42.
“Count. Do you have something to say to me?”
Rohwinas cast a glance at the man before him.
“No.”
Isitan Gladineer.
Most nobles did not know it, but Rohwinas, through his father the duke, knew that man’s origins.
The previous duke’s illegitimate child.
And…….
“Then, as I have a schedule after this, I will see you off only this far.”
The duke, who had been walking across the central courtyard, stopped and said so.
The man’s two eyes, facing the early morning sunlight head-on, were pitch-black without a single glimmer.
They were like a bottomless abyss, impossible to peer into and discern what he was thinking.
“A schedule after this?”
Rohwinas asked.
It was not as if he had any particular intention in continuing the conversation.
It was only that an unpleasant feeling, one that kept making its presence known somewhere in his head, had made him hesitate.
A disagreeable unease that made him feel he did not want to step away like this.
“My schedule?”
The duke, who had half-turned away, faced Rohwinas again.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“…….”
Rohwinas’s mouth thinned into a straight line.
It was an ambiguous expression suspended somewhere between a smile and a blank face.
“While speaking with me, you looked out the window several times.”
“…….”
“And you even came all the way out here with me under the pretext of seeing me off.”
“…….”
“At this point, I simply could not help asking.”
At that moment, Rohwinas felt an inexplicable emotion suddenly surge up within him.
It was…….
Hostility.
But why?
Rohwinas did not allow that series of “facts” to cross his mind, but unconsciously, he had already taken everything into account and reached a judgment.
For example, something like this.
Isitan Gladineer had actively recommended Baron Roxan before the emperor.
And had specifically requested that she be assigned under him.
Before that, he had personally brought her to the hunting festival, and everyone had witnessed him walking out with the injured baron held in his arms.
If it were the Baron Roxan he knew, she should have refused the duke’s sudden proposal, but,
perhaps.
This time, he had a premonition that she might have accepted.
As time passed, that premonition was turning into certainty.
A woman who, of late, had shut herself up in her mansion with no sightings of her whatsoever, had, from a certain day onward, shown herself to the world again.
He had confirmed with his own eyes the sight of her meeting with his family’s mage.
It was only circumstantial, but in the transaction between those two, an “oath” had been used.
Just what she was trying to do was still unclear, but for him, who had been one of the parties involved in the past, there could be no clearer hint.
Anastasia Roxan would once again cause an “incident.”
When he thought that the man before him might experience exactly the same thing he himself had four years ago,
a dreadful displeasure surged up from the tips of his toes, and the scorching heat of it seemed to churn his mind into a mess.
How dare she.
Rohwinas opened his mouth.
“May I offer Your Grace one piece of advice?”
The duke’s gaze, which had been fixed somewhere in the distance, returned.
“If you can keep it brief.”
Just then, a window on the first floor of the building opposite opened, and someone said with a smile,
“Good morning, Your Grace.”
A face as soft as if it had been painted. An affectionate voice.
It was Anastasia Roxan.
Rohwinas repeated inwardly without realizing it.
‘How dare she.’
* * *
“You are early.”
As soon as I arrived at the official residence where the duke handled his duties, the one who greeted me was an aide with a sullen expression.
If I had come late, he would have glared at me for being late, but now he was rebuking me with his eyes for coming early.
“Ah, is that so? It’s all right. Then I’ll wait a bit.”
I replied calmly without batting an eye.
No matter how much that man disliked me, it was not as if he could avoid seeing me from now on anyway.
If he kept hating me, he would be the one suffering for it.
“……Then follow me.”
As I walked after him, I asked,
“It seems His Grace has stepped away for a moment.”
“Yes.”
“It isn’t something serious like last time, is it?”
“If you are curious, ask him yourself later. Instead of secretly prying behind his back like a thief.”
“You seem quite displeased.”
“Do you think I would not be?”
The fellow, who had known how to do nothing but glare whenever the duke was present, was unusually proactive today.
“We’ll have to keep seeing each other from now on, so why don’t you separate official matters from personal ones?”
“I do not believe that is something I should hear from you.”
“Why not?”
Contempt flashed through the aide’s eyes as he looked back at me.
“Must I say that with my own mouth? Why don’t you take a look at yourself?”
“Is it really wise to put that much faith in rumors? Your own superior seems to have had quite a bit of trouble because of baseless rumors.”
“There is no trouble to be had. And as for matters concerning you, they are not mere rumors, are they?”
