Marriage And Absente

Chapter 2

She had never seen such a big man. Which family’s knight could be this tall?

Swan, who only saw the back of the knight, had a feeling that he was different.
Maybe that’s why. Swan’s heart was beating even more. She was afraid he could hear her heart beating crazily…

“Can I use this ax?” The man asked from the yard.

Swan nodded in a daze.

Tom had brought the ax after the mysterious man came to the hut. He felt sorry that Swan had to sleep on the hardwood floor. In fact, he wanted to make a new bed frame for her. At first, Tom worked diligently but then he heard Swan talking to the man about his knighthood. So then he went to the village, carrying armor not belonging to him. Then there was no sight of him.

This left pieces of wood, which were intended to be shaped into a bed frame, scattered on the ground. Now, this foreign man wanted to use it for firewood.

“Uhm, that… was supposed to be the wood for making a bed.”

The man, who was raising the ax, suddenly turned his head around. Swan rubbed her pink cheeks.

“That’s….. For a guest’s-….” Swan stuttered.

“…………..”

“That’s for a guest’s bed. Because in this cabin we only have one bed.” she finished.

The man looked at Swan with fixed eyes before turning his head again. He started to cut the tree.

“Is it okay if I cut it around this size?”

“Hm? Yeah.”

Actually, she didn’t know. Only Tom would know since he was a successful carpenter before his right hand started to hurt. However, this man was surely a knight, and knights were noble. They didn’t need to do anything except swing their sword. Yet Swan wondered. Should she just let the man do whatever he wanted until Uncle Tom came back?

“Seeing how your hand isn’t very skilled with the ax, I don’t think you’re a carpenter.”

After a while, the man who straightened his back opened his mouth. Swan blinked her eyes. She stared at him, wondering what his next words would be.

“I don’t remember my name.”

“…. Huh?”

“I don’t even remember who I am.” he repeated.

Where he came from. How he even came here. The ax that was in his hand fell to the ground with a clatter. There was an embarrassed look on his face. So was this why he always talked to her with honorifics?
By the time he came to his senses again, he talked to her in an informal way…. His expression even changed, looking at Swan as if she was a maid.

Swan stopped hesitating and opened her lips.

“You don’t remember?”

The man’s blue eyes came back at her. A straight forehead, a long nose bridge, as a drip of sweat dripped down from his forehead. He had tanned, smooth skin. The wind softly blew. His black hair gently fluttered, enhancing his beautiful features.

Two beautiful lapis blue eyes blinked under darkly defined eyebrows. His soft inner eyebrows and splendid features were more beautiful than the daughter of the lord. Swan swiftly covered her cheeks that were burning up. The man was not only beautiful, but strangely enough…exotic as well.

Because his complexion was so pale, his plump lips stood out more. His lips were even more beautiful than Swan’s. His features were strangely intertwined with his drowsy gaze, giving him a peculiar impression.

Swan slightly twirled her skirt around.

“ That time, when you woke up and suddenly started talking informally to me… I thought you remembered…”

“That’s…”

Even though the sentence was offensive, the man did not show any agitation. Swan looked at his closed lips. His angular jaw and sharp eyes were so masculine, but his red lips were pure it all somehow made a woman’s heart flutter.

“I was confused… at that time.”

He sealed his lips again. Swans nodded her head. He was acting a little strange. Yet in the end, it made sense, he was probably just confused. Moreover, his body had not properly healed yet. Swan, who generously understood the man, looked away.

“It is better to finish chopping the wood before the person, who was using it, comes back.”

The man helplessly looked at the piece of wood as he muttered under his breath. He didn’t seem to know how to make the bed frame from firewood pieces.
Swan took the ax and put it on top of a pile of firewood. She didn’t know when Uncle Tom, who went down the valley, would come back. But they would finish it before he came.

***

The moment the man put down his ax, the memory of his belongings in the storage came to Swan’s mind. Her heart started pounding faster.

