A Difference in Positions
The moment Darin laid eyes on Lucas, she seized both of his thick wrists and hauled him straight into the warehouse.
He might have mistaken her for a rather forward woman — but her intentions, as ever, were nothing of the sort he was imagining.
I have no idea how I'm supposed to react to this.
And that was the truth of it.
Darin was lying to Lucas because of her son. The Hero almost certainly believed that she and Kael were longtime childhood friends destined to become lovers. That was precisely why she had dragged him into the tangerine warehouse before any of the other servants could spot him and blow the whole thing wide open.
A married noblewoman receiving a visit from an unrelated man already looked appalling enough. When that man was the Hero, it was infinitely worse. She could have brushed it off by calling him her son's friend — but she had no idea how Lucas himself would react, and that uncertainty made even that option feel dangerous. It would also be disastrous if other servants overheard what had been shouted at the social gathering — that she and her son were lovers — while she was speaking with Lucas.
The sole witness, Dunkin, had fainted the instant his eyes met Lucas's. According to Lucas, it was a spell that erased brief stretches of memory.
Could Lucas want the same thing? I don't know why, but…
Darin realized it again: Lucas, too, wanted to speak with her in secret.
The Viscountess lifted her gaze. Her heart was still hammering from the unexpected visit — yet the man who had just committed the trespass was beaming at her with a bright, unbothered smile.
"…What brings you here? So suddenly, without even a letter."
Among the nobility, it was customary to send word through a servant or announce a visit by letter before calling on someone. The Hero — a newly minted noble in his own right — could hardly be ignorant of that. He cleared his throat lightly and answered in an easy tone.
"If I've been rude, I apologize. Meeting a fellow countryman from the same homeland has been something I've looked forward to for so long that I rushed over without thinking…"
A fellow countryman from the same homeland.
The moment she heard those words, the tension in Darin's face eased a fraction.
I may have reacted too sharply. With everything that's been happening lately…
He was right. She and Lucas were the only two people in this world who shared the same planet, the same country of origin.
Darin had eyes and ears; she had a rough sense of what kind of man the Hero was. Lucas kept a harem of more than five women and treated those relationships lightly — a thoroughgoing playboy. And recalling the way he had raised his voice arguing with Kael, he also seemed rather arrogant and self-willed. A touch of chosen-one superiority came free of charge.
The reason Lucas is being kind to me is probably…
His gaze had drifted from her face down toward her chest. Darin immediately met his eyes. The moment their gazes locked, he put on a casually sheepish expression — and his intent could not have been more transparent.
She understood that he was glad to see a fellow countryman. But would his reaction have been the same if she hadn't been a pretty young woman?
She was a reasonably sharp woman. Living cooped up in the manor had left her less exposed to men's leering looks, and her wariness had grown slack and dull. But the reactions of the men at the recent victory parade — and the vile, incestuous acts her own son had committed against her — were reawakening the keen instincts of her younger days.
That doesn't mean I'm unhappy to see Lucas, though…
That, too, was honest. In the end, she was glad he was a fellow countryman. And given his vigorous age, his appetite for women wasn't entirely incomprehensible either. With cheat-like abilities like his, life in this world might feel so much like a game that his sense of restraint had simply worn thin.
The wise young woman had no intention of hating the Hero merely for being lecherous and arrogant. And given his raw power, outright rejection carried its own risks.
"…You're right. Honestly, I was very glad to meet you too, Hero."
"Does that mean you forgive me?"
"Forgive you for something like this? If anything, I think I overreacted. I'm sorry."
"Haha — thank you for understanding. As expected of a fellow countryman. Conversation just flows."
She nodded. And what would he do if she didn't understand? She had no power of her own.
"I mentioned this last time, didn't I? That the two of us seem to need a longer conversation."
"You did. I have quite a few things I'm curious about regarding you as well, Lucas."
Even as they spoke, Darin's mind was racing. Setting aside the pleasure of meeting a fellow transmigrator, it was vital that she quickly take the measure of what kind of man Lucas was. Only then could she build a good relationship with the Hero and minimize whatever variables might arise.
"You came here because you wanted to speak with me in private too, didn't you?"
"You're quick on the uptake. That's right. Now that I hold a title of my own, calling on a young lady who already has a man feels a little… delicate."
"But then why show up so openly?"
"I sensed there were only two presences here before I came in. I can wipe the memories of a few hundred people on the spot, after all."
