episode_0162

William’s proposal.

Considering it from a common-sense and universal standpoint, it is right to refuse.

The road could be blocked at any time due to bad weather, preventing us from returning to the Imperial Palace.

I must attend the Saint’s Day Mass tomorrow, so the schedule must not be disrupted.

If it’s an overnight stay rather than an outing, it could cause a stir in the Imperial Family.

But even taking that into account, the offer William made was too sweet.

“Umm… first, sit over there.”

“Okay…”

When I came to my senses, I was already in William’s room, sitting at the tea table.

Not a reception room for greeting guests, but a room he uses for everyday living.

A room with William’s usual bed in the center and William’s usual desk at the edge.

The difficulty level was too high from the start.

It’s my first time having a private meeting with a man.

It’s also my first time being invited to a man’s house.

Moreover, it’s my first time setting foot in a man’s room.

And to start all those firsts in a man’s room.

My heart is pounding, and my head is overloaded, unable to process thoughts properly.

Even so, new information collected by my busy sensory organs rushes into my head like a flood.

The faint scent of sandalwood in the room.

The simple interior.

The desk with fabrics and books on it.

The chair that is shifted to the left to make better use of the space on the right.

The clock located in a place that is easily visible when sitting at the desk…

It’s modest.

Reflecting William’s personality, there are hardly any fancy crafts, and it’s decorated practically and simply.

A scene rarely seen among other nobles.

Therefore, the fact that this is William’s room is so vividly conveyed.

“Thank you for inviting me like this, Duke Howard.”

“No, thank you for readily accepting the sudden invitation. The maid is preparing the tea, so please wait a moment.”

“Hehe… it’s alright.”

If I were here alone with him, without Emily and Sarah, my head would have gotten hot and my heart would have gone wild, and I would have fainted right there.

It was truly fortunate.

But that doesn’t mean my condition is normal, so I had to calm my head and chest as quickly as possible.

If I started a conversation in this state, I would stutter like Elin.

So, I turned my head slightly and looked at Sarah sitting on my left.

“Your Highness, what’s wrong? Is there something bothering you?”

A polite tone but an impolite expression.

She seems to have roughly noticed why I’m looking at her and why I keep my mouth shut without saying anything, but Sarah is pretending not to know very obviously, as if she wants to tease me.

“……”

She’s not even trying to hold back her laughter, and I can see her white teeth between her slightly parted lips, a frustrating expression that makes me want to punch her right away.

The emotion of anger surges for a moment at that expression, and the back of my neck feels slightly stiff.

“Haa…”

I sighed and looked away from Sarah.

I’m angry, but ironically, that’s what relieved my tension.

I made a slightly sulky expression, tilted my head slightly, and looked at William sitting across from me.

“Thank you for inviting me like this, but could you tell me why you invited me?”

“I wouldn’t know if we hadn’t met at all, but if we’ve met, it’s better to do something before we part ways, so I brought you here because I wanted to have a conversation and a meal together until the snow stops.”

“Hmph… you were looking forward to today, too?”

“Looking forward to… well, I guess you could say that. It’s my first time making plans with a woman the day before Saint’s Day, other than Hayes.”

“Oh my…”

That was unexpected.

I thought he would find it annoying, but he was thinking about it more seriously than I thought.

I felt a ticklish sensation in one corner of my heart.

“So… is there anything you’re curious about? I’m not used to this small talk, so I don’t know what to say.”

“Then… I’m curious about what you do here on the weekends.”

“Hmm… there’s not much to do… I just design new clothes or read books in the study.”

“Study?”

“Yeah, unlike the mansion in the territory, I’m the only one who uses the study here, so most of the books are ones I’ve chosen.”

“Hmph…”

Books.

Nobles read various books to cultivate knowledge, but there tends to be some bias depending on their tastes and interests.

If they are interested in novels, the proportion of novels in their books will be high, and if they are interested in science, the proportion of science books will be high. If I look at the books William has chosen, I can get a more detailed understanding of William’s tastes and interests.

“Then, can you give me a tour of the study after a cup of tea?”

“It might be boring, is that okay?”

“Yeah, I’m curious about what kind of books you read.”

“Well… then I can give you a tour.”

“Then let’s do the tour.”

“Alright.”

_

After warming up my slightly chilled body with a cup of tea and going outside, I followed William straight to the study.

“Portraits…?”

The first thing that greeted us as we entered the study was a family portrait, presumably of the Hume County family.

“It looks like it was painted quite a while ago.”

“Ah- that? It’s a painting that our eldest sister painted before heading to the Holy Kingdom, that was probably 8… no, 9 years ago, so I was 9 years old when it was painted.”

“Hmph… even though quite some time has passed, everyone’s faces are almost the same.”

Even at a glance, I can see their youthful faces and small builds.

It’s a portrait, so there might be some embellishment, but since it’s a family of handsome men and beautiful women from the start, it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t tell who was who.

