Love(?) Letters (1)

Several days had passed since I began taking horseback riding lessons from Dietmeyer.

And about a week had gone by since Ethan and I defeated the King Serpent at Seraphine’s masquerade ball.

Judging by the rumors circulating from the Imperial Palace, it seemed the incident at the masquerade had been somewhat resolved.

Investigations into the truth had begun immediately on the night of the Imperial Palace assault, and it was now almost certain that the incident had been orchestrated by demons.

Currently, additional investigations were likely underway to confirm the detailed circumstances.

Separately from the investigation, funeral rites had already been held over three days for the fallen Imperial Palace guards and some servants who had perished in the incident.

Even Imperial Consort Eleanor, who had been briefly away on diplomatic business overseas, had hurried back to attend the funeral.

As for the rest of the situation, I didn’t know the details. I could only speculate that Seraphine, the royal family member who had witnessed the scene most clearly, was taking the lead in organizing various matters.

Well, the game’s story hadn’t mentioned the detailed circumstances, so there was nothing I could do about that.

In fact, the information I’d gathered so far didn’t come from game knowledge either. It was just rumors that reached my ears even when I wasn’t actively listening, or letters addressed to Ethan that allowed me to piece together various stories.

Being his exclusive maid, checking the letters addressed to Ethan was naturally part of my duties.

‘If it were the old Ethan, he’d have only received a few meaningless letters about political marriages.’

Given his recent achievements, quite a lot of letters had been flying in from all directions since the masquerade incident.

Starting with an apology letter from Liz of the August family, to a greeting letter from Orion expressing a desire to build friendship, and even letters from various noble ladies regarding potential engagements with Ethan.

I had somewhat expected this, but it seemed showing his face at an official event had worked quite well in improving his image.

Previously, Ethan had been secretly rumored to be the dim-witted, chubby pig brat of the Blackwood family. Even when he first awoke from the curse, many people visited the mansion to confirm this with their own eyes.

Even then, power-hungry frontier nobles had stubbornly sent engagement-related letters trying to tie their daughters to him, but that was about it.

At the very least, there had never been a single letter from a noble lady expressing a desire to meet or start a relationship… until now.

“Today’s batch is no joke either…”

The sight of an envelope sealed with heart-shaped sealing wax made the sender’s blatant intentions obvious even before opening the letter.

And so, I was carefully using a knife to peel off these seals one by one to check the contents inside-part of my duties.

I felt a bit guilty toward the young ladies whose love letters were being read by me instead of the intended recipient, but what could I do? This was my job.

In reality, only about 10% of these letters would ever reach Ethan. Most of them were simply summarized by me after a quick read.

…Just to be clear, I wasn’t cutting them off out of jealousy over other women approaching Ethan. It was simply because Ethan didn’t have time to read each one, so I handled them.

In fact, my role even extended to sending “polite rejections” to the noble ladies who had sent these letters. Ethan was far too busy with swordsmanship training and etiquette lessons to spare any time.

Thinking about how to phrase yet another rejection with flowery language made my head spin.

“The Barburg Count family isn’t entirely irrelevant in the game’s story, so I should probably set this aside to show Ethan later… The Verco Baron family? Where’s that from?”

Even if these were young noble ladies unfamiliar with the ways of the world, I never expected a baron’s family to so boldly send a love letter mentioning engagement.

Naturally, such letters could only be met with a standard rejection.

After all, it was common sense that the young master of the powerful Blackwood ducal family would never be engaged to a daughter from some no-name baron’s family.

Well, strictly speaking, Harold’s wife Tanasia was from a frontier viscount family, but their marriage had the backstory of having met and fallen in love at the academy.

Even if I showed these letters to Ethan, the chances of him rejecting them were high. Just recently, he had personally written a rejection letter to what appeared to be a social letter from a ducal family’s daughter.

Of course, given the sender’s status, he had written the reply himself rather than delegating it to me.

Our conversation about it a couple of days ago had gone something like this:

“These are all the letters from high-ranking noble ladies today, Young Master.”

“Ah, yes. Good work sorting them as always, Maid.”

“…And these letters here are from the daughters of viscount and lower-ranking families. Should I draft rejection letters for these as before?”

“Yes, please handle those too. I’m grateful you can read and write, Maid.”

As he said this, Ethan was rereading only the letter from the daughter of the Brimton ducal family among the pile.

Seeing this, I cautiously broached the topic of his potential fiancée.

