Chapter 60: The door I finally opened.

I pushed the door after entering the workshop. Click, the closing sound left a reverberation. After the sound completely subsided, I quietly listened towards the outside of the door, but no sound was heard.

I put my hand on the doorknob again. Grabbing the locking device, I turned it slowly. Clack. The sound of metal interlocking and the door locking felt exceptionally loud. There was a separate magical device besides the mechanical lock, but I didn’t activate that one.

After a short while, a sound began to be heard from outside the door. Tap. Tap. It was the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.

The owner of the sound was the Duke. In the end, I couldn’t tell him to go back. Telling him I would go down to the workshop now was all I could do to avoid it.

The footsteps stopped, seemingly having reached the bottom of the stairs. I watched the doorknob.

The door locked with a simple mechanical device didn’t shake. As if no one was outside.

Some time passed, and signs of presence were heard again. It seemed to get one step closer, and soon a thud was heard.

The door was pushed slightly and then became quiet. It seemed he sat leaning his back against the door. Just as I did during his Rut.

How did he endure the Ruts during the time I wasn’t there? It was an association following one after another naturally enough to use the word ‘natural.’

I wanted to know the answer, but also didn’t want to know.

I sat in front of the workbench keeping my mouth shut.

Whirrr. The sound of the cast-iron rotating disk with a blade coated with a mixture of olive oil and diamond powder spinning is loud. Just as diamond powder is needed to cut and polish diamonds, diamonds were also needed to transmit power to the polisher. Although I couldn’t raise it to the same level as the one used on Earth, I tried hard to make fine adjustments possible.

The diamond powder applied to the blade is the result of diamond synthesis research. Although we finally completed a chamber that can withstand high temperature and high pressure, there is still a long way to go. The immediate goal is to produce diamonds usable just as a medium for magic, not for jewelry, but growing the seed crystal to a significant size itself was a tremendous difficulty. These days, experiments to find suitable catalysts to promote growth were being repeated.

I brought the results of failed experiments from mages who still hadn’t lost their enthusiasm for research even with haggard faces and applied them to the polisher. Although I had to use natural diamonds as the power source.

I just stared blankly at the polisher spinning at an appropriate speed. I couldn’t possibly grab the yellow diamond placed right next to me, within reach.

The Radiant cut is a polishing method not devised very long ago even on Earth, and it was that complex. In Korea, especially, round brilliant cutting was the trend, so the demand for fancy cutting (cuttings of other shapes excluding the round type in the brilliant series) wasn’t large, and my experience with fancy cutting was inevitably less compared to round. It was a task with a very high probability of making mistakes if not concentrated.

Yet now, I couldn’t pour my concentration fully on the gem. Behind my back, beyond the closed door kept dragging my attention.

Eventually, I turned off the polisher that was idling meaninglessly. As the noise muffling my ears disappeared, it became silent in an instant.

When the sound of the watch’s second hand started to be recognized again, I stood up from my seat.

The sound of my footsteps echoing with every step bothered me. Because this sound would also be transmitted outside the door. Just as I heard the Duke’s footsteps coming down the stairs.

Standing in front of the door, I looked down at the lock. It was a simple task of just turning it in the opposite direction from when I locked it, but I couldn’t raise my hand easily. Just as the Duke during his Rut couldn’t open the bedroom door and come out.

I know my own thoughts are ridiculously cowardly. Still, I couldn’t open the door in the end. Instead, I leaned my back against the locked door.

In the way we conversed when the Rut visited him.

“Is it break time?”

The voice transmitted with vibration clearly contained gladness.

“No, because it was hard to concentrate.”

“Is it because of me?”

I couldn’t say yes, nor could I say no. Instead of answering, I returned a question to him.

“Why did you hurt your hand?”

Mmm…, a low groan flowed. Just when I wondered if we only asked questions neither could answer, the Duke’s voice was heard again.

“I was bitten.”

“By a person?”

The Duke’s wound was clearly the shape of human teeth.

“To be exact, I let him bite. The opponent was out of his mind. It was when we ran out of leaves to use as anesthetic, so he had to undergo bullet removal surgery without anesthesia, but I didn’t think his teeth would remain intact even if his leg became fine.”

“So…”

“There were many eyes watching. It was a good opportunity to score points with mercenaries.”

