Chapter 24

Chapter 24. "The Dark Elf, the Dwarf, and a Single Rose." 04

Everyone standing in the hall remained silent and simply looked at Luna.

After sniffling quietly for a short while, Luna kept her head lowered, raised an arm, and wiped at her face roughly with her sleeve.

Then, as though nothing had happened, she lifted her head, stepped away from the door, dragged out a chair from wherever she pleased, and sat down. Quietly, she turned her head aside and avoided our gazes.

It seemed the words Rene had spoken to Luna earlier had shaken her heart.

'We will open the door for you, so will you close it for us?'

It meant that, because we had opened the door of our home in order to accept her, when she entered, she, now a member of our family, should close the door behind her.

Once the door was closed, the only ones left inside the house would be the people who had originally been there and the one who had just come in.

In other words, it meant living together.

A brief silence followed. Then, of the two elf ladies who had been looking at Luna with faint smiles, Rene, her long golden hair swaying, smiled brightly and said,

"Now we have become one family. Please take care of us, Luna."

"......"

Luna said nothing.

But Rene did not seem to be expecting much from Luna in her current state. After giving her a small smile, she turned and slowly walked toward the kitchen.

"I will bring out some tea, so please wait a moment. Han? Help me for a bit."

"All right."

I rose from my seat and followed Rene into the kitchen, while the people left behind in the hall either sat down in chairs or brought over empty beer barrels and perched themselves on top of them.

After entering the kitchen behind Rene, I suddenly felt something strange and raised my hand.

Blood was still flowing from the finger I had cut with the knife when I made my oath earlier.

Damn, did I cut it too deep?

I gave a bitter smile at the thought, then glanced at Rene, who was standing ahead of me summoning a spirit and lighting the brazier, before looking around for something to wipe it with.

A rag, a rag... there should be one nearby....

As I wandered through the kitchen looking for a rag, Rene, finding it odd, placed a hand on my shoulder as I opened one of the cupboards and said,

"Darling? What are you looking for? Tell me. I will find it for you."

"Ah? I was looking for a rag."

She turned around, picked up the dishcloth that had been neatly folded beside the brazier, handed it to me, and tilted her head.

"What do you need a rag for? Did you spill something?"

I took the dishcloth she handed me and, while showing her the finger I had been hiding behind my back, the one that was still bleeding, said,

"I was going to wipe this. I must have cut it a little too hard earlier, since it is still bleeding."

When Rene saw my hand, the blood running down and staining my palm, her eyes widened. She looked back and forth between me and my finger, and I smiled faintly at her, bringing the dishcloth in my hand toward the wounded finger.

At that moment, Rene's hand suddenly flew out, caught the hand holding the cloth, and shoved it aside.

Finding that strange, I lifted my head.

Rene was staring at me with a face full of anger.

The moment I saw it, I thought, Ah, damn it, and quickly avoided her gaze. Then Rene pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and said,

"That is terrible. You were going to wipe Han's wound with a rag? What were you going to do if it became infected? And on top of that, you tried to deal with it alone while ignoring me, your wife. You are truly terrible."

Scratching my head with one hand, I obediently lowered it at her words.

Rene was thoroughly angry now.

People say that when a normally gentle person gets angry, they are all the scarier. If I said anything careless here, I would be the only one to suffer for it.

Just then, as Rene held the handkerchief and quietly examined my finger, she suddenly shook her head, took hold of my hand, and then...

"........."

"Ah? D-Dear, right now, you are..."

Rene was sucking on my wounded finger.

She lifted her eyes slightly while my finger was in her mouth, looked at my flustered face for a moment, then closed her eyes again.

A little while later, she drew my finger from her lips, narrowed her eyes, and quietly wiped the blood from my hand with the handkerchief.

"That is enough. The bleeding will stop in a moment."

"Ah, uh? Mm. Thank you."

At my words, Rene raised her eyes and almost glared at me as she continued in a quiet voice,

"I will say this again. Your body is mine. So cherish it. Do you understand?"

Pressed down by her gaze, I nodded with a bitter smile.

Then Rene wrapped the handkerchief around my finger again and again as she said,

"And one more thing. I am your wife. Do not ignore me. If you do it one more time...."

"...?!"

Rene pushed me backward and forcibly pressed her lips against mine.

Soon, I tasted the faint metallic tang of blood in my mouth.

The kiss ended far more quickly than usual, and she slowly withdrew from me, let out a small sigh, then patted my chest with the palm of her hand as she said,

"If you ignore me one more time, I will torment you every night until you cannot sleep."

Torment me? You, an elf?

"Heh, h-haha~ Mm... mm."

At her words, I let out a suppressed laugh and nodded, and perhaps because Rene thought I was looking down on her, she furrowed her brow and gave a small cry.

And she looked impossibly lovely doing it.

"What?! What is so funny? I mean it. I truly mean it!"

"No, I am not doubting your words. Mm, you are going to bathe, right? I will prepare the towels and soap. Heh heh heh~"

Turning my back on Rene, who was still making a slightly sulky face with her brows raised, I left the kitchen through the door that led straight down to the underground bath.

Then, feeling a strange gaze on me, I turned around.

There, inside the kitchen, Rene was still staring at me with a pouty expression on her face.

Looking at her, I gave a sheepish smile, raised both hands, and said,

"I am sorry. I was wrong, so please stop being angry. All right?"

At that, Rene slowly turned her head away and said in a low voice,

"Let us have a little talk in the room when we go to bed later, Han."

