. Didn't you dislike me?"

"...I did."

"Then what is this nonsense, all of a sudden? You won't break the engagement?"

"I don't quite know myself."

Asad straightened, a complicated look on his face, and went on.

"Somehow, I feel I shouldn't end things with you like this."

I could hardly hide how absurd that sounded. There wasn't even a clear reason—only some vague sense that breaking the engagement would be wrong.

"And you? Why are you so desperate to break it off with me?"

"What? Well..."

Because you're the reason I die.

There was no way I could say it. To explain that, I would first have to reveal who I really was, and that this place was a world inside a book.

They might lock me in a madhouse.

So I decided to spin a plausible excuse. The sort of excuse Aine, in her position, might actually give.

"I've grown tired of you."

The moment the words left me, Asad's brow drew in, just slightly.

I didn't want to wound a man who already carried so many scars, but there was no reason someone like him would be hurt by the likes of me. To him, I was nothing more than an obstacle in the way. It ached to speak so cruelly to a character I had loved, but even so, my life mattered more.

"At first it was curiosity. You seemed so aloof and untouchable that I wanted to have you. I thought if I made you mine, something would change."

"It didn't. You're ordinary, the same as anyone else. Whatever value you held for me is gone. And when a collectible loses its worth, isn't it only right to take it out of the case?"

Ha. Wow. I really do sound like a villainess.

I had never imagined I would say such a thing in my life. My motto had been that even if I couldn't offer someone hope, I would at least do them no harm—and just now, it had shattered to pieces. I couldn't bring myself to meet his eyes, so I let my gaze slip aside. Then I drove in the last nail.

"So I'm tired of you. That's why I'm throwing you away."

I squeezed my eyes shut. He had already been cast aside by his father and cruelly abused by his stepmother; I could scarcely imagine how vicious my words must sound to him now. But this was for both of us. All he had to do was love the heroine with no obstacle in the way, and I would sever every tie, go somewhere quiet, and live in peace. Nothing more. How good that would be for the both of us. A brief wound was something we could bear.

"Is that truly what you think, my lady? That you've tired of me? That I've lost my worth?"

"...Yes."

"Look at me."

At his words I turned my head and looked at Asad. Those dark gray eyes were fixed on me, straight and unwavering.

"I mean it."

"...I see."

When I said it while meeting his eyes, Asad answered, hollowed out.

That ought to be enough, shouldn't it?

However much they called him a demon of war behind his back, he was a war hero through and through. There were more than enough people who would come running after him without me.

He'll bloom a romance with the heroine anyway.

"Then... could you postpone the break, just for a little while?"

"...What?"

I had been thinking of something else entirely, and at words I had never expected, I doubted my own ears.

What? You want me to do what? Did that man just ask me for time?

"...I don't understand. Why are you going so far to keep our engagement from ending?"

"...Because I want to know."

"Know what?"

The Grand Duke gave no answer, and I did not press him. My mind had already been in turmoil for some time. Because no matter how I looked at this—

It looks like he's clinging to me.

"...All right."

I nodded, because I had no other choice. Refuse, and it would only drag the argument out. And...

When that day comes, Asad will fall for the heroine.

I didn't know what feeling he meant, but by then not a speck of interest in me would remain. The two of them were fate, the natural order already written, and until then I could endure well enough. When that day arrived, both Asad and Jay would leave my side of their own accord. Until then I would do nothing and keep my head down, and the moment those two were gone, I would slip out of this place at once—so I wouldn't catch their eyes, so they wouldn't find me a nuisance.

"Let's do it that way."

"...Thank you."

Asad said it with a complicated expression. With the main matter settled, he rose. Then he hesitated, and spoke to me.

"Is there anything you like? Flowers, perhaps. Candy. Horses..."

At the question out of nowhere, I tilted my head.

And what is that supposed to mean?

Still, it wasn't a particularly unusual question, so I answered without resistance.

"Money."

For a moment Asad looked as if he had lost the power of speech. I nearly laughed. Seeing, from the outside, the expression I usually wore myself felt wickedly satisfying. He must never have imagined that the only daughter of a ducal house swimming in wealth would be so greedy for money. But I truly did love it. I had crawled along the ground because of money, and so I knew exactly how valuable it was, how precious.

These days money overflowed around me, and yet spending it was difficult. I had no memory of ever having spent any.

"It doesn't have to be money itself. I like things of high monetary value. The sort of thing that can protect me, if it comes to that."

"I see... Then may I ask one thing more?"

"Go ahead."

Asad was, unexpectedly, full of words. I lifted my chin as if granting him the favor with pleasure. I didn't care if I looked disagreeable to him. Better, even. If that cooled whatever fondness he felt for me, it was what I had been aiming for all along.

"That man from earlier—he truly wasn't your lover? He looked like a beastman."

"...No. I have a lover. A different one."

Jay. A man who's more than a little mad.

"So there is one, then."

Asad let out a heavy sigh, nodded, and said,

"Very well. I'll take my leave. You needn't see me out."

"All right."

When I answered so bluntly, a strange look crossed his face, and Asad left the drawing room.

Left alone, I stared straight ahead for a while, then let out a long sigh. Why was breaking up this hard? A man who hadn't liked Aine—who hadn't even taken a liking to her—why was he suddenly showing this strange interest?

"Three weeks..."

Still. Three weeks from now, at the imperial princess's return banquet, his heart would leave me completely. I only had to hold out until then.

"Where's Sion?"

"I've settled him in a room. But, my lady, that person—who on earth is he...?"

"What's there to be so shocked about? He's Number Three."

"Oh! The one you called a dog!"

"...Right."

Coming out of the drawing room, I asked Rita, who had been waiting, where Sion was. Fortunately, he seemed to be waiting quietly. Rita, who had been pressing me about his identity, only understood once I said Number Three. Unlike Asad and Jay, whose identities were plain, he had been called a dog all this time, and so had remained obscure.

"Did you change his clothes?"

"Yes. But he resisted so much that it was a little difficult."

"You worked hard. From now on, tell them no one but you is to come up to the second floor. And be careful that no rumors spread about Sion."

Beastmen were widely regarded as slaves and treated as worthless. Unless someone was as sharp as Asad or Jay, they couldn't even tell a beastman from a human—but I wanted to keep those looks of disgust from ever reaching Sion. Above all, his senses were keen. Even footsteps echoing down a corridor would set him on edge of their own accord.

"Yes! Understood!"

"You should go too. Come up only when I call."

"Aww..."

Finding herself excluded as well, Rita looked sulky, but she soon nodded. I left her behind and climbed to the second floor alone. Up there were only my room and Sion's, and his was the third door down from mine. Standing before it, I drew a deep breath and knocked, but no answer came.

He might not even know he's supposed to answer.

That was plausible enough.

"Sion, it's me. I'm coming in."

I opened the door as I spoke, and there he was, pressed close against the bed. Wariness bristled from him in every direction, sharp as thorns.

"M-Master...?"

"Yes."

Only then did Sion draw his guard back in. I went to him. Just as Rita had said, he had been changed into comfortable clothes, but the state of them was anything but good. The shirt was crumpled and stretched out of shape, and the trousers looked as if they had been torn, the hems hanging in tatters.

"Did you do this?"

"I'm not scolding you."

"Humans... I hate them. I'm scared..."

I barely managed to swallow a sigh. Setting aside the matter of his social graces, Sion feared humans. Even now, if I so much as reached out a hand, a killing light gathered in his eyes.