Tea Party (2)
“A tea party,” I said.
The hand combing through my hair was gentle, almost soothing. It was only a gathering for tea and snacks, and yet I had to be burdened with such a cumbersome ritual. The accessory being worked into my hair was already starting to feel irritating, and I frowned.
There was already a mountain of things I needed to do today. Was it really right to waste time on something this pointless? That social ritual, all but doll play, where dimwitted young ladies compared trifles and laughed at jokes that weren’t even funny—just imagining it made me tired.
“Your expression is unpleasant, my lady.”
“Because I don’t want to go.”
I couldn’t understand why I had to attend a place like that. If it was a choice between exchanging hopeless pleasantries with a bunch of ladies and swinging a sword until I sweated through my clothes, the latter was infinitely more worthwhile. They said that since we were the ones who would one day help lead the empire, it was good to build relationships—but did those idiots even care about politics?
They’d probably care more about the passionate love stories of the neighboring retainers than about the policies the emperor himself was creating.
As the blue in my eyes settled once more, the maids around me began moving in a hurry. They must have sensed that their mistress was displeased and were trying to read the room.
But I wasn’t actually in a bad mood, so when I gave a small gesture, the flurry of movement came to an abrupt halt. How very convenient, being the duke’s daughter. And yet, paradoxically, it was exactly that position that always felt like a noose tightening around my throat.
After all, the expectations aimed at me were always there, even when no one said them aloud.
“Ropena.”
“Yes, miss.”
When I moved my hand lightly again, Ropena began to shoo away the maids around us. I met the eyes of the one who was complaining that I still had more to be done, and she instantly went pale. No matter how many times I saw it, that was always a rare sight.
Before long, all the maids except Ropena had left the room, and I finally spoke the name that had come to mind.
“Evan.”
Evan Fried, my bodyguard knight—the one who had, at some point, lived in the household as a knight candidate before somehow becoming a bodyguard knight because his talent was apparently exceptional. Beyond the fact that he’d been called a genius, I knew almost nothing about him.
Annoying.
From the very first time we met, he had irritated me so much that I simply hadn’t taken to him. Or rather, I had privately wanted him to disappear from my sight as quickly as possible.
And yet, when I thought about it, it wasn’t as though he had ever truly made a serious mistake with me. If anything, in terms of skill alone, he was the best of anyone I had met so far.
Those assassins from that night had certainly not been weak. The way he had subdued them so easily was proof enough that his skill had long since surpassed the level of Expert.
“Sir Chris went to call him, so he should be here soon.”
“I see.”
Whenever I remembered those warm green eyes fixed on me, I felt my mood sink for no reason at all. That strange sensation made me frown. Why wasn’t he complaining even once?
I was sure I had been harsher with him than usual.
Don’t you think he’s being careless?
He was diligent—so much so that hardworking was the more fitting word. He rose before dawn to train with Sir Chris, and during his free time he said he read books. He was nothing like the other knights, who, once training ended, were eager to collapse wherever they stood.
And yet I had still treated him so coldly because every time I looked at him, one phrase came to mind and shattered the mask I had been wearing to pieces.
“Are you all right?”
That calm voice lingered in my ears. It never left me, no matter how hard I tried to shut it out. What he had looked at me with in those blue-green eyes was clearly pity, concern, and sympathy.
I knew very well that those emotions were contained in his matter-of-fact tone, too.
How could he look at someone he had barely met with eyes like that? No one had ever looked at me that way before. Every gaze I had ever received had been filled with fear, respect, or admiration.
The way those eyes trembled when they looked at me was something I could never quite forget.
My closed eyelids trembled faintly. I opened my eyes when the breeze slipped through my lashes, and only then did I realize the window before me had been left open. Even the garden beyond it was so green that it made my chest feel tight.
“...Haa.”
How long had it been since I called for him, and he still hadn’t arrived?
I was just about to let my irritation flare toward Evan Fried, who wasn’t even in the room, when a knock sounded and scattered my thoughts.
Knock, knock.
When the door opened, my mouth had already gone back to its usual, level line.
“You’re late.”
Late for what, exactly? I let out a breath before that cold stare pinned me in place. I wanted to argue back, but I couldn’t, so all I could do was bow my head and apologize.
It was obvious that those casual words carried a chill beneath them, and I quickly realized, unlike usual, her mood was far from pleasant. I didn’t know what had put her in such a foul state, but it was probably wise to be careful right now.
“I heard you were attending a tea party.”
“Regrettably, yes.”
So it was the tea party that had ruined Irene’s mood this badly. Come to think of it, even in the future she never appeared at social gatherings all that often. The place where she fought the heroine—people had been surprised to see Irene Yuris show up there at all.
But sometimes it probably wasn’t bad for her to show herself like this. She knew that too, which was why she was attending such a social event.
With that brilliant mind of hers, she must know that even things she hated had to be done if they were necessary.
My gaze drifted to the dress she was wearing, and I found myself staring at it with a quiet gasp. It looked as though the stars of the night sky had been scattered across it, their light shattering brilliantly in the air.
