There was a reason people said they were the richest family in the kingdom.
For reference, that dome.
It was made entirely of pure gold.
&
The moment I was about to step into the mansion,
the two knights guarding the entrance blocked my path.
Not soldiers, but knights.
The fact that knights were serving as gatekeepers showed the power of the Deharmont family.
In fact, they had close to ten knights under their command.
Neither of the two was ranked among the top hundred knights, but the aura they gave off was by no means light.
“Please show your invitation.”
Invitation?
Ah. I didn’t have one.
“Ah, about that.”
“Pfft! It’s true?”
At the sudden sound of laughter behind me, I turned my head.
The Rin family.
All of them were standing there, looking at me.
The one who laughed was Cedric, and Roderick and his wife were also looking at me with sneers on their faces.
“Looks like you don’t have an invitation?”
Perhaps what had happened back then had wounded his pride quite a bit, because Cedric approached while raising his voice even more than usual.
“And yet you’re trying to go in? Haha! This is funny. Really funny. The Signal family, of all people? Haha!”
Roderick spoke as well, his voice filled with mockery.
“Reion. Did Drevan not come with you? Or perhaps he was too embarrassed and sent his son ahead first? To check whether you could get in?”
“Haha! Father, surely not. Or is it? Is that it? Hahaha!”
While they prattled on, I looked at Marsha.
Marsha was avoiding my gaze, biting her lip tightly.
She looked rather uncomfortable.
Then I looked back at them.
“I came alone.”
My tone was calm.
“I’m glad if you enjoyed the show.”
With a shrug, I turned my gaze toward the knights.
“Lady Seraphinlie said she would invite me personally.”
The moment they heard those words,
Cedric sneered even louder.
“What? Pfft!”
A burst of laughter soon followed.
“Ahaha! Lady Seraphinlie personally? You? Hahahaha!”
He shouted blatantly, as if telling everyone around us to listen.
“If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable! Haha!”
Before long, Roderick and Pilte could no longer hold back their laughter either, and the sound drew the eyes of the nobles nearby.
Amid that laughter, Marsha’s expression stiffened even more.
It was then.
The two knights guarding the entrance exchanged a brief look, and one of them asked,
“Signal... family? Is that correct?”
It seemed he had remembered what Cedric had said.
When I nodded, the knight thought for a moment, then asked again,
“Are you Lord Reion?”
“I am.”
After a brief silence, the knight nodded.
“You may enter.”
Seraphinlie.
There was no way she would make a mistake about something like this.
And so, as if it were only natural, I did not even look back. I merely gave the knight a slight nod,
then walked inside.
Being personally invited carried a different meaning.
In an instant, my position could not help but become different from that of the Rin family, who had bought their invitations with money.
That was why they stood there like cats with their tongues caught, staring blankly at my back.
Then the knight straightened his posture again and said to the Rin family,
“Please show your invitation.”
As soon as I entered the party hall, I naturally headed toward a corner.
This is incredible.
The grand banquet hall, with its high, open ceiling, was far larger than I had imagined.
Dozens of chandeliers poured down light,
and nobles in splendid dresses came and went endlessly across the gleaming floor.
Even a brief glance was enough to tell.
Most of the people gathered here were nobles with names of some renown.
Connections.
If one could establish even a single connection with someone here, it would be of great help.
However, I stayed in the corner without particularly moving.
Besides, even if I approached them, would they spare me their time?
Of course not.
Even so, there was still something to gain.
The mere fact that I had attended this gathering meant that, when I participated in other parties later, I could naturally strike up conversations.
That alone was immensely meaningful.
On top of that, the fact that I had been invited by the Deharmont family would serve as a sufficient calling card to other nobles as well.
At the very least, I would not be ignored.
So for this party, it was enough for me to simply show my face and leave.
It might have been boring, but there was some fun in people-watching, and above all, as expected of a party held by the Deharmont family, the food was on a completely different level.
The long tables were filled with dishes I had never seen before,
and just smelling their aroma was enough to make my mouth water.
Since I was here anyway,
I might as well eat my fill of delicious food before leaving.
I picked up a plate and began putting food on it.
“Hey.”
At the voice from beside me, I turned my head.
Marsha, who had approached at some point, stood naturally beside me.
She, too, was holding a plate and putting food on it.
“I... didn’t say it like that.”
“Say what?”
“I just... said you were coming to the party too. I didn’t tell them to come and mock you like that.”
I looked at her for a moment, then nodded.
“I know.”
“Huh?”
