My Bride (3)

Kardia spun on his heel.

“I’m going to Panselinos.”

He said it in a toneless voice and went down the stairs. Ornis, who had been watching from the first floor, jerked in alarm and stopped him.

“Please wait! Why so suddenly—”

“Something’s wrong. If it isn’t something I did, then it’s him.”

“Sensei—!”

With a strained look, Ornis stepped into Kardia’s path. Fury in his eyes, Kardia lifted Ornis’s chin with his fingertips—restraining himself with effort.

“Or is it you?”

You think you could change her that much?

The thought was bitterly intolerable. Not even Kardia could change strong-hearted Noi. The idea that this man had the power to weaken her like that, to bend her resolve like that, made him feel like he would lose control.

The color drained from Ornis’s face.

“Kardia!”

Noi hurried down from the second floor, calling his name in a voice on the verge of tears. Even that—thinking she was doing it for Ornis’s sake—made Kardia’s blood boil.

Facing Kardia’s anger, Ornis closed his eyes for a breath, then opened them with a look of resolve.

“—…ri!”

“…What?”

Kardia, unable to catch the rasped word, asked again.

“Her monthly—her menses!”

Ornis cried it out with a pained expression.

Kardia only stared, dumbfounded.

“…What did you say?”

“She—well, her first period has come.”

So that was the meaning of a jaw that wouldn’t close. So unexpected were Ornis’s words that Kardia couldn’t even blink.

“Please excuse her. Certain preparations are required; I was advising her… There are matters for women that are hard to discuss openly.”

Still stupefied, Kardia slowly turned to look behind him at Noi.

She stood pale and stunned, then came back to herself and nodded vigorously.

She seemed to try to explain in her own words as well—her mouth opened—but the next instant her face flushed scarlet and her lips only opened and closed.

Hearing no words leave that open mouth, Kardia found the story credible. He knew enough about the moon’s path—he had once had female disciples.

He let Ornis’s chin go and wove a spell with his fingers.

At once, several magic circles rose into the air around him. When each activated, the hearth kindled, the sofa slid before the fire, and every quilt in the house gathered atop it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t notice and made you feel embarrassed. Come—lie down.”

Noi shot Ornis a watery glare and pattered over. She spread the pillow and blanket she had brought on the sofa. Perhaps she worried about staining Kardia’s bed.

“It’s all right. It’s rough, but if you keep warm and rest, you’ll soon feel yourself again.”

He tucked the quilt over her and dropped a kiss on her brow. Sitting on the floor to meet her eyes, Kardia spoke gently.

He had never experienced menstruation, but the fear that your body was being remade into something not your own—that, he understood.

Noi pulled the quilt up to her nose and twisted her face.

“…Stop being so kind.”

“Sorry. Would it be better if I didn’t stay with you?”

Not wanting to have shamed her again by failing to grasp a woman’s particular modesty, Kardia rose in a fluster—but small fingers had seized the hem of his clothes.

Without a word, Kardia sat by her and kept rubbing her lower back.

—Esria Kingdom Calendar, Year 482, Late Autumn

“Good night, my bride.”

Framed by a window full of stars, the beautiful man pressed a kiss to her brow.

Noi narrowed her eyes and watched.

—A period lasted a week.

She had been allowed to sleep in the living room for that week, but after that she had been brought back to Kardia’s room again.

(Does he mean to watch me so I don’t run?)

It hadn’t been a lie that the house was small, but surely there had never been a need to sleep beside her from the start. And yet he kept sleeping next to her—no doubt to keep her from slipping away.

His beautiful smile looked cold. Perfect beauty, with no love showing through.

It was so beautiful it sent a shiver through her—lonely, and aching.

(The face of a man who thinks it’s all right if I die.)

She had learned that was who he was.

“You haven’t had much energy lately.”

Propped on an elbow, Kardia twined a finger through Noi’s white hair. For him—who usually fell asleep three seconds after getting into bed—it was rare to talk before sleeping.

Noi gave an ambiguous smile. More and more often, she didn’t know what to say and couldn’t answer at all.

Seeing that, Kardia always made a face as if in pain.

As if he meant it.

(Until now I could excuse feeling out of sorts as being because of my period, but from here on… what do I do?)

The instant she thought that, she mocked herself.

For Noi, the option of leaving Kardia’s side did not exist in the first place.