[You and I are bound by a covenant. If something’s wrong with you, I’ll be the first to know.]
Brushing away his impudent front paw, I also sat up from my lying position.
“So you’re saying Joo Seolhyeon was the first to step forward saying he’d go too?”
[That’s right.]
Even with Serubi’s firm voice, I absolutely couldn’t imagine it.
‘Why on earth? He lived with me for 5 years and never cared about my well-being.’
I couldn’t even guess what scheme Joo Seolhyeon had in mind to act that way. I pondered seriously like someone solving the world’s most difficult problem, but even being generous a hundred times over, I couldn’t reach the conclusion that he was worried about me.
[I’m also curious about something.]
I’d been frowning with a serious expression for a while when I looked down at the sound of Serubi tapping the bed with his front paw again. I didn’t know what he was curious about, but Serubi’s golden eyes were sparkling brightly, and his tail was swishing.
“Why are you making such a cute expression?”
I asked while tickling under Serubi’s chin with my hand, and Serubi purred contentedly with his eyes narrowed to slits.
[Are you female?]
“What?”
For a moment I thought I’d misheard and asked again, but the question that came back was the same. Hearing it the second time, I pulled on Serubi’s whiskers for spouting such nonsense.
“What about me looks that way? You even bathed with me last time.”
Serubi hated bathing, so when I said let’s wash, he absolutely wouldn’t listen. Thanks to that, there were days when we both bathed together after I got soaked trying to wash Serubi.
[It hurts, let go.]
Wrinkling his nose bridge, Serubi threw kitty punches at me. When I quickly dodged the soft paws and released his whiskers, the guy rubbed his cheeks with his front paws like a cat washing its face.
[If you’re not female, then are they female?]
“Serubi, why the sudden fixation on females? Are you in heat?”
I remembered Do Wonjin asking recently if we shouldn’t remove this guy’s peanuts. Serubi didn’t know how terrifying those words were and was happily playing with Yang Garam, and I didn’t think deeply about it knowing Serubi wasn’t really a cat. But now that Serubi was suddenly looking for females, I began to seriously worry.
[Then why are they courting you? I know human males can’t bear young.]
I, who had been worrying about Serubi’s peanut problem, was shocked by the voice ringing in my ears.
“Who’s doing what to whom?”
[I’m asking why my subordinates are courting you.]
The subordinates Serubi mentioned were my Guides.
‘There he goes again.’
Serubi claiming them as his subordinates happened four days after returning from Quardo Island. The guy was puffed up saying everyone bowed down and offered him food when they saw him, then one day when he was in a particularly good mood, he magnanimously declared he’d take my Guides as his subordinates. Naturally I tried to correct Serubi’s misunderstanding, but Serubi, who had already finished establishing hierarchy in his head, wouldn’t listen at all.
“What on earth made you think that?”
In my head I thought ‘if I indulge this it’ll become a habit,’ but Serubi’s idea was so absurd I couldn’t not ask.
[They brought offerings of food, came looking every night, and sang songs.]
It was a fairly plausible reason.
‘The one bringing food offerings is Jeong Seyeon, the ones coming every night are Do Wonjin and Yang Garam. But who’s the singing one?’
“I’ve never heard any songs since coming here. Who sang for me?”
[I can tell you’re playing dumb.]
Only Joo Seolhyeon remained, but I asked while naturally excluding him, and Serubi caught on like a ghost.
‘Joo Seolhyeon sang?’
Thinking of him singing for me made me snort involuntarily. Joo Seolhyeon was famous for being an S-rank Guide, but he was even more famous for his dazzling appearance that you couldn’t forget once you saw it. Just looking at his appearance he might seem like the century’s romanticist, but the him I knew was absolutely not someone who’d sing for anyone. You’d find a steamed bun without filling faster than you’d find romance in Joo Seolhyeon.
[Juju is very shy.]
It bothered me how he kept calling them subordinate 1, subordinate 2, so when I told Serubi the Guides’ names, he started calling Do Wonjin Dodo, Yang Garam Yangyang, Jeong Seyeon Jeongjong, and Joo Seolhyeon Juju. At first I thought ‘Dodo? Juju?’ wondering what he was saying, but he was just repeating their surnames twice. Hearing the name Juju that still didn’t feel familiar even on second hearing, I shook my head.
“Joo Seolhyeon being shy—that’s such nonsense I don’t even know how to respond. Serubi, you didn’t dream it, did you?”
[It’s real!]
When I didn’t believe him, Serubi seemed aggrieved and suddenly stood up. Then he immediately jumped down from the bed and ran toward the piano.
[He sang with this!]
Looking at the grand piano covered with cloth, I blinked. There was no way a magic beast would know an instrument called a piano. I’d never played piano in front of Serubi.
