Chapter 31

Chapter 31. "The Dark Elf, the Dwarf, and a Single Rose."11

I stared at Rene’s face with a dazed expression, and then the young dwarf called Jimant, who had slowly stepped away from the pair and was walking toward us, looked back over his shoulder and said,

"My, she is beating him quite badly. Even if he is the one who left her behind, could she not at least hear him out?"

"That is a different matter. We do not think of such things. There is no reason involved."

"That is rather cruel."

At Jimant’s words, Rene merely smiled faintly.

What was that supposed to mean? I did not understand at all. Nearby, Luna was holding Narsh’s hand as she tried to step in and stop the two of them, cautioning her in much the same way Rene had cautioned me.

Do not interfere with them.

Rene came over to my side, drew me gently toward her, and said,

"When their story is over, I will explain it to you then. So...."

"All right. I will stay quiet."

I nodded at her words.

I had no idea what this was about, but if this was not something I ought to interfere in, then for now I should simply watch them.

When I turned my head, the situation had grown even worse than before. Irisa kept striking him over and over, heedless of the blood running from her torn knuckles, and the face of the man who continued taking the blows without offering the slightest resistance had become a mess of blood.

His lips had split open, and his nose had sunk crookedly, so that the face he had worn moments ago was nowhere to be seen.

After beating him for a long while like that, Irisa panted fiercely, then drew her arm back with all her strength and smashed her fist into his jaw.

The man fell backward, and Irisa, clutching her wrist, which hung at a strange angle as though the bone had broken, glared at him with sharp eyes and said,

"Barat rad Barat-ai. Iira mur ra taide. Mur a taide."

It was difficult to explain what exactly that was. In any case, when she spoke in that flat, lifeless voice, the white-haired elf, seated on the floor with his face ruined beyond recognition, looked up at her and answered quietly,

"...Himid."

At his words, Irisa looked down at him with tears welling in her eyes, then collapsed to the floor as though her strength had left her and began to cry with her head bowed.

We all simply stood there.

There was someone else who ought to comfort her.

He sat on the wooden floor, looking at Irisa with a sorrowful expression as she cried. Then he raised a hand, straightened the collapsed bridge of his nose back into place, rose to his feet, walked over to her, and knelt before her. After that, he lifted both arms and carefully embraced her.

Irisa kept crying, and while holding her, he lifted his head and looked at us.

"I am truly sorry for showing you such a sight."

"It is all right. Has your conversation ended well?"

"No. It is only beginning."

I could not understand it.

Why he had been beaten. Why she had struck him.

In any case, he gathered Irisa up in his arms and lifted her, and Irisa now looked up at him not with the face of a mother, but with the face of a man’s wife.

Still tearful, still trembling. Then blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, ran down his chin, and dripped onto Irisa’s face.

Holding her with one arm, he carefully wiped his own blood from her cheek with his sleeve. Irisa only stood there with tears gathered in her eyes and showed no reaction at all.

Then he spoke.

"This is a shameless request, but would you allow only our family to remain together?"

Silently, I turned my head and looked at Rene. With a small smile on her face, she turned her back and headed toward the stairs to the second floor.

"Please follow me. I will show you to the room where your son is."

"Thank you."

Still holding Irisa against his chest, he followed Rene upstairs, and I remained standing there for a moment before my eyes fell upon the bloodstains on the floor.

Should he not at least be treated?

Thinking that, I turned toward the kitchen. Then, with a small smile for the people who had all stood there in silence watching the scene, I said,

"I am sorry, but please remain seated for a while. I will take your order later."

Miss Narsh looked a little startled, but at Luna’s guidance she sat back down. Watching that, Jimant shrugged his broad shoulders, untied his pack, pulled over a chair from nearby, and sat down as well.

Luna remained standing beside Narsh, staring absently at the floor until Jimant called to her, at which point she lifted her head and began looking at him.

I turned my back on them, went into the kitchen, found the medicine box, and carried it upstairs.

On the second floor, I saw him slowly entering the room while holding Irisa in his arms. I hurried over to Rene, who was holding the door open for him. She looked at the medicine box in my hands and smiled brightly.

"Well done. I was just about to ask you for it."

"More importantly, how do I pass this along?"

At my words, Rene smiled and lightly patted my shoulder.

"Oh dear, how can you forget something like that? Here. Watch carefully what I do, and do the same from now on."

For Rene to make jokes like this....

Did my expression look that stiff? In any case, she gestured toward the open room, and Frid came out. Still, this boy was awfully quiet for someone who had just seen his father again.

Rene bent down, took the medicine box from me, handed it to him, and said,

"Even if he is a father who failed to protect you, it would still be ugly to leave him wounded, would it not? Go and treat him."

Frid accepted it with both hands and bowed his head deeply to her.

Hm?

This boy really did treat Rene and me differently. Well, I am human. And when I considered what he had been through, that was hardly surprising.

He lifted his head and immediately ran back into the room, and Rene gently shut the door.

I leaned against the wall and stared at Rene. She too remained standing just as she had after closing the door, only turning her head to look at me.

As I quietly looked at my own reflection in her golden eyes, I noticed my hair, braided down in a single long plait. I lifted the hanging braid, idly played with it for a moment, and spoke first.

"You have things I do not have, and I have things you do not have. So then, dear, tell me now. What did their actions just now mean?"

"I do not want to."

She folded her arms and turned her head away.

