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Chapter 18
“I’m sorry. A woman suddenly cut in—”
“A woman?”
“Yes.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a panting woman ran past the front of the car and staggered toward the window. When Vivian saw the woman, her hair disheveled, her face went pale.
“Bitch, where do you think you’re going!”
“Ugh! Please, help me, please!”
A soldier grabbed the fleeing woman by the hair. She tried to escape but collapsed onto the ground with a groan. When the soldier pulled out a baton and raised it high, the woman let out a small gasp and curled in on herself.
“Aaah!”
Unable to bear the sight, Vivian shut her eyes. She wanted to rush out immediately, but with the Governor right beside her, she had to at least keep her expression under control.
The woman’s screams, sprawled in the middle of the road, did not stop.
If only the car would just hurry and leave.
Contrary to Vivian’s wish, the car remained stopped for quite some time. The road, already crowded, had become even more chaotic because of the escaped woman.
A few minutes passed, though they felt like an hour.
“Ro—Rozia!”
Just as the stationary car was about to move, Vivian flinched.
The woman, having spotted Vivian crouched by the window, crawled toward it as if she had found a savior. With every step she took, red stains of blood were left on the road.
“Rozia! P-please… help me. Aah!”
Vivian stared at the disheveled woman with unfocused eyes.
“Stop for a moment.”
At the Governor’s order, the car that had just begun to move came to a halt.
Vivian, who had been desperately hoping they would simply pass by, squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again.
She could no longer pretend not to see.
The soldier who had once again seized the woman by the hair beat her all over with his baton, then approached them as if nothing were amiss.
“Hngh….”
“Hoo. Sorry for the dist—ah. Your Excellency, the Governor. Salute!”
Seeing the Governor through the half-lowered window on the opposite side, the soldier snapped to attention. He paid the woman no heed at all.
The Governor merely nodded in acknowledgment. The soldier’s hand, which had risen sharply, fell just as sharply.
“What’s going on?”
“This woman was badmouthing the great Trahaput Empire, so I was giving her a little lesson.”
Should she be grateful that the beating had stopped, even briefly?
“Is she someone you know?”
The Governor abruptly asked Vivian. Her gaze met the woman sprawled on the ground.
She was the mother of Sara, the sharp-eared child Vivian had met in the square. At the Governor’s question, the woman weakly murmured Vivian’s name.
“Ro… Rozia….”
The soldier tore the sobbing woman away from the car window as she clung to it.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going!”
Soldiers who had dismounted from the carriages following behind skillfully cleared the area. Amid the other carriages and automobiles hurrying on their way, only the car carrying Vivian and the Governor was left standing alone.
Vivian could not easily answer whether she knew her, and judging from the wavering in her eyes, the woman seemed to sense that Vivian was in a difficult position. The woman lowered her head slightly.
It would be right to let her go like this.
Forcing her stiff lips to move, Vivian spoke.
“No.”
With that single word, everything was over.
The car carrying Vivian and the Governor pulled away, leaving behind the brutal soldier and the woman on the street.
She found the sound of the car moving oddly pleasant. It would have been perfect for sinking into idle thoughts while watching the world flow by outside the window.
She would have to retract that thought.
With a mysterious man wearing the Governor’s mask sitting beside her, what room was there for sentimentality?
This was the kind of world she lived in, yet she had been foolish enough to forget.
“Are you sure she’s really someone you don’t know?”
It was when the woman and the soldiers lying in the road had grown faint in the distance. The Governor asked while straightening his clothes.
Vivian fidgeted with the fur hat in her hands, then smiled brightly.
“I recognize her, but not closely enough to risk my life for her.”
She steadied her voice, though the trembling did not completely subside. She continued regardless.
A little trembling would make her look timid and weak, yet kind-hearted enough to be unable to sever ties completely—an image more fitting for Rozia. It was easier to think of this as a chance to correct the impression that had already gone awry since the day she had infiltrated the Governor’s office.
The woman was simply unlucky.
Vivian repeated that to herself. She had just been unlucky.
It wasn’t entirely a lie. There were countless people, young and old alike, who had ended their lives simply by being unlucky enough to catch their eye.
“My life is precious to me.”
“Is that so?”
