He couldn’t tell Edward. Even if he tried, Edward wouldn’t understand. Satin forced a smile and deflected.
“To be honest, I haven’t thought of a wish yet.”
“You don’t have to make a wish. Even just asking to stay healthy from now on is good enough, don’t you think?”
“Maybe so.”
Once he finished his visit, Edward didn’t linger and rose from his seat. Since he was staying at the Grand Temple, he would undoubtedly have much more to do tomorrow morning than Satin.
“Then I’ll be heading out now. Please tell Cain I’ll see him tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I will.”
Edward said there was no need to escort him out, but Satin, being a man of manners, insisted on seeing him to the entrance. The attendants of the guesthouse, even more attuned to etiquette than Satin, followed the two from a polite distance without getting too close.
As they passed through the corridor and neared the entrance hall, Edward suddenly spoke as if something had just occurred to him.
“I noticed on the way in—security around the guesthouse isn’t particularly tight. You should probably ask them to increase it, just to be safe.”
“Security?”
“Yes. When there are important guests, it’s natural that people become curious.”
Satin frowned slightly, not replying, and Edward, perhaps thinking he’d frightened him, quickly added,
“I don’t mean with any ill intent. I’ve heard of zealous followers who sneak into the temple just to catch a glimpse of the High Priest. It might be wise for you to be cautious, too.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“You can’t live like before anymore. At least not while you’re in the capital. Everyone knows who you are now, and they worship you. It’ll be a bit uncomfortable.”
“What about you?”
When Satin asked, Edward shrugged.
“I’m mostly inside the temple, so I don’t really come across regular citizens. But you and Cain should be careful. Being loved by everyone doesn’t always come with pleasant consequences.”
“Cain is someone who deserves to be loved by all. I’ve always thought he earned it.”
“Haha, you might be the only one who thinks that, Satin. Anyway, don’t forget to talk to the captain of the guard.”
Satin didn’t answer, only smiled.
***
When they first arrived at the guesthouse and were assigned bedrooms, Cain had clearly been displeased. He didn’t seem to like the idea of staying in a different room from Satin. Satin had pretended not to notice.
‘I didn’t plan on this back then.’
He just didn’t want to show Cain’s separation anxiety in front of strangers. People probably thought the Hero and his companions were bound by deep, unbreakable friendship, and he felt bad shattering that illusion.
In any case, it was for the best. If he had gone along with Cain’s stubbornness and shared a room, he wouldn’t be able to pull off this little midnight escape.
Satin’s room was on the third floor, so jumping out the window was out of the question. Not that he would’ve done it even if it were the second floor.
Humans are tool-using creatures, after all. Satin took inspiration from the movies, novels, and comics he’d seen and fashioned himself a tool.
The rope he made from the bed sheets and curtains was fairly sturdy. Satin had never done a rappel descent before, but by hooking his foot through the knotted part, he figured he could manage a fairly stable descent. As long as he wasn’t hopelessly uncoordinated, he should be fine.
That thought made him pause.
‘Was I ever good at P.E.?’
He tried to recall his middle school gym classes, but it was all a hazy blur. Truth be told, not much from those days was clear anymore. Still, he didn’t remember anyone ever calling him particularly clumsy.
Satin tied one end of the rope to the bed frame and opened the window as quietly as possible. Before lowering the rope, he scouted the path he’d take.
The road from the guesthouse entrance to the main gate was a straight shot. Since carriages came and went, it was quite wide, and the streetlights were spaced closely together. Naturally, it was very well lit.
But the brighter the light, the deeper the shadows.
‘Looks like I can go through the garden.’
Compared to the road, the garden was much darker. It may have looked even darker because of the glare from the road. There didn’t seem to be any lamps in the garden—no patrolling guards, either.
‘They wouldn’t be patrolling a place like that without any lanterns, right?’
If that were the case, slipping between the hedges and the shadows all the way to the outer wall shouldn’t be too difficult.
Satin carefully lowered the rope out the window. But the moment he dramatically looked down, he panicked.
‘Wait—it’s… too short?’
He’d thought it would be more than enough, but the rope turned out to be just a little too short. It barely reached the line between the second and first floors. The floors were taller than he’d expected.
After hesitating a moment, Satin gave a firm nod.
‘That’s low enough to jump from.’
If he climbed down and dropped from the end of the rope, it should be fine.
Before descending, Satin ran a final check.
He had changed out of the clothes provided by the guesthouse and back into what he’d originally worn. He also packed his few belongings—not that there was much, just a handful of knickknacks and a bit of money. Since he hadn’t had any need to spend during the journey to the capital, it was all still there.
