Chapter 130 - A Friend’s Apology
As dusk approached, Volf was changing in his barracks room, about to head out.
When he opened the door at the sound of a knock, he found Randolph standing in front and Dorino behind.
“Volf, we’re going out for drinks. You in?”
“Yeah, I’ll join you.”
“Should we call Kirk?”
“No, he went back to his family’s place today. He’s off tomorrow.”
“I see.”
Normally, it would have been Dorino knocking on the door, but today he was silent, standing behind Randolph.
“Dorino, something wrong?”
“It’s nothing...”
He said this, but he was tapping his heel against the floor at an odd frequency. He seemed to be in a bad mood.
“Ah, hold on. Let me grab my glasses and wallet.”
Volf left the door open and went back into his room.
Hanging on the wall was a black coat with sand lizard hide on the outside and wyvern leather on the inside. He had borrowed it again the other day when it suddenly rained on his way back from the Green Tower.
Dorino narrowed his blue eyes as he saw the coat from the doorway.
“That coat... you still have it? By the way, did you ever find that merchant who helped you during the wyvern incident? You made a big deal about it at first, but then you stopped talking about it.”
Volf’s eyes shifted uncomfortably.
Truth be told, he hadn’t explained the details about Dahlia to his unit or his friends.
Somehow, it felt awkward to talk about—no, more accurately, he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Um... actually, Dahlia was the one who helped me in the forest when I was carried off by the wyvern...”
“Huh? The merchant was a man, wasn’t he? The head of the Rossetti Company is a woman, right?”
As Volf stepped into the hallway, Dorino raised his voice slightly.
“Dahlia was pretending to be a man in the forest. She did it so I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.”
“So she let a strange man into her carriage, gave him a potion and food, lent him her coat, and left without even telling him where she lived... What a manly person.”
“Randolph, that’s the wrong word. ‘Manly’ is for men.”
Randolph’s mother was from a neighboring country. Moreover, Randolph himself had spent a long time studying abroad there.
As a result, Randolph’s foundation was still rooted in the language of that neighboring country. He still occasionally used uncertain words or expressions.
“Then is ‘ladyly’ the right word?”
“That word doesn’t exist, maybe a cool woman...? Take ‘chivalry’ and change it to ‘ladyry’? No, that’s not it. What’s the proper term?”
Randolph and Volf began discussing the neighboring country’s language.
Dorino, who had been silent, gradually turned pale, covering his face with his hands and bending over.
“...Ugh, I’m the worst!”
“Dorino, what’s wrong all of a sudden?”
“What happened, Dorino?”
The sudden change in their friend made both of them speak up at the same time.
“I said something really stupid to the head of the Rossetti Company. I need to apologize...”
“Something stupid? What did you say?”
“Um... I misunderstood and said something completely out of line...”
Volf took a few steps forward and stood in front of Dorino. For some reason, his heartbeat echoed loudly in his head.
“I want to know what you said.”
“...I’m reflecting on it. I’ll send an apology letter right away, and the next time I see her, I’ll kneel and apologize.”
“What did you say to Dahlia?”
Without realizing it, Volf had unleashed a cold, intimidating aura directed at Dorino.
Dorino froze, forcing out his words.
“I said, ‘I’m surprised there’s a woman who’s managed to tame Volf so well that he doesn’t even seem wary.’”
In an instant, Volf’s hand shot out and grabbed Dorino by the collar.
With his left hand, he lifted his friend as if he weighed nothing.
Pinning Dorino against the wall, Volf was speechless with shock and anger.
Why had Dorino said such a thing to Dahlia? Why had his own friend said such a thing? He couldn’t understand it at all.
“Volf, stop it!”
Randolph tried to stop him from behind.
Volf thought he had only lightly brushed him off, but a dull thud echoed as Randolph hit the wall.
“Volf... I was wrong... I’ll... properly apologize...”
At the sight of Dorino’s red face and his fragmented voice, Volf snapped out of it and let go.
Dorino collapsed onto the hallway floor, coughing violently.
