A Teardrop of Wind

An awkward silence stretched on. Asad looked just as dazed as I felt, as if he had never once expected me to walk in.

I could hardly stand there forever, so I had no choice but to take the seat beside him, directly across from Maria. The moment I sat, I demanded to know how we had ended up like this.

"Mari— Your Highness, what in the world is this? How is Grand Duke Reinhardt here?"

I felt his gaze turn on me the instant I spoke his name, but I looked only at Maria. Sunny as ever, she answered with a bright little hehe of a laugh.

"His Grace happened to come to the palace to see Father. He's Lady Foregreen's fiancé as well, and Father said it would be good for us to become better acquainted, so I invited him to tea. The Grand Duke was kind enough to accept."

"...I see."

There was nothing left to press her on after an explanation like that, so I gave a vague nod and drank my tea.

I had come in high spirits, looking forward to a pleasant chat with Maria, but with Asad planted there so solidly, my mood soured for no good reason.

It's the first time since that day, too.

This was the first we had met since I asked him to give me time. I could feel him watching me, but I made a deliberate effort not to look at him. This is uncomfortable!

"So— oh, that's right! The two of you are attending the banquet as well, aren't you?"

Maria, who had been chattering away in excitement, changed the subject midstream. I knew at once which banquet she meant. For me, it was as good as the day of the final battle.

And...

I stole a glance at Asad, the man I had been avoiding all this while. As it happened, Maria's words had drawn his eyes off me.

Only until Her Highness the Princess's banquet. Hold off on your decision for just three weeks. And on the day the banquet ends, I want us to talk again then. At least until I understand this feeling.

Why was that coming back to me now, of all times?

I gave my head a small, sharp shake, pulled my gaze from Asad, and offered Maria a bright smile.

"Of course."

At my answer, she broke into a delighted grin.

I don't even remember how the tea passed. I had arrived in the morning, and when I came back to myself, the afternoon was already sinking into sunset.

Once it was over, I walked the corridors of the Imperial Palace alone and let out a small sigh.

I'd better keep my distance from Maria.

I had let my guard down simply because she was a character I had loved, the protagonist of this world, and I had been blindsided for it. Thinking it over, it was only natural. One way or another, Asad and Maria were fated to be bound together. That was an immutable truth this world had already set in place.

So if I kept hovering around Maria, I would inevitably become entangled with Asad as well.

Which meant I had been far too stupid.

Telling myself I would never come again, I quickened my steps. That was when a heavy tread approached from behind.

"Lady Foregreen."

A low voice rolled down the corridor and reached me. I faltered for an instant. As if he would not let the moment slip, the footsteps closed in even faster, until at last the presence stopped directly at my back.

"...Do you mean to keep refusing to look at me?"

His voice trembled, pitiful, against my ear. That ache, so unlike him, caught my feet and held them. In the brief pause I took, Asad came around and stood directly before me.

I lifted my head and looked up at him, and before I knew it, my brow had furrowed.

Why does he look like that?

A man who had clawed his way through battlefields and survived—why, standing in front of me of all people, did he look so unsure of himself? Even if he was someone who would stand in the way of my future, I couldn't bear to see him like this.

"I... would rather you weren't uncomfortable around me."

Asad spoke to me where I stood blankly. A short, helpless laugh escaped me. Looking up at him, I said,

"I think you're under some misunderstanding, Your Grace."

"......"

He fell silent at that. But the faint tremor in his ash-gray eyes gave his feelings away all the same.

It hurt, and I was sorry, but I thought I had to make it clearer still.

"You asked me for time, and I said I would give it, but I still have no interest in you. Do you not understand what that means?"

"...My lady."

"You'd rather I weren't uncomfortable? I am uncomfortable. Isn't it greedy to tell me I mustn't even feel that?"

Asad's ash-gray eyes sank, calm and deep. I didn't know what the man with his jaw clenched was trying to endure, but I had no wish to wound him any further, and I was just about to step away.

"...I'm sorry. But I hope you'll accept at least this. I prepared it for you."

Before I could react, he pressed something into my hand, turned, and walked away. Left alone, I stood there blankly, then looked down at what he had left behind.

