Shortly after Nocton’s return, I headed straight for Alroy’s office.
I went it without knocking, but as if she had guessed my visit, she was not surprised at all.
“Why did Lord Edgar ask you?”
Alroy put down the fountain pen that she had in her hand.
“That’s strange. He comes to me for a favor.”
“Don’t picking on me.”
“I’m not, he helped me first.”
Help, what?
As I frowned in silence, Alroy tilted her head agonizingly and opened her mouth.
“I have to talk to you anyway.”
She muttered to me, or to herself, and straightened herself up.
“Terrops, it was presumptuous of him.”
“Terrops Andate?”
“Yes, my fiancé, cute and terrible, scheduled to marry me next month.”
“He … what did Lord Andate do?”
“He’s planning to marry me and seduce you.”
I’m a fool to take it seriously.
The sound was so absurd that I barely managed my expression.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“I wish I could just talk nonsense. He wanted to marry the first daughter who was in power, but he loved the second daughter who was the most beautiful woman of the Empire. He was even talking about it to his mistress. Maybe he resents me.”
Alroy twirled her fingers next to my head.
Aside from the absurd remark that I was the most beautiful woman in the Empire, she would have blown up this much if she were joking.
Don’t tell me that crazy thing is true?
According to Alroy’s insistence that they should know each other for a long time, she has been engaged for seven years at the age of twenty. I didn’t even know she was going to have time to get married.
I can’t believe he wasted all that long, hard time by doing such a stupid thing a month before the wedding.
I wonder whether I should admire Terrops Andate’s grand ambition, or to be impressed by Alroy’s eyes.
He has been hiding his dark inner thoughts with an easy-to-use and innocent face. If I hadn’t been next to the damn plan, I would have appreciated it.
Even though I couldn’t make it over with my sweet face, my heart was so uncomfortable that I had to look at Alroy’s eyes.
“Unfortunately, the long-cherished plan ruined and he was forced out of the house.”
“….Are you alright, Alroy?”
“It’s hard to tell our parents, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I think it’s a relief. I chose my fiancé because of his family and his proper condition, but his face is not my cup of tea.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with him. You know?”
“Well, if anything had happened, Terrops Andate would have died already.”
With a brutal truth, Alroy raised herself.
A warm kiss touched my forehead.
A subtle sense of insecurity and useless guilt melted down in one fell swoop.
“There’s no doubt, Ruru.”
“Don’t call me by nickname.”
As I lowered my eyes in a quizzical way, Alroy burst into laughter.
With only five years apart at the most, Alroy was too adult-like.
I’d be much older if I counted my past life.
Out of shame, I returned the topic of the conversation to the direct matter of visiting Alroy’s office.
“What did Nocton help you?”
“I usually throw away groundless rumors, but His Grace does not. He said he’s been looking into Andate’s second son because there were some bad rumors about him. In fact, His Grace doesn’t need to, but he’s angry.”
Nocton did a direct investigation of Terrops Andate?
For what reason?
Various ideas passed through my mind.
Alice’s words that the Duke was brainwashed, a strange-looking Sadie, and Nocton’s sudden visit.
It would have been a good thing if he had used Terrops Andate simply to enter Valrose’s mansion.
But what if Terrops Andate’s rumors are false?
If he did that by Nocton’s trick…?
I shook my head as I continued to think.
That’s stupid.
It was an excessive doubt.
Even if Nocton Edgar really was such a person, there was no reason to break Alroy’s engagement off.
I learned so much in the short term that my mind was biased by doubts.
How did this happen?
I felt uncomfortable as if I had a thorn that could not be pulled out.
“Roa.”
“Uh, yes.”
“Does Sir Claymore treat you well?”
“Suddenly, Aaron pops out.”
“Do you love Sir Claymore?”
“I’m not trying to date Aaron. If you’re asking if the love you’re talking about meets the external condition, it will be different.”
“I’ll respect you for your choice, but you don’t have to care about the family or the condition. If you’re going to calculate such thing, you can do it. My dear little sister, I wish you choose to be the happiest.”
A gentle stream of words constrain my mind.
Do I love Aaron, it was as absurd as the question whether I love Nocton or not.
I was the one who made a deal with the person who was going through the marriage talk with me, and Aaron agreed that it was a proposal that I was going to break from the beginning.
He wants to avoid marriage for the time being. If possible, he said that he was hurt by me, so that he could make a cause to refuse another engagement.
And I’m worried about the congestion caused by Nocton. I need a distance from Nocton Edgar. To avoid the unseemly sympathy and ridicule I would eventually be received if Nocton and Alice fell in love.
That’s what happened. That’s the way it was.
