OTKL 20

Chapter : 20

Want Me

Alferil, wearing slippers far too loose because they were sized for a man’s feet, staggered briefly before running down the stairs. After two loud crashes, the mansion fell once again into a silence as deep as death, and that only made her more uneasy.

Alferil stopped on the mid-landing. She steadied her ragged breathing and let a call escape her lips, sounding faintly gloomy.

“Young master.”

Only Alferil’s low voice echoed through the empty space. Thud—at the vibration that came back from somewhere instead of an answer, she frowned.

She couldn’t even be sure she had really heard it, but all the same, she moved according to a strange instinct. She headed to the right of the kitchen and passed through a winding, crooked corridor.

As she hurried forward without looking anywhere else, something suddenly caught against her leg. Alferil stopped and looked down. It was a small, broken piece of wood.

She couldn’t even guess why it was lying there. Her unease crept up stronger and stronger. As she bent her knees and crouched to examine the fragment, she sensed a faint presence above her.

It was a scent she had only ever perceived from one person she knew.

Alferil slowly raised her head. In a storage room she hadn’t even noticed was open in her distraction, she saw a shadowed figure. Short hair that held the pale light of winter sun was tousled.

Some spaces in the mansion were designed so low that they were uncomfortable for a tall man like Terencio. Leaning an arm against the top of the small storage room doorway and lowering his neck to bring himself closer to her, Terencio whispered,

“Am I your mother bird or something? You follow me everywhere I go.”

“There was a sound like the mansion was collapsing—how could I not come down?!”

Alferil shot back as if shouting. The man pulled the corners of his mouth into a shameless grin, then lowered the arm he had been bracing against the ceiling. Watching him, Alferil stared at the door she had thought was merely open until just now.

There was no door where there should have been one.

When she recalled the man who had left his room earlier after failing to find the key, everything finally clicked into place. What the young master had been stepping on, which she thought looked bigger than usual today, wasn’t the floor at all—it was the door that had fallen backward.

“What on earth happened…?”

It was closer to a muttered lament than a real question, since she had already grasped the situation, but at times when it wasn’t necessary, the earnest Terencio calmly explained.

“I rammed into it.”

“Into what?”

“Into myself.”

Alferil looked up at him. His incomprehensible behavior made her chest feel stiflingly tight, but what came out first was concern. She reached out with slender hands to his chest, checking him over.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Terencio quietly watched her as she pressed here and there, inspecting every part of his body. When he suddenly turned away, Alferil followed him just like a chick trailing after its mother.

The place they entered had such an unusual structure that it was no wonder it had escaped notice even during cleaning. Boxes were piled everywhere, looking as old as junk yet somehow giving off a mysterious air.

“I just can’t remember where I last put that damned key. At least it was an unrepaired door on an old storage room.”

Terencio added this as he rummaged around silently with his broad back turned to her. Well… was that really fortunate? As Alferil replayed his reckless actions in her mind, a weak sound escaped her lips.

“Don’t you think this could have been solved by calling a locksmith after the New Year?”

“I was in a hurry. I had no choice.”

“Is anything more important than your safety, young master?”

When Alferil refused to back down, he suddenly turned around. As he strode straight toward where she stood by the doorway, Alferil flinched out of habit. She squeezed her eyes shut, about to apologize, when something lightly tapped the crown of her head.

“Sor—”

“Cute and noisy.”

“P-pardon?”

Her mouth was stopped cold by those two words, and Alferil blinked. After taking in her frozen expression with a faintly satisfied look, he turned back again. Touching her suddenly reddened ears, Alferil glanced around.

Then Terencio, who had been bent over searching for something, held out a wooden box to her. Alferil reflexively took the box, which was almost tossed at her. Interpreting it as an order to handle it herself, she asked,

“Shall I take it upstairs?”

“Why would you?”

At the confrontational question thrown back instead of an answer, Alferil lowered her brows, shrinking a little. He didn’t look to be in a bad mood. Yet for some reason, Terencio had been avoiding her gaze since earlier as he touched his own chin.

“Is it something so valuable that I shouldn’t touch it?”

“Damn it, no.”

