102.
As the atmosphere in the restaurant grew noisy, people on the street began peering inside one by one.
The duke looked as if he had no intention whatsoever of following the lord.
I looked at Prien.
When our eyes met, Prien gave a slight shake of his head.
“Our schedule is tight, so we must be on our way. Brothers, you should return now.”
His tone was gentle, but his voice left no room for argument.
“Pardon? But…”
The priests’ gazes gradually swept over our group.
Outwardly, we were one woman and three men.
We were also of similar ages, so it must not have been easy for them to guess what our relationship was or what purpose we were traveling for.
While they hesitated, we decided to leave the restaurant before more people gathered and caused a commotion.
By the time we had finally sent away every last person who stubbornly clung to us, we were utterly exhausted.
We sat together in our lodging room, heads gathered close.
“I think we need some sort of plan.”
“We have already entered the North, so I doubt there will be any need to check our travel passes for a while, but…”
Prien let his words trail off.
He had probably guessed as well that even at this very moment, rumors that they had entered the North were spreading far and wide.
“Simply moving separately seems like one way to handle it.”
As if he had been waiting for this, Jaka spoke while treating the two of them like troublesome burdens.
Honestly, since I had never intended to go around advertising our destination to others, I was just beginning to feel tempted.
“What if… we changed clothes?”
Prien looked down at his own white priestly robes and made the suggestion.
“Clothes?”
“Not a bad idea.”
The duke was also glancing down at his own attire.
At a glance, both his clothing and cloak were luxurious and imposing.
But both of them had such remarkably distinctive appearances that I wondered how much could really change just by changing clothes.
As if he had read that thought from my expression, the duke added,
“How about changing our hair colors while we travel as well, at least for the time being?”
“I don’t think there’s any need to go that far…”
As my words trailed off, Prien nodded first.
“Very well.”
Prien, who bickered with Jaka whenever he had the chance, was rather dry in his attitude before Isitan.
“But wait a moment. Even so, if we’re a combination of one young woman and three handsome men… honestly, I think we’ll have no choice but to stand out.”
Prien smiled brightly and asked,
“Am I handsome?”
“Don’t make me waste my breath stating the obvious.”
Even though I grumbled, Prien’s smiling face did not dim.
Rather, as if he meant to make full use of his beauty on this occasion, he stared straight at me.
Lately, his face had seemed especially radiant.
The problem was that he was acting as if I were the only person present.
Even if that might be possible for him, it was impossible for me, so I quickly averted my gaze.
“Isn’t that right? Information about our group has probably already started circulating as rumor.”
“As expected, it would be best if the Baroness and I moved separa…”
“There isn’t no way to solve that either.”
The duke cut off Jaka’s words and made another suggestion.
“What is it?”
“We simply need to disguise ourselves as a combination they could not imagine.”
“A combination they couldn’t imagine…?”
To me, tilting my head in confusion, the duke dropped a bombshell in that same utterly unbothered tone.
“For example, a married couple.”
“…A married couple?”
And unfortunately, the duke’s suggestion seemed to have piqued the interest of the other two men as well.
Jaka, looking slightly delighted, was the first to speak.
“The husband should probably be the person closest to you.”
“Since we were just thinking of sending the coachman away, we can have one of the others act as coachman.”
Meanwhile, Prien seemed full of determination to make Jaka the coachman somehow.
I waved my hand in front of them to draw their attention.
“I know this is a very prejudiced thing to say, but not one of you three looks remotely like a coachman.”
“Then how about the Baroness first chooses the person who will play the husband?”
Me?
I gave a dry cough. For some reason, it felt as though cold sweat was about to trickle down my back.
“Um, I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”
“It seems young married couples migrating to the North are common in these days after the war. So with this method, we should be able to avoid drawing attention.”
The duke voiced his opinion once more.
His face was so plain and composed, as though no ulterior motive had even been considered, that it was difficult to oppose him by giving some embarrassing reason.
However, the duke read precisely what made me hesitate and spoke.
“Of course, it will be only an outward disguise, so I guarantee that nothing will happen to put the Baroness in a difficult position.”
The duke’s gaze reached the other two as if seeking confirmation, then returned.
Scratching my cheek, I said honestly,
“I agree with disguising ourselves too. But still, carelessly making the others into coachmen is a bit…”
Though it should absolutely never happen, imagine the duke ending up playing coachman for the other three.
Whether such a thing could possibly be reasonable.
Jaka, who had been listening silently until then, shrugged and said,
“Then why don’t we just unify the role?”
“Unify it? As what?”
Only after meeting each person’s eyes one by one did I realize.
At this moment, everyone was thinking the same thing.
* * *
A small city located not far from the gateway to the North.
It was evening, when dusk was settling in.
There was a group that had arrived in front of an inn after pushing through the bustling streets.
