Until I had barely caught my breath,
until the light in my eyes no longer wavered.
And then.
Only then did I answer with a small smile.
“I missed you.”
&
This time, it was Aileen whose eyes wavered.
Of course they did.
To her, those words must have been completely unexpected.
“I’m not going to check whether that’s true or not.”
Aileen spoke in a low voice.
“I’m just going to think whatever I want. So don’t explain. Don’t make excuses.”
The moment I heard those words,
a strange ache spread through one side of my chest.
The feeling that I was doing something terribly wrong right now
came over me with painful clarity.
She was not the woman from my previous life.
The woman before me was certainly the same, yet different.
And after closing my eyes for a moment, I opened them again.
In that brief instant, the look in my eyes
and the atmosphere changed.
Aileen noticed that change immediately.
The playful light in her eyes sank away,
and she, too, quietly grew serious.
She simply waited until I opened my mouth.
I looked at her,
and she looked at me.
The waiter set down the coffee and left,
but I was still looking only at Aileen.
Aileen did not avert her gaze either.
A strange silence and tension.
Just as Aileen’s eyes were about to tremble ever so slightly,
I took a scrap of leather from my breast and placed it before her.
She looked at it with slightly startled eyes, as if asking what it was.
A hand reaching to grasp the sun.
Not understanding, she looked back at me.
I spoke calmly.
“It was found on the men who attacked Marsha.”
Aileen’s brows slowly drew together.
She picked up the leather again and examined it carefully.
“This...”
That was when I spoke first.
“The Old Dynasty.”
“...”
The look in Aileen’s eyes changed subtly.
“The Old Dynasty...”
She repeated the words softly,
then placed the leather back on the table.
And this time, she looked at me with eyes a little sharper than before.
“You’re trying to confirm whether I’m... no.”
Her gaze dropped briefly to the leather, then rose again.
“Whether our House Belmardian is part of the Old Dynasty.”
As expected, she was sharp.
She had pierced straight to the heart of it at once.
I took a short breath and said,
“I’m sorry if this offends you.”
“No.”
Aileen immediately shook her head.
“It’s not that.”
Then she looked straight at me.
“Why are you doing this?”
I had thought she would be disappointed,
or offended and angry.
But what lay clearly in the eyes looking at me
was concern.
“If I, no, if Belmardian really is connected to the Old Dynasty.”
Aileen asked in an even lower voice.
“What are you planning to do?”
“I’ll die, I suppose.”
“That’s what I mean.”
Her brows trembled faintly.
“Knowing that, why?”
I looked at her for a moment.
Her concern had, at some point, turned into a question.
So I answered honestly.
“Because this suspicion distorts everything.”
Aileen’s gaze stilled.
And the eyes that had trembled ever so faintly when she looked at me earlier now began to tremble a little more.
“What used to be ‘Surely not, right?’”
“...”
“Becomes ‘As expected, it isn’t’ because of this suspicion.”
At those words, Aileen’s eyes shook even more visibly.
The hope that it might be so.
The conviction that it would not be.
The difference between those two was truly immense.
Soon, Aileen’s cheeks gradually flushed, and the trembling in her eyes stopped before she looked straight at me.
It felt as though she was looking at me more directly than ever before.
And she smiled.
This smile, too, was somehow different.
How should I put it?
It was the smile of someone who was truly happy.
Yes.
It was definitely that kind of smile.
“Your life.”
“Yes?”
“You bet it on me too.”
For a moment, I did not understand what she meant.
But Aileen said no more,
and before I knew it, her face had returned to its usual expression.
She looked toward the sunset and swept her hair back once.
Then she looked at me again, propped her arm on the table,
rested her chin on her hand, and smiled.
“No.”
This was not an answer to what she had just said.
It was an answer about the Old Dynasty.
“On the contrary, we recently discovered traces of them as well. So, to be honest, I was quite surprised inside when you said that.”
“About the Old Dynasty?”
“Yes.”
Aileen leaned a little farther forward.
For no reason, that distance made it hard to breathe.
“Perhaps the ones who attacked us are also connected to the Old Dynasty.”
“...”
“It seems you think so too, Mr. Rayon.”
I slowly nodded.
She spoke in a slightly more cautious voice.
“It isn’t certain. We were also in the middle of investigating after learning of the Old Dynasty’s existence. And in the process, we found traces that they had approached us.”
“...”
“My father probably knew long ago.”
Aileen’s eyes sank.
“The attack on me... was likely a message to my father. Because he must have refused them.”
The suspicion I had thought impossible turned out to be correct.
But the instant I heard those words, another thought flashed through my mind.
Could it have been the Old Dynasty?
The culprit who had tried to kill her father, Valterk.
No,
considering that she had raised a rebellion in my previous life, I still could not be certain.
In any case,
Aileen had no connection to the Old Dynasty.
At least,
she was not connected to them now.
That was a relief.
Truly.
I felt something deep inside me slowly loosen at that fact alone.
“Actually, I met with Prince Baron not long ago. It was regarding the matter of our territorial war.”
“Oh, did you?”
“I didn’t mention the Old Dynasty then... but I suppose I can now. If I meet him next time, I should bring it up.”
Aileen looked puzzled for a moment.
“Why didn’t you tell him... oh my.”
Then her eyes widened.
She had understood immediately.
“Don’t tell me. Because of me?”
“...”
“If you asked about the Old Dynasty and died, then in the end, Belmardian—no, I—would be involved with the Old Dynasty.”
“Ahem.”
“And Prince Baron might attack me?”
I pretended not to know, avoided her gaze, and drank my coffee.
Seeing my reaction, Aileen’s eyes began filling with mischief.
