Irene Yuris (2)
“Hey, Evan!”
For a moment, I just stared at her blank, lazy gaze as she held a pen before me, too dazed to react.
Then the knight barked at me, and when I blinked in confusion, he sent me a fierce glare that clearly said he was displeased.
“...I’m sorry.”
I bowed to her, but she only met me with that same impassive look, and the knight cleared his throat before speaking again.
“This is the person you’ll be serving from now on. To show him such a sight from the very start—how shameful of me!”
“It’s fine. He doesn’t even look that old anyway. He may just have been startled.”
The gesture she gave as she waved it off was effortlessly graceful. She was obviously not much older than I was.
Her face still held the unmistakable softness of youth. No one would have found it strange to mistake us for the same age.
And yet the noble elegance in the way she carried herself—as if such movements were simply natural to her—made the knight’s eyes widen in admiration.
“Allow me to introduce you to the Yuris family’s future shield.”
At the knight’s words, her face stiffened.
Her expression was no different from before; it still seemed cold and unreadable.
And yet I caught the brief crack that flickered across her face.
The reason she hated that title probably had something to do with her father.
Taste turned bitter in my mouth.
To see such an expression on the face of a girl who was at most the same age as this body—still so young, nowhere near truly grown—was hardly a pleasant sight.
For someone who had sincerely pitied her circumstances, it was enough to make my chest ache.
Ever since childhood, she had been subjected to relentless discipline, and because of that, she likely never had the luxury of whining like other children or throwing a fit to ask for things she wanted.
That must be why she wore that face now.
The face of an actress always playing perfection returned to complete blankness once more.
When those deep-blue eyes found their light again, her red lips parted.
“So what’s your name?”
Her voice cut through the silence, and I flinched before lifting my bowed head.
Name? For a second, I almost failed to answer, but then I remembered the writing I had seen on the edge of the bed earlier and spoke calmly.
“I’m Evan Fried.”
“Evan, then. You were a son of Count Fried, I take it.”
A son of a count. Well, he would have to be, if he was to serve the eldest daughter of a duke’s house.
Someone with a verified background would be far better than some nobody.
The knight’s muttered words about “serving from now on” drifted through my mind, but I decided it was best to think about that later and straightened my posture.
At the same time, my curiosity drifted toward the Fried Count family—my own place of origin, in a sense.
Considering it was a house that had never once been mentioned in The Rose with Thorns, it was probably a minor family despite the count’s title.
Still, if they had chosen me as a knight candidate for the ducal house, their skills must at least be decent.
Once I’d finished sorting through my thoughts, I cleared the haze from my eyes and met those blue ones again.
“...I’d heard your reputation already. They say you’re a genius who appears once in a century.”
“A genius? No, really.”
Since it was genuinely the first I’d heard of it, I waved it off, and Irene’s lips moved ever so slightly.
The corners of her mouth, which had been level a moment ago, lifted just a little, and I was caught off guard by the sight, though I quickly steadied myself and spoke.
A genius—I had heard that word enough to know exactly what it meant.
Someone gifted. Someone who, if they simply followed the work of others, could still achieve a feat worthy of leaving their name in the world before they died.
Maybe this body really did possess that kind of talent.
I barely held back the twist at the corner of my mouth and lowered my head again, and Irene spoke once more.
I was startled by the faint emotion that mingled into her otherwise flat voice.
“You’re humble. I like that you don’t act arrogant even though you reached that realm at your age.”
“I’m glad to hear that. If it pleases you. Now then, why are you still standing there with your head lowered?”
Suppressing the laugh that nearly escaped me, I shut my mouth.
A realm. Even though this was a romance fantasy world and the exact standards of martial ability weren’t clearly laid out, I could still estimate the level from the people who appeared in the story.
For instance, the Emperor had reached the supreme realm of the sword—the Master realm—while the Master of the Magic Tower had attained the ultimate limit of nine circles.
But as people liked to say, the phrase “reached a realm” was only used once someone had surpassed a certain threshold.
Which meant my body, as a swordsman, was probably one step below Master.
I must have reached the Expert realm. Worried my face might reveal my confusion, I deliberately kept my head down.
Only then did I understand why Irene had called me here.
To call someone a genius in the sword, and then have a knight introduce that person to a duke’s child as someone who would be serving her from now on...
“The reason I called you here today was because I intended for you to serve as my escort in the future.”
Apparently uninterested in small talk, she went straight to the point, and I bowed my head.
An escort. I tried to recall Irene Yuris’s bodyguard knight, but nothing came to mind, and that absence made my eyes narrow slightly.
From the start, she had been the villainess; her past had only ever appeared in the briefest fragments.
When the story explained that she was a villainess and described the power she held, there had only been a few paragraphs at most.
I knew nothing of Irene Yuris’s nurse, her maids, her knights, or her family.
She wasn’t the protagonist, and so she had not been given the time.
