Chapter 7
“Just as Jerry said, you really are prickly!”
“……Edward la Shore?”
Edward la Shore was not exactly welcome, but if it was not Edward la Shore, that would be a problem. Every time he heard the pet name “Rapi,” he got goosebumps down his back, and the thought that there was someone else besides a member of the Shore family who called him that…
“That’s right, I’m your older brother! You recognized me right away, just as blood should! Well, we’re blood relations, after all!” Edward hugged Rafael tight. Held obediently in his arms, Rafael blinked. It was true that the power of blood had let him recognize Edward. Only, he had not recognized his own blood relation, but Gerald’s.
“You were told to come in the daytime, so why did you come so late?”
“Well.”
“Come on, let’s go eat. Mother is looking forward to it so much. But where on earth did you come from? Ah, right! They say you’re a famous contract killer? So that’s why you appear and disappear like a ghost. You’ve grown up so well, my boy.”
As Edward tried to rub his cheek against Rafael’s, he dragged Rafael along one-sidedly. He mounted his horse, seating Rafael in front of him as if carrying a woman, and rode off. He seemed to pay Rafael’s wishes no mind at all. Riding a horse held in someone’s arms for the first time in his life, Rafael furrowed his brow. The Shore family seemed to be made up entirely of people who were a bit much for him to handle. He was behaving himself because he needed to meet Gerald to get the letter of introduction, but weariness was already washing over him.
The moment they arrived at the luxurious mansion with its blue roof and white marble walls, male and female servants lined up on both sides. Every one of them stared at Rafael with wide eyes.
“Martha, Martha!”
Edward shouted as he got down. Then he turned and held out his hand to Rafael. Brushing past the hand offered as if escorting a woman, Rafael leapt down. It was a light movement, like a cat jumping down.
“Martha!”
“Yes, young master! What is it?”
A maid named Martha came running out. Edward la Shore waited gleefully, like a boy hiding a secret, and the moment she arrived, he pointed at Rafael. Martha covered her mouth with both hands and sank to the ground.
“Young Master Rapi…”
To Rafael, for whom welcome and emotion were other people’s business, it was only tiring, but the other woman was shedding tears as if she were seeing a son return alive from war. Rafael was used to curses full of hatred, but this was the first time he had seen people welcome him like this, and his chest tingled. A feeling that seemed both good and bad clogged his chest, leaving him stifled.
The welcome continued. By the time he had met the Duchess and the Duke, Rafael stood expressionless, like a stone, but he was utterly exhausted.
He had thought nobles were elegant, calm beings full of dignity, but they were excitable, did not listen to others, and did as they pleased. No one listened to Rafael when he said he only wanted a letter of introduction.
Let’s eat, let’s have tea, how have you been living all this time. They were all so natural about it that a taciturn man like Rafael found it impossible to overturn their mood and rise up in indignation.
When the painful, uncomfortable meal was over and Rafael finally stated his business, the Duchess took out a soft, fine handkerchief, dabbed away her tears, and exclaimed in admiration.
“What a kind heart…”
A contract killer with a kind heart.
Rafael, at a loss for words, quietly picked up a cookie and ate it. It was sweeter than any cookie he had ever eaten, melting on his tongue the moment it touched it. Thinking that having tasted this delicious cookie made coming to this house worthwhile, he stood up.
“As I said, I need a letter of introduction. And a place to bury Marie!” Wanting to escape the uncomfortable seat, Rafael urged Gerald with his eyes, but the one who stood up was Duke Brighton la Shore. The Duke himself stood and said grandly, “A letter of introduction! Why would you need a letter of introduction! I’ll take you by carriage,” and the Duchess also stood and cried, “Of course! You’re our family’s child, so of course you should ride in a carriage bearing our crest. Why go like a stranger, taking a letter of introduction?” When they threw him away, that was that, and now here they were calling him their family’s child and offering to take him by carriage.
At the Duke and Duchess’s words, Edward la Shore said solemnly, “I would like to do the same for Rapi, Father, Mother. But I don’t think it will be possible to bring Marie in our family’s carriage.” He sounded so solemn as he said it, for reasons Rafael could not understand, but Rafael simply kept his mouth shut and nodded. In truth, any carriage would have worked, but Rafael did not want to ride in the Shore family’s carriage to fetch Marie.
