47.
“How was she?”
The duke’s question was short and simple, but the aide had dozens of things he could say in answer.
“In conclusion, she didn’t seem likely to hold anyone back.”
“Is that so?”
“……”
After hesitating for a moment, the aide finally could not hold back and began pouring out every detail.
“She wasn’t afraid of blood. The smell of it seemed to bother her a little, but she wasn’t frightened. At first she struggled with the stamina training, but now she runs while smiling. To be honest, I thought she was a madwoman.”
“……”
“Today was her first time out in the field, and rather than being overwhelmed, she was perfectly calm. She even seemed dull to murderous intent. As far as I know, all she did was spend a few intense years active in high society, didn’t she? Even the youngest knights often lose their heads the first time they go into the field, so why……”
“You were like that too.”
For once, the aide ignored the duke’s words.
“I keep thinking this.”
“……”
“The baroness doesn’t seem like an ordinary noble who was born and raised in the capital. Has she become a different person?”
“Judging by the fact that her appearance matches, I doubt she’s been replaced.”
Perhaps the duke’s nonchalant reply had instead splashed cold water over his head. The aide closed his mouth and rubbed a hand down his cheek.
“She was very good at finding her way. She almost never forgets anything she’s seen once, and she seems to notice other people’s presence well too. Earlier, she said she heard someone breathing……”
“Why? If only she were younger, would she be the kind of talent you’d want to take in and train properly?”
The aide’s expression grew slightly sullen.
“That’s not it. ……No, I’m not sure. The more I deal with her, the stronger my suspicion becomes that she may have approached with some kind of intent. Whether that’s true or not, she is a woman with a record, isn’t she?”
It was when he had said that much.
The aide’s eyes met the duke’s, and he shuddered briefly at the chill that crawled up his spine.
It was less a logical realization than a perception delivered by the intuition he had honed on battlefields where life and death hung in the balance.
Why isn’t the duke surprised?
Why is he sitting there as if he’s merely being told something he already knew?
The aide swallowed.
What if…… the one who approached with intent wasn’t that woman?
Looking back, the point at which the duke had begun taking an interest in the baroness was not entirely clear.
Perhaps, on that day, even before he met the baroness at the banquet, he had already……
‘No.’
At the time, it had surely been simply because of the carrier pigeon incident.
After all, it was true that “that hawk” had saved the duke.
It was a justified interest.
A natural goodwill.
The duke, who had been watching the aide hesitate, turned his gaze away.
“Do you believe what people say?”
“Well, of course……”
“People have many sides. The chance that what I think of a person is the entirety of that person is very low.”
The aide nodded.
“You are right, Your Grace.”
Yet at the same time, a certain thought lingered in his mind.
Anastasia Roxan.
There was something about that woman.
Something he could not even guess at yet.
“In any case, keep a close eye on her so she doesn’t overdo it. It hasn’t been long since she was injured.”
“……Yes.”
A faint smile passed over the duke’s face as he looked down out the window.
* * *
“I think you’ve lost some weight.”
Julie, who had been staring hard at me, muttered like someone who had been swindled and left sitting in the street.
No, is that really something to take so seriously?
I lifted a spoonful of food, then, unable to withstand her gaze, set it back down.
“Maybe I haven’t lost weight, but gotten healthier.”
“Your complexion has gotten worse too.”
……That was probably because I’d started drinking again.
I quietly pondered how to explain that my face had only been unusually glowing during my abstinence period without getting scolded too much.
“That’s just because I couldn’t sleep yesterday—”
“What on earth have you been doing these days? The duke really isn’t tormenting you?”
“I told you, he isn’t tormenting me. I’ve barely even run into him lately.”
“It’s your one day off, and you’re so tired you can’t even open your eyes properly! The sun is already high in the sky!”
To be honest, it was true that I was tired, perhaps because I had suddenly pushed myself too hard.
“No, my eyes are open.”
“Eat some more. Why are you eating so little?”
She seemed completely unaware that she had started nagging the moment I took my first spoonful.
