Please Answer Me - Chapter 36
Rashid put his hand to his waist. The dagger at his waist was drawn without a sound.
For some time, his room had been visited in this manner, and none of them had returned alive. As he had defeated his rivals in ritual after ritual, the visitors had tapered off, and at some point, they had stopped coming.
Rashid drew back the curtains. The moment he pointed his dagger at it, a piercing shriek rang out.
“Ahh! D- don’t!”
The woman gasped, the dagger already at her throat, its cold touch making her shudder.
“It’s me, it’s me!”
Rashid immediately snatched the dagger from her.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, I was just picking up a comb…”
Rosetta held out what she had in her hand to him, trembling slightly. True to her word, her tiny, bandaged hand held a wooden comb.
“I was sitting on my bed, combing my hair, and the comb flew away, and I was picking it up when you came in.”
“……”
Rashid took a step back and measured the distance between his bed and this place. It was more than five steps at a stride. He didn’t understand how the comb had flown here if it didn’t have wings, but he decided to ask the most questionable thing first.
“Why were you combing your hair when you hurt your hands? Where are the maids?”
“I’m supposed to comb it after it’s dried a bit, but Benny looked so tired, so I just told her to go to her room and sleep. Oh, and the doctor said it’s okay to use my fingers to do things.”
Rashid looked down at her with a momentary look of disapproval. He didn’t know what to make of this meek woman who was so generous with her subordinates.
Rashid took her by the arm and led her to the bed, where he sat her down and warned her in a low voice.
“You could have died today.”
Her shoulders flinched. Her big eyes fluttered open.
“Whenever I see someone in a place where I can’t see them properly, I attack them, just like I did, because I’ve had more than a few assassins try to kill me while hiding in places like that.”
“A- assassins?” she exclaimed in stunned surprise.
“Don’t worry, it hasn’t happened lately.”
Rashid could tell she was freaking out, so he calmed her down. “So from now on, stay where I can see you, and don’t hide out of sight like that.”
“In a place where you can see me?”
“Yes.”
Rosetta stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Ah, I get it.”
“Then finish what you were doing.”
He crossed his arms and looked down at her. Rosetta realized that he meant to continue brushing her hair, so she awkwardly began again.
Rashid soon realized there was something off about the way she was brushing. It was the first time he’d ever seen a woman brush her hair, but at least she wasn’t tearing her own hair out.
She had very curly hair, as she said. On top of that, she had a lot of hair, so once the dense hairbrush got stuck in her hair, it wouldn’t budge, and she would have to comb it out from the ends to loosen it, but she just kept trying to comb it from top to bottom with force.
“Ugh…”
Rosetta struggled with the hairbrush stuck in her hair and tried to pull it out again. As she barely managed to pull it out again, the hairbrush flew off into the distance like it had wings.
-bam!
This time it landed even near the fireplace, farther away than before, almost hitting the historic ceramics on the mantelpiece, bouncing off the wall, and landing on the floor.
As Rosetta glanced at him and was about to pick it up, Rashid asked, “Have you never combed your own hair before?”
“……”
Rosetta stopped dead in her tracks, and she just stared at him. She didn’t say anything, but that was the more obvious answer.
Who the hell is this woman…
Rashid decided to discard all thoughts he had had about this woman earlier.
The ability to attract people? Ruler of a large country? What a ridiculous idea for a woman who couldn’t even comb her own hair!
Rashid returned with a comb for her. He pulled a chair over to the bed and patted it.
“Sit down.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you need to comb your hair?”
“You mean you’re going to comb it?”
“Yes, because if I don’t, you won’t be able to finish it.”
Rosetta pouted a little, but did as she was told and sat down in the chair. Rashid took her hair and began to comb it from the ends. With each skillful brush, Rosetta’s initially stiff shoulders gradually relaxed.
“By the way, have you ever combed anyone else’s hair?”
“No way.”
“But you seem pretty good at it. It doesn’t hurt.”
“Of course it hurts if you try to force a comb through a tangle. A three-year-old knows that.”
