The merchant gaped with eyes wide, as if seeing the world anew, and the jeweler felt a longing to sing the praises of the lady who had selected his greatest masterpiece.
Before Grace could get a word in, the quick-tempered Eliza seized her hand and slipped the ring on. Then she turned to Ares, who had been silent, and asked, “What does the Duke think?”
Grace’s gaze turned toward Ares. The moment her eyes met his pitch-black ones, he averted his gaze and stared in the opposite direction as he spoke. “What matters is that the wearer likes it. What importance does my opinion hold?”
Eliza, who had been nursing a grudge against Ares these past few days, smiled stiffly. “Haha, is that why you threw a tantrum about not wearing it?”
“A tantrum, Grandmother?”
As signs of a squall brewing between the two became visible, Grace stole a fleeting glance at Ares and spoke to Eliza. “It’s beautiful. I love it, My Lady.”
*Is this why they say you need a daughter?*
Even though Eliza knew Grace was deliberately intervening, she found herself willingly yielding to the girl’s mediation. An involuntary smile formed on her lips at the feeling of her heart melting like spring snow.
“Right? I’ve looked everywhere, and there’s nothing like it. Is there nothing else?”
At the lady’s question, the jewelry merchant and jeweler began to pile up chests as if they had been waiting for exactly this.
“Ohh, yes, you should have brought these out from the beginning!”
“My apologies, My Lady.”
“Truly beautiful! You there, yes. Hand me that necklace. Grace, look. Do you like it?”
Grace smiled brightly at Eliza’s question, laden with expectation. With merchants present, she could hardly express an opinion one way or another; much less could she refuse out of modesty. For Eliza’s dignity, she had to accept gladly.
“If it is something chosen by My Lady, anything would be wonderful.”
*How can she answer so prettily!*
Eliza, in high spirits, began picking out items as though she had resolved to spend every coin she hadn’t touched in over a decade.
“Now, try this one.”
“Ohh, it’s dazzling! Now this! That’s right, this necklace is part of a set, so this too!”
“Ahahaha! Now try on this ring. Lovely, how lovely!”
The merchant and jeweler were half in tears.
“It suits you wonderfully!!”
Then, as Eliza watched Grace like a bud swelling in the bitter cold, she suddenly turned to her own flesh and blood.
“…….”
*Well, well? He said he was too busy to even change his clothes?*
Within his sharply sculpted eyes, his black gaze kept drifting toward Grace like iron drawn to a magnet. The moment he noticed Eliza’s gaze and turned to her, she narrowed her eyes and smiled slyly.
“Didn’t you say you had a great many pressing matters?”
At that, Grace, surrounded by merchants and maids, turned to look at him, and Ares likewise looked at her by reflex.
The green irises, deeply set in her rosy, made-up face, were more brilliant than the emeralds presently hanging from her ears. Absurdly, Ares found that in front of her, he kept forgetting what he was about to say.
And just as he did, Eliza spotted the flustered confusion of a young man entering the summer of his youth, and inevitably burst into laughter.
“Ahahahaha!”
At Eliza’s hearty laughter, Grace tilted her head as if unable to fathom the reason; the quick-witted maids and merchant smiled slyly; and the young Duke, unexpectedly driven into a corner, raked his hand down his face in irritation.
The laughter of the queen and her maids lightly shook the air of Richmond Ducal Castle, bustling with preparations for the wedding.
＊ ＊ ＊
The lady’s laughter spilled out beyond the main keep dozens of times a day, and under her direction, the chapel was adorned gorgeously without a hint of extravagance; ornate yet elegant, bright in tone yet weighty with dignity.
The time given to satisfy her lofty aesthetic sense was far too short. But as humans always do, they found a way.
When the lady’s permission finally came, the involved parties wept profusely. The meaning of their tears could be guessed by everyone except Eliza. Yet the moment they saw the hefty pouch of gold coins she handed them, those tears transformed into an entirely different meaning.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“We merely did what we ought to do, My Lady!!!”
