Tea Party (1)
Time flowed like water, and before I knew it, a week had vanished so completely that the phrase in the blink of an eye felt made for it.
By the time I’d grown used to life in the ducal estate, I’d also learned more about my new position and even made friends with a few of the maids.
Most importantly, Irene had started finding me difficult to deal with.
“How’s your shoulder? Feeling better?”
With a soft rush of cloth, Lopena approached without a sound and poured the tea. Even though I’d begun to grow used to this knight’s body, I hadn’t sensed her at all.
Maybe I’d been too focused on the book. I scratched my cheek, then shrugged. “It’s healed now.”
My body as a knight was sturdy enough that even without using mana, a shallow wound could vanish without a scar in a day or two.
Maybe that was why medicine in this world hadn’t developed very far. If you knew how to handle mana, even a minor injury could be healed in an instant.
Lopena glanced at the spot where the bandage had been, then took the teapot and sat down across from me.
The second she sat, she snatched the plate of cookies in front of me as if it were a race, and I couldn’t help but smile faintly at how badly she seemed to want a snack.
“Can I eat these?”
“I’m not really into sweets. Go ahead.”
Still, why did she keep speaking to me so formally? We were the same age, and the other maids all spoke to me casually. Surely it was about time Lopena did the same.
I stared blankly as she stuffed cookies into her cheeks like a squirrel, then blinked and looked away.
Well, she’d probably drop the honorifics eventually.
When I looked back down at the book in my hands, I was surprised by how quickly I became absorbed in it.
It was strange enough that I could read the letters of this world without any trouble, but lately I’d found reading genuinely fun.
Yes, far better than training.
I had been appointed a guard knight, but I still hadn’t shed the title of trainee, so Sir Chris had been forcing me to train before dawn every single day.
The face he made, as if he couldn’t understand why I was so shocked when I’d been doing this sort of training all along, made my brow crease for no good reason.
The drills I’d done in the military were child’s play compared to what I had to do here.
Training where you dodged blades lunging at you with every intent to kill wasn’t really training at all; it was gambling with your life.
At first, I’d even thought about quitting everything and running away from the ducal estate.
Of course, I’d given up because I had no confidence I could break through such heavy security.
And there was one more thing that kept bothering me: Irene Yuris.
The unspoken expectations everyone in the estate placed on her. If I left, it would be Irene who was blamed instead.
The one who couldn’t even keep track of her own bodyguard.
Every time I imagined her being criticized for that, I kept remembering the distorted expression she’d worn last time, and it made me think I’d be better off just enduring it and continuing to train.
What kind of life had she been raised in that a single “Are you all right?” could bring her down like that?
Come to think of it, I knew almost nothing about Irene at all. At best, I knew her ending and the fragments of her past that had appeared in the novel.
I had vaguely pitied her, thinking she was simply unfortunate, but the life she actually lived was suffocating enough to make my breath catch.
The books and papers I’d bought at the bookstore the other day had been part of her studies, and watching her read and debate them every day would have exhausted anyone.
And that wasn’t all. She also studied swordsmanship under Sir Chris to build the strength she’d need as the family’s next shield.
Her day began at dawn and ended at dawn again, so packed that it seemed like nothing but pressure from start to finish.
How could anyone live like that? What on earth was she aiming for, to endure a schedule like that?
My body might have been fifteen, but my mind was twenty-five, and maybe that was why I couldn’t help admiring how maturely she acted despite being so young.
“I finished eating. But what book are you reading so intently?”
Having finished the cookies, Lopena brushed crumbs from the corner of her mouth and asked me the question.
Since the only time I’d bought a book recently had been last week, the one I was reading now was naturally the book Irene had given me.
“Thirty Rules of Etiquette for Nobles?”
Lopena tilted her head, as if she couldn’t understand why I was reading something like that, and I took a sip of tea before answering.
“She says I’m lacking basic common sense.”
“...The young lady said that?”
“Yeah. I guess I’m not supposed to call her ‘young lady.’ Seems like she really doesn’t like me.”
As I tapped my head lightly while speaking, Lopena looked at me and chuckled.
Was she laughing at me? I shot her a sideways glance, and she hurriedly shook her head to explain that she wasn’t.
“I-I’m not laughing at you.”
“Sure.”
“I really’m not. I could swear it on my bracelet.”
Lopena shook the bracelet on her wrist, where purple beads were strung together. Wasn’t that a gift from Irene? I couldn’t quite picture her giving someone something like that, but Lopena cherished it like her life depended on it.
If she’d bet something like that on it, then at the very least she wasn’t lying.
When I nodded for her to keep going, Lopena spoke up as if she’d been waiting for the chance.
“I thought something a little different. You think the young lady doesn’t like you much, right?”
At that, I remembered the day Irene had called for me a few days ago.
I’d only just started wondering what she wanted when she’d shot me a displeased look, as if my answer had irritated her already.
“What is it?”
“Do you believe I only call for you when I have some matter to discuss? You seem rather negligent, don’t you?”
The atmosphere in her cold gaze was as harsh as the dead of winter, and I’d shivered under those frosty eyes the entire time I stood before her.
What had I done wrong? She’d called me over, so I came. Why was she annoyed about that?
Her expression hadn’t changed, but her tone had undeniably been full of irritation.