The air going into my lungs felt cold. That was true even though the weather was hot enough to make the sunlight feel harsh on my skin.
When I finally let out a breath, unable to withstand the unknown pressure settling in my chest, she continued.
“Of course, I’m not saying you’ll be taking the lead immediately. Sir Chris here will help you at your side. You’ll gain experience that way, and in a few months, you’ll become my official escort.”
“But I will rarely step into the front line unless the situation is truly urgent. You’ll have to solve everything yourself, and your judgment will decide the life or death of the young lady.”
Be careful.
The words pressed against me like a weight on my chest, and I frowned for a moment before nodding.
It was heavy. There was no way I could welcome responsibility that had come so suddenly. And yet, even so, I found that I wanted to do it.
I didn’t know a thing about Irene Yuris, after all.
Some strange curiosity seemed to be whispering to me: I want to know her.
Those brief tears I had once shed in pity for her circumstances—if they had been what brought me to this position in the first place...
“I won’t spare my life.”
Before returning to my original world, wasn’t it all right to have this, just for a little while?
My bowed head felt heavy, and the words she spoke to me sounded endlessly light.
“I look forward to working with you.”
Was that sincere? The face I kept lowered twisted for an instant.
#
When I was told to wait outside the room, I stood there for a while, and then a maid approached from a distance and handed me a long bundle wrapped in cloth.
The atmosphere was solemn, so I took the bundle with both hands, and the maid spoke in an even voice.
“It’s your sword. As the escort knight, this is a personal gift from the duke, so please offer your gratitude to Iron Blood.”
“Understood.”
Iron Blood was the spirit of the Yuris ducal house, a word born from the ancestor’s dying wish that their blood, too, must be as iron if they were to serve as the empire’s shield against all enemies.
My Iron Blood rejects you.
I remembered what Irene had said to the protagonist the first time they met.
It was the beginning of all tragedy, and for the protagonist, it had marked the start of an opportunity to overturn her own status.
If she had never said those words, would she have escaped that execution platform without losing her head in such miserable fashion?
As I stood there, blankly staring into space, a clack of hinges sounded and the door opened.
“Let’s go, Evan.”
“...Yes.”
For an instant my eyes widened, then settled back to normal as the answer slipped from my lips.
Compared to the dresses worn by others, hers was a plain navy gown with very little ornamentation, and yet...
Once Irene wore it, it seemed to shine with such brilliance that it might as well have been sewn with countless jewels.
So they say the clothes make the person. Perhaps that had really been true all along.
After I unwrapped the sword and secured it at my waist, Irene, who had been watching me, spoke.
“It suits you.”
“Thank you.”
She stared at me for a moment longer, then began walking again and resumed speaking as she went.
“This is only a simple outing. Unless your luck is truly terrible, there shouldn’t be anything unusual. So I hope you won’t make any mistakes.”
“Yes.”
Apparently satisfied with the brief answer, she said nothing more and walked ahead.
Click.
When the captain of the guard confirmed her departure and bowed with rigid precision, Irene gave him a single nod as though she were used to such things.
And then we were moving.
The ducal estate was clearly no mere shell, because once we left the mansion, a street crowded with people came into view.
I almost turned my head in fascination at the sight of a medieval street, but then I remembered that I was her escort and let out a faint sigh.
“...Haa.”
How exactly was I supposed to do this from here on out?
The moment I gripped the sword earlier, I had realized something: I seemed to be able to handle a blade quite well.
The faint resonance I felt when I held the hilt, the sensation of every cell in my body responding to it, and the shiver that ran through me in that instant—that feeling was intoxicating.
But setting that aside, my future situation still felt utterly hopeless.
Was I supposed to keep acting as her escort while searching for a way back?
Even that possibility felt distant and uncertain, so I couldn’t decide on anything recklessly.
For now, I should focus on escort duty.
I tapped the sword at my waist as I thought it over.
I didn’t have a single clue yet that could help me return to my original world, and since I had been thrown into this body so abruptly, maybe I should spend some time adjusting first.
“......”
Then I suddenly realized that Irene had stopped.
As before, her expressionless face was fixed on something in the distance.
Following her gaze, I turned my head and saw a crowd of young ladies gathered there.
“Oh my, this is definitely—”
“That’s the brooch designer Lube made in the capital this time. It really does look luxurious just by seeing it.”
“This is a sapphire necklace made by Fania! Goodness!”
Women clustered around the shop, chattering excitedly as they made their eyes shine at the accessories on display.
She only stood there quietly, watching the young ladies who looked to be around her own age.
As though she and those girls existed in entirely different spaces.
The street was noisy with people, but only she stood in silence.
“...Let’s go.”
With a swish, Irene began walking as if nothing had happened, and I followed after her.
But the look she had given those young ladies kept catching in my mind, and somehow even my steps began to drag.
What had flickered in those eyes, if only for a moment, before they went still again, was unmistakably longing.
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