Chapter 9: The Midnight Visitor
“I’m definitely going to see him today.”
Astir muttered to herself with determination.
So far, every attempt had ended in disappointment.
“Even compared to Hector Onyxblood, he’s just as handsome.”
“If the Young Duke’s eyes are captivating, Master Killes’ eyes are positively enchanting.”
When people talked about the famous figure known as Master Killes, men usually praised his martial prowess and fierce personality.
Women, however, could only seem to talk about his appearance.
Astir found herself unconsciously listening.
She simply couldn’t believe it.
Compared to Hector?
Impossible.
No one could possibly be as handsome as Hector.
Unless Sei suddenly turned into a man.
And yet people claimed Killes was every bit as good-looking…
Despite having ordinary brown hair—a color so common that no one ever considered it remarkable.
What truly caught Astir’s attention, though, was something everyone kept mentioning.
The Grandmaster’s eyes.
“His eyes are especially fascinating. They’re brown… but they don’t feel like just one color.”
“Don’t they look like someone mixed pieces of peridot and topaz together?”
“His gaze is kind of sharp. Maybe it’s because he grew up as a common-born warrior. That’s what real wild charm looks like… Ah, listen to me rambling.”
Even after hearing noble ladies whisper excitedly in every corner, Astir still couldn’t picture them.
So are they brown or not?
Multiple colors?
Can a person’s eyes even look like that?
There was only one way to find out.
She had to see them herself.
So Astir immediately put her plan into action.
Unfortunately, two obstacles stood in her way.
First…
The man was always surrounded by crowds.
For someone like Astir, who was terrified of people, that was the worst possible situation.
Second…
Her eyesight.
From a distance, her poor vision couldn’t make out what was supposedly so special about his eyes.
Even standing on tiptoe and looking toward him…
All she could see was a face beneath brown hair…
With two tiny brown dots where his eyes should be.
At last…
An opportunity came.
While secretly following the Grandmaster, Astir noticed that Killes eventually slipped away from the crowd and found himself alone.
She hurried after him.
“!”
But…
He suddenly disappeared from sight.
“Huh?”
How?
She had been watching him the entire time.
She looked around in confusion.
“Aah! Aah!”
Like a startled crane, she cried out.
Not just with her voice—
Her whole body flailed.
Standing directly before her…
As though by magic…
Was the very man she’d been chasing.
“……!”
Fear immediately overtook her.
People were frightening.
Meeting someone new was the thing she hated most.
Anxiously, Astir waited for the brown-haired young man to speak.
From experience…
She expected him to say something like—
“Ahh… so you’re the famous fake young lady?”
As far as she knew, every man except Hector fell into one of two categories.
Either they were kind to her face and cruel behind her back…
Or cruel both in front of her and behind her.
But…
Her expectations were completely wrong.
This man was different.
He wasn’t sly.
He wasn’t rough.
There was neither false kindness nor open cruelty.
Instead…
“What?”
His voice simply sounded…
Extremely annoyed.
* * *
Killes wasted no time getting to the point.
His tone carried equal parts irritation and patience.
“You.
Why do you keep following me?
And if you’re going to follow me…
why do you keep glaring at me like that?”
He wasn’t actually curious.
He simply wanted to confirm one thing.
That she wasn’t trying to assassinate him.
“?”
The moment he saw tears begin welling up in her brown eyes…
He panicked.
“H-Hey…
What’s wrong?
Why are you crying?”
The awkward young noblewoman in front of him didn’t answer.
Instead…
The tears finally spilled over.
“Hey…
Say something.
You have to tell me what’s wrong before I can understand.”
Suddenly remembering the cloth stuffed into his pocket, he handed it to her.
When someone cried…
The most useful thing was something to wipe away tears.
Or more accurately…
Snot.
Instead of calming down…
She burst into even louder sobs.
“H-Hey!
Don’t cry!
Come on!”
After standing beside her helplessly for quite a while…
Her sobbing gradually eased.
“Tell me.
Didn’t you have something you wanted to ask me?
You have to talk before I can help.”
“…If I tell you…
you won’t report me?
To the family head…
No…
To His Grace the Duke?”
“What?
Something the two of us talked about?
Why would I do something like that?”
After much hesitation…
Astir awkwardly explained everything.
All the while, she nervously watched Killes’ expression.
He sighed.
Once.
Then again.
Immediately after the second sigh—
“Aah!”
Astir cried out.
His face had suddenly moved so close that their noses were almost touching.
“Wow…”
His eyes really were brown.
Yet they looked like countless colors of paint blending together across a canvas.
Gold.
Green.
Blue-gray.
Each shade shimmered together like a halo.
Each tiny fleck sparkled like a gemstone.
As though stars themselves had been scattered inside his eyes.
“So it’s true…
You’re really handsome—”
Without thinking…
Astir blurted out exactly what she was thinking.
The instant she realized it…
She lowered her head so quickly she nearly buried her face in the floor.
Her ears burned.
Oh no.
I actually said that…
To a man she’d only just met.
At this distance.
Even after adding that his features felt much sharper than gentle-looking Hector’s…
Her embarrassment refused to fade.
Meanwhile…
Killes straightened back up after lowering himself to match her height.
“There.
Satisfied now?
I’m the type who can’t relax until my curiosity’s settled.
That’s why I’m letting this one slide.”
With that troublesome matter finished…
He prepared to leave.
Then…
Astir grabbed his wrist.
He looked dumbfounded again.
Still…
He didn’t pull away.
For some reason…
It felt like she’d cry again if he did.
Gathering every bit of courage she had…
Astir hesitantly asked,
“Um…
That rumor…
Is it true?”
“What rumor?”
