While glancing down at Owen and his posse, I dusted off my hands.
Right now, they were all scattered here and there on the ground, unconscious.
For as much as Owen prattled on while begging for his life, I hit him on a pressure point just to shut him up and render him unconscious.
Just in time, the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard some distance away.
'The guards must be coming.'
Diana furtively glanced at me and made eye contact, then she hid herself.
She was currently disguised as an ordinary maid, so it would put her in a difficult spot if she's seen wearing clothes that were stained with dirt and blood.
So now the current situation could be seen as this—that only Cassion and I were the ones who confronted the Black Lion Guild.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"
With those footsteps in the background, I asked this question to Cassion.
But instead of answering right away, he gave that rare smile that made him look so boyish.
"Yeah, I didn't roll on the ground."
He answered playfully, but I could see that his words contained his sincere pride.
Anyway, he'd show that cute side of him from time to time.
While he stood tall, there was a triumphant look in his eyes.
"Yup, you were so cool."
But when I said this, his boyish expression hardened. He turned his head to the side awkwardly as though he was a broken machine.
"Cassion?"
I grabbed hold of his arm as he turned away, but he didn't answer.
All he did was to turn his head further and used his other hand to touch the back of his neck.
…This, maybe.
"Are you being shy?"
I did ask, but I didn't really need to hear the answer. He was obviously feeling bashful right now.
His earlobes were red, and even the back of his neck was red…
Don't tell me. You were complimented with only one mention of you being 'cool', but then you got this embarrassed?
I wanted to tease him even more, but I had to stop myself because the rumbling footsteps were getting closer.
"Even if you're feeling embarrassed, let's pay attention now. The guards will be here soon."
With my last word being a warning instead of a teasing joke, I stood up.
And acted as though I'd been waiting for the guards all this time.
However, a strange thought suddenly occurred to me.
Wasn't it a bit… too loud?
Only five arrests would be made, so at most, only ten guards would have sufficed.
Then again, the approaching footsteps sounded to be much more than just ten people.
I don't know if that loud sound was caused by horses' hooves maybe, but while I was thinking that this was much too excessive,
I heard someone calling me.
"Rosetta!"
My eyes widened as I heard the voice of a totally unexpected person.
Soon enough, the approaching crowd began to appear.
As it's already been guessed, the number of people was well over ten.
And at the head of that group was the owner of the voice that had just called out to me, riding a horse while he had a grave expression on his face.
"…Brother?"
It was Damian.
* * *
He, who was at the very front of the group, jumped off his horse as soon as he found me.
He landed on the ground hastily and soon strode forward. He looked like a boar rushing forward.
"Br—"
"Are you alright?"
Now standing in front of me, Damian yelled out the question right at me, his composure completely gone from his demeanor.
Rather than raising his voice in anger, it seemed like his voice was laced with concern.
I nodded back wordlessly.
I didn't expect Damian to come here in person, to be honest, so I'm a bit taken aback.
"I'm fine, Brother… But what brings you…"
"You sent me a letter. You said that there are criminals in this place."
Yeah, I did say that in the letter.
Right. That's really what I said, but…
When he put it that way, didn't the nuance sound kind of strange?
It sounds almost as if I got kidnapped or something.
"To be more precise, the swindlers were trying to escape, that's why I asked for the guards as reinforcements."
"Yes. I brought the guards with me."
"…It doesn't look like you've towed along only guards…"
I glanced over to the pack of people behind him. A rough estimate tells me that's a group of more or less fifty people.
Some of them looked like guards, but most were wearing what seemed to be the armor of the duchy's knighthood.
My head started to throb.
I mean, there's only five people here who need to be caught, but I didn't know he'd bring this many people.
As I sighed at the serious atmosphere surrounding the knights, Damian carefully spoke up.
"I brought some knights with me just in case you might have gotten swept into a dangerous situation. I'm glad you're not hurt."
"…Ah, yes. Um… Maxwell protected me, so I'm safe."
I answered in this way, subtly praising Maxwell.
When compliments flowed in this way, that's when they felt the most sincere.
Damian scanned me over to check my condition again. Then, his golden eyes shifted to the side of me.
There, where Cassion was standing.
"Maxwell."
"Yes, Young Duke."
A stern call was followed by a stern answer.
Damian looked over at Cassion and the collapsed men scattered around us. Then, he spoke.
"You're still only a temporary knight, but you did well."
"Yes, I just did my job."
Cassion replied in quite a shameless manner towards Damian's compliment.
I kept my expression serious while secretly holding back a smile.