“…….”
“Well, it does not matter either way. I am not curious about whether they are true or false.”
“…….”
“I am warning you. Do not approach His Grace any further than this. Whether privately or officially.”
After casting my gaze out the window, I walked closer and flung it open.
Between the well-tended shrubs, I could see the duke standing with a straight posture.
“Good morning, Your Grace.”
The duke turned to look this way.
I lightly raised my hand in greeting.
The duke turned his body toward me and smiled faintly.
Then he raised his hand in return and answered my greeting.
I had not expected him to go that far, so an awkward laugh slipped from me.
“I came a little early, didn’t I?”
In the morning air where a chill still lingered, my voice rang out clearly.
“No. Not at all.”
The duke walked through the shrubs and stood close to the window.
There was something unexpectedly striking about the sight of the duke lifting his chin and looking up at me.
I glanced at the aide beside me, who was glaring at me with terrifying eyes, and said,
“Your aide said you weren’t in, so I was on my way to wait.”
“Ah, it’s fine. There’s nothing else. I’ll return shortly.”
“All right, then.”
I was nodding when I noticed something and hurriedly added,
“Ah, wait a moment.”
“What is it?”
Instead of answering him, I reached out and plucked up the leaf caught on the duke’s collar.
“You had this on you.”
“…….”
The duke lowered his gaze and fumbled for the collar where the leaf had been stuck.
He looked rather embarrassed to have someone else’s hand touch him. Or perhaps he simply was not used to it.
I was watching the duke straighten his clothes like that when the shrubs stirred behind him.
Only then did the duke’s companion, who had been hidden by the shrubs until now, come into view.
I nearly bit my tongue.
The faint smile that had lingered on my face vanished, and with my expression gone completely cold, I lowered my hand.
Rohwinas was standing there.
He was looking at me with an unfamiliar expression I had never seen before.
A gaze that stung like needles, tenacious as though it would coil around me like a snake…….
But that gaze was soon blocked.
The duke had stepped forward, standing in front of Rohwinas as if to shield him from me.
“Go on in first.”
I nodded.
I felt as though Rohwinas’s gaze was clinging to my back, relentless,
but I did not look back.
A beat late, the aide fell in beside me.
“Do you know the way?”
“I came here once before, didn’t I?”
For some reason, despite my prickly reply, the aide only frowned and remained silent.
It didn’t feel as though he was annoyed with me right away; rather, he seemed to have grown curious somehow, which made me feel foul.
Though if anyone saw me fleeing in a panic the moment I saw Rohwinas, they would probably be intrigued first.
“…….”
And so, I ended up sitting all alone on the sofa in the study whose master had yet to return.
The aide only showed me in, then went back out.
I sank deep into the back of the sofa with my arms crossed, then thought about why on earth Rohwinas was here.
Gradually, it occurred to me that since they belonged to the same ducal rank and were of similar age, it would not be strange for the two of them to be acquainted.
Both of them were practically rising powers among the nobles, after all.
Of course, it would be more accurate to see the Gladinaire side, which had seized power on the basis of military merit, and the Canesion side, a deep-rooted old faction long entrenched in the capital, as standing in opposition to each other.
Before long, the door opened and the duke entered.
I immediately composed myself.
Because today, I had come here for all intents and purposes to tell him the truth.
The duke promptly poured cold water and pushed it in front of me.
It was laughable, but I was grateful in my own way, so I drank it down as it was.
The back of my head felt hot, as if I were sweating.
It was already a hot day, and after getting worked up like that…….
The water was sweet and cool.
Feeling a little calmer, I looked at the duke.
The duke sat across from me with his long legs crossed.
“Have you calmed down a little?”
“……Yes. Thank you.”
I cleared my throat.
“May I get straight to the point?”
“Go ahead.”
“The reason I was there last week was to search for a clue about the culprit who fed me the elixir.”
“Did you find one?”
“Pardon?”
“So, did you find a clue?”
“……No. But that place was a den of heretics.”
“I see.”
The duke gave a slight nod, then asked,
“So that’s why you secretly took his belongings during the Hunting Festival.”
“!”
A faint trace of amusement lingered in the duke’s eyes.
“Did you think I didn’t know?”
“……Yes.”
“Next time, if you want to hide something, it would be better not to keep looking at that spot, touching it with your hand, or watching other people’s reactions.”
“……Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”
My head lowered more and more.