30.
“You cried, you know?”
“I did not cry.”
“Then why was my shoulder all damp?”
“Who knows? Maybe that was your own sweat?”
“Admit it. They welled up, didn’t they? Tears!”
“Why are you so hung up on tears? ……Is it that important to you, Baron, whether I cried or not?”
Jaka glanced at me with one corner of his mouth raised.
By now, he wasn’t even pretending to hide the fact that he was teasing me.
It was enough to make me feel wronged for all the times I’d been unconsciously watching his mood over this issue.
Acting so weak in front of me, clinging to me and telling me not to abandon him…….
Just then, Jaka muttered indifferently.
“If you let someone see you cry in front of them, does that mean you like them?”
“Of course it means you like them!”
“Exactly.”
His low voice was distinctly different from before, tinged with a faint trace of laughter.
Pushing open the dining room door we had somehow already reached with his shoulder, Jaka pulled up the corner of his mouth.
“If you already know, why ask?”
For a moment, that blatant gaze left me speechless. In the meantime, Jaka stepped into the dining room as if nothing had happened.
“No, what I meant was…….”
“I worry because I like you. Am I not even allowed to do that?”
Faced with the sincerity he spoke so plainly, I was struck speechless all over again and only opened and closed my mouth.
“That’s, overprotection…….”
“Do you really think I’d do something you dislike, Baron?”
He even hid a drunken fool in my wardrobe for me. How harsh.
Jaka let out a small laugh and set me down in a chair.
I adjusted my seat with an awkward expression.
“I’ll bring your crutches. The food will be out soon.”
Jaka left, and the dining room door closed.
What was that just now?
What was it?
Somehow, Jaka seemed a little…… different.
I was sitting there in a daze when, not long after, I heard the faint sound of a bell.
It seemed the mansion had a visitor for once.
I was craning my neck and peeking out the window that overlooked the front gate when the food happened to come out from the kitchen inside.
Seeing the food, it looked as though Jaka had prepared a patient’s meal in advance again today.
The taste of the food aside, now that I thought about it, there really wasn’t a single corner of the mansion that Jaka’s hands hadn’t touched in one way or another.
Since we had so few servants to begin with, it was even more obvious that Jaka was doing the work of a hundred men by himself.
Later, after Jaka left…….
Would I never get to taste this smooth, savory soup again?
“…….”
I thought bravely.
I’ll have to hint to the chef in advance to learn his cooking secrets bit by bit!
That should do it.
Somehow or other.
That was when it happened.
I heard the sound of footsteps crossing the hall and approaching this way, slow yet steady in pace.
I knew the owner of those distinctively calm, restrained footsteps.
Of course.
I had forgotten that the people who would come to our mansion were already more or less decided.
The one who opened the dining room door and entered was Prien Izanar.
“Ah, Sir Izanar.”
“Good morning, Baron.”
His expression was much more at ease.
But once his heart grew at ease, a problem arose elsewhere.
“What brings you here so early in the morning?”
“I woke early at dawn. I think I wanted to see you, Baron.”
To the question I had tossed out without much thought came an answer that made me doubt my ears.
“Pardon?”
“I could no longer endure it. So I waited for the sun to rise and came like this.”
“Haha…….”
He began to recite every detail of his feelings with an innocent face, and what was impressive was how he seemed to leave entirely up to me both the matter of how I felt having to listen to it and the destructive power of those words.
I really shouldn’t have let myself be fooled by that face.
‘I promise. I will never keep you in my heart.’
‘So you may love me without worry.’
……Since those were words I had said, I couldn’t exactly object to this.
Should I say it was fine as long as he, at least, looked happy……?
Though I still had no idea what kind of reaction I was supposed to show when I heard words like that.
He slowly approached me, his cheeks faintly flushed.
His face, tilted slightly as he examined the food I had been eating with interest, looked especially bright.
His long silver hair slid smoothly down over his shoulder.
It was something I’d thought privately every time I saw it, but I kind of wanted to touch it just once.
But what if he thought I’d become interested in him and went back to that irritating way of speaking, repeating confessions and rejections?
……Wait a moment.
Maybe things were better back then……? Perhaps I had done something unnecessary…….
“I like it.”
Because my mind was troubled in various ways, I had been half letting his words pass me by, but that brought me sharply back to my senses.
“……What do you like?”
He looked at me for a moment, then seemed to realize that I had barely been listening to him.
Instead of pointing that out, Prien let a smile slowly appear on his face and said this.
“As for me, naturally, I like you, Baron.”
“……!”
