Side Story 8: The Lady and Her Knight (II)

When he opened his eyes, Anakin stood alone in the room. The scenery outside the window was still bright.

The shape of the witch puffing was reflected on the window. Come here. Anakin squeezed his sword, which returned to before it was broken.

(PR/N: ‘puffing’ as in ‘keep smoking while inhaling and exhaling smoke hard.’)

It was a restart.

***

It had been three days since his master had been alone with the empress, and had been taken into the spire. It was the first time he had been away from his master for this long.

Worried, Anakin felt like he was going to go crazy. It was all the more so because of the incident that happened to her when he was not around for a while.

Anakin looked anxiously into the mirror for a while, but only Anakin’s face, not his master’s face, was reflected in the mirror.

There was also a time when he went to meet the witch. The witch, who wouldn’t come out no matter how much he knocked on the door, opened the door only after he visited her with Kynthia. The witch, who smiled at Kynthia saying that he could look around the store, looked back at Anakin and hardened her face coldly.

“You acted pretty cunningly.”

“……I just tried my best.”

“I’m sorry, but your master didn’t contact me.”

When Anakin looked noticeably disappointed at the words, the witch continued with a calm face.

“Don’t worry. She’s a little crazy, but she’ll be back soon.”

“Crazy?”

“Even if she’s not crazy, she’ll have to pretend she’s crazy. She has to do that to get out of there.”

The witch searched the cupboard, took out a scented candle, and put it in Anakin’s hand.

“I’ll play with your brother and send him home safely, so you should go back now. Since you’re here, please give this to Emma.”

Come to think of it, it seemed that Emma was the name of the maid who came to wake up his master every day. With a bewildered look on his face, Anakin, who had received it, froze and asked if Emma knew her. Then the witch curved one of her eyes, smiled and said,

“She’s an older customer than your master. Actually, what I’m best at is revenge.”

(TL/N: in case anyone forgot Emma was the one who recommended Medea to Eris in the first chapters and Medea’s field of speciality is revenge.)

The witch only left that remark and kicked him out. When he returned to the mansion with heavy steps, his master was really back as she said. The maid said she had just arrived after fainting. When he handed her the scented candle, the maid took it without saying a word.

The maid who alternated her gaze between the sleeping master and Anakin. She, who hesitated, quietly said,

“……Don’t sleep tonight.”

With only one word left, the maid left the room, and Anakin could not understand the meaning until dawn.

Bang! In the mansion where everyone was sleeping, a noise was heard in his master’s room, where she was sleeping. Give me back my face!  No!  No! The shrieks of his master leaked faintly through the gaps.

As soon as Anakin opened the door and jumped in, all he saw was the maid struggling to hold his master.

Her pale, sweaty face distorted as soon as she saw Anakin. Anakin’s heart clenched when he saw that face. Anakin tightly hugged her, who kept holding her breath again and again as if she had been hit in the stomach.

So that his master would not break, carefully. So that his master would not crumble down, desperately.

(PR/N: he’s describing how he’s holding onto Eris.)

“I’m sorry.”

That was all Anakin could say.

It wasn’t her fault. It was his fault for failing to keep her safe, his fault for not being quick, and his failure…… It was his fault.

The silent days continued. Even after that, Anakin couldn’t sleep and wandered outside the mansion every night in search of his master.

There were times when his master was asleep, but there were also times when she was sane. When she was sane, she hugged Anakin and cried and became angry.

When Anakin returned with his master who was tired, the maid wiped her dirty feet while lightening the scented candle given by the witch at her bedside. Then his master couldn’t remember what happened at night.

She slept endlessly during the day, perhaps trying to compensate for the energy she had lost. Anakin and the maid forced her to wake up because she didn’t even drink water, let alone eat rice.

Many people came and went to the mansion, but none of them were able to heal her. Because it was a mental illness.

Whenever her light body leaned on him, Anakin couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t dare to compare the pain she was experiencing now, but just seeing her made his heart tremble. He had never caught a cold since he was young, but his head was dizzy like a person with a fever.

……He kept getting scared that something really wrong would happen to her.

When she came out of the imperial palace crying and jumping into his arms, it felt as if his stomach had been ripped open. Why was she suffering so much?

