116. Great Forest (7)
I was sure I’d fallen asleep in his arms. But something felt off. I reached around, trying to feel for him, but nothing met my touch.
All I felt was the blanket, soft and trying its best to be comforting, and when I opened my eyes, no one was there.
Well… it wasn’t like Dogeon never woke up before me. He must have woken up first and gone off somewhere. I couldn’t help but think he should’ve waited just a little longer, and a bit of annoyance crept in.
Still, I trusted him, so I wasn’t overly anxious. There was no way he’d gone off to meet another woman or something. He had the right to a private life, after all.
Of course, I wanted all his time to be spent with me… but that wasn’t realistic, so I had no intention of being unreasonable about it.
I wasn’t half-asleep enough to be dragged off somewhere randomly, so today I figured I’d properly sit down and try putting on some makeup. As for the method and technique… well, I’d figure it out.
I laid out a bunch of stuff in front of the mirror, but I had no idea what any of it was. This… what is this? It looked like powder.
Touching each item one by one and guessing where it was supposed to go on my face, I started to wonder what I was even doing. Did I really need to wear makeup?
Putting vanity aside, the girl reflected in the mirror was breathtakingly beautiful even without any of it. Did I really need to risk ruining such a masterpiece with clumsy layers of paint?
Not that I had a reason not to. No one was going to see me anyway, and it was my own face. So, using the functions I’d guessed at through trial and error, I clumsily tapped at my face in front of the vanity for a whole hour.
And then wiped it all off five minutes later.
It reminded me of something I tried to cook back in my hometown. That disaster and my face now… they kind of overlapped. I tried because I wanted to look good, but… I must really be hopeless when it comes to this sort of thing.
How depressing. It would’ve been nice if someone was here to comfort me at a time like this. Even after I thoroughly scrubbed my face clean, removing every trace of leftover residue, Dogeon still didn’t return.
It was almost lunchtime. Where had he gone off to that he wasn’t back yet? I began to wonder if I should go look for him—and that’s when I noticed his coat tossed carelessly on the floor.
There had been times he went out without his coat, but it was rare. Even on the hottest days, he stubbornly kept it on.
My suspicion only grew stronger. Where the heck had he gone? There were no signs of a struggle or resistance, so it wasn’t a kidnapping. He was still dressed, save for the coat.
No matter what had happened—I had to find him.
I didn’t really think anything bad had occurred… but it wasn’t like I could just sit still when he was missing for this long.
I stepped outside and stopped a random passing elf to ask if they’d seen Dogeon.
“Excuse me. May I ask you something? Have you seen a tall, exotic-looking, handsome man? He stepped in to mediate a dispute yesterday.”
“Uh, well… I’ve seen lots of dark-haired and handsome men, but exotic-looking…? No, I don’t think so. I heard there was a dispute yesterday, but I wasn’t there myself, so I’m not sure. Sorry…!”
Maybe it was too random of a person to ask. But still, wasn’t fleeing in such a hurry a bit much?
“…Haah. Where did you go?”
Seriously. Where could he have gone? I even tried sniffing around in case there was a lingering scent, but I couldn’t smell him anywhere.
I asked around and even ran into some of the elves who’d been there yesterday, but I didn’t gain anything useful.
My head, which had been filled with thoughts of eating lunch together as soon as I found Dogeon, was now quickly clouding over with ominous ideas.
What if something had happened to him? What if he’d betrayed me and run off with some other woman?
The “what ifs” started to pile on, one after another, spinning into increasingly anxious thoughts. I even forgot I was hungry, and my walking had turned into a near-sprint when I finally ran into some guards.
“…Whoa there! Princess, where are you rushing off to? We nearly collided! Is something urgent going on?”
“Have you seen Dogeon?!”
“Dogeon… Oh, you mean that timid fellow who was always stuck to your side? He never left your side, right? I haven’t seen him.”
Where… where did he go? Ignoring the puzzled guards wondering why I was in such a hurry, I went off to search the places Dogeon might’ve gone.
But he was nowhere to be found. Everyone I asked said the same thing—they didn’t know.
Where is he? Where could he have gone without me?
“Oh dear, I felt a chilling presence and came to check—it’s you, Princess. Uh… doesn’t look like a good time for jokes. Did something happen to upset you?”
Who was that? Ah, it was the captain of the guards—Heukrang. If anyone knew anything, it would be him.
“…Heukrang. Have you seen Dogeon? He just vanished this morning. Do you know where he went…? You must know… right?”
