15.
It was something that happened at a boisterous drinking party that lasted late into the night.
It was then that the voices from the next table reached Rohwinaseu’s ears clearly as he sat alone, keeping his seat with a bored expression.
“Of course I went and gave her a piece of my mind. The shame of high society, daring to lift her head here—asking her just where she thought this was.”
“And then?”
“Well, she looked like she was desperate for a man. She asked me to go to the terrace with her, you know?”
The man said, his face flushed red, bragging.
“But that kind of loose woman isn’t my type. What can a wench like that do anyway?”
“Come on, you should’ve taken her up on it at least once? Honestly, I was curious.”
“Yeah, she is pretty, after all.”
The man leaned his upper body back haughtily and shrugged.
“What’s so pretty about her?”
“This guy, putting on airs for no reason.”
“Right? When Rohwinaseu Kanesion completely fell for that woman, honestly, everyone thought it made sense, didn’t they?”
“Yeah, there were probably some guys here who were smitten with her back then. They were just a step too slow compared to Rohwinaseu.”
“Honestly, speaking just among us, that woman…….”
Their voices dropped instantly. The men’s heads drew slyly together.
The raucous laughter that soon burst out implied that a crude joke had been shared.
“But somehow, that sounds quite different from what I know, Beobati.”
Then, one man who had kept out of the conversation the whole time spoke up.
“What does that mean?”
“Different? How?”
“……Stop talking nonsense and drink!”
The man with a flustered expression shouted, noisily tapping his glass, but it was insufficient to divert the attention that had shifted elsewhere.
That very man replied in a mocking voice.
“From what I heard, it was you who threw yourself at her and ended up strung up on a tree. And unconscious, at that.”
“Heavens, is that true?”
“As fellow noble men, isn’t it shameful? To think he couldn’t even handle one such woman…….”
Provoked by those words, the man sprang up from his seat and shouted loudly.
“Nonsense! The reason I didn’t come out of the terrace for so long was with that baron girl——!”
It was then.
“That will be enough.”
A cold, aristocratic tone struck their ears.
The men who turned around all flinched.
They belatedly realized they had been talking loudly without knowing Rohwinaseu was right beside them.
They had even spoken Rohwinaseu’s name out loud boldly just now…….
Who would have thought a Count who was even the third son of a ducal house would be sitting alone, quietly nursing his drink?
But even as everyone tactfully shut their mouths, there was bound to be one fellow babbling like an unbridled colt.
“Ah, Count. I didn’t know you were there. Won’t you come here and have a drink with us?”
“…….”
He alone seemed not to know that the surroundings were silent as the grave.
“What do you think? You now have a far greater and more perfect woman than her, Count. You could be magnanimous about a woman you’ve already had…….”
Rohwinaseu quietly rose.
The man, his face flushed red and his eyes unfocused, stopped speaking for a moment and looked up at him.
The Count’s face, standing backlit, was shrouded in darkness and could not be seen.
“……Wouldn’t Lady Peregrin make a fuss and annoy you if you were displeased by such matters? You shouldn’t take women’s jealousy lightly. It’s dreadful, you know…….”
The man sitting right next to him urgently shoved his shoulder.
“Wait, just wait. Stop it! Please calm down, Count, this friend here is quite drunk right now……”
“Well, I suppose a Count of your standing wouldn’t need to watch a woman’s temper——urk!”
Struck by Rohwinaseu’s fist without any warning, the man collapsed and slid across the table before rolling to the floor.
The sound of shattering glass and overturning tables spread in all directions.
“Oh dear,”
“Wh-what is this.”
“Count!”
Regardless of the flustered voices pouring in from all sides, Rohwinaseu walked toward the fallen man.
He yanked off the cravat constricting his neck and undid his sleeve buttons, rolling them up.
Everyone was horrified by that matter-of-fact action, one that so clearly implied violent intent.
“C-Count!”
People nearby also began gathering one by one at the commotion.
While they were taking in the situation, Rohwinaseu, who had firmly grabbed the man by his collar, lowered his gaze to the floor.
“Just what do you think you’re doing…….”
“Stop for a moment! This is——”
Rohwinaseu, having carelessly grabbed a drinking glass rolling on the floor in his hand, swung his fist just like that.
“……!”
Blood splattered.
Everyone exchanged glances with horrified faces.
Heavily suppressed groans of “Urk, urk” leaked from beneath Rohwinaseu.
It seemed like he might actually kill the man at this rate.
Yet no one dared to stop Rohwinaseu.
In the end, one of the men who had been at the table with him stepped forward.
“Count, I will apologize in his stead! I beg you, please stop now and let him go!”
