Chapter 79 - The Empire - 3

“All done!”

Mari’s voice brimmed with excitement. At her words, Renée rose from her seat and asked,

“H-how do I look?”

“Oh, do you even need to ask? Our Saintess is a million times prettier than the young ladies in the capital!”

“Really...!”

The corners of Renée’s lips began twitching upward. Mari’s praise filled her with confidence.

Once again, she ran her hands over herself to check her outfit: a wide-brimmed hat, a blouse, and a long skirt reaching below her calves. She had dressed up for her outing with Bera, which was due to begin shortly.

This was, after all, their very first date since she had begun living alongside him.

For such an occasion, she wanted to show him a different side of herself. This outfit was the result of asking Mari to put something together for her.

Feeling her grip tighten around her cane, Renée voiced her gratitude.

“Thank you, Lady Mari. I’ll definitely...!”

Come back having made some progress!

Mari chuckled at the determined look on Renée’s face, so full of that resolve.

“That’s the spirit! And listen, lace your fingers together while you walk! Ask him to feed you when you eat, too!”

“Th-that...!”

Lace their fingers together! Ask him to feed her!

Mari’s words sent Renée’s imagination running wild. Her face grew redder and redder with each scene that came to mind, until—

“Well, I’m off!”

Unable to bear her mounting embarrassment, Renée hurried out of the room with those words.

Mari’s smile deepened as she watched Renée leave. Inwardly, she was addressing Bera, who would be waiting outside.

‘You rascal. You’re in for a rough time.’

Mari was certain. However much of a blockhead Bera might be, today he would not be able to behave as he usually did.

* * *

At the entrance to their lodgings, Bera stood staring ahead with a stiff expression. Sensing someone approach, he turned toward the front door.

It was Renée.

The person he had been waiting for had finally arrived. He straightened and waited for the door to open, only to freeze completely when she stepped outside.

“Have you been waiting long?”

His expression was so blank and foolish that anyone could have seen he was utterly dazed.

His thoughts abruptly cut off as he took in her outfit.

‘Her clothes...’

They were different from usual.

Normally, she wore nothing but dark robes to conceal her identity. Now, she looked radiant enough that it would have been fitting to call her a nobleman’s daughter... No, even that felt like an insult.

A navy-blue, wide-brimmed hat hid half her face. It could easily have looked suspicious, yet all it evoked was an air of mystery. And what of the clothes beneath it? Her white blouse and navy skirt came together to give her a neat, elegant air.

If he had to make a comparison, she was like a morning glory in full bloom.

A flower of the morning, too shy to flaunt itself, yet strangely captivating all the same.

‘... No.’

That description was not enough. Surely there was a better comparison, but nothing came to mind. For a moment, Bera sighed deeply at his own meager powers of expression.

Then Renée’s voice sounded again.

“Bera...?”

Startled, he hurried to answer, his words coming in broken bursts.

“Ah, yes. I apologize.”

“No, it’s all right.”

Renée shook her head, feeling her heart flutter. For some reason, she had become embarrassed, and her head dipped once more.

Was her face red? After considering it, she soon arrived at the answer: it probably was.

After all, her cheeks, ears, and the back of her neck were all so hot. And with her hat on, it could not be the sunlight.

‘C-calm down...!’

Unable to find any semblance of composure, Renée drew a deep breath. Then she held out her hand and parted her lips.

“Um... Shall we go?”

“... Yes.”

Bera took her outstretched hand.

His fingertips twitched. Renée felt them tremble, and that tremor brought another worry to mind.

‘D-do I look strange?’

Mari had praised her to the skies, but who could say? Perhaps this was not to Bera’s taste.

It was a worry born of a first love that had lasted well over three years without fading in the slightest.

Every tiny detail troubled her: the rise and fall of his voice, the warmth of his hand in hers, its tremor, and the way he matched her pace with every step.

Somehow, it wounded her pride to find herself assigning meaning to all of it, yet she could not bring herself to ignore it either. Such was her contradictory state.

With one worry after another weighing on her, Renée spoke.

“Um... Lady Mari picked out my clothes.”

It was a somewhat roundabout way of asking, “How do I look today?” She said it hoping desperately that he would tell her they suited her.

And Bera gave a truly satisfying answer.

“... Yes. You look truly beautiful.”

Her heart thumped hard. It felt as though someone had struck a hammer inside her chest.

Renée pressed her lips tightly together and lowered her head.

Inwardly, she was thinking how fortunate it was that she had worn a wide-brimmed hat. Without it, surely he would have seen the expression on her face.

“I’m glad. I’ll have to be sure to thank Lady Mari later.”

“... Yes.”

