Chapter 5
“By the way… can you walk?”
The man asked again when Ellen didn’t respond, still staring blankly. His concern made her feel as if someone had jabbed her in the side.
A person who helps without being asked and worries about someone else on top of that. It felt so unfamiliar that she had to search her memory to recall that such people even existed in the world.
How her circumstances suddenly reversed was so absurd that Ellen laughed.
A hollow sound slipped from her lips. Maybe this sudden kindness was just another trap.
Her feet hurt so badly they felt as if they might fall off, but she forced strength into them.
“I can wal—”
She didn’t even finish the sentence before she nearly collapsed.
The man quickly reached out and caught her falling body. Once again, she ended up in his arms.
This time she couldn’t hide it—her face turned bright red. A person couldn’t control something like that.
Instead of setting her back on her feet, the man simply lifted her with one arm.
Startled, Ellen instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.
“This will be faster.”
Only then did she realize her legs were trembling badly. Her mind tried to act as if she was used to all this, but her body was honest.
Ellen quietly settled in his arms, gripping his shoulder for balance. Once she steadied herself, the man began walking.
Even though he was holding several shopping bags in both hands and carrying Ellen in one arm, his steps were perfectly steady.
As they moved through the forest, those suggestive sounds still echoed here and there.
Embarrassed, Ellen lowered her head, unsure where to look. The man glanced at her reaction.
“If that’s how you feel, why did you come in here?”
He clearly still didn’t believe her.
Ellen felt she had to explain again. The first person who had ever saved her—and the only person she could rely on right now—was misunderstanding her. She didn’t want to leave it like that.
“I was on my way to the mansion for something and ran into people doing… that… outside, so I tried to avoid them.”
“Ah, I see. So you made it all the way here, but you weren’t mentally prepared for it? If you were so uncomfortable that you ran all the way around like this.”
“Mentally prepared?”
“This forest is known as the ‘Brave Ones’ Forest.’ Only people who agree not to care who sleeps with whom are supposed to enter it. You didn’t know?”
“…What kind of place makes something like that?”
“You said you had business at the mansion, didn’t you?”
The conversation kept looping back on itself.
They were talking, but the discussion kept circling.
Ellen sighed.
“I got lost in Teckram. I couldn’t find a carriage, and this place looked like a house with the gate open, so I thought maybe I could ask for a ride. But when I came in, there was chaos everywhere, so I tried to go around and avoid it… and somehow ended up here.”
The man let out an incredulous laugh.
If that were true, she had wandered into exactly the wrong place. Of all places to stumble into, how had she managed to pick this one?
Patiently, he explained.
“This is the House of Love. A place where people who want to share love can meet and make it happen. Not just anyone can come in, though—it’s membership-only.”
Which meant the man himself was a member.
But Ellen had no right to interfere with how other people lived. She had never concerned herself with such things before—more accurately, she had never had the luxury to care.
“If I ruined your plans, I’m sorry.”
The man turned and grinned.
“Well… I wonder if it really was a waste.”
His smile was mischievous.
“Meeting like this by chance on the last night might be a gift from the gods.”
He was clearly teasing her.
Instead of responding, Ellen gave a faint, wry smile and let it pass. The man didn’t seem to expect a reply anyway and continued talking casually.
“You seem to enjoy shopping, Lady, but you look completely unfamiliar with the House of Love—even though you came all the way to Teckram.”
“Is it something I should know about?”
“If someone comes to enjoy Teckram, it’s impossible not to know.”
Ellen tried to keep her replies as brief as possible.
There was a limit to how much she could improvise without memories. The longer the conversation went on, the more likely she would slip up and reveal something strange—like the fact that she carried memories from another world.
People wouldn’t assume she was reincarnated. They would assume she was insane and lock her away.
“I came for a funeral.”
Originally it had been a wedding—but that didn’t matter.
“A funeral? Ah, the Etaf Temple is nearby. Are you from Isad?”
“…Yes.”
Now that she thought about it, she didn’t even know which country she belonged to.
“If the funeral was held at the temple, the deceased must’ve been wealthy or a noble. Who died?”
“My husband.”
The man’s light steps suddenly stopped. He turned to look at her with a What is this? kind of expression. Ellen returned it with a So what? look.
“Well… I suppose that happens.”
The man muttered to himself and turned forward again.
“…It wasn’t a marriage for love.”
Ellen added quickly, feeling the need to clarify something.
She didn’t intend to defend her morality or innocence, but somehow the words slipped out anyway.
“Oh. So he died?”
“…What?”
“There are plenty of marriages like that.”
“…It wasn’t exactly like that. But it’s true that his death didn’t make me sad.”
It wasn’t a lie.
“Sounds like a pretty loveless marriage. If you’re cheerful enough to go shopping right after he dies.”
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.