The maid blinked her golden eyes and stared at Rufus. And then…
“…Do you know me?”
She said this while tilting her head.
“What…?”
Rufus’s impression was crushed at once.
She asked whether he knew her or not!?
What kind of question was this?
“Don’t you know who I am?”
“Of course, I know! You’re the hero who killed the Devil Audisus!”
It wasn’t that. Rufus didn’t want to be the hero who killed the devil. He didn’t want to be remembered by her like that.
“Other than that?”
“Is there anything else I need to know?”
In response, Rufus looked down at the maid with a stunned look on his face.
“Don’t you… don’t you really remember?”
Once again, the maid tilts her head at the stammering Rufus.
“Have we met?”
“Yes. I met you here three years ago!”
“Do you know how many visitors came to Princess Sordid’s palace? I can’t remember them all!”
“You…” sighed Rufus, who bowed his head toward the maid.
“Then, would you… did you ask all those who come to the palace of the princess to kiss you?”
Rufus replied in a low voice.
‘Please say no. Please.’
“Ah! You!” cried the maid deftly at Rufus’s words.
“You must be the man at that time!”
‘That man then.’1
The insincere title made him a little bit bitter. But it was inevitable since the maid never asked for his name.
“Are you here to repay me? Haha, I’m a little bit touched.”
The maid gave a slight wink and waved her hand.
As expected, she was exactly how Rufus had remembered her.
She always maintained her smile without a trace of embarrassment.
She was a strange woman.
“In fact, I came to ask you for a favour. Can you come with me for a moment?” Rufus asked suddenly.
He was curious about his grandmother’s future.
His younger brother Edel said his grandmother wouldn’t be able to get through this year, but he didn’t want to believe it.
With the slightest hope, he wanted to ask her again.
“But I’m working right now.”
“Just a moment.”
“Then I’ll come back with permission from the head maid.”
“You don’t have to.” Rufus turned his head toward the knights of Princess Sordid, who were waiting around.
“I’ll take Miss Sarubia with me for a while. Please let people know. ”
“Yes, sir!” The knights nodded repeatedly.
Although his title was nothing but Baron, Rufus was a hero in the Hevnian Kingdom.
There was no way they could have disobeyed such a remark.
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While Rufus led the maid to the palace he was staying at; they met a lot of people on their way.
Everyone looked at Rufus and the unnamed maid he accompanied alternately with strange eyes.
They noted that as soon as Rufus returned to the royal palace, he went to visit that maid, not Princess Sordid.
Some began to put their heads together, talking in a muffled voice. But Rufus was utterly oblivious to those gazes. These people most probably don’t know.
‘The saint who foretells death.’
She was a holy woman with the unique ability to see a person’s death.
There was no way people could know how great her worth was.
Rufus kept a close eye on the maid who stood beside him.
Three years have transformed her into a beautiful woman.
She has gained a little bit of height and lost some baby fat on her cheeks.
Somehow she seems to be a little bit thinner, but she still looks quite healthy.
What a relief.
“You…”
“What? What is it?”
“No, nothing.”
Rufus, who opened his mouth at an impulsive, closed it just as fast.
‘You look prettier.’ He almost said that.
Rufus struggled to push those words back his throat.
There was no way he could have said such a disgusting thing.
In fact, there were many things he wanted to say when they met again.
He was going to say ‘thank you for giving me hope so I could go back to my precious family’.
He was going to say ‘thanks to your prophecy I was able to survive the brutal war in my right mind’.
He was going to say ‘I gained courage by repeating your voice over and over again; even though I was on the verge of death every day. Thank you’.
But why can’t he say them?
“How have you been?”
Why are only these stupid words popping up?
“Well, once the salary comes out, I ate well and lived well.”
The maid answered with a light smile. Then she talked first.
“So, why did you come to see me, Hero?”
“Don’t call me that.” Rufus frowned slightly.
The title jarred him for no reason. It was pretentious and not honourable.
And most of all, he didn’t like the fact that the maid hasn’t asked for his name to the end.
“But since everyone calls you a hero, I should call you a hero, too.”
“It’s Rufus,” he said plainly.
“Rufus? Is that your name?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a catchy name. What does it mean?”
That light question made him feel better.
Somehow he was glad the maid was interested in his name. So Rufus told the story out of his usual self.
“Rufus is the nickname of the Fuchsia flower.”2
“Fuchsia flowers?”
“It’s a plant that only grows on the Inferna estate, where I was born. It has a red flower that looks like a fairy.”
“Ohh, I’d like to see it once.”
“Yeah, it’s a really pretty flower.”
“But red flowers… you must have had a birthmark on your buttocks when you were born?”3
Rufus threw a sidewards glance at the maid’s careless remark.
“No, it was so because my mother liked the fuchsia flowers.”
“Then you’re like me. Actually, I got my name from the salvia flowers…” 4
“I know,” Rufus cut off the maid.
“You said it before. Your name is Sarubia, but your hair is ivory.”
The maid’s steps slowed unnaturally.
“…did you remember that?” the maid looked up at Rufus.
It was a very short moment, but she looked confused.
Rufus nodded casually.
“Of course. Didn’t you say that when you told me your name?”
“And my name… Did you remember it?”
“That’s a useless question. How could I have found you if I didn’t know your name?”
The maid stared blankly at Rufus. It was as if she had experienced something unimaginable.
“Why on earth…?”
“What?”
“Why do you remember my name?”
“It’s not that I remembered, it’s that I couldn’t forget.”
Rufus answered bluntly.
“I thought of your name the whole time I was out on the battlefield, so I can’t forget it.”
“My name?”
“Yes. I kept thinking about what you said to me.”
Rufus stopped walking. They arrived at a place without people.
It was a small road behind the specially assigned palace where Rufus and his family lived.
Nothing could be heard except the words of Rufus and the maid.
Rufus looked down at the maid standing next to him.
‘Survive to the end.’
He remembered the words of the girl, and he repeated them over and over and over again; thousands, or even tens of thousands of times.
For the past three years, he had lived according to her words.