The Villainess.

The villainess.

“If there was someone — someone you were meeting apart from all this—”

“Just three more.”

A man’s voice cut in out of nowhere. Aspara turned her gaze toward Volmo, the source of the sound. He met it with an awkward expression and shot a sidelong glance at the large man beside him, as if to plead that the words weren’t his own.

“After three more days like this one. Around then, the time will be right.”

“The time to be bedded?”

“Something like that, yes.”

“What is he, a schoolboy.”

Aspara wore an exasperated look, convinced Gus was deflecting.

《Wife—》

“That word I no longer need translated. Yes, I am your wipe. Am I now expected to court someone I’m already married to?”

“The pronunciation isn’t quite right, madam.”

The castle lord, after hearing the reply relayed, neither shook his head nor nodded. He only gazed forward, his face expressionless.

Aspara seemed to glare back at him for a moment, then, recognizing the firmness of his resolve, shifted her eyes away as if resigning herself.

What on earth is he thinking.

Wipe…

I’ve had enough of wary second-guessing and faction-reading. I’d hoped he might be a simpler sort of man.

Wipe, wipe… wipe…

The half-blood youth, treated like little more than an automatic translation device, thought to himself: these people’s communication problem really has nothing to do with the difference in languages.

Still, improving relations between the two was not his objective, so for the time being he decided to focus on picking every bone out of the cod on his plate before it went cold.

“He’s buying time. Avoiding an announcement.”

“Or perhaps he is simply being modest, madam.”

“Could it be he really is a eunuch. I threw that out precisely to force him to answer…”

“That one I won’t translate.”

“Do as you like.”

《Oho, two pretty faces walking in at once.》

The first floor of the eatery opened straight onto the standing drinks counter, which made it far noisier and more soused than the second floor where the castle lord and his wife sat.

One of the maids, every bit as flushed as the rest, barely managed to lift her head when she spotted the two who had just stepped inside. It was Jack and Ugli, returned to the village before the sun had set.

《The castle lord?》

《Where did you two go off to? Ah, right — the bet…》

《Yes, the bet. The castle lord?》

《Upstairs.》

The moment Ugli set foot inside the shop, he scanned the surroundings and strode toward the table where the maids were seated. Jack, trailing in behind, savored the food-smells and warmth washing over his face while glaring at the eatery menu-board he couldn’t even read.

《Upstairs. Just the two of them?》

《Mm-hm, with that new man, and the rat…》

《The rat? Ah, the rat.》

Ugli, as though disguising the briskness of his pace, straightened his clothes and sat down at the table with them.

He slung an arm around the shoulder of Jack, who had given up on the menu and was now examining the dishes on nearby tables, pressed his lips to Jack’s cheek, and whispered.

“Go over there and grab four bottles. Everything on the left shelf is one coin each, so you won’t need to say a word.”

“I can’t drink.”

“…somewhat late to ask, but — how old are you?”

“No, I mean, I’m an escort knight. Holiday or not, I don’t get time off. I have to keep working.”

“Four bottles. And something for you to drink.”

Ugli pursed his lips, still nearly touching Jack’s cheek, and made a point of letting them smack loudly.

At the happy news of free food, Jack immediately set off at a trot; then, pausing briefly to rub his cheek, he thought. That just now — was that really within the line of what was acceptable to do in front of the castle colleagues?

The two of them being together probably wasn’t a secret to these folk, after all; or perhaps, in this cold country, that much skin-contact was just ordinary.

Given that a disposition for avoiding deep thinking could not be bent by a single spat, Jack told himself that clever Ugli must have handled it properly, and stopped thinking about it. By the time he reached the counter and began surveying the food, even the small strange feeling that had lingered was cleanly gone.

Jack’s reasoning — that Ugli would have handled it properly — was not, in itself, wrong.

《What, how dull.》

《You’re counting a cheek-kiss?》

《Haha, you knew from the start I’d win. You just wanted to see something fun.》

Ugli lightly brushed aside the playfully heckling women and pulled two more chairs over from a neighboring table, squeezing himself in among them.

《You went and finished everything out of sight. Like you’ve been seeing each other for months already.》

《A pro, as I said.》

《No, really, the madam’s knight is a bit looser than I’d—》

《That conversation ends here.》

Ugli set the wooden-plank menu down on the table with the force of someone slamming it. Wood struck wood with a dull thunk that cut the maids’ chatter short.