As if to encourage Cassion, Damian gave two pats on Cassion's arm.
Then, after saying that he was looking forward to good results on the day of the match, he moved away.
This wasn't such a bad outcome.
After that, the situation was quickly sorted out.
Those men were caught and the news came out that they found evidence at the Black Lion Guild's hideout.
Diana's pouch of gold coins became evidence because it was determined that they were about to use it as funds to defect to another country.
All I was left to do from that point on was to look around in a relaxed manner, then I planned to go back home when I found the right time.
'Well, I thought it would go that way…'
But why were we in this carriage together?
Just the two of us.
In that carriage ride back home.
I glanced towards the person sitting opposite me.
Damian must have felt my stare, so his previously lowered gaze turned up and met my eyes.
It was so quiet in that carriage where there's only the two of us, and the awkwardness was even more enhanced when our eyes met.
Even so, I had no choice but to maintain eye contact even though I didn't really have anything to say. The atmosphere would turn even stranger if I looked away here.
But in the midst of the heavy silence, it was Damian who opened his lips first.
"Rosetta."
"Yes."
At his brief call, I answered with a nod.
Damian hesitated for a moment, but then he soon spoke again with that distinctly stern, characteristically strained expression.
"I know you don't have any faith in me. In the first place, I never trusted you either, so this is the inevitable result."
"Pardon?"
The abrupt self-confession—or, perhaps something close to a confession—made me ask back in surprise, looking up.
A rather sorrowful golden gaze was turned to me, but it soon disappeared behind the eyelids that slowly closed.
"But, even with that, can't you rely on me a little more?"
"I left it to you to call in the guards though?"
"Before that, you could have entrusted this whole affair to me, right? Don't jump straight into such a dangerous situation."
His mouth closed shut once more after the earnest voice leaked out. I knew what he was trying to say.
Even so, it couldn't be helped.
Today's goal was Diana's revenge and Cassion's hands-on training, so I couldn't ask him for help.
Still though, this was my own situation.
Damian didn't know the story behind it, so I seemed like a pitiful person who's running around, doing reckless things without asking for help.
I remained silent. His fluttering eyelids slowly lifted.
"You… can ask me for help more. Give me a chance."
While Damian said this, it looked to me like he was on the verge of tears.
I looked at him with cold eyes.
I felt my head gradually become icy.
I found the man in front of me pitiful, but at the same time, my rationality ran cold.
'This guy, seriously. He never gets tired.'
Was there any end to that guilt?
Well, I was in the kind of position to take advantage of that guilt, so I shouldn't complain.
Still, it was much too pitiful.
The real one wasn't here anyway. Inside Rosetta's body right now was me, a 'fake'.
It was pitiful to think that he was endlessly begging for forgiveness from a fake.
And it was pitiful Rosetta, too, wouldn't be able to hear that forgiveness.
For a moment, I glanced down at Damian with eyes full of frost, but I soon averted my gaze and looked out the carriage window.
"Don't do that so much, please."
"What?"
"I've told you time and again. You don't have to pay any attention to me. Just take care of Alicia."
Or by chance, later.
Don't regret it.
At the murmured words, Damian's face turned pale.
Instead of observing his reaction more, I closed my eyes.
Perhaps I said too much, or perhaps I said all that for myself.
Somehow, it seemed like Damian had made up his mind to treat me like family from now on—that it was a vow that he had already committed to.
If he continued to hope for something that truly wouldn't work out in the end, wasn't he the one who'd be laughable, the one who'd be pitiful?
I cannot have any family.
I've already decided on this long ago.
When, during the third transmigration, Rita's mother noticed that I wasn't the real 'Rita'.
When the whole family learned the truth, blamed me, broke my heart, and slowly, steadily, resigned themselves.
When those poor, pitiful people lost their lives because of me, who wasn't even the true 'Rita'.
That was the time I made up my mind.
Having a family was nothing but deceit.
Towards the owner of the body, towards the family, towards everyone.
As long as I could remember those people, who had gotten distorted, who fell to ruin, I will not have any family.
For someone who doesn't even remember her real name anymore, in the first place, something like one's own roots should not exist.
It was basic courtesy.
And, it was a line of defense. For myself.
When I got caught. When they called me as they were dying.
That helplessness and that torment—they're all still so vivid.
I opened my eyes.
I could not turn my eyes away any further, and so I watched the passing scenery out the window.
All of a sudden, fatigue settled upon me.
And what rose in return were memories of the past, as exhausting as digging up a scarce, dry well.