Predictable humans were boring,
but this man was different.
That was why this situation was so entertaining.
&
Seven days passed.
The Belledor Estate.
The moment I first saw it, I almost wondered if I had arrived at the capital of another kingdom.
High walls.
A balanced structure.
Finely hewn stone.
Once inside, a row of buildings stretched on, different in character from those of the capital.
They were not so much refined as they were deep.
Buildings in an old style.
And yet the elegance created by layers of accumulated time was all the more splendid.
“Oh?”
Aileen glanced at me and said,
“Most people are quite surprised when they come to our estate. Have you been here before, by any chance?”
Ah.
It must be because of my expression.
Since I wasn’t surprised, it had to seem strange to her.
In fact, I must have looked familiar with the place, which would have confused her even more.
But.
You were the one who deliberately didn’t speak to me the whole way here.
So wouldn’t it be all right for me to get a little revenge?
Thanks to that silence, old memories and feelings had surfaced again.
So I remained silent as well.
I merely gave her a light smile.
So she would be even more confused.
At that moment, Aileen’s eyes wavered ever so subtly.
So she can make that kind of face too.
She was someone who hid her emotions perfectly.
Is she still young after all?
All of a sudden,
it truly hit me that I had returned to this time.
In the distance, I could see the inner keep.
A marquisate was permitted to have an inner keep.
That fact alone completely changed the atmosphere of the estate.
High walls.
Orderly defensive lines.
A place where authority and history stood in physical form.
But.
To my eyes, it was simply a sight I had never wanted to see again.
When we arrived at the inner keep that also served as the mansion, its scale was immense,
and the endlessly stretching garden had clearly been designed with even the seasons in mind.
Flowers were planted without a single gap,
and the trees were trimmed so perfectly that there seemed to be no place untouched by human hands.
It was a magnificent sight that anyone would admire,
but it stirred no particular emotion in me.
Perhaps that was why.
Throughout the walk, Aileen kept glancing at my face several times, gauging my reaction.
She must find it strange.
Almost no one would fail to be surprised by this sight.
Her eyes wavered again.
Ah.
That expression.
It put me in a strangely good mood.
As soon as we entered the mansion, the butler hurried over.
“Lady Aileen! It’s...”
“I know.”
It was a short reply.
The butler immediately bowed his head.
“Ah! Yes! Then I shall escort you. First, the lord—”
Aileen whispered quietly to the butler.
“No. I don’t think we need to meet Father.”
As if he immediately understood her meaning, the butler nodded again.
“Mr. Rayon.”
Aileen said casually,
“There are guests who arrived before us. This works out nicely. I’ll introduce you.”
“It seems someone came.”
“Yes.”
I followed her deeper into the garden.
A pavilion where the sunlight settled softly.
Beneath it, two people were seated.
I recognized them the moment I saw them.
Ian Lucevalt.
Seraphinrie de Harmont.
The two of them also noticed us and rose from their seats.
“Aileen~ Welcome.”
“This is my house. Isn’t ‘welcome’ a little strange?”
“Haha. What does it matter? I’m practicing in advance.”
Ian laughed without hesitation,
and Aileen looked at him with a cold expression.
Seraphinrie, who stood beside him, looked at me before Aileen did.
Her red hair, touched by the sunlight, shone with exceptional clarity.
“Who’s that beside you?”
At those words, Ian also looked me over.
At first, there was wariness.
His gaze moved from my head to my feet, then back up again, and the corners of his lips rose.
Ah.
He’s decided I’m no match for him.
Yes.
You’re handsome.
“Mr. Rayon. This is Ian Lucevalt.”
Flowing blond hair.
Clear blue eyes.
He looked like a protagonist who had walked straight out of a knightly epic.
It was not only his appearance.
A swordsmanship genius who had already been knighted at the age of seventeen.
The Lucevalt family was also a marquis house, and had long been rivals with the Belmardians.
But Ian actually enjoyed that fact.
He openly went around saying it.
That he would one day marry Aileen.
The reason he rejected the courtship of countless noble ladies was Aileen.
Even an old rivalry was something Ian accepted like fate.
Come to think of it, what happened after I got married?
I don’t think I paid much attention to it.
I couldn’t remember well.
“And this is Seraphinrie de Harmont.”
Red hair,
sharp eyes.
She had a cold, yet refined impression.
The de Harmont family was famous as the wealthiest among the marquis houses.
Gold and silver, merchant companies, finance.
It was said that a considerable portion of the money flowing through the empire passed through their hands.
And the heir they had obtained with great difficulty.
Seraphinrie de Harmont.
With that alone, her position needed no further explanation.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Rayon Signal.”
The Signal family.
The moment they heard that name, both their eyes changed ever so slightly.
They had never heard of it.
Their judgment must have ended in an instant with that alone.
Ian raised the corners of his mouth and offered his hand.
“Nice to meet you, friend.”
His tone was friendly, but its true meaning was closer to the opposite.
It was a gentle way of drawing a line, making it clear we were not equals.
I paid it no mind and took his hand.
Seraphinrie let out a brief snort of laughter and turned her gaze away.
She didn’t even greet me.
A blatant disregard.
Even though the guest she had brought was being treated that way, Aileen showed no reaction.
She merely watched me quietly.
She must be observing my response.
Fortunately, I wasn’t particularly offended by Seraphinrie’s attitude.
So I simply kept smiling.
Perhaps that annoyed her even more, because only then did Seraphinrie look me over again.
“So why did the two of you come?”
Aileen’s question was plain.
“Me? I came because I missed our Aileen. Hahaha!”
Aileen gave no particular reaction and shifted her gaze to Seraphinrie,
and Seraphinrie unfolded her arms and handed her something.
“Our family will be holding a party soon.”
