Chapter 52
“Hiccup”
It would be nice if he could find her a little faster.
“Yes. I don’t know when she’ll show up. I keep waiting, though.”
If only Lucike appeared, I wouldn’t be struggling like this.
Roitz put the paper down and sat heavily on the bed.
He sighed and leaned his head back.
The bed was big, but because his shoulders were so broad, it suddenly looked like a single bed.
I thought I saw his lips moving as if mumbling something.
“Did you just curse at me?”
“Why would I curse at you?”
Roitz glanced at me and spoke.
“Do you curse at me?”
If I think back, I did curse him a lot when I first met him.
At the time, Roitz was that annoying senior who freeloaded on everyone.
But back then, Roitz clearly said it was fine to curse at him.
“Not these days.”
“…These days? Fine, then.”
Roitz’s hair was still damp.
I walked up to him and reached out. He lifted his head at the sound of my steps.
“You got more rain on you than you thought.”
This time, he didn’t bother to avoid my hand.
I brushed the water from the ends of his hair and smiled softly.
Roitz, who was sitting on the bed, looked up at me with a strange expression.
Then he slowly reached his hand toward me.
His fingers stopped just short of touching my cheek.
“Serdin.”
I could feel the warmth from his fingertips, and I instinctively shrank back slightly.
“Why does your face look like that?”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
“Do you have something troubling you?”
“Uh, no.”
Troubling me?
Of course, I had things bothering me. But I didn’t expect it to show.
I flinched at Roitz’s ability to notice things faster than I could swing a sword.
‘Well, he was always perceptive, even back in knight cadet days.’
Whenever I had worries, Roitz was the first to notice and ask.
‘He was also the first person I ever told about how I grew up in the Count’s mansion.’
Of course, I didn’t tell him everything, but he was the first to make me open up.
If my worries were about something else, I might have shared them.
But this was the kind of problem I couldn’t tell Roitz just yet.
I shook my head firmly.
Before he could read more of my thoughts, I quickly changed the subject.
“This room smells like you, Sunbae.”
“What smell?”
“Hmm…”
I hadn’t thought it through, so I trailed off.
But I was actually good at recognizing scents.
“So…”
I stepped closer to Roitz, grabbed his shirt collar, and pulled him closer to sniff.
“What are you doing?”
Surprised, Roitz suddenly jerked back.
But because I was holding his collar, my arm and body were dragged forward with him.
“…!”
Roitz’s body tilted backward.
He grabbed the curtain hanging by the bed for balance.
But his strength was too much for the curtain rod, and it ripped off with a loud snap.
“Wait—ah!”
Roitz and I both fell onto the bed.
Everything happened so fast I barely had time to react.
When I tried to get up, the fallen curtain tangled around me, pulling me back down.
The same happened to Roitz.
In no time, the curtain wrapped tightly around us like a trap.
“Ugh.”
I let out a sound from being crushed under Roitz, and he quickly rolled over.
Now I ended up on top of him, my forehead bumping lightly against his.
The positions were reversed, but we were still firmly tangled together.
I struggled against the curtain that wrapped me tightly.
“Wait, Serdin. Don’t try to do it alone. We need to work together…”
I stopped moving.
He was right. If we moved separately, the curtain would only twist tighter. We needed to talk and untangle it carefully…
“…”
…But when I turned my head and saw Roitz, my thoughts froze.
Our foreheads were touching, and our eyes met.
I could feel his warm breath on my lips.
“Wait a second.”
He whispered the words softly.
At that moment, I suddenly started hiccupping.
‘What?’
I tried to cover my mouth, but I couldn’t because my arms were firmly tied, holding Roitz’s body.
I shut my eyes tightly and held my breath.
I felt Roitz’s arm, pinned under me, shift slightly.
It was strange. Every point where our bodies touched felt hot.
I couldn’t tell if the pounding in my chest was from hiccups or my heartbeat.
Roitz’s arm brushed past mine and then stopped moving.
“Can you lift your head?”
His low voice tickled my ear.
“Yes? Yes.”
But just then—
A voice came from outside the room.
“Roitz?”
Both of us froze.
‘That voice…’
It was the ash-haired lady who came earlier.
The sound of her footsteps grew closer. I froze, staring only at Roitz.
“I brought a gift earlier but forgot to give it to you. Are you inside?”
“…”
Whoever she was, this situation would definitely look strange to anyone who saw it.
I stayed frozen, wide-eyed, while Roitz shifted, rolling me to the side.
He quickly pulled the curtain off us from behind.
As my back hit the bedspread, he finished removing the curtain that had wrapped around us.
Roitz stood up first.
I heard the sound of him walking to the door and then the door opening.
Not knowing why, I felt like I shouldn’t be seen and pulled the curtain back over myself.
Bang, the door closed.
I stayed still on the bed, the scent I’d smelled from Roitz lingering in the air.
“Just leave it…”
I could faintly hear their voices through the door.
I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but Roitz’s tone was calm and rational.
My heart pounded hard.
That scent lingered at the tip of my nose.
I didn’t know if I was nervous about being caught by the ash-haired lady, startled by what just happened, or something else.
I heard their footsteps fade away.
And then, Roitz’s footsteps returned.
“Serdin.”
Roitz pulled the curtain off me.
The moment I saw his face, my body heated up again.
“Why are you covering yourself with this again?”
Even when he was dealing with the ash-haired lady, Roitz never seemed flustered.
It felt like I was the only one whose heart was pounding wildly.
I closed my mouth and pushed myself up from the bed.
That scent still lingered at the tip of my nose.
A short silence followed.
“Serdin?”
Roitz was right. It was hot in here.
While I was lost in thought, Roitz, who had been standing and brushing his hair back, sat down next to me.
At that moment, I finally figured out how to describe the cool scent.
“I remembered.”
“What?”
“A sweet grassy smell.”
“…What?”
“You smell like sweet grass, Sunbae.”
Roitz looked away and muttered in response.
“Th-there’s no such thing as sweet grass.”
“There is.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“There is!”
While we bickered about nothing, the sound of rain against the window grew quieter.
I stood up and walked to the window.
Looking through the wet glass, I said,
“It looks like the rain is stopping.”
“Already?”
“It must’ve been a shower.”
When I turned to Roitz, he wasn’t looking at me, but somewhere far away.
I placed a hand on my chest.
It had calmed down a little, but the echoes of the earlier pounding were still there.
‘What did he talk about with that lady?’
I wanted to ask but stayed quiet.
This place suddenly felt… strange.
I couldn’t explain it, but it just felt off.
If we kept talking, I felt like Roitz would figure out my worries before I got the answers I wanted.
‘I already looked around the manor like I planned.’
It seemed fine to leave now.
“I’ll go.”
When I went downstairs and reached the door, Roitz handed me an umbrella.
It was a nice, long umbrella.
“I think I could just walk in the drizzle…”
“Use it. If you get wet…”
Roitz hesitated, then added,
“…you’ll lose all your hair.”
“You really know how to make a joke.”
“…”
Roitz was serious with the other knights, but with me, he sometimes made random jokes.
Maybe it was because we’d gone through so much together back in knight school, including the near-dropout Knight Survival Training.
“The umbrella…”
Roitz thought for a moment and then said,
“Bring it back here later.”
