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LOS 2
He already knew the answer. He simply wanted Lily to confirm the fact with her own lips.
Seeing her hesitation, it seemed she had no intention of telling a foolish lie. Giles waited slowly for her response.
Time, after all, was on his side.
“You knew... from the beginning, didn't you?”
“Answer me. Is that your real name?”
“If I admit it, will you kill me?”
She was half-resigned. Lily was now staring at the pistol hanging from Giles's waist.
“That is not for me to decide. The revolutionary leadership will issue instructions on how to dispose of you.”
“I never thought that day would come in my life.”
Lily murmured to herself. She was so thin and frail that it was hard to tell if he was facing a noble or interrogating a wandering vagrant.
“I was never treated like a noble. I thought I would just live like that until the end. Only at the very end do people appear who treat me as an equal to them. I suppose it's better than starving to death in loneliness.”
Giles felt a sense of strangeness in Lily's reaction. Every noble he had arrested had screamed and clung to their pride until the very end, as if trying to prove that their lofty noble blood made them different.
Of course, they all begged for mercy in the end, but Lily was the first to accept death so passively and without resistance.
“I interrogated the maids who worked here, and they told me a few things.”
“About me?”
“They said you know how to play the piano.”
“That's true.”
“Did you used to play the piano in the next room as well?”
“That... was only for when guests were present. The one I mainly played was a smaller one.”
“I interrogated your family personally as well.”
Lily didn't seem particularly sad or surprised. Giles, too, found such a reaction unremarkable. One only had to listen to their stories for a minute to know that Lily had been far from happy here.
“Is it true that they tried to starve you to death?”
“Yes. It's true. Though, as you can see, they failed.”
“...How long has it been since you've had a proper meal?”
“What's the point in saying? I'm going to die anyway.”
Only then did tears stream down Lily's cheeks. After watching her for a moment, Giles called out the names of his subordinates.
Before long, the sound of a man running echoed through the empty hall. Webner, the closest subordinate, appeared.
As soon as Webner saw Lily, he asked loudly,
“Who on earth is this woman?”
Lily looked at Giles with her drenched blue eyes.
Meeting her gaze, Giles spoke.
“Just a wanderer. I found her hiding in this house.”
“What could possibly be here for someone to break in? I searched every inch, but all that's left is dust and dead rats.”
“I think she needed a place to sleep. Webner, do you happen to have any food?”
“Food?”
He shrugged and answered.
“I do have some oat bread.”
“Bring it.”
“But that's my lunch.”
“I'll give you money, so go back and buy something else. Can't you see the state of this woman? She's on the verge of starving to death.”
“Wouldn't it be better to just put her in the car and take her with us?”
“Webner, bring it.”
He stopped arguing and went back. Soon after, two other subordinates arrived late. They asked the exact same question as Webner.
“Anything unusual?”
“Yes, the comrades cleared everything out. Is this woman a vagrant?”
“Just as you see. There was no furniture, so she was sleeping inside an instrument case.”
“My goodness. Are you taking her?”
“I tried persuading her to come along, but she won't listen. For now, leaving her here is the best option.”
“But if she stays here, she'll starve again!”
“So we should force someone who doesn't want to go?”
“If necessary, we should, but...”
“She's a woman who has nothing to do with our mission. Vagrants have the lives of vagrants. There's no need to waste energy.”
The subordinates expressed no further dissent. While traveling through various regions, it was common to encounter wanderers. Contrary to their thoughts, the wanderers showed little interest in the cities.
Their job was to catch and lock up nobles, not to rescue vagrants.
“The inspection is over. Return to the car and wait. I'll be there soon.”
“Understood.”
The footsteps faded away. Once again, only the two of them remained in the narrow space.
Giles handed over the oat bread his subordinate had left. Lily seemed to hesitate for a moment, but soon snatched the bread from his hand.
With her black hair disheveled and loose, the way she hungrily tore into the bread made her truly indistinguishable from a vagrant. Even if someone said she was once a noblewoman, no one would believe it until they saw the evidence.
Meanwhile, as Giles observed Lily, confusion slowly crept into his mind.
Giles had just saved Lily.
Despite knowing who she was, he had lied to his subordinates, saying she was merely a vagrant.
