In the end, again,
I’m afraid I’ll start deluding myself.
“My, why that expression?”
“Because I’ve come to like you.”
&
The moment I said it, I was the one who froze.
Eileen’s pupils rapidly widened.
“Huh, what did I—what did I just say? S-sorry. Let’s pretend you didn’t hear that…”
“I heard you clearly.”
Eileen slowly spoke.
“And very clearly, at that.”
“It’s just, those were words that came out before I knew it. You don’t have to mind them…”
“That’s right.”
“Pardon?”
Eileen looked at me and smiled very slowly.
“Not words fabricated to use someone, nor words said to gloss over the situation.”
Her gaze fixed on me.
“Just words that spilled out from emotion.”
“Th-that… that is.”
I didn’t know what to say, only twitching my lips.
But Eileen brushed it off as if nothing had happened at all, turning her body so naturally and changing the subject.
“Ah, right. Did the product I gave Madam last time agree with her well?”
Because she moved past it so smoothly, I, too, found myself naturally answering her.
***
I returned to the mansion before dark.
The moment I entered the fine guest room, I threw myself onto the bed with my tangled thoughts.
Damn it.
She’s not trying to grab hold of my weakness here, is she?
She was a woman who could flip the board with a single slip of the tongue and use it to pull dealings in her favor.
If it were her, she could definitely turn even this situation into a weapon.
Claiming that I had revealed unwanted emotions,
that I had acted rudely toward a lady.
If she started pushing it like that, my image could collapse in an instant.
Her power.
Her connections.
And the countless nobles who adored her.
Thinking about it, it was absolutely not a stretch.
She had the brains and power to turn a stretch into reality.
“…”
I suddenly looked at the moonlight shining through the window.
“It still feels like home here.”
It wasn’t that this room itself was familiar.
The air flowing here.
The smell unique to this mansion.
That peculiar atmosphere, uncomfortable yet strangely comfortable.
That was so familiar.
Old memories naturally came to mind, and Eileen’s recent actions overlapped on top of them.
Could it really,
not be?
No.
There’s no way.
Eileen’s eyes, voice, and expression from that surging memory all came back vividly.
Even so, I felt strange.
Wanting to shake off this feeling even a little, I closed my eyes.
And when I came to my senses after quite a while lost in thought, I was startled.
“…”
I had been walking in the garden.
I was bewildered because this action of mine was so natural.
It made sense.
This was a place I had always walked.
It was then, as I was walking thoughtlessly wherever my feet took me,
that the scent of coffee suddenly brushed by.
Wondering why there was a scent of coffee in the garden at this hour,
I turned my head and faintly saw someone sitting in the pavilion.
Eileen?
As I approached a bit closer, I realized the build was different from the start.
Knowing it wasn’t Eileen, and not wanting to disturb someone alone for no reason, I tried to quietly turn away.
“Someone?”
A calm yet forceful voice.
At first, seeing only the silhouette, I thought it was Elcant.
But with just that one word, I realized at once.
Who it was.
“I apologize. I am a guest of Lady Eileen. The wind was so nice that I was walking alone.”
The head of House Belmardian.
It was Valterk Belmardian.
Though his face wasn’t even clearly visible yet, the heavy aura emanating from him alone was suffocating.
I knew he was deliberately emitting more of that aura.
Feeling like I’d be crushed if I stood facing him for too long, I first thought to withdraw quickly.
“So you’re that friend.”
Before I could speak first, he said in a calm voice.
“Won’t you come here and sit?”
Since it was the head of House Belmardian speaking, I absolutely could not disobey.
I was also curious.
Because I had never faced him in my previous life.
Just what kind of person was he?
Approaching slowly while a bit nervous, the moment I saw his face, my eyes widened without realizing it.
Wow.
Insane.
So handsome.
Atmosphere, aura, whatever—his face alone overwhelmed me.
Truly worthy of being Eileen’s father.
“What is your name?”
“I am Reion Signal, the eldest son of House Signal.”
“I see.”
Valterk raised his coffee cup.
“I hear our daughter is quite bothering you?”
“Ah, no. It’s because of business. Rather, I am grateful.”
He smiled lightly and took a sip of coffee.
“I heard you found a rice cultivation method.”
“I was lucky.”
“Luck, you say…”
It was a short phrase, but it left a peculiar feeling.
It seemed comfortable yet uncomfortable.
It was clearly calm, yet there was something inside that wasn’t easily read.
Right.
That atmosphere I had seen from Eileen.
Not exactly the same, but similar.
“So.”
Valterk looked at me.
“Do you have plans for the future?”
“I don’t.”
At my answer, his gaze changed very subtly.
“An interesting answer.”
He raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
“May I ask the reason?”
“Because I know myself well.”
“Knowing oneself well.”
Valterk laughed lowly.
“I still don’t fully know myself, yet you assert so confidently that you know yourself well.”
“Yes.”
Silence flowed for a moment.
Then Valterk smiled briefly.
“Ha. Haha. I see.”
And suddenly changed the subject.
“What do you think of our daughter?”
“Pardon?”
I panicked and waved my hands.
“No, how could someone like me dare to say such things…”
Talking about his daughter in front of him was too burdensome.
“Why?”
Valterk asked nonchalantly.
“Is our daughter not to your liking?”
“That’s not it.”
I immediately shook my head.
“How could I say Lady Eileen is not to my liking? She is very beautiful. And smart.”
I thought my words would stop there, but suddenly one more thing popped out before I knew it.