Her amber eyes went round with shock. He could erase the memories of hundreds at once? As casually as he had just done?
This is so unfair.
Darin felt the gulf between her own pathetic ability and the Hero's power all over again, and a fresh wave of resentment rose in her. Just how far did his abilities go?
Lucas watched the disappointed look on her face and let out a quiet snort of laughter. He could see exactly what she was thinking.
"Still — Darin, you can make delicious tangerines, can't you?"
"…How very kind of you to say so."
The man raised both hands in a gesture of don't mention it. Even the way he managed his expression to keep from laughing was thoroughly polished.
"But the dress you're wearing looks rather shabby. I'd like to prepare a few outfits for you myself."
He also looked faintly puzzled. Even if her family had fallen and she was under someone's guardianship, wasn't Darin originally a baron's daughter of the Orange family? House Bayorn was known as a fairly wealthy house — successful in the fur trade, a mercenary guild, and the tangerine orchards on top of that. There was no reason she should be dressed in something so worn…
"You just saw me, didn't you? I work in the tangerine orchards. Using this ability of mine."
"Could it be that, as a ward, you're being forced to labor? Exploited for that power of yours…?"
"…Absolutely not."
Darin shook her head hard. She couldn't very well announce that she was the Viscountess outright, so this would have to do for now. She hadn't even coordinated her story with Kael yet.
Her conscience pricked at her, but there were real risks in unilaterally revealing that she was the Viscountess. She still barely knew this man. If their relationship soured — or if the emotional rift between Lucas and her son deepened — he might expose the truth about the two of them.
However gentle and kind-hearted Darin might be, she was a veteran noblewoman who had spent thirty years married to an aristocratic husband. She was no fool, and she had no reason to act rashly.
"I need to repay even a little of the kindness of… House Bayorn, for looking after me. If I just freeloaded off them, how would that be any different from a parasite?"
Lucas nodded with a look of approval.
"You really are a modern person just like me. Proper noble young ladies — ward or not — would never dream of rolling around in the dirt."
He thought back to the noble ladies he had met. Most of them hated the idea of so much as a scratch on their precious bodies; even when receiving someone's charity, they usually settled the debt with a token gift and a show of gratitude.
"…I suppose you're right? I've been harvesting tangerines for so long that I never thought of it that way."
"Right?"
"Yes."
Darin answered with a faint smile. She was still tense in her own way, but she didn't dislike talking with him.
Lucas met her clean smile with a slightly dazed expression, then slowly opened his mouth.
"Just out of curiosity — may I ask what you did in your previous life?"
"What I did… I died when I was still in middle school, so…"
"Ah! You said you were from Jeju Island, didn't you? Died of an allergy from eating tangerines — khkhkh…"
Embarrassment bloomed across the woman's face. Is this man a psychopath? Someone dies and he laughs like that? — though, to be fair, she knew perfectly well how absurd an end it had been…
"Ah — that was rude of me. I'm in no position to laugh at anyone else's death. Mine wasn't particularly meaningful either."
"…How did you end up crossing over to this world, Lucas?"
"I came over in a traffic accident."
"Ah…"
Darin grew solemn in spite of herself. Should she count it a mercy that, unlike her, he had at least died in a proper accident? At least it wasn't embarrassing.
No — why is this person so kind?
To feel such genuine sorrow over the death of someone she had barely met, as if it were her own…
I thought she'd answer with a joke.
He had just treated this woman's death as light comedy, so he had expected her to mock his own death as some isekai truck nonsense — but this girl seemed to operate on an entirely different wavelength from him.
I should change the subject here.
Time to make up for the crime of killing the mood.
"Haha — you don't need to take it so heavily. As you can see, my cheat abilities mean life hasn't been particularly hard."
Only after hearing that did Darin nod in acceptance. One shouldn't treat another person's death lightly — but at least this man, who seemed virtually invincible, didn't appear to have suffered the way she had.
God, her face is one thing — even her personality is too sweet.
The cute young woman staring up at him with those bright, attentive eyes made desire rise in him quite naturally. Outwardly he played the gentleman, but Lucas was a man full of carnal appetite at heart. Wanting to advance his relationship with a beautiful fellow countrywoman as quickly as possible was, in a way, only natural.
Why… why is he suddenly staring at me like that…?
Darin, for her part, was growing anxious that Lucas might be looking at her as a woman.