episode_0107
by fnovelpia
There was no time to wander around the Manor Mansion.
That was because I followed Rachel’s directions and went straight to the restaurant.
In that restaurant, you can be treated to a variety of sumptuous food.
I woke up late, so I ended up eating an ambiguous meal that I couldn’t tell if it was breakfast or lunch, but even considering that, it was a dinner that took a lot of effort.
Because it was a composition you would only see at a banquet.
I don’t know if it’s because the Duke’s family has such great power, or if he was just being extra careful for me and the saintess, his special guests.
Was it because I was nervous?
I just focused on eating.
To be honest, I couldn’t concentrate on the food because I was so distracted by the knife…
Even Karl seemed to be less talkative than usual. He also did not show his usual behavior, only responding politely to the Duke and Louis who occasionally spoke to him.
“……”
It’s not just the knife that’s a concern.
I glanced at the saint out of the corner of my eye.
The sight of a saint skillfully handling dishes arranged by type was seen.
He uses tableware with an elegance that makes it hard to believe he is of humble origin.
Who would have thought she came from an orphanage on a colonial island?
If you just look at her current appearance, even if you didn’t know she was a saint, she gave off an aura that would make you immediately recognize her as a noble woman.
Nobles, royalty, or imperial family, etc.
Anyway, the uncomfortable meal was over.
Just like in the novel, I was worried that Louis would make witty jokes or ask awkward questions without any tact, but fortunately, he didn’t say anything and just focused on eating.
Maybe I was just really hungry.
I was in a hurry to say goodbye and leave because I had a lot on my mind-
“Beatrice.”
“?”
The decent duke called me over.
Since he had already introduced me as a friend of his son Karl, I decided to use casual, everyday language rather than the formal language I would use when addressing a foreign noble.
Me too, I didn’t find that particularly uncomfortable.
But I didn’t know I would be called like this.
Is there anything more to say…?
“I wish you would come to my study for a moment.”
“Yes?”
It was an unexpected request.
“Father, why Beatrice…”
A flustered Carl intervened.
“I have something important to tell you.”
“Then I will join you-”
“Kal, you see Alana off. I’ll give you my carriage, so you can go with me to the Vatican. If it’s the special minister’s carriage and not the duke’s carriage, there won’t be any misunderstandings in the church.”
The saintess smiled at the duke’s suggestion.
She looked at Karl with an expectant expression, but soon she couldn’t hide her disappointment when she saw that his expression had darkened.
“…yes.”
I turned my gaze away from Karl, who was watching me closely, and answered the Duke.
Suddenly, a sense of tension came over me. I tried hard to hide it and followed the Duke out of the restaurant.
The sword couldn’t take its eyes off me as I walked away.
*
After the disappearance of the Imperial Family, the Holy Claro Empire appears on the surface to be without an overwhelming power befitting the Empire.
But now, this mansion proves it.
The rulers of the empire are the Duke of Maynor and his entourage, they just don’t reveal it.
I barely managed to keep myself from being lost in the splendor of the mansion that was revealed here and there, and followed the Duke to the study.
The large study was a special space and office where the Duke and his ancestors’ collections and precious items were stored.
Even for the sword in the novel, this was a place that was difficult to enter and exit.
It was a special place for Duke Christopher Maynor and where he spent most of his time in the mansion.
Perhaps I was the first to get a chance to look into this place in more detail than the Bingyi sword.
“It’s not something to brag about, but our duke’s family didn’t have many opportunities to receive guests. It’s been like that since the time of our ancestors, not just in our time.”
“……”
“It might be a habit that runs in my blood.”
The Duke said as he entered the study.
“There’s nothing to hide. It’s just my personality.”
“Then I guess I’m one of the few guests?”
“You could say that.”
“It is an honor, Your Majesty. Thank you for allowing me to enjoy your wonderful mansion.”
She bowed her head, holding the hem of her dress in her hand and placing one hand on her chest.
