There is no happy ending

*** ***

After a while, Bianca left the dressing room, leaving Jade behind. Jade was to return to her quarters with the dresses once they had been altered.

‘Miss, are you sure you’re not in danger?’

Bannog’s security is one of the best in all of Falborn. And Bianca needed a break from being bothered.

With all the knights sent back, there was no reason to carry Jade with her when she rested.

Bianca shrugged off Jade’s concerns.

It was better to be outside in the sea breeze than to hear Jade’s bells chirping or see her watching my every move.

I was worried my skin would burn a little, but if I got stressed out in this heat, I might collapse with a vase on my back.

Bianca walked along the path, listening to the squawking seagulls.

She felt a little, well, defenseless. Perhaps being surrounded by an escort and feeling safe tends to make you insensitive to danger.

Bianca was no different.

Thump!

We were passing through the entrance to a narrow alleyway when someone came running out at a fast pace. Even if Bianca had been walking carefully, she couldn’t have seen it coming.

Bianca fell with a loud thud.

‘Ow!’

The pain was unexpected. Her knees and palms tingled.

Bianca rolled onto her face and looked around. Several thick books lay on the floor.

‘Some idiot didn’t even bother to open his eyes…….’

Bianca’s irritation with the heat was already high enough, but now this!

A pouty anger welled up in her. It was natural.

The man who had bumped into Bianca was a rather large man with red hair tied back into a ponytail ……. His head was down, I couldn’t see his face, but I guessed his gender from his body shape and clothes.

He was picking up the books that had fallen to the floor, not caring that Bianca had fallen because of him.

‘Chae, books!’

The man was not a pretty sight, blatantly flailing about in a way that was obvious just by looking at the crown of his head.

Bianca pushed herself to her feet, her face still crumpled, her body still throbbing, but without the man’s support.

The book?

Common sense told her it didn’t make sense. Of course, Bianca hadn’t always been a stickler for common sense, but…….

If you hurt someone, you apologize, but grabbing a book first didn’t make sense.

‘Hey.’

Gritting her teeth, Bianca called out to the man. The man picking up the book looked up and saw Bianca.

His bright golden eyes, tinged with panic, met Bianca’s dark green ones. Bianca’s expression fell for a moment when she recognized the man’s eyes.

She had seen similar eyes before.

They were similar to Bliss Winston’s eyes, which …… shone brilliantly in the sunlight.

‘What happened……?’

Bianca stared into the man’s eyes, unable to speak for a moment. She might not have been able to stay awake if the man hadn’t spoken to her in a dumbfounded voice.

Bianca’s eyes narrowed as she realized what he was saying. ‘The book!’ followed by, ’What’s wrong?

She didn’t like to be inappropriately angry, but this seemed like the right time.

Bianca walked up to the man and grabbed him firmly by the scruff of the neck. It wasn’t a strong grip, but the flustered man stumbled.

It was a truly ridiculous sight. It’s not often that you see a big man panicking while being held down by a woman who is a head shorter than him.

‘Do you think that’s an appropriate question?’

‘Yes, sir?’

Before he could reply, Bianca slapped him across the cheek. The man’s head snapped back with a jarring, jovial sound.

Still, Bianca’s stomach didn’t settle. Bianca’s hand flew into the air again. The man’s eyes reminded her of Bliss, and it hurt her pride to think of him again, even when she thought she was done.

After two slaps, Bianca let go of her grip. The man’s white cheeks were marked with handprints. Bianca’s shoulders slumped, and she spoke.

‘Is that an appropriate question to ask now that a man has fallen and been injured because of you?’

‘Oh.’

‘That’s the rudest thing I’ve ever seen.’

Bianca bit her lower lip when she finished speaking. She thought she was in a good mood after coming to Banog, but the hot weather had made her irritable and this accident was the worst.

The man’s face grew grim as he listened to Bianca’s words. It was only then that he realized she was hurt.

‘Sin, I’m sorry.’

‘You think saying sorry is all you need to say?’

‘I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. Please forgive me for my rudeness in the heat of the moment.’

The corners of the eyes she recognized as Bliss’s narrowed. The man’s gaze then traveled down to Bianca’s skirt, and his expression was even worse when he noticed the hole in her skirt. He looked genuinely sorry.

Bianca could be as angry as she wanted to be. There had been plenty of things to make her angry for a while, it was hot in Bannog, and she was sick.

But then she looked at the man’s face and somehow relaxed. She calculated that she didn’t need to be angry anymore.

‘Okay, this is enough.

Bianca let out a small breath as she looked at the clear handprint.

‘Just make sure you keep your …… eyes open.’

With a quick forgiveness, Bianca turned away. I thought about going for a walk, but I didn’t feel like walking in this condition. I was going back to the hostel. And then.

