Vermillion

[PART 1] Villagers

It felt like it was sweltering. It felt overbearing.

If you had to describe the feeling, it would be unpleasant.

Still half asleep, Aleen shook it off. She roughly pushed it away and thought she heard a small, “Umph—“

“…Mmh.”

She opened her eyes a crack and saw the bare wooden beams across the ceiling. Oh, I was sleeping.

Slowly, she sat up in bed.

She mumbled to herself and drowsily looked around the room.

“…Oh, you’re up now.”

Her eyes met the plump, sweaty man who sat in front of the green door—Danny.

Shocked, her drowsiness completely disappeared.

Why is he here?

Some man she didn’t know was in the bedroom with her. Even if it was the home’s owner, it still made her feel uncomfortable. Then she remembered the thing she shoved away when she woke up. A chill ran down her spine.

Aileen wrapped the sheets around her as if to protect herself, silently staring at him with narrowed eyes. The color in her face drained even more and Danny said, “Wai-, breakfast is ready,” and quickly left the room.

The door closed behind him.

After a minute, she started to feel herself all over, making sure nothing was wrong.

—She was fine. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong.

“What’s with that guy?” She got goosebumps on her arms. “…So gross.” The gross feeling came instinctively. She wrapped her arms around herself.

Unable to calm herself down she looked around uneasily and happened to look outside.

The green forest gave her a small sense of calm and she suddenly thought, I should go meet up with Kei.

She got out of bed and put on the wooden shoes she’d been lent. The simple shoes didn’t match her size, so her feet slid around in them. However, the wood was smoothed out, so they didn’t feel bad.

Aileen didn’t want to run into that greasy man if he was in the living room, so she climbed over the window sill and went straight outside.

Her shoes clacked against the dirt path as she walked in the soft sunlight.

I feel light now… she realized that she clearly felt much better than yesterday.

She should have realized when she climbed out the window, but now she could feel the strength in her legs.

A small smile snuck onto her face and she giggled to herself as she lightened her step. Hmm, I wonder where Kei went.If I remember right, he was at the village leader’s second son’s place. Cronin, or Cronen, or something.

She remembered that. Although, she had no idea where that was.

“…Umm.” She wondered what to do and paced back and forth when she saw a group of women carrying baskets and leather bags coming from the center of town talking loudly.

The one at the front of the group took notice and called out to her. It was Cynthia with her gentle smile, “…Oh, Aileen-sama. Did something happen to bring you here?”

The others noticed her too, and stopped their chatter, quickly putting on polite expressions.

“I was on my way to see Kei, but… I don’t know where he is,” flustered, she avoided looking them in the eye.

Aileen felt a little embarrassed when she answered them honestly.

The women teased her innocence, “Oh, are you now~?”

Aileen felt even more embarrassed and her cheeks grew bright red.

“Ah, if it’s Kei-dono then he’s at my house!” A young, freckled woman waved her hand energetically.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Tina, Cronen’s wife!” While she held a jar of water, the freckled woman—Tina gave a quick bow. She brought Aileen with her to her home, their shoes clacking along the way. The house was disappointingly close by. “It’s small, but please,” she invited Aileen in. “Kei-dono left early in the morning to go hunting, but it’s the middle of the day now so I’d imagine he’ll be back soon.”

“Oh, alright.” Aileen sat at the table in the living room and casually looked around. Like Tina said, it was small compared to the village leader’s house. However, it was so clean that there wasn’t even a speck of dust.

It’d even be fine to go barefoot she thought, as she clacked her wooden shoes together under the table to kill time. Tina looked busy as she went about her work, changing the water from the jar to a pot and lighting a fire underneath it.

“—I’m heating some water for tea, if you’d like some.” Tina smiled and held some dried herbs in her hand.

“Sure. Thank you.” Aileen realized Tina was going through the trouble for her and slightly nodded, grateful.

They were quiet for a while. The fire crackled and popped.

Aileen spaced out with her head propped up by her hand, and of course, that came to mind.

That greasy man’s face crossed her mind, but was soon replaced by a skinny woman smiling lovingly.

“…Why did Cynthia-san get married?” She muttered to herself.

Cynthia and Danny. At least from appearances, they didn’t seem like a fitting couple. Danny didn’t seem that charming, and Cynthia was quite pretty. She was genuinely curious as to why Cynthia chose to marry Danny of all people.

