109.
“There’s one problem with that. To anyone looking at us, we’ll probably seem like nothing more than travelers.”
“Before that, I’d like you to tell us what you’re trying to do first.”
Jaka grumbled.
“If I tell you, will all of you wholeheartedly cooperate with my goal of obtaining the Heart of Merinis?”
With my arms crossed, I let out a deep breath, putting on a deliberately stern face.
“If not, then honestly, I don’t know what I’m supposed to trust in order for us to cooperate together……”
“No, of course I will help.”
Prien immediately shook his head and leaned his upper body toward me.
I shrugged as if in agreement.
“In any case, obtaining the Heart of Merinis doesn’t mean an antidote will be made right away.”
“……Regardless of that, I naturally intend to help you, Baron.”
Prien seemed settled now.
I glanced at the duke.
The duke had been leaning against the wall with his legs loosely crossed, and as if he had been waiting, he lightly raised a hand.
“About the part where you said we look exactly like travelers—what if I have a solution?”
“What is it?”
The moment I perked up and turned fully toward him, he gave me a faint smile and said in a casual tone,
“I bought a house.”
“You bought what?”
“I purchased a mansion for us to stay in here in this village.”
“……”
“That being the case, just because we’ve arrived at our destination doesn’t mean we need to abandon the setup we’ve maintained until now, does it?”
I sincerely wanted to smack the duke across the back.
After spending time with him, I’d realized he also did quite a lot of subtly unpredictable things.
“What setup? So, right now, don’t tell me……”
“But we need a pretext for having moved here to settle down, don’t we?”
Jaka, who had been listening from the side, gave a snort of laughter and immediately joined in.
“I think so too, dear.”
Prien, who had been sitting across from me, met my eyes and asked with a gentle smile,
“Is there a problem, madam?”
I pressed a hand to my forehead and let out a long sigh.
“Fine, well…… I don’t care either way……. Haah, I don’t know anymore. Do whatever you want……”
As if he couldn’t even see me flapping my hand dismissively, the duke wore a barely visible smile of satisfaction.
In the end, I laughed too.
* * *
Gary Yus had to hear unpleasant news first thing in the morning.
Though it was not as unpleasant as when he had heard that someone had purchased the old Paraton mansion not long ago, even paying a premium for it.
“They moved in?”
Leaving aside the fact that some unfamiliar outsiders had bought and taken possession of that old mansion, he had not expected them to actually come barging in to live there.
He rubbed the corners of his eyes in disbelief, and after a brief pause, the butler added,
“And above all…… saying that they wished to greet their neighbors, they have brought all sorts of gifts and are now waiting in front of our mansion’s main gate.”
“They came to see me on the very first day they moved in?”
“……Yes. One cannot judge by appearances alone, but they did not look like ordinary people.”
What the butler meant was not simply something like their clothing, a part that anyone could use to show off.
For example, it was something innate that could never be fabricated—the air about them.
Gary Yus’s expression turned cold.
They bought the old Paraton mansion, moved into it, and then came to meet him?
Gary Yus thought this might not be an ordinary matter, but outwardly, he did not carelessly let it show.
“Show them to the reception room. I’ll be down shortly.”
Now just on the verge of forty, he was a man whose appearance could well be called middle-aged.
But in his coffee-colored eyes, which glared out the window toward where the mansion entrance would be visible, there lingered an unripe, clumsy emotion.
* * *
After being shown to the reception room, we took seats on the sofa.
A simple tea service was quickly brought out.
I looked aimlessly at the men occupying both sides of me and asked,
“This just occurred to me, but one of your subordinates came to find us on the way here, didn’t he? You didn’t happen to order him to buy a house then, did you?”
Isitan listened in silence, then suddenly turned his head toward the door.
“Someone is coming.”
“Are you changing the subject?”
Prien whispered in a low voice by my ear.
“Someone really is coming.”
I quickly closed my mouth.
The door opened, and a man entered the reception room.
“I am Gary Yus. I cannot imagine who my honored guests might be, or what brings you all the way here.”
“I’m Baron Roxan.”
“Baron? Did you say Baron?”