Gold, silver, and bronze threads intertwined with one another until the whole dress resembled a painting. Her white hair flowed down and brushed the shoulders of the gown, and her exquisite beauty shone so brightly that even the jewelry glittering around her seemed to be eclipsed by it.
If Ropena hadn’t given me a warning look while I stood there staring blankly, I might have found myself taking a step closer to Irene without even realizing it.
“...Honestly.”
The look she gave me, as if I were hopeless, stabbed straight into my chest.
Was it really so wrong to look at someone beautiful?
When I lowered my head for a moment, Irene clicked her tongue once and started walking. Turning my head, I found Ropena looking at me with a pitying expression, as though I were some poor thing, and I could only smile wryly in return.
After walking for quite some time, we reached a garden where flowers were blooming neatly in every direction. The estate was so vast that I hadn’t been able to see all of it yet, and finding a place like this made my eyes widen once more.
All the flowers that bloomed in summer had gathered here in one place. Voices floated from beyond the teal-green garden, which seemed to hold the entire season of summer within it, bright and chirping with chatter.
Those must be the voices of the young ladies invited to this tea party.
Sunflowers towered high, sending secret affection toward the sun hanging far away in the sky, while phlox bloomed here and there among the blue grass, showing off their violet grace.
And the roses of every color, fragrant and lush, seemed to have forgotten even the thorns they carried, until even the weeds beneath my feet looked like they might be flowers with names I didn’t know.
At that picture-perfect scene, Ropena’s eyes sparkled as she trotted off with quick little steps. Like a fish finally in water, she kept looking around, and when Irene gave a small nod toward her, Ropena began plucking wildflowers one by one and weaving them into a bracelet.
“Should I make one for you too, miss?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Her childish delight made a smile appear on my lips before I even realized it. Though she was the same age as Irene and me, she still possessed the purity of a child, and she was the sort of person who made others understand exactly what joy was.
When I turned my attention back to Irene, a dark loathing pooled in her eyes, and I let out a faint, incredulous laugh. Her gaze wasn’t directed at Ropena but at the far end of the garden, and that alone made it easy to guess why she despised events like this.
The ladies waiting over there were probably the reason.
It was understandable. Most of the young ladies in this world were the exact opposite of the Irene Yuris I knew. Unlike the social battles and covert schemes of adults, this tea party would be filled only with the kinds of topics girls their age liked to talk about.
From Irene’s point of view, so utterly removed from that sort of thing, it would be nothing more than a tedious tea time.
Probably, in her mind, it would have been far better simply to swing a sword.
What worried me then was whether Irene would end up isolated in this gathering.
After all, if she truly hated even a tea party this much, she probably wouldn’t show herself easily at other events either. It was obvious they had already formed their own factions. And within those factions, the name Irene Yuris surely did not exist.
...Haa.
That was probably why she had so little footing in the novel. Since she had no interest in socializing, she’d never built a force that would truly swear loyalty to her.
And then, when the crown prince finally drove her into a corner, the people who had only pretended to be loyal to her would all vanish in an instant, leaving her completely alone.
That future she would suffer had to come from something like that.
Thinking of it made my brow furrow. Did she even realize I was worrying like this?
I wanted to give her advice, at least, but her attitude—like she didn’t even acknowledge me as her bodyguard knight—made even speaking to her difficult.
Was this truly some sort of test for me? Or, if not that, was it merely her scheme to keep me at a distance, to make me dislike her?
Time would eventually reveal the truth. For now, all I could do was stand quietly at her side and watch over her.
“We should be leaving soon.”
“...All right.”
When I spoke softly to Irene, who had been watching Ropena pluck wildflowers, she nodded and called Ropena back to her side.
Irene’s steps as she walked across the flowers blooming over the blue-green lawn of the garden were exceedingly graceful. Or perhaps it only looked as though the flowers themselves were giving way for her.
Like one of the miracles Moses had once brought forth, the way she walked without disturbing the verdant growth at all made her seem as though she had been born a noblewoman from the very beginning.
I admired the sight for a moment longer before we left the garden, where a long white table came into view. Above it stood a white tunnel wrapped in rose vines, and beneath it gathered the ladies enjoying their tea with obvious delight.
“Oh, really? I had no idea something like that happened.”
“Well, that can happen. By the way, I heard there was some uproar in your count’s domain recently. No one was injured, I hope?”
“Thank you for worrying about us. Fortunately, my family is all safe and sound.”
At the chatter of those ladies, lively as sparrows twittering away, a chill crept into Irene’s eyes. It was a cold enough gaze to raise gooseflesh on anyone who met it. Even a child could have told at a glance that she hated this place.
Step.
As those cold footsteps crossed the once-noisy garden, silence fell in an instant. As if the very air around them had frozen solid, the ladies who had just been covering their mouths to laugh all stiffened at once, their expressions hardening like statues.
“...Oh my, the young lady is here.”
“Greetings to the next shield.”
And then, after heads had been lowered again and again, the greetings finally came. But what I felt was rather different from their noisy politeness.
The way the ladies treated Irene felt like a wall.
A wall so firm that it would never let her into the sticky little something they had created among themselves.
And when I saw Irene’s face remain just as impassive as she already knew that, all I could do was let out a dry, humorless laugh.