The Prince's Chivalrous Assistance
Idel let out a light shrug in the suddenly quiet space.
‘Well, I’ll see how it turns out.’
The way he’d said he wouldn’t stay without doing something told her he was clearly trying to drag her into some kind of trouble. To Idel, that was nothing short of a reward. No effort, just piling on the bad deeds.
‘I hope he puffs himself up and paints me with a thick coat of mud.’
Either way, since Ivan Earnest and Countess Vivian Bright knew the truth, the outer shell didn’t matter one bit.
She let out a short breath, quickly checked the time, and gave a quick nod toward Sigmund.
“Let’s go too. I don’t want to be like this while eating cake.”
“Yeah, count me in.”
“Diane, how do we get out of here?”
“Ah, um… Then shall we head to the dressing room first?”
Idel didn’t answer Diane. Instead, she glanced at the cafe master handing a towel to Ivan and said something else.
“This spot was already prepared for us, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes! That’s right!”
“Then… pack up the cake. One cheese cake… and a fruit cream cake too.”
“Cheese cake and fruit cream cake… Yes! I’ll prepare it right away!”
“Having to give up on cake just for this. Hmph, that stings my pride. Right?”
Diane nodded reflexively, then showed a slightly awkward expression.
Despite the words about pride, she glanced sideways at the cafe master, as if she was worried about his situation.
‘And the fruit cake…’
Idel hadn’t noticed Diane’s subtle change in expression and simply moved her feet.
Just as she was about to pass the two men, Ivan, who had been wiping the fog off his glasses with a towel, grabbed her in alarm.
“W-wait a moment!”
Idel raised one eyebrow at Ivan’s action of grabbing her sleeve instead of her wrist, and turned her head.
He quickly let go when he seemed to think she might feel offended, and looked at her with an earnest expression.
“I wanted to thank you for helping me. And I wanted to apologize for Farel’s insult. I’m sorry you must have been upset.”
His appearance was gentle and delicate, but the expression on his face when delivering the apology looked quite firm.
Idel let out a blunt remark, as if she’d seen every kind of weird person.
“Why are you thanking me? And I didn’t even help you. Did you dream it?”
“It wasn’t a dream or a misunderstanding. I don’t lack awareness enough not to know why you sent a maid instead of asking the master to solve it.”
“That’s…”
Seeing that Idel was about to rebut, Ivan quickly continued.
“Even if I didn’t actually help you, isn’t it only right to thank someone for giving me the satisfaction?”
“Yeah, Ivan’s right. I want to express my gratitude too. I’d like to reward you… but if it’s okay, could you tell me from which noble house the lady comes?”
They say love makes people resemble each other…
Looking at the duke offering similar courtesy with the exact same expression as Ivan Earnest, Idel’s eyebrows twitched as she alternated her gaze between the two men.
‘No need for a reward.’
She meant it. Helping Ivan Earnest had been for future convenience, not to ask for anything right now.
‘And if he contacts the duchy now and spills all the details…’
Idel quickly erased the thought after briefly imagining the duchy’s situation.
It seemed the benefits were far greater than the drawbacks. Idel tilted her head sideways and muttered petulantly.
“Hmph, what house name matters? What’s so important about some old surname.”
Idel casually slipped out the words as if she were someone who would take on the role of ‘rumor Idel,’ then turned and opened the door of the cafe. In the doorway stood Kyleon by coincidence.
After confirming the surroundings were safe, he had just stepped into the store when he froze at the sight of Idel facing him.
Idel lightly tapped her finger as if asking why he was there.
“Turn around and leave.”
“Huh?”
“We’re leaving, but are you staying here alone?”
“But you said you weren’t coming to eat cake at Cafe Florant.”
“Forget it. Anyway, I’m going by carriage first. Diane, you explain it yourself.”
“Yes, of course!”
Idel shook her hand, showing she was really annoyed, and slipped past Kyleon.
Sigmund glanced between Kyleon, who was looking at Diane with expectant eyes, and Diane, who was flustered, then lightly shrugged.
He had almost felt like adding a comment…
‘Well, I guess that was enough involvement.’
If he butted in, that knight probably wouldn’t listen seriously anyway.
Sigmund quickly gave up on joining and followed Idel through Kyleon’s side, exiting the cafe.
The rest could handle it on their own.
Meanwhile, a man watching Idel leave the cafe with an interesting gaze stroked his chin and said softly.
“Is she the daughter of the Clementine family…”
The boy hadn’t revealed his family name to the end, but he knew the face of the knight speaking with the maid.
‘There must be someone here who noticed too.’
Especially Ivan Earnest, the employee he’d been watching, would have figured it out immediately.
Dominic Knightray, president of Shell Ami and owner of the Knightray duchy, had observed Ivan adjusting his glasses and knew his guess had been correct.
‘Sharp observation is a journalist’s virtue.’
He really was the talent he expected. Well, even so, he hadn’t expected to accidentally catch his own flaw in a cafe while searching for his son.
‘If the situation had been different, I would have helped…’
But that child had made it unnecessary.
Just as he was pondering the unexpected appearance of the girl, the voice of a boy who hadn’t yet entered puberty interrupted his thoughts.
It was his son, Dante Knightray.
“Does that mean the young lady is the daughter of the Clementine Duchy?”
Seeing his son’s green eyes tremble slightly, Dominic rested his chin on his hand and lifted the corner of his mouth.
“Yes. Why, doesn’t it seem like the young lady of the ducal house?”
“Ah, I didn’t mean it that way, it’s just…”
“Just?”
“I thought she responded to the rudeness in an unexpected way.”
“It was quite an unexpected move.”
Dominic nodded in agreement with his son’s words and looked back at the place where the commotion had been. The girl had already left, but his son still couldn’t tear his eyes away from there.
“…Why didn’t she reveal her name?”
“What do you think the boy thought?”
“It’s probably because he didn’t want to be rewarded. Wasn’t it just courtesy? So the family name wasn’t important.”
A small laugh escaped him as he looked at Dante’s serious expression and quietly swallowed the truth.
‘Well, it wasn’t meant in that sense.’
Jiana he knew didn’t have red hair like the child today, and while lively, she wasn’t the kind who acted as plainly as that girl.
‘So this child must be the one in the rumor.’
The daughter of the late Viscountess Lopez, Idel Clementine.
‘Quite different from the rumor.’
Of course, if one only considered the girl’s actions, she could be said to differ from the rumor.
She had thrown the towel at Farel like a bull facing a red cloth, and her sarcastic words had been exactly as rumored.
‘But according to Ivan, it wasn’t for herself.’
If she had truly been unable to hold back and fought, she would have mentioned her own problem even after the Bright Countess appeared.
‘Although it seems few noticed due to her overly exaggerated actions.’
Dominic, holding his coffee cup, heard the other customers whispering nearby.
“…If it’s Farel Underwood, it must be the eldest son in the rumor. Indeed, treating the child like that is shameful… The rumor isn’t wrong.”
“That’s right. I wonder what noble house that girl came from.”
“Hmm… Farel did make an amusing face, but she does seem to need education. Still, a noble lady behaving without dignity…”
A mix of interest, shock, and slight contempt came from the customers’ whispers.
Dominic set down the coffee cup he’d been holding at the moment when a new rumor began to spread. A strange sensation had been stabbing at him constantly since earlier.
‘And in cases like this…’
Having made his judgment empirically, he turned to his son and spoke.
“Dante, would you like to learn swordsmanship from the