Episode 90
The pistol gleamed even at a glance. It was not lavishly ornamented, but here and there it shone with a polish that made it clear how meticulously Isaac had tended to it before giving it to her. Sasha recalled the sight of him cleaning firearms that she had seen once before.
Thinking of that huge man sitting on a small chair, earnestly taking it apart and carefully polishing it so he could give it to her...
“I like it. Thank you, Captain.”
Suppressing the flutter in her stomach, Sasha expressed her gratitude with a bright smile. Seeing her face, which looked truly delighted, Isaac scratched the back of his head and tucked his lips inward.
He soon rummaged through the inner pocket of his jacket again and handed her a leather belt pouch made to fit the size of the pistol.
“I had this made separately. It’s a bit large and heavy to carry around, so I thought it would be much more convenient if you wore it on a belt. On the way here, I stopped by a gunsmith, and the owner there also handled leather...”
Sasha’s face soon showed realization. That village they had stopped at along the way. She had thought nothing of it when he said he was going to the gunsmith, but she had not known there was this reason behind it.
“What am I to do, when I’m only receiving things from you?”
“It’s fine. I’ve already received this as well...”
Isaac pointed to the engagement ring on his fourth finger and spoke as if it were nothing.
“That wasn’t a gift. We had those made purely out of necessity.”
“This is out of necessity too. There’s no guarantee I’ll be by Miss Grayson’s side if something similar happens again. So, Miss Grayson has to be safe...”
“...Oh, I see. It would be troublesome if I were kidnapped again or something before the promised year was even up. Is that it?”
Sasha cut him off and asked in a joking tone, as if summing up his words. Isaac’s face flushed red in an instant.
Isaac had been about to argue back, but when Sasha looked up at him with laughter in her eyes, his mouth stiffened and he shut it.
“I was only teasing.”
When he turned away in a huff, even showing her his back, Sasha followed after him with a grin and said so.
Isaac snorted and replied.
“It seems you’ve lately taken to amusing yourself by teasing me.”
“That’s because your reactions are cute, Captain.”
At Sasha’s brazen words, Isaac abruptly turned his body back around from where he had been walking ahead, looked straight down at her, and asked, “What did you just say?”
Sasha’s eyes darted for a moment with an expression that said she had slipped up, then she answered calmly.
“Because your reactions are big, Captain. It’s amusing.”
“...”
Isaac looked down at her without a word, and Sasha looked up at him with an innocent face, smiling brightly.
Did he hear me? Calling him cute out of nowhere must have sounded strange. Anyway, just smile.
Fortunately, it was neither of them who broke the awkward silence. A maid who had been standing some distance away, waiting only for a chance to speak to Isaac and Sasha, timidly said, “Um...”
“Mrs. Sheffield is looking for you both.”
“...Damn it.”
“We’ll go now.”
Whether Isaac stood there with an expression that said he would rather die than go, Sasha naturally held out her arm to him. Isaac, caught off guard, timidly slipped his wrist into her small arm, then quickly realized what he was doing, hurriedly pulled his arm out, and looked at her as if dumbfounded.
Sasha, regardless, passed him by and followed after the maid.
＊＊＊
It was truly a serious problem that whatever that huge man did looked cute to her.
After becoming aware of her fondness for him, the voice in Sasha’s heart that kept saying, How cute, was constantly trying to leap out of her mouth, and that was an even bigger problem.
After accidentally uttering those words aloud, Sasha inwardly muttered for herself to get a grip and pulled her reason back into place. It was fortunate that the man was a little dense. No, it was a blessing that he was very dense.
In any case, from that day onward, Sasha and Isaac were called here and there, busy preparing for this rushed wedding. They would part ways to have an old tailored suit and an old dress altered respectively, then come together again to receive Mrs. Sheffield’s lessons and practice the waltz. Then they would split up once more, one reviewing the guest list while the other examined the types of flowers to be used at the ceremony.
In the midst of all that, Caroline came by whenever she had the chance and rattled on with this and that, calling it advice whether they listened or not, so it was chaotic in many ways.
Isaac, in particular, who had no immunity to such things, began to run out of patience by the third day.
“As if it weren’t enough to spring it on us like a notice, they’re pushing every bit of preparation onto us.”
Mrs. Sheffield praised Isaac’s steps, which had become rather skillful now, but Isaac muttered darkly as though her words did not even reach his ears. Sasha tightened her grip on the hand she held with his, as if telling him to come to his senses.
“That’s actually a good thing, Captain. They’re giving you the opportunity to direct people as the new master of this place.”
“I have little interest in such things.”
At Isaac’s indifferent reply, Sasha’s brows shot up.
Following Mrs. Sheffield’s call, Isaac mechanically attempted a dip, bending Sasha backward.
