SG! 32: MOONLIGHT RAPPELLING

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 fellowship?

“That depends on Chris.”

Well, it’s okay. Like Palmira says, it does depend on me, to a certain degree.
I might catch hell 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 lackluster 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 ass 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 spacious 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.
Shifting 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 associate — 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 attitude would only harden more.
Jail aside, I couldn’t stand for my relationship 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. Hell, 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.
He had no intention of cursing at me. After a moment’s hesitation, I threw aside my reservations.
I’d already hit the worst-case scenario. It wasn’t like it would get any worse than this. I was done.

“…To see Leon.”

Still, fearing punishment, I turned my eyes away as I squeezed out the words.
Is it too late? What do I do if I see him in the first place? The truth is, those feelings of guilt were gnawing away, even at me.
It wasn’t until now that I realized — I wasn’t thinking of anything but needing to see him, to talk to him.
I am beyond stupid.

“Hmm… Understood. I’ll take you to him.”

After letting out the mother of all sighs, Leopard unfolded his arms. I couldn’t help but doubt my ears.

“…Eh–?”

“At any rate, even I can see that right now that the young master… Lord Leon needs this. It did invalidate Lord Leon’s orders, but I expected you to pull something like this. Though, I didn’t think you’d escape through the window.”

“Ah, uh…”

His expression still a bit exasperated, Leopard glared at me.
Though his unexpected words promised just what I wanted, I trembled, my doubt seeping into my speech and behavior. Trying to force it down, I lightly slapped my cheeks.

“There’s a soldier stationed outside your room, but I told him that, in the event that you attempted to leave, he was to report to me without forcibly detaining you.”

Maybe having fun watching me shake, Leopard’s tone softened ever so slightly.
Shit, this is embarrassing.

“Still. To report, huh.” 1

“Of course. If you escaped to search for Lord Leon, that would’ve been fine, but if it was to desert again, it would be a headache for me.”

…Wow, he really didn’t trust me. But, well, of course he wouldn’t. I’d do the same in his shoes.
Besides, Leopard was this close to being in violation of his orders.

“Eh, it’s fine. If we’re going, then let’s get going quickly… after you do something about that suggestive appearance of yours.”

After looking at me from top to bottom, Leopard turned his back to me. Given his words and behavior, I looked myself over too.
The hem of my dress, which I’d torn to keep it from getting in my way, was split all the way up to my waist. It should’ve been above my knee, like it was before I went down, but it seemed it tore further in the middle of my descent. Even my underwear was visible.
Yeah, it might be a… stimulating sort of appearance.
If I were to scream right now, Leopard would be in a really questionable position.
That thought popped into my head all of a sudden.

–

–

Just when I thought we were on our way, we stopped by a room crammed with servants not far from Leopard’s room. There, I got a change of clothes.
This being a military facility, there wasn’t much call for maid uniforms or showy clothing like at the estate. I promptly changed into what was handed to me: a jacket that wasn’t plain so much as a bit conspicuous in its tatteredness; and a thin pair of breeches.
The crowd of female servants were startled by the sudden intrusion, but perhaps because of Leopard’s presence, they surrounded me from a distance and said nothing. For Leopard to come with a girl wearing ripped clothing in tow, the situation had all the makings of a scandal. He didn’t say a word, though, so I decided not to worry about it either.

“Let’s get going. Quickly.”

Estimating that I’d finished dressing, Leopard called me from outside the room. As you might expect, he waited outside while I was in the middle of changing. If it were Rupert, he might have waited inside without batting an eyelid, but in this area, Leopard revealed a frank indifference.

“Let’s go now.”

When I came out, Leopard wasted no time taking the lead, and started walking off. I followed after him at a sort of half-jog.

When I thought about it, 2, I realized
that although I’d run into Leopard every now and again, this was the first time we’d had such a close conversation.
Leon was always the face, and according to my intuition, it seemed that Leopard usually followed along in the shadows.
I didn’t know if this guy, who was ‘Commander’ to Rupert and Irene, was an adjutant or a close confidant to Leon. But it was clear that he was Leon’s man, through and through.
So it seemed to me that seeing Leon in such a state earlier was connected to his current behavior. In his own way, he was looking out for Leon.

It was unquestionable, impossible to misunderstand.
He wasn’t doing this for our sake, but for Leon’s alone.
You might even say that we’d pretty much become pests, but his candor left a favorable impression on me.
I didn’t know what he was thinking, to go this far, but on the flip side, for Leon to inspire that level of loyalty, it was a bit — …

We went down the corridor and descended a flight of stairs. Without the faintest idea where Leon was, I obediently walked after him. Leopard was silent from start to finish, but sometimes, he would nonchalantly look over his shoulder at me, making sure I was still there.

Look, I didn’t come this far just to make a break for it now.

So I thought, but, well, I suppose it was in his nature. It wasn’t like I was in any position to complain, so I decided to leave it alone.
Even so, he moved at a brisk pace. I remembered going into town with Rupert back in Telaberan, but he and Leopard really were polar opposites, I thought. Fondly, even.

“Here it is.”

What he pointed out to me was the opposite side of an entryway, which led to a gate. We were probably before the door that opened out to the back of the building.
I was a bit conflicted. Of course, I’d had no idea at all where Leon was right now, but I didn’t expect him to be outside.

“Is it — okay, here?”

“Yeah. You’re on your own after this… got it? I’m not doing a thing.”

Leopard nodded. And tacked on a warning.

“Got it.”

Given Leopard’s position, he couldn’t help but say that. Even without his participation, the fact that I was here right now at all would only put him in a tight spot.
I gave him a small wave, and then opened the door.

As I expected, on the other side of the door was what you could call a rear garden. It wasn’t like it was all that spacious.
The walls surrounding the garrison passed quite close by. Precisely because of that, the space wasn’t so much drab as quietly refined. Even the moonlight didn’t reach between the building and the walls. There was only starlight, providing the barest of illumination.
At its heart stood a magnificent tree. Unlike the side with the gate, the tree stood there alone. That emptiness under the starlight — it was just that spot, but it was like something out of a fairy tale.

And standing there, looking up at that tree, was Leon.