Daily Life Before Departure
After Edgar decided to return to Hespania together, Helene sent word to the main house and slightly delayed their return schedule. Although they could come back to Ardenum whenever they wished, she believed that leaving the home where she had lived for nearly fourteen years and heading to an unfamiliar place would require some time to mentally prepare.
“The day after tomorrow, we’ll be leaving for Hespania… It feels strangely nerve-wracking.”
Edgar, who had been checking his mana circulation with Ariel’s help since early morning, muttered quietly. When he had first made up his mind to leave for Hespania, he hadn’t felt particularly anxious. Yet the closer the day drew, the more a peculiar tremor stirred in his chest. Should he call it excitement rather than tension? In any case, the tickling sensation, as if someone were gently scraping him with a feather, was an oddly fascinating feeling.
“You’re nervous too?”
Ariel, who had been quietly listening, looked at him with clear surprise in her eyes. He showed no signs of nervousness and remained as indifferent as ever, so she had assumed he wasn’t thinking much of it. Besides, the combination of Edgar—of all people—and the word “nervous” felt incredibly mismatched.
“I’m a person too, so of course I am.”
“Hmm… That’s interesting.”
In nearly thirteen years of being together, this was the first time she had learned this about him. Even the bold boy who had charged at a wild boar when he was ten could feel nervous. Discovering this unexpected side of him was both amusing and, at the same time, a little worrying.
“Are you really going to be okay? I know it’s silly to ask now, of all times.”
“I told you I’m fine. Hey, I’ve already heard that question more than ten times.”
“I know. I wasn’t going to ask anymore, but then you suddenly said you were nervous, so I got worried.”
Edgar let out a helpless sigh and abruptly stood up, reaching over to ruffle her hair.
“Do you really have so little faith in me?”
“M-move your hand off my head first. I spent all morning getting ready!”
Of course, being patted was nice… or rather, not entirely unpleasant, but she had finally managed to fix her hair without anyone else’s help, and now it was at risk of becoming a mess. If her maid Shuri had been nearby, she wouldn’t have minded her hair getting ruined once or twice, but while they were here, she had to take care of everything from head to toe by herself.
“Then just tidy it up roughly before we leave. Why bother dressing up so much from the crack of dawn? Are you going on a marriage meeting or something?”
“Ugh, who do you think I dressed up for?! This is basic etiquette for a lady!”
Honestly, this idiot of a man. He was so skilled at irritating her that even in broad daylight he kept poking at her nerves, making it impossible for her to hold back her anger no matter how hard she tried. What? A marriage meeting? If he had used any other word, she might have been able to overlook it, but that particular phrase grated on her more than anything. At this point, she even suspected he was deliberately teasing her.
“Look at the immature duchess talking about a lady’s etiquette while throwing punches first.”
“That’s only with you…!”
The furious Ariel started to shout something, but realizing how embarrassing the rest of the sentence would sound, she hastily swallowed her words. Given the context, anyone could guess what she meant, but the nuance somehow came across like a lover’s pout, making it too awkward to say out loud.
Edgar tilted his head and asked, “Only with me?” trying to get her to finish the sentence, but Ariel simply turned her head away sharply and clamped her mouth shut. She had absolutely nothing more to say to a man like him—not even worth a single copper coin from a fairy tale.
“Stop sulking and tell me about that new maid and your friend. Come to think of it, I haven’t properly heard about what’s been going on with you.”
“Is that how you ask for a favor after provoking someone?”
“Then what do you want me to do? Get down on my knees?”
Part of her wanted to tell him to do exactly that, but the moment she imagined him immediately flopping face-first onto the grass without hesitation, she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Sighing softly, Ariel told him there was no need to kneel and simply asked him to sit down for a moment.
“Sit here?”
“Where else would you sit?”
“Fair enough.”
The wooden crate that used to be nearby had been cleared away just yesterday, so there was nowhere proper to sit. In the end, Edgar plopped down on the grass, and Ariel, who sat down after him, suddenly pushed her head onto his thigh. He had done this for her a few times when they were children, but he never expected her to ask for it at their current age, so Edgar was momentarily stunned. Still, instead of pushing her away, he lifted one corner of his mouth into a smirk and began fixing her disheveled hair.
“Weren’t you just complaining about your hair getting ruined? And now you’re lying down like you own the place.”
“It’s already ruined anyway, so I should at least get a story as compensation.”
“You can’t even tell your friend one story for free?”
A weak, deflated sigh escaped Edgar’s lips at the harsh reality.
“I’ll tell you the story, but if you so much as look at my friend the wrong way, I won’t let it slide.”
