The Star Gazer

Chapter 4: Capricorn

A wave of shock passed through everyone at the table, freezing them in their seats. Koumei stared at Tolui with a dumbfounded look on his face, he couldn't believe what he had just seen.

Suddenly aware of what she had done, Tolui gasped and quickly let go of Judar and backed away. She stared at Koumei with a look of horror and fear on her face.

"I-I'm sorry-"

"Enough! This is completely unacceptable!" Kouen shouted angrily while he stood up. His pink eyes burned fiercely as he glared at Judar.

"Hey, it's not my fault! She's the one that attacked me!" Judar protested while pointing a finger at Tolui accusingly. 

"I'll be taking my leave. Come Kouta, let's go get you cleaned up."  Sindri said coldly. She held out her hand towards the small red-haired child that had been sitting next to her during the dinner. He took a hold of her hand and together they walked out of the dining room, both of their clothes were heavily stained with food that Tolui had caused to spill.

Koumei looked at Tolui as she watched Sindri and Kouta leave. He noticed that she was tightly biting her lip, almost as if she wanted to keep it from trembling. 

"Judar, I think it's best if you leave." Kouen said with forced politeness. 

"But-"

"Judar."

"Fine...I'll leave. It's not like I wanted to be here anyways." Judar huffed out. He brushed some stray crumbs of food off of himself and turned to leave.

Koumei winced slightly as he felt Kouen shift his gaze onto him. Hesitantly he brought his eyes up to meet Kouen's. His brother's eyes were burning intensely with anger and disappointment. 

"I thought I had made it clear that this dinner was important to Sindri, and that I expected everyone to be on their best behavior."

"Brother, I didn't-"

"If you had been doing your job instead of drinking and sulking then you would have able to stop her before she made a mess of things."

"Wait, Kouen-"

"No, Koumei, I don't want to hear it. Take her and leave." 

Koumei flinched at Kouen's harsh tone but silently obeyed. He stood and grabbed Tolui's arm, pulling her behind him as he walked out of the banquet room. She didn't resist him and let Koumei drag her out back toward their rooms.

Not a single word was spoken between them until they were finally inside Tolui's room. 

"Koumei...I...I'm sorry." Tolui finally breathed out. Her voice was slightly wavering, almost as if she was on the verge of tears.

Koumei let out a deep sigh. He wasn't sure if the wine was clearing his head or clouding it, but his tongue burned with words that he wasn't sure if he should say. After fighting with himself for a moment he decided to let Tolui know what he was feeling.

"You're not the one at fault here, I am."

"What do you mean?"

"Kouen was right, if I was doing my job properly then I would have been able to stop you before you even had the chance to do anything."

"That's not true!" Tolui loudly exclaimed, lunging forward and grabbing Koumeit by the hand. Her eyes were bright as they looked at him and her face showed no traces of being stone-like from before.

"H-hey-"

"You were simply having dinner with your family so you shouldn't have had to be working. It was wrong of me to interject myself into that. And when it came to that guy-"

Tolui suddenly stopped talking, her hand slowly relaxed its grasp on Koumei's and let go. As he looked at her it was like all the passion she was speaking with had been snuffed out. Her eyes were looking straight down at her feet and she was clasping her hands close to her chest.

Normally Koumei would have ended the conversation there, but the wine sloshing around in his stomach still seemed to be giving him pumping his brain with weird sensations. He was definitely drunk, and now his body and mind were starting to show it.

"What's wrong? Did Judar's actions upset you that much?" 

Tolui didn't answer, but instead, she wrung her hands and refused to look him in the eyes. Her face was partially hidden in the shadows of the dark room, so Koumei couldn't make out what she was thinking.

Her silence started to irritate Koumei. He had asked her a question that could have been taken as him being worried about her, and she was just flat out ignoring him. He let out an annoyed huff of air and then turned to the door. 

"Wait, Koumei!"

"What?" Koumei responded gruffly as he turned back to Tolui. She reached to grab him again, but then stopped herself and pulled her hand back to her chest.

"Umm, what's your opinion on tough women?"

Koumei blinked at her question with surprise, he had no idea why she would suddenly ask that. And better yet, he had no idea how to respond.

What did she mean by tough women? Tough had so many meanings in different contexts, Koumei wasn't sure what she was specifically trying to ask. In his fogged brain, he could only think of Hakuei and her military prowess, but also of the recent problem she had given him. Finally, he opened his mouth and slurred out an answer.

"They're troublesome."

Before Tolui could say anything, a large yawn made its way through Koumei's lips. It seemed like his intoxicated body was finally moving to its final state of drunkenness. A dark wave of sleepiness crashed over Koumei and his leg almost bucked beneath him.

Tolui may have called out to him, but Koumei couldn't hear a word, all he could focus on was resting his head and going to sleep. After a few seconds, he felt the cool texture of silk under his fingertips as he crawled into bed.

His mind was going dark as sleep crept over him, but in the back of his mind he thought he heard an embarrassed voice and a feeling of warmth before his eyes fully closed and his consciousness faded into black.