“…….”
“He’s been unconscious for a while now! Please, Count!”
It was only when the man clung to him, practically embracing his shoulders, that Rohwinaseu’s fist stopped.
While he stood up and caught his rough breath, people pulled the unconscious man out.
Rohwinaseu suddenly opened his palm and looked at the broken drinking glass in his grasp.
And then he shook it off onto the floor as if it were nothing.
Blood that had seeped into his palm trickled down his wrist.
Once the situation was barely settled, the man bowed respectfully to Rohwinaseu.
“I apologize once again, Count. If you wish, I will also apologize separately to Lady Peregrin and beg for her forgiveness.”
“It would be best if I never saw this bastard again.”
“……I understand what you mean.”
Rohwinaseu left his seat without hesitation.
It was an exit indifferent to the point of coldness, completely unlike someone who had been swinging his fists just moments before.
Only then did the scene, looking as though a storm had swept through it once, come into the view of those who had sighed in relief.
Blood was splattered messily over the overturned sofa, smashed table, and jumbled debris.
Someone looking around at them with a dumbfounded expression muttered.
“They say he becomes extremely sensitive when it comes to matters concerning Lady Peregrin. So it was true.”
“He’s so quick to fight, and yet it’s already been four years since the engagement. Why is there still no word of the wedding?”
“I suppose he’s being considerate so the lady can spend more time with her family.”
“They say Lady Peregrin is quite close with her older brother?”
“Anyway……. He was arrogant, but he wasn’t a man so lacking in patience.”
“It feels like he changed into a completely different person at some point.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“Enough, hurry and call a physician. Were his companions out of their minds? Speaking ill in front of the Count?”
While attendants cleared the area, the nobles also scattered back to their places one by one.
And soon the drinking party resumed.
As if a son of some insignificant house being beaten by the third son of a ducal family were no great matter.
That was reality as well.
Not all nobles were the same simply because they were nobles. Moreover, the prestige of the ducal house, which had continued since the founding of the nation, was no different from another world entirely, one beyond reach.
Everyone had grown accustomed to their unchanging positions, passed down through generations.
When such a Rohwinaseu abandoned all of that and chose a single woman, how many people had foreseen an upheaval?
It was a relief that the Count had returned to his rightful place before long.
Rohinas, who had stepped outside to wait for the carriage, rummaged inside his coat with a blood-soaked hand.
He pulled a cigarette from a silver case and placed it between his lips, and one of his attendants quickly approached to light it for him.
"…."
Pale smoke dispersed into the dark night sky.
Even at this late hour, the sweltering weather kept his nerves on edge.
Even the faint moonlight, the empty streets, and the raucous noise echoing from afar grated on him to the point of displeasure.
A familiar headache flared.
Keeping the cigarette between his lips, he inhaled deeply until his cheeks hollowed.
He exhaled a long breath, as if expelling the heat swirling within his body.
The nape of his neck, bared white in the moonlight as he hung his head, was slowly wreathed in smoke.
"Where shall I take you?"
The coachman who had arrived asked, gauging Rohinas's mood.
Rohinas raised his head.
……Where to?
*'I'll be waiting.'*
His jaw clenched at the destination that had reflexively come to mind.
Without a word, he lowered his gaze.
……Damn it.
"My lord, Lady Peregrine is still waiting."
Rohinas briefly glared at his attendant who had spoken those words, then turned around.
"Depart for there."
Not a single thread of emotion remained on his face as he climbed into the carriage.
* * *
I swallowed hard, watching the man entering the tent.
The man in round glasses exchanged a silent greeting with the old man, then naturally shifted his gaze toward me.
He seemed to be an attendant.
And then, just then, the tent entrance fluttered once more, and a tall man stepped inside.
The way he straightened his upper body, which had been bent low to enter, looked terribly familiar.
His well-maintained, slender frame revealed an innate status even without the expensive garments draped over it.
Fine golden hair, ripened yellow like a wheat field, flowed softly past his ears.
The man casually swept back his side hair and finally raised his head.
His gaze passed over his attendant, stupidly gaping with a vacant expression,
and found me precisely.
His previously expressionless face hardened coldly.
"…."
"…."
I could plainly see in his eyes that if he could, he would have liked to ignore me outright.
Suddenly, my throat felt parched.
A glass of dark, fragrant poison so intoxicating it would slide down my throat—how desperately I longed for it in this moment.
Feeling my eyelids tremble, I rose from my seat.
The old man's blatant gaze, watching all of this with relish, no longer made me feel awkward in the slightest.
"Count, I have been discourteous."
I spoke calmly.
"Have you been well?"