Chapter 32 (1/2)
The three of us tore the bedsheets to pieces.
Palmira, expressionless, and Aira, resigned, silently went about their respective jobs.
It was two or three meters to the window below, so two sheets would do it.
“Uuuh, wuuh… we’ll definitely be scolded again tomorrow…”
Aira whined mournfully, apparently having abandoned all hope. Even so, she was helping me. I guess you could say she’s got a good sense of fellows.h.i.+p?
“That depends on Chris.”
Well, it’s okay. Like Palmira says, it does depend on me, to a certain degree.
I might catch h.e.l.l tomorrow morning, but it’s better if I worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Right now, I should be doing what I can.
“Mm, that’s enough.”
I twisted the torn sheets into three lengths of rope and tied the ends together. I gave my new rope a few tugs to check its strength.
I couldn’t say for sure, but it would probably do the trick.
It might have been dangerous for my male self, but the way I was right now, it should be okay.
I fastened one end of the rope to the leg of the bed nearest to the window.
But it wasn’t time to go down yet. Sure, the lights were off, but if I went in and found someone there, it was going to be a problem. If someone spotted me before I got to Leon because of my carelessness, I wouldn’t be able to come up with an excuse.
I took the other end of the rope with me to the side of the window.
Once I’d tested the strength of the rope I made out of the curtains, I clutched the remaining length to me and stood at the edge of the window.
“Okay then, I’m heading out.”
My tone breezy, I called back to the two staying behind in the room: Aira, looking genuinely worried, and Palmira, not looking particularly worried at all.
“T–Take care?”
“Go for it.”
I nodded in response to their lackl.u.s.ter encouragement and looked down.
Third floors are pretty high up, huh. Let me rephrase. The impression you get from the room sure is different from the one you get when your heels are dangling over the edge of the windowsill. The gentle breeze, which would normally be nothing to worry about, was a huge pain in the a.s.s now.
I suddenly realized something. I went back inside the room just one more time, in order to tear the hem of the long dress I was wearing up to a point above my knee. It was a quality piece of clothing, but I tried to think about it as little as possible. If I was doing this, I was gonna do it right.
“Hooo–…kay.”
See ya. I lifted my hand again to the other two and stepped onto the windowsill once more. Gripping the rope, I turned my back to the outside.
From inside the room, Aira, her expression complicated, and Palmira, her face devoid of expression, waved their own hands back at me.
And so, as carefully as I could, I began to descend the rope hand over hand.
Honestly, being this high up was pretty terrifying. All the more so because I was holding onto a rope made of bedsheets. And my only source of light was the moon.
It might be romantic, a girl in a dress climbing down a rope on a moonlit night, but as the party in question, I was desperate to get it over with.
Anyway, I managed to make it to the room below. As I made a laborious detour around the window to avoid being seen from within, I caught my foot on the slight protrusion of the windowsill.
“Phew.”
One floor down. It didn’t take much time, but my entire body was soaked with sweat. I was panting, too.
I wiped my sweaty palms on my waist. One at a time, of course.
“Okay, now — ”
Once I’d calmed down a bit, I slowly peeked into the room. There were thin curtains hung over the window, but I could scan the room inside through a small gap.
It was a fairly s.p.a.cious room.
It looked like someone’s living room, not all that different from ours. There was a single bed, its sheets in a mess, but there didn’t seem to be anyone sleeping in it.
s.h.i.+fting my body, I changed my angle of view as I surveyed the inside of the room.
Empty?
Of course there were blind spots, but for the time being, I couldn’t detect any signs of someone hiding inside.
Slowly hooking my fingers onto the frame, I gently opened the window.
At that moment, I realized for the first time that the window might have been locked, but my concern was misplaced. It opened easily.
Then I nimbly slid into the room through the open window. To avoid making any sound, I landed on the floor on all fours.
In that position, I swept my gaze across the room.
Yup, no one’s here.
” — Nice.”
“What’s ‘nice’?”
“Wahyaah–!?”
Before I could even take a breath of relief, I heard a voice coming from behind me. The sound of it literally made me jump straight up from my hands and knees in surprise.
I spun around in a hurry, looking for the source.
Hanging over the window I’d left open, the curtains swayed in the breeze. Moonlight streamed into the room, illuminating the person standing beside the window.
Leopard.
His expression as grim as always, he looked down at me with his arms crossed.
“It may be romantic to break into a man’s room through the window in the night, but it’s not very admirable.”
“I wouldn’t say stuff like ‘romantic’, not with that face.”
Breaking out into a cold sweat and cursing inwardly, I stood with as much calm as I could muster.
‘This is the worst’, ‘Why is Leopard here’, those thoughts swirled around in my heart.
I’ll say it straight-out: This is the last person I want to see right now. Here was Leon’s adjutant, his close a.s.sociate — the same Leon I’d thoroughly showered with verbal abuse not too long ago.
He was going take me back to the room like this… or, worst case, maybe even a jail cell.
Then, hearing the story from Leopard, Leon’s att.i.tude would only harden more.
Jail aside, I couldn’t stand for my relations.h.i.+p with Leon to deteriorate any further.
But then, what should I do? Nothing was coming to me.
Since Leopard was standing by the window, I might be able to shake him if I made a dash for the door, but no matter how I looked at it, it’d be a bad move. h.e.l.l, I wasn’t even sure I could shake him.
Leopard’s vigilance was airtight.
“And? What did you escape from your room to do?”
said Leopard point-blank, without a single change in expression.