...I am in trouble.

Still wearing a bitter smile, I looked at Rene's back, but without turning around again, she simply poured the tea into the cups she had prepared beforehand and carried them out to Irisa and the others waiting in the hall.

I stared after her with a hollow smile, then opened the large box fixed beside the door, took out two bars of soap and four towels large enough to cover a body, and made my way down the stairs to the cellar with heavy steps.

Back when Rene and I had first begun living together, we once quarreled a little over a small difference of opinion. At that time too, she had worn that very same expression and said those exact same words.

Let us have a little talk in the room tonight.

And what had awaited me in that room that night had been none other than....

"What am I going to do...?"

Muttering that, I came down the stairs, opened the door, and stepped into the changing room.

After placing the towels and soap I had brought into the cubbies meant for storing clothes after undressing, I slid open the door in front of me to the left.

At once, hot steam rushed over my face.

Raising one hand and waving it from side to side, I stepped inside. Perhaps because I had entered while leaving the door open, the steam that had been blocking my view slowly began to thin, and soon the sight of a large bathtub made from massive logs fitted together with great care came into view.

The bath itself was a great square, ten mecks wide and ten mecks long. Beside it were small stools where one could sit and wash, several wooden dippers made by binding iron bands tightly around wooden boards, and one large wooden tub built large enough for a person to step inside and wash alone.

I glanced over them, then continued waving my hand to drive the steam aside as I walked toward the faintly visible small window ahead.

Then I threw both little windows wide open, turned around, stepped back out of the bath, and shut the door. Since I had left the windows open, the steam would drift out that way.

After that, I opened the door in front of me and climbed back upstairs. There was also the staircase inside that led back up through the kitchen, but this guest staircase was faster.

I climbed up and came out into the hall.

In the hall, Rene and Irisa were smiling brightly as they exchanged some kind of conversation.

Exel sat in his personal chair, looking completely at ease, holding tea in one hand and reading one of the books he had brought in his pack with the other.

And Luna, in a mood entirely different from earlier, sat on a chair like a tame little cat, quietly watching Exel as he read, looking as though she were lost in thought.

Frid, meanwhile, was picking cookies from a basket piled high with them and, every so often, answering something Exel said to him.

I slowly walked over toward them and opened my mouth.

"Is there anyone who would like to bathe? It is all ready now, so anyone who wishes to...."

Before I could even finish speaking, Rene and Irisa rose from their seats.

Irisa swept Frid up into her arms, and Rene looked at Luna, who was sitting beside her, and said,

"Luna? Are you not coming?"

"I will go later. You go first."

At that answer, Rene glanced at Frid in Irisa's arms, then nodded with a smile.

Just then, standing beside Rene with Frid held in one arm, Irisa asked me with bright eyes,

"Where is it?"

"Ah. Please follow me. And Han, bring our change of clothes a little later.... You understand, do you not?"

"Yes...."

Narrowing her eyes slightly as she said that, Rene took Irisa, who had been tilting her head in confusion at our conversation, by the arm and headed toward the stairs leading down to the underground bath with a bright smile on her face.

I watched the two of them walk away for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and sat down half-lounging in the chair Rene had just vacated.

Then Exel, who had been turning a page of the book in his hand with his large fingers, parted his long mouth slightly and said,

"So, contrary to my expectations, you have been living quite thoroughly under her thumb."

"You heard that?"

"Ah, all of it."

He answered without taking his eyes off the book, and I placed both hands on the table with a bitter smile.

Then Exel's voice came again.

"And what makes no sense in all this is that the person concerned, namely you, looks happy."

"Ah, more than happy."

I nodded brightly at his words.

Then Luna, who had been quietly watching my face ever since I came up the stairs, rested her chin on her hand and said,

"So you are blind with love, then. Does that mean it does not matter to you, even if she is not always smiling at you?"

"Luna, it seems you still do not understand. Love does not concern itself with such things. I love every side of Rene. Her smiling face, her crying face, and even an angry face like the one she wore just now."

"So it is a happy kind of bondage?"

"That is right. Love binds."

"That is easy enough to say. But even that will surely grow tiresome little by little with time. What will you do then?"

"Luna, do not test me. Does the word 'grow tired' even exist for elves? Or are dark elves somewhat different?"

"No, we are the same. But you are human, are you not?"

By now Exel had taken his eyes off the book and was watching the exchange between Luna and me. Luna continued speaking with her chin resting in one hand.

I lifted the teacup before me and drank a little of the tea still half left inside. Luna was probably frowning because she thought I was drinking something someone else had already touched.

Well, even so, it had been Rene's.

So it did not matter much.

"As you have likely guessed, I am not an ordinary human. I had to change in order to survive. Ordinary humans may understand what it means to grow tired of something, but I do not."

"And why can you be different? Are you some kind of god? You are only human, yet you claim you do not even recognize the word 'grow tired'?"

"Let us not talk like magicians. I do not know how I ought to explain it either, but one thing is certain: I truly can be that way, and that is why I can go on looking at only Rene forever."

After saying that, I rose from my seat and gave a faint smile to Luna, who was staring at me as though I were some drunken fool from somewhere.

At that, Luna placed a hand to her brow, slowly shook her head from side to side, and muttered,

"This is not what I meant by closing the door.... Staying with people who give me headaches is even more miserable."

I smiled brightly at her muttering, and Exel, who sat beside her, let out a small laugh and raised his book once more.