The Ring of Bondage - Chapter 1.17

“I’ll go out tonight again. Alone.”

“But, Young Master…”

“I’m saying you should search even one more place instead of wasting time following me around.”

“…Understood.”

Luke left the lodging just like that. There was no particular solution to be found by going outside, so as he had done for the past two months, Luke walked wherever his feet led him, without a destination.

Except for examining the faces of every person he passed, it was a routine no different from a walk. Aside from the way his heart dropped whenever he saw anyone who resembled Yuria even slightly, it was a fairly peaceful time.

The lights illuminating the road, the faint scent of hot spring water lingering throughout the city, tourists smiling brightly as they peered into shops, and the various souvenirs prepared to captivate them.

Luke continued walking past the shopping district set up for outsiders. Until the broad road narrowed into an alley, and shops selling foodstuffs or daily necessities instead of souvenirs began to appear.

Around the time he saw more residents of Bellix than tourists, Luke stopped walking. It was because he felt the gazes of passersby gradually turning toward him. It wasn’t an alley where tourists would normally linger, and it was rare to see someone as finely dressed as Luke walking without an attendant, so it was only natural that attention gathered on him.

Looking at the people glancing at him, Luke thought. Would those gazes help him find Yuria, or hinder him? A young nobleman who wasn’t even drunk was wandering alone at night like a madman. He was blond, and his height was about this much.

If such rumors reached Yuria’s ears, would she hide herself at once? But perhaps. Just perhaps. If she heard that Luke himself was searching for her personally, and alone, wouldn’t she show herself even out of pity for him? If he sat in the street and sobbed like a drunkard while crying out her name, might Yuria come running to him?

They were all useless thoughts. She might have forgotten someone like him entirely to begin with. If he was going to be forgotten, then it was better to be hated instead. His steadily lowered expectations drove Luke to the edge of a cliff. He only wished that she would think of him from time to time.

As he habitually examined people’s faces, Luke stopped in front of a small bookstore. Paper naturally held scent well. When the smell of old paper mixed with Bellix’s distinctive hot spring scent, a very nostalgic fragrance drifted out. The sort of scent he had felt when Yuria smiled gently while looking at geography books.

As if entranced, Luke stepped inside the bookstore. It was a small, old bookstore. There were not very many books, and more than half of them had faded covers and lay asleep because they hadn’t sold.

Ignoring the bookstore owner’s glances, Luke tapped each spine with his fingertips and skimmed the titles. Perhaps because it was a small bookstore and carried only famous books, most of the titles were ones he had heard of at least once.

As Luke sorted the bookstore’s books into those he had read and those he had not, those Yuria would like and those she would not, his hand stopped in front of one shelf. What his fingertips touched was a book about geography. The very book Yuria had chosen on the day Luke first opened the study to her.

Luke lifted his head. Geography books packed one side of the shelf. Even though the books from other fields had all been stocked in roughly equal measure.

“Do you like geography?”

Luke asked in a low voice. He hadn’t even looked at him, but the bookstore owner immediately reacted to Luke’s words.

“Oh my, are you looking for geography books? It may not look like much, but when it comes to geography books, our bookstore is the best in Bellix, yes indeed.”

“I asked whether you like geography.”

“Ah? Oh my, no. It’s just that my daughter’s teacher likes books like that, so I brought them in while I was at it.”

As Luke listened to the man, he felt the hairs on his body stand on end.

He had found her. Finally.

Yuria Rigbye, who had only smiled at him after he gave her the ducal residence’s study and placed a geography book in her hands. That Yuria Rigbye, who had shaken him to his core and then disappeared without a single word of farewell.