His belongings were full of blood and soot, so she put it away in the storage room. Especially since it contained a weapon. It was horrifying to look at. Especially when it came to mind how the sword had cut off the bones and flesh of a person. So Swan moved the items to the side of the storage where medicines were stored.

But Tom, who was always more concerned about Swan’s safety than his own, couldn’t have just only looked at it. It was a knight’s armor and sword. At first glance, it looked like something that couldn’t be used by anybody, but actually, it was worth a certain price.

While making the frame for the bed, Swan held an anxious expression, worried about the identity and affiliations of the knight.

When Tom saw the patterns on the breastplate, sword, and gauntlets, he decided to go down to the village to find out about the man’s identity. He thought, if the man was a precious protector of some high family, then the man could leave.

Swan also thought similarlly. Even if he wasn’t an aristocrat, some knights worked for aristocrats. It would be better if the mysterious man went back to his lord and received proper treatment. Even though she treated him well in this cabin, his underlings or family could come and threaten, or even intimidate her, for not directly sending him back.

Hopefully, nothing bad would happen to Uncle Tom, who took the armor and went to town to gather information, right?

But what if one day the man suddenly asked for his belongings? He was an injured man. There would surely be a better healer in a castle. No matter how famous Swan was, the fact that she was only a pharmacist, she was just a girl that followed her mother’s research book. A girl that couldn’t even learn it properly.

A few days ago, Swan had thought ‘what if he can’t open his eyes?’. After thinking about it, she had given Tom a piece of the armor. A lion and a crown were embossed, perhaps the seal of the family? In any case, she didn’t give it all to Tom, so she thought when the man woke up and searched for his stuff, she could explain herself.

Before he had completely come to his senses, Swan had already known when he opened his eyes. It was terrible, he woke up with a high fever. The man had not even remembered who he was. He had opened his eyes and sputtered nonsense.

Swan had thought he lost his memory. Swan’s mother, now dead, once said that patients could lose consciousness due to injuries and high fevers. Therefore…

Yet deep down in her heart, she was wriggling with a hopeful dream. She wished perhaps he would forget his past, meaning he wouldn’t have a place to settle down…

Even though it was vain and useless, when she saw his fluttering doll-like eyelashes when he was unconscious, Swan wanted to keep all of him for herself.

“Are these the things that I brought?” a voice asked.

Swan was suddenly brought back to the present, out of her deep thoughts.

The man observed a couple of shoulder armors, pads for knees, calves, and a red cloak. Swan quickly awoke from her daze. Then she nodded slowly.

Swan stared at him with an intimidating look and muttered.

“Uhm…. Uncle Tom took some of the other things for a while.”

The man, who had been looking at the armor that could not connect again like scattered pieces of glass, looked back at Swan. Swan squeezed her hands together and dragged her feet like a child that was being scolded.

“Ah that, that. If he asked around, maybe someone who knows you or your master would see it…. So, if someone who knows about sir Knight’s identity sees that, then sir Knight can be cured at your castle…”

“But you already treated me, Miss, why do I need My Lord?”

“Uhm, that’s…”

Swan was surprised by the emotionless voice. She could read his anger at once. Swan dropped her gaze. The eyes that came to her were hard and heavy like an iron ball.

Her throat strung as if she had swallowed a hook. Swan lost her words and looked at him. She could feel that he was angry even if he didn’t yell. Swan gave him a startled look and bowed her head down. The man had been striking a part of his armor, before putting it back to its original position and left the storage room.

Swan slowly followed him back to the cabin. She hardly ate her lunch. He couldn’t help but feel exhausted after beating dozens of firewoods with useless axes. Swan, who was afraid of silence, spoke to him, who was rubbing his shoulders.

“Uhm… are you hungry?”

She was asking about dinner. The man nodded at her. It was still a silent face. On the way back from the storage, she remembered the excuses she laid out saying that Uncle Tom would return it soon. Swan sat at the table and glanced at the man waiting for her.

“But, do you really not remember anything? Your name or your identity…..?”