Remembering it made my brow furrow, and my mouth answered before I could stop it, my voice sounding blunt and a little sour.
“She definitely hates me.”
“...Well, she does seem a little harsh on the surface. But if she really disliked you, she’d have fired you already. The fact that you’re still acting as her guard knight means she must think you’re at least somewhat acceptable.”
“She used to just fire people if she didn’t like them?”
“She did. So honestly, the young lady must like you more than you think.”
When Lopena nodded, I let out a dry laugh and leaned back in my chair.
Had I been standing on thin ice the whole time? Realizing how precarious my position had been without even knowing it sent a chill through me.
The way she’d snapped at me might have been some kind of test after all.
If that was true, then I’d apparently done fairly well over the past week.
Suddenly, I wanted to pat myself on the head. If I got fired here, wouldn’t my future become completely hopeless?
I barely knew anything about this world yet, and the only thing I could really do was swing the sword this body had been born with.
Maybe I would have ended up thrown out of the ducal estate and forced to work as a mercenary.
But that was all it was—thoughts. Whenever I imagined that possibility, the face that came to mind made my brow tighten.
That night, on my first day as her guard knight, her face had broken in the darkness before my eyes once again.
Her back as she walked away, the one I hadn’t been able to catch. Even Lopena, who’d thrown open her eyes in shock at the sight of Irene’s expression.
Before I was Irene Yuris’s bodyguard, I had been one more reader who pitied the villainess.
No matter what she might have cursed at herself, whenever I thought of the wretched ending waiting for her, a corner of my chest still ached.
She died at twenty-one, an age when she should have been in full bloom, proudly showing the world her fragrance.
The knowledge that that flower had been snapped off and cut down beneath a blade of cold iron tightened around my heart.
Even if I left the ducal estate and wandered somewhere else, I would still remember the woman named Irene Yuris.
The night I first read about her death, the fateful night I was sent into this world of fiction.
As I remembered the tears I’d shed then and brushed a hand over the corner of my eye, I quietly closed the book.
Thinking of her end stirred something in me all over again, and it seemed impossible to keep reading.
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
“Nothing much. Just that I need to be more careful from now on.”
“Just act like you normally do. The young lady’s pretty sharp, so if your attitude changes, she’ll notice right away.”
Good grief, she was demanding even in a place like that.
I let out a sigh, then stood when I saw the empty teacup. If I stayed sitting here much longer, Sir Chris would find me like a ghost and drag me off to the training grounds.
“Want help cleaning up?”
“No, it’s fine. I can handle this.”
“Then I’ll go first. If the young la— no, if the successor lady calls for me, let me know.”
“Yes, go on in!”
Leaving behind Lopena’s bright smile, I headed straight to my room.
I needed to check something I’d found in a drawer a few days earlier.
On the day of my possession, everything had unfolded too strangely for me to think clearly, but...
Wasn’t the most important thing in a situation like this to understand myself?
Because the existence of the Fried count family—Evan Fried, a name that had never once appeared in the novel—had bothered me so much, I’d searched every inch of the room where I’d woken, and eventually one thing had caught my eye.
[From Arthur Fried, who loves you.]
The handwriting was somewhat clumsy, but it was easy enough to tell that it was a letter.
Was Arthur Fried supposed to be my father?
I’d never once seen a father in either of my lives, so it felt a little awkward, but the moment I looked at the paper, a hollow laugh slipped out of me.
“This looks incredibly old.”
The paper had yellowed so badly it looked ancient no matter how I held it.
What must once have been high-quality stationery was now stained and faded all over, clearly having rotted in some corner for at least several years.
There were no other letters besides this one, so this must have been the last one that had arrived.
Why had it ended up like this?
The last letter sent to his father being this old might simply mean I was an unfilial son who didn’t think much of his father.
But if not that...
“...It would mean my father was in no condition to send letters.”
A bitter taste rose in my mouth for no reason.
The death of a family member, and the words “who loves you” suggested that father and son had been on good terms, so my hand holding the letter began to tremble slightly.
Please, let it not be the terrible thing I was thinking of.
After murmuring that silent prayer to myself for a moment, I carefully loosened the wrapping around the letter.
If I looked at the contents, maybe I could learn something. But just as I took the letter out, I turned toward the sound of footsteps beyond the door.
A heavy tread echoed through the hallway, and there was probably only one person in the whole estate who could make footsteps sound like that.
With no choice, I slipped the letter back into the drawer and turned around just as Sir Chris opened the door.
“Evan, the young lady is calling for you. You’ll probably need to get ready to go out, so finish preparing quickly.”
“Are we going to buy books or something?”
Lopena had said she went to the bookstore every week, if I remembered right. When I asked, Sir Chris shook his head and answered.
“No. Today, the young lady will attend a tea party being held here at the ducal estate. I can’t go with her this time, so you’ll be accompanying her.”
“Understood.”
As I answered while picking up the sword on my desk, Sir Chris gave a single nod and disappeared from view with those heavy footsteps of his.
I was curious about the contents of the letter, but remembering the conversation I’d just had with Lopena, I started getting ready at once.
She was probably testing me. If I was late preparing, she’d surely give me that cold look again.
My face, picturing those blue, icy eyes turned toward me, was already pinched tight.