Ingredients for food and drink enough for hundreds crossed the ducal castle gates over the course of several days, and maidservants and manservants rolled up their sleeves under the direction of the ladies-in-waiting. Not only food, but famous merchants also passed through the castle gates countless times.
The merchant who enjoyed the greatest boom from the Duke of Richmond’s wedding was a famous jewelry merchant from the northwestern region. Eliza had ordered from him both the restoration of Richmond’s treasures and jewelry for the future duchess. He was at the point of bowing toward the ducal castle morning and night like paying his respects, simply at the thought of her commission.
However, among the Richmond ducal family’s orders this time, there was one rather strange request mixed in.
The jewelry merchant and jeweler followed the attendant with trembling steps. They walked for some time down an especially magnificent and splendid corridor, its walls hung with portraits of successive Dukes of Richmond, before arriving at a red door guarded by knights in black armor.
As the red door opened, the two men steadied their trembling breath and crossed the threshold. A man of towering stature standing by the window turned around languidly. Though his face was shadowed darkly by the backlight, the extraordinary air he carried was palpable.
The two quickly bowed at the waist.
“We have completed and brought what you ordered, Your Grace.”
The Duke approached without a sound.
“Rise.”
The instant the command fell from above, his hand was extended before their eyes. The jeweler quickly lifted a small, ornate box. As the Duke opened the lid of the palm-sized blue box, the jeweler cautiously added, “It was crafted to the exact measurements, so it will fit perfectly. Does it please you?”
The Duke, who had silently gazed at the item inside the blue box for some time, took something out from a desk drawer and held it out.
“This is the promised amount. Check that it is correct.”
At the Duke’s words, the merchant carefully received the pouch and counted the money inside. It was exactly thirteen gold coins and five silver coins.
This was precisely why the Duke’s request had been strange. On the day the merchant had visited Richmond Ducal Castle for Eliza’s commission, the Duke had secretly summoned him. Then he had placed an order matching exactly the sum of thirteen gold and five silver.
While thirteen gold and five silver was no meager sum, it was certainly trifling by the Duke of Richmond’s standards; and above all, the one who would own the commissioned piece was someone who had inherited treasures beyond price.
But since he dared not voice his doubts to the Duke, the merchant put an end to the commission with a deep bow.
“It was an honor to carry out Your Grace’s commission. Thank you.”
“You’ve worked hard.”
After they withdrew, Ares sat on the windowsill and stared at the box for a long while. The merchant and jeweler had worn expressions of utter bewilderment as to why he would order such a thing.
Naturally.
He had impulsively called them and ordered something costing exactly the money he had on hand; even he himself found it absurd.
Ares slowly caressed with his index finger the small emerald embedded in the gold ring.
Eliza was, to his gratitude, preparing the wedding with all her heart, as though preparing for her own grandson’s marriage. But the end of this marriage, the end of all these splendid things… would wither from the ends and ultimately fall away futilely, like a flower dropping off.
And he himself would once again become a complete stranger with not even the slightest connection to Grace. In truth, even now, he was someone with no connection whatsoever to her. Everything she received as the future Duchess, from jewelry to her very name—he had given her not a single one of them.
Ares caressed the emerald in the gold ring once more.
He had bought it, but how could he give it to her?
As he harbored this new worry, hearty laughter drifted in from beyond the window. Turning his head with a creak, he saw Grace out walking with Eliza.
“Ahahahahaha!”
As Eliza let out another peal of hearty laughter, Grace and the maids burst into laughter as well. He narrowed his eyes and gazed at Grace, when the uncanny Eliza looked exactly at him—didn’t she?! While Ares froze, Eliza let out another loud laugh.
“Ahahahahaha!!”
For some reason, he had the illusion that that hearty, confident laughter was directed at him. A chill crept up his spine. Without realizing it, Ares hid the box he was holding against his chest.
*“What? The Duke has a gift? Let me see, let me see! Ahahahahaha!!”*
Ares furrowed his brow at reaching the worst imaginable thought.
“…Damn it.”
He absolutely must not let Eliza Richmond discover this!
However, Ares was unable to give her the ring even until the day before the wedding.