Spurned.

Spurned.

Now that she was back, Aspara was busy.

She had to keep up a steady correspondence with the head of the merchant house who had taken on the trade on her behalf, Volmo’s mother, and she had to sort through, yet again, all the documents she had brought back with her. Simply settling the situation took no small amount of time.

The futures certificates had been scattered into every corner, so it was now effectively the starting gun of a time-limited footrace.

Mass production really does need to be ready by next year…

Aspara’s attention was wholly consumed by the piles of paperwork required to resolve the matters she had set in motion.

Even so, in truth, there was one thing that kept grating on her nerves.

“….”

《….》

“…Erm.”

《….》

“Did you have something you wished to say?”

It was the gaze of a man who would come around from time to time, glare at the back of her head, and then turn away.

Castle lord Gus, who somehow seemed to know the instant Aspara stepped out of her room alone, would approach and peer about in her vicinity, then vanish again. Without a word.

Each time, Aspara asked him calmly what the matter was. By now she could say at least “Is something the matter.” in the northern tongue, so a short question posed unaided presented no real difficulty.

And yet, whether her pronunciation was lacking or whether something about her displeased him, the man would stare fixedly at his wife with those eyes like a wild beast’s and then, as if dissatisfied, withdraw.

What on earth…

Even for a woman not particularly frightened of the castle lord, it was faintly chilling. That quiet, unblinking stare. The look of it was like a bear of the snowfield watching for a gap in its prey.

“…Something like that happened, did it?”

“So it did.”

Aspara replied as she took a handful of the snack Jack had brought. Today’s snack was firm-ripened hazelnuts, and the woman, skilled as she was, cracked them between her teeth without so much as an audible snap.

Jack peeled the hazelnut shells like a squirrel, piling the white nut-flesh up on one side of the plate, on and on.

“What’s he getting cross about, all of a sudden.”

“Perhaps he’s displeased that I vanished off on my own for so long.”

“How small-hearted of him. It all worked out, didn’t it.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s worked out at all. The real busy stretch starts now.”

That was fair enough. Even if the immediate matter was settled, the mountains left to cross were high and indistinct.

On top of that, Aspara had spent a good long while at her ex-husband’s house. It would not be strange for Gus, her present husband, to harbor some needless suspicion, or so the woman thought.

There was only one way to buy back his goodwill.

I just have to work hard.

Work hard and prove her usefulness to the other party; no surer foothold for a human relationship existed, or so Aspara believed.

Today’s work is done, then.

At that hour, the castle lord was leaning sideways in the chair of his private chamber, his arms folded.

How idle.

The man had already processed several weeks’ worth of work in advance, and now had altogether too much time on his hands.

If any work was left, it was external duties. But with his wife only just returned, tramping around outside was likewise no pleasure.

To fawn on his wife instead, however, was not easy. He had already lurked around her once that very morning, and besides, ever since her return from the south his wife had been looking well and truly busy.

But still…

In truth, there was a reason for the castle lord’s recent carrying-on in his wife’s vicinity like an infatuated puppy.

—I want to show off.

The man had poured the several days before his wife’s return into studying the southern tongue. Of course, he had not yet reached the skill required to attempt a proper conversation.

But as ever in the matter of languages, the confidence of the man of ten days’ study far exceeds that of the man of ten years’.

Standing proudly atop the Summit of Foolishness, Gus was dying to have a go at addressing his wife in southern speech.

How to put it — if his wife, having looked at him, murmured “What is he staring at” — he would meet her eyes and reply in southern speech with something along the lines of “I am looking at a flower” and startle her, and to the wife who had gone wide-eyed as a rabbit he would grant a gentle smile —

— such fantasies the young castle lord thought were rather splendid.

Should Star ever learn of them, she would likely remark, “He’s like some adolescent boy who thinks learning a foreign language is all it takes to pick up a foreign girlfriend — it’s off-putting,” but, for better or worse, Star possessed no mind-reading ability.

She scarcely gives me the chance, though.

That Aspara, who had spent a stretch living in the north, should have better foreign-language skills than the castle lord, who had taken lessons for a mere few days, was only natural.

Accordingly, the woman, when exchanging simple greetings with the castle lord, tended to use not her mother tongue but the northern tongue, and so Gus’s fantasy had, fortunately, not yet come to pass.