“Then what is it?”

“How would I know?”

Puzzled by the young master’s attitude—dragging things out with pointless words and giving no clear answer—Alferil asked,

“It’s your possession, isn’t it?”

“Alfe, at this point don’t you feel like opening it?”

Alferil lowered her head and alternated her gaze between the box in her hands and Terencio’s face.

“May I open it?”

“Yes. Please.”

At that, click—the light box opened as she turned the lock, and Alferil quietly lowered her lashes. Beneath a brilliantly cut diamond lay a deep purplish fabric, softly stored away.

As she carefully lifted the cloth, she realized her mistake. It wasn’t just fabric—it was a fully tailored garment. A brooch attached near the neckline of the dress glittered with a cold, silvery light.

Fingering the hem of the dress, whose color felt strangely familiar, Alferil glanced sideways at him. Depending on how the shadows fell, the red velvet dress darkened and brightened.

That hue looked just like the man’s hair. Alferil wasn’t completely oblivious, and her lips parted.

“Are you giving this to me?”

It was a silent affirmation. Clear anticipation lingered in Terencio’s eyes.

“It was almost presented to the royal family of Nimelian. When I was invited to a concert there, I asked for it instead of money. There’s no need to be careful with it… yes, this is yours too.”

Other boxes were stacked one by one atop the box already in Alferil’s hands—cases holding similar kinds of gold jewelry. Even though Terencio noticed her bewildered expression, he showed no sign of stopping.

Why were women’s dresses and jewelry prepared in the mansion in the first place? And why was he giving them to her? There wasn’t a single thing she could understand. Unable even to manage a proper word of thanks, Alferil just stared at the boxes piling up.

Though she wore a confused expression and a habitual smile for most of the time, he looked pleased.

The doll play he conducted with her didn’t end quickly. By the time the sun set and she left the room, her hands were full of heavy luxuries, and the weight of the gifts he had pressed on her turned into a heavy sense of guilt that crushed her heart.

Her head was spinning.

Prepared jewels, a prepared seat, prepared clothes. Faced with treatment she was sickeningly familiar with, Alferil’s expression hardened. And yet—even if it was behavior cut from the same cloth—it wasn’t unpleasant when it was his.

Being swayed by him didn’t feel this repulsive. Wanting to just close her eyes and let it be felt unbearably selfish and contradictory, and now she didn’t even understand herself anymore.

She didn’t know how to interpret this one dress. Alferil bit down on her reddened lips. If only what she sensed in Terencio’s eyes had been clear, unmistakable desire, it would have been easier.

After forcing a cheerful act in front of the young master, she entered her room and didn’t come out again.

Tomorrow was New Year’s Day. Though the worries she’d had until earlier that day had vanished without a trace, her heart only grew more tangled.

Alferil hated herself for being unable to see only pure beauty in the young master’s red hair. She despised herself for being unable to separate the person who had given her her first burst of laughter from the person who had caused her tears.

It was then that a delicate piano melody reached her ears as she sat with her back against the door.

It was late at night, with a bright crescent moon hanging high in the sky. Thinking that the young master hadn’t gone to bed either while she’d been lost in her thoughts made her feel strangely unsettled.

After a moment, Alferil suddenly stood up. No matter how much she pondered his intentions alone, there was nothing she could truly understand. She opened the door and, without any real plan, walked toward the young master’s study, where the piano music was coming from.

Without even knowing what she wanted to say, she knocked on the door. After two light knocks, she lingered in the corridor, forcing herself to ignore the thought of turning back even now. The continuous music stopped abruptly after her knock.

Soon, she heard his footsteps approaching as he came to open the door. Nervously moistening her lips, Alferil lowered her gaze to the floor, unable to muster the courage to face him directly.

When Terencio opened the door, a large shadow fell over her as if to swallow her whole. He looked as though he had no intention of speaking unless she stated her business first.

Unable to endure the silence, she blurted out impulsively,

“Young master.”

“……”

“Do you want me?”

Startled by her own words, Alferil lifted her head. Though it was late, the room behind Terencio was brightly lit by lamps.

Terencio looked down at her with an expression she couldn’t read at all.