“You didn’t take anything the Count said to heart back then, did you? He told you that once you receive the title, you must reside on the estate for at least three years and learn the duties of the head of the house.”
“I heard him. I remember.”
“Is that so? Then you should be paying attention to such matters more than anything. You should acquaint yourself with the secretary in advance, and exchange greetings with the major landowners nearby as well.”
“...”
“You look as though you’ve just been told about homework you don’t want to do. Once you retire, this place will be your new workplace, Captain. You know that.”
As she returned to her original posture, Sasha glanced at Isaac, who was not answering her, as if finding him strange.
“Do you perhaps have no intention of retiring?”
“...No. It’s just. Not right away.”
Even the answer he finally gave was so ambiguous that Sasha stared at him, looking somewhat dumbfounded.
She was about to ask what on earth he was thinking, but Sasha simply stopped. After all, in a contract marriage where they would only be together for one year, prying felt excessive.
“I’ve submitted an application for extended leave for now. Quite a long one. In any case, the regiment has been in an uproar recently because of personnel transfers, so they won’t have any reason to look for me.”
It’s only one year anyway.
Whether Sasha collected herself while newly turning that fact over in her mind or not, Isaac belatedly answered as if offering an explanation. Sasha looked at him silently for a moment with an unreadable expression, then only said, “I see.”
＊＊＊
Her gaze went to him more than before, and not only did her gaze go to him, she became concerned. In the end, after growing attached to him and even admitting her fondness, Sasha found herself constantly overcome by the urge to meddle in his affairs.
Who did she think she was, really? They were people who would cleanly become strangers after one year had passed since receiving their marriage license, so who did she think she was?
However, when she resolved not to worry about him with that mindset and turned away, one thing after another that grated on her nerves kept entering her sight.
His hometown did not welcome him.
In truth, it was not merely failing to welcome him; it was treating him coldly. The Count was one thing, but the atmosphere of the mansion surrounding him was strangely lukewarm as well. It was too blatant here and there to dismiss as a mere suspicion.
“Which room did you stay in when you were young, Captain?”
It had been on the first day they arrived here, when Sasha asked casually while being shown the adjoining bedrooms. Isaac, looking indifferent, pointed with a finger to the far end of the corridor and answered.
“The room at the end over there. It’s a study now.”
“Is that so? Then which room did you move to?”
“There wasn’t one. Around that time, I entered the military academy. When I came back during break, the room had been turned into a study. They said Edmund liked that room because it got good sunlight and was pleasant for reading.”
“...”
“Ah, Edmund is...”
“I know. He was your half-brother who passed away last year, Captain.”
From such small conversations to everything visible before her eyes, it was all like that. The wedding preparations were the same. No matter how much such things were the responsibility of the new mistress of the house, it was thoroughly strange that they were being handled without going through Isaac, the master.
The cursed color of the curtains, the orchestra to hire, and so on. Someone might consider them trifling matters, but each and every one involved the mansion’s budget, so it was only right that they pass through the ears of Isaac, the young master. Sasha pointed this out to the butler, who was asking her this and that even with Isaac plainly standing before him.
In truth, it was an obvious matter that did not even need to be pointed out. There was no way the butler did not know. After the butler mumbled an apology and withdrew, Isaac said to Sasha as if it did not bother him much.
“I’m fine. Miss Grayson is taking care of everything anyway.”
“That is the problem, Captain. If I were truly the mistress of this place, it would at least be better, but I’m only here for one year. After a year, I won’t be here.”
Even after staying here only a few days, such things were far too clear to Sasha’s eyes. Starting from the fact that his bedroom had been erased, the people of this mansion seemed to have been living as if they had removed the very existence of a person named Isaac Pinscher.
What frustrated her even more was Isaac’s attitude toward accepting it. As though he were accustomed to being treated like an invisible man for a long time, he obeyed without even seeming to feel any particular resentment, and it made Sasha feel as if she would burst.
What are you going to do after receiving the title? What are you going to do after officially becoming the new master?
“...I’m sorry. It’s too different from Dilton... No, please pretend you didn’t hear that. I’m sorry.”
“No. It’s understandable to compare them. Even if it’s only... one year, this place will also be somewhere Miss Grayson must look after for a while...”
Isaac, who had gone stiff from the moment the words “one year” left Sasha’s mouth, mentioned them again himself as if trying hard to smooth things over and said that he understood her.
Isaac kept glancing at Sasha’s face, which looked complicated in many ways.
“Miss Grayson.”
“Yes.”
“There are three days left.”
He said that their wedding was only three days away, offering it in his own way as a consolation.
Just then, from far away, the faint voice of a maid looking for them could be heard.
Sasha gave a wry smile as she looked at the tailor standing beside the maid, holding a couple of heavy bags.
“Yes. It seems they’ve finished altering the wedding clothes in three days too, so that’s a relief.”