If only there were some way to work a remark in…

《Castle lord.》

Someone had called from outside the office door. It was Ugli’s voice.

《Come in.》

《Pardon the intrusion. I’ve come about the report.》

He approached the castle lord’s desk and set down a somewhat thick sheaf of papers.

《For this last excursion?》

《Yes.》

《Any serious trouble.》

《There are still matters left to settle, but the fire’s been put out for now.》

As if to prompt him to say more, Gus gave a small nod.

《We recovered the object we set out for and got every man back safely — ample grounds to call it a success.》

《And.》

《And….》

《How was the madam.》

Ugli let out a small “Ah,” and said,

《Ah, well — there was nothing to worry about. Nothing untoward took place between her and that man.》

《…Hm.》

The castle lord, who had been looking down at the papers, flicked his gaze up.

《Yes, it was a situation in which you might well have suspected something, but I kept a close watch throughout, so I can certainly—》

When the man’s eyes met his, Ugli realized he had just made a mistake.

It was a pair of eyes he had not seen in some time. The whites shot through with a peculiar blue, like iron: the eyes of a yaksha. Now upraised like blade-edges, trained on him.

《…I have never suspected.》

If there was a single thing sharper than that gaze, it was his voice. Gus’s voice was low and thick, so that he always sounded as though he were faintly growling, and the slight tremor added now as he held his present feeling in check only made his voice sound even more like a wild dog about to bark.

《Unlike you.》

《I mis… I misspoke.》

In that instant Ugli caught his own rare blunder. Even supposing the castle lord had in fact harbored a suspicion, it was not the sort of thing to raise to his face.

《It seems you have forgotten that the madam is your superior.》

《No, my lord.》

The silence went on inside the room. The only sound was Gus tapping his pen against the desktop: click, click.

Ugli felt a bead of sweat that had gathered on his shoulder blade roll down the small of his back.

After seeing the man look the fool so often of late, he had gone and forgotten what manner of man stood before him.

When an eternity-like silence had passed, at last the click-click of the pen stopped. Letting out a very deep sigh, as if to exhale the last of the anger from his lungs, the castle lord went on.

《…I heard you’d grown close. You and the madam.》

At this unexpected turn Ugli flinched. Judging from the hardened voice, the momentary fury had, thankfully, passed.

Grown close, though? Me, with that woman?

《…Well.》

《I don’t mean to scold you. It’s a good thing, isn’t it. You and the madam were a little…》

For a moment Gus tapped his pen against the paper — tap, tap — choosing his words.

《—distant.》

《Was that so.》

The castle lord nodded and spoke as though in warning.

《But it is not an invitation to overstep.》

《My apologies.》

《…Come back in an hour to collect the papers.》

The tall attendant bowed his head and quietly withdrew from the office. With a thud the heavy door closed at his back, and he fumbled at his own spine.

Damn it.

The sweat-damp cloth clung to the small of his back and felt rather unpleasant.

The castle lord is right. I was careless.

He tipped his head back to look at the ceiling and reflected. The wood-grain stains on the ceiling resembled the face of a disappointed man.

To forget what sort of man stands before me. As a retainer, as a warrior — shameful.

And yet what he was rebuking himself for was not his rudeness toward Aspara. It was his stupidity in having momentarily forgotten the castle lord’s formidable authority.

With a brooding, scrunched-up expression, Ugli stood in front of the closed door for a while; then, with a small sigh, he moved his feet. Loiter too long outside the door, and that man with his keen senses was bound to notice.

Ugli had walked about a minute down the corridor when irritation suddenly welled up and he muttered,

《…And — I’ve grown close with that woman?》

Could it be that woman had said something pointless, Ugli thought.

《Not in the slightest.》

He walked the corridor shaking his head. It was plainly some foolish misunderstanding. As if I’d ever get close with a woman like that.

Ugli disliked helpless young ladies.

Incompetent, helpless, listless, fragile, always in need of protection, swanning about in pretty dresses: the sort his own sister was.

“Ugli!”

Ugli, who had been strolling the corridor with a look full of discontent, reflexively smoothed out his scowl and smiled. A familiar voice had reached him. Not high, but slightly thin: the voice of a small resonating chamber. Even before turning his head, he knew perfectly well who it was.

“Jack.”

“What’re you up to — busy?”

As expected, when he turned to look, there was the curly-haired man approaching with a beaming smile. Ugli gently shook his head.