Chapitre 4: I met a wolf today
After explaining Anna's situation to Luke last night, he unexpectedly agreed to help, but with the condition that I stay in the house. It was not a hard thing to do, so I quickly agreed to his condition. Besides, I couldn't really go back to the house even if I needed to get Anna out of there. It would be like a suicide plan for me.
"Violet, are you awake?" I heard a man ask outside the door, to which I replied yes. "Can I come in?"
I opened the door to let the man standing in front of my room inside. Outside was Sir Luke, holding a tray of food in his hands.
"I brought you breakfast," he smiled, stepping inside the room. I wonder what got him to smile so brightly this early in the morning.
I didn't know why he wanted to eat breakfast with me, but I complied anyway. He has been oddly nice to me and I didn't really know how to react to his kindness. Should I be wary of him or should I trust him?
"Do you want me to show you around the house?" He asked after finishing his food, "You must be bored staying in the room all day."
My head perked up after hearing his question. I had been curious to see what kind of house I was staying at but was not sure whether I could go out of this room or not. "Can I?" I asked with a small voice that sounded big in this quiet room.
"Of course," he smiled. "Let's go."
...
As I expected, this house was enormous. I have never seen a house this big. It looked more like a castle than a normal house.
"There isn't anyone around here besides some servants, so you can do anything you want," I heard him say, and I simply nodded to his words. I couldn't help but be wary of him. If he didn't have anything to gain from me, why would he help me and be so nice to me?
I glanced over the window and realized that we were surrounded by trees. It seems that this house was built in the middle of a forest. Sir Luke followed my gaze and stared at the same view I was looking at. Though I didn't ask, he must've gotten a clue of what I was thinking. "Um, my family always liked to live in the woods because it's a lot more peaceful here than in the city," he explained, scratching the back of his neck.
Again, I nodded, continued to walk down the long corridor with him. At the end of the corridor, I saw a tall man with blonde hair with his eyes fixed on me.
"Andrew," Sir Luke called the man. "What are you doing here?" he sounded irritated by the sight of the man.
The man walked in my direction, ignoring Sir Luke's question and introducing himself to me. "You must be Violet. My name is Andrew and I'm his bet—I mean, best friend."
"I asked, what are you doing here?" Came the same question from Sir Luke.
"I just wanted to see your ma—" Before he could finish his sentence, Sir Luke glared at him, causing him to stop. "—to see her condition," he smiled. "You looked like you were in pretty bad shape when you came here, so you can say that I'm worried about you," he looked at me after finishing his sentence, as if waiting for my answer.
"Thank you for your concern. I'm doing a lot better now," I replied, only because he was expecting an answer from me.
Why are they being so nice to me? They didn't even know me. It felt weird to be treated this nicely after all this time. All the people that I met here treated me nicely, it's weird. Are people usually this nice? The people I knew before were all cold to me and looked at me like I was a piece of dirt. They all treated me as if I was worthless and not worth their time.
"Now that you see her, you should leave," said Sir Luke to the man, furrowing his brows together. I didn't know why he seemed to be very irritated by his presence.
"I want to, but sadly there's something that I need to tell you." Sir Luke let out a heavy sigh as they looked at each other, as if knowing something like this would happen. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds, as though they were talking with their eyes.
"It seems that a certain someone here doesn't like me interrupting your walk, so I'll take my leave now," said Andrew, courteously bowing to me and sending a wink to Sir Luke's way before leaving.
Andrew walked away from us, leaving only me and Luke in this empty corridor. I walked awkwardly beside Sir Luke, not sure of what to say to him. I was not used to talking to other people as I never really interacted with others. I always kept my thoughts to myself that now it has become hard for me to open up to someone else or to start a conversation with others.
"Are you uncomfortable around me?" Luke inquired, breaking the heavy silence between us.
I caught a glimpse of him and noticed that he was staring down at me with an incomprehensible expression. "It's not like that... I'm just not used to being around others." I fiddled with my fingers, glancing anywhere else but the man beside me. Well, to be frank, I am uncomfortable.
"Would you want me to help you get used to it?" he asked, before making an offer that doesn't sound very good to me. "We can meet each other every day, and I'm sure you will be a lot more comfortable with others in no time."
Though he was simply being kind to me, I couldn't help but want to reject his offer. It was not that I hated being around him, but truthfully, I felt a lot more comfortable alone. What should I say to him?
"Will you hate it if I do that?" he asked again.
"...no." After a couple of seconds of thinking about my answer, I decided to lie. I thought that it would be rude for me to say that I hate being around him when he just saved my life last night. This was the least that I could do to repay his kindness.
