episode_0125

“Ugh… I don’t want to go to work…”

Ever since realizing that I glossed over the clothing description and just sent the Countess away, I spent the weekend in a state of terror.

You might say I’m being too anxious over just messing up a product description, but it’s the Ho-in Clan we’re talking about.

If the problem was the quality of the clothes, they’d just protest a little and be done with it, but the Ho-in Clan’s “a little” is different from a human’s.

‘Low ignition point’ isn’t a famous and common characteristic that I remember for no reason.

Even the minority of the Ho-in Clan who can interact with humans are hot-tempered by human standards, a fact learned through the bloody sacrifice of predecessors whose heads became concave after provoking them.

If you only count the times I’ve pissed them off, my head should’ve been concave a long time ago, but I barely got a reprieve thanks to the clothes, and if those clothes fail…

My future of being dismembered is pretty much set in stone.

“Ugh…”

How awful.

The future of being disassembled like fried chicken keeps flashing before my eyes, and the blood isn’t circulating to my head properly.

You idiot.

I should have just introduced the clothes normally and told her to try them on if she was interested, why did I have to scratch the Countess’s nerves…?

“Kkyaaaek…”

I rolled around on the bed, making bizarre groans.

I had already done my hair and clothes, so Emily glared at me with annoyed eyes, but I didn’t care and trembled on the bed.

“Haa… Master, how long are you going to keep doing that? You should eat soon and head to the atelier.”

“I don’t want to… If I go there, I’m definitely going to die…”

“If she was going to kill you, she would’ve done it already, nothing happened over the weekend, there were no letters, and no Tigris County servants visited.”

As Emily said, unlike my trembling and fear, the weekend was very peaceful.

“Maybe she was sharpening her knife over the weekend, gathering her strength to kill me cleanly.”

But there’s a reason why they say the calm before the storm.

If this is the eerily quiet moment before the storm hits…

I’m so scared.

“You can die just by shaking her hand, what strength is she gathering? If you keep talking nonsense, I’m going to tell the Madam and the Count?”

But Emily looked down at me with a pitiful expression and pouted.

“Ugh… I’d rather die at my parents’ hands… no.”

The thought of dying in my parents’ arms flashed through my mind for a moment, but I thought I’d die even more horribly if it was them, so I jumped up from my seat.

“Let’s go quickly.”

“Fix your hair first, and ugh~ your clothes are all wrinkled.”

“Sorry.”

“Never mind, just sit down quickly, you’re going to be late.”

“Okay.”

Emily grumbled but took a comb out of her apron.

I obediently sat in the chair that Emily pointed to.

I’m anxious, but like Emily said, I have to hope that nothing happens…

_

Unlike my worries, Countess Tigris did not appear at the atelier.

No letters were burned, and I spent the day as usual, and the day ended like that.

At this point, I felt relieved, thinking that it really went well.

“If it’s been two days, isn’t it really just passing by? I don’t think the Ho-in Clan people are this patient…”

“Really…?”

“That’s right, aren’t you being too sensitive? If I only listened to what you said, you would’ve been dead when you handed over the clothes.”

“You think so, right?”

Besides, the employees were saying similar things to Emily, so even more so.

If nothing happens tomorrow either, I can believe that the Countess was understanding and let it go.

“Uwaaa…! W-wait a minute!”

“?”

However, should I say it was in exchange for that?

Or should I say it was a coincidence?

Someone else I had forgotten in my head appeared in front of me.

“May I join you for a moment?”

“Your Highness, you can’t just climb into other people’s carriages like that…!”

Just as I was about to get in the carriage to go home after closing the atelier, a woman forcibly pushed her way into the closing carriage door, and a knight was looking at her with a troubled expression.

“Uwat!”

I was caught off guard and thought that Countess Tigris’s sudden attack had begun, so I was startled and shielded Emily behind me first.

“W-who…”

“It’s been a while since we met, but this reaction is a bit hurtful.”

“Uh…”

I was trembling against the opposite wall, so the woman drooped her shoulders and grumbled in a voice full of disappointment.

Only then did I realize that the other person didn’t have a tail, so I widened my eyes and looked at the other person closely.

It was dusk, so it was dark inside the carriage, and the woman was wearing a wide-brimmed hat, so I couldn’t see her face well, but the blue necklace dangling from the woman’s neck caught my eye.

“Uh?”

I quickly rolled my eyes and looked over the woman’s shoulder, and there was Sir Rachel, looking pale and flustered.

“Elizabeth…?”

“Are you just recognizing me now?”

When I called the woman’s name, she slightly lifted her hat, pouted, and slightly revealed her face full of disappointment.

The appearance of a familiar face eased my tension, and I released Emily, who I had been hiding tightly behind me, and slumped onto the seat of the carriage, my lips trembling.

“Tell me in advance before you come…”

Elizabeth, who was sitting on the opposite seat, glanced at my pale face, shrugged, and raised one corner of her mouth shamelessly.