He was the man who had been at the forefront of dragging the Beldam nobles out by their hair. He had never made an exception. Whether man or woman, even boys and girls who had not yet reached adulthood.
Giles had looked straight into their terror-stricken eyes.
There was no room for sympathy or pity. They were nobles from Beldam, whom Ipswin hated, and beings who deserved to vanish from this land. Helping with that was simply Giles's mission.
Yet, he had lied for the youngest daughter of a surviving noble family and had even taken a subordinate's food to give to her.
It was something he couldn't understand himself.
Was it because of the interrogation? Because he learned through the questioning that she was a pitiful woman who had suffered terrible abuse? Did a belated sense of sympathy arise, making him not want to kill this woman?
Giles sank into thought. Lily looked miserable. That was a fact. But that didn't particularly move his heart, nor did she feel exceptionally special to him.
Then why? It wasn't too late. Even now, he could seize Lily, put her in the car, and present her before the prison.
But he felt no desire to do so. He didn't want to.
It wasn't that he wanted to save Lily... it felt as if the engine that had constantly driven him forward had simply stopped. He could no longer feel passion. Like a steam locomotive that had run out of fuel, he had simply come to a halt.
It wasn't that personal feelings had intervened.
Arresting Lily simply felt like a meaningless act.
She finished the bread, which was as large as her face, in an instant. Though not completely full, she seemed to have satisfied her hunger to some extent. Her complexion looked a bit more relaxed.
The subordinates were right. She was lucky enough to eat a large piece of bread today, but from tomorrow, she would starve again. He didn't think she could hold out for long.
The possibility of a young lady raised only inside a mansion surviving the harsh life of a vagrant was nonexistent.
By the looks of it, Lily seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“Why didn't you tell them the truth?”
Giles could not answer that question.
Instead, he replaced the answer with another question.
“Have you played the piano recently?”
Lily shook her head. A piano was a useless object for survival. That was why the revolutionary army had left the pianos in the mansions. Appreciating the beauty of art through playing an instrument was something only possible after one's stomach was full.
Then, Lily asked again.
“Do you want to hear me play?”
She leaned against the wall and stood up. Her white dress, reaching down to her calves, partially covered her thin body.
“Since you gave me food, I can do at least that much in return. And because you saved me... though, playing the piano is the only thing I can do anyway.”
Before Giles could react, Lily walked out to the room with the piano. Her steps lacked strength, making her look almost like a ghost.
Giles slowly followed her. Lily sat on the piano bench and looked down at the keys. Perhaps because it had been a long time since she had played, she brushed over the keys with awkward movements.
The sunlight streaming through the window poured over Lily's body. She looked quite different from when she was curled up in the darkness. Dust floated in the air. Lily steadied her breath. Her two hands, shining white in the light, finally pressed the keys.
The empty, lonely space was suddenly filled with a rich scale of notes. A grand and slow melody slowly gathered its words. The ten fingers that had been desperately clutching oat bread just moments ago now emitted a diverse array of sounds.
The voice of the instrument, which had been low as if announcing the beginning, soon wove a lyrical melody. It was calm and beautiful, yet not simple. It was a nocturne that only a musician with professional education and training could pull off.
Giles stood nearby and watched Lily play the piano skillfully. She was a far better pianist than he had expected. The large, abandoned house was instantly transformed into a concert hall for her.
In his eyes, Lily no longer looked like a vagrant. Nor did she look like the youngest daughter of a Beldam noble.
She was a pianist he had happened to encounter. Someone destined to meet a lonely death without ever revealing her true value, but who, upon meeting him, was able to breathe life into both herself and her music...
The pianist he had saved.
If Giles had not found her—or rather, if he had decided to drag her away—Lily's nocturne would have been erased from the world forever without ever being played.
Though it had been an impulsive act, Giles was now happy. He was happy that Lily survived. Screams, wailing, red bloodstains... Giles had lived amidst such things all along. In his numbed and emotionless heart, the fertile emotions of old days were revived.
After struggling just to survive, he finally felt as though he had done something worthwhile. The fact that Lily—that Lily's magical music—had survived. He thought that alone was enough.
It was the first thing he had executed by his own will, not by an order.
At the end of days as dark as an abyss, he had encountered a single ray of light.
He had come to love Lily's music.
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