As I held back a sigh and continued eating, Jaka set the last dish on the table and said,
“You really have lost weight.”
Julie was such a worrier that I had been half letting it go in one ear and out the other, but once even Jaka chimed in, I began to wonder if it was true.
“What does it matter?”
It wasn’t as if I’d lost that much.
To me, it still only looked like I had gotten a bit tanned.
“Your activity level has increased, so I changed the menu a little.”
I had thought there seemed to be an unusual amount of meat on the table for the past few days.
The other dishes seemed to have changed a little too.
“And even in the middle of all this, it seems you absolutely must not skip your alcohol.”
As Jaka, who looked after me well while also never forgetting to sneer at me, scolded me, I forced myself to keep eating.
“Ahem, hmm.”
Every evening, I had been skulking around near the dining room like a thief and had been caught by Jaka several times, so I had nothing to say.
But yesterday, I really hadn’t been in a good mood, and I’d been tired too……
“It’s a bad habit to rely on alcohol. I’ll let it slide for now, but it’s an illness you absolutely have to fix someday.”
“Why are you letting it slide now?”
“For now…… because if I suddenly stop you from drinking too, I don’t know what you might do, Baroness.”
“What would I do?”
“It’s all right. I intend to make you fix it slowly.”
Anyone listening would have mistaken our master-servant relationship as the other way around.
“Are you that worried about my health?”
Sitting down beside me and resting her chin on her hand, Jaka replied indifferently.
“Of course. Don’t even get sick until I allow it.”
“What’s that? So you’re saying you’ll allow it someday?”
“……”
One corner of the silent Jaka’s mouth seemed to lift, but in the blink of an eye, it had vanished.
“Do you have something on your mind lately?”
Jaka stared at me.
“Does it look that way?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that must be because you’ve been…… busy lately and won’t play with me, Baroness.”
At Jaka’s subtle tone, Julie, who was sitting across from us, narrowed her eyes.
I quickly raised my voice.
“W-why are you saying it like that?”
Jaka, who had once coaxed me by saying, “Play with me,” smiled with her eyes faintly curved.
“What did I do?”
The way she shrugged and lifted her teacup now made her seem entirely accustomed to this mansion.
Even if I changed my mind now and said I was going to throw her out, I felt as though she would only raise an eyebrow and sneer, “Who says you can?”
I didn’t know when I had lost the initiative like this,
but since there seemed no way to regain it, I decided that if it was fine, then it was fine.
“More importantly, are you going straight to the storage room after the meal again today?”
Julie asked worriedly.
That was already the problem.
I let out a deep sigh.
For ten whole days now, despite having flung open the warehouse door with such confidence, I had yet to gain anything at all.
There wasn’t even that much luggage, but since I was combing through every last bit of it in case I missed the emblem……
Of course, if I had been able to find a clue easily, that would have made all the time I’d spent up till now feel pointless in its own way.
That, at least, was some consolation.
I had never expected things to be resolved simply in the first place.
Even if I failed to find any trace in the warehouse that could serve as evidence, I could just investigate, one by one, the people who had been in contact with them at the time.
‘I’m still a long way from getting tired.’
In any case, thanks to that, the date of the engagement party for some young lady of House Erdel or other had already drawn close—just two days away.
From what I heard, the engagement ceremony itself would be held separately, and this was, so to speak, a kind of eve-of celebration.
‘They’re being awfully generous over a mere engagement.’
Of course, House Erdel was an exceedingly old and venerable count’s family, so there were few who did not know of it.
It was just that I had no memory of ever exchanging words with the young lady who was getting engaged.
So naturally, I had no idea who she was.
‘Not that it matters much.’
However.
[Don a mask and attend the summer night ball hosted by us…….]
‘A masquerade, huh.’
I rolled the invitation around in my hand and grinned.
But perhaps that was the part I should have paid more attention to.
I only learned it later.
Sophia Erdel—the star of that party, who had just turned twenty-one—was Meriana Peregrine’s closest friend.
“…….”
I can say it now, but Daena Greengale had handed me a pile of shit.
A very large, enormous pile of shit.