Then did Joo Seolhyeon really come into my room and play it?
“When did he come and go?”
For nearly a week I hadn’t left the house. So in this house where our paths almost overlapped, he couldn’t have played piano without me knowing.
Did he come in while I was sleeping and play piano?
When I’m not having nightmares I am a heavy sleeper, but I couldn’t have missed it if he played piano right next to me.
No matter how I thought about it, there didn’t seem to be any opportunity for that, so when I sent a suspicious look, Serubi used the piano bench as a stepping stone to climb onto the piano.
[It was yesterday. The night you didn’t come back.]
Walking daintily across the piano, Serubi settled in one spot and sat down.
[I was sitting in this spot.]
As if reenacting the scene of the incident, Serubi elaborated.
[Juju sat on this chair and slowly pressed the white and black keys. The moment his fingers moved, even without opening his mouth, singing could be heard. It was the most beautiful song I’d ever heard in my life.]
Listening to what Serubi was saying, he was expressing playing the piano as singing. Strictly speaking, Joo Seolhyeon never sang—he literally just played piano and left.
[Usually Juju is prickly toward you, but actually Juju had feelings too.]
The more Serubi spoke, the colder my head became. Looking at it objectively, Serubi was just misunderstanding Joo Seolhyeon’s actions on his own and exaggerating them to me.
“…Okay, let’s say that’s true. But saying that song was courting me seems like a stretch, Serubi.”
[It was a song sung in your room, so it was directed at you.]
“No, he probably just wanted to try playing since there’s a piano.”
For Serubi who wasn’t convinced at all, I asked at his level.
“Serubi, was the Joo Seolhyeon you saw strong enough to carry this alone?”
Serubi surveyed the grand piano he was sitting on with his eyes, then shook his head.
[No.]
“Right. He can’t move it. So he had no choice but to play the piano here.”
Serubi’s eyes widened at my rebuttal, then immediately showed a confused face again.
[But Juju definitely entered your room first.]
I shrugged. Serubi seemed to want to find the cause in me, but I could clearly see the reason.
“He came in because you were here. And conveniently I wasn’t there to be awkward with.”
[……]
“As you said, he’s subordinate 1. He acts like he’d give you his liver and gall bladder. What other reason would there be?”
Seeing Serubi struck dumb by my few words, I sighed involuntarily. I should have just ignored him when he started with the female talk, but now I’d only learned one more uncomfortable fact.
“He didn’t touch anything besides the piano, right?”
[No.]
Serubi made an expression like he had more to say, then shook his head in a listless voice. Limply descending from the piano, Serubi climbed back onto the bed, and I stroked the dejected Serubi’s head.
“Whether Joo Seolhyeon sang for me or not doesn’t matter to me, so cheer up. And the others aren’t courting me either. You’d find it hard to understand, but they’re just being considerate of me.”
I was about to tell Serubi not to misunderstand like that again as he closed his eyes and offered his head to my stroking, when the phone I’d placed on the bedside table rang. I’d plugged in the charger before washing and completely forgotten about it.
[Who is it?]
Serubi showed curiosity.
“The Center Director.”
I placed my index finger over my lips making a gesture to be quiet, and Serubi turned his head with a deflated expression. Serubi particularly disliked the Center Director. I didn’t know why, but when we were on Quardo Island, the only one Serubi bared his teeth at was the Center Director.
“Yes, Center Director.”
I was about to ask what he was calling about when I remembered his name had been in the missed call list I’d seen earlier.
—You must be very busy.
Sure enough, the Center Director’s voice, lower than usual, came through the phone.
“I apologize.”
—What do you have to apologize for? I’m the one being inconsiderate.
He was exceptionally talented at making people embarrassed. I pressed my crumpled brow with an expression like chewing an unripe persimmon.
“I apologize. I lost my phone and just found it, so I was late checking messages.”
—Well, I wasn’t saying that to get an apology. Just be careful next time.
It was a generous voice, but his mood didn’t seem to have improved from my words.
—Have you had lunch?
“Not yet.”
—Then let’s have a meal. There’s also a matter we need to tie up.
From his latter words, I realized the meal was just a surface reason.
‘So that was his business.’
When I proposed handing over the artifact from the S-rank dungeon on Quardo Island, the Center Director had demanded compensation from me. Since the Center Director didn’t like the compensation I offered, this time he’d bring what he wanted from me.
It wasn’t a topic to discuss over a meal, so the Center Director’s proposal felt uncomfortable.
‘I should have said I already ate.’
Regret washed over me, but I only had one answer.
“Understood.”
The Center Director, as if he’d never even considered I’d refuse, said the time and place as if he’d been waiting, then hung up, and I sighed and got out of bed.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