This is a greeting custom that has become familiar to noble ladies.
A gesture that has now become natural after being repeated dozens or hundreds of times.
“Oh, it’s my honor. That such a beautiful foreign noble lady has taken such good care of my humble mansion.”
Humility, if excessive, can be deceptive.
Because the luxury of this place, the Manor Mansion, is on a level that cannot be imitated by any other mansion.
The Duke looked at me as I stood there nervously, and gestured for me to take a seat.
There happened to be a suitable Chesterfield sofa, so I walked over and sat down.
“I’ll give you something to drink. Tell me anything, from coffee or tea to strong alcohol.”
“…I’d like some kind of cold tea.”
I could feel the leather of the sofa through the tip of my buttocks, which were hidden by my thin dress.
It was high-quality leather that was hard to come by.
“I guess I’ll need some ice.”
The peacock headed toward the tea cabinet on one side of the study.
Rustle-
The peacock searched through the shelves and took out a luxurious teacup.
Then he started fiddling around with the magic tools on the table.
“Magic is truly amazing. It goes against our common sense and shows us miracles.”
“…miracle.”
It is comfortable.
…but for me, magic has been a duty and a sacrifice.
Because I am not an ordinary woman, because I am of royal blood, because Green’s blood flows through my veins.
So, because I lost my younger brother.
Because Theo died instead of me…
Only then was magic given.
A magic that was thrown out after losing so much.
That’s all I got from the iceberg.
“A miracle that we can have ice like this even in this suddenly hot weather.”
“……”
Thud thud-
In an instant, chunks of ice appeared from the magic tool. The Duke said as he divided them into two teacups with the tongs.
“I wish I could use magic to make ice myself, but I am grateful that I can treat my precious guests like this.”
I just blankly watched him bring out the tea.
“Magic… Come to think of it, neither I nor my father, nor any of our ancestors had anything to do with magic. We couldn’t handle mana, so we couldn’t become knights. This is our bloodline.”
“…Yes. That’s right.”
“Well, there’s no one who doesn’t know. The Duke of Mainer has been a family far removed from military power for generations.”
“But wisdom flows. There is no one who does not know that the wisest and most intelligent person on this continent is the Duke.”
I’m just saying things that are on my lips.
To look good to the one who is the father of the sword?
Or, as the noble lady of Primira would say, it would be more appropriate to say this?
I don’t know.
Just unconsciously, as if struggling to survive, I answered while looking into the Duke’s eyes.
“That’s too much praise. Still, I appreciate you saying that.”
“I’m serious.”
The Duke closed his eyes slightly and offered additional thanks instead.
It was indeed a refined etiquette befitting a great noble of the empire.
He finished making the tea he was going to serve me and served it to me with a clanking sound.
I accepted the teacup from him as politely as possible and took a sip.
The tea in the teacup had a clear color, and its taste and aroma were as excellent as its refreshing color.
“The car is really great!”
I let out an exclamation of admiration to kill time by talking about something useless.
I was anxious because I couldn’t figure out why the Duke had asked to see me alone.
“I’m glad it suits your taste. I heard it’s hard to get outside the empire. The ones I just gave you are made of leaves that only a very small number of people can obtain even in the empire. I also like it, so I’m asking people to get it for me.”
“……”
“There are so many people looking for it because the fragrance and taste are so good.”
I felt like I was showing off and was about to lose my luck.
“But the strange thing is, my son Carl said he didn’t like this car.”
“Is that so..?”
“It’s too bitter, what is it? No one would drink this kind of tea. Isn’t it unique?”
“Well, everyone has different tastes. And their appetites.”
I felt like the flavor of this tea was not very good because of the fact that my taste was different from Karl’s. I don’t want to get close to things that Karl hates. It feels like I’m creating a distance between us.
“It’s a unique thing, that the rich don’t look alike.”
