Don't Be Holy! - Chapter 16
She felt as though he could hear the frantic pounding of her heart, that he might smirk at her or chastise her harshly.
‘Aren’t you ashamed before God?’
If anyone would say such a thing, it would be him.
But instead, he silently shifted his hand to support her elbow, helping her regain her balance.
“Be careful. If you’re not going to help, at least don’t ruin things. The seedlings have just started sprouting, and you’re going to destroy them.”
His low whisper tickled her ears, leaving her feeling strangely unsettled.
Eir stared at him blankly for a moment before springing to her feet. She dusted off her clothes and hurried inside.
The spot where he had held her elbow still tingled.
She vowed to keep her distance from him even more.
***
For a few days, Eir barely encountered Rubel Shinote. Though they lived under the same roof, they went about their separate routines and stayed in different rooms, making it easy to avoid each other with a little effort.
Even their bathroom schedules were different, so even if they ran into each other by chance, it was only to ask and answer questions about the location of things. There was none of that clichéd image of brushing teeth together in front of the mirror or catching sight of a man’s bare back fresh out of the shower.
‘Well, I leave at dawn, don’t I? Because of the herbs.’
Eir would often emphasize to the village women that she had never seen the man’s bare back except for the first time he got injured.
‘We’re on such different schedules that it doesn’t even feel like we’re living together.’
But on a night when torrential rain poured down, the two were trapped together in the house, and the reality of living together hit them hard.
Eir needed something from the desk in the living room, and Rubel Shinote, seemingly worried about his newly planted crops, stood by the window, pulling back the curtain to stare outside.
Eir lit an oil lamp on the desk and muttered, ‘Why is the count of these herbs so off?’ as she scribbled on a piece of paper, occasionally glancing at Rubel, who was gazing out the window with a brooding expression.
He was such a fool.
After all, she was planning to send him away before the sprouts he’d planted could even bloom.
Ever since she realized that the fastest and safest way was to help him regain his memories, Eir had written a letter to the witch she had met at the old woman’s funeral.
Somehow, that witch had shown up uninvited at the funeral, waiting until everyone else had left. Eir, who had known she was a witch since the days when people treated her like a ghost and ignored her presence, wasn’t surprised when the witch approached and erased the blessing from the grave.
‘If a blessing remains on the grave, Hecate’s soul won’t be able to breathe even a little. Surely you won’t argue with me over this. After all, you’re just a runaway priestess.’
How the witch recognized her at a glance was a mystery, but Eir hadn’t cared at the time. She had been too consumed by grief over losing the old woman.
Her thoughts had spiraled that day. Why was it that everyone she held dear left her? Why was she always abandoned? Was she, born an orphan, destined by the gods to be alone forever?
The witch, a friend of the old woman, handed Eir an unsealed envelope and said.
‘I don’t like you one bit, but this is Hecate’s will, so I’ll help you just this once. That child told me to assist you one time after her death.’
The witch instructed her to write her request in the envelope and throw it off the cliff at Hylam if she ever needed help.
Eir had intended to save that card for an emergency. But getting Rubel back to where he belonged was her top priority, so she had no choice but to write a question asking if there was a spell to restore someone’s memories.
‘I was planning to send it today.’
But, of all days, a storm had started pouring down since morning.
Flash.
Suddenly, the world was engulfed in a silvery-blue light, only to plunge back into darkness. The man standing by the window was briefly reflected as sharply as a mirror before disappearing into shadow again.
At that moment, Eir realized that his gaze was sharper than mere concern over ruined crops.
It wasn’t the usual inscrutable expression he wore. For that fleeting moment, he had looked exactly like Lord Rubel Shinote, the Holy Knight she remembered.
The hound that detects monsters. A guardian deity that repels all wicked things trying to step on the holy ground of Frigg.
“Is something wrong?”
The man started to say something, turning his head toward her. His lips parted slowly…….
Bang, bang, bang!
Suddenly, a loud knocking at the door snapped Eir’s head around.