Just as I was beginning to panic, I felt a bit of relief running into the second most reliable person I knew here. The first being Dogeon, of course. He looked at me, gave up on making a joke, and tapped his head as if trying to recall something.
“Hmm… I think I saw him heading somewhere early in the morning… but that’s it. I was busy handling chores, so I didn’t think much of it. But he’s disappeared, you say?”
I’d thought, “as expected of him,” when he said he saw Dogeon, but the rest of his answer left me disappointed. Still, at least Dogeon hadn’t vanished without a trace.
“Yeah. I checked every place he might’ve gone, but I couldn’t find him. Did you see which way he was headed?”
“I get how you feel, but calm down a little first. He was headed toward the World Tree area—but that place is blocked off. And you’ve… already searched there, I assume? I can tell just from your face.”
I’d searched that area ages ago. So even Heukrang didn’t know exactly where Dogeon went.
In that case, there was no choice.
“…Heukrang. Call all the guards together and tell them to find Dogeon first. I don’t care where—they’re to search everywhere. Professors’ offices, storage rooms, everything.”
“If someone tries to interfere… shall we take the diplomatic route, as you always say?”
“I don’t care.”
“…Understood. I’ll use discretion.”
Heukrang, seeming to fully understand what I meant, immediately dropped what he was doing and gathered the nearby guards.
There was no reason for me to stay here.
He said Dogeon was headed toward the World Tree, and while the way there was blocked, I’d already searched nearly everywhere else.
Maybe, somehow, he’d made it past the barrier surrounding the World Tree. Maybe not. It didn’t matter.
If there was even a chance Dogeon was in there, then none of that mattered, did it?
Somehow, I felt like I could do it. No—I knew I could. I had no proof, but I had the conviction that if I willed it, it would happen. That lunatic professor had sealed the place off, supposedly for some dangerous experiment… meaning Dogeon could be in danger.
…In that case, I had to go.
***
“You’ve really improved. At this rate, you might not need me much longer.”
“No way… I’ve only gotten this far thanks to you, Eric. Your teaching might not be as structured as Hoyeon’s, but what you say sticks in my head like magic. I wonder why? Hehe.”
“That, I don’t know either. But if the results are good, that’s what matters, isn’t it?”
Even if she could drop out of the Academy, the successor position wasn’t something she could abandon just because she wanted to. So Anya was still buried in her studies.
The one saving grace was how quickly she absorbed everything her lover taught her. Neither of them understood why—but anyone watching them might have a clue.
“Hmm… I’m not too sure about this part. I’ll probably need to ask Miss Hoyeon for a separate lecture…”
“Ugh, I have to learn from Hoyeon again?”
“You don’t want to?”
“No, I mean… it’s not that I hate it… ugh, yeah. Honestly, I kind of do. She’s a great teacher, but how do I put this? She pushes me to my absolute limit… It’s exhausting. So—huh?”
Just as she was lamenting the ordeal of learning under Hoyeon, there was a knock at the door.
“There shouldn’t be anyone coming… I’ll get it. Who is it?”
As she opened the door, someone pushed it open forcefully, shoving her backward.
“Ugh… What the—! Who… are you…?”
Hearing the commotion at the entrance, Eric ran out to see what was going on.
Standing there was a heavily armed beastkin.
The intruder walked right past the fallen Anastasia as if she didn’t matter, quickly searching the room before leaving the moment he confirmed it was empty.
“Anya! Are you alright?”
“…I’m okay. Just startled, that’s all… But why were they even here…?”
Knowing the man was one of Hoyeon’s direct guards and recalling the rumors of yesterday’s disturbance, she had no idea why they’d suddenly searched her room.
They didn’t even give her a chance to protest before leaving. And why would Hoyeon’s guards, instead of protecting her, be acting so suspiciously?
She was about to dismiss it as a one-off incident when the sound of shouting and screams reached her ears.
“…Eric, something strange is going on, don’t you think?”
“I’d love for this to just be a false alarm… but I doubt it. Are you going?”
Anya straightened her clothes and strapped on her sword.
“Yes. I hope it’s nothing, but if not, it could be dangerous. And more than anything, I need to find Miss Hoyeon first.”
She headed for the door, but Eric didn’t let her go alone.
“I’d be fine on my own… but thank you for coming with me.”
“I can’t let the woman I love walk into danger alone. I may not be much help, but I’ll do what I can. Shall we go?”
“…Let’s.”