Chapter 16: The New Identity

Clom.

Jerond looked back and forth between the two for quite a long time, then asked.

“What color do you see that woman’s eyes as?”

Clom frowned at the sudden question.

“Her eyes? Why the color of her eyes?”

Jerond’s expression hardened further at Clom’s answer. Then he asked Fay.

“Fay, how about you? What do you see?”

The two blinked at the inexplicable question. But Jerond was more persistent.

“Tell me how they look to you two.”

It was clearly an odd eye. Eyes of different colors.

According to records, those born with such eyes could be counted on one hand. Different countries had different attitudes and treatment, but Isleam was fairly lenient.

According to Isleam records, those born with odd eyes were considered imperial blood and received the emperor’s highest treatment.

“It’s just common blue.”

“Fay, you too?”

“They’re similar to my sister’s eyes, though.”

Their reaction suggested they didn’t understand why he kept checking something so trivial. Jerond turned his head again and quietly stared at the eyes that gave off different colors.

One was clearly deep blue, the other deep violet. They were so obvious. And yet the two couldn’t see them?

“Why do you keep asking about eye color? Is someone who survived the forest not allowed to have blue eyes?”

Jerond’s frozen expression changed into something complicated. If it was something only his eyes could see, there had to be a reason.

He could learn the reason slowly, and even if it never came out, it wouldn’t be a big problem. Perhaps it was fortunate that only Jerond could see it.

If a human who survived the forest also had odd eyes, this wouldn’t end so simply.

“Just in case, I’ll ask. What color does her hair look to you?”

Clom answered with a bewildered look at Jerond’s continued questions.

“It looks like dirty yellow. Why?”

“Don’t joke.”

Then Fay answered.

“It’s shining blond. Honestly, I’ve never seen that color before.”

Fay’s answer was accurate. It was blond, but a strange color. It looked close to silver, yet held pink, and when it caught the light it looked fully blond.

It sparkled like the surface of a beautiful river and held so much light that it sometimes looked like an angel’s eyes.

It might have been an exaggeration, but at least in Jerond’s eyes it was true. That was why that color made even the mismatched eyes stand out.

“That’s enough. It’s enough now.”

Jerond wrapped things up immediately. There was no need to drag it out. He spoke to the two who were staring only at him.

“We brought nothing back from the forest today. If you want to be locked in the Tower for two days, interrogated, and forced to write statements, report the two hybrids. The higher-ups will latch on and make your lives very annoying.”

Clom and Fay looked disgusted. The Tower of the higher-ups was a truly obnoxious place. They were so persistent that one knight who fainted during interrogation jumped out a window and killed himself.

At Jerond’s words, Fay lightly smacked the heads of the two hybrids hanging limp at his side. The two, who had been sleeping soundly, opened their eyes and yelled in shock, “argh!”

“Human!! Am I rescued?”

“It smells like Master! We’ve come to Master’s country!! We don’t have to eat moles!!”

Clom made all sorts of faces at the noisy hybrids. They were creatures noblewomen raised as pets, not very intelligent and interested only in food.

Many noblewomen in his own castle kept them, walking them around on leashes, so he couldn’t understand why these had crawled all the way into the forest.

“…Damn. Why are the scholars of this country so eager?”

“Because they don’t believe in superstitions and witchcraft, that’s why.”

As soon as Jerond finished speaking, Clom grabbed the two hybrids, who had woken up and were screeching, and shoved them into his leather pouch.

“But shouldn’t we give this woman a new identity? She doesn’t look bad, but her hands and feet are rough, so we can’t exactly call her a rich farmer’s daughter…”

Within the empire, identity was important. Even a beggar needed an identity that recorded their origin, hometown, and name.

“Make her a woman from Lavarus. Say she sold dyes with an old woman. You.”

Jerond called Luti. When she raised her head at his call, he asked something unexpected.

“Do you know anything about painting?”

She knew about painting. She wasn’t good at it, but she had learned from Lady Debora. You mixed dyes and applied them to white cloth, then colored over a sketch with a branch charred by fire.

But she had never actually painted, so when she hesitated, he asked again.

“You just need to know what it is.”

Only then did Luti roll her eyes and give a small nod. The man understood and said.

“At least you seem to know what a painting is. We’ll say you have deep knowledge of painting. Say you sold dyes with an old woman and learned painting, and now you paint portraits.”