I looked quietly at her profile, then let out a small laugh, pushed myself off the wall with my back, stepped behind her, placed my hands on her shoulders, and gently turned her to face me.

Then I brought both hands up to her cheeks and drew her close, so close that we were almost at the point of kissing, and said,

"If what you said is true, then that is terribly sad, and if there is something you want, I will give it to you right here. So explain it to me."

"You will give me anything?"

"Of course."

Rene closed her eyes and looked as though she were considering it for a moment. Then she opened them and said with a smile she did not often show,

"Then hug me."

At her words, I swallowed once and looked around before answering,

"H-Here?!"

"Why? Can you not?"

"No, it is not that, but there are still guests downstairs, and then...."

At that, Rene’s expression changed completely. She lowered her head and began chuckling.

"I am joking. Yes, joking.... Heheh... This is rather fun. I understand now why Mr. Kal and Mr. Jeff behaved the way they did. Hehehe.... Yes. So that is it. It is because it is amusing."

A joke....

Forgive me, El Rantra. Your child has now learned human mischief. I believe this is probably my fault. Ugh....

She kept chuckling to herself, and the tension suddenly drained out of me. Slowly, I took my hands away from her cheeks. Then Rene clung to me and said,

"Oh my, Han, are you upset? Because I played a joke on you?"

"No, I am not upset. I play such jokes on you from time to time myself, do I not? That only makes this fair."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

Then, as we began to walk slowly along the corridor, Rene hugged my arm from beside me and stared intently at me before suddenly saying,

"I do not think that is true. Be honest with me. You are upset, are you not?"

"I will be honest. I am not upset."

"Han."

"Yes?"

"Look at my face when you say that. Am I standing over there somewhere?"

At that, I flinched, stopped where I was, and immediately turned my head toward Rene. She was staring straight at my face. Then she smiled brightly, lifted a hand, pressed my cheek lightly, and said,

"So now you look at me. See? That is an upset face."

"No, that is...."

"And this is my apology. Come here."

Because we were of a similar height, Rene could pull me into an embrace easily enough. Just as I had done to her a moment ago, she cupped my face in her hands and drew me so close that we were almost at the point of kissing, then she said,

"Himid."

And with that, she kissed me immediately.

Himid. "I am sorry."

Hmm. And yet the one who should truly be sorry is me.

After a moment, she drew back from the kiss and smiled brightly. Then she stepped away from me, rummaged through her pocket, and said,

"Now then, I will explain, so listen carefully. Do you remember what I said on our wedding day?"

"Mm."

She looked at my face for a moment, then smiled and said,

"Say it."

"I will give you my body and my heart in their entirety. You must give the same to me in return, and we must protect one another, now that we belong to each other, without fail. If that does not happen, the one who is abandoned may punish the one who abandoned them. No reason can exist. There is only whether the promise was kept or not kept. If you cannot accept this, then cut me down here and now and go wherever you desire and live as you please."

I recited exactly what she had once said, and Rene, still holding a handkerchief, made a little gesture as if applauding.

"Perfect."

"There is something I have always wondered. If the other person cannot accept it, why tell them to cut you down?"

"When an elf says those words, it means she has already hardened her heart when choosing her mate. As you know, once elves set their hearts on someone, they will follow that person even if he is an evil man. So if the other person cannot accept it, both sides would only make each other miserable. That is why we say, 'Then cut me down.' And the relationship between Irisa and the husband who came looking for her can be explained through that. For whatever reason, he failed to protect his wife and child. That is why Irisa was angry and struck him. Well? It is easy to understand, is it not?"

With a rather awkward smile, I nodded.

Yes, it was very easy to understand. So that was it. If you failed to protect them, then no matter the reason, you broke the promise, and so you got beaten for it. Elves had a surprisingly blunt side to them.

No, wait.

I looked at Rene, who was wiping the saliva that had spread across the corner of her mouth after our kiss with a handkerchief. Then, with a hesitant expression, I asked the question that had begun wandering through my mind.

"Dear. It is a foolish question, but please hear me out."

"What is it?"

She spoke while using the same handkerchief that had been wiping her own lips to now slowly wipe mine. I waited a moment until she had finished, then said,

"What would you do?"

"What do you mean?"

Standing there before my elf wife, who was holding the handkerchief in one hand while the other rested lightly against her chest, I asked,

"If I were ever to abandon you, what would you do?"

In an instant, it felt as though the air had frozen solid and filled the entire second-floor corridor where we stood.

Was that something I should not have asked?

A sense of disaster washed over me. I had made a mistake. I looked at her, seeing the way her hand clenched tighter around the handkerchief.

And then Rene, returning to the very image she had worn when we first met, bared her teeth and spoke in a voice gone harsh and ragged.

"What did you just say?"

"I am sorry. That was a mistake—"

"Shut your mouth. Say it properly. What did you just say?"

This is bad. She is truly angry.

Feeling cold sweat running down my back, I answered.

In a voice that had completely given up, I said,

"I asked what you would do if I were ever to abandon you."

At that, Rene clenched her teeth, opened her eyes wide just as Irisa’s had been a short while ago, and spoke again.

"It can neither happen nor be allowed to happen, but if such a thing truly did come to pass, I would kill you, and then I would kill myself."

Leaving those words behind, Rene immediately walked down the corridor and descended the stairs.

Damn it. This is bad.

I had asked something I should never have asked and made Rene angry. Pressing a hand to my forehead, I shook my head helplessly and then, having no other choice, went downstairs alone.

What am I supposed to do now?