Chapter 20.2

….as well as the reddened ears, that appeared and disappeared beneath her hair.

“Are you alright?”

“…..Mr. Bertram. Have you ever heard anyone say you have a dangerous way of speaking? Especially to girls!”

“That was something my friend heard often, but perhaps his wrongful habits rubbed off on me unknowingly. I will take care.”

“Don’t bother…. What can I even say. You know the way to the quarters, right? Go in safely! Nd don’t get mistaken for a bear going around weird places in the middle of the night!”

After rapidly firing off her words, Anna whipped her body away. She wanted to wash away the head in her mind with her mother’s nags.

However, Bertram’s unexpected words soon gave pause to Anna’s steps.

“I’ve heard that there is an abandoned house above the village. Would it be alright if I went there?”

“An abandoned house…? Oh, I remember! That’s the place those fools who fed mushrooms to you referred to you as a lodging, right?”

“Correct. If my pursuers follow me to this village, I plan to hide up there.”

“There’s a rumor that that mansion is cursed. Is that alright?”

Though Bertram was always like this, he looked especially more disinterested as he declared.

“That is most likely a false rumor. An effective curse is costlier than what one might expect.”

“…..Well, no matter if you don’t believe it. If you’re going to go now, don’t go alone—go with me, after I make some preparations.”

Saying so, Anna ran to a nearby field of grass and began plucking out things.

“Are you aiming to make a charm?”

“There are a lot of mosquitoes around there, you know. This is the plant that chases them away.”

“Much more important than charms, I see.”

While Anna ripped away at the grass, Bertram imagined what the house would look like.

The fact that mosquitoes were abundant at the mansion meant its drainage system was bad enough for rain water to have pooled. It must be a dreary place, filled with moss from place to place.

Once he reached that conclusion, Bertram shook his head.

It was an attempt to shake off the delusional question of, wouldn’t a place like that be most befitting for myself?

With one hand full of mosquito-repellant grass, Anna went up the mountain. Bertram intentionally slowed down in order to match her speed, taking his time following Anna.

Most women were relatively smaller when it came to Bertram, but Anna was especially more so, which made it hard to see her face.

What he usually saw was a messy shock of blonde hair, the round back of her head, and the bridge of her nose, which peeked out like someone had placed a single clove of garlic on her face.

Therefore, whenever Bertram had to inspect Anna for what she was currently feeling, he had to focus on the very limited source of information: her eyebrows.

But now, as they climbed up the slope of the mountain, Anna’s face was close to Bertram’s line of sight whenever she glanced back at him from time to time.

The face that had flushed from the sun during the day had settled into ivory under the moonlight. Amidst the blonde hair were wide green eyes, glistening all the more honestly.

….how would she look under the sunlight, he wondered.

The moment Bertram was struck by that thought, their eyes met. Anna gave him a small, happy smile.

“Be careful where you’re stepping! From here on out, the stream water mixes in, so it’s slippery.”

“So this is not a road.”

“It was a stone-paved one about fifty years ago. Just step where I step and follow me.”

He places his foot where Anna’s small feet had stepped on the wet soil. As the white moonlight pooled in the small puddles formed wherever her heels had dug in, Bertram felt as if he was following the traces of a crescent moon.

How different they were from his own footsteps, which had reminded him of finely crushed bones.

With somewhat of a sense of wonder, Bertram trailed after Anna as she ran off like a rabbit.

The steepening inclination was dense with trees. It came to the point that they would not have been able to walk if not for the moon that shone through the clouds.

Just when the lantern seemed to begin running out of oil, Anna lit the bouquet of grass on fire and spoke.

“We’re here. It’s, phew, it’s this house.”

In between thick overgrown foliage appeared a building made out of stone.

To be clear, the house was not big enough to be called a ‘mansion,’ but the gloomy way it was hidden by the night fog did complement its nickname ‘cursed mansion’ very well.

Taking a step in, the inside of the building echoed not with the sound of orchestral music, but the sound of grasshoppers scattering in all directions.

Anna smoked out the entrance to the building.

“Cough! Ahem. Why don’t we go in after some time? Though I’d rather we don’t go in at all.”

“You said this was a cursed building. What kind of curse was it?”

“Uhh… First of all, they say the past owner of this mansion died.”

“Because of the curse?”

“….That, I don’t know.”

The lord of the mansion wasted away to death long ago; it’s haunted with ghosts; I heard if you go in, you’ll be cursed too…..

That much of an explanation was enough to keep the neighborhood kids quiet. Which meant that Anna too didn’t know what the curse really was.

Bertram nodded as if to say he vaguely understood, then stepped forward.

“It seems the source of the lord’s death was falsely framed to be a curse after he died. Nobody ever saw the ghost themselves, correct?”

“You’re not wrong, but—hey, you still shouldn’t go in so rashly!”

“I will confirm in advance that there are no wild beasts here.”

In a single stride, he overtook the mosquito-repellant torch. Anna hastily followed after him, crossing through the garden.

Thanks to the grass that had grown up to Anna’s waist, it was hard for her to go forward. Belatedly realizing this, Bertram began pressing firmly on the grass as he went to create a way for her.

He left a path that seemed like a large horse had streaked through.

At the end of it, just when she had barely caught up to Bertram, Anna saw his figure standing in the middle of the ruins and found herself gulping down her breath unintentionally.