Volume 3 Chapter 4: My Life as a Captive Continues Part III (1/2)
The more we talk, the more I realize how suited Katarina is to be my girlfriend.
The bread I gave her for her light meal was actually bought in the outskirts of town. It was intended as a sardonic insult towards a young noble lady, but Katarina just excitedly asked where the bakery was located.
“What? A bakery in the outskirts of town!? Where is it!? It was really good, so I want to go buy it myself sometime if I can!” she exclaimed.
It looks like she doesn’t have that strange sense of pride characteristic of nobility.
She also likes taking care of her field for fun – but not a flower field, a vegetable field. And apparently her special skills are fishing and climbing trees. To be completely honest, I wondered if she was actually a mischievous little street urchin or something.
Then, Katarina asked me about the various countries I had passed through.
However, in every country, I lived in the dark underside of society, and so I can’t talk about the lovely places and things she probably wants to hear about. But since she still begs me to talk about it, I tell her everything, omitting nothing. I even talk to her about that time I got involved in a gang war.
Normal girls would be scared or turned off of me, but Katarina just listens with sparkling eyes, exclaiming ‘Amazing, amazing!’
Seriously, this girl is different from the all the other girls I’ve met up until now.
************
Engrossed in our conversation, I failed to notice the time. Before I realized it, the sun had already begun to set. That was when Katarina suddenly asked me a question.
“Wait, if you aren’t actually a butler, does that mean that Rufus is a fake name too?”
“Yeah, what would be the point my infiltration with dark magic if I used my real name?”
“Then what’s your real name?”
“I have plenty of names. I use whichever one suits me best at the time.”
I have so many names that I don’t have enough fingers to count them.
“What’s your original name?”
When she asked me that with her direct gaze, the name ‘Sora’, which that man had given me, floated up in my mind. But…
“I don’t have an original name. After all, I’m not like you people – I don’t have parents. The first memories I have are of scavenging through garbage in the slums.”
I haven’t used the name that man gave me since then. And yet still, whenever I’m asked about my original name, I recall the name that man gave me.
Feeling myself beginning to sink into my thoughts, I drag myself back to reality. When I look at Katarina, she looks troubled.
“He-e-y. Why are you all frozen? Was it too shocking of a story for a young noble lady?”
I talked about things that were a lot more shocking earlier, but perhaps not having parents and not having a name was shocking in a different sense?
But Katarina’s response was completely off from what I had expected.
“… Really pretty…”
“… What?”
What is this all of a sudden? I don’t understand. Katarina meets my distrustful gaze with her sparkling light blue eyes.
“Your eyes! Your eyes are really pretty, they’re the colour of a clear sky.”
“…”
That man had said before that he gave me the name ‘Sora’ because my eyes were ‘beautiful, like the blue sky’. Considering her earlier comments on how cool my thinking was, her thought processes are really similar to that man.
I feel like I’ve met someone I thought I’d never meet again.
Almost unconsciously, I embrace Katarina and push her into my chest. Feelings I had never experienced before well up in my chest… she’s precious to me.
When I caress her soft cheek, she opens her mouth like it’s ticklish. I’m naturally attracted to those pink lips…
I returned to my senses when her stomach suddenly gave a gurgle. In front of me is Katarina, looking a little embarrassed. I begin to laugh.
“Shall I have people bring up dinner?”
************
Dinner had been in a separate room yesterday because Selena had really wanted it to be, but today I’ll have dinner be brought up to the room.
Since Katarina is technically a prisoner, I can’t have her walk freely around the mansion.
I give the orders to have the servants bring dinner to the room. Then, Katarina says that it’s dull to eat alone again and invites me to eat with her.
Gradually getting used to her antics, I feel like it’s stupid to argue and agree readily.
“Oh yes, what is Lana doing? I don’t see her.”
“Ah, I’m just having her do a different job. Nothing to worry about.”
Lana is a maid I hired a little while back to help out with this plan. I figured she was convenient because she didn’t have any family – if it came down to it, I could easily silence her.
But even though I only hired her for a reason like that, she actually turned out to be pretty good at her job. She was tight-lipped and very easy to use. Right now, she’s taking care of Selena, who is in a complicated situation right now.
After we begin eating, Katarina begs me to talk more about other countries again. I obediently start talking.
“Ah, your stories of foreign countries are really interesting,” says Katarina near the end of our meal, finally having her fill of my stories.
“Your stories are interesting too. It’s a total waste that you’re a noble lady.”
I’m speaking from my heart. I even think that it must be tough being a young noble lady with a personality like hers.
“I’ve never travelled abroad, but hearing your stories makes me want to.”
“Ha ha, I’m starting to feel like I might like travelling around to all those different countries again, if it’s with you,” I say casually, not really meaning much of it. I didn’t really expect a response. But…
“Really!? Then please, bring me with you next time!”
I widen my eyes in surprise. Just what is this woman saying…?
“I’m from a different world than you. There’s no way we could go together.”
I’m not embarrassed about the circumstances of my birth. However, I understand perfectly well my position in society. That’s why I know. When this whole charade is over and done with, I won’t be able to stay with this woman… and yet…
“A different world? What are you talking about? You’re right in front of me,” Katarina says, looking at me with a direct gaze, “We’re talking together and eating together. We’re in the same world, aren’t we?”
A smile naturally spreads across my face at her reaction. She’s acting like I’m the weird one here.
“You’re really a strange person. Alright, I get it. I’ll bring you with me next time.”
At my words, Katarina smiles happily.
“Alright, it’s a promise. Pinky promise!”
Pinky promise? Is that some cultural custom of this country?
Katarina seems to suddenly realize something after seeing that I’m confused. She runs to a corner of the room and ruffles around in a dress in a box.
“Here you go. I’ll give this to you as a symbol of our promise,” she says, putting something on the palm of my hand.
I knew about symbols of promises. They were someone’s objects you held onto until your next promise with them.
The custom existed in most countries, but nowadays, I feel like the only people who do such things are merchant’s daughters and children… and right now, Katarina probably falls under the latter category.
A little exasperated, I look at the object that had been placed in my hand.
“… This is a brooch?”
It seemed to be a brooch adorned with a stone.
“It’s a very pretty colour right? It’s even similar to your eye colour. The colour of a clue blue sky,” says Katarina, taking the brooch from the palm of my hand, “And see, if you make the light hit it like this, it turns light blue. Just like my eyes.”
It’s true, the colour of the stone changed when the light hit it – and that new colour was identical to the colour of her eyes.
“It becomes both your eye colour and mine… I think it’s perfect as a symbol of our promise,” says Katarina, smiling.
Since I was born with a fairly handsome face, lots of women have approached me. And so, I’ve never had any lack of women to choose from.
Many different women have approached me. There were some professionals among them, with pick-up lines naturally falling from their lips… but Katarina’s words are much stronger than their lie-laced lines.
What an incredibly amazing pick-up line. ‘I’ll give you a stone that becomes both your eye colour and mine’?