《The bet money wasn’t much anyway, so.》

《How much was it?》

《Six coppers.》

《Then let me treat us all to a little something with it.》

《I knew it would come to this. The bet has no meaning. If this becomes a habit, we won’t have any fun with it anymore.》

《In exchange, there’s something I’d like to hear.》

Ugli flicked idly through the pages of the wooden menu as he asked, in that mild-but-still-courteous register that was uniquely his own.

《That rumor — that the castle lord and Jack are seeing each other. Where did you hear that?》

《…open up the land. So that any immigrant who wants to come in can live here, and anyone can become a leader regardless of where they came from.》

《Sure.》

《You’re taking this seriously?》

《A monarchy would be awkward for me too. I’ve no plans of having a family.》

《You might say that now, but—》

《Going forward, as well.》

《Is that so…》

Watching the young soldier declare it without a heartbeat’s hesitation, Ugli laughed.

Then that’s your first decision as the new leader.

He picked idly at the corner of the castle wall, its edge crumbled away, soot-marks still faintly clinging to the stone. With just a new roof put up, the ruined site would serve as the stronghold of a new capital.

《What should we call you from now on, then. Not “king,” obviously.》

《I’ll leave that to you.》

《From now on you decide for yourself. You’ll have to get used to it.》

《I’m not confident.》

《You can’t be un-confident. Gus, you’re a leader now. As long as it isn’t some dreadfully stupid choice, I’ll go along with whatever you say — so lead with confidence.》

He said it with a firm grip on Gus’s shoulder. His eyes were full of certainty and trust toward the man before him.

《Thank you.》

《Now, go on — decide.》

《Gre… Gr… Great Commander… Grand Commander.》

《No.》

《Most… Exalted Commander…》

《Let’s go with “castle lord.”》

《Shall we.》

It was an old memory that had come back to him after a long while. With his eyes gently closed, it still played in his mind as vividly as if it had been yesterday.

Ugli slowly opened his eyes. Light filled his pupils again, and the lively bustle of citizens laughing and chattering over drink and food flooded back into his vision.

《…preparing that sort of gift. Of all things.》

Ugli tapped his fingers quietly on the table as he listened to the tipsy tales of the drunks. The maids had been prattling on, sharing every rumor that had circulated about the new mistress from her first day until now.

What Jack and the castle lord were up to, what their courtly romance was like, what clichés from penny romances the whole thing resembled.

Ugli loathed the common rabble who consumed the dissolute private lives of tax-fed pigs as if they were some noble drama.

Yet the consummate sociable old retainer kept an ear out for any useful information, nodding along.

By the time his neck began to stiffen, a field-mouse-quiet voice whispered behind his ear.

“Hey, I got the booze…!”

“No need to whisper. The people around here are already dead drunk.”

“Figured as much, so I grabbed the weakest-looking ones I could find.”

Jack clinked the brimming cups down on the table one after another. The medicinal reek of alcohol stung the nose.

“Weak drinks?”

“Yeah, the weakest ones. You really don’t know your liquor.”

“I’ve always been the demure sort.”

“The clearer the drink, the weaker it is. Clear means it’s closer to water.”

Jack said it with a self-satisfied, smug expression, pleased for once to be the one doing the instructing.

Ugli didn’t bother to correct him and decided to refocus on his information-gathering.

“This is good. Ah, here, try this.”

Ignoring Jack as he pressed a dried fig against his front teeth, Ugli surveyed the situation again.

Fortunately, Jack had not, so far, brought him any document involving royal-prerogative transfers to translate.

Then we’re still safe for now. As for the contents — I can alter those… Though if the castle lord goes and shoves it into his private safe as some kind of ‘gift,’ that might actually be more of a bother… Still, nothing urgent about it.

He looked across at Jack as he thought this. At some point Jack had begun sipping the foul-smelling liquor.

The young man’s eyes met his, and he gave a bashful, awkward grin.

“You said you wouldn’t drink because you were on duty.”

“It’s a weak one.”

“It says fifty-five percent right there.”

“It’s probably only about ten percent by now. I put ice in it.”

“I see…”

Ugli no longer felt up to continuing his serious deliberations, and let out a quiet sigh.

Noticing the sigh, Jack changed the subject.

“So what were you talking about, anyway?”

“About you.”

Ugli paused a beat, glanced at the seat beside him, and continued.

“Thing is — from what I hear… you and the castle lord have been looking awfully close these days.”

“Me?”

“Word is you’d been teaching him to hunt out in the yard, or something.”

“Ah, the rat-catching business.”

Jack settled his startled-rabbit eyes back to normal as he answered.

“I was preparing a gift. It was a temporary alliance.”

“Sounds like the two of you got close after all.”

Ugli watched the knight mumble and found it rather amusing.