The Secret Wrapped In Quilts (3)

(—It’s to use her.)

Regular, even breathing sounded from within his arms.

(You know that’s why you keep her close and act gentle, right?)

Kardia repeated the same words in his mind for what felt like the umpteenth time.

He was only pretending to be kind, only making it look like love.

And yet his heart was shaken this strongly.

(A bride, yet she defers to other women… always ready to step aside.)

Kardia did not understand why just that was so infuriating.

(And by then, she’ll already—)

It should have been impossible to forget, even for a moment, the plan he had meticulously prepared.

And yet it had slipped entirely from Kardia’s mind in that moment.

He was so rattled he failed to notice that the future Noi spoke of could never come to pass.

(…This girl can cast me aside so easily.)

That single truth alone filled Kardia’s chest and robbed him of words.

Noi could shrug and yield even if Kardia lay with other women, and she was already thinking about a future where he was not at her side.

(If I tell her to get out, she’ll surely leave the island with nothing but the clothes on her back.)

He could picture it too easily. The sheer ache of it made Kardia tighten his hold around Noi.

(She has no lingering attachment to me at all.)

That should be fine. That should be best.

Deeper than his solar plexus, a place Kardia had no name for hurt.

(…She isn’t that person, and yet—)

He had thought there would never again be anything that shook him this much.

“…It must have been disgusting.”

Kardia gently loosened his arms and looked at Noi. She slept blithely, snuffling softly.

—Disgusting.

Just after he had turned twenty, Kardia had been retching up his stomach’s contents onto a bed, bathed in moonlight, in a room Fengalow had arranged.

The pitiable one was the high-class courtesan procured by the then Crown Prince.

Splattered by a man who had climbed into bed with her, she sat trembling on the sheets soaked in vomit, fearing the Crown Prince would punish her for failing to perform.

“You weakling. How long do you plan to be like this?”

Summoned for an “incident,” Fengalow sent the courtesan to the bath, then tore into Kardia in the dusky room.

This was one of the many residences Fengalow owned—used for casual meetings with friends and for discreet affairs such as this. Kept pristine year-round, ready for his arrival at any time.

“I understand you can’t forget Noi, but—”

“What would you know? You traitor.”

“I am royalty. I must beget heirs!”

Having brought up bile until nothing was left, Kardia wiped his mouth with his forearm.

—By then, Kardia and Fengalow had known each other for more than ten years.

The day the Demon King within Kardia hatched.

Fengalow had gathered many magic tools for Kardia’s training and daily necessities for him, then flown by Zephyrai to Noi’s home. He had even intended to air his displeasure about the bank card in Kardia’s name that had arrived with Noi’s last testament.

But when he arrived, the Demon King within Kardia had already begun to rampage.

He was so occupied defending himself and the royal capital that he could not protect Noi, who had been right there—nor even catch sight of her. Fengalow had failed.

And right after his beloved Master Noi died, Kardia lost the will to live.

“It’s my fault.”

In the mountains gouged open, Noi’s remains could not be found no matter how they searched. After Noi vanished, the small Kardia stopped eating; it was Fengalow who took care of him.

“I don’t want to live anymore.”

“Live! You alone saw Noi’s final moments! If you don’t pass them down, who will!”

Forced food and this blow to his back brought Kardia back to life. Otherwise, despite having been saved by Noi, he would surely have died alone.

Even so, Kardia and Fengalow were hardly a good match. Whatever they did, wherever they were, they inevitably bickered.

—And this time too, Fengalow’s meddling “for Kardia’s sake” ended with the two of them in a vomit-stained quarrel.

“Look at that face. You can’t avoid every woman forever!”

“Then I’ll just hole up in the mountains.”

“You don’t have to imitate your Master that far.”

Frowning and sulking, Kardia drew a heavy sigh from Fengalow.

“You… look outward. Someday you’ll meet a woman who surpasses Noi.”

“There isn’t one, and I don’t want to.”

For Kardia, that was an immovable certainty.

“My Master alone is enough. A human life is scarcely fifty years—why would I make the effort to love someone else.”

Young as he was, Kardia had said it with his whole heart that day.

He could not imagine, nor did he wish to imagine, a day when those words would be overturned.

Had such a day come, he might well have despaired of the world.

And yet, holding a small Noi in his arms, what Kardia recalled was that day—now a faraway memory.

(And I had stopped remembering it at all…)

He eased the arm holding Noi and rolled onto his back. Noi nestled her nose to Kardia’s chest, breathing peacefully.

She slept so serenely that Kardia felt oddly irritated.

At this hour he would usually be asleep himself. Yet tonight he was not sleepy in the slightest.

Kardia pinched Noi’s nose between his fingers. She snorted, “fugo,” and turned her head in distaste. Grinning, Kardia obeyed her “order” and let go.

(…As you say, the day will come when we say “goodbye.” But it won’t be because you stop being my “bride.”)

Noi and Kardia would part by death. That was the future Kardia had chosen.

(I must have been dreaming of that day… even in my sleep.)

Kardia lay on his stomach and buried his face in his forearms. Noi surely had no idea what the man beside her was thinking.

After placing a kiss on Noi’s serene brow, Kardia slowly closed his eyes.

—The moon slipped behind clouds thin as torn paper.

In a far corner of a deep garden thick with trees where even moonlight did not reach, where not even shadows were born, an expanse of green wrapped the spot in silence and mystery.

“He’s wary. Here, he’ll only touch food someone else has tasted first.”

Leaves rustled in the night breeze, swallowing even the two hushed voices.

“When you return, mix this drug into his meal.”

“…Master has a delicate palate. He’ll notice.”

The subdued whisper simply fell into the quiet garden’s dark.

“Then you’ll deceive him well.”

“…Understood.”

The moon slipped from the clouds. Moss and tiny flowers carpeting the ground received the two figures’ shadows.