24-Hour Clematis Consultation Office — Episode 17
Sorinte was incredibly nervous. Laura noticed his fingertips trembling slightly.
Tom, who had been watching, also grew serious.
‘Something must have happened.’
What could have occurred overnight?
“May I ask what the problem is?”
“Soon.”
Huh?
“It’s almost breakfast time.”
For a moment, Tom froze. He rubbed his ears with his hands.
“I see.”
Then, at Laura’s serious tone that followed, Tom rubbed his other ear with his other hand, as if checking that he had heard correctly.
Regardless, Laura studied Sorinte’s face.
‘The corners of his eyes are trembling.’
He was also swallowing repeatedly.
He looked incredibly nervous.
From Lord Sorinte’s perspective, this was indeed quite a nerve-wracking and difficult matter.
When they had first spoken yesterday, he had said he wanted to have breakfast with his family.
He wanted to approach his family step by step, without showing his usual mad dog behavior.
It was a humble yet grand wish.
“I don’t know what to talk about.”
Sorinte mumbled, at a complete loss.
‘This is the first time I’ve seen him like this.’
Tom had never seen such a side to the mad dog young master. Hadn’t he been a man who found everything boring and bothersome, who ignored everyone and only drank?
Even as Tom observed Sorinte with strange eyes, he spat out the thoughts in his head.
“If I suddenly appear like this, they’ll think it’s strange, right? They’ll definitely find it unfamiliar.”
Last night, Sorinte had been unable to sleep, thinking about breakfast time.
The Ducal House of Cheers.
A house renowned for swordsmanship among the Five Great Meritorious Families.
Because of this, aside from breakfast time, the family lacked opportunities to all gather face-to-face.
‘All this time, I’ve turned away from that time.’
But now—
“I want to change.”
He looked forward to that time enough to stay up all night, and he wanted to somehow make a good impression on his family.
“But I don’t know how to greet them, whether it’s okay to suddenly show a different side of myself, what a normal breakfast is like. Not a single thing.”
Sorinte shook his head.
“I really don’t know anything.”
Honestly, swinging blades and killing everyone at the table would have been easier.
‘Turning the dining table into a sea of blood would be more—more fitting for a monster like me—’
In that moment, a memory came to Sorinte. A memory of the past—no, of a future that had not yet occurred.
‘Red—’
The scene of fighting those who had stormed in to kill him, the last bloodline of the Ducal House.
In that blood-soaked place, he had taken jerky from his pocket and eaten it even while fleeing.
Because he was hungry.
Because he had to live.
Because he had to survive to take revenge.
At some point, meals had become exactly that to him.
Something you had to be able to eat at any moment in order to survive.
‘Ah—’
It felt as if his mind was being dyed red.
“Customer.”
Then, Sorinte felt a faint warmth touch the back of his hand.
Only then did he realize that his hand had been trembling.
“Customer.”
A small but gentle voice.
Sorinte quietly gazed at Laura’s hand resting on top of his.
The counselor’s hand was not simply soft. Rather, he could feel calluses here and there.
‘…A capable one. Judging by the position of the calluses, she uses a long spear, a long sword, or a heavy weapon with a thick handle.’
As he gauged his opponent’s level, his mind gradually calmed.
‘Ah.’
He looked at Laura’s hand as it pulled away, then at the back of his own hand where the warmth had vanished.
“Customer, all you need to do at the breakfast table is enjoy your meal.”
He turned his gaze to Laura’s eyes. Her green irises were refreshingly bright, as if bathed in morning sunlight.
“It might be nice to say a light ‘Good morning’ as you enter the dining room.”
“…Good morning.”
“Yes. It is a good morning today, isn’t it?”
That’s right. It was a good morning.
And an incredibly precious morning.
To Sorinte, it was a morning like a dream.
“After that, you can go to your seat and eat. However!”
Sorinte waited for what Laura would say next.
Tom watched with wonder as the large, burly mad dog young master became docile and listened quietly to Laura’s words.
Of course, Sorinte and Laura were unaware of this.
“However?”
Laura smiled at Sorinte, who asked back.
To Sorinte, it was an incredibly warm smile. As if she knew nothing of the world’s hardships.
‘But that can’t be true.’
He could tell just by looking at her calloused hand.