“Then I’ll go with you.”
Gerald spoke. Though his face was cold, he smiled faintly at Rafael, who sat as docile as a doll instead of overturning the table. He had wondered what kind of madman a contract killer might be, but his younger brother was cute and pitiful. Gerald, who had no idea that it looked that way only to his eyes, readily offered himself, and Rafael shook his head.
“Just the letter of introduction, please.”
Rafael spoke politely. At the coldness in his words, Gerald smiled instead of feeling discouraged. If he himself had been abandoned like Rafael, he probably would not have thought of burying a dead younger sister at all. If his older brother came looking for him, he might have shouted at him not to concern himself and shot at him. But Rafael was different. Just as Marie had been, Rafael, who must have shared the same nature from the same womb, was surely a kind and gentle person as well. That was why he was sitting there quietly instead of refusing. So good, so lovely.
Gerald’s thinking was a little different from the truth. Rafael was not a passionate person like Gerald, and since being the abandoned child of nobles, though strictly speaking he could not exactly be called an illegitimate child, but in any case, for convenience, an abandoned child, was nothing special, Rafael had never been compared to anyone or suffered harm because of it. So he held no particular resentment. In truth, Rafael could not imagine that he would have lived a different life if he had not been abandoned. For Rafael, life had always been decided. Even in his earliest memories, he was already being trained as an assassin. He had to kill people, and when he reached a certain age, they set him free. He himself could not decide anything, and even now that he could decide, he wanted nothing in particular, so he was simply carrying the past into the present. So he could not burst out in anger at his parents or siblings.
Rather, he was bewildered. In his world there were only three kinds of people: people connected to a job, people who commissioned a job, and people to be dealt with as part of a job. There was no further classification for him. Then one day, a person appeared who had nothing at all to do with a job. That was Marie Trijia. She told Rafael that she was his other self. He did not know whether she really was his other self, as she said, but he did feel something clearly special, different from other people. A beautiful girl with pale, frozen bare feet, a red robe, and a face full of worry. A precious and beautiful woman who asked him to save her, not to kill someone, and who made him wonder whether she even knew what he did for a living.
He refused at the time. He had no intention of saving anyone. He had neither the will nor the qualification to do so. So he lifted her into his arms, put her in a carriage, and sent her back. The result was her death.
No, her death probably had nothing to do with him. It was a story from seven years ago. He had met her only once, and had not met her since, and for a while he lived having forgotten her. But when he heard that she had died and been left neglected, the day he met her came back to him as if it were yesterday. A summer night with insects crying, tall fir trees reaching into the sky, and her weeping, begging him to save her. Even if her death was not his responsibility, he wanted to save her now, even so. He wanted to return a peaceful death to the neglected corpse.
“Don’t you want to go with me?”
At Gerald’s words, Rafael nodded. It was clear Gerald would not like it if he nodded, but in truth he did not want to go with him. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say he had no intention of going with him.
“Why? I’m the Captain of the Royal Guard. If you go with me, you’ll get there fastest.” When Rafael did not answer, Gerald emphasized it. But Rafael shook his head. He had no intention of spending even a moment close to the Captain of the Royal Guard. His work was contract killing, and he did not want to spend long with soldiers or police. Brother or parent, to Rafael the other man was only the Captain of the Royal Guard. Duke Shore was the Foreign Minister, the Duchess was the queen of society, and Edward la Shore, the young duke, was a secretary at the Treasury. They were splendid people shining brightly from lofty positions, and they did not suit him. Even if they had abandoned him, even if their side had originally been his place, fate had changed anyway, and he already stood on the exact opposite side from them.
Honestly, Rafael just wanted to bury Marie quickly and shake off this incomprehensible feeling as soon as possible.
“Just as I heard.”
When Edward sighed, the Duchess put her hand to her cheek and let out a soft sigh.
“You’re really prickly, Rapi.”
“Yes. Isn’t a boy a bit too shy?” The Duke added his own remark, and Rafael shook his head as he watched. Just as he was about to say, that’s not it, Gerald tried to grab Rafael’s wrist. In that instant, Rafael stepped back instinctively and struck Gerald’s arm away.
