Max swallowed abruptly that the food almost went down the wrong pipe. The man before her stared at her with a peculiar gleam coming from his blue-gray eyes, which until now, have always seemed to be full of sleepiness.
Cold sweat started to break out on Max’ forehead.
If she says she could not do it, then it will seem as if she was willing to be considered as a fool in front of the knights who have been ignoring her as if she were a complete stranger to them and unworthy of their time. If she says she can do it, however, she feels that her future here will be full of hardships.
Max could not decide on either courses of actions as both seemed equally grim, so she instead decided to avoid his eyes and hoped they would change the topic by pretending to be distracted by the soup she was eating. However, Ruth reached out and blocked her view of the food. At that moment she was caught again as his slender eyes pierced hers.
“… Is it okay to pay back like this?”
“I-I’m not good enough to help you…” Max truthfully confided to him.
“I know. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t a situation that I could handle on my own.” He responded as he looked down.
Max felt a faint desire to help him, seeing the wizard look so pitiful before her. As she looked at him with forlorn eyes, it was as if he sensed her stares and looked at her then too. Having been caught, Max straightened her back and feigned indifference.
“You haven’t forgotten that I helped you both materially and spiritually, have you?” The wizard suddenly spoke and Max placed her spoon down.
“N-No. But I really can’t…” Max started to protest – she could not help him even if she wanted to. Not only did she lack the ability to, but she also doesn’t know what kind of hell she would have to face if she was going to do so. The wizard’s fastidiousness was truly unusual, and quite alarming. Max avoided looking at the wizard’s face, while Ruth moved closer to her like a leech.
“All you need to do is organize simple records and calculations. It’s a very easy thing to do, even for you.” The wizard told her and Max sighed.
“Hey, wizard… Don’t go too far. It’s disrespectful to the madam.”
The knight with them, who was pretending not to hear any of their conversation and was only interested in eating, finally joined in.
Max thought that if she refused the wizard, she would be condemned as an ungrateful person and would hear this snarky label whenever she encountered him. She was sure that was what this eccentric wizard would do to her if she refused him.
Moreover, she thought that sooner or later she would have to bite the bullet and would not be able to avoid it forever. Out of her wits, she finally responded with a nod and the frown on Ruth’s face turned upside down upon seeing this. He then reached out to take some of his potatoes and deposited those on her plate as a sign of goodwill.
“I won’t forget this grace.” The wizard told her gratefully. Max answered him with a tight lipped smile.
“… You guys must have gotten quite close to each other during the times you have spent together.” Hebaron, the bulky knight who was still listening to their conversation, suddenly remarked. He then reached out to scratch the back of his head as if waiting for the implication of his words to sink in. Max hesitated and answered carefully and turned to address Hebaron.
“H-He gave me advice on decorating the castle.”
“Aha…” Hebaron responded almost fumblingly as he took a big bite off the bread and gave them a thoughtful look. Max dismissed her anxious thoughts at Hebaron’s almost nonchalant attitude towards her and tried to finish her meal in peace. But the silence surrounding them was once again broken when Hebaron spoke up.
“The castle has become quite pleasing to look at.” He told them, and Max laiborously swallowed her food before responding.
“Ah… Th-Thank you.”
The man flitted his eyes around the room as if trying to take in the view. His deliberate acts of scrutiny looked awkward to Max, and she too was starting to feel uncomfortable with him. It’s been a long time since Max and Hebaron knew of each other, but even so, they had never formally exchanged introductions and only ever seen each other in passing.
Max did not feel comfortable to talk with Hebaron so casually – they were still strangers after all, so Max decided to just follow his gaze as he still looked around the room. For some time they remained in an agonizing silence. Soon, the knights who had finished eating their food had begun to leave their seats, one by one they came before her and bowed their heads in respect, then departed from the restaurant.
Max looked down on her soup bowl, it seems to her, the food looked rather sad.
“The Remdragon Knights were unfair. Even with that attitude, I could not help but think.” Max was startled by Ruth’s declaration and turned to look at the latter. Ruth seemed to not have noticed this and continued the speech in a sour manner, while dipping the bread in the thick soup.
“This expedition was the opportunity to throw the weight of the Remdragon Knights across the continent if the result was favorable, but had it erred on the opposite site, they would have taken a devastating blow to their pride.”
Ruth’s eyes then clouded, as if he were currently trapped in some place far away. “The Red Dragon was that terrifying. Three or four knights would have been killed without Lord Calypse. In fact, there are those who were very close to death back then. One of them was Lord Calypse himself, as he fought on the front lines and crossed paths with death several times.”
Max began to stiffen despite Ruth’s calm and monotonous voice, as if he were telling only a trivial story.
“The Duke Croix has passed on such a difficult and dangerous expedition to Lord Calypse. Even the daughter didn’t do the least to defend her husband, who had been pushed to death on behalf of her father.”
“I-I was…!” Max begun to protest but Ruth spoke out.
“That’s what the knights who followed Lord Calypse have been always thinking.” Ruth placed his spoon down and talked with an expressionless face.
Max just let her lip quiver in response. She wanted to argue that it was she who was thrown out. And it was her that had been ignored all this time by them. The man took her by force, and then left her without saying anything. She even thought before that he didn’t want nor cared for her at all.
What could she have done? Why was the blame always placed on her shoulders?
