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Chapter 34
“Why would I eat organs when there’s perfectly good meat? Those are the parts people throw away!”
Bellakshina whipped her head aside and refused firmly.
“Come on, just try one bite.”
“No. The smell is disgusting.”
“That’s nonsense. This place is famous for having no gamey smell.”
That part was true. Even to Bellakshina’s sensitive nose, there was no unpleasant odor—only the rich aroma unique to meat stew and the fragrance of herbs.
Her eyes darted around before she spoke again.
“I can’t eat organs for religious reasons.”
“I’m a believer of the Elampsis faith too, and there’s no such doctrine.”
“Then… let’s say I can’t eat them for health reasons.”
“The fact that you said ‘then’ means you’re lying. Eat.”
Abalkin forced the stubbornly resistant Bellakshina back into her chair and ultimately got her to taste a spoonful of the stew.
“Ugh…!”
She opened her mouth with the expression of someone chewing on a bug and swallowed as quickly as possible, but she couldn’t deny that the flavor of the broth sliding over her tongue and down her throat was actually rather good.
“Oh?”
“I told you it wasn’t bad. Have another bite.”
Bellakshina still looked suspicious, but the savory taste she had just experienced clung stubbornly to her mouth, making her crave the next spoonful almost immediately. In a freezing place like this, it wasn’t easy to resist the rich fat and deep flavor unique to organ meat.
“Hmph! I’ll only have one more bite.”
Abalkin nodded as if to say do as you like. It was obviously a promise destined not to be kept.
“You should try a bite of the meat too.”
“Just one bite.”
“And you ought to taste the vegetables as well.”
“Fine. Just one bite.”
“You can’t know the real flavor unless you eat it with bread.”
“You really are annoying, you know that? I’m only having one bite.”
And so Bellakshina, swept along by Abalkin’s endless coaxing, kept taking “just one bite” after another until she had sampled every ingredient evenly. Before she realized it, the bowl was empty.
“Huh?! When did I finish all of this?!”
“Looks like you enjoyed it.”
“I feel like I’ve been tricked.”
Bellakshina stared at the empty bowl with a strange sense of hollowness.
“You ate it happily enough. Feeling full now?”
Her stomach felt warm and comfortably heavy, making it obvious she had eaten plenty, but she didn’t want to admit so easily that she’d consumed that much after insisting she was “just tasting it.”
“I could still eat more, you know.”
“You’re strangely prideful about odd things. If you’re done eating, let’s go.”
Abalkin left a few coins on the table and stood up, and Bellakshina followed after him.
“So now we’re going to buy pretty clothes, right?”
“Who knows. I’m not sure pretty clothes are what you need.”
“Hm. I see what you mean. You’re saying I’d look beautiful no matter what I wear? Well, it is true, but that line was rather unsophisticated.”
“…Have you lost your mind?”
Abalkin stopped walking and stared at her.
At the mixture of bewilderment, disbelief, and faint disillusionment on his face, Bellakshina quietly looked away.
“……”
“……”
Abalkin persistently followed her evasive gaze before clicking his tongue as though deciding to let it slide this once.
“What I meant was that you seem to need warm clothes more than pretty ones.”
Warm clothes.
Considering the cold she had felt before entering the restaurant, it was a practical suggestion.
“Well, even if I wore pretty clothes, there wouldn’t be anywhere worth going in a backwater place like this anyway.”
“Is there a reason you have to phrase your agreement with me in such a nasty way?”
“You’re not exactly sweet-tongued yourself.”
Abalkin let out a dry laugh.
“True. We’ll make a wonderfully harmonious married couple, poisoning each other with every word.”
At that, Bellakshina suddenly fell silent.
A married couple.
It seemed Abalkin was imagining a future like that.
I’m planning to run away, though.
In truth, Bellakshina hadn’t taken Abalkin’s marriage and heir problems too seriously because she had always thought of them as someone else’s business. Yet somehow, the idea of betraying his expectations made her feel slightly uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong?”
Pulled from her thoughts, Bellakshina regained her sense of reality.
“It’s nothing.”
Her voice sounded oddly colder than before.
With his sharp powers of observation, Abalkin immediately sensed something strange about her mood.
“There should be clothes that are both warm and pretty.”
As usual, his deduction was completely wrong.
Bellakshina stared at him with a look of pity for a moment before shaking her head in resignation.
“Fine. Let’s look for them. The prettiest and warmest clothes in Yeshken.”
Contrary to Bellakshina’s vague expectations, Abalkin did not take her to a dress shop.