A cold silence hung over the reception room. Rafael felt the pressure that it was his turn to speak, but as always he had nothing to say, and in the end he did not open his mouth. He saw Gerald and Edward exchange glances, and saw the Duke and Duchess smile faintly, but still he could say nothing.
“A letter of introduction.”
It was not Gerald but Edward who held out the letter of introduction. The moment Edward held out the paper, the other three cried, “Edward!” but he did not so much as blink. He said with a smile.
“Just grant me one favor in return.”
Rafael’s unfathomable black eyes turned toward Edward. His walk as he came to take the letter of introduction Edward held out was disciplined. Gerald, who stood beside Edward, swallowed a bitter smile as he watched Rafael’s walk. His younger brother looked young and prickly and weak, but every movement was leisurely and yet disciplined and supple, like a savage animal.
“I don’t know how you got in today, but from now on, make sure you come in through the main gate. Proudly.”
Rafael did not answer, but Edward handed him the letter of introduction. As he did, Edward’s gaze fell on the blanket Rafael had been dragging around. A red waterproof blanket. The blanket mostly used to wrap corpses hung from his younger brother’s arm. Edward gave a light smile to his younger brother, who had bought that blanket, which cost several times more than other blankets for no reason other than its red color. Following Edward’s gaze, Gerald looked at Rafael’s blanket and twisted his face.
“Rapi.”
Rafael’s ice-cold face looked at Gerald.
The muscular man was twisting his face as if he were laughing and crying at once. Rafael blinked slowly. How long had it been since something like this had happened, apart from a job. Apart from a job, it had been seven years since an “incident” had occurred in Rafael’s life. The one who had caused the incident seven years ago was a little girl, and if she were alive, of course she would have been here as well. No, she might have been at the palace and not here, but in any case, she would have been at the center of this affair too.
“Let’s go together tomorrow, after all. If meeting your older brother again after so long feels awkward, think of it as a date. And that letter of introduction, I wrote it, you know. So…”
Gerald spoke as if pleading. Rafael turned his back without listening to any more of Gerald’s pleading. He had received the letter of introduction, so he judged there was no need to stay any longer. To his back, turning without a single word of greeting, the four members of the Shore family waved their hands.
“Prickly Rapi, see you again! Next time, come in through the main gate, the main gate!”
“Boy! Rapi, be a little bolder!”
“Rapi, you can drop by your father’s office tomorrow too. You know where it is, don’t you?”
“Rapi, see you tomorrow. I’ll come find you!” Rapi, Rapi.
A name he had only begun hearing yesterday poured over him in an instant. Rafael left the mansion at a quick pace.
He had the letter of introduction. Now he just had to go to the palace, bring Marie back, bury her, and return to his everyday life. This is not like me.
Walking from the mansion’s inner garden to its outer garden, Rafael thought. This was not like him. He liked living as himself in a small house in the suburbs. Collecting the swords he loved, living as if dead, and yet…
Rapi.
The name was not his, and yet it had become familiar in an instant. Rafael was bewildered. The feather pen caught in his coat pocket poked at his palm. It somehow seemed a little painful. That could not be. Rafael knew himself well. Even when he suffered terrible torture, he took far less damage than others. His sense of pain was a little duller than other people’s, and even if it were not, he was used to physical pain. So there was no reason for it to hurt just because a mere pen was poking his palm, and yet it seemed to hurt somewhere, so Rafael stopped walking, then walked a little faster. By the time Rafael realized he was running, as if fleeing the mansion without knowing it himself, he had already reached the outer iron gate.
[…] And so, I say to you.
I hope that you will meet me once before you make that terrible decision. If you will not meet me, I shall use the victor’s right. And if I still cannot meet you then, your precious person shall be torn to pieces.
You do not know what I want from you. I have no thought of conveying my heart to you either. Whatever my heart may be, you will do as you wish. I know that.
Just, only once.
For the last time, meet me.
Do not think of this as a request. This is a generous command.
* From “The Letter Said to Have Been Sent by Portamis to Ignazio I”
* Regarded as the origin of “the Generous Command.”
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