“But you don’t just want to eat breakfast, do you? You want to approach your family through conversation, right?”
“That’s right.”
Sorinte affirmed immediately.
“But if I go, I think everyone will just eat without talking. Then—”
“You probably won’t be able to eat comfortably?”
“It’s fine if I can’t eat comfortably. It’s just—”
He didn’t want to disturb his family’s comfortable time.
Sorinte couldn’t bring himself to say the rest, but Laura wore a gentle smile as if she understood everything.
“Tom.”
“Yes?”
Tom looked at Laura, who had suddenly called his name.
Sorinte’s gaze also turned to Tom.
“Tom, is the pie ready?”
No way.
Tom looked at Laura with a surprised face.
“It should be ready by now?”
“Then could you put one in a basket and bring it here?”
Right now, you’re saying you’ll give a whole pie to that second customer?
Tom asked with his eyes.
‘Yes.’
Laura slowly blinked, conveying her meaning.
‘Wow.’
To think the Lady of the house would part with a whole red berry pie.
Tom realized once more that Laura was truly serious about this matter.
‘Well, it seems she’s given up on selling the mansion, too.’
Above all, just as she respected the previous head of the house, Laura would do her best in this matter.
“I’ll bring it.”
Tom quickly entered the mansion.
The three of them were still conversing in the ruined garden of Count Rien’s estate.
“Pie?”
Sorinte looked at Laura in confusion.
“Customer, you said you didn’t know what to talk about, correct?”
A nod.
Sorinte nodded meekly.
Laura spoke to him in a subtle tone, as if hatching a secret plan.
“Then wouldn’t it be good to create a topic of conversation?”
“Ah.”
Laura’s gaze left Sorinte and turned toward the mansion.
He hastily followed her gaze. Soon, a kind voice reached his ears.
“The butler obtained fresh red berries at dawn today. We made a pie with them.”
Creak.
Before long, Sorinte could see the butler opening the door and approaching with a small wooden basket.
“It will be delicious. I guarantee the taste.”
Tom quickly approached and stood by Laura’s side.
“I think this pie would make a good conversation starter.”
Laura received the basket from Tom and held it out to Sorinte.
The basket was covered with a white cloth on top.
The savory aroma unique to a freshly baked pie, along with the fresh scent of fruit, tickled Sorinte’s nose.
“Here you are.”
Laura quietly watched Sorinte.
‘This pie probably won’t satisfy the palate of the Ducal House of Cheers’ people.’
A pie made by the wealthy Ducal House of Cheers’ patissier would be far more delicious.
‘But it won’t just be Sorinte who feels awkward.’
If he appeared at the meal, his family would also feel awkward and uncomfortable.
‘Regardless of whatever good feelings they might feel.’
Just as Sorinte regretted his broken relationship with his family, they surely must hold some affection or goodwill toward him.
‘This pie should serve as a suitable topic for both sides to converse.’
Even if Sorinte was a bit clumsy, his family would naturally continue the conversation using this pie.
Laura thought so as she looked at Sorinte.
Hoping he would take the basket and bravely go to breakfast.
‘Hm?’
It was then.
Trickle.
A single tear rolled down from the corner of Sorinte’s eye.
‘He’s crying again?’
Laura didn’t show it, but she was a bit flustered.
A single tear running down a face that exuded decadent beauty even when neatly dressed.
Tom flinched, and Laura thought based on yesterday’s experience.
‘Why is he crying all of a sudden?’
The moment she worriedly tried to speak, Sorinte carefully accepted the basket.
“Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
Hugging the basket dearly to his chest, he slowly bowed at the waist to Laura.
“Customer!”
Laura, flustered for a moment, quickly raised Sorinte up.
Tom hurriedly looked around their surroundings.
‘Ah, several people saw.’
Tom was the type to figure out how many people were peeking just by counting the open windows of the noble mansion.
Laura, too, was troubled about what anyone who saw this scene might think, but—
‘So he has this side to him.’
She had learned a new side of Sorinte.
In his appearance expressing gratitude just now, she had felt something crude but sincere.
Moreover, seeing him clutch the basket to his chest, he truly seemed to cherish what she had given him.
“This helped me greatly. I will cherish and enjoy it.”
In truth, Sorinte did not really know what it meant to cherish and enjoy a meal, but he spoke the words exactly as his heart dictated.