“The daughter of the Brimton ducal family is from a rather prestigious house, isn’t she? If I recall, her letter didn’t mention engagement directly but was more of a friendly correspondence. Even if you’re not interested in engagement, perhaps meeting her once might be worth considering?”

“…Huh? Ah, this letter? I appreciate the advice, but I’ll be sending a clear reply to this one too. It’s better to draw a firm line than to force time out of our busy schedules and leave room for misunderstanding.”

“…Is that so?”

“…What’s with you, Maid? Do you have some interest in who becomes my fiancée?”

“As your servant, the proper answer would be that I shouldn’t pry into such matters… But to be honest, I can’t say I’m entirely uninterested.”

“W-wait, seriously, Maid…?”

Why was he so surprised that I was curious about who his fiancée might be?

Wasn’t it a perfectly normal question for any servant? At the very least, it was natural to wonder about the person who might one day become his wife.

Anyway, since I was genuinely curious, I answered honestly without denying it.

“Yes. As your exclusive maid, it’s only natural for me to wonder who might one day become your wife.”

“O-oh… So that’s the kind of interest you meant…”

“However, if you’re rejecting even engagement letters from ducal families, does that mean you have someone of even higher status in mind as a romantic partner?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“I suddenly wondered if you might be interested in Princess Seraphine. Though you only saw her masked last time, her beauty still shone through. With your status and looks, you might even have a chance at a serious relationship…”

“T-that’s not it, Maid! I have absolutely no such relationship with Princess Seraphine!”

Even if he said that, part of me suspected he might actually be interested.

After all, that Seraphine-unlike Lilith, who only ranked in the top three in player popularity polls-was officially recognized for her beauty alone.

Compared to Lilith, who was merely called “a fairly pretty maid” by nobles, Seraphine’s beauty was on an entirely different level.

So I had asked if Ethan, having seen Seraphine in person, might have been charmed by her-but his response was colder than expected.

“I agree that Princess Seraphine is beautiful, but I’m not avoiding engagements because I have feelings for her.”

“Is that so?”

“I’m not seeking a fiancée because I have other goals. I’d appreciate it if at least you didn’t misunderstand me, Lilith.”

“…Understood. Since you put it that way, I won’t dare speculate about your reasons for not seeking a fiancée.”

“Thanks, Maid.”

I didn’t know what “other goals” he meant, but since he outright denied any interest in Seraphine, I couldn’t exactly argue, “But that’s not true, is it?”

That was how our conversation about his potential fiancée had ended two days ago.

Recalling that memory, I continued reading through the remaining letters addressed to Ethan.

‘Could it be that he’s more interested in a love marriage than an arranged one?’

After all, arranged marriages among nobles were nothing more than unions based on mutual interests.

In reality, there were cases of academy students-despite being nobles-opting for love marriages.

The most prominent example was Ethan’s father Harold and Tanasia, as I mentioned earlier. Given that he took after his father, it was possible he idealized such relationships.

As the saying goes, blood will tell. Perhaps Ethan harbored fantasies that only a love marriage, not an arranged one, could lead to true love.

‘Well, it’s not like it matters to me who Ethan dates or marries.’

…Still, family background was somewhat important, so his partner should at least be of decent standing. A count’s daughter at the very least.

Appearance mattered too. Someone of Ethan’s looks shouldn’t settle for less, so she should at least be pretty enough not to be a mismatch. She didn’t need to be a peerless beauty like Natalina or Seraphine, but at least on par with a sub-heroine.

Personality was also quite important. A calculating nature like Liz’s would be unsettling, and a high-maintenance personality like Katarina’s would be exhausting as a fiancée. Someone as kind and amiable as Isabel would be ideal, but well.

As long as these minimum standards were met, I didn’t really care who Ethan’s fiancée turned out to be. It wasn’t like I’d be serving her for the rest of my life anyway.

As I sorted through today’s letters with these thoughts, I came across one with a rather peculiar family name.

“The Peshinal Viscount family…?”

What was this strangely awkward family name?

The unnatural surname, which didn’t quite fit the medieval fantasy setting, made me tilt my head in confusion.

Yet, at the same time, it felt oddly familiar, as if I’d encountered it somewhere in the game.

This nagging feeling suggested I had seen a character with this surname at least once in the game.

If it sounded like a clumsy recombination of existing words, then perhaps…

“Ah.”

Right, now I remembered. The Peshinal Viscount family.

No wonder it sounded so awkward.

Because, of course, the Peshinal Viscount family was a fictional family that didn’t actually exist in this world.