"That's nice to hear," he grinned widely after hearing my answer, genuinely happy with it. "Then, I will come to see you every day."
But how long is every day? I didn't think I'd stay in this house for very long. I'd have to leave this house eventually, even if I didn't have anywhere to go.
We proceeded to tour around the house and stopped at the library. The library was mostly designed in brown colors, making it feel much simpler and cozier than the rest of the house. The lamps on the walls were a little dimmer than in other rooms and emitted yellowish lights. The walls were covered with books and, by the looks of it, maybe there were thousands of books stored here. There was also a brown table and a chair in the middle of the library.
"Do you like to read?" I nodded at his question and he smiled. "I can recommend you some of my favorite books sometime later if you like. All the books here are mine, so you can read them all to your liking."
I nodded to his offer, thanking him for his generosity. The smile on his face vanished when he glanced at his wristwatch, quickly replaced by a frown and a sigh.
"Would you mind if I left you here? Though I'd love to stay with you, I have work to do."
I nodded once again, and the man soon exited the library. I breathed a sigh of relief, finally at ease after being left alone. Even though Sir Luke was nothing but kind to me, I'd much prefer to stay alone rather than stay with others. I must have become too accustomed to being alone to the point that being among others made me feel uneasy. Is it wrong that I'm feeling like this?
I looked around the place, looking for some books that piqued my interest to spend time on. Taking a few books from the shelves, I sat on the chair and spent my time reading.
Being too immersed in reading the books, I didn't realize that a lot of time had passed by. I glanced at the clock on the wall and noticed that it had been about five hours since I stayed here. Feeling a bit stuffy, I decided to go out and take a little walk.
I stepped out of the house, feeling the cool breeze hit me. I was walking around the field when I noticed some kind of light coming from the forest. I didn't know why, but I had this weird feeling that attracted me to the forest. It was like pulling me to go inside.
I walked towards the forest and something caught my eyes—a blue flower. The strange light that I saw before came from this flower. I didn't know what kind of flower it was, but I had a strong urge to touch it. I reached out my hand to touch the flower, but before I managed to touch a flower, a loud growl came from behind me. It ultimately made me stop in my tracks.
I turned around, finding a huge wolf glaring at me. Surprised, I let out a yelp, taking a few steps behind. The wolf had black fur and red eyes, and it looked so much like the wolf that helped me when I was little, except the wolf that helped me before had more greyish fur than this one. The wolf's big body towered over me, but didn't seem to be as scary as the wolf that I met nine years ago.
When the wolf saw me frightened, he lowered his head, as though saying that he meant no harm. The loud growl from before vanished, replaced by a soft one. He took a few steps closer to me, slow and not threatening. It was as if I was seeing a huge puppy.
"You... you look so much like him."
Surprised at how my hand was reaching out to him, I quickly retreated my hand. I didn't know where this courage came from that made me stay in place without running from him. I knew for a fact that any sane person would run the moment they saw this huge wolf—but strangely, I didn't run.
The wolf walked closer to me, so close that his fur managed to graze my skin. I froze in place, wondering whether or not to run... until the wolf started to rub his head on my hand. What... what should I do? Though the wolf didn't do anything that showed me any harm—yet—I couldn't help but feel a little scared. Seeing me staying still in place even after he rubbed his head on my hand, he nudged me harder, as if telling me to stroke his head.
Not wanting to anger him, I complied. The moment I patted his head, the wolf let out a little howl—perhaps to show his contentment—or the opposite—I don't know. But the longer I patted him, the wolf that was supposed to look scary before now looked as cute as a puppy.
I didn't even realize I was laughing at his behavior as I stroked his head harder, seeing the wolf slumped its body to the ground.
"Y-you are not as scary as you look," I blurted out the words, but was still a bit wary of the wolf. I didn't know wolves were this gentle... or perhaps because this one was a bit different than the others? Did he think of himself as a little puppy? He surely acted like one.
His red eyes stared back at me affectionately—just like a puppy staring at its owner. He moved his head towards mine and stopped a few inches away from me. He stared at me for a certain amount of time, then all of a sudden, his wet nose bumped into my lips, before then licking them.
Taken aback, I pulled away.
"I-it's my first time being kissed by a wolf," I confessed to the wolf, chuckling a little at the turn of events.
Hearing that, he stood up abruptly and turned away from me.
"What's wrong?" I asked, confused by his sudden movement. Did I anger him? I moved towards the wolf to look at his face, but he moved his head away from me again. It went on for a few times before I finally quizzed the wolf, "Are you shy because you kissed me?" The wolf looked at me sheepishly and nodded his head.