“I told you in advance, I said a few days ago that I would be back before my mother’s birthday.”

“No, that’s not wrong, but haigo…”

I sighed, watching Elizabeth hand her hat to Sir Rachel, who followed her into the carriage, and swept back my hair.

If I was just a little late, she could’ve just seen an empty atelier and gone back, who comes at quitting time, if you were going to do this, you should’ve just come to my house…

“Hayu~ Okay… How have you been while I haven’t seen you? It seems like you’ve been through a lot.”

“I’ve been through some hardships, but I’ve been doing better than you, a snake-like nobleman is better than a prison.”

“Better…? They both seem terrible no matter how you look at it.”

“I can’t stand not bathing for more than three days, that serious state… it’s terrible… if it’s a place where I can’t even bathe in ice water, I’d rather be killed.”

Elizabeth shuddered as if she imagined herself not being able to wash for more than three days, and gently stroked her arm.

“Ahem, I see…”

Seeing how much she hated it, I became curious about what the ruined princess was like after not being able to wash for more than three days, but I didn’t want to die without being able to escape in the carriage, so I shut my mouth tightly.

Personally, I thought that look was pretty good in its own way.

Women don’t look that different if they don’t wash for three or four days, except for the smell.

Men’s hair quickly gets greasy and their faces become shiny.

Am I just too insensitive?

“Well… I’m glad if you were okay, but what’s going on at this hour? Is it okay to be walking around like this?”

“As long as my face isn’t exposed, and because someone put a leash on me but is half neglecting me, I’m getting antsy, so I came out a day early.”

Elizabeth tapped her necklace with her finger and smiled brightly.

“The expression ‘leash’ is a bit…”

“You showed everyone that I was yours so passionately and affectionately, and now you want to say it’s not?”

“No, please, just say it…”

It’s not wrong, but I don’t know how to react because Elizabeth keeps twisting the words strangely.

Elizabeth looked at my reaction with amusement and then suddenly put on a prim expression, crossed her arms, and said.

“Do you know what kind of strange rumors are going around about you and me because of your actions?”

“Are there rumors that you and I are lovers or something?”

“It’s a little more like a romance novel than that.”

“A romance novel?”

I frowned and tilted my head.

Aren’t rumors about us being lovers enough like a romance novel?

What kind of rumors are going around if it’s even more than that?

“They’re connecting it with you going to prison, and all sorts of stories are coming out, the Empress didn’t like a guy who didn’t even have a Dukedom or Marquisate associating with her daughter, so she revealed me to the world early, the Hume County tried to win over the Princess but fell out with the Emperor, your eccentric behavior isn’t a protest against the Emperor…”

“……”

I was speechless at the rumors that came out of Elizabeth’s mouth.

It was the same when I received the honorary knighthood, I think they have great imaginations.

The truth is that what happened with Elizabeth had no influence at all…

“Really… because of you, all I hear about when I meet the young ladies is you, it’s driving me crazy!”

“I’m a little sorry about that.”

I don’t go to those events at all, so I didn’t know.

I hardly get any letters directly, so I thought things were quiet these days…

“If you’re sorry, will you do me a favor?”

“A favor?”

“It’s not a difficult favor.”

“I don’t think so… can I not listen?”

I haven’t even heard the story yet, but I already feel an ominous aura.

But Elizabeth continued to list her words without paying attention to my anxiety.

“At my mother’s birthday event, my mother invited you as a VIP.”

“What?”

I opened my eyes wide and gaped.

Usually, the VIPs attending the Emperor’s birthday are the Cardinal dispatched from the Holy Kingdom to deliver the Pope’s congratulations, the royalty of other countries, and the head of the Magic Tower.

It is common sense that you must have at least a Marquisate with territory to be at that level…

She wants me to be in that lineup?

This is like throwing a rabbit among lions.

“Gheu… are you crazy?”

Inadvertently, blasphemous words came out.

The subject was omitted, but even a child could know who the omitted subject was.

“My mother said it was okay, so what can I do.”

“No, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Do you think the Emperor’s will is not good? Or are you not that sorry to me?”

“That’s…”

“What?”

“…not true, the Emperor must have had a reason, and I’m really sorry to you, um, then.”

I wasn’t sorry enough to thoughtlessly join the magnificent lineup of the Pope’s representative, the head of the Magic Tower, and the royalty of other countries, but Elizabeth’s eyes were so scary that I said something different from what I was thinking.

If I had answered ‘that’s right’, wouldn’t the carriage have headed to the Imperial Palace as it was?

While saying, ‘Let’s see if you can say that in front of my mother.’

“Then you will definitely attend as a VIP? Unless some incident, accident, or circumstance arises? Right?”

“Umm…”

“Right?”

“Y-yes, that’s right, I have to.”

“I’ll tell my mother that.”

“Okay…”

Tears almost welled up at Elizabeth’s words that she would report to the Emperor with a smile.

Ah… my happy plan to not attend under the pretext of recuperation…