That’s right.
I hate them.
I hate smart people so much.
&
And yet, strangely, I did not feel bad.
Aileen was smiling, and her father was smiling as he looked at his daughter.
Watching them, I felt a strange emotion that was difficult to explain.
“By the way, my lord.”
“Will you no longer call me Father?”
“Uh, pardon? Ah, then... Father.”
Valterk smiled benevolently.
“What is it?”
“If you cherish your daughter so much, why do you hide it?”
Valterk kept smiling.
But for an instant, a bitterness settled within it.
“When you reach this position, revealing your emotions itself becomes a weakness.”
He paused for a moment, then continued.
“Even my wife did not know.”
“E-even Mother?”
“That’s right.”
Valterk was calm.
“It wasn’t because I didn’t trust her. If she found out, there might be people who would kidnap and torture my daughter, or her.”
His brow furrowed slightly at the words that followed.
“That is extreme, but if even that much can happen, then all manner of other things can happen as well.”
To reach that position.
I had vaguely known there were many things one had to give up.
But.
I had not known it would be to this extent.
***
After the meal ended, Aileen and I walked by the lake again.
“It’s strange.”
Aileen said, gazing at the ripples.
“The way Father treats you like that, and even the way he shows such a happy smile.”
He really did look happy.
It’s strange to me too.
I thought you would hate your father.
That was nothing more than an assumption I had made on my own.
Aileen had never brought up her father,
and I had never personally seen Valterk before, either.
Because.
Valterk Belmardian would soon be poisoned to death.
...
Then.
You must be very sad.
In my previous life, I had not been able to see her like this.
But because I had met her far too early this time, I now found myself imagining what came afterward.
Aileen grieving.
I could not picture it at all.
Wait,
come to think of it... I’m sure she cried at the end.
Right before I died, she had definitely been looking at me and crying.
Or not?
It had been such a brief moment that my memory was hazy.
Memories become beautified or altered, so perhaps I had simply wanted to see it that way.
In any case.
As far as I knew, I had heard that she changed after her father died.
The image of her that I had originally known.
That version of her could appear again before long.
But.
I know.
How Valterk was poisoned to death.
However, I do not know who did it.
To begin with, it had taken even Aileen ten years to reach the truth.
What I remembered was only the method of poisoning that she had ultimately discovered.
Because of it, she had gone from suspecting that her father had been poisoned to confirming it as fact.
Wait.
The reason she started a rebellion was...
Could it have been the royal family?
No.
As expected, that was an area I absolutely could not think through.
When I lacked the ability, judging things as I pleased would only create strange preconceptions.
That would soon become a mistake, and that mistake would become a disaster.
So I.
Will only do what I know.
“What are you thinking about?”
“What food does Father like?”
“Why ask that all of a sudden?”
Aileen blinked.
“Father said it was his first time seeing me, didn’t he? But you said he smiles when he is with me. Then I thought I’d like to have another meal with him before we go back.”
Aileen, who had been smiling, suddenly covered her mouth and looked surprised.
“Oh my.”
Then she slowly smiled.
“What is this? Isn’t that practically a confession?”
“Pardon? A confession?”
“You’re trying to look good in front of my father. Ah~ Are you trying to get his approval for our marriage?”
Aileen stepped closer.
When her beautiful face came so close, I grew flustered without realizing it.
“O-of course it would be good to make a favorable impression on the head of House Belmardian.”
“Really~?”
Was this her original personality?
She was different. Far too different.
That was why, even more.
My resolve to stop the poisoning hardened.
***
The next day.
Naturally, the three of us ended up having a meal together again.
“I hear you said you wished to dine with me?”
Valterk asked, looking at me.
“What might be the reason?”
Father and daughter alike.
Those eyes are exactly the same.
“You must be busy, so thank you for making time for me.”
I spoke as calmly as I could.
“As for the reason... I kept thinking of how Lady Aileen treated my father and mother kindly, and I also heard that it had been a long time since you smiled, Father. So I wondered if you might enjoy dining together again.”
From his perspective, it might have been a somewhat absurd reason.
Precisely because of that, it was very refreshing.
“Haha. I see. It is true that I have laughed quite a bit for the first time in a while.”
His smile was faint, but there was certainly sincerity in it.
“For someone in my position, it is a gift more precious than most things. Thank you.”
“So I asked them to prepare food that you like, Father. Something you often eat, something you eat only occasionally, or even something you long for but cannot have.”
Valterk’s gaze changed with interest.
“Hmm... As it happens, there is something I want to eat but cannot have often.”
The corners of his mouth rose.
“In truth, it is food eaten by commoners. From a very distant region, at that.”
A moment later, the dish that came out was none other than baeksuk.
“Haha! Carlton has boiled it very well today. Come, try it.”
“It’s baeksuk.”
Valterk raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, you know this dish?”
“Yes. I happened to have eaten it once before. After I had it then, it was so delicious that I wanted to eat it again, but I could never recreate that same flavor, so I gave up.”
I was not joking. Baeksuk was a dish I truly liked.
Then, suddenly, I looked at Aileen.
“What is it?”
Aileen looked puzzled, but I did not answer.