‘Now, wait a minute.’

The man grabbed her shoulder.

Bianca reflexively turned around. As she turned, the man was startled by my grip and removed his hand from Bianca’s shoulder.

It’s rude enough that he knocked her over, but to touch her body so casually? It’s outrageous. Bianca opened her mouth to say something.

‘Why again?’

‘……I’m sorry, again, but…….’

The man’s voice trailed off. Bianca didn’t have the patience for someone who couldn’t say what I wanted to say right away.

‘You grabbed me without cause? How much rudeness am I supposed to tolerate?’

‘Not without cause!’

Bianca’s words caught the man off guard.

‘I’m sorry, sir. You look hurt, and I just couldn’t let you go.’

‘What?’

‘There’s a councilor I know around here, no, I can’t help it if you don’t believe me, but you’re bleeding, and I can’t just send you to…….’

The man rambled on in gibberish. Unrefined, rambling words flowed from the man’s mouth.

Bianca stared at him as he spoke. The man blushed and stiffened, then lowered his head again.

‘I’m sorry.’

He must be angry, she thought. No, he was angry. Hot, sick, resembling Bliss, catching herself unnecessarily, Bianca was furious.

But then she looked at him…… and somehow she didn’t feel like being angry.

She replied, her voice much softer than before.

‘One apology is enough, and I forgive you, so we don’t need to talk about it.’

‘That’s …….’

‘……I’m sorry for the slap, too.’

It was a curious thing. Bianca could forgive a man, but she didn’t feel much need to apologize for slapping him; she’d lived her life that way.

But the handprints on the man’s face as he apologized, his face so broken, somehow stirred Bianca’s guilt.

The two of them looked at each other like that. The man, still looking apologetic, spoke up.

‘I…… hope you don’t mind me asking your name.’

She had thought that his eyes looked like the color and shape of Bliss’s, but now she realized that it wasn’t quite the same.

Yes, Bliss’s eyes did not shine like that. Bianca’s heart beat slowly.

Bianca answered slowly.

‘……Bianca. Bianca Moening. You may call me Bianca.’

‘Yes, Bianca.’

‘And you.’

‘What?’

‘What’s your name?’

The man smiled.

‘Rayman, Rayman.’

Bianca repeated his name in her mind. Rayman.

The rolling of her tongue as she pronounced it wasn’t bad. It felt a little soft. It didn’t have the hard popping sound at the end like Bianca’s name.

After muttering Rayman’s name several times under her breath…… and feeling unnecessarily weird, Bianca clamped her mouth shut.

‘I’ve told you before, we have a good councilor, he’s a bit of an eccentric but good, he’s probably the best in Bannog, come with me.’

Rayman said with a grunt. Bianca studied Rayman’s complexion, wondering if he was trying to play a trick on her.

He looked away as if he was embarrassed to make eye contact, but his face showed pure goodwill. He was not harboring any illusions.

In hindsight, he was quite likable, despite Bianca’s initial unpleasantness.

He was a little too watchful, but that only made him seem more likable. Bianca nodded slowly.

‘Okay. If you say so, I’ll go.’

She didn’t have a reason to refuse. Above all, she didn’t want to leave her body injured.

The last thing she wanted was for her knee to be disfigured. There was a subtle difference between a scar on her hand and a scar on her knee.

Rayman held out his hand in a casual escorting gesture. Bianca looked down at her hand. There was a faint crack in her left hand that had been there for some time. Bianca squeezed Rayman’s hand.

‘You’re not taking the book?’

‘The injured person comes first, and it’s my fault.’

‘You grabbed the book before anyone else.’

‘Well, that’s…….’

‘Just kidding.’

Bianca said in a low voice and laughed. The man’s face flushed red.

‘I’m worried about someone stealing it, but it’s a book, so it’s okay.’

‘It’s only my knee.’

‘……, but you’re sick.’

I don’t feel bad.

‘No…… on the contrary.

Rayman continued to talk about this and that, trying to make Bianca feel better. Bianca didn’t argue back, but she nodded slightly as she listened.

She occasionally spoke up, fearing that he might kill her chi. If he died, she thought, it would leave a tingling sensation in her fingers, like a tiny thorn. It made him feel sick, even though it hadn’t happened.

Bianca noticed that Rayman looked pretty good from the side.

It wasn’t the only thing. The faint sound of the waves, the cries of the seagulls, the smell of the salty air, the lukewarm, languid breeze, like a human body temperature…….

‘I don’t know why anyone lives here.’

That was Bianca’s impression upon arriving in Banog. Bianca was sensitive to heat. She hated the stale air and, to be fair, she wasn’t a fan of the sea.

But that didn’t seem to be a bad thing.

She thought.