Fools.

Fools.

The castle lord’s voice cut in so suddenly that Aspara could not finish her sentence.

“…Excuse me?”

Gus, his eyes hidden behind the bandages, kept his gaze fixed quietly upon his wife and repeated the word once more.

It was a word that even Aspara knew very well.

《Flower.》

Gus had cut Aspara’s words clean off.

At the word that had leapt out of nowhere, Aspara furrowed her brow. The instant she realised it was not some unfamiliar northern word but a proper noun she knew perfectly well, her eyebrows climbed high.

“Flower?”

《Flower!》

《Who in the world is that.》

The three syllables had reached the people of Fang Castle as well.

《That man is the one behind it?》

《According to the interrogation, yes. Even the horse and tack, it seems, were given to him by that man. That bastard’s crest is on the saddle, too.》

《I am asking who that is.》

《The fellow who got a thrashing from the castle lord the other day.》

The castle’s great council chamber, with its high ceilings and stone walls, gave off an oppressive air. A large wooden table stood at the centre of the room, the castle’s officials gathered round it.

The moment Ugli’s report ended, a low rumble filled the room; the anger and excitement of the men rang against the high ceilings and weighed the air down.

One man slammed his clenched fist down hard upon the table.

《So in the end, was it not that woman’s fault again!》

His voice trembled with fury. An old veteran soldier bit down on his teeth and cut him off.

《Mind your tongue.》

《Right — the root of all this is not Her Ladyship but Plow— Plo, uh… him! Let us march out at once and take his head —》

《Try that and we’ll be at war within the day.》

《As if we couldn’t!》

《Everyone, calm —》

The pugnacious, fearless temperament of the northerners was, at its core, ill-suited to round-table conferences.

In a meeting room where reckless strategies and proposals were being hurled about pell-mell, the only one left clinging to his reason was Ugli. Streaming with sweat, he worked to settle the men at the table down so that no foolish and hopeless war might break out.

If the castle lord doesn’t recover and come back soon, we really are going to be in trouble…

For the next several days, the castle was in such an uproar that even the southern bride could tell. An ominous air hung over the place, as though something might break loose tomorrow.

The woman, never one to leave her room much to begin with, became all the more reclusive after the castle lord’s wounding; only her servant, carrying snacks in and out from time to time, scurried about like a little mouse.

“It reminds me of the old days.”

Sprawled spread-eagled atop the bed with its one caved-in side, Aspara murmured. To her muttering, almost a thing said to herself, Jack answered in just as much of a mutter.

“It does. It was like this when we lived in the south too.”

“And yet, strangely, it doesn’t feel as comfortable as it used to.”

At that, Jack tilted his head to one side.

“It wasn’t all that comfortable back then either, was it?”

“Was it not? I thought it was bearable enough.”

“It only seems bearable because we survived it.”

Aspara gazed up at the ceiling, grinning to herself.

“Then once all this is over too, I suppose it will come to seem like nothing at all.”

“Looking back later, things always look as though they were easy. What matters is the now.”

“What is it you are trying to say?”

“Just —”

Jack hesitated, then said,

“Are you all right?”

“What is there for me to not be all right about. The one who got hurt is not me but the castle lord.”

At that, Jack said nothing further. After a brief silence, Aspara opened her mouth.

“It is late. Off you go.”

“For a while now — what if I stood watch at your bedside? Just in case…”

“No need.”

Aspara stretched out her foot and pushed Jack toward the door, prod, prod.

“You yourself, whether it’s Volmo or it’s Ugli, go and sleep snug up against one of them.”

“But — ah, wait, wait, just a moment.”

Just before he was turfed out of the room, Jack wedged his foot between the door and the frame to block it, and called out,

“If you get frightened in the night, call me!”

That night the moon was uncommonly bright.

Aspara closed her eyes, thinking back to the conversation she had had with the castle lord a few days before. He had paid no mind to her words, I do not love you. As though changing the subject, he had only brought up a different matter that had been before his eyes.

No. Had he truly been trying to change the subject?

Could it be that that, in his own way, was his answer?

Tap, tap.

The sound of a hard object striking another, even harder object. Yet a clear, light sound. Her ears caught it, and Aspara woke from a shallow sleep.

“Hm?”

The first thing to seize Aspara’s gaze as she came awake was something round at the foot of her bed. Beyond the footboard, a fluffy back-of-a-head was leaning against it.

“This child…”

For some reason, Jack, clad in full-body armour, was hugging a single sword to his chest and snoring snugly there, propped against the bed.