Marsha blinked, as if surprised.
“I know, so you don’t need to be sorry.”
I smiled faintly, picked up my plate, and moved away.
As I walked past her, Marsha stood there for a moment, looking at me.
Her expression seemed rather complicated.
A short while later, just as she seemed about to take a step forward and call me again,
“Oh? Mr. Reion?”
At the voice that was not entirely unfamiliar, I turned my head.
“Lady Angelina?”
A woman with green hair stood there, her expression bright with delight.
Now that I thought about it, it would have been stranger if she were not here.
The current head of the Deharmont family was someone who had a particular fondness for scholars and intellectuals.
“Wow! I’m truly glad to see you!”
Angelina approached with genuine delight and, without hesitation, clasped my hand.
Her eyes were sparkling.
“Ah! I-I’m sorry. Without thinking, I...”
Belatedly startled, she let go of my hand and blushed.
“It’s all right, Lady Angelina.”
“To be honest... when I come to places like this, I hardly know anyone. So I was just so happy to see you. Ah! That’s right, the book you introduced to me! I read it too!”
Once she started talking, she continued without pause, like someone too excited to stop.
I set the plate I was holding down on the table beside me and listened to her with a faint smile.
When I responded here and there, Angelina seemed to grow even more excited.
Marsha only watched from the side with a blank expression.
It was then.
“Haha, this is the first time I’ve seen my daughter talk with such a smile.”
A gentle voice came from behind us.
When I turned my head, a middle-aged man was standing there.
Ervain Famille.
“Father! This is him, the person I told you about!”
“I have heard much about you.”
I bowed lightly.
“I am Reion Signal. It is an honor to meet you, Lord Ervain Famille.”
“Hahaha. You know my name, I see.”
Of course I did.
The current head of the Famille family.
A man whose territory was similar in scale to our Signal family’s, another count household,
yet someone no one in noble society dared to treat carelessly.
The reason was simple.
His wisdom.
It was my first time seeing him in person, but he looked younger than I had expected.
With a warm smile and gentle features, he might have appeared somewhat frail on the surface,
but his overall air was that of a handsome man.
No wonder people said Angelina became famous for her beauty once she took off her glasses.
That was what I was thinking when it happened.
“Hello.”
A calm voice cut in.
When I turned my head, a woman in a purple dress was standing there.
Eileen Belmardian.
The dress was vividly colored, but its ornaments had been restrained as much as possible.
Thanks to that, together with her silver hair, it instead created an even more elegant atmosphere.
Huh.
She was beautiful.
Beautiful enough that the memories of how she had treated me momentarily blurred.
No, perhaps it was because there had been another change in my heart in the meantime.
When I thought about it, had she really treated me that harshly?
It was not as if she had directly harmed me, was it?
I had liked staying cooped up at home anyway.
Suddenly, I realized I had begun rationalizing things to myself, and I found it absurd.
That was how beautiful and captivating her appearance was.
“Oho. So you are Lady Eileen Belmardian.”
Ervain said with a pleased expression.
Just like that, Eileen naturally exchanged greetings and joined the conversation.
As the conversation continued, Ervain exclaimed in admiration.
“Hoho! I had heard rumors, but you truly possess remarkable knowledge.”
“Compared to you, Lord Ervain, I have merely turned a single page of a book.”
“Hahaha.”
The conversation flowed naturally in an instant.
Eileen led the atmosphere without making it obvious at all, even as she became the center of it.
It was done in a way that no listener would find uncomfortable.
Ervain also smiled, as if he found such conversational skill interesting.
It was then.
“Thank you very much for coming to our family’s party.”
Another person approached.
It was Seraphinlie.
Red hair and a splendid red dress.
It was an intense color, but on her, it suited her all the better.
Eileen and Seraphinlie.
When the two stood side by side, the air around us changed slightly.
Gazes began to gather naturally,
and before I knew it, nobles were gathering around us one by one.
I stood quietly among them with a smile.
I did not stand at the center of the conversation.
I simply nodded at the right moments,
reacted lightly, and blended in naturally.
If this had been the past, I would have stood there blankly, not knowing what to say.
It had always been like that in the days when I followed Eileen around.
Still, the experience of forcing myself to match the atmosphere back then was proving rather useful now.
And then I felt a gaze.
When I turned my head, Marsha was standing there.
Her eyes looked as if she could not believe what she was seeing.
Roderick and his wife were there as well, of course, and so was Cedric.
All of them wore shocked expressions.
Oh.
