Maylily - Chapter 20

The day of the Roden Opera Company’s patronage party. When Michele discovered the Count of Everscourt holding and kissing Maylily, he had already foreseen such an ending. At that time, he had been on his way to belatedly offer his coat to Maylily, who must have been facing the cold night air.

All the more empty it felt now, since Maylily had grown more gentle toward him after that day.

[In Riverton, the crime of insulting nobility still exists. So I advise you to refrain from irreverent speech.]

David, his expression skillfully composed, silenced Michele’s tongue with a cold warning. Immediately afterward, to seal his silence even further, a thick envelope of money was presented before Michele.

[This is the agreed-upon payment. I trust this isn’t an unprofitable exchange for you, Michele.]

It was, indeed, a statement with no flaw to contest. Having agreed to receive payment for a task, and now taking the money without ever completing it, this was not simply a profitable deal; it was an enormously advantageous bargain.

And yet, why did it feel so unpleasant?

Because he despised nobles who bent the world to their cocksure whims? Or because he had failed to strip Maylily bare and taste her? Or perhaps…

At that point, Michele cut off his thoughts. What use in finding the cause of displeasure? It was meaningless. After all, he would slip that money into his pocket regardless, and to do so, he would have to obey their words.

Draining the last of his water to clear his mind, Michele slammed down the empty glass.

[Very well. I’ll end things after the lesson the day after tomorrow.]

[No. From this moment, refrain from meeting Miss Aile. Not for lessons, nor privately.]

[……]

Ah, so you insist on going this far.

Michele tilted his head crookedly, his light brown eyes flashing fiercely. Instead of replying, he lit a cigarette and exhaled thick clouds of white smoke.

Beyond the haze, David held his steady gaze for a moment. But when no answer came from Michele, he adjusted his glasses and rose from his seat.

[I will take your silence as consent, then.]

Michele watched David’s retreating back without expression, until the man exited through the front door. Once it shut, Michele crushed his cigarette into the ashtray so harshly that ash scattered. His mood was utterly foul.

The next day, Michele sought out the apartment where Maylily lived. He arrived an hour or two earlier than her usual time returning from the theater, intending to bid her a light farewell.

Ignoring David’s warning not to see Maylily again was, for Michele, the bare minimum of resistance—his pride stung at the thought of meekly submitting to the Count of Everscourt’s power and wealth.

Just because it began with them, did the ending also have to be dictated by them? Michele believed that, at the very least, he had the right to offer Maylily a parting word of goodwill.

Behind the lamplighter who lit the streetlamps one by one from afar, the sun set in a crimson glow, sinking slowly beneath the horizon. Time within that peaceful scenery seemed to flow painfully slow.

The wait became tedious, and the urge for a cigarette gnawed at him. Yet Michele pushed the pack he had pulled from his pocket back inside. He would not taint his farewell to Maylily with the stench of smoke; he resolved to bear it with patience.

At last, long after the sun had disappeared, Maylily appeared, walking at a slightly slow pace from the direction of the omnibus stop.

“Maylily.”

Hearing her name spoken kindly, Maylily turned, her face lighting up with both delight and surprise as she saw Michele approaching. Her steps quickened, and the hem of her skirt fluttered like wings.

“Michele, what brings you here on a day without lessons?”

“I was passing by and thought to stop for a moment.”

“To meet right here, what an amazing coincidence, isn’t it?”

As if marveling at such an “amazing coincidence,” Maylily laughed with innocent, sparkling eyes. It seemed she had yet to hear anything. Michele gave a bitter smile.

“Indeed. How’s your hand?”

“Thanks to you, it has healed a lot. They say I should be able to have the stitches removed by next week.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Chattering on without a trace of caution, Maylily looked entirely at ease. Just a week ago, such a thing would have been unimaginable. The longer Michele faced her, the more his discomfort grew, and so he hurried to speak his purpose.

“In truth, I came to say farewell.”

“Farewell…?”

The bright smile that had illuminated Maylily’s face vanished in an instant. She asked with a slightly shocked expression.

“Yes, from now on your Cartian lessons will be handled by someone else.”

“…Why?”

“It just turned out that way.”

At Michele’s evasive answer, Maylily let out a small sigh. Then, after chewing her lips for a moment, she spoke in a powerless voice.

“I’m sorry, Michele.”

“Why should you be sorry?”

“I feel this happened because of me.”

With the look of someone making a confession, Maylily slowly continued, “In the beginning, I misunderstood you a little… so I asked the Count of Everscourt to replace my teacher. At the time, he firmly said no, but I don’t know why it suddenly turned out like this. I’ll go see the Count and tell him again. That now there’s no problem at all with the lessons, and that you are truly an excellent teacher.”

In this absurd play, the face of the woman who was the most innocent and pure was now stained with guilt. That face awakened the true source of Michele’s discomfort since earlier.

It was guilt.

Even as he felt revulsion toward the Count of Everscourt and his secretary, in the end, it was Michele himself who had yielded to money and chosen to stand on their side. Was he not the very scoundrel who, despite knowing that a woman who trusted and opened her heart too easily to the smallest kindness would be trampled, chose silence out of convenience?

“No need. It’s not because of you. Don’t be sorry toward me.”

“Still, this…”

“Take care, Maylily.”

Like fleeing, Michele hastily ended the conversation and turned away. From behind, he felt Maylily’s gaze clinging to his feet as though pulling him back.

Is it right to leave such a naïve woman as she is? She seemed to have no one to rely on at all.

[Ha, damn it.]

In the end, before he had taken even ten steps, Michele turned back to Maylily with heavy strides.

“Give me your hand for a moment.”

At the sudden request, Maylily looked puzzled, yet she wordlessly extended her bandaged hand.

“Not this one, the uninjured hand.”

At the firm instruction, Maylily obediently switched hands. Smiling faintly at the sight, Michele pulled a fountain pen from his coat pocket, uncapped it, and spread her palm open. Then he began to write something across it.

“What are you writing?”

Enduring the ticklishness, Maylily looked down at him and asked quietly.

“My address. If you ever need help, come find me anytime.”

“…Thank you, Michele.”

Seeing Michele still taking care of her with such thoughtfulness, even at the very end of an acquaintance she thought had ended, Maylily’s chest grew heavy with emotion. Once again, she felt sorry for having failed to recognize such a good person and for having once maligned him.

“As soon as you go inside, copy it into your notebook. A day may come when you need my help.”

“Yes, I will.”

Releasing Maylily’s hand, Michele straightened his posture and tucked the pen into his coat pocket. Then, staring at the tips of his shoes for a moment in thought, he lifted his gaze to Maylily. The seriousness in his eyes was enough to make anyone tense.

“And don’t trust your patron too much.”

Michele had merely mentioned the Count of Everscourt. Yet Maylily’s heart sank as though she had been caught doing something wrong in secret.

“You know well enough how nobles treat singers. No matter how beautiful and refined a shell that man wears, inside he’ll be no different.”

The ominous foreboding she had always harbored took on sharper, more concrete form as Michele voiced it. But even so, what could she do against the Count who held her stage and her dream hostage?

Such stifling concerns, she could not bring herself to confide in Michele. She only nodded lightly and offered a faint smile.

“Yes, I’ll be careful. Thank you for everything. Stay well, Michele.”

After parting from Michele and going up to her apartment, Maylily immediately copied his address into her notebook. In that moment, for the first time, she felt she was not alone in this city. Yet as soon as she closed the notebook, that feeling ended. Somehow, she felt just a little melancholy.