An awkward laugh followed the end of his words. That it was an action based on political calculation, not pure goodwill, was the reason he hesitated to answer. Even after passing through a battlefield that could completely destroy a person’s humanity, fastidiousness still remained in him. I thought at least that was fortunate. Apart from the scar remaining on his hand.

“Did you treat it?”

“Yeah.”

I still clearly remember the scene where the wounds he inflicted on himself disappeared cleanly. However, amidst many watching eyes, he wouldn’t have been able to completely remove the wound he voluntarily incurred. That would have been more advantageous for winning the favor of mercenaries too. Perhaps it’s natural. Even so.

“Are there any other places hurt?”

“None.”

After an answer fast enough to feel hasty, words saying ‘Thanks for worrying’ were heard.

“…I don’t think I can say it was a well-done action, but the result was good.”

“Hmm?”

“The returned mercenaries admire the Duke very much.”

“How do you know that?”

“Didn’t you investigate the children living with Nathan? Those children collect trivial rumors and convey them to me.”

“Jay…”

My name was a word replacing the reproach asking why I do such dangerous things.

“I don’t do dangerous things.”

“……”

“Really.”

“……”

That he didn’t say anything was an expression of not agreeing, and simultaneously a way of conveying worry about me. Silence was rather conveying his emotions more clearly. Realizing that fact, my appearance avoiding answers with silence came to mind. I ended up letting out a short chuckle.

“Jay.”

“…Yes.”

“I can’t force your actions, but still, I wish you wouldn’t do things where you could get hurt.”

“……”

Even realizing the meaning of silence, there still existed words I couldn’t answer.

“Conversely, if you say my coming to you is dangerous, I am confident I can make it so no one notices, but.”

Suddenly, Nathan’s appearance came to mind. The Duke can erase that guy’s memory anytime. But not touching the memory of Nathan who witnessed him would be because he recognized the guy as my person. Just like he eventually apologized for entering this shop receiving the key from the guy.

“Still, if you say don’t do it, I won’t do it anymore.”

The door I was leaning on vibrated slightly. It was a tremor caused by the movement leaning deeper from beyond the door. At the same time, thick breathing was also conveyed.

The weight of the words the Duke conveyed seemed to press on my heart. He was handing over the key to his actions to me.

It was also what I wanted eventually. Moving away from his daily life and maintaining an appropriate distance. Thus, when a time comes one day where I feel I have done everything I could, leaving for a faraway place where I can no longer know his news. I thought that was what I truly wanted.

But the current me wasn’t ready yet. Yet, I haven’t tried everything.

Now I knew. What was tying my steps so I couldn’t completely withdraw from him was, after all, my heart.

Not going to university, remaining here, and waiting for him to return.

I heard the Duke’s breathing. His completely calmed breath was just regular. As if everything was decided.

I felt like I heard cheers. The cheers people shouted when I had to watch his back moving forward, forward. When I could know the name of my emotion only after sending him away alone.

The answer I postponed once, I had to give now. The answer to the refusal the Duke already permitted me.

What I eventually chose was.

I stood up. I saw the yellow diamond, which I hadn’t even touched yet, scattering light under the illumination as if reproaching me.

However, my choice wasn’t sitting in front of the polisher and starting work.

I turned my body toward the door. Looking at the lock lying horizontally, I raised my hand and knocked on the door. I turned the lock slowly upward. Clack. Just like when locking, the sound of the interlocked metal releasing rang loudly.

I heard signs of presence. A movement neither hurried nor slow was felt.

“…I will open, the door.”

I pulled the unlocked door forward. The Duke standing beyond the open door was smiling. As if he knew I would eventually open this door, even though he said himself it was the last time.

Still, I couldn’t close the door again.

“There is a staircase that allows going directly outside from this workshop without going through the shop. It’s a door leading to a back alley, a path even Nathan doesn’t know. Because that child cannot enter inside the workshop.”

The Duke’s smile deepened. His eyes were looking straight at me without any hesitation. Completely unlike me who is wandering unable to find the right path. Cutting off the unnecessarily long explanation, I inhaled. And when exhaling again, I spat out the words I had left as if pouring them out.

“I will give you, the key to that door.”

Famous gems on Earth usually had many stories attached to them. It was similar here in Henia. Some gems went through so many accidents while passing through several people’s hands that they were called cursed. Because they were rare and beautiful. Enough that one couldn’t endure without coveting them.

Now I think I understand why people are so greedy for jewels they can’t afford.

His eyes shone like blue diamonds.