“She’s also cute.”
Valterk’s eyebrows rose very slightly.
“Cute?”
Cute?
Why did such a word suddenly come out of my mouth?
“Yes.”
But since I couldn’t say no, I answered without hesitation after all.
He looked at me as if intrigued.
That gaze strangely persisted.
Then he asked in a very calm voice.
“If you were to marry our daughter, how far could you go for her?”
“Hmm… well. I’m so lacking that I wonder if I could even give what I want to.”
“Could you die for her?”
“Yes.”
Why is he saying something so obvious?
I looked at him with an expression asking why he would ask such a thing,
and under the moonlight, Valterk looked at me for a while.
After a brief silence, he lightly drank his coffee again.
“Now I understand.”
“Pardon?”
“Why my daughter keeps bothering you.”
“…Pardon?”
Tell me too.
But before I could ask the meaning of those words, urgent footsteps were heard from afar.
“Father!”
It was Eileen.
“Have you come?”
“Sigh… Reion, get up quickly.”
“Yes? No, but the Lord Father first…”
At that moment.
Valterk and Eileen’s expressions simultaneously changed to surprise, and both looked at me.
What?
Why?
After a moment, Valterk burst into laughter first.
“Hahaha! Yes, yes. Go on, quickly.”
Eileen looked at me with a still-strange expression and spoke quietly.
“L-let’s go.”
Without knowing the reason, I got up, bowed my head, and was led out of the garden by Eileen’s hand just like that.
“Sigh… Did Father call you?”
“No. I ran into him while walking in the garden.”
Eileen touched her hair and shook her head.
“I don’t think so. He probably knew you were walking in the garden and waited there.”
“Really? Did he watch me? Why?”
“Father…”
Eileen sighed and continued.
“Truth is, he’s quite the fool for his daughter.”
“Pardon?”
That was quite a shocking statement.
That Valterk Belmardian, known to be so cold and perfect, a fool for his daughter?
His evaluation known at the time was that of a man who moved only for the sake of his house.
He was famous for being extremely cold even to his daughter, Eileen.
That was why he was even more respected.
But a fool for his daughter?
“It doesn’t look that way, does it?”
Eileen said in a voice mixed with sighs.
“So I was very worried. He didn’t say anything like… ‘I’ll kill you’… did he?”
“They were just ordinary questions.”
“Sigh, anyway I’m sorry. The reason I tried to keep you from meeting Father was in case something like that happened.”
Eileen stopped speaking and closed her lips for a moment.
“But… ahem. I was a bit surprised earlier.”
“Pardon? Why?”
“Because you called my father ‘Father.’”
I flustered for a moment.
“Th-that… Lady Eileen did the same to my parents, and rather than being too stiff…”
“My.”
Eileen narrowed her eyes and smiled.
“I really meant it that way, you know?”
And she added very calmly.
“So what Reion said too, Father would have fully taken in that meaning.”
“Uh, uhh…”
Soon, what she had said came to mind.
“Will he kill me?”
His precious daughter.
For a nobody like me to harbor such delusions alone was a crime worth killing for from his standpoint.
“Pfft.”
Eileen burst into laughter, not knowing whether I was serious or not.
“Of course, he knows it was said out of courtesy. However, what surprised him was that there had never been a man who called him ‘Father’ so naturally until now. No, is there… anyone who could?”
Indeed.
Who could say such a thing in front of someone emanating such an aura?
Even for me, it had really just come out somehow.
No, perhaps the remaining memories of this place,
might have made it so.
“Anyway.”
Eileen shook her head.
“Try not to run into Father often if possible. I don’t know what he’ll do.”
***
But despite her worries, the three of us ended up together the next morning.
“I spoke with him briefly yesterday, and he’s quite an interesting friend, Eileen.”
Eileen was about to eat the food placed before her, but put down her fork.
“What did you talk about?”
“He said he would lay down his life if he could marry you.”
*Cough!*
“Ah, Father. When did I ever say that…”
“Hahaha!”
Ah, right.
‘Father’ again.
Valterk was outright enjoying himself.
“Did you really say that?”
“That’s not it, Fath… no, the Head asked me. He asked if I could die in her place if I married Lady Eileen.”
“So what did you say?”
In an instant, gazes focused on me.
“I said yes.”
Eileen’s eyes subtly shook.
“My.”
She smiled and tilted her head.
“You said differently last time. That you wouldn’t die.”
“Because what the Head asked was whether it was possible or not.”
At that, Eileen’s smile deepened further.
“Then.”
She slowly asked.
“Can you die for me too?”
“If it means you can live because of it, gladly.”
At my answer without a moment’s hesitation, silence briefly fell.
Eileen, who had been trying to tease, instead had her pupils grow wide,
and Valterk burst into laughter.
“Hahaha! Yes, that’s how a man should be!”
Eileen smiled briefly and spoke to me.
“Thank you.”
“Ah, th-that is… I meant it as for a marriage partner…”
At that moment, Eileen made a disappointed expression.
“You clearly just said you’d die for me.”
Eileen repeated very slowly.
“Could it be… a lie?”
I was so dumbfounded that my mouth just hung open.
And I looked at Valterk, who lightly shrugged with a face holding back laughter.
The two of them are ganging up to tease me, right?
Right?
“No, I mean, uh… that is…”
“Hahaha! Stop teasing him.”
Valterk settled it first, and Eileen also smiled as if it had been a joke and sent a wink.
I was right.
Annoying.
Smart people are so annoying.