Free PandoraHearts ~Caucus Race~, Vol. 1 by Shinobu Wakamiya

must have sensed that he hadn’t wanted her to ask. Gilbert was secretly moved by the way Dahlia had changed the subject for him.
What a nice person
, he thought.
    Gilbert had completely relaxed. He and Dahlia chatted. Unless he was with someone he was close to, Gilbert tended to be taciturn, but now, unusually for him, he talked about this and that. Since he wasn’t able to talk about Pandora activities, they mostly discussed trivial, everyday things.
    During the conversation, Oz’s name came up.
    “Oz…sama?” Dahlia repeated the name.
    Oops
, Gilbert thought.
    As far as the general public was concerned, Oz—Oz Vessalius, of the House of Vessalius—had died ten years ago.
    Only a few aristocrats with ties to Pandora knew that Oz had returned from the Abyss.
    For that reason, Gilbert had to pretend he’d meant someone else with the same name.
    “Yes— He’s a…friend,” he explained, awkwardly.
    Oz was his master. Ordinarily, he’d never dream of calling him a friend, even in jest. He wanted to declare “Oz is mymaster” to everyone, at all times, with pride and confidence. He wanted to boast about it.
    Gilbert’s heart was leaden with guilt and remorse.
    As Gilbert answered painfully, his eyebrows drawn together, Dahlia looked a bit puzzled, but she responded, “I see. What sort of person is he?”
    At her casual question, Gilbert fell silent. How could he describe Oz to a third party?
    I’m proud to call him my master
. The words were on the tip of his tongue.
    He desperately swallowed them back down, searching for some other, harmless expression.
    He thought, and thought, and…
    “…He’s…hard on the heart, in all sorts of ways.”
    “
Is
he!”
    Then Gilbert told her about how Oz kept him scrambling on a daily basis. He hadn’t intended it to sound particularly funny, but at each little anecdote, Dahlia giggled merrily.
    He felt as if she was probably laughing at the way Oz had him twisted around his little finger, but somehow it didn’t bother him.
    Once he’d more or less finished talking, Dahlia said, “You really treasure this Oz-sama, don’t you.”
    Gilbert, who hadn’t expected to hear that, responded with a startled “Huh?”
    “Hee-hee! I can tell. When you talk about him, it’s as plain as day, Gilbert-sama.”
    Even as he felt a mild jolt at the idea that he was so easy to read, he had no choice but to acknowledge it.
    “…Is that right,” Gilbert answered, simply.
    Talking about himself and Oz had begun to feel awkward, and Gilbert changed the subject.
    This time, it was Gilbert’s turn to ask Dahlia how shespent her days. However, Dahlia told him she spent all day reading, and that her routine seldom varied. It seemed to Gilbert, though, that this sort of quiet life did not particularly suit her.
    After that, they talked of all sorts of things: the books Dahlia liked and things that had happened to Gilbert while he was living on his own.
    The air around them was soft and warm.
    This isn’t a bad way to relax, once in a while
, Gilbert thought.
    Of course—
    He knew there was really no place for him in a world this gentle.
    Somehow…just being with this woman is really calming
, Gilbert thought.
    At length, as they walked down the footpath, Gilbert caught sight of two women up ahead.
    The women were crouched down with their backs to him.
    By the look of things, they seemed to be in some sort of trouble. This park drew many lower-class visitors, and the flamboyant dresses the ladies wore stood out rather sharply. Dahlia also noticed the pair; sounding a bit worried, she asked, “Have they fallen, do you think?”
    With a nod to Dahlia, Gilbert began to walk a bit faster, approaching the two women from behind.
    He called to them, politely: “Can I be of any assistance…?”
    —In that instant, for some reason, his heart thudded violently.
What’s going on?
he thought.
    “Oh, that’s so
kind
of you,” said one of the women.
    “Yes, I’ve broken the heel of my