I’m All Out of Health!

Chapter 5

“M-my apologies…”

I put two trembling hands on Kaisar’s chest, then attempted to stand by pushing lightly against him.

“Ha.”

Kaisar watched as I squirmed like a baby trying to get up without the proper core muscles. He clearly found it hard to believe what he was seeing.

Well, I’m not doing this because I want to! This is so humiliating!

The man barely had any facial expressions, and yet I’d already managed to draw two out of him. Perhaps I deserved credit for that—even though those expressions were just an irritated scowl and an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

He gave my back a helpful push, although he evidently wasn’t happy about it.

Once I was on my feet, I tried to make amends by saying, “You know… I just brushed my teeth.”

Still, that didn’t seem to help much with his germaphobia. He stared at me without saying a word.

Please don’t kill me. I looked away sheepishly and sniffled.

After a moment of silence, he said, “It’s okay.”

However, his tone made it clear that he didn’t mean this at all. Anyone could have seen he was saying that just to be polite.

“You don’t look like you mean it…”

Even in that precarious situation, I just had to be honest. It was in my personality—I always spoke my mind. But when he raised another annoyed eyebrow at me, I gave up on that immediately.

“N-never mind. W-would you like to wash up?” I asked, pointing to the bathroom I’d just left.

“In this situation, you ought to first inquire why I have come.”

He did have a point. Most people wouldn’t have suggested that he wash up just because he’d received a shower of spit. They would have apologized and handed him something to wipe his face with. And yet, I hadn’t given him the towel right next to me and offered to let him use my bathroom instead, as though I knew using a towel would only make it worse for him. Thankfully, my survival instincts sensed the danger and kicked in.

“Well… I just tried walking in your shoes. If I were you, I wouldn’t be finding this situation very pleasant. Wiping my face with a used towel would only make it worse, so I’d much prefer to go and wash up.”

Although that would make sense only by your standards.

I did somewhat mumble as I spoke, but at least I didn’t say anything suspicious.

Whew…

I let out a sigh of relief when I felt Kaisar detach his sharp gaze from me.

“It’s okay,” he said, as if there were no need for him to wash up at all.

Well, you don’t look okay at all. But I didn’t dare say that aloud.

He then brought up the reason for his visit, as though he were eager to be done with it and get out.

“Your father has asked me to do something.”

“Um, really?”

“Yes.”

“Ah… I see.”

The situation couldn’t have been more awkward.

So what do you want me to do?

I felt beads of cold sweat form on my forehead as I fearfully moved my eyes, and Kaisar gave me another glare. Once again, it became very hard for me to breathe.

“Could you make everyone leave? I’d like to talk to you in private.”

He made that frightening demand so casually.

He’s not going to kill me, is he? I hated the idea of being alone with him, but I doubted having others around would make much of a difference if he really were planning to kill me.

So, I complied. “Leave us.”

I’d gotten used to giving orders. Back when I wanted to be alone with Mayer, the maids had strongly objected, but this time they left without protesting.

“Of course, Lady Ninenya.”

Then they shut the door behind them. They seemed to have realized the man wasn’t to be trifled with.

Seriously? You’re giving up on your lady so easily? In any case, why has he shown up already?

Kaisar Adelman.

According to what I’d read, he wasn’t supposed to show up here. He appeared first in the story after Meya went up to the capital. Rubenio had asked him to escort Meya to her debutante ball. Kaisar would continue to appear in the story from time to time after that, mostly to save Meya when she found herself in danger. Many readers anticipated him to be the love interest or at least one of them. As he appeared more frequently, that idea became nearly certain.

But then it started to get weird. Nothing happened between Kaisar and Meya. He didn’t love her, and he didn’t even become friends with her. He protected Meya, and that was all he did. As soon as she got to safety, he would leave her. He was truly a mystery.

Some suspected he was actually the villain or worked for the villain, and I was one of those people. But he didn’t do much until the story reached its end.

After Rubenio killed himself, Kaisar left Meya right away, as though he’d done his part. It enraged the readers, who complained and demanded to know what was up with him. The writer promised to reveal his past in the epilogue, but I was never able to read it. I woke up in this body before I could.

As such, the man remained an unsolved mystery to me. Even in this world, no one really knew much about him with the exception of Rubenio, and it was hard to tell how much Rubenio even knew. When Meya asked him who Kaisar was, he didn’t give her an answer. All I knew about Kaisar was that he protected Meya to keep a promise he had made to Rubenio.

Just as I had expected, he soon said, “I have made a promise to your father, and I will keep you safe accordingly.”

Yet it was still strange that he showed up at this point. What changed? I can barely take care of my body, and now I have to think about the original story too?

But then he added, “For now.”

Those two words sounded terrifying.

Is he saying I might be in danger soon? Getting healthy was hard enough, and now I also had to deal with all this without a decent explanation.

Kaisar just sat there, stone-faced, as though what he had said should suffice.

I started to feel queasy again, but I managed to ask, “May I ask a question?”

“Yes.”

“What is the promise you made to Rubenio— I mean, my father about?”

When he did not reply, I added, “Um… You said, ‘for now.’ How long do you mean exactly?”

“Until I keep the promise.”

“So when might that be?”

I was met with silence.

Oh, come on!

He said I could ask him questions, but he never said he would give me answers.

Does he not want to reply, or is it that he can’t? I couldn’t tell which was the case, but either way, he kept his mouth shut. He wouldn’t tell me why he wasn’t giving me answers. In short, he was far from nice. Since I’d read about his personality, I gave up on trying to get him to talk. He was determined not to tell me, and I could see there was nothing I could do to make him change his mind. Therefore, all I could do was make deductions.

I thought of Kaisar leaving in the original story.

What could have been his motive? Did he leave because Rubenio had died? Or because Meya had become happy?

But all I had was vague information. I couldn’t reach any conclusions before I found out more.

* * *

“Every deal comes with a price.”

“Then as long as you’re alive, I will pay that price.”

Kaisar was ten when he met Rubenio for the first time.

He had needed that promise all those years ago. Rubenio demanded that he pay the price by protecting his daughter, and he had agreed to it. He hated humans, yet he had to keep his promise to Rubenio. If he was to do it, he didn’t want to do it any less than perfectly.

Kaisar swallowed an exasperated sigh and studied her. He could not find any beauty in humans—even Ninenya didn’t impress him. All he saw in her was weakness. Her bones were frail, and her body had no strength. He wondered how such a weak human could exist, and that was the first impression he had of her.

But contrary to her lifeless body, her eyes sparkled with energy. She was hungry for life, yet it wasn’t ugly or pathetic. He could see in her eyes that she was eager to survive, and for a split second, those eyes impressed him.

“Let me ask you one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“If you’re here, does that mean I’ll soon be in danger? Because right now, I don’t think I need your help.”

Ninenya looked at the sword at his waist as she spoke, implying she could guess from it that he was a warrior.

“You will need me.”

“And why is that?”