“They say…
your eyes used to be ordinary brown…
But because you’re a Master…
A really powerful one…
they changed into those beautiful colors…
Everyone says…
there must be some secret.
Could…
Could you tell me too?”
“……”
He didn’t answer.
His expression alone said everything.
The world is full of all kinds of ridiculous questions.
Then…
She continued.
“P-People said…
Because you’re a Grandmaster…
Maybe you used magic…
Or some secret technique…
There has to be some special method…
C-Could you teach me too…?”
“Haaa…”
That question was somehow even more absurd.
He frowned deeply.
“So that’s what this was about.
People really invent all sorts of nonsense.
They don’t even know what mana is.”
He clicked his tongue.
“First of all…
I’m not a magician.
I’m a warrior.
A Master and a magician are completely different things.
A magician uses mana to perform magic.
A Master is a warrior who possesses transcendent strength and martial skill.
So why would you even ask me about magic?”
He could already imagine where she’d heard those rumors.
People who knew absolutely nothing…
Yet loved gossiping behind others’ backs.
Just thinking about them made him frown even harder.
“Second…
I don’t know anything about my eyes.
Does the average person know exactly why their hair or eye color looks the way it does?
No.
You’re simply born with them.
That’s all.”
He felt the tiny hand gripping his wrist slowly loosen.
Not because she understood…
But because she was disappointed.
Without realizing why…
He found himself asking,
“But…
Why were you so curious?”
“Well…
My eyesight is bad…
And…
My eyes aren’t pretty…
I heard that in the desert…
There’s a medicine made from hawk eyes.
If you eat it…
your vision improves…
and your eyes become golden like a hawk’s.
So…
I wondered if maybe…”
“What kind of idiot made that story up?
Do you know how much desert people treasure hawks?
Why would they pluck out their eyes and eat them?
There’s no such thing.
And you’re supposed to be a lady.
Why do you keep saying eyeballs?”
But…
He never received an answer.
Instead…
Moisture began gathering around the tiny noblewoman once again.
“H-Huh?”
If only my eyes became beautiful…
Maybe people would stop calling me a monster.
Maybe Grandfather would finally love me.
Maybe then…
I’d become a real young lady.
Those thoughts…
Astir couldn’t bring herself to say aloud.
Whenever her emotions became trapped…
They always escaped as tears instead.
Just as they always had.
Unable to understand any of this…
Killes panicked once more as she began crying again.
“What?!
Why are you crying now?!
Did I say something wrong?
You wanted to see my eyes!
I showed them to you!
So why are you crying?!”
“Hic…
Sniff…!”
Instead of stopping…
She broke down into loud sobs.
“Damn it…
Seriously…
Why are you crying?
Please stop.
Okay?”
Sweat began forming on Killes’ forehead.
He knew perfectly well that he didn’t look gentle.
If anything…
He appeared rough and intimidating.
Naturally…
He assumed he’d frightened this frail little noblewoman into tears.
His conclusion was correct.
His reasoning wasn’t.
He didn’t know…
That Astir had grown up believing crying only made people hate her more.
So when she met someone who genuinely didn’t know what to do because she was crying…
Her emotions became hopelessly tangled.
* * *
There were many things Astir didn’t know.
She didn’t know that Killes had become practically nocturnal…
Because he’d spent years dealing with people who only committed their shady business under cover of darkness.
“Seriously?
Killes, you’re not some alley cat.
You sneak across rooftops at midnight?
That’s actually possible?”
“Of course.
Just tell me where your room is.
I’ll visit tonight.”
If he truly wanted to…
Even the greatest assassins wouldn’t compare.
He himself could become the finest midnight visitor imaginable.
“Ta-da!”
“Eek!
W-What?!
H-How did you get in here?!”
So one night…
When the Grandmaster suddenly appeared inside the lonely residence of the so-called Fake Young Lady…
Astir was so startled she fell onto her backside.
“You told me to come, didn’t you?”
Chuckling softly…
The handsome young man smiled.
Even while smiling, his sharp eyes swept across every corner of the room in an instant.
The weak fireplace.
The chilly air.
The worn-out blanket.
“Here.”
“Huh?”
“A gift.
You said you were curious.”
“Wow…!
It really looks like an animal’s eyeball!
Or maybe a fried egg!”
Trying not to make it obvious…
He handed her a small bag.
Inside were white round candies with golden streaks running through them.
Astir smiled brighter than ever.
“I’ll bring you more next time.”
Seeing that smile…
The midnight visitor smiled as well.
His eyes glowed…
Like the halo of moonlight shining above his head.
* * *
“……”
She must have drifted asleep.
She had dreamed of the past.
A very distant past.
…No.
Not really.
She had simply died once…
Then become young again through an unimaginable miracle.
That life had disappeared forever.
“Killes…”
She opened her palm.
The same palm into which he had once placed those candies.
It was small.
Not the hand of a nineteen-year-old.
But the hand of a twelve-year-old girl.
“…I miss you.”
She whispered toward someone who no longer even knew she existed.
Sadness.
Longing.
And a burning desire for revenge.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Then opened them again.
I have to be stronger.
The day these hands return to the size they once were…
She would never allow herself to be captured and killed so easily again.
If Sei once again manipulated Duke Nuxeike…
If the empire’s rulers once again turned the Empire’s Five Fingers against her…
Perhaps…
She would die again.
But this time…
She would leave scars on the Duke and Sei that could never be erased.
Even if she had to steal the very spark that would burn their arrogant faces.
Yes.
She would become exactly what they always called her.
A thief.
If that was what they insisted she was…
Then she’d be a thief worthy of the name.
“Astir Miss.”
At that moment…
A servant’s indifferent voice came from outside the door.
“The butler sent me.
He says…
you have a visitor.”
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