She spoke calmly.
“You can only attend if you have an invitation. So I came to give it to you personally.”
The meaning behind those words was not light.
For a party of that scale, having an invitation sent and delivering it personally were completely different things.
Coming in person meant that the other party was acknowledged as someone important.
It was by no means a small courtesy toward Aileen.
“Thank you.”
It was a short response, but Aileen knew exactly what it meant as well.
Perhaps because of that, even though her answer was brief, it carried sincerity.
Then.
Seraphinrie’s gaze fixed on me again.
This time, too, it was blatant.
“By the way.”
She lifted her chin ever so slightly toward me.
It was an extremely rude gesture, but I didn’t care.
“Why did you invite this person?”
The flow of the air changed slightly.
Ian crossed his arms as if amused, and Aileen smiled subtly.
Seraphinrie was not someone who asked simply because she was curious.
She was the person who had offered Aileen the most realistic advice by her side.
The type who moved not by emotion, but by calculation.
On top of that, her instincts were extremely sharp.
In this place, right now,
a man with an unfamiliar name was standing beside Aileen.
That itself must have been a variable.
From Seraphinrie’s point of view, I could only be a being who required a reason.
I did not bother opening my mouth.
This was not something for me to answer.
The one who had placed me on this board
was Aileen.
“When I was in the capital, he recommended coffee to me at a café.”
Aileen said lightly.
“Thanks to him, I learned of some good beans, so I invited him in return.”
Her tone was casual.
Seraphinrie knew how absurd those words were.
Aileen also knew very well that she would not believe that explanation alone.
But it did not matter.
“I see.”
Seraphinrie replied curtly.
That was what she said, but her eyes said something entirely different.
She did not seem inclined to let it pass.
“But you.”
Seraphinrie propped her chin on her hand and looked at me.
“Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“You’re looking at me with strange eyes.”
“I am?”
I widened my eyes as if baffled and even looked toward Aileen.
Aileen let out a small sigh.
“Seraphin...”
“No. I saw it.”
If anything, Seraphinrie was the one who seemed flustered.
Aileen looked a little surprised as well.
“Ah, while I was looking.”
I spoke as if it were nothing.
“I thought the two of you looked incredibly good together, so I suppose I ended up staring without realizing it.”
A brief silence flowed.
Ian frowned and went, “Huh?”
Seraphinrie’s eyes widened as if surprised.
I added calmly,
“Are you not? Was I the only one who felt that way? You two really look like a lovely pair.”
And then I drove in the final nail.
“You’re a couple, right?”
“What kind of ridiculous—”
The moment Ian tried to object.
“Ahaha!”
Seraphinrie burst into loud laughter first.
Behind that laughter, the look in her eyes clearly changed.
“Rayon, was it?”
Her gaze changed.
“I like you. You should come too.”
She flicked her hand lightly.
“You don’t have an invitation, but I’ll put in a word.”
A party of the de Harmont family.
Everyone invited there was carefully selected.
For a nameless family, it was an opportunity that might not come even once in a lifetime.
From the Signal family’s perspective, it was truly a stroke of fortune.
With that, Ian and Seraphinrie each boarded their carriages to return.
Watching the carriages recede, I said playfully,
“Ian, that friend really must like Lady Aileen. Seeing how he leaves as soon as he sees her face.”
Aileen’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“I have no interest in him.”
I answered calmly.
“Really? Even though he’s that handsome? And his personality is so refreshing.”
At that, Aileen’s gaze narrowed even more as it fixed on me,
“Wh-why?”
Her eyes were so sharp that I flinched.
“I don’t judge men by their looks. Well, who knows what might happen with you either.”
“What?”
I blinked.
“Is that your roundabout way of saying I’m ugly?”
A brief silence.
The corners of Aileen’s mouth trembled, and she quickly turned her head away.
“Pfft.”
It was very brief, but she had definitely laughed.
Or not?
Was it my imagination?
For now, I changed the subject.
“By the way, is it all right if I don’t greet the family head?”
Aileen’s expression stiffened subtly, then soon relaxed.
“It’s fine. Rather, this is for your sake, Mr. Rayon. Don’t misunderstand.”
I did not ask further.
And now, we moved on to the main purpose.
“Then.”
I took one step forward.
“Shall we begin right away?”
Aileen’s gaze changed once more.
“When you put it that way, I feel I can trust you.”
She smiled lightly.
“To be honest, even when I brought you here, I was worried you might refuse. I also wondered what I would do if you hesitated even after arriving.”
For a moment, my body flinched.
If it had been a lie after coming all this way,
it would now be difficult to turn back.
That must have been the true meaning of what she had just said.
Ha.
She really is frightening.
I lightly shrugged my shoulders.
“Certainly.”
I took a breath and said,
“There must be many people who speak as if a lie were the truth in order to gain Lady Aileen’s attention.
Like moths throwing themselves into the flame.”
At the very least, I meant that I was not lying.
“What about you?”
“Pardon?”
I blinked for a moment.
“Ah, I’m still not a moth, but truly...”
“No.”
Aileen slowly lifted her eyes and looked at me.
Her silver hair, holding the sunlight, swayed slightly in the wind.
“I meant, are you not trying hard to catch my attention?”
What is she talking about?
For a moment, my mind went blank.
“Uh...”
Flustered, I blurted out whatever came to mind.
“Should I sing a song?”
“Pardon?”
Perhaps it was an answer she hadn’t expected, because Aileen’s eyes went round.
Then, before long, laughter slipped out.
“Pfft. Hehe.”
Oh, she laughed.
That was not a forced smile.
It was a smile that neither the Aileen I knew
nor the Aileen I had seen so far would ever make.
A smile I was seeing for the first time, truly natural.
So that’s how she laughs.
She is pretty, after all.