I thought that the fate of being burned could be avoided, but the conclusion that Nocton and Alice were in love was inevitable, so I didn’t want to play a role of betrayed by love.
But when I think about it now, I wonder what I can gain from my engagement to Aaron.
Is Nocton the protagonist or the villain?
Will Nocton and Alice fall in love nonetheless?
What does Nocton think of me?
My mouth is drying up.
I could not answer my sister’s question right away, so I avoided Alroy’s eyes.
“….Thank you, but that’s not about Nocton, is it?”
In spite of what I said to avoid answering, Alroy laughed silently.
***
“I’m sorry, my lady. I really don’t know why I did it.”
“He’s here as a guest of Alroy.”
“But I’m the personal maid of Lady Roa….”
Even though I said it was fine, Sadie bit her lip with a look that she couldn’t understand herself.
Yes, Sadie’s personality was so stubborn that the difference between the day before was clearer.
The maid, who might have been mentally disturbed by Nocton, bowed again with a guilty face.
“I will never do that again.”
I felt uncomfortable because of her determined expression.
The more Sadie blamed herself, the more odd Nocton got.
No, not only this, but the people’s words, the way things are going, and Nocton’s behavior … everything convinced me that he had a secret.
Maybe, like I didn’t even have to buy a Memoria’s Seal.
“And there was a reply from Sir Claymore. Here.”
Sadie gave me a black envelope. It’s a letter inscribed with Claymore’s seal.
The answer to the question of whether Nocton invited him to a tea party was written on the inside.
‘As you said, I have been asked to attend the tea party by Duke Edgar.
I haven’t sent a reply yet, but the Duke’s emissary is staying at the post until he receives a reply.
I don’t think it’s going to be easy to delay my reply for a long time.
If you wish me not to attend the party, I’ll be waiting for you to write before midnight. If you don’t send me a letter, I’ll be at the tea party….’
When I cut the front and back greetings, the content was this.
If Aaron would not attend the tea party, I would also use him as an excuse, but he didn’t show any reluctance.
I thought I’d get an I wanted to avoid Alice as his answer.
Doesn’t he know she’s coming, too?
Come to think of it, I was in a hurry to write and forgot to mention Alice.
Now, it’s strange to ask if he’s going to go where Alice is coming.
I finally have to go to that strange place.
I reached out for the next letter from Sadie, but all she had left on her arm was my favorite shawl.
I’m sure I sent a letter to Alice, too, right?
“What did you put in Limorand?”
“It’s … uh, I think Lady Alice Limorand is not feeling well. She’s been taking a rest in Ernhardt for a while.”
“Ernhardt?”
Ernhardt was a former estate where Alice lived before she was identified as Limorand.
As soon as I thought of it, ‘Why is she there?’ came under my tongue, but I managed to swallow it.
Even if the partner wasn’t a maid, Alice’s childhood was a secret to everyone.
Not only did the knight steal the baby and the nanny lie about the baby being stillborn, but also because Alice spent her childhood as Baron Momont’s illegitimate daughter.
It’s only natural. None of the words were free to talk about.
The Limorand thought their youngest daughter was dead, and now they didn’t want her to be swept away of the scandals.
Alice was introduced as a daughter who was ill and recuperating in the country, and was barely show up after she had recovered.
Although it was a somewhat unreasonable claim, the people of Limorand family itself were not revealed much, and no one openly doubted it because the Duke had prepared so thoroughly.
That’s why, the story of her once living in Ernhardt as Alice Momont was something I only knew, except for a few people from Limorand and Momont.
So it was all the more incomprehensible that Alice was headed to Ernhardt at this point.
It’s only been half a year since Alice came to the capital with Limorand. There may be people who recognize her, why would she go to Ernhardt?
Despite the constant silence that seemed odd, Sadie’s face lit up.
Breaking it, I opened my mouth.
“It’s pretty far. It’s hard to come and go.”
“She used a magic scroll to the middle point. The lady’s destination is a secret, so she told me to tell you privately. I think that’s what Lady Alice ordered before she left.”
Secret, then she went in disguise.
Alice’s unruly behavior was a little more that complemented, but I still can’t be entirely convinced.
She doesn’t want me to come to Ernhardt. She can’t tell me in the capital where there’s Nocton? No, it’s too much thinking—
Only
My head was throbbing.
“And I brought this because she asked me to return the shawl you lent her.”
At the belated mark, I remembered that the shawl in Sadie’s arm was the one I lent to Alice.
I thought she was holding it in case I was cold.
Just now, I felt cold from the headache, so I took the shawl. I intended to cover my bare shoulders.
But, my hand stopped before I opened one shawl.
The innermost folds were thin and angled.
Paper?
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