Ch.5656. Noah Velleia (2)

I was bewildered.

Who on earth was this person, calling out to Sione after recognizing her?

Before I came along, Sione had lived shut away in her room with not even a speck of sociability, yet she seemed to know his name.

Since we were at some distance, if we spoke quietly, that young lord wouldn’t be able to hear our voices.

I carefully asked Sione, “Do you know this person?”

“…Yes.”

Sione nodded, but the warm smile she had shown earlier when shyly accepting my compliment on her clothes was nowhere to be seen.

She had hardened her expression and was quietly taking in my face with her eyes.

Looking at my reflection in her blue pupils, I could sense fragments of emotion deep within them.

Sione was now trembling with anxiety, as if she had become a criminal.

Most people wouldn’t notice her emotional state, but how long have I been protecting this high-maintenance mistress?

Once I realized this fact.

I also understood that her cold expression wasn’t simply due to annoyance or boredom at meeting this Lord Noah, but stemmed from something much deeper.

“Are you alright?”

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“Aren’t you trembling?”

Sione quietly pressed her lips together at my words.

She seemed to be trying to hide her emotions behind a nonchalant expression.

Perhaps because of my comment, her eyes wavered momentarily, unable to find their bearings.

After composing herself, she said, “…I’m fine, you needn’t worry.”

What exactly happened between this Lord Noah and Sione?

As I bowed my head in response to Sione’s words and continued observing her,

Noah, who had muttered Sione’s name from a distance, approached us with his knight escort.

“Um… it is Sione, right? It’s been a while, have you been well…?”

An awkward greeting.

And Sione, receiving this awkward greeting, hid her hands behind her back.

Her hands were trembling slightly.

“…Yes, I’ve been well.”

“I didn’t expect to meet you here like this… how many years has it been, haha…”

Sione responded to Noah’s gloomy greeting, feigning composure.

However, she couldn’t avoid making her responses unnecessarily brief.

When Sione faced Noah without further reply, a deeper awkwardness began to consume the shop’s atmosphere.

It seemed other customers and staff had noticed the unusual atmosphere, as their gazes gradually turned toward us.

Moreover, why was that knight looking down at my mistress with such a cold gaze?

Hmm, this feels a bit off.

“Sione being here… does that mean you’re also attending the princess’s coming-of-age ceremony?”

“…That’s right.”

“I see, then that dress is also…”

Noah’s gaze fixed on Sione’s attire.

Unlike her usual self who just carelessly throws on whatever clothes I prepare for her. Perhaps it’s because she’s showing off her beauty by even wearing a dress.

He couldn’t take his eyes off Sione for a while.

Although the atmosphere was suffocatingly awkward, Noah subtly showed his goodwill toward Sione.

However, Sione—

The more Noah’s goodwill reached her skin, the more she layered her face with expressionlessness.

Eventually, it was only natural that Noah hesitated after confirming Sione’s manufactured expression.

“…Noah, if there’s nothing more to discuss, I’d like to look at other clothes.”

Sione spoke as if squeezing the words out.

Noah’s shoulders hunched at Sione’s cold words.

At the same time, the expression of the knight behind him, who had been quietly observing the situation like me, crumpled and then smoothed out.

Sione did make a mood-killing comment, but.

Tremble, tremble.

Looking at Sione’s trembling hand, I felt there must be some backstory.

I didn’t want to criticize her.

“I-I’m sorry… I’ve been keeping you from choosing clothes…”

Noah rambled something, but I couldn’t properly hear his words.

My attention was solely focused on Sione.

After various exchanges, Noah’s spirit was thoroughly crushed, but after hesitating for a moment, he spoke one last time.

“…Well then, Sione! Could we… perhaps talk at tomorrow’s banquet?”

I know Sione doesn’t want to talk with him.

But considering the atmosphere and all.

Since he’s so eager to speak with Sione, it seems wrong to refuse him completely.

I discreetly hid behind Sione and poked her back, causing her to turn her stiffly frozen head.

-Please do so.

When I conveyed my intention through lip movements, she briefly made an expression mixed with all sorts of emotions.

Eventually, she nodded gently.

“…Alright.”

“Really…?”

“Let’s talk… at the banquet, Noah.”

At Sione’s words, Noah’s gloomy expression finally cleared.

“Thank you, Sione…! See you then…!”

Noah, with a somewhat brightened mood, returned to his knight escort.

After confirming that his knight bowed once to us and moved away.

I spoke up in the subdued atmosphere.

“…Shall we try on other dresses? One dress won’t be enough, will it?”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

I continued shopping for dresses with Sione, who was still pretending to be composed in front of me.

However, it didn’t take long.

Since Sione didn’t want to stay here any longer, we quickly paid for just a few recommended dresses that would suit her well.

As for my clothes, I got one black suit that wouldn’t stand out too much.

