The Butterfly That Swallowed the Fog
From Brad Reynolds’s jacket pocket, Elex pulled out a small brown bottle.
With the cork popped casually in one motion, he gulped it down in a single swallow. Then he hurled the empty bottle behind him and drew another from his inner breast pocket, pressing it into Tilia’s hand.
“Drink it. It’s the antidote.”
“……”
“I did everything I could to block it, but just in case.”
Elex flicked his hand toward the untouched bottle, as if daring her not to drink.
“……Yeah. Thanks.”
Tilia accepted it, forcing down the awkward flush she felt rising at her ear through her hair. She had imagined something absurd just now. The thought of her own stupidity made her cheeks burn; she could not voice her earlier refusal and instead drained the liquid with him.
“……”
Then silence returned once more.
The streets of the depraved quarter, swallowed by darkness, teemed with men reeling from drink and those already lost to it.
Standing in the filth, Tilia turned her head and looked at Elex.
He was already on his fourth bottle, cork pulled free.
Throwing his head back, he swallowed the last drop and flung the empty bottle behind him again.
Clang.
One of the bottles already stacked on his back clinked against the new arrival and shattered.
Yet even after that, Elex rummaged in his jacket pocket without a moment’s delay.
“……”
But there were only six bottles. After checking the empty pockets several times, his brow furrowed and he muttered a small curse.
“……”
Tilia stared at the wrinkled handkerchief in her hand, then glanced sideways at his face without a word.
Elex’s expression looked anxious, as though pursued by someone. Sweat beaded at the edge of his neat forehead, and his eyes, though he tried to hide it, grew steadily hazier.
His hand clenched and opened repeatedly, as if clutching something he desperately wanted. His fingers fidgeted with the buttons of his shirt. His breathing came faster and faster.
She recognized the state well.
The antidote hadn’t worked.
Tilia’s eyes recalled the machine that seemed to move on its own.
Just how potent was the holy water he had brought? Even after drinking so much antidote, the effects remained untouched.
She watched Elex with unease, sensing the same burning thirst she had once endured herself.
……Uneasy.
Discovering she felt not disgust but pure anxiety surprised Tilia. She blinked in fresh bewilderment.
Too bad. Did you think I’d help you too?
Just as she struggled with her confusion, staring at the floor, distant hoofbeats reached her ears.
Lifting her head, she saw a large carriage racing toward them. It bore the crest of the Davenport family.
Its bright lanterns swung as it halted precisely in front of their bench. Only then did Elex seem to relax, his voice steady once more.
“Get in.”
Yet his hand, gesturing to the open door, trembled slightly.
……We should leave quickly.
For the first time, Tilia chose for Elex rather than herself and climbed aboard the carriage at once.
But Elex, whom she had naturally assumed would ride with her, stayed behind.
“To Ambrose House.”
After a short word to the driver, he started to close the door.
“Wait. You’re not going?”
Tilia, startled, blocked the closing door with both hands and asked urgently.
“You’re not coming with me?”
“I’ll take the next carriage.”
“When is that coming?”
Looking away from her, Elex shrugged.
“Who knows. Probably after this one leaves?”
“……”
That meant who knew how long it would take.
As though he had read her thoughts, Elex answered calmly.
“It won’t take long. I gave the order in advance; it should arrive within twenty minutes at latest.”
Twenty minutes.
At any other time it would have been nothing. But to one poisoned by holy water, twenty hours felt shorter.
Still, even that was fortunate. The holy water had run out, so the chance of losing his mind entirely was high.
Tilia’s gaze traveled past Elex to the street beyond.
An elderly man was trading with a young boy. The man turned away sharply; the boy grabbed his sleeve and folded one finger.
“……”
Depravity soaked every corner of the district; rivers of vice flowed freely. What might happen if someone lost consciousness here was something she could not even imagine.
Having made her decision, Tilia met his eyes firmly.
“Just get in together.”
Elex’s eyes widened at her unexpected words. Tilia stared straight at him and continued calmly.
“If you fall, you’ll fall inside the carriage anyway.”
It took courage for her to say that. Still, he had saved her, and everyone could see it was because of her.
“You’re in danger right now.”
In short, making sure he reached home safely was only natural.
At Tilia’s resolute words, Elex simply gazed at her in silence.
The strange look lingered. For some reason, Tilia felt as though she were tempting him with her own words.
“……What are you staring at?”
The blunt retort hid her embarrassment.
“Just get in.”
At those rough words, Elex finally let out a short laugh, the corners of his mouth curving upward.
“Someone who knows I’m dangerous……”
Even as he tried to act at ease with relaxed eyes, he leaned his upper body into the carriage and said,
“You’re telling me to ride together?”
“Of course I’m telling you to ride.”
Tilia eyed him like a stubborn child and pointed at the dirty street behind with her chin.
“Look. It’s filthy over there.”
Though he was displeased, he did not want to end up like Brad Reynolds. At the very least, she could not allow him to suffer the same fate merely because he had helped her.
“Don’t worry. Men like us are common in the club we came from; there are plenty of deviant males there.”
Following her pointing finger, Elex looked at the men standing in that direction, then turned back to her.
“Don’t worry.”
His smooth smile faced her displeased expression.
“I have the courage to protect you.”
……What does that mean?
Tilia’s face, which had blinked with a sullen expression, suddenly furrowed in irritation.
This guy, even now……!
She clamped her lips shut before she could hurl the angry words at him.
But curiosity soon won out; her lips parted again.
“You.”
At Tilia’s hesitation, Elex nodded, urging her to speak.
“You……”
Hesitating, Tilia continued, certain she had to ask.
“……Have men with experience……?”
Though the question was rude, it had to be asked. If he was that depraved, she would have to visit a hospital for a check-up herself.
“That time too…… was it?”
Still processing her words, he fell silent for a moment, then burst out laughing.
One hand on the carriage door frame, the other on the handle, he looked at the floor with a carefree grin.
Why wouldn’t he answer? This was an extremely important question to her.
Even after shrugging his shoulders a few times in front of her serious face, he finally exhaled and spoke.
“I have it, but I only sleep with women.”
“……”
“Unfortunately, I’ve never had that experience.”
Chuckling once more, he furrowed his brow and straightened his tilted body.
“Enough. Let’s go.”
Frowning as though he wondered when she had laughed, he looked at her neck and said,
“It’s what will help you.”
At his firm tone, Tilia lost her words and pressed her lips together.
Checking that she had understood, Elex stepped back.
Thud. The carriage door slammed shut.
“Drive.”
The driver’s voice came with the sound of the whip cracking.
Soon the black carriage left the quarter behind.
***
Now it was over.
Elex took a deep breath of the dust kicked up by the carriage and pressed his aching eyelids.
Having safely seen Tilia off, he was finally at peace. She was safe now.
From Gregory, and from himself.
When his reason, worn thin after biting his lip for so long, began to crack, a sudden sound reached him.
Hoofbeats of a fast-approaching carriage echoed from somewhere.
Lifting his eyes, he smelled the same dusty odor that had disappeared earlier.
Creak. The wheels stopped abruptly. A blinding light pierced his eyes.
And in that light.
The door he had closed stood wide open.
“Get in.”
It was the same woman who had seen him off.
Her face remained as ever stern and slightly sullen, her voice carrying an edge.
“Stop getting on my nerves and just get in. It’s not for you, but for me.”