Behind the Horn-Rims
Nina smiled.
"So you were the Great Sage."
"Please, none of that. Just call me Randel."
"Then I will. And please, call me Nina. There's no need to be formal."
She said it while looking him over without a shred of shame.
Randel, the Great Sage. They called him a genius. His interest in botany ran deep, and his magic was every bit as far beyond anyone else's reach. His hair was like sunlight stirred through pure gold, his eyes a bright, vivid blue, like the Antarctic sea. For the moment, of course, all of it was sealed behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.
The amusing part was this: Randel was extraordinarily beautiful, and he found that fact extraordinarily tiresome, so he went about in enchanted glasses. Yes. The classic arrangement. Glasses on, perfectly ordinary. Glasses off, a beauty without peer. Randel was a male lead built on precisely that premise.
As if the glasses sealed his personality as well, he was smooth and good-natured while he wore them, but the moment he took them off and let his looks loose, his character came off with the frames. Because of that, the heroine, Fiona, believed the Randel in glasses and the Randel without them were two different people.
So if I take those glasses off, he's a peerless beauty? Nina's fingers itched with the urge to snatch them, but she made herself hold back. She had no use for a Randel stripped of both glasses and manners. All she needed was a Randel who would work hard and help keep the ducal house afloat.
She glanced at the modest luggage he had brought.
"It's so early the kitchen fire isn't even lit. I'll have them hurry breakfast, so for now, shall we see you to your room?"
"I don't need a meal. I'd much rather talk more about the specimens you sent."
At that, Nina nodded.
"All right. Then we'll set your things down and go straight there."
"Thank you."
Randel smiled, small and bright. She showed him to the room, then turned to Jin and told him to go back and rest.
Jin dropped his voice.
"What are you talking about? He's a Great Sage. You think I'm leaving the two of you alone?"
A sage was someone who wielded magic, an unknown power no one in these parts had ever seen or heard of. A Great Sage, all the more so. It meant he understood the workings of the world and that his learning ran deep, but to Jin it only meant the threat had grown.
"He isn't really dangerous."
Not unless someone gets in the way of his research.
"And if he's got magic, I've got a spirit. That's what I'm telling you."
Nina answered in the same hush. Jin was about to add something anyway, and she tipped her head. Since when did this man get so overprotective?
The door flew open with a bang.
"Right! Let's go!"
He was the very picture of a man overflowing with purpose.
"Oh!"
The sound escaped Nina before she knew it. He wore a blue robe stitched in gold thread, with ornaments dangling from the long hood.
"A sage's emblem."
When she smiled, Randel smiled back, bright.
"When I work outside, I'm required to wear this."
"I see. Then let's go."
Jin drifted in at the very rear of their little party, and Nina let him. She had told him to rest. She wasn't about to scold him for refusing.
She led Randel to the fields first. Fruit that fed the force of fire hung ripe on the branches, and beside it the medicinal herbs Kirill raised stood in neat, divided plots. They looked over the transplanted oil trees as well. Eyes glittering, he poured out question after question, and Nina answered as carefully as her knowledge allowed.
Once they moved on to the greenhouse herbs, though, there was no avoiding it. They needed Kirill.
Is it all right to wake her this early?
While Nina hesitated, Randel was already marveling on his own, bent over the herbs with fierce attention.
"This is incredible! It looks like silverflower leaf, and the scent is just as strong, but it isn't silverflower leaf! Does the Purple Forest have many things like this? All anyone ever says is that it's contaminated. Nothing but a bad name. I never imagined a report like this!"
"What's different about it?"
Nina tipped her head and crouched down beside him, and Randel launched into an explanation, excitement spilling over.
"Ordinary silverflower leaf has white hairs packed thick on the back, like this. Look. This silverflower leaf is actually silver, isn't it? It's glittering. The leaf is thicker, too, and the scent is different!"
Nina leaned in to see the leaf he had turned, and the instant he spun around, they collided.