“Do you really think that person would be crazy enough to pay any attention to me? The only reason she even talks to someone like me is because it’s you.”
“…Hmph. Good, as long as you know that.”
She had been ready to give the girl a proper magical scolding if she ever tried anything foolish without knowing her place, but it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary. Ariel let out a satisfied little snort, then began recounting her newly formed relationships one by one.
“First, my maid Shuri is the daughter of Shephy, whom you already know. She only recently became my personal maid, but she’s been working for our family for a while.”
Whenever she visited the Bilhark family, she had always left Shuri at the main house, so she had never had the chance to introduce them. Edgar had only heard her name and knew nothing about her personality or age, which made him oddly curious. Of course, not in any romantic sense.
“Is she around our age?”
“She’s a year older. But when you look at her, she feels more like a younger sister than an older one. She cries a lot too.”
“I think I get the picture.”
She was probably naturally affectionate and expressive with her emotions. Edgar already knew that Ariel tended to be rather blunt with anyone outside her family, so when he imagined what someone like Shuri might be like, he thought the two of them would make quite a fitting pair.
“Her personality must be quite different from Shephy’s then.”
“Yeah. Honestly, I never would have guessed they were mother and daughter until I was told. According to Shephy, Shuri takes after her father a lot. Even her hair color is the same as his.”
“Oh?”
She inherited a lot from her father’s side. Since Edgar had often been told he resembled his father more than his mother, he felt a strange sense of kinship. Come to think of it, he had once heard an old superstition somewhere that women who resemble their fathers live happily, and sons who resemble their mothers live happily. If that were true, then Shuri’s future was practically guaranteed. In any case, he wanted to meet her at least once.
“What about this friend of yours?”
“Sylvia? She has a kind personality, but she loves playing pranks. She might be even worse than you.”
“Whoa, that’s saying something.”
Edgar prided himself on being second to none when it came to jokes, yet someone was even more extreme than him? At that level, her entire daily life might as well be one big prank.
“Anyway, being around her is exhausting. My mind goes completely blank.”
Ariel shook her head as if fed up, burying her face deeper into Edgar’s thigh. Despite her words, Edgar could tell that this girl named Sylvia had become quite a close friend to her. After all, the entire time she spoke about Sylvia, the corners of her lips kept drawing a faint smile.
However, there was one thing that bothered him.
“You’re not getting pushed around by your friend Sylvia and then taking it out on your maid, are you?”
After listening carefully to the stories about the two of them, Edgar noticed how oddly well the pieces fit together and decided to poke at the possibility. He wondered how she had learned that Shuri cried easily. If Ariel, who hated being toyed with, couldn’t hold back her anger with ordinary venting, then where exactly had she directed that frustration? As if to prove his suspicion, Ariel turned her buried face in the opposite direction and clamped her mouth shut, avoiding the question.
“……”
“…Hey, don’t naturally look away like that.”
This girl, seriously. He had repeatedly warned her since childhood not to mistreat those beneath her, but the moment she got a personal maid, she had apparently gone full tyrant and abused her authority. There was no way a fifteen-year-old girl who had only just become a maid could endure that.
“I’m done talking, so I’m going to take a nap. Don’t wake me.”
“If you don’t get up, I’ll grab you and throw you into that tree, you know?”
“Go ahead. I’ll just tell Mom everything.”
When the most fatal counterattack was threatened from Edgar’s perspective, he quickly hid the hand that had been about to hoist her up and let out a deep sigh.
“What are you going to do if I ask your maid and get exactly the answer I’m expecting?”
“W-what do you mean, what am I going to do? I didn’t do anything.”
“Tell me properly. Otherwise, I’ll throw you right now even if it means getting scolded by Lady Helene.”
He had thought she had grown up a little over time, but it seemed the core of her personality remained exactly the same. It was fine to preserve her innocence, but there had been no need for the “immature duchess” part to stay unchanged as well.
“If that happens, I’ll take all the punishment you tell me to. Happy now?”
“Fine. Then for now, I’ll let it slide.”
Edgar ground his teeth and lowered his fighting spirit. Ariel glanced at his expression, then laughed gleefully to herself. After all, Shuri’s master was her. No matter how much Edgar demanded the truth from Shuri, the girl would never dare speak recklessly—not when she had to continue living under Ariel’s service in the future.
‘My victory.’
Imagining Edgar’s defeated face, Ariel smiled mischievously, her lips curving in triumph. She did feel a little sorry for Shuri, but she could always apologize later or give her a present to make up for it.
Plop.
A single amaryllis flower, carried by the breeze, tumbled across the ground.