Bera gave that brief reply and walked on, staring straight ahead.

Renée’s fear that he might see her expression was needless, at least for the moment. Bera could not bring himself to look at her.

He felt thoroughly frustrated, unable to understand why it was so difficult to face her today when he had seen her only yesterday.

Trying to look at her somehow felt wrong. Trying to steal a glance felt like committing the most heinous crime in the world.

The sound of her voice left his thoughts in disarray. Whenever he tried to put together a reply, he worried that it might come across strangely. He ended up weighing even the most trivial details, leaving him able to offer only short, abrupt answers.

In truth, the reason would have been easy to find: her change of clothes had changed the way he saw her. But Bera did not realize it.

In a way, that was only natural.

The past three years had been too long for a single change of clothes to overturn his perception so abruptly.

Until now, Renée had been a “girl” to Bera.

This was not a matter of their difference in age. He felt as though she had not grown at all since she was that fourteen-year-old girl.

There were likely several reasons he felt that way, but the greatest was probably the ceremonial robes she had worn all that time.

Those loose-fitting vestments covered her entire body, never revealing any feminine contours. Nor did they show how she had grown.

No matter how much taller she became or how defined her curves grew, the robes concealed it all.

Bera, who had always been taller than Renée, had therefore never truly noticed her growth. That had remained true even after they left the Holy Empire.

Since leaving, she had always been swathed in dark robes, preventing him from noticing any attraction to her as a woman beneath them.

Yes, until today, Bera had never looked at Renée in that light at all.

Fortunately, however, that fixed perception ended today.

The magic of clothing was shaking Bera’s understanding at this very moment.

Seeing Renée in everyday clothes for the first time since their first meeting in Remeo, he was finally realizing that she was a woman.

After three long years and several months, Renée was finally becoming a woman, rather than a girl, in Bera’s mind.

* * *

Third Avenue, where the national library stood, was quite a distance from First Avenue, where Mari’s mansion was located.

... In other words, they had that much longer to walk hand in hand.

TAP.

Renée’s cane touched the ground. Then she took another step forward.

The motion had been repeating for tens of minutes now.

The two continued walking with their hands clasped, without exchanging a single word.

Of course, their silence did not mean the atmosphere was awkward. Rather, something subtle and curious hung between them.

Each was acutely aware of the other. The warmth of their skin where they touched, the nearby sound of breathing, the faint tremors passing between them—all of it came together to create a strange pulse.

Bera walked looking only ahead. Renée walked with her head bowed low.

As they walked on, one remark kept replaying in Renée’s mind.

[“Lace your fingers together while you walk! Ask him to feed you when you eat, too!”]

Mari had said it just before she left the mansion.

The part about lacing their fingers together, in particular, had lodged in her mind, leaving all her attention focused on their joined hands.

Of course she wanted to. Why wouldn’t she? It was only a different way of holding hands, but that alone could change its meaning.

Couldn’t it make the gesture an expression of affection, rather than merely a way to help her because she could not see?

Yet it was still difficult for someone as shy as Renée.

Wasn’t she so painfully shy that she had failed to advance their relationship even the tiniest bit in over three years? Shy enough to make anyone sigh?

It would have been wonderful if Bera laced his fingers through hers first... but Renée knew.

That would never happen, not even if she died and came back to life.

The longer she agonized over it, the harder her heart beat. Afraid that they would reach the library and she would lose her chance, she thought it over for a long while before finally steeling herself.

‘I-I’m doing it...!’

She squeezed her eyes shut and moved her hand.

The movement carried both the conviction that nothing would change in her entire life if she remained this shy, and the reckless resignation of “Oh, to hell with it.”

Her hand slipped away slightly, then turned and pressed against his again.

Their palms met. Renée’s fingers slid between Bera’s long ones. Then she squeezed, closing her hand tightly around his.

Bera reacted at once. It was not a mere flinch, but a full, unmistakable jolt.

“Saint—”

“Don’t say anything.”

Renée cut him off before he could speak, then bowed her head even lower and continued.

“... Let’s just walk like this.”

She had no composure left to explain.

If she tried to explain why she had done it, her heart might truly burst.

She wanted to leave it at this gesture, and nothing more.

“... Yes.”

Bera nodded without offering any objection.

His palm was hot. The slender, soft fingers nestled between his own, and the touch of their tips against the back of his hand, made his chest tighten for no apparent reason.

Bera did not think about it.

Renée had told him not to say anything, so it was only proper not to voice any questions. Reassuring himself that this was the right thing to do, he forced his face into a calm expression.

His thoughts, which had been in disarray all this time, had now abruptly switched off altogether. Unaware even of the way his heart was beating, Bera continued walking for a long while.