After we got married, I had once been caught trying to secretly eat baeksuk.
Back then, Aileen, who had only ever ignored me, had gotten angry for the first time.
So this was the reason.
Now I finally understand.
I smiled as I looked at Aileen.
“Do you know how to eat baeksuk?”
“Don’t you just eat it?”
When Aileen tried to cut the chicken leg in front of her with a knife,
I hurriedly reached out my hand.
“Wait.”
“Yes? Why?”
I let out a sigh and looked at Valterk.
“Haah... This is quite something. Father. I am beginning to wonder whether it is proper to share a table with her. How can she be so rude...”
“Indeed.”
Valterk immediately laughed and played along.
Aileen looked as though she could not understand our reaction at all.
Without hesitating any longer, I picked up the chicken leg with my hand.
Then I skillfully pulled the meat from the bone and tore into it.
“...”
Aileen’s eyes went round.
By contrast, Valterk’s smile deepened.
“That’s right.”
He nodded with a very satisfied expression.
“So it was true, you really do know. Haha! Yes. That is how baeksuk must be eaten.”
There was a reason baeksuk, no matter how delicious, was not eaten among nobles.
It tasted best when you grabbed it with your hands and tore into it.
Soon, Valterk himself reached out with his hand as well.
At that sight, Aileen was so surprised that her mouth actually fell open.
It was probably her first time seeing her father like that.
I was a little surprised too.
That Valterk Belmardian.
Tearing into a chicken leg with his bare hand.
But.
Why does he look cool?
“If you don’t eat, I’ll steal it all.”
Aileen still could not properly eat and merely stared blankly as we ate.
The baeksuk began to disappear in an instant.
After looking back and forth between the two of us like that, Aileen slowly reached out without realizing it.
At first, she was extremely cautious.
But the moment she took a bite, her expression changed.
“Wh-what is this?”
Aileen murmured softly.
“Why is it so deeply delicious?”
From then on, she too ate carefully but with both hands,
and before long, the three of us had nearly emptied the entire table of baeksuk.
“Aah, that was a very satisfying meal after such a long time. This is truly what it means to eat.”
“I am also truly grateful to have been treated to something so precious.”
“No.”
Valterk smiled with a rather satisfied expression.
“It has truly been a long time since I was able to comfortably eat baeksuk. Honestly, I never thought I would share such a meal with a guest of my daughter’s. I will remember today for a long time.”
Looking at the smiling Valterk, I deliberately put on a bitter expression.
“I feel hurt.”
“Hm?”
“I am looking forward to another time like this, yet you speak as though today will be the last.”
For a moment, silence flowed.
For the first time, Valterk’s eyes widened sharply.
Words he had never expected at all.
“Hahaha! Yes. That was my mistake. Very well.”
At some point, Aileen had propped up her chin and was staring intently at that sight.
I turned my gaze for a moment and met Aileen’s eyes.
Aileen smiled, and I too gave a light smile.
Then I turned my gaze back to the baeksuk,
and picked up one of the ingredients.
“By the way, Father. This ingredient here.”
“Oh, you recognized it?”
Valterk smiled as though intrigued.
“That must be included for the true flavor of this baeksuk to come out. It is not an easy thing to obtain, either. It only grows on another continent.”
“That’s right.”
I rolled the ingredient between my fingertips as I spoke.
“But this... you need to be a little careful with it.”
Who would have known?
That the food he liked,
would one day become the means of killing him.
“This ingredient itself is fine. But you know black vinegar, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“I heard that the moment it mixes with that, it becomes poisonous.”
A brief silence.
Valterk slowly set down the chopsticks he had been holding.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
I calmly nodded.
“It is something I heard from an old man who made this dish for me long ago. He had lived on that continent for a long time, so he happened to know.”
Valterk let out a low breath.
“Huh... As it happens, I had once heard that adding black vinegar makes it even more delicious, so I have been searching for it because I wanted to try it. It is so difficult to obtain that I have not found it yet, but that is rather fortunate.”
Then he gave a faint laugh.
“If not for you, I would have died before long. In that case... are you my lifesaver?”
I waved my hands.
“A lifesaver? No, it is not to that extent...”
At that moment, Aileen naturally took over the conversation.
“Dad would have eaten it anyway.”
Aileen looked at Valterk as she spoke.
“Because you are the sort of person who eventually obtains whatever you want, no matter what. So he is your lifesaver.”
Then she looked back at me.
“Dad. I can be the one to give the reward to your lifesaver, right?”
“N-no. I did not mean it that way...”
“Of course, of course!”
Valterk laughed as though he found it amusing.
“You do it, my daughter. Make sure he does not feel disappointed.”
What is this?
This is strange.
Why do I suddenly feel like I have been had?
Their developments were far too fast.
So fast that I could not grasp the situation at all.
Still, the poisoning using baeksuk would not happen now.
I had thought that the one who recommended black vinegar might be the culprit, but I erased the thought.
Probably not.
They would never be that sloppy.
It must not have taken Aileen ten years for no reason.
They would probably move in some other way now,
but I had no intention of involving myself after that.
To be precise, I could not.
My role ends here.
This much is enough.
At least.
For the time being, she will not grieve.