Seeing those expressions strangely improved my mood.
I had let it pass when they mocked me earlier.
But now, this felt rather satisfying.
After becoming Eileen Belmardian’s husband, I had received similar looks before.
The bastards who had ignored me had stared at me blankly once I became her husband.
Of course, back then, it had not been because I had done anything, but simply because I was her husband.
But now was different.
This was a situation I had created.
Perhaps that was why it felt a little different.
Before long, their eyes would look that way when they saw Father as well.
Once we began selling rice, we would become far wealthier than the Rin family in an instant.
A different thought suddenly came to mind.
Come to think of it, when will Serena’s armor receive its patent?
Before I knew it, people had begun joining the area around us naturally.
At first, it was only a few people coming over to greet us, but soon they began calling one another, and the number of people increased.
The conversation split into several branches, and small circles overlapped and tangled around this place.
There was no longer any need for me to be here.
No, that had been the case from the beginning, but I had still needed to stay out of courtesy.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, I quietly slipped back.
There was no one who would stop me, so getting out was not difficult.
After all, it was not as if they would be pleased if I spoke to them in the first place.
I put the food I had not managed to eat back onto a plate and left the party hall, stepping out onto the balcony.
It was a wide balcony where the night air seeped in faintly.
There were people gathered here and there, chatting in small groups,
but since the space was so large, there were still plenty of quiet spots.
I went to a section of the railing where no one was standing and began slowly eating while looking down at the scenery below.
I’m tired.
I had only been part of the conversation for a short while, yet I already felt drained.
Growing rice would be much easier than this.
People thought nobles were beings who only ate and played,
but in reality, that was not the case at all.
Noble society was a place far more cutthroat than the world of commoners.
They lived constantly conscious of one another.
A single word,
a single expression, all had calculations beneath them.
A life lived always under tension.
There was a reason people said the average lifespan of nobles was shorter than that of commoners.
Though, of course, that was limited to nobles trying to climb higher.
Either way, it was still true that most nobles lived far more comfortable and better lives than commoners.
“Whew.”
Breathing in the night air made me feel like I could breathe a little easier.
“So this is where you were?”
Urk.
It just had to be the moment I was swallowing my food.
I hurriedly forced it down and lifted my head.
“A-Aileen? Why are you here...”
Aileen was walking onto the balcony.
As she appeared, the gazes of several nobles chatting nearby naturally turned this way.
I’d wanted to rest in peace.
“Why have you come here?”
Aileen tilted her head as she asked.
“Well... I wanted to rest a little. I was hungry, too.”
I lightly raised the plate I was holding.
At that, Aileen also smiled and lifted her own plate slightly.
“Me too.”
Ugh.
That expression.
This really wasn’t good.
We were clearly an ill-fated pair.
“Oh? Your face is turning red.”
“When Lady Aileen smiles like that, of course my heart can’t help but race.”
“...”
For an instant, her expression stiffened.
Oh no.
Did I make a mistake?
I’d only been speaking from the heart.
I hurriedly continued.
“I’m sorry if I offended you. I...”
“No.”
Aileen shook her head.
“It’s not that I’m offended...”
She paused for a moment, then looked at me again.
“I was surprised.”
And then.
Slowly, she smiled.
It was that bright smile again.
...
It was beautiful.
But.
Strangely, the moment I saw that smile, something in my chest gave a sharp twinge.
At the same time, anger rose in me.
If she knew how to make a face like that.
Then she should have smiled at me like that at least once, even if it had been a lie.
Or,
She should have controlled me with a smile like that.
If she had, even if I’d been deceived, I might have been able to dream a happy dream, if only for a little while.
“Why... are you looking at me with an angry expression?”
Aileen asked cautiously.
Her face said she truly couldn’t understand.
Right.
Of course she’d be confused.
“Ah, don’t misunderstand. I’m not angry at Lady Aileen... I’m angry at myself. Haha.”
Aileen narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.
“What do you mean?”
“I just find myself pathetic for having all sorts of delusions over a single smile from Lady Aileen.”
I shrugged and laughed.
My expression probably looked a little bitter right now.
But that was fine.
I wanted it to look that way.
“What sort of delusions did you have?”
Wow.
Look at that expression.
Curious, yet somehow tinged with mischief.
Her inquisitive eyes were sparkling.
Because she made expressions like that.
Even after she was married, so many men still followed her around.
She was a witch. A witch.
With a small sigh, I spoke calmly.
“One day, out of the blue, Lady Aileen announces that she’s marrying me.”