‘Alright. Let’s go.’
He took a deep breath and grabbed the rope. And instantly regretted it.
‘…This is way harder than I thought.’
The makeshift rope, tied together haphazardly, didn’t offer much to grip aside from the knots. He had to grip tightly, putting immense strain on his hands. Unable to distribute his weight efficiently, he was left relying almost entirely on his grip strength, which was far more exhausting than expected.
But it was too late to go back. There was no turning around now. Just hanging on was hard enough; climbing back up was out of the question.
‘I’m screwed.’
Satin slid down the rope more than he climbed, reaching the end clumsily. Dangling from the last knot, he dropped to the ground in an ungraceful landing. He barely avoided landing on his butt, but a dull ache shot through his ankle. The gap between expectation and reality hit him hard.
Still, at least he wasn’t hurt. He quickly darted into the shadows of the garden bushes.
It was a silent night, the only sounds being the soft chirping of insects. While Satin had no talent for falling, he was good at walking silently.
‘Take care, Cain. I’m sure your separation anxiety will get better someday.’
That was Cain’s only flaw. Though he hadn’t become the Hero, he was the Hero’s companion—everyone he met would admire and respect him. If, instead of praying for Satin’s memories to return, Cain wished for something more useful to his life, he could truly be happy.
Satin glanced one last time at the window of Cain’s room, then moved quickly.
He never intended to leave through the main gate. Instead, he circled along the outer wall. Before long, he found a small door.
‘Just like I thought.’
This building had originally been a royal villa. Judging from its size alone, it wasn’t uncommon for places like this to have separate entrances for staff and guests, especially in such a strictly stratified society—even if the hierarchy wasn’t overtly obvious. It was unlikely that royalty and servants would use the same doors.
Satin had figured there would be multiple doors for different purposes, and he’d been right. He flexed his sore hands, raw from the rope, and let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh.
‘At least one thing went as planned.’
Just as Edward had said, the guesthouse’s security wasn’t particularly tight. The two guards stationed at the small gate looked bored, fidgeting as they chatted with each other. Every so often, they wandered away from the door.
Marching right past them and opening the gate wasn’t an option. If they asked where he was going, what would he say? There wasn’t even a convenience store nearby to make up a believable excuse.
‘How do I distract them…?’
If he’d had more time, he could’ve come up with a better plan. But this was a spur-of-the-moment escape, so everything was rough and half-baked.
Luckily, Satin didn’t have to wait long. The guards vacated their post on their own—because of an intruder trying to scale the wall not far off.
“INTRUDER!”
Startled by the shout, the trespasser tumbled down outside the wall. The guards hastily opened the door and ran out.
Before anyone else could arrive, Satin slipped out through the gate. Running in the opposite direction of the guards, he thought to himself:
‘Talk about lucky.’
***
‘Well, not that lucky…’
As he ran, his left ankle began to throb. The impact from the fall earlier was catching up to him now. It wasn’t bad enough to stop him from walking, but every step sent a sting up his leg.
Satin glanced around and slowed his pace. The area was lined with mansions of various sizes—no shops in sight. Not a single person around, likely due to the late hour.
With no one watching, there was no need to push himself. Not that he planned to dawdle, either.
‘I need to get out before morning.’
Once the sun came up and they discovered he was gone, someone would inevitably try to find him. They might even think he’d been kidnapped. Since no one knew why Satin was running away, the kidnapping theory might sound more convincing.
A sudden worry struck him. What if the kind staff at the guesthouse got blamed for this?
‘Maybe I should’ve left a letter…’
Regret flickered for a moment, but Satin shook his head. He couldn’t have written the real reason in a letter anyway. No matter how he tried to spin it, if someone accused it of being fabricated, he’d have no way to prove otherwise.
‘I really am an irresponsible bastard.’
He berated himself, but tried to justify it. Better to vanish now than be exposed as a fake at the Grand Temple in daylight. People might be shocked, but at least they wouldn’t feel betrayed. Especially Cain.
Despite the gloom, he felt strangely light. When there’s no destination, there’s no risk of getting lost. Just like when he first woke up in this world, he planned to live day by day, doing whatever came to mind.
Not Cloverland. Not the village where he’d lived with his grandfather. Somewhere entirely new. A fresh start in an unfamiliar place. The story was over now. This was no longer the world of Dark Age, but simply… the world. There was nothing he couldn’t do.
‘I’ll figure it out somehow.’
