The long, long march only came to an end when they reached the main keep.
If the march had begun with Ares, there was another who would adorn its end. When Ares stopped his horse and raised his head, Eliza Richmond stood upon the balcony of the main keep, looking down at them.
She, who had witnessed all of Richmond’s glory, stood like a queen; the nobles at the very back rushed forward and knelt first. Their knees sank into puddles, yet no one minded.
As they knelt, the knights of the Red Cloak lined up in formation also knelt to the queen.
Ares dismounted without a word. After stopping Crimson Isaac, who tried to rise at once, he alone disappeared into the shadows of the building, leaving behind the surging waves of loyalty to the queen.
As soon as Ares entered, an attendant hurried to him. Ares removed his water-soaked helmet and gauntlets and handed them over, then climbed the stairs without hesitation.
He had done a great many things.
The attendant carrying the helmet and gauntlets thought the Duke seemed tired from his many labors, for his stride was too wide and his pace too swift to keep up with.
But shortly after, the attendant realized that his hurried steps were not born of fatigue.
“Where is Grace?”
“Ah, oh heavens, Your Grace!!!”
Lady Rexston nearly fainted from the shock of the Duke’s abrupt and brazen question. Clad in black armor and a red cloak atop his already imposing frame, he was surely more fearsome than Death himself.
“I heard her fever returned. Where is she now?”
“Fortunately, it passed after a spell, and she is well again. Right now is—oh dear, Your Grace, just a moment!!”
Lady Rexston tried to hurriedly wipe the Duke’s armor with a nearby towel, but the Duke—who clearly knew nothing of waiting—passed without hesitation through the towering stacks of documents, looking this way and that.
As he moved, hundreds of candles blazing overhead swayed in unison, and the officials nestled between the piles of documents occasionally rose and bowed their heads. Whether they greeted him or not, Ares’s sharp gaze moved to and fro, searching for only one being.
“The young lady is……”
Lady Rexston, having given up on wiping him entirely and following behind him, trailed off as the Duke suddenly halted.
Ares’s gaze fixed unwaveringly upon one spot.
The fireplace, leaking reddish light and warm heat. She sat in the armchair beside it with perfect posture, eyes closed.
Grace Taylor was truly a person different from him in many ways. Even in sleep, her neat posture made that clear. She neither crossed her legs nor rested her chin in her hand; slovenly or hunched postures seemed entirely foreign to her.
But in one thing they were alike: they both lived with the resolve to sacrifice their own bodies to achieve their desires.
Then, Grace’s elegant brow furrowed slightly.
Was her fever rising again?
Without realizing it, Ares took a step closer and reached a hand toward her. He felt he must check her temperature himself to be satisfied. But to the eyes of the old noblewoman who had just entered from the balcony, he was the very last person who should approach a patient.
Eliza rushed in like the wind and stopped him just before he could touch Grace’s forehead. And as if that were not enough, she seized his arm and pulled him back a step from Grace.
“Where do you intend to place a hand that drips water so?!”
The raindrops clinging to the pitch-black armor were one thing, but the chill of his hand was beyond words.
“Everything is soaked all around! To try and touch her so rudely in such frigid armor—does that make any sense? Go, remove that armor at once and return only after you have dried yourself thoroughly! If you catch a fever too, Your Grace, I shall be in quite a bind.”
“…….”
Incredible as it was, Eliza had in fact been nagging out of worry.
Yet the moment her sharp tone, impeccable choice of words, and the haughty expression and gaze unique to the imperial family converged, ‘nagging steeped in worry’ became ‘scathing criticism.’ And unfortunately, Ares Decan, who shared her blood, was not a great man who could simply let scathing criticism roll off his back.
“Ah, yes. Would that be difficult?”
Eliza, who had been checking to see if Grace had woken, turned around with wide eyes.
“I am not a dog that likes to roll about just because it is raining. What do you think I marched through this rain, circled the castle walls, and spent hours processing for?”
Count and Countess Rinko had glossed over the Duke’s return as quickly and quietly as beans roasted in a flash of lightning, and so among the commoners, many did not even know the Duke had returned. Not only that—even among the defenders and soldiers, few had properly witnessed his return.
Ares had wished to inform the people of the duchy that the Duke had returned, and at the same time, firmly establish that the one to receive their loyalty was Eliza Richmond. That was why he, like a wave rushing toward the shore only to vanish into foam, had led all the surging tides of loyalty and offered them to Eliza before withdrawing.
Ares shook his head as if to say there was nothing more to add, and Eliza bristled at his tone.
“‘A dog that likes to roll about just because it is raining?’ Where did you learn such words?!”
“At my age, has the time to be lectured with such words not long passed, Grandmother?”