Clom immediately responded to Jerond’s clear answer.

“Well, I suppose it is about time you had your portrait painted. But there are plenty of famous painters. You want to spread a rumor that you brought that woman in?”

“Just say she’s a painter of that caliber.”

What mattered was giving the woman an identity. Whether she actually had painting skill didn’t matter much.

“A decent disguise. So what’s her name?”

Jerond slowly closed and opened his eyes. Looking at the blond hair revealed under the sunlight, he said.

“Amblin.”

“…”

“Age twenty-one. Make her a quiet, modest, but sensitive woman. She’s fairly smart and doesn’t like sweets. She’s a little materialistic and by nature rather quiet. Don’t bother spreading a rumor that she can’t speak. And she has a man she admires. That should do.”

Clom was so surprised by the word “admires” that he even wrinkled his forehead.

“Why did you add that last part?”

“Because it’s better to prevent visitors who can’t hold back their curiosity from coming. If you don’t mind people barging in dozens of times a day, take out that last part.”

If rumors spread that he had brought in a female painter from another country, passing over famous painters, everyone would be dying of curiosity.

In particular, the women who had their eyes on Jerond would swarm in, and after all sorts of envy and jealousy, they would surely spread strange rumors.

“Why did it have to be a woman?”

Clom didn’t like the small, delicate woman. A sturdy man would be one thing, but a woman who looked like she would fly away with a light tap had survived that forest.

Even from the perspective of the Black Knights who had laid waste to the forest, this was troubling. Just thinking about the forest made him shudder, and if this woman’s existence came to light, the dragon hunt would be completely ruined.

“Hey.”

Clom handed the leather pouch to the woman pressed close to Jerond. The two heavy hybrids inside made a racket.

“Human!”

“Ask if our master is alive!”

“This was originally yours, right? We can unfold the story as we go, so behave yourself in the castle. Since you say you know how to paint, pretend to paint and let out the story of the forest.”

“…”

“And my name is Clom. Clom Durs Gladzor. I’m also the brother of the man who gave you your new identity.”

Clom’s emotionless eyes crumpled slightly. He had only approached to speak, but she trembled so much that he felt like a back-alley thug.

“Why are you shaking like this? I’m just introducing myself. Believe it or not, I’m a knight. A knight. I don’t touch women and children.”

Clom grumbled. Staring into those terrified eyes made him feel strange.

“Anyway, don’t cause trouble and stay quiet.”

Clom returned to his black horse without even waiting for Luti’s answer. As soon as he mounted, the man named Fay rode down the hill.

Once the two had left, she was alone with Jerond. Jerond approached Luti, who was gazing at the splendid, beautiful country with complicated eyes.

“I won’t tell you to forget the forest. But you’d better not think about going back.”

“…”

“The forest won’t come back to life. Soon we’ll invade it again. And the same thing as before will happen.”

The cruel day came to mind. The sight she had seen from the top of Moa’s nest. The scene of those in black uniforms carrying out slaughter.

Sorotel had said then that the world was changing. That there were countries stronger and greater than Helter. That was Isleam, and the empire Luti was facing.

“Is there anything else you want to ask?”

At Jerond’s question, Luti nodded with eyes that looked ready to fill with tears. The reality that she could never return to the forest was sad, but reality was reality.

“What is it?”

Luti gathered courage at the cold voice and spoke.

“My… eyes…”

“You mean, isn’t it strange?”

Jerond’s indifferent gaze fell on Luti’s frightened question.

“Of course it’s strange. It gives a different impression from normal people.”

As expected, Luti barely resisted the urge to squeeze her eyes shut.

“But that doesn’t mean I want to cover your eyes or gouge them out and feed them to animals.”

“…”

“There’s no reason for it, and I have no desire to. So what I mean is…”

Jerond pulled up the hat that had sunk low. The differently colored eyes became clear. Even though she was afraid, the firmness in her pupils was clear.

“Don’t worry about your eyes. As you saw earlier, the other two besides me couldn’t recognize your eyes.”

“…”

“I don’t know why either. We’ll find out as time passes. And consider it fortunate that only I can see it. Even without that, if the first human to survive the forest also had odd eyes, those two would have had a hard time joining this secret.”

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