It was a teardrop-shaped pendant.

"My lady, you're back?"

"Mm. Where's Sion?"

"He's been shut up in his room all day. I only just slipped in to leave his meal and came out. Would you like to eat first?"

Back at the ducal residence, I shook my head at Rita's question. I had eaten nothing but sweets all day, and I had no appetite to speak of.

I'm not in the mood, either.

"I'm just going to rest. Tell everyone not to come up until I call."

"Even me?"

"Yes."

"Hiiing..."

Rita's face fell, but I had spoken firmly, and I went straight to my room. I shrugged off the shawl, tossed it wherever it landed, and collapsed face-down on the bed.

"Haa."

Nothing eased fatigue like lying down.

I rested there with my eyes lazily closed, then fished through my pocket and drew out a pendant.

"I ended up bringing it after all."

I ought to have run after him and returned it on the spot, but Asad had vanished as quickly as if he were fleeing, before I could even catch him.

I murmured as I looked at the teardrop-shaped pendant.

Magic...

But it was no ordinary magic. The pendant was a magical tool imbued with wind magic—Asad's magic.

Enchanting an object demanded so much time and care that even a fairly accomplished high-ranking mage would struggle with it.

Which meant that he, already buried under his work, would have had to give even more time and care than that to place magic in this.

Above all, he had no need of a wind-magic tool. He could cast perfectly well without one.

And yet he had enchanted a piece of women's jewelry.

I like things of high value even if they aren't money itself. Something that can protect me if it comes to that. That sort of thing.

"I shouldn't have said money. I should have just said flowers, or a letter."

Then my heart wouldn't be this uneasy.

Still, it is pretty.

Whether he had chosen it with care or not, the pendant was so clear and transparent it looked as though it held water. I stared at it blankly, then, with a mental tch, dropped it into a drawer.

Looking at it only unsettled me. I already had my paper, so I hardly needed any other magical tool. I was sorry for the care Asad had put into it, but I would never have cause to use the thing.

The moment I shut the drawer, the door slid open with a soft hush. I had clearly told everyone in the residence, Rita included, not to come up, so I turned a puzzled look toward it.

But the door that had been opening slid shut again. ...What was that?

Knock, knock.

"Master...?"

A knock, and then Sion's voice. Flustered, I answered.

"Oh— yes. Come in."

I hadn't expected Sion to knock. On the first day he hadn't even known what a knock was, and he hadn't answered at all; in that short time, it seemed he had learned his manners.

A small swell of pride rose in me.

But the moment I saw his face as he came in, I couldn't simply feel proud.

"Sion, is something wrong?"

There was something subdued about him, and I shot up and hurried over.

Worry flared that something might have happened while I was gone. I was the one who had brought him here, and I felt the charge of him, and the responsibility, keenly.

But Sion gave a small shake of his head. He hesitated a moment, then spoke carefully.

"Because Master didn't come to see me..."

"......"

The answer was so unexpected that I lost whatever I had meant to say.

Thinking back, whenever I came home I always sought Sion out first and asked whether anything had happened during the day. Today my head had been too full, and I had skipped that. He had grown anxious because of it.

This can't go on.

It was a relief that he was learning human customs, like knocking, but his dependence on me couldn't be allowed to deepen along with them.

I couldn't force that on him right now, though. With a guilty look, I rose onto my toes and stroked the snow-white hair of Sion, whose head was bowed low, and whispered,

"I'm sorry."

Sion only shook his head in silence.

Night came, and Sion fell asleep on the sofa in my room, as he always did. The small hours had worn deep, but sleep would not come easily. Asad was Asad, yet Sion kept weighing on my mind.

How could I lower his dependence on me, even a little?

I considered letting him grow familiar, however slightly, with the people of the duchy, but remembering how he had reacted to Rita, I couldn't bring myself to think that was a good idea.

If he met someone more precious to him than I am, wouldn't his attachment to me naturally thin?

"...And where am I supposed to find someone like that."

I let out a low groan and turned my head toward Sion. Somehow the banquet was only two weeks away. I wanted the matter of him settled before then, at the very least. And then, from the sofa, so faint I almost missed it—

"Mother... Father..."