“……”
For a moment, I almost said, “That’s because Karl isn’t your biological son.”
It was because the duke’s face had an expression of genuine incomprehension. Shamelessly.
“Bloodlines can’t be fooled, right? ”
“…That’s right.”
As he said that, I was taken aback by the peacock’s intelligent eyes that were piercing through me. So I answered absentmindedly.
“Beatrice, just as you followed the Count and Countess’ path as knights, the personalities and temperaments of our dukedom are all due to the very clear reason that they are all bloodlines.”
Just as Karl is not the Duke’s biological son, I am not the Countess’s daughter.
Could it be that he knows that and is saying it on purpose?
“So, it can be said that the fate of having a personality that rarely invites guests to the mansion and living as a writer because you can’t handle mana is in our Mainer’s blood.”
“But the sword-”
He’s a knight, I tried to say.
Because that would be a very natural reaction. It seemed like the peacock was just trying to get me to react that way.
“Cases like the knife are said to be exceptional cases.”
“……”
The Duke smiled and finished what I was about to say.
As if it was nothing.
“Yes, that’s an exception. I think blood is thicker than water, except in those very few cases.”
Again, the peacock looked into my eyes.
“Beatrice, I’m sorry for lying to you.”
“!?”
A sense of tension began to set in.
Everything the duke said seemed to be a test, a probing of me.
“What, what are you talking about-”
Are you really going to reveal the identity of the sword…?
I swallowed hard and waited for the duke’s answer.
The duke who had been silent finally opened his mouth.
“Actually, it was the taste of the sword that suited him.”
“?”
“The tea we are drinking is so bitter that very few people enjoy it.”
“Then, I guess the Duke and I have unique tastes!”
I wanted to just laugh awkwardly and move on.
Something, something about the situation felt unsettling.
“Yes, only people with unique tastes sought after this tea. But do you know why this tea was treated as a precious and expensive tea?”
“That, that… is the tea that the Duke and the ancestors of the Mainer family enjoyed?”
I somehow managed to come up with an answer.
I’m going to give you a plausible answer. Please just move on.
His straight, unreadable eyes kept staring into mine, so I was anxious that he might be looking right through me.
“That may be true, but…”
“……”
“Because it was a car that more precious people were looking for.”
The royal family.
It must be the royal family. The only people higher in rank than the Mayner family would be the royal family.
Even though I was drinking cold tea, my mouth felt dry.
I tried hard not to let anyone know that I was shaking.
I tried to respond somehow, hiding my embarrassment.
“Seo, surely Hwang-”
“Before that.”
But the duke interrupted me.
“This tea is special to me. Because it is the tea that the person I must remember drank.”
“?”
With a clank, the peacock placed the teacup on the table in front of the sofa.
He put down his teacup and reached out his free hand to the picture frame on the table.
He gently turned the picture frame with his fingertips so that I could look at it.
The picture frame that was facing the peacock was turned around.
A tabletop frame of a suitable size contained a magically engraved photograph.
“!?”
A photograph that has retained its original appearance over time thanks to elaborate magic.
The moment of activation of the magic tool comes into my eyes.
This, this is…
There was a duke and there was Louis.
The two men in their Academy uniforms were staring at the magic tool with somewhat uncomfortable and embarrassed expressions—so it seemed as if they were looking beyond the photo—while a confident woman was seen linking arms with each of them.
“Isabel.”
The peacock’s small but clear voice was heard.
But I ignored the sound and just stared at the photo.
A woman with long, shiny beige hair.
A woman appeared with a bright smile that seemed to shake off any pent-up emotions in the hearts of those who looked at her.
Just like the Duke and Louis on either side, the lady in the Academy uniform was so beautiful, no… more, because of the affection, that I found myself holding the picture frame in both hands and staring at it without realizing it.
I somehow held back the tears that were about to well up.
“That was the car that Isabel really liked.”
The duke’s voice was filled with sadness as he spoke calmly.
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