A flicker of interest passed through the Governor’s eyes before they quickly returned to normal. Still, an ominous premonition washed over her. Vivian stiffened and waited for his next words.
“Then that woman is truly unfortunate.”
“Yes…”
Unfortunate. That was not a word the Governor would normally use for a citizen of Roztea.
Wasn’t “unfortunate” something said when tinged with pity?
Judging from his demeanor during the Governor’s Office morning meeting she had witnessed by chance—
“If she were someone you cherished, I was thinking I might pull her out.”
Right. She had expected this kind of mocking remark.
The Governor smiled lightly, yet he somehow looked colder than usual.
As Vivian clenched her fist and searched for a reply, the car came to a stop. They were in front of the Eterna Tower. Though the door had been opened for him, the Governor lingered until the driver waiting ahead had moved far enough away, then finally uncrossed his legs and got out.
“You don’t need to look so serious.”
“……”
“You said your life is precious, so I have no intention of asking questions that might threaten that precious life of yours.”
A cruel tease of false hope.
Letting out a dry chuckle, the Governor stepped out of the car first.
Vivian tried to relax the tension drawn tight around her eyes, but it didn’t work. The feeling of having been completely toyed with was unpleasant.
She put on the fur hat she had been gripping so tightly and tied the strings firmly. She would have to either throw this hat away or learn how to tie it properly.
There was no longer anyone who would retie the loosened strings for her.
“Newspapers! One silver coin!”
“Beautiful cyclamen bouquets! Twelve silver coins! Buy one!”
As always, the area around the Eterna Tower was crowded.
A young man selling newspapers, a flower shop clerk selling beautifully bloomed winter bouquets. The long line in front of the famous bakery, and the children gathered before the toy store—all just like any other day.
The only difference was the sudden appearance of His Excellency the Governor, and Vivian standing at his side.
“Hello!”
A child boldly greeted him. Even without any prior notice, this many people had already gathered.
At first it hadn’t been like this, but once someone recognized the Governor from the inauguration speech, people came pouring out.
If it had been the former Governor, everyone would have scrambled to hide. The fact that people were gathering like this was proof that more and more people now viewed him favorably.
“Cool mister!”
The child, apparently unaware that he was the Governor, caught his attention with the audacious address and then bowed again.
Vivian turned pale and quickly pulled the child back.
“I’m sorry—Your Excellency. I’m so sorry.”
From what she had seen of his public conduct, he was certainly more friendly toward the kingdom’s people than his predecessors. But no matter how friendly he was, merely blocking his path was enough to be dragged away—let alone adding something on top of that.
She didn’t want to see another person sobbing after being treated as less than a dog. Especially not a child.
“Your Excellency….”
As the Governor stepped toward the child while signaling to those hidden at a distance to act as his guards, Vivian unconsciously reached out, about to grab the hem of his coat.
“Hello.”
What followed was beyond anything Vivian had expected. He gently ruffled the child’s hair.
As Vivian stood frozen, doubting her own eyes, the Governor passed the child and casually looked back.
“Aren’t you going to guide me?”
Vivian hurried after him belatedly. The gathered crowd watched them, murmuring among themselves.
And thus, another tale of the Governor, Feron Edwin, was added.
Not only had he spared the intruder who had snuck into his office, but after being addressed by a title he would never hear again in his life, he had spared that child as well.
Two people who might well have been killed—yet he killed neither.
It might seem trivial, but to the kingdom’s people who had lived under a Governor who killed as easily as breathing, always with some justification, it meant more than anything.
The hope that their lives might change under the rule of a benevolent Governor.
If he truly lifted the many restrictions that applied only to the kingdom’s people and resolved unjust situations—
Then what should I do?
Should she be happy?
If so, Roztea would disappear forever into the shadows, along with the Lotte Society that cried out for liberation.
Or should she be sad?
Watching even a small portion of her people’s suffering eased because of her own incompetence, her own lack of ability?
Vivian fixed her gaze on the Governor’s dark hair as he walked ahead.
He was an unknowable man. His true nature, the reason hidden beneath the name Feron Edwin, his purpose—everything.
The only thing Vivian knew for certain was his face, beautiful enough to be unforgettable once seen.