The officials buried among the documents stretched their necks at the rare spectacle, and Lady Rexston, Lady Isaac, and Jessie quietly shook their heads with resigned expressions—when a slender voice pierced the sharp tension.
“Why… are you two fighting?”
The grandmother and grandson, glaring at each other with identical expressions, turned their heads simultaneously toward the voice. As pale green eyes, somehow now open, regarded them in turn, Eliza ultimately blamed Ares.
“You woke her after all!!”
Ares was hardly the man to say, ‘Yes, it is my fault.’
“If your voice were but an ordinary voice, Grandmother.”
“What?!”
“Your Grace, my lady?”
Grace wedged herself between the two who were about to quarrel again with faces full of exasperation.
Eliza whipped her head away from Ares and placed her hand upon Grace’s forehead with a cool expression.
“Fortunately, the fever has gone down.”
“If you are going to rest, you ought to lie down properly.”
“Seeing the cold sweat, you will recover soon. Change your clothes.”
“Change into something comfortable and lie down to sleep.”
The grandmother and grandson who had been chiming in word by word looked at each other, as if speechless.
“…….”
Can you believe this.
“…….”
Why, what is it?
As two fierce beasts faced off, the officials who had been watching also quietly tucked their heads back in. But for Grace, who had lived a long time eating scornful glances and walking on eggshells, this degree of silence was not even uncomfortable. Rather, thinking that the two looked quite alike, she spoke first to Eliza in a gentle tone.
“I dozed off without realizing it, my lady. I shall go change my clothes as you said.”
Eliza, who had been cursing her blood relative with her eyes, nodded.
“You should.”
“Thank you for your concern.”
A gentle tone steeped in perfect etiquette, and an elegant face bearing a soft smile, lightly surpassed the old noblewoman’s strict standards. Especially commendable was that she did not cower in the slightest before Eliza’s cool gaze, which even most members of the imperial family shrank from.
“Arwen. Provide Grace with comfortable garments. It is chilly, so bring a fur shawl as well.”
After bending her knees to Eliza with gratitude, Grace turned her gaze to Ares, who watched her from a short distance away. Ares, who had been standing stock-still looking at her, spoke in a disgruntled tone.
“I told you it would be better to rest properly.”
“If I sleep now, I will be unable to fall asleep tonight. You must also change, Your Grace. It seems to be raining heavily?”
“The autumn rain is making quite a racket.”
Though he had been angry at Eliza, he seemed to agree that the water streaming from his body must not touch Grace, so he walked keeping a fair distance from her.
“Are you truly well?”
“I am well.”
Eliza, who had been blankly watching the backs of the young man and woman as they moved away, sat in the armchair with a strange expression.
“Hmm…….”
“Please rest for a while.”
Lady Rexston, who remained beside her, spoke; Eliza slowly shook her head.
“Well, I do not even know if I am tired.”
“My, how can you not know. You stayed up all night last night.”
“It was a night worth doing so.”
Yes. It truly was.
Last night had truly been a valuable time.
After kneeling to Ares around midnight and swearing her fealty, Eliza had spent the hours with open eyes. Then, thinking it had grown somewhat noisy outside, Grace had come to find her. Despite having collapsed with a raging fever, it was astonishing that the first thing she did upon waking was come to her and say what she said.
‘My lady, if you were Count Rinko, where would you keep the important documents?’
‘In the underground archive, I suppose.’
‘Before dawn, can you bring all the documents from the underground archive? No—you must.’
‘At such an ungodly hour? More importantly, worry about your condition. Do you know how raging your fever was?’
‘This moment is important, my lady.’
The green eyes set in that pallid face had sparkled with a strangely brilliant light.
‘The war must not be prolonged. Quickly and precisely, you must settle Richmond.’
‘…….’
‘So what if it is night or dawn, and what does it matter if I have a slight fever?’
Eliza realized that during the long time she had let go of everything and sunk into a sleep of depression and despair, this young girl had remained awake without sleeping. That will to see it through no matter what, the pride of one who knows not surrender, was firmly embedded in Grace Taylor’s green eyes as well.
Finishing her recollection, Eliza spoke with a voice mixed with laughter.
“I am fine; look after your husband and son. They will be tired, as they have been working through the documents since last night.”
Lady Rexston smiled pleasantly and said she would go check on them for a moment, passing between the mountains of documents. Her husband was exchanging words with a colleague.
“Whew, they certainly had a lot of documents they wanted to keep secret. And all of this was in the underground archive?”
“It is ten years’ worth. Of course there is a lot.”
“Still, it is good we raided and took them last night. If we had tried to get them today, the truly important ones would already be gone.”
At his colleague’s words, Baron Rexston shook his head slightly.
“Still, last night was truly…….”
The two looked at each other and let out hollow laughs.
It was. Last night was truly… extraordinary in many ways.