“I’m not a noble of the North, so you may never have heard of me. But yes, I am Baron Roxan.”
His expression grew even more serious as he greeted me with his eyes, then sat down across from me.
When he walked, there had been nothing especially noticeable, but once he sat, I could tell that he had trouble with his leg.
Judging by the way he moved his upper body, it was clear that his shoulder or arm had either once been badly injured, or was still recovering.
If I had noticed, then the men on either side of me had obviously seen it as well. They all had better eyes than I did.
“So you truly…… intend to settle here?”
“If not, then why do you think I bought a mansion tucked away in this corner of the North?”
I crossed my legs and leaned obliquely against the back of the sofa.
“I hear you made quite a lot of money doing some sort of business during the war.”
“It wasn’t to that extent.”
“As you can see, I have quite a few mouths to feed.”
The two men who hated spending even a single copper coin if it came out of my pocket nodded seriously on either side of me.
“So why don’t you sponsor me instead? I think we could become good long-term partners for each other.”
At my absurd words, the polite smile that had been lingering around his lips faded faintly.
“I don’t know what I am that you would make such an offer. I am merely a retired merchant who happened to make a small profit in trade thanks to good fortune. For you to say such a thing so suddenly is a little bewildering……”
“But I heard you stepped forward saying you would become someone’s patron. What was her name again, Bel…… What was it?”
As he refilled my half-empty teacup, Prien helped me along.
“It is Bella, Baron.”
Then, when our eyes met, he gave me a very courteous little wink.
As if he were cheering me on while I was busily performing a solo act all by myself.
I suppressed the corners of my mouth, which were trying to creep upward, and fixed my gaze on Gary Yus again.
“Right, Bella, that woman. According to the rumors, you stepped forward to sponsor that insignificant woman, didn’t you? And yet you still haven’t received her consent.”
“……”
“At that point, isn’t it practically a refusal? Why are you clinging to her so desperately?”
I furrowed my brow and rubbed my chin with the tips of my fingers, then smiled slyly.
“Perhaps to you, she isn’t ‘just one insignificant woman’?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
From the moment Bella’s name came up until now, I had been watching the man’s expression closely, but he showed no opening whatsoever.
If anyone else saw him, they would think he was talking about a complete stranger.
‘Is it really not him?’
“Then why did you choose that woman, of all people, to sponsor? I don’t think I can accept it until I hear the reason.”
“Why should I have to explain that to you, Baron? It seems more natural than you suddenly moving into Paraton’s old mansion one day.”
‘Oh.’
I grinned.
One could control one’s expression or behavior, but in the end, where could emotions swallowed down inside possibly go?
In his reply, I could feel the blade hidden in his words.
I decided to prod him a little more.
“Then how about this? What if I personally removed that reason from your path?”
“What do you mean by…….”
“If that woman were gone,”
“…….”
“wouldn’t it become a little easier for you to choose?”
Toward the man, who remained silent without so much as a breath, I slowly tilted my head.
The shadow of my moving head fell across his entire face.
After staring fixedly at him, I soon grinned.
“Your pupils have dilated.”
“…….”
“How curious. Why could that be? Is your heart pounding over what I might do now to a woman you’ve only seen a few times at most? Don’t tell me you’re afraid?”
But the reaction the man then showed me was a dry smile.
“Everyone in this area knows that she has a talent for embroidery. After my retirement, I merely intended to stay here and see if it might earn me a little money…….”
“…….”
“But as for you, Baron, with all due respect, you do not seem likely to provide me with any sort of income. What am I supposed to see in you that would make me choose you?”
“At times, there are choices that are not rational ones, but choices one cannot help but make.”
I answered coldly, imitating one of the many haughty, fiery-tempered people I had encountered countless times in the capital’s social circles.
“How very exciting.”
“…….”
“Then would you please leave now?”
With his hand gripping the armrest of the sofa, the man put his weight on it and rose to his feet.
“I will decline your proposal.”
“I wonder whether that thought will change before long.”
He turned away with an attitude cold enough to raise a chill wind and called loudly for the butler outside the room.
“Frederick, see the guest out.”