“Hmm…?”

While slowly rolling my eyes, matching the images in my head with the people in the portrait one by one, I was able to find one strange thing.

“But this painting, doesn’t it look like the Hume County Lady is painted twice?”

“What?”

Instead of the eldest daughter of the Hume County family who went to the Holy Kingdom, the Hume County Lady was painted twice.

One in the middle of the painting, the other next to the Hume County Lord.

“The woman here and the woman here look exactly the same.”

“Ah~”

I felt puzzled by a mistake that should not have happened in a portrait where people are mistaken for each other, and pointed out the suspicious part. William chuckled, glanced at me, pointed at the woman standing next to the Hume County Lord, and said.

“This is definitely Mother, but this is Evelyn Nuna.”

“…?”

That person is Lady Evelyn?

That person?

I frowned and looked at the painting.

Looking closely, I could feel the slight differences, and I noticed that the woman in the middle of the painting had a much younger face than the Hume County Lady.

Come to think of it, Lady Evelyn was a child who looked especially like the Hume County Lady.

The two women in the painting were no different from the current Hume County Lady, so I was confused for a moment.

“Ah…?”

I looked at William with trembling eyes, as if I had seen a ghost.

“Um… William, why is the Hume County Lady… why does she look the same now as she did then?”

“It’s our family’s greatest mystery. Everyone else changes, but only Mother doesn’t change. So much so that people from families who rarely interact with our family often can’t tell Mother and our sisters apart.”

“Certainly, if the Hayes Princess grows up a few more years, it will be difficult to tell them apart…”

This is a woman who is forty-four years old.

I felt really fortunate that this kind of woman was not my peer.

While I am slowly losing my beauty, if I had seen the Hume County Lady of a similar age maintaining her prime beauty to the end, I would have been blinded by jealousy.

Or I might have suspected that she was maintaining her youth through some nefarious means.

But if that were the case, my mother would have been the first to punish the Hume County Lady, so the possibility would be infinitely close to zero.

I should ask the Hume County Lady later if she has any special beauty secrets.

The possibility that it’s just her constitution is very, very high, but even so, the Hume County Lady herself must have put in some effort to achieve her seemingly timeless beauty.

“Hmm…”

I took my eyes off the painting of the Hume County Lady and moved them slightly to the corner.

Eyes and a face that were much more full of life than they are now.

At the same time, a 9-year-old William with a slightly younger face.

The first impression I had when I saw that William was.

“You were… quite cute back then.”

It was quite cute.

His eyes were sparkling, and his smile was full of purity.

I can feel the freshness that can’t be compared to the current turbid smile full of meanness.

A face that would have made the hearts of women of the same age or slightly older flutter quite a bit.

It was hard to believe that he hadn’t met a single woman until now.

There must have been at least one woman who was looking for an opportunity to build a good relationship with William.

“You must have been popular with the young ladies of the same age?”

“No, not to that extent…”

“Really?”

“You were quite popular.”

William denied it at first, but the truth was quickly revealed by Emily, who had been watching William’s every move since the past.

“How many were there?”

“Everyone pretended to be docile in front of you, but behind your back, they were desperately trying to get involved with you. It was common to ask me to deliver letters, and there were also requests to lure you to a certain place to fake a ‘chance encounter’.”

“Hmph~”

So, you’re saying that he didn’t give a single glance to anyone other than Emily, even in the face of the women’s shady offensives…

He was an amazing man in both good and bad ways.

“You were a popular man even when you were young, must have felt good?”

“Those aren’t very good memories.”

When I asked teasingly with an excited feeling, William frowned sincerely and shook his head.

There may be only a difference in degree, but men would enjoy receiving attention from women….

What happened to make him react like that?

I became interested.

“Why?”

“Well, it’s basic for them to have a battle of nerves in front of you, and they keep falling in front of me, and they keep picking on Emily, and as I entered puberty, they started wearing corsets one by one, so it was a horror to have corpses that looked like they were about to collapse come up to me and ask me to hang out… it was terrible in many ways.”

“Ah…”

It’s understandable that he would hate it.

It would have been even more difficult for someone who hates crowds and corsets.

They were really grateful people.

I couldn’t help but be grateful that they had deliberately done things that William hated, so the opportunity came to me.

“Hehe…”

I smiled contentedly, took my eyes off the portrait, and looked around the study.

“Do you have any other portraits?”

“Unfortunately, no. The rest are all in the mansion in the territory. This one was left behind because Evelyn Nuna mainly stays in the Imperial Capital when she comes out of the Holy Kingdom.”

“Hmph~ I see. The mansion…”

I hadn’t thought much about it until now, but after seeing the 9-year-old William, I became a little greedy.

I wanted to see William at other ages.

“Show me the ones in the mansion someday.”

“Okay.”

Surely the young William must be cute.

I don’t know when it will be, but the fact that I will be able to see William’s past in the future was so enjoyable.