Chapter 030
‘Why are you apologizing when you did nothing wrong?’
Leaning my head against the window, I caught sight of Evan on his horse through the curtains.
He was the one who had said that to me…
“If you’re going to be cold, just stay cold.”
His unpredictable attitude made me furrow my brow involuntarily.
As I continued to stare at him with my eyes narrowed, the vibrations of the carriage gradually ceased, and his head turned towards me.
“Eek.”
I quickly pulled down the curtains, fearing our eyes might meet.
Knock, knock.
A moment later, I heard a tapping at the window, and I composed my expression before opening the door.
“…What is it?”
“We’ve arrived at the village. I’ve rented out the entire inn in front of us, so we’ll be staying here for the night.”
“Got it.”
I stepped out of the carriage, trying to maintain as calm a face as possible.
I could feel him staring intently at me from the side, so I turned my head away.
Unable to endure his persistent gaze any longer, I finally asked him first.
“Do you have anything else to say?”
He had been looking at me so intensely that it felt burdensome, but he eventually turned his head and replied.
“Nothing.”
“Is that so?”
Swallowing a sigh at his lukewarm response, I turned my back to him as I spoke.
“I’ll take a look around nearby and then come back. I have a headache from being in the carriage for so long.”
Since it was a small village, I wasn’t worried about getting lost.
Besides the headache, I felt a strong need to go for a walk to clear my mind.
He didn’t stop me, so I headed straight into the village.
After walking for a while…
“Miss Dahlia!”
“Roman?”
Turning around, I saw Roman running towards me, out of breath.
“I heard that even though it’s a small village, it gets a lot of visitors from outside. Just in case, I’ll quietly escort you from behind.”
As he smiled brightly, I caught a glimpse of Evan’s back as he entered the inn.
“Alright.”
Putting aside my complicated feelings, I wandered around the village with Roman.
The village was smaller than I expected, and we finished exploring everything in just 30 minutes.
“The lake is beautiful.”
As we reached the outskirts of the village, a quaint little lake came into view.
Staring blankly at the calm surface of the lake, I felt my noisy thoughts begin to settle a bit.
Just then…
“Madam, would you like to have a bet with me?”
Roman, who had been quietly escorting me, spoke up.
Did I look bored?
I tilted my head in confusion at his sudden suggestion.
“What kind of bet?”
“How about seeing who can throw this stone farther?”
As Roman looked around, he picked up two small stones and smiled at me.
I looked at the stone resting in Roman’s palm and frowned slightly.
Wasn’t this bet clearly skewed in Roman’s favor, given that he was a knight?
As I thought it might be obvious who would win without even trying, Roman spoke up again.
“You’ll never know the result until you try.”
“Ah.”
Had I unknowingly made a disinterested face?
His words seemed to read my inner thoughts, so I reluctantly picked up the stone.
“Alright then, let’s give it a try.”
I threw the stone with all my might toward the lake.
Plop.
Even though it was a small stone, it created ripples across the surface of the lake.
“Phew, now it’s my turn.”
Roman, whether intentionally or not, took three deep breaths and did two warm-up stretches before taking his throwing stance.
“Ha!”
The moment he finally threw the stone…
Plop—
I couldn’t hide my incredulous expression as I looked at him.
“No way! How could this happen? To make such a mistake at a crucial moment…!”
Just before throwing, Roman had slipped and dropped the stone right in front of him.
Of course, it seemed like a rather deliberate mistake.
“I was confident I wouldn’t lose to anyone in throwing!”
Stunned by his nonchalant attitude towards what seemed like a deliberate blunder, I listened as Roman continued.
“Although it wasn’t a bet with anything at stake, since it’s a rare chance, if there’s something you want, I’ll grant it.”
“Ah? No. There’s nothing like that…”
“For example, it includes stories about the Duke.”
After finishing his sentence, Roman suddenly adopted a serious expression and whispered in a lowered voice.
“If the Duke finds out, he might try to kill me, so please keep this story as a secret between you and me.”
His calm demeanor was too serene for someone who feared death, so I could tell he was lying.
“Roman… do you know Evan well?”
Listening to Roman’s story, I cautiously brought up my curiosity about Evan.
Roman responded with a gentle smile.
“I don’t have much to boast about in my lineage, but I did live as a nobleman for a very brief period.”
He said he was born as the youngest son of a baron family that owned a relatively peaceful territory, albeit a remote one.
One day, when they were living comfortably enough, a war broke out with the Kingdom of Cloyts, and within just a year, Roman’s territory fell into ruin.
“At that time, I had just come of age, and before I could even bury my parents, I was forced to the battlefield.”
Roman lost his family and territory overnight and went off to fight, wielding a sword every day.
The young man, barely twenty and having never killed anyone, wept daily in silence. It was during those days of barely surviving that he met Evan.
Roman added that it still makes his heart shiver when he thinks of Evan, who looked exactly the same age as him but who mercilessly eliminated his enemies without changing his expression.
He instinctively realized that being near Evan would at least extend his life by a few more days.
“From then on, I unilaterally followed the Duke around, asking to be made his subordinate. Do you know what the Duke said at that time?”
“What did he say?”
Hearing about Evan for the first time, I perked up my ears and focused intently.
Seeing my reaction, Roman cleared his throat a few times and slowly began to mimic Evan’s expression as he spoke.
“Get lost before you die; I don’t need that kind of thing.”
I was taken aback by Evan’s much harsher response, and Roman chuckled before continuing.
“If I had been even a little less perceptive back then, I might have become the first soldier to be killed by my own allies.”
Roman said that at that time, Evan exuded an aura of death that even his own allies were wary of.
When enemies attacked, it was almost natural for a man who killed hundreds or thousands with an impassive face to be labeled a monster instead of a name.
“While I was desperately surviving for another six months, an incident occurred.”
At a moment of carelessness, when death was approaching him, Roman could only watch blankly as an enemy in front of him collapsed under a sword that had flown from somewhere.
In a battlefield where you could die with the blink of an eye, dropping one’s own sword was akin to putting one’s life on the line.
“You think you can be a good subordinate by dying?”
Roman added that he would never forget the indifferent voice he heard at the threshold of death.
Thus, Roman survived alongside Evan until the end, and because Evan did not push him away, he was able to be here now.
“Looking back on that time, the Duke has become surprisingly gentle.”
Listening to Roman, I couldn’t help but question whether he truly understood the meaning of the word “gentle.”
‘I’ve never seen him gentle.’
Thinking of the man who always wore a fierce expression, I pursed my lips in contemplation.
Roman, who smiled gently in front of me, seemed to embody the meaning of the word much better.
“Especially after you arrived, the Duke has become even softer.”
“Where exactly?”
This time, I couldn’t hold back and posed the question.
It seemed odd to use words like “gentle” or “soft” to describe someone like Evan.
midori
thanks! evan, this baka! hahaha i totally want him to stop the cold war first though, for entertainment’s sake. he’s such a max-level tsundere