In other words, I don’t know what a three-year-old knows.
Rosetta lowered her head and muttered to herself. He couldn’t hear her, but it was clear she was cursing him. Rashid tugged at her hair, deliberately hard.
“Aah! I won’t! I won’t!”
Laughing involuntarily at her reaction, Rashid suddenly realized what he was doing and was lost in thought.
Yesterday he had washed her feet and fed her himself, and today he was combing her hair. It was like he was taking care of her from head to toe.
How the hell did I end up like this?
Still, Rashid diligently brushed all of her hair. Finally, he tied her hair up with an unadorned ribbon.
After his mother’s death, all of her belongings had been burned by order of his maternal grandfather, Elder Calante. As if to deny and erase her very existence. So nothing of hers remained, except for the ribbon she had left Rashid in person.
As a result, there were few feminine items in the castle that Rosetta could use. Even the robe she’s wearing now was hastily brought from somewhere. The same goes for the shabby ribbon.
“I’ve told Thelma to call for a merchant, and if you see anything you need, you can pick it out yourself.”
As he removed his hand from her hair, she turned around. Her green eyes sparkled, full of curiosity.
“I heard about this from Thelma, but can I really buy anything?”
“Yes. Hair accessories, jewelry, anything you like.”
Rashid thought of the jewelry that would sparkle on her. Something large and ornate would look good, but a necklace of natural pearls or a dainty piece of jewelry with a single feature gem would be better for her milky white skin.
Her hair is dazzling in itself, so something like a flower-shaped ornament or a ribbon dyed a delicate color would be better than sparkling gems…
Then Rashid looked away, embarrassed. He seemed to have too many unnecessary thoughts lately.
“Anything you want.”
Rosetta took the blunt reply to mean something else.
“Don’t worry, I’ll just buy enough to keep the budget under control, I’ve got that in mind.”
All the while, Rosetta stroked the hair he’d tied up over and over again. She was in a very good mood now.
“But if the assassins came so often at night, how did you manage to sleep at all?”
“I’ve gotten used to sleeping so lightly that I wake up at the slightest sign of disturbance.”
“Then let’s share a bed while I’m here, it’s safer with more than one person guarding.”
Rashid laughed out loud. “You fall asleep as soon as your head touches the bed, and once you’re asleep, you don’t even realize you’re being carried, so who’s guarding who?”
“It’s not that bad.”
Rosetta grumbled with a disgruntled look. What a reaction to something that was meant to be a thoughtful suggestion. Rosetta lifted her head and looked at the curtain where she had been a moment ago.
“By the way, it’s kind of sad that what might be a romance to some is a threat to others.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about the ‘night visit’.”
“The night visit?”
“It’s an old custom in the Kingdom of Lysa.”
Rosetta looked at him and smiled. “It’s usually practiced in private homes. When a man and a woman have seen eye to eye, the man sneaks into the woman’s room before the marriage, and he must enter without the parents’ knowledge, through a window, not a door.”
“Sure. Unless you want to be beaten to death by the woman’s father.”
Rosetta put on a puzzled expression for a moment, hearing him say that, and not anyone else.
“Anyway, they say that the higher up a woman’s room is, or the harder it is to get in through a window, the more true love is recognized, and that’s why people have been known to jump through windows and fall to their deaths, so the kingdom has banned it, but it doesn’t seem to be followed.”
“Because there are fools everywhere who risk their lives for love.”
Rosetta narrowed her eyes at his continued ridicule.
“Think about it, if the person you love so much and want to see so badly took the risk of climbing over a wall to appear behind your window curtains, wouldn’t you be overjoyed to the point of tears?”
“Well, isn’t it much more likely that the person hiding there is a burglar?”
“Are you going to keep destroying the meaning of the old story like that?”
Rashid eventually burst out laughing at the raised voice.
“Be quiet and listen to me. As for the man who comes in through the window does is……”
Rosetta’s chattering continued. The lukewarm breeze that blew in through the open window was now carrying a strong floral scent.
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Sena
I love ml’s personality. Also fl. She is so funny and kind 🥰