I hurriedly sucked in a breath, choked, and coughed until my face turned red.
No, seriously, would thorns grow in his mouth if he went a single day without saying that?
Perhaps not expecting my reaction to be so intense, a startled Prien patted my back.
“Are you all right?”
“No…… Hah, that wasn’t what we were talking about, cough! Wasn’t it?”
I was sure we had been talking about the food.
Prien smiled faintly and did not answer me.
Seeing him try to gloss it over with a smile, at this point I couldn’t help thinking he knew far too well how handsome he was.
I gave him a glare that held no real malice as he sat down across from me and asked.
“Have you had breakfast?”
“No.”
“Then would you like to eat with me?”
“I would like that.”
For some reason, his reply sounded intentional.
When I narrowed my eyes slightly and looked back, I saw Prien smiling happily.
I really wished he would stop saying he liked things now.
He was more brazen than I had expected.
I withdrew my suspicious gaze and called a servant to bring out a meal.
“How is your body now?”
“Much better.”
“That is a relief.”
Even as he answered like that, he quietly reached toward my hand, which was resting on the table.
I quickly pulled my hand back and raised my eyes at him.
“Do you think I’m a fool?”
“What do you mean?”
“I looked into it. Including the fact that you shouldn’t just pour divine power into anyone like that.”
Just now, he had clearly been trying to sneak divine power into me again.
Surely he hadn’t simply been trying to hold my hand.
“You are not just anyone, Baron, so it is fine.”
“It is not fine with me, all right? To me, Sir Izanar, you are not that kind of person.”
“Then could you not simply receive, Baron, and let me be the one to give?”
He was a subtly stubborn man.
“They said that if you pour it out too often, it takes a toll on your own body. Some even say it’s the same as losing your life force, so how could I accept that? Besides, I’m truly fine now. It’s not as if I’m hovering between life and death.”
“…….”
“I even heard that paladins manifest less divine power than priests, so how can you act so recklessly and put yourself in danger without knowing what might happen later?”
Prien, who had been listening to my impassioned speech with a smile on his face, only answered after I had finished.
“That is usually the case, but I am an exception.”
“An exception…? What exactly makes you different?”
“The Archbishop wants me as his successor. If we are speaking solely in terms of divine power, there is no one else who can compare to me.”
“What?”
“It is not particularly important. I have no intention of becoming a priest.”
“…I’ve wanted to ask this for a while, but why are you wearing priest’s robes?”
“Priests cannot marry, can they?”
The moment I met his eyes, which flickered with mischief as though he felt a little sheepish, I understood.
“…It was a way to fend off people who approached you?”
“I felt sorry and troubled having to refuse every single time.”
‘So you weren’t a priest.’
‘It is entirely my fault for not correcting the misunderstanding. Usually… I tend to let people believe that.’
Only now did I fully understand what he had meant.
Was this the hardship of being a beauty who attracted people regardless of age or gender?
Well, unless someone was fairly out of their mind, they wouldn’t make advances on a priest.
The mood made it seem as if he would answer anything I asked honestly, so I asked another question.
“Just one more. Then why did you dislike it when I called you Sir Izanar?”
“I never disliked it.”
“But back then, you clearly….”
Realizing what moment I was referring to, Prien tilted his head slightly.
“Mm, it seems you misunderstood. My heart was pounding from an unfamiliar excitement… That was all.”
Should I ask more?
Wouldn’t it be fine to stop asking?
“What on earth about that made you…?”
Just as I asked, bemused, a servant appeared from the kitchen connected to the dining room carrying food.
Prien held off on answering for a moment, then waited until the servant had set the meal before us and left again before speaking.
“Because that was originally my name.”
His name?
“It is not especially rare, but when one receives investiture, one may also be granted a new name. I was given the name Prien. At that time, I cast aside my original family name and made my given name my surname.”
If he had cast aside his original surname, did that mean he had severed ties with his family?
I decided not to ask that much.
Since we would become strangers to each other anyway, it wouldn’t be good to know too much about one another.
Moreover, he did not seem like the sort of person who went around telling others about his circumstances.
His eyes, even though I was right in front of him, were colder than ever before.
“In any case, though it may be rather belated, when you called me that, Baron, I suddenly remembered for the first time in a long while that it had been my name.”
“…….”
“I do not know why, but my heart trembled.”
“…….”
“It still does, every time you call me that.”
“…….”
“I like it when you call me that, Baron.”
…Damn it, now it looked like I wouldn’t even be able to call him “Sir Izanar” anymore.
All I had done was attach an appropriate honorific to his surname, and yet things had turned out like this.