All of them were young people holding horse reins in hand, and they did not seem especially pleased by the discreet gathering of gazes upon them.
Apart from that, all four of them seemed accustomed to having attention focused on them.
The woman, dressed in traveling clothes with her hair tied high in a single tail, stepped into the inn first.
When the people inside the inn pretended not to look while secretly stealing curious glances at the woman,
there were those who blocked all those gazes with only a few steps.
They were the three men who followed close at the woman’s sides and immediately behind her, as if forming an impenetrable barrier.
A man smoking one cigarette after another in a corner of the dining area on the inn’s first floor, openly looking the woman up and down, was immediately met with a gaze so cold it sent a chill down his spine.
The owner of that gaze had long golden hair falling loose, and an unusually cold, lofty air about him.
His eyes lowered on their own, and no sooner had he turned his head than he felt a chill from behind.
Sweat ran down the back of the man who realized that the young fellow who had entered last was glaring at him as if ready to kill him.
Only after a long while did he realize that the clothes they were wearing were not the sort of attire, overflowing with wealth, that those lofty nobles wore.
‘What the hell? I got scared for nothing.’
Meanwhile, the woman was talking with the innkeeper.
“We’re short on rooms. What’s your relationship with your companions?”
“They’re my family.”
A flicker of interest passed through the bored-looking innkeeper’s eyes.
“Family? You don’t look alike at all. Of course, every one of you is pretty or handsome.”
“Not that kind of family. They’re… my husbands, ahem.”
The woman answered with her face slightly flushed, as if embarrassed.
It was a face so striking that, had people noticed, they would not have been able to tear their eyes away for quite some time, but
Because of the tall men and their broad shoulders surrounding her, no one could properly see her face.
Only the innkeeper across from them noticed, and gave a knowing little snort of laughter.
Then the innkeeper’s gaze moved, as if searching for the woman’s husband.
But all three of them were staring straight at the innkeeper with expressions that said it was them.
“……?”
Unable to hide his bewilderment, the innkeeper held out the room key over the counter and asked,
“So, which one?”
The woman flinched and said in a voice as small as an ant,
“……All.”
“Pardon?”
“All three of them.”
“……Well, now.”
“Anyway, we’re here on our h-honeymoon, so that’s all you need to know!”
And when the woman finally shouted that while snatching up the room key,
the gazes of the cynical-looking young man with navy-blue hair, the man with long golden hair hanging down, and the pitch-black-haired man standing firm at the very back all suddenly came to rest on her.
In that instant, as if eternal snow were melting under the spring sunlight, such a warm breeze seemed to blow across their softened faces.
Each of their expressions was different, but it was plain to see the affection they could not bear to hide spilling out of them.
So the innkeeper muttered in a voice that was dazed, yet strangely convinced.
“I-I see……. Congratulations on your marriage. I hope the four of you have a pleasant trip.”
* * *
I slammed the door shut, then buried my head against it.
As I silently felt the cold touch of the door and the grain of the wood,
I desperately tried to cool my overheated head.
‘Yeah, no matter how I think about it, this isn’t right.’
Belatedly, I became certain that I had ended up doing something even more conspicuous instead.
When I clenched my fist and whirled around, I saw the three men standing there, waiting for me obediently.
Their faces were innocent, as if they had no idea what was wrong.
Or perhaps they knew and simply didn’t care.
At that moment, all the strength drained out of me.
With a sigh, I swept back my disheveled hair and recalled a fact that was too absurd to laugh at.
Right. I was the only one in my right mind.
And this journey was for the sake of recovering the sanity they had lost.
“Wouldn’t this draw even more attention?”
“It will draw attention, yes, but no one would ever imagine that the terrifying war hero of the imperial capital and a promising holy knight were both claiming to be one woman’s husband. If anything, I think it would be fair to say it’s safer.”
Jaka spoke with a faint laugh, then shrugged when our eyes met.
“And the innkeeper seemed to believe it right away after just a few words.”
……I saw that too.
After rubbing my face with my hands a few more times, I sank heavily onto the sofa.
Then I issued them an order to leave in a disgruntled voice.
“Why are all of you so naturally in my room? Everyone, get out.”
I was vaguely aware that I was treating the duke and the inquisitor a bit too harshly, but I was so mentally exhausted that I couldn’t bring myself to care.
‘Once we find the last heir of the Paraton family and obtain the Heart of Merynis…….’
This strange companionship should be over too.
“Then please rest well.”
“I’m in the room right next door, so call me right away if you need anything.”
The duke, who was the last to leave, held the door and looked back at me.
It seemed as though he had something to say, so I quietly gazed at him.
His low voice rang in my ears.
“Baron, you no longer need alcohol to endure the night, do you?”
“…….”
“Then I wish you a good night.”