To come and guard her sleep, and then not even wake when his mistress did. Truly a useless knight. Aspara thought, chuckling softly.

But the maker of the sound that had woken her was not Jack. After glancing about for a moment, Aspara soon found the source.

“Goodness, you startled me.”

The balcony window. A great, dark figure was leaning there against it.

“Gus?”

《My wife.》

Aspara, after a moment’s hesitation, rose from the bed, threw on an extra layer of outer robe, and crossed to the balcony bathed in bright moonlight.

“Whatever is the matter?”

Click. When she opened the balcony door, the outside chill seeped in between her toes. Perhaps, Aspara thought, he had come to take her head, to pacify the war-mad officers; and yet she did not feel especially afraid.

Whether that was because she was not afraid of death, or because she was not afraid of the castle lord, the present-day Aspara did not know.

《Date.》

“Pardon?”

The castle lord smoothly held out his hand and showed her a long strap. It was a horse’s bridle.

“Date?”

《——. Promise.》

“Ah.”

Ah, that promise. Why he was asking about it in the middle of the night was strange enough, yet Aspara, her head not yet fully out of sleep, found herself nodding along quite naturally.

“…You are wearing a tunic today, I see.”

《—— ———?》

“It is nothing.”

A horseback outing under a moonlit night. The combination called to mind the first time she had met Gus.

After pulling on her heavy outdoor overshoes, Aspara discovered two horses tethered in the rear garden. Two horses. That was a small difference from the time she had first met Gus.

Aspara no longer needed to cling to the castle lord’s back to beg a ride on his horse. She could now drive a horse herself.

“…You are a man who knows nothing of the romance of a date.”

《Pardon?》

“You are telling me, in this cold weather, that we are to set out on two separate horses?”

Aspara untied the lead of the larger of the two horses, and the smaller one she tethered back inside the warm railings.

“Let us ride together. To set the mood of that day, as well.”

With practiced ease, Aspara hopped lightly up into the front of the saddle.

“In exchange — today, I shall hold the reins. The patient may rest at the back.”

The woman, mounted on the horse and reaching her hand straight out to him. Gus stared at her, blankly, for a little while. After a moment, having grasped Aspara’s meaning, he gave a small laugh and clasped her hand in his.

The horse with two riders, man and woman, atop it made for a rather funny sight. The small-built woman seated in front, and the large, thick-set man behind, his arms wound tightly round his wife’s back.

But there was no one to watch the two of them, and the two of them could not see themselves; and so, in that funny shape, they simply rode onward.

“Where shall we go, then? ‘Whereee to.’”

《I shall ——— —————.》

Gus’s large, rough hand wrapped itself round Aspara’s. It was a hand a little damp with sweat, and hot. He had, no doubt, said something to the effect of, I will set the direction.

“Hearing such harsh words from the woman who is meant to be your wife, and still, unfazed, coming for a date — you really are a man of remarkable nerve.”

《——— —— —?》

“That is a compliment.”

As always, neither of them could understand a word the other was saying. And yet, the horse went on. From Gus’s chest, pressed close against her back, came the sound of his heart, thump-thump.

It was so quiet a night that even the horse’s breathing was audible. The unusually bright moonlight glittered, reflected in her eyes, and Gus’s breath tickled at Aspara’s ears.

The man, as though embarrassed by it, was trying his very best to breathe as softly as he could; but instead, each time he did, a tiny huu, huu whistle would leak out, and it was rather foolish. Aspara was so fond of that foolish breathing that she stifled her laughter as best she could and went on pretending not to notice.

After they had ridden like that — how long, perhaps? — by the time the brightest star had moved one notch toward the west, something began to glitter at the far edge of the snow-white field. A glitter slightly different in kind from the glitter of the snow.

“Hm…”

《Over there, —— ———.》

“This place…”

Only then did Aspara realise. This was a path she had been down before. A long time ago. No, in truth, perhaps not all that long ago. But to her now it felt like somewhere very long ago indeed.

《Frostbloom herb.》

“Yes. It was that flower field, wasn’t it.”

The flower field where purple flowers had once bloomed in profusion. But now there were no flowers. Beneath the snow piled tangled together, only the traces remained, of someone having dug up the flowers that had once bloomed there in such abundance.

“You…”

Aspara gazed at the empty field and thought.

That first time they had met — with what heart had Gus shown her that flower field? That she had, until this very moment, never once thought to ask — Aspara only now realised.