A burst of laughter escaped my lips after I saw his response, "That's... cute. I didn't expect a wolf to act so adorably."
He slightly growled in response to my words, as if to say, "I'm not cute," but that only made him cuter. There was no longer any frightening wolf, all that I could see was a cute huge puppy.
The wolf then looked up at the sky, noticing that it was getting darker. He nudged his head to my back softly, pushing my body for me to walk.
"Do you want me to go back?"
He nodded his head, then walked out of the forest. I followed his lead, noticing how he was leading me back to the manor. When we reached the edge of the forest, he stopped.
"Can I see you again?" I asked. Though I was scared at first, I realized that there was nothing to be afraid of him. In fact, he intrigued me. He stared at me then nodded his head, causing a smile to emerge on my face. "See you tomorrow, Wolfie."
I stepped inside the manor, ambling to my room and preparing hot water for me to bathe in. I opened the closet to see that it was now filled with a bunch of new clothes. There was a different kind of clothing ranging from party dresses to sleepwear. Is this supposed to be mine? I looked around and noticed there was also a bunch of jewelry in the rack. I did ask for some clothes to wear, but I didn't ask for this many of them. I think all the clothing here could be used to dress a whole village.
It made me feel a little uncomfortable as I was staying here for free and received such great service from them... and it's not like I'm going to stay here forever. There was no need to be this kind to me.
I chose simple sleepwear and quickly showered myself. After I finished, I ate dinner that was already served for me in my room and tried to sleep after, but I couldn't seem to fall asleep. I turned my body around the bed a few times and just decided to walk around the house. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn't notice someone behind me.
"Can't sleep?" I heard a man's voice behind me. His sudden presence surprised me and I let out a little yelp. I turned around and saw Sir Luke behind me. "Pardon me, I didn't mean to surprise you," he chuckled.
"It's all right," I assured, glancing at the man. He stared at me for a few seconds before moving his gaze away. His cheeks suddenly turned a bit reddish, as if he had just remembered something embarrassing. "Are you sick, sir? Your face is a little red."
"Huh? N-no. I'm just a bit... hot," he said while walking a step ahead of me. What was he talking about? The night air was so chilly that it made me regret not wearing thicker clothes out. He stopped in his tracks and turned his body to me, wrapping the jacket he was wearing around my body, "You shouldn't dress thinly at this time of the day. You will catch a cold."
His actions took me by surprise, but I thanked him for his kind gesture as I was just feeling cold. We continued our walk in silence, before the man broke the silence again.
"Violet?" he called out, and I glanced at him in response. "If you go to the forest, make sure to stay away from the blue flower that emits strange light—it's poisonous. It attracts people to touch it and the moment you touch it..." He stopped for a few seconds, then added. "...you could die of poisoning. Everyone who lives here knows about it, so we stay away from it. You know, just in case you got bored and decided to take a walk to the surrounding forest."
I was surprised to hear his explanation of the blue flower that I encountered before. So I almost died? Was that why the wolf growled at me, to stop me from touching the flower as it was poisonous?
"Why are there such flowers around here?" I inquired, curious as to why such dangerous plants were not uprooted.
"A witch planted it here," he replied after staying quiet for a few seconds, giving me the answer to the question but ultimately raising a new one. Witch? I thought witches were gone from this world. Witches were hunted down a few centuries ago and no witch was seen after. At least, that was what my mom told me.
"I thought they were gone?" I asked, and the man looked at me as if I had just breathed out fire from my mouth.
"You know about witches?" he queried, and I nodded to answer. "Most of them are gone, but there are still a few of them in this world. Witches are immune to the flower's poison, so my family asked a witch to plant the flower to protect us from intruders. Only the people who live here know about them, so it's pretty effective to get rid of unwanted people."
"Am I allowed to enter the forest?" He raised his brow at my question.
"Why do you want to go there?"
"I want to meet a friend," I smiled, reminiscing the memory of meeting the wolf from this evening.
"Do you... like your friend?" he asked, asking as if he knew who I was talking about.
"Well... he's a very cute friend, so yes."
"He likes you too," I heard him mumble with a small voice, but I couldn't really hear what he was saying.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Nothing," he smiled. "But promise me to only go to the forest when you are meeting your friend, okay? You never know what's waiting for you inside the forest. It can be very dangerous." I nodded my head at his words. "Let's go back to your room. It's getting late."
The man then escorted me back to my room while humming to a song, bouncing in his every step like an overjoyed kid.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone