Charten Tortmund.
Starting out as a commoner alongside Earei Virensha, he had been called one of the queen’s twin wings, rendered great service in the counter-coup, and become a noble.
In other words, both publicly and privately, he was Earei’s close friend—and companion in mischief.
“How could I not know? You were the leading figure who guided the battle against the Hagonin League to victory.”
“You embarrass me. That was merely the result of faithfully following the Great General’s orders…”
“Hmm?”
Lea smiled mischievously and narrowed her eyes.
“For that to be true, Viscount, your tricks stood out rather a lot in that battle, did they not?”
“Ah, that was…”
Charten, at a loss, felt a familiarity in that mischief and found himself looking at Lea anew.
He had nearly let his social mask slip and revealed the bare face he showed only to his teacher and his friend.
So this was instinct, then.
He came to understand why his body had moved to help her from that scoundrel Shuren.
On the other hand, Shuren and Yurien, seeing Lea tease someone for the first time, were startled and surprised by that impish face.
Yet when Lea returned to being a demure lady, the regret of wanting to see that expression again lingered thickly in their mouths.
“Were you on the battlefield?”
“When I heard the news of victory that flew in from the south, the people’s admiration, and the enemies’ resentment, I could picture your ingenious stratagem, General.”
This, too, was a manner of expression unique to Earei, who loved reading.
Charten felt both familiarity toward Lea and, at the same time, set up an unfamiliar boundary.
Bashport of poison and hidden weapons was also skilled in disguise and mimicry.
Perhaps this woman was the ultimate weapon, one who had learned everything about his friend through writing and embodied it in her very flesh.
Its perfection was so cunning that Charten wanted to forcibly cover that mouth that was rattling off words embarrassing to hear.
“Oh? And what would you be referring to, if you mean my trick and ingenious stratagem?”
“The essence of your strategy, Viscount, could be said to be making the real into the false and the false into the real. In particular…”
Lea, who had been chattering away in high spirits, met the eyes looking at her and froze as she was.
His eyes were not smiling at all.
Those two eyes, calm and settled with coldness, were probing her.
At that moment, Lea became acutely aware that she was Lea.
The gazes around her were directed at her.
Facing the chill before her, meeting the sneers around her, and from the dais, jealousy was shooting killing intent straight at her without scattering.
Lea carefully stepped back.
“I apologize.”
Someone who was not the protagonist had behaved as though she were.
“At the time, I remembered all the stories told by the dilettantes, but it is not easy now. This is the climax, and yet the most important part, of all things…”
“Dilettantes went around talking about the strategy of my southern battle?”
“It was so famous, after all.”
It had not been.
When Charten led Hailan and joined the rebel army, only the heroic tale of Earei—who had crushed the barbarians of Epalencia, swiftly marched south, and single-handedly blocked the royal army—had swept the nation.
Lea wore a bitter smile.
Knowing the personality of her friend, who tried to view his own reputation objectively and without bias, she knew that if she drew any closer than this, she would invite unnecessary suspicion.
Charten was Earei’s friend, not Lea’s friend.
Just as Seorin was Earei’s wife, not Lea’s wife.
If Lea had possessed a large brush or pen, she would have wanted to crosshatch over her own face and existence with it.
She wanted to hide herself beneath complete crosshatching, so that not even her fingers or toes could be seen, and either die or be alone.
“Thank you for your help. But I cannot impose upon you, Viscount Tortmund.”
“You look sad.”
What a tactless fellow.
Sadness was sadness, but Lea had also noticed the killing intent in the gaze of her former teacher.
Since she was called Bashport, it was only natural that he would be wary.
However, even Lea did not know that Meria Su had already fallen to Charten.
She still thought Meria was chasing him one-sidedly, and tried to leave quickly.
“I am only worried that others may see it as me acting foolishly.”
Lea hurriedly lifted the hem of her skirt and offered a curtsy.
“I will not forget this kindness. Learie Bashport will surely repay this debt someday.”
“Even if it is not for the sake of repaying a debt, come to me whenever you wish.”
“…Thank you.”
Charten was still kind.
Lea, who had been living in an environment where many things, including herself, had changed, was moved by the fact that there were still things that had not changed.
That was precisely why she had to distance herself with her own hands.
When Lea went this far, Charten had no choice but to withdraw.
The gazes of the others had also diminished considerably.
Each faction was verifying whether there were any talents they had missed, or whether the talents they had recruited were suitable.
Lea tried to take one more step back and remain in the shade, but there was still someone who had business with her.
“Is it my turn now?”
“I believe I already refused your invitation, young lord.”
“How unlike you, acting so sharp-tongued.”
The scoundrel chuckled.
Those behind him chuckled as well.
In that brief span of time, Shuren’s gang had grown.
Those welcomed nowhere had quickly gathered together.
“What do you say? Your looks aren’t bad, so how about playing queen bee here?”
Queen bee.
It was a term referring to an incompetent yet greedy noble young lady.
To Lea, who was honing herself every day as a lady both of her own will and against it, there could be no greater insult.
“I have already given you my answer, so I will take my leave…”
“You really have no pride, do you?”
The self-mocking tone caught her by the ankle.
“Why? Why don’t you let your head droop to the side and cry again?”
Shuren took another swig straight from the bottle.
If he drank any more, it felt like he would vomit.
Even so, he liked this rotten taste that numbed his reason and his tongue.
“The title of lady is wasted on a stupid bitch who thinks everything will be fine if she endures it all alone and keeps quiet.”
“……”
“See? Still can’t say a word. Hey. Can you sing? Or massage? I really like those two things, you know.”
“……”
“Are you deaf?”
Shuren began prodding Lea with the liquor bottle.
“This is my final offer. Fall out and come to me.”
“……”
“Weak as you are, you don’t even struggle to survive.”
“…Says the one struggling because he wants to die.”
She had snapped.
Earei would never have done this.
While holding back tears, she had failed to hold back her anger.
“…What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“You bitch!”
Shuren shoved Lea and drove her back against the wall.
Casting a dark shadow and reeking of alcohol, he was not a young lord but a thug through and through.
“Say that again.”
“Nothing…”
“You rat-like bitch!”
Shuren raised his hand.
The professors were watching the situation with boredom, and no one else paid any attention.
Except for one person.
“That is enough.”
It was Yurien.
Forcibly thrusting his arm in, he wedged himself between the two and faced Shuren with a smile.
“You have gone too far. Leave Lady Bashport alone.”
“That woman is no lady, Your Highness.”
“Shuren Hailan. During the revolution, you were a man who tried to realize justice even ahead of the northern army. How did you become so reckless?”
“During the revolution?”
Shuren’s expression changed.
“Justice?”
For the first time, his hunched back straightened.
Yurien and Lea were surprised by how tall he was, taller than they had thought.
At least a head taller than Yurien, he looked straight down at the royal prince.
“How would Your Highness, who was always in the rear, know whether this wretch was brave or vile?”
“Eek? Young master! Hahahahahaha… Goodness, our young master has had far too much to drink… We shall take our leave now.”
“Let go!”
When Shuren violently flung his arm aside, Belgirt went sprawling to the floor.
Crash, bang, thud!
“Aigoo! Aigoo~!! This precious noble is killing a man!”
Belgirt rolled a couple of times in an utterly spectacular fashion, enough to leave even Shuren stunned, and crashed into the wall.
Then, as though wronged, he shouted and crawled back to where Shuren was.
“People of the neighborhood~ Take a look at this! This lowly one served this young master for ten years, and what does he get in return? A beating! Even if I did skim a little off the top whenever our young master sent me on liquor errands, even if I used that skimmed money to pay extra when he took women from the red-light district and threatened them to act passionately because our young master has a strong pride, even if I shoved him into the encirclement and ran when the young master’s father came to catch him~! Even so, where does the hardship of ten years spent serving him go~! Aigoo, how unfair! Aigoo, it hurts! Aigoo!”
“B-be quiet! I said be quiet!”
As his dark history began pouring from Belgirt’s mouth one thing after another, Shuren panicked.
When coaxing and appeasing him still did not stop Belgirt’s lamentations, Shuren ground his teeth, grabbed the man by the collar, and dragged him away.
“Let us speak of this matter again next time, Your Highness. I trust you will understand, since I can scarcely show my face because of this damned servant’s drunken nonsense.”
“By all means.”
Yurien also accepted Shuren’s excuse and took a step back.
Belgirt continued bellowing at the top of his lungs, and only when Shuren, thoroughly fed up, ordered his gang to trample him did he finally stop dead.
“Lady Bashport, are you all right?”
With a sigh, Yurien turned around.
And then he froze at the sight of Lea, crying as she silently wiped away her tears.
“That woman is no lady.”
She had been denied.
Her self as Lea.
It was the price of failing to hold back her temper and acting petty.
No matter what Shuren had done to her, Lea could not forgive herself for retorting in that manner.
If she was not even a lady, then what was she?
Yurien draped his coat over her so that others could not see her crying.
Meanwhile, from a distance, Shuren, who had seen her tears, raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction.
He had made her cry again today.
Following his irredeemable destructive instinct, he had made her cry again today.
That pitiable, pitiable thing was very pleasing to look at.
He did not know why.
Not only Shuren, but everyone there glanced at Lea crying as if at the salt rubbed on the rim of a cocktail glass, then turned their heads away with some unknowable ease or thrill.
Only Charten and Yurien stood apart from that line.