He didn’t even want something that great. He just hoped that she would no longer be sick or sad. If only he could cry instead of her, and suffer instead of her at the very least.

“He’s the one who made a mistake. Why should I suffer? Why am I the only one suffering?”

But why are you the only one suffering?

Suddenly, Anakin remembered that his master once said that all this was a novel. Then did someone love your suffering?

There must be no such thing as being born to be hated in the world.

“Ahhh! Ahhhhh!“

Anakin sincerely prayed that if he couldn’t cry for her, the whole world should shed tears of blood instead of her. As if responding to his prayer, the sunset that day was terribly red.

***

Several days had already passed since they moved to the cabin according to the doctor’s suggestion.

Although he tried to fix it as he was in a hurry, since it was literally a hut, it was a narrow and shabby place for his master to stay.

Anakin was the only attendant for her, so it would be more uncomfortable than staying in the mansion, but she didn’t say anything against it.

“Rather, I like it because I can see you well even if you don’t come to me.”

Anakin’s ears turned red when he heard it, his master touched his burning ears and teased him. It was embarrassing, but he liked the faint smile on her face.

Considering that she came for medical care, it was an overly simple time. The two did only very small pastimes. It was something one won’t regret even when one quit.

It was a place where even briquettes could not be removed, so Anakin had to make firewood to heat up the house. Then, his master watched the scene from the side, and she pouted, saying that Anakin, who did not sweat even a single drop, was unlucky.

His master sometimes told him about the past. The subject that she told him most often was the story of the school she attended. In the country where his master lived, education was mandatory.

She said she had been attending classes with her peers for long periods of time. Those days were obviously tough, but looking back, she said it was fun every day.

“It would be nice if you had such a moment too…… If we were students from the same school.”

“How do you think it would have been?”

“Right. What would it have been like?”

She whispered quietly without looking at him. Would you have been by my side then?

Rather, Anakin wanted to ask. If he was such a boring and ordinary fellow, like his master……. Could they have been this close?

Anakin didn’t know what made her anxious. All he could do was hold her hands until his master was relieved.

By the time his hands were sweaty, she fell asleep while breathing evenly. Then Anakin fell asleep carefully holding her hands.

His master appeared in his dream.

***

These were really strange days. Even though it was too peaceful, it was not boring for a moment. He took a nap that he had never taken before, learned games from his master to play against her, or vice versa, he taught his master how to knit.

His master tilted her head, saying it was strange how the nose kept growing, and Anakin untangled the nose that his master had stretched out again and squeezed it without saying a word.

While knitting intensely, his master looked at Anakin and complained that she would not be able to make a scarf let alone a sweater at this rate. He didn’t know what a sweater was, but Anakin wasn’t that good at knitting either, so he became embarrassed.

“Who taught you how to knit?”

“From Kynthia. He once made and sold socks. He cried so much since he didn’t seem to be able to meet his quota on time…”

Anakin suddenly measured her foot size while saying that. If he played with his hands today and tomorrow, he could finish one sock.

If she wore it on her feet, which have gotten a lot of scars, he thought it would hurt a little bit less when his master wandered around at night.

He knitted whenever he had time, but his hands were slow because it had been a long time since he did this. In addition, it took more time as he had to untie and knit repeatedly until he liked it.

If he was going to wear it on his feet, he would have made it roughly, but he had no choice but to work hard because it would be worn by his master. In the end, a person came from the imperial palace even before completing the socks.

Such a short paradise was over. Anakin stared blankly inside the cabin, where traces of her have been erased so far and returned to its first appearance.

It was only after he completely shook off his lingering feelings that he was able to slowly move to the mansion.

His master, who finished preparing to enter the palace, suddenly became firm. That was why Anakin seemed to have been scared. Hard things are more susceptible to crushing than soft ones. Perhaps she felt his gaze, as his master soothed him.

“It’s okay, I have you.”

It was a very sweet and eerie statement. Anakin had already failed to protect his master once, so was it okay to receive this trust?

He agonised for a moment. A person who would never fail unlike himself. Anakin already knew the answer.

“If you can’t stand it…… Run away to the witch. In the meantime, I’ll buy you time.”