Chương 103: The Proposal Knot

The women in the market kept tying things to Kichan's wake-up rod. Dried flowers, animal teeth, colored thread, and small pieces of wood. Sometimes a demihuman woman tied them on. Sometimes an elderly human with a daughter of marriageable age did it for her. Kichan assumed they were markers for identifying herbs.

"Is this molly?"

"It is simply a flower." Riphiel answered.

"Then why tie it there?"

"You do not need to know." Argaon saw an animal tooth hanging from the wake-up rod and laughed.

"That is a courtship mark from a rather large tribe."

"What is?"

"Nothing." Seria approached to explain. Kichan saw the look of a troublesome conversation about to begin and picked up a sack of herbs.

"I need to get salt."

"You just brought some."

"I need more." He escaped. Marena tied no such decorations. She did not follow Kichan when he entered the market. Instead, if a flour sack sat beneath a damp tent, she called for him first.

"Everything will rot if you leave it there."

"The rain isn't hitting it."

"Moisture is coming up from the ground."

"Then where do I put it?"

"Stop talking and lift that side." Marena took one end of the sack. Kichan lifted the other. As they carried it onto dry boards, Marena explained that the number on the ration sheet did not match the number of empty bowls.

"We're missing one."

"Someone probably ate two."

"I counted Argaon's separately."

"You count his separately?"

"Otherwise, the numbers mean nothing." Marena folded the ration sheet and opened the medicine box. When Kichan tried to add a handful of molly leaves, she caught his wrist. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Two leaves."

"The fever is high."

"Which is why it is two. There is mandragora in it as well."

"Wouldn't three make them better faster?"

"It would put them to sleep faster." Kichan removed one leaf. After giving the medicine to the patient, Marena washed the empty bowl herself. When Kichan started toward the next person, she put bread in his hand.

"Eat before you go."

"I'm not hungry."

"You have been cutting pieces from Argaon's meat all day without eating any yourself."

"You saw that?"

"I count the bowls." Kichan accepted the bread but did not eat for a while. Marena went to wash another bowl. From that day, people in the market set aside a share for Kichan's party. Batu received tough meat and held it beneath one paw while chewing. Valkyrie chose a bowl of clear water and soaked itself. When Dust tried to undo the knot around the button can, the children clutched it to their chests and ran. Parents rose from their meals whenever Kichan passed.

"Don't stand up while you're eating." Kichan made them sit, and they stood again the following day. Marena had seemed faintly familiar to Kichan from the beginning. Her face was different. What resembled Suyeon was the quiet line of her mouth just before a smile, the way she did not avoid another person's eyes, and the habit of holding a cup of tea in both hands. He did not look for long. Whenever he drank tea, he washed the cup before returning it.

Marena stood beside Kichan more often while he cooked soup than while he swung the wake-up rod. She checked that he did not mix the wrong amounts of molly and mandragora and counted the children's bowls with him. On the evening before the dungeon trip, lamps came on in the market tents before sunset. The children sang the thieves' song outside. Kichan was packing dried meat and herbs for the following day when he was called to the tea tent. Marena sat across the narrow table.

The cup rested between both hands, but the level of the tea never changed.

"Why aren't you drinking?"

"I have something to say."

"Your tea's getting cold." Marena did not put down the cup.

"At first, you only looked all right when you were swinging the wake-up rod." Kichan's hand stopped. For an instant, a yellow lightbulb and an untouched iced Americano returned. You looked okay when you played guitar. Marena met Kichan's eyes even after seeing his expression.

"But after spending time beside you, I realized there are many other things you do well."

"What?"

"Feeding people. Healing the wounded. Putting extra meat in children's bowls and pretending you didn't." Marena traced the crack in the cup with one finger.

"Pretending you're fine while you suffer is not one of them." Kichan could not answer. Marena took a small knot from inside her clothes. White molly fiber and red mandragora thread had been twisted into one cord. It was neither a human ornament nor a demihuman tribal decoration. It was something new, born at a border where both customs had mixed.

"A lot of what people tied to your rod was teasing. Family and neighbors sometimes tie those things for someone else."

"You tie this one too?"

"This is given once to one person." Marena placed the knot on the table.

"I want to eat with you next winter too." The children outside sang the refrain on the wrong note. Kichan could not correct them.

"This is a proposal." Almost all the steam had vanished from the tea. Kichan looked from the knot to Marena's hands. No answer came immediately.

"Your tea's cold." Those were the only words he managed after a long silence. Only then did Marena lift the cup and take a sip.

"I am not asking for an answer tomorrow."

"Then when?"

"After you return from the dungeon." Kichan hung the knot from the wake-up rod. He did not untie it. He did not say he accepted it. They remained seated for a while with the cold tea between them. The lamps outside the tent went out one by one. The children's song faded, and only the tea left at the bottom of the cup grew dark. Marena did not press him for an answer. Kichan did not hide the knot in his pocket. The white and red thread hanging from the wake-up rod swayed slowly beside the table.

This time, Marena was not the first to rise. The next morning, Kichan was the one who stood and picked up the wake-up rod.