"That is also a possibility."

"Suppose it's just as well that I'm not outlandish-looking enough to provoke questions about my relationship to the fellow in the caricature."

"I expect many nobles assume that you are from some obscure smaller country in the Far East, and if any of them did see a similarity to that individual it would not contradict this."

"Fair enough, I guess I haven't been describing Narnia's absolute location."

"Yes - um. You got the country's name from a book, if I remember correctly?"

He can tell her about the Narnia books if she would care to hear about them.

And she can ask questions and pass the time while they're holding hands without her getting too flustered by trying not to stare directly at his eyes an unusually large amount. The next day at least there aren't any social events, and Lucette can spend it figuring out how to approach the Duke Metcalfe about an aquarium.

Haru goes for a run, and reads up on monster campaigns.

That night, as Haru enters his bedroom, a figure, hunched over and thin, stabs him through the chest with a crystal blade.

He has time to notice that it's there, which is also just enough time to notice that he does not want it to touch him. The flight that flinches him back from the assault could be mistaken for stumbling and catching himself, but only if you weren't paying attention; the fact that his shirt is unsliced and unbloodied could mean that he wasn't contacted, if you were paying a little more attention but still not that much.

He turns and bolts. "INTRUDER! NOT SURE IF IT'S A DEMON OR NOT!"

The intruder does not know what they did wrong but they are fast enough to try again, this time aiming to slice rather than stab.

(One of the guest house servants goes for the main house to awaken Lucette.)

The thing is, Haru doesn't know if this assassin is empowered or not. If they're not, then the dagger alone failing to touch him would do. If they are, though, their hands could be every bit as dangerous as the knife.

The slice meets no resistance, the assassin's entire forearm sweeps through Haru's chest, and he screams and takes off in flight rather than risk that happening again, he has to find Lucette, where is Lucette - "LUCETTE?!"

Lucette's bedroom, like those of most nobles, is pretty well soundproofed, since many demons will refuse to manifest if they can be heard (and many empowered scream when being haunted). So she's not actually able to hear Haru even once he's escaped the guest house.

The intruder startles when Haru takes flight, and decides that perhaps now would be a good time to flee the premises.

He should maybe chase that guy down but he's not sure he can take him and he can't think straight, he's alone, alone, alone, and there's Lucette's room, and he's got just enough of an ingrained rule that he does not walk through shit if he can possibly avoid it that he knocks - pounds, really - on her door rather than barging right in and damn the backlash.

Lucette is at the door quite quickly, still in her night clothes.

"What is the emergency?"

"Somebody just tried to murder me, I think he got away, I'm so backlashed -" He's just gonna grab her hand without asking and shake.

- he can have her other hand.

"-I need to know whether I should be pursuing him or staying with you - are you capable of waiting a minute while I look to make sure things are safe?"

"No nonono not by myself - I - you could leave me with somebody else if - fuck I hate this - nobody else is going to be able to stop me if I juke wrong and try to kill myself -"

"- I can summon help and have them report on the status of the situation, and if there is no current trouble, we can stay here and otherwise, I can figure out how to deal with things without leaving you behind." This would be much easier if she could just go out with Haru clinging to her, but she doesn't actually trust all her servants to be discreet if they see her doing so.

She goes to poke at the cymbal she keeps near her bedroom, and soon enough there is a servant she can talk to through her locked door to confirm that in fact the assailant appears to have fled. 

He squeezes her hands hard enough to hurt when she's talking to the servant instead of him and winds up biting his arm to avoid alerting the servant to his presence. "Is it safe to talk again," he whispers urgently as soon as it seems loosely possible that maybe the servant is out of earshot.

"Yes, they've exited my seating room and won't be able to hear anything else that occurs - my head maid knows enough to cover for your absence - I expect."

"Okay. Sorry. Fuck. I. Can I kiss you, it's faster and - I'm so sorry you don't have to answer that -"

"Um. Uh." Well she was definitely just thinking about hugging him and now he asks her that and she doesn't know how to respond about it at all.