When Volf turned around, Randolph was still struggling to get up.
Volf stared at his tightly clenched left hand, finally steadying his breath.
“...Sorry, Dorino. I lost my temper.”
“No, it’s entirely my fault. I’m the one who should apologize.”
“Randolph, sorry. Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
As they continued their somewhat awkward conversation, someone from a nearby room stepped out.
They asked if something had happened because of the loud noise, and Dorino brushed it off, saying he had tripped while fooling around.
“Dorino, let’s go apologize now.”
“Right now? Isn’t it rude to visit at this hour?”
“I want to apologize as soon as possible. I think it’s harder on Dahlia if we leave it like this.”
“Alright. Volf, sorry, but can you guide me and mediate?”
Dorino bowed deeply to Volf.
・・・・・・・
They hurried the carriage and arrived at the Green Tower as the sun was setting.
Volf opened the gate with a touch of his hand and rang the tower’s doorbell.
Familiar footsteps approached, and Dahlia peeked out from the door. She was wearing an apron, likely in the middle of preparing dinner.
“Volf, is something wrong?”
“Sorry for the sudden visit. Um... about today, I wanted Dorino to apologize. Randolph is here as, well, a chaperone.”
From the time he was ten and survived a carriage attack until today, Volf had never truly lost his temper with another person.
Reflecting on his behavior at the barracks earlier, he felt uneasy about hearing Dorino’s apology. That’s why he had asked Randolph to accompany them.
Although, since he had also shoved Randolph in the hallway, he reminded himself to stay calm.
“Um, if we talk here, people on the road might see us. Would it be alright to come inside?”
“Is it okay to let them into the tower? Or we could use the backyard. Are you okay with talking to Dorino?”
“With you here, it’s fine.”
Her smile as she answered made his chest tighten slightly.
He worried that Dahlia might be forcing herself to appear unbothered.
Volf called the two in from outside the gate, and the four of them entered the first-floor workshop.
Immediately, Dorino knelt on his right knee in front of Dahlia.
“Chairwoman Rossetti, today I said something terrible due to a misunderstanding. I retract my words and apologize. I’m truly sorry!”
Dorino bowed deeply and didn’t raise his head.
A knight kneeling on one knee and bowing was a sign of deep apology or remorse. It wasn’t something done lightly.
“Um, please stand and raise your head, Barty-san!”
Beside the flustered Dahlia, Volf asked in a low voice.
“Dorino, I want to know why you misunderstood.”
“...Not only did she call you ‘Volf’ so casually, but even Randolph by name too. And then she even gave me a bright smile. Plus, you seemed unusually familiar with her, so I just assumed she was her company’s ‘trap woman’...”
“‘Trap woman’? What’s that?”
Dahlia looked puzzled as she asked, and Dorino averted his gaze.
“...Women who use their charm as a weapon or fake relationships to get their company’s products into the royal castle. Surprisingly common in the castle. There are ‘trap men’ too, not just women.”
“Wait, Dorino. Just because she smiled at you and I was acting friendly, that’s all it took?”
“It’s not just that. I’m a commoner from the lower districts, and a young woman smiling at me on our first meeting? That’s almost always a ‘trap woman’...”
Dorino sighed as he spoke, and Volf tilted his head.
“But Dorino, you’ve been approached before, and even maids have handed you letters, right?”
“Those were all about wanting to get closer to you. And the letters were addressed to you and Randolph. I always told them to deliver them themselves.”
“I had no idea about that.”
“If I told you, you’d overthink it. Even if you didn’t, you’d just get annoyed.”
Volf was a bit confused by this revelation but continued questioning.
“But even so, there’s no way Dahlia’s a ‘trap woman,’ right?”
“Well… there are even those who aim for the ‘absolutely not suspicious’ type—like the pure and quiet ones. There was even a senior in our unit who got caught up in it and ended up leaving. To be honest, I almost fell for it myself when I first joined. So, I… overreacted.”
“Sounds like a misunderstanding based on personal history.”
Randolph, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.