“Ah~… My sister-in-law is a bit unfortunate, isn’t she?” Tina answered, looking triumphant.

“Unfortunate?”

“She wanted to marry someone else. It’s like she sold herself.”

“…What do you mean?” Aileen tilted her head slightly in interest.

Tina lowered her voice, indicating that the conversation doesn’t leave the room, “It’s something that happened almost ten years ago. My sister-in-law’s younger sister came down with a fever. The town had the medicine we needed, but it was much too expensive… Her family was poor and didn’t know what to do. That’s when that man,” she spoke those last words with spite, “—said, ‘If we were related I could save her…’ as he showed his money. He even knew that she had a lover!”

“W-wow, that’s…”

In other words, she threw away her lover to be at Danny’s side if it meant her sister would be saved.

Aileen groaned and furrowed her brow with an expression that said she regretted asking. “So… Did he save her sister?”

“…Yes. That time, he did.” Tina nodded, looking bitter. “Not even a month after she recovered, she was attacked by a group of wild animals and died.”

“My god.”

“And then he said, ‘What a waste of money,’ while Cynthia was present. That pig-faced bastard.”

“P-pig…”

She put it frankly, and she wasn’t wrong. Aileen’s face twitched, even though she was asleep she’d felt the same.

Since Tina called Cynthia her sister-in-law, that would make Danny her brother-in-law. Even so, she clearly hated him.

“You don’t like him, do you?”

“Of course not! Not a single person in this village does!” She put her hands on her hips and puffed her cheeks out angrily. “He puts other people to work like he’s in charge, and then he doesn’t even do his own work! He’ll just stay holed up in his home all day, and when he finally does come out it’s only so he can take a stroll or go have fun in another town. Furthermore, depending on who you talk to, they say he’s going to brothels. Even after he married by buying his wife… I do feel bad for my sister-in-law though. People say the reason she can’t have children anymore is divine punishment.” She sighed. “I feel depressed thinking that he might be the next village leader… They should just make my husband the leader.”

After she finished her rant, Aileen’s expression also turned bitter.

Matrimony brought by money. Hated by everyone. Frequented brothels.

Aileen’s impression of him was bad to start with, and now it was even worse. The thought of staying one more day in the village—the village leader’s house—made her feel uncomfortable.

“Um, Tina-san.”

“Yes?”

“The truth is, this is only between us,” Aileen lowered her voice and told Cynthia about that from earlier.

“What!?” Her eyes widened and her face paled when she heard that Danny was there. “W-w-were you okay!?”

“I think so… I don’t think anything else happened to me.”

“There wasn’t anything sticky or slimy on you, was there?!”

“I-I don’t think so…” She scowled and looked a little sick as she shook her head.

Tina sighed in relief and pressed her fingers against her temples, “I can’t believe that he would go for visitors, too…” Her brilliant eyes slowly fell onto the butcher knife in the kitchen. “Rather… That’s right. If I do that, then Cronen will be the village leader…”

“N-No! I just wanted to ask if I could stay somewhere else!” Aileen yelled in a panic after she saw the longing beginning to show in her eyes.

Tina smiled brightly as if to say, ‘Oh my, I was just kidding!’ Whether she was joking or serious, she seemed close to making a bad decision.

Then the door made a noise as it opened.

“Heey, Tina! Are you—huh?” Cronen entered the house. He was wiping his sweat on a towel in one hand and held a gardening sickle in the other. His gaze stopped and he blinked a few times at Aileen sitting in a chair in his living room. “Oh, she’s here…?”

“Perfect timing, dear! Listen to this, it’s terrible!” Her eyes gleamed and she shook her head before she ran up to him as quick as an animal pouncing on its prey and explained the situation. “—That’s what happened! This is your chance, dear!” Her breathing was rough, “Let’s spread what happened and end his shot at being the next village leader!”

Cronen remained silent and just looked up as if he was trying to weather a headache. He gave a small sigh and hit her on the forehead with the flat of his gardening sickle.

“Wha-!?”

“…Sorry, miss. Just wait here for a moment.”

He grabbed Tina by the arm, who had her hands to her forehead, groaning, and pulled her outside.

“Ye-, sure…” Aileen was left alone and slightly dumbfounded.

The sound of steam quietly escaping from the pot lid filled the room.

“…Oh, the water is done.”