Instead, he brought her to the weekly marketplace, and when she saw clothes hanging out openly for sale, she experienced profound culture shock.
“They make clothes in advance and sell them?”
For someone who had only ever worn custom-made garments, it was deeply shocking.
Looking utterly unable to comprehend it, Bellakshina asked Abalkin,
“How is this possible? Everyone has different body shapes. How can they make clothes beforehand without knowing what kind of customer will come?”
“Some adjustments can be made with straps, and people often buy something close to their size and alter it afterward.”
“That’s…”
Bellakshina paused to think.
“That actually sounds convenient.”
“An unexpected reaction.”
“To be honest, ordering clothes and waiting for them to be finished is incredibly irritating. Sometimes trends change in just a few days, and sometimes your body changes while the clothes are being made, so they don’t even fit properly.”
Of course, the downside was that she couldn’t expect the extravagant and luxurious outfits she used to wear in Rikresa. But Bellakshina, who was painfully short on money these days, had no intention of spending heavily on luxuries.
“Still, wearing clothes that have been hanging out in the open like this feels a bit unpleasant. Someone’s definitely touched them.”
“Have you forgotten that the dress you’re wearing right now belonged to my mother?”
“That’s different!”
“How is it different?”
When he put it that way, it became difficult to answer.
After all, clothes displayed openly for sale might have been touched by strangers. But a secondhand custom-made dress had definitely been worn by someone else.
If you think about it that way, maybe the ready-made clothes being sold outside are actually better?
Seeing Bellakshina’s confusion, Abalkin decided to offer a more practical perspective.
“If it were me…”
He picked up a fluffy fur hat and handed it to her.
“…I’d choose whichever one was warmer, regardless of whether it was new or secondhand, ready-made or custom-made.”
Bellakshina examined the hat only with her eyes.
“That looks like it used the fur of an entire puppy.”
“That’s why it’s warm.”
“But this looks like the kind of hat a lumberjack would wear.”
After glancing around briefly, she picked up another hat with a more delicate design. It also used plenty of fur, but the color was prettier and the fur had a glossy sheen.
“Looks like you like that one.”
Bellakshina lifted her chin haughtily.
“You think too highly of this place. There’s no way a hat here could truly satisfy my standards. It’s merely the least terrible.”
“Try it on.”
Even though she had responded rudely from the start, Abalkin didn’t seem offended, which made her feel slightly awkward as she put the hat on.
“Pfft!”
Abalkin desperately suppressed his laughter. The hat was far too large, making Bellakshina’s head look twice its normal size while her face was almost buried in fur.
“What?”
“No. Ahem. It… suits you.”
Bellakshina narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
Then she told the stall owner, “Bring me a mirror,” only to receive the reply, “We don’t have one.”
Just as Bellakshina was about to lose her temper, Abalkin paid the vendor.
“I haven’t even decided whether I’m buying it yet!”
“You said yourself it was the best one here. And it’s warm enough. Here, keep the change.”
“Oh, thank you very much, my lord!”
After finishing the transaction, Abalkin walked away from the stall. Bellakshina hesitated in confusion before hurrying after him.
“But I need to see a mirror! I don’t even know what I look like.”
“It’s fine. I already checked for you.”
“I don’t trust your judgment. I’m sure I look ridiculous.”
“You do.”
“I knew it!”
Bellakshina yanked the hat off immediately.
The icy air instantly poured over her head, making it feel as though she had put on a hat made of ice. Watching her eyes drift helplessly, Abalkin thought:
She’s startled because it suddenly feels much colder in comparison.
That was how winter gear worked. You didn’t notice its absence until you experienced having it and then losing it again. Normally someone would simply say, It’s cold. I’ll put it back on. But with her stubborn personality, that was impossible.
“Still, since we already bought it, you should wear it out of courtesy.”
“Hmph. Fine, if I must.”
Bellakshina readily accepted the excuse and quickly put the hat back on. Relief visibly appeared on her face. Then she looked at Abalkin cautiously.
“What are you staring at?”
It was painfully obvious she was worried about being looked down on.
“You’re not honest at all, but you’re easy to understand. I like that.”
Bellakshina flared up immediately.
“What did you say? Easy to understand? Me? Ha! That’s the first time anyone’s ever said something like that. Do you have any idea how cunning and strategic and—”
“Shh.”
Abalkin cut her off and looked toward a certain direction.
Following his gaze, she saw a crowd of people gathered in one of the market alleys, murmuring noisily among themselves.
“What? Is something happening?”
“I think we need to check.”
Then he looked back at Bellakshina and added,
“You should come too.”