After quickly finishing our shopping, we returned to the carriage.

“We will depart now.”

Following the coachman’s announcement, the carriage began to move.

Sitting face to face with Sione inside the carriage, she opened her mouth.

“Aren’t you curious?”

“About what?”

“About what happened earlier.”

Sione stared at me intently.

I lightly deflected her gaze and answered, “If you ask if I’m curious, I am, but… I don’t particularly want to hear something that might make you uncomfortable.”

“Something that might make me uncomfortable. Rather than uncomfortable,”

Sione self-deprecatingly remarked with a wistful expression.

“It’s more like a story that makes me angry at my own foolishness.”

Having said that, Sione began to unfold her story on her own terms.

“Noah Velleia, the only son of the Velleia County. Their county is located in the western part of the same kingdom, and he often visited our territory, so we used to get along well in the past… yes, we were like childhood friends.”

“Childhood friends, you say.”

“Yes, childhood friends. Though now it feels awkward to even call him a friend… Noah, who was kind-hearted and always knew how to consider others, was the only person who always took my side until I shut myself in my room.”

“Yet you say it feels awkward to call him a friend…”

“Of course, due to my mistake, we’ve now become an awkward relationship.”

“…Could you explain what happened?”

“Isn’t that why I’m telling you all this?”

Sione let out a humorless chuckle.

After staring blankly ahead for a moment, as if retracing the past, she began to speak.

“It was when I was exhausted. When everyone was belittling me and making comparisons, I became sick of all human relationships.”

“At that time, Noah kept telling me that I still had hidden talents. Looking back now, it was probably just meant to encourage me, but—”

“…At that time, those words hurt more than anything anyone else said.”

Sione’s words reminded me of her past self.

The day she witnessed Siabel’s ascension as a knight.

The image of Sione, shut up in her room, lost in solitary contemplation and self-deprecation.

When someone told her to look for talents other than swordsmanship, she showed a more irritable reaction than ever before.

After years of bottling up her feelings and eventually accepting them, the word “talent” had made Sione so sensitive.

Apparently, when Noah mentioned that word to Sione.

She was more overwhelmed with emotion about the word “talent” than ever before.

“I think my emotions took over at that time. What I gave Noah was an expulsion order and…”

Sione covered her eyes with her hand as if it was giving her a headache.

I understand the expulsion order, but what on earth did she do next to be like this?

“I told him… if he was going to spout such nonsense in front of me, he should get lost… and never show his face to me again…”

“Ah…”

This kid really has no middle ground. None at all.

There was a reason Sione couldn’t hold her head up in front of Noah.

She had openly cursed and told him to get lost when he was just trying to encourage her.

No matter what, if Sione had any sense of shame, she couldn’t speak to him brazenly.

Moreover, I had heard passing rumors about Sione’s past verbal abuse from servants who had worked for her…

She probably cursed Noah much worse than what she just admitted.

Given that Noah’s knight escort had looked coldly at Sione, she must also know something about Sione’s past.

Just as I was beginning to grasp what Sione had done, she said,

“Not long after that incident, I shut myself in my room… and our relationship, which had soured, ended up unresolved like this.”

The relationship with Noah Velleia, which had been so awkward it made even onlookers uncomfortable.

Before I turned Sione back into a proper person.

It was the result created by Sione who was suffering from self-deprecation, helplessness, and even anger management issues.

“What do you think, isn’t it foolish?”

As her attendant, I couldn’t outright agree that it was foolish.

I was silently looking at Sione, who was laughing weakly, when—

[A quest has been formed.]

「Settling the Past」

「Sione Sianella has definitely changed due to your efforts. However, her relationships with various people from her past remain unresolved and continue to eat away at her mind. As Sione Sianella’s attendant, it is only natural to resolve your mistress’s worries and concerns. Fix the strained relationship with Noah Velleia, who represents the most prominent of these issues.」

「Reward: Acceleration of Sione Sianella’s growth rate」

I looked at the status window that appeared.

True to the quest name “Settling the Past,” the quest was encouraging the improvement of the awkward relationship between Noah Velleia and Sione.

So they’re telling me to clean up after Sione again.

The reward I would receive for successfully completing this quest is the acceleration of Sione’s growth rate.

Unlike the previous acceleration of talent awakening, this time it specifically mentions growth rate.

It seems that if I successfully complete this quest, Sione’s archery will grow even faster, commensurate with her awakened talent.

With this reward, we could make up for the recent lack of archery practice due to our carriage travels.

However, this quest is obviously going to be troublesome.

“…May I ask one thing? Do you want to untangle and restore your relationship with Lord Noah Velleia? Or—”

Since there was no mention of any disadvantage to me if I failed,

“Do you want to cut it off completely?”

I asked about Sione’s true feelings.