“If I had been part of the Old Dynasty, and I was a bad person, why would you try to protect me?”
“No, that’s...”
Now that she mentioned it, that was true.
Why had I done that?
At that moment,
I had simply thought I had to.
I answered honestly.
“I don’t know either.”
At those words, Aileen’s mischievous smile deepened.
“Oh my~ If I really had been part of the Old Dynasty and tempted you into cooperating with me, you would have cooperated, wouldn’t you?”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Really? It doesn’t sound like you wouldn’t~”
She smiled slyly.
“I feel like if I asked you to help me no matter what evil thing I did, you’d help me.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Really?”
“I’d scold you harshly.”
“How?”
I parted my lips for a moment.
“Uh... mm. No. Don’t. Something... like that?”
Aileen’s eyes went round,
and then she could not hold back and burst into laughter.
“Pfft... ahahaha.”
She laughed so much that tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
I also let out a small laugh and drank my coffee.
“Do it again.”
“I need to drink my coffee. Don’t interrupt me.”
“Ah, whyyy. Do it again. Please?”
The distance between us had grown closer.
Her smile had deepened.
The mischief in her eyes had grown more playful.
All of it
continued to make the memories of my previous life fade.
Fortunately, Aileen did not pester me any further and, still smiling, leaned back.
“All right. Anyway, then, when are you going to tell His Highness?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. For some reason, if I tell him, I feel like the Old Dynasty side will really attack me. If possible, I don’t want to get involved.”
Aileen set aside her playfulness and nodded at my words.
“After all, it isn’t as though anything I do can change the outcome.”
At that moment, Aileen suddenly wore another mischievous expression.
“Then what if the Old Dynasty is after me?”
“...”
“Would you still stay still?”
I sighed.
“What power do I have?”
“You have to protect me.”
“The knights behind you are far better suited to protecting you than I am...”
“Really?”
Aileen’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re just going to leave me alone?”
“...”
I sighed once more.
“You really are unfair.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, but you’re doing it on purpose.”
Aileen smiled as if she found it amusing.
“Oh my. If you don’t say it, how would I know?”
“Were you always this vexing?”
“You didn’t know?”
I laughed.
“Now I do.”
“I have plenty of other sides too. So look for those as well.”
Preparing to drink my coffee, I looked at her and answered with a faint smile.
“I’ll keep my eyes wide and blazing while I look.”
“Pfft.”
Aileen looked at me, holding back her laughter.
“Isn’t that expression a little strange?”
“You told me to look.”
“Hehe... Fine. Do your best to find them somehow.”
Before long, the coffee she had ordered arrived as well,
and we sat facing each other again, continuing our conversation slowly.
“Lady Aileen, are you going to tell Prince Baron?”
“I’ll have to talk more with Father first, but probably.”
Aileen drank her coffee, then continued.
“As long as the Old Dynasty is hostile to us, we’ll have to explain the situation and take measures in the end.”
“If it’s Lord Valterk, couldn’t he speak directly to His Majesty?”
Aileen lightly shook her head.
“Prince Baron now needs achievements worthy of ascending the throne.”
“So it would be better to speak with Prince Baron?”
She said, lifting her coffee,
“Because then good relations will remain even after he becomes king.”
I nodded as well and lifted my coffee to drink.
And just as I was lowering my cup, she suddenly seemed to remember something.
“Ah.”
Then she abruptly looked at me, narrowed her eyes, and glared.
“Wh-what is it?”
“Why did you go to House Pimale?”
“...”
“When I looked into it, you seemed quite close with Lady Angelina?”
Now she was openly admitting that she had investigated me.
“Because of this symbol. If I wanted to look into it, House Pimale was the most necessary.”
“Tch.”
Aileen pouted.
“I can’t really say anything to that.”
I seized that opening and changed the subject.
“You must have received many party invitations. Is it all right for you to be here?”
“For now. You’ve been receiving a huge number of invitations too, haven’t you, Mr. Rayon?”
I smiled lightly.
“Thanks to you. The rice was a great help. Come to think of it, I suppose I should start moving soon.”
Aileen quietly drank her coffee again.
And for a while, we looked at the scenery without saying anything.
The sunset had not yet fully faded.
“At around this time... isn’t it Count Trantino’s party?”
“That’s right.”
Aileen spoke softly.
“You should probably be leaving soon.”
I took a sip of coffee and looked at her.
“I wanted to look a little longer before I go.”
At those words, her eyes widened slightly, and the hand with which she had been about to drink her coffee stopped.
Then she slowly looked at me.
I immediately avoided her gaze and looked at the scenery.
“At this view.”
“... Good grief.”
Aileen’s eyes narrowed.
For no reason, I rolled my eyes and hurriedly drank my coffee again.
At my reaction, Aileen eventually let out a small laugh.
“When will you be leaving, Lady Aileen?”
“I’d like to look at the view a little longer too.”
Then she suddenly rose from her seat.
“But... the view from this side isn’t very good.”
To say that the sunset view of the beautiful capital of Albarest was not very good.
But then she picked up her chair, moved it to sit in front of me,
crossed her legs, and calmly drank her coffee.
“This spot is a little better.”
“Uh, uhh...”
Aileen sat right in front of me, staring intently as she sipped her coffee.
Flustered, I let my eyes dart around for a moment,
then finally let out a small breath, met her gaze, and said,
“It’s nice.”
“What is?”
“The view today.”
Then I shifted my gaze from the sunset to her.
“Exceptionally so.”
Aileen looked slightly surprised, then slowly smiled.
“Is it?”
“Yes. I’d like to keep it in my eyes for a very long time.”
Aileen tilted her head slightly to the side and said,
“Me too.”