“Hm? Where does he say he’s going?”
Kenilla Loroe, who had been embroidering in her room, looked out the window as she asked.
The direction of her gaze was a handsome blond man. A man who deserved the word handsome without question. The pale golden hair breaking apart in the sunlight would probably return to its original color in time. Kenilla Loroe found herself curious what that would look like.
“They say he is going out to look around the territory.”
“Really?”
Kenilla nodded as though it were nothing of any importance and went right back to her embroidery.
The maid who had been watching him carefully spoke up.
“M-my lady. Are you perhaps angry because he arrived late?”
Kenilla turned her pale eyes toward the maid. Her eyes were full of amusement.
“Why would I get angry over something like that?”
“N-no, but... with that man...”
“You mean, why didn’t I go see his face right away and have a date with him?”
“Yes, my lady.”
The maid, who had been hesitating, finally bowed her head and answered.
Ha ha ha—low for a woman, laughter spilled from Kenilla’s mouth.
“He only just arrived and must be tired. As his fiancée, shouldn’t I at least show that much generosity?”
“Do you truly mean that?”
The maid, who had been furtively watching her, lifted her head.
“He came from far away, didn’t he?”
“As expected, it’s just like you, my lady! Right? It’s not like you’d get petty over something like that— ahem! Of course you wouldn’t!”
The maid, who had been rattling on, abruptly stopped herself, stuck out her chest and stomach, and raised her chin.
“What is it? Did someone say something?”
“T-that is...”
“Go on. What was it?”
“Young Master Chelto...”
“Hm? What does my brother have to do with it?”
A beautiful hydrangea was taking shape beneath Kenilla’s hands. She loved blue very much. It didn’t matter whether it was a flower, a vase, a sword, or anything else.
She loved it enough to decorate her entire room in blue.
The maid, who had briefly looked sick of it at the sight of yet another blue thing being set into the embroidery frame, quickly changed her expression.
“Tell me.”
The maid rolled her eyes and tried to avoid answering, but finally opened her mouth.
“He said Lady Kenilla too...”
“Me too?”
Even while meeting the maid’s eyes seriously, her hands kept moving skillfully.
“He said you’re unmistakably a woman too... that seeing you sulking while waiting for a man proves it beyond doubt...!”
Listening to the maid speak in a tone full of indignation, Kenilla finally stopped her hands.
Her eyes widened round, and just as a smile began to spread across her face, she burst into laughter with her shoulders shaking.
“Ahahaha! My brother said something that funny? Did he say anything else?”
“......”
“Go on, tell me.”
“H-he said... if you keep talking like... an old man... men will run away...”
“Hahaha!”
“My lady! Can you really laugh at this? I’m so angry I could die! Young Master Chelto has been walking all over the estate saying things like that, so now that’s all anyone’s talking about— ah!”
The maid, who had been fuming that all the servants in the estate knew about it, caught herself and clapped both hands over her mouth. As she sucked in a breath and nervously watched her, Kenilla reached out a hand.
“To get angry over something meant in jest— you must care about me that much.”
“M-my lady...”
The maid, who had been staring at the hand approaching her face, grew misty-eyed when Kenilla took hold of the hands covering her mouth and gently lowered them. Her eyes, as she looked at Kenilla in a voice like a bleating goat, were full of emotion.
“So that’s why everyone seemed so unusually tense today. If you hadn’t told me, I might never have known. Thank you.”
“It’s nothing, my lady! For your sake, I can tell you everything! Anything at all!”
Kenilla Loroe laughed in delight.
But the maid kept staring at her as though she still had something left to say.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Well, actually... there is one thing I kind of agree with Young Master Chelto about...”
“Hm?”
“...At least when you meet that man, perhaps you could speak more like a young lady from the capital...”
The maid made a miserable face. Now that she had heard it once, Kenilla’s speech really did sound like an old man’s way of speaking! She had always thought it sounded elegant and dignified. Inwardly, the maid resented Young Master Chelto.
Looking at her, Kenilla Loroe laughed out loud.
“All right. Since you say so, I’ll try it. How exactly do young ladies from the capital speak and act?”
***
Loroe Territory was a good place.
Luman could tell the moment he went out.