"Ah."
"Oh—"
In that moment his character—no, his glasses—hit the floor.
Why do these come off so easily?
"Ugh— ah, son of a— ngh?!"
He raked a hand back through his hair, and the curse was already leaving his mouth when Nina jammed his character right back onto his face.
"I'm sorry. Are you all right? My forehead's pretty hard."
As she babbled on, Randel stared at her blankly, eyes gone wide.
Wow.
Nina was honestly, purely impressed. Saturated blue, glittering. How could they be so flawless? Even behind the lenses, they were eyes so lovely there was no mistaking their beauty. The Antarctic sea, with the midday sun shattering across it.
A smile escaped her. She grinned, got to her feet, and asked again.
"Are you all right? Can you stand?"
She held out her hand. Randel took it, rose, and rubbed his forehead.
"I'm fine. I'm the one who should apologize for getting carried away. This happens sometimes, when I see research material."
His cheeks had flushed, as if he were embarrassed. Nina offered a light consolation.
"A researcher ought to have at least that much passion."
"You're very kind, Sir Nina."
Randel smiled, warm and easy.
Behind them, irritation tightened Jin's face, and he was just about to speak when Kirill beat him by a beat.
"What the hell is all this racket in my greenhouse first thing in the morning!"
"Kirill?"
"Kirill, you're up at dawn?"
Nina turned in surprise to ask, and Kirill brandished the stick in her hand.
"Thought some thief had broken into the greenhouse."
"What's there even to steal in this greenhouse."
Jin got the words out and caught a whack from Kirill's stick for his trouble.
"Then I got a look at the getup. One of Blue Stone Island's idiots, isn't it."
She planted the stick in the earth and stood at a crooked angle. Randel lightly curved his right hand, bent at the waist like an actor taking a bow, and said,
"Randel, Great Sage of Blue Stone Island. Senior."
Kirill snorted.
"That place still full of nothing but blockheads with skulls as hard as blue stone?"
Randel answered, beaming as ever.
"They may have gotten harder."
Flustered, Nina looked at Kirill, then at Randel, then at Kirill again.
"Kirill, you're from Blue Stone Island too?"
At the question Kirill's eyes narrowed, and Randel only smiled. Neither of them answered her.
And that was an answer, wasn't it.
Nina drew herself up straight.
"Lord Randel has kindly come to research the herbs with us. Apothecary Kirill, will you cooperate? I ask you as the duke's proxy."
Kirill gave a sour little smile.
"Save that for somebody else, kid."
Nina laughed lightly at that, the two tails of her hair swaying.
"Then I'm asking you, Kirill. Will you?"
"Yeah. A researcher I can actually use shows up—why would I say no? Let's talk. I want to see how far Blue Stone Island's Great Sage has come."
"I would be glad to listen."
"Then we'll leave you to it."
Nina had started to step back when Randel swiftly blocked her way.
"Sir Nina."
"Yes."
"I was rude earlier."
"No. It's all right."
"…"
?
Why isn't he saying anything? Nina tilted her head, and Randel cleared his throat.
"Do you happen to have an interest in herbs?"
"I do."
Of course I do. They're the plants that are going to make money for our domain. How could I not care? I still have to get white bread into the Young Master.
Randel's face brightened.
"Then, if you have the time later, might we talk about the herbs?"
"Of course."
You have to know your merchandise. Of course. Of course.
She agreed so readily that Randel stepped aside.
"Thank you."
Nina left the greenhouse.
Jin said it flatly.
"I'll go in a bit."
He meant it was too dangerous to leave Kirill alone with a Great Sage whose identity still wasn't certain. Nina was nodding when Kirill waved them off.
"All of you, out. You're a nuisance."
"Kirill."
Jin squinted, ready to argue, but Kirill narrowed her eyes.
"Tsk."
"Ah, hell. Not my problem."
Grumbling, he scratched his head and walked out of the greenhouse.