The Forgotten Field

His hands were very pale. Almost as pale as hers. And they were shaped with an elegance and beauty that seemed strangely out of place in the rain and mud.

Talia absentmindedly started to reach toward him, then felt the little bird curled in her grasp twitch its wings. She hurriedly shook her head.

“No. I’m holding something right now.”

Beneath the hood drooping heavily with rainwater, she saw the boy’s eyes narrow slightly.

His gaze lowered to the hands clasped tightly against her chest.

“Is it important?”

After a moment of hesitation, Talia shook her head.

“It’s not important.”

“Then throw it away.”

“It may not be important, but I still can’t throw it away.”

The sharp answer made a crease form between the boy’s smooth brows. He looked like he was beginning to get annoyed. Perhaps he would simply leave her behind and walk away.

But once again, the boy did something that did not suit his cold appearance at all.

He bent down in front of her and suddenly lifted her filthy, rain-soaked body into his arms.

Talia let out a small scream at the unexpected movement. The boy wrapped an arm firmly around her back as she struggled and spoke bluntly.

“Stay still.”

Talia obeyed immediately.

While carefully loosening her grip so she would not hurt the bird pressed against her chest, she watched him stride up the collapsing muddy slope with steady steps. His movements were swift and light, almost catlike.

Still, no matter how agile and quick he was, it seemed impossible to avoid dirtying his clothes entirely. He glanced down at his ruined trousers, boots, and the hem of his robe, a frown appearing between his brows.

“This is awful.”

“......You got like that because you helped me, so I’ll compensate you. I can buy you clothes far more expensive than what you’re wearing now. Actually, I’m the daughter of someone very, very important. I’ll also tell my attendants to prepare a generous reward for you.”

She had spoken out of guilt, but somehow he looked offended instead.

The boy carefully stepped around the piles of wet earth surrounding the pit before speaking in a flat voice.

“A tiny thing like you is awfully arrogant.”

Talia’s face turned red.

Normally, she would have slapped a boy for speaking to her so insolently. No one was allowed to speak that way to the Emperor’s daughter.

But for some reason, she could not say a single word.

Even though cold rainwater continued to strike her forehead and cheeks without pause, her face burned as though it had caught fire.

The boy stopped beneath a massive old tree that Senevier had not yet ordered uprooted.

At that moment, the bird let out a faint cry.

The boy, who had started to lower her to the ground, paused and glanced toward the hands clasped against her chest.

“What are you holding?”

Only now did he seem curious.

After a brief hesitation, she slowly opened her hands.

“A bird?”

He muttered the words suspiciously.

It was understandable. The tiny baby bird looked less like a bird and more like a drowned sewer rat, with muddy, ragged wings hanging limply and the pink flesh of its chest exposed.

Talia’s cheeks flushed crimson.

The miserable thing was the bird, yet somehow she felt pathetic herself.

“It only looks like that because it fell into the mud. Originally, it was......”

Maybe prettier.

She stopped herself before finishing the sentence. The skinny brown bird probably had never been beautiful to begin with. It was likely nothing more than an ordinary starling one could find anywhere.

But the boy seemed willing to show kindness even to such a pitiful, ugly creature.

Supporting Talia with one arm, he guided the hand holding the bird beneath his hood.

Talia’s eyes widened.

The touch of his skin against her fingers was warm, like the glow of a fireplace. The bird pressed itself tightly against the hollow beneath his collarbone, seeking warmth.

“Your fingers are freezing. How long were you standing there?”

The boy stared quietly at the bird beneath his chin before turning his head toward her.

Because of that, Talia found herself staring directly into the blue eyes beneath his rain-darkened lashes.

Seen up close, his eyes were strangely beautiful.

It looked as though tiny fragments of silver had been scattered across a clear winter sky.

Talia stared at them blankly before murmuring without thinking.

“Say...... there’s a silver crown inside your eyes.”

The boy’s eyes widened slightly.

His lips parted as though he intended to say something, then closed again.

Talia realized the nameless boy was staring into her eyes as well.

What did he see inside mine?

As that thought crossed her mind, a familiar voice echoed from far away.

“My lady!”

It was the nanny.

She still had not grown used to calling Talia “Your Highness,” and would slip back into old habits often enough to be scolded by Talia’s mother and the other maids. Apparently, she still could not correct herself completely. Her desperate voice echoed through the rain.

“I have to go now.”

Talia murmured softly.

She did not know why, but she hated saying those words.

Perhaps the boy hated hearing them too.

He stood motionless for a long time before slowly lowering her to the ground like someone acting against his will.

The moment his arms left her, Talia felt cold seep all the way into her bones.

Only then did she realize how warm his embrace had been.

After hesitating for a long while, she held the baby bird out toward him.

“Will you take it with you?”

Because my hands are too cold, and you’re warm.

She was about to say that when he bent down and carefully accepted the bird.

Then he pressed it gently against his plaster-pale cheek and pulled his hood farther forward, as though shielding it from the rain.

Talia stared up at him before asking quietly,

“That bird...... do you think it’ll live?”

“......Yes.”

Those blue eyes holding a silver crown lingered on her face for a long time.

“It’ll live.”

The boy’s expression remained completely blank, but somehow Talia thought he had smiled.

Soon afterward, she turned and began running through the rain-soaked garden.

How long did she run past the uprooted rose bushes, the ruined shrubs, and the piles of earth resembling little graves?

At some point, she felt something pull at her and turned around.

He was still standing beneath the giant tree.

Why hasn’t he left?

Maybe he was waiting for the rain to weaken.

Maybe he was watching her leave.

Suddenly, Talia was overwhelmed by the urge to run back to him.

She wanted to hide from the rain together with him. She wanted to sit beside him in front of a warm fireplace and watch the little bird recover.

But while she hesitated, the nanny suddenly burst out from inside the manor. Judging by how flushed her round face was, she had clearly been searching for Talia for a long time.

“Where in the world have you been?! Do you know how desperately Lady Senevier has been searching for you?”

The nanny tightly seized Talia’s hand with her plump fingers and roughly dragged her toward the detached palace building.

“And what happened to your appearance?! You’re supposed to meet His Majesty soon, so how could you dirty your clothes like this?!”

“......I fell while taking a walk.”

“A walk? In weather like this?!”

The nanny cried out in disbelief and began striding quickly toward the corridor connected to the imperial residence.

Talia was practically dragged along by the hand as she turned back one last time.

But he was no longer there.