The ground was still frozen cold, and there was nothing yet to farm, but there was joy in the faces of the tenant farmers. As though they were already looking forward to the spring drawing near, the sight of them preparing fertilizer to spread on the land made their anticipation obvious.
“It’s a fine place.”
At that honest, plainspoken comment, with not even a trace of ulterior motive mixed in, the servant who had come along to guide him straightened with pride. Fighting to hold back his excitement, the servant launched into a long speech about Loroe Territory’s prosperity and peace, and about the previous lords of Loroe who had worked to build it.
“You should know these things as well, Lord Luman. Ahem. After all, you are to become Lady Kenilla’s husband.”
Luman listened with such good manners, not interrupting even once, his expression pleasant, that the corners of the servant’s mouth soon twitched as though he had already fallen for him.
He was delighted that such a handsome face was properly listening to the words of a mere servant like himself. And the way Luman listened so seriously and seemed to try to remember everything about beloved Loroe Territory—the furrow of his brows, the steady look in his eyes—captured the servant’s heart completely.
The servant, who had briefly suspected that perhaps Luman had left a woman behind somewhere because of all that suggestive talk about having to think hard about something in order to forget it, forgot that suspicion altogether.
While explaining how satisfied the people of Loroe Territory were with life there, the servant also let it show that he found it deeply unpleasant that Horten Territory seemed to keep casting covetous eyes on Loroe Territory. The servant, who had been in full flow talking about Horten Territory—or badmouthing it—was interrupted by a woman on the street.
“Oh my, isn’t that Mr. Melano?”
“Oh! Lady Delfona!”
The servant, Melano, greeted her with a smile.
“What brings you out? You rarely leave the estate. Oh my, and this gentleman is...”
“A pleasure, my lady.”
“Oh my...!”
Luman was not the sort of gentleman who waited idly to be introduced.
With practiced ease, he caught one of the woman’s hands, kissed the back of it, and smiled sweetly. It was instinct ingrained in him. When Ren had been by his side, he had unconsciously restrained himself from acting that way because he had been mindful of him, but now that Ren was not there, the old habit had returned.
At the naturally fluid ease of it, Melano gaped at him.
Melano immediately deducted every point of favor he had built up toward Luman. What good was it if a man was nice and handsome? He had the makings of a flirt!
“My goodness, wherever did a gentleman like this come from...”
“Well now, I’m rather curious myself where it is I came from.”
Smoothly dodging the heart of the question, Luman looked at Melano.
Melano, who had been fiercely debating inwardly whether he ought to report this to Kenilla Loroe or keep his mouth shut for the sake of their engagement, startled at Lady Delfona’s question.
Nothing about their betrothal had yet been formally carried out; it existed only in letters, so there had been no discussion of how or when it would be announced.
This one’s sharp, too.
Melano had no choice but to start adding favor points back onto Luman. When their eyes met, Luman smiled at him too, as though smiling that way at people, man or woman, was simply a habit.
It was enough to make Melano feel embarrassed for having assumed at first glance that Luman, with his cold impression, would be somewhat fussy.
Melano rubbed his beardless chin and cleared his throat.
“Ahem. That is not something a lady like you needs to know.”
“Well now, what a letdown. Ahem.”
Lady Delfona huffed, but smiled as though she understood, mimed zipping her lips shut, and walked off. The women who had been sneaking glances from nearby trailed after Lady Delfona, who had just gotten to speak with a rare beauty of a man.
Giving the women looking back °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° at him a bright smile as though in service to them, Luman turned to Melano.
“Would you direct me to a place that sells decent jewelry?”
“Follow me. Ahem.”
At Luman’s easygoing voice, Melano hurried ahead. He still had not heard exactly what sort of man Luman was, but it seemed obvious that he was not only striking in appearance, but the kind who would fit among noble families without seeming out of place in the slightest.
***
“Food!”
How long had they been huddled there, arms and legs bound, in the rattling cargo compartment?
The huge iron door opened with a grating sound Ren hated. A large-built man shoved several huge basins inside, almost like he was tossing in dog bowls.
Ren blankly stared at the thing that had entered his view, something too miserable even to call food.
“What? Don’t want to eat?”
It was a loud, harsh voice, like a spoon beating against a metal bowl. The ones locked inside the compartment all flinched and looked at him.