“Dorino, I asked Lady Dahlia to call me Randolph because she’s Volf’s friend and because there are many people with the same last name.”
“You took over two months to tell me to call you ‘Randolph’! How many times had you met the Chairwoman Rossetti by then? That’s way too fast.”
“When I first joined the Monster Subjugation Force, I was self-conscious about my accent and didn’t talk much. Even now, I’m still not good at talking.”
“I see…”
Randolph’s words were in the language of the neighboring country, influenced by his mother.
Volf had thought he was just naturally quiet, but it seemed there was more to it.
With most of the questions answered, the men fell silent, and their attention naturally turned to Dahlia.
“Um… I think I understand the gist of it. ‘I accept Barty-san’s apology’—is that okay?”
“The wording doesn’t matter. I’m really sorry! I didn’t know you were the person Volf mentioned, Rossetti-san, the one who helped him.”
“Volf, you talked about what happened in the forest?”
Dahlia looked slightly troubled as she asked.
But before Volf could answer, the two in front of him nodded deeply.
“I heard. He kept sighing deeply in the mess hall.”
“I heard too. He said he wanted to find you no matter what.”
“Um, both of you, let’s leave it at that.”
Volf raised a hand to stop them before they could go into detail. He really didn’t want Dahlia to hear this.
“Um… Volf, can I talk to you for a moment?”
“What is it?”
Dahlia spoke to him in a low voice, prompting Wolf to close the distance slightly.
“Actually, Irma and her mom were supposed to come for dinner, but her mom caught a cold and had to stay in bed, and Irma might have caught it too, so she can’t come. Someone came to deliver the message. I was wondering what to do with the food I prepared… It’s nothing fancy, but would you three mind joining me?”
“…Honestly, I don’t want to let them go upstairs.”
“Ah, Volf, you don’t have to worry about it. Oh, but normally, asking knights from the royal castle to help with leftover food would be rude… It’s not something people do, right?”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
Looking across the room, he saw Dorino’s deeply gloomy face and Randolph’s unusually troubled expression.
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or cause you any trouble.”
“I was surprised when he said it, and to be honest, I’ve been worrying about why he said it until just now. But he apologized properly, and I understand the reason, so it’s fine now. Besides, Barty-san was just worried about the two of you.”
“Worried?”
“Barty-san bowed his head to me and said, ‘Please don’t do anything that would make them cry.’ So I thought there might have been some misunderstanding.”
“Chairwoman Rossetti, that’s…”
Dorino awkwardly started to speak but then scratched his head vigorously.
“No, I just misunderstood, jumped to conclusions, and I’m really sorry. I’m such an idiot…”
“Dorino, why…”
“It just shows how much you care about Volf and Randolph-sama, doesn’t it? Barty-san, you wouldn’t gain anything by saying that to me, after all.”
Dahlia unusually interrupted him, speaking firmly.
Dorino widened his eyes and stared at her with his blue gaze.
“How about we settle this matter here, out of respect for Lady Dahlia’s position? Though… I’m not sure if ‘quarrel’ is the right word for this.”
At Randolph’s words, Dahlia smiled and nodded, and the other two finally relaxed their expressions.
In the end, they accepted Dahlia’s invitation and headed to the second floor.
At the foot of the stairs, she suddenly stopped.
“By the way, my father used to say that when male friends fight, they apologize and drink together to forget about it. Is that how it works?”
“Maybe to some extent. But what about female friends?”
“Then you just keep apologizing. Or silently listen to them vent.”
“My father said, if you quarrel with a woman, ‘Be prepared for what you did to be dug up again after a maturation period.’ He told that to his male friends while I was in the kitchen. Isn’t that just awful?”
“…Maturation period.”
Randolph muttered the phrase, and Volf grimaced.
“I’d rather not have it dug up when I’ve forgotten about it…”
“Yeah, totally…”
The three men averted their eyes, each looking somewhere distant.
“As long as you talk it out and avoid fighting, it’ll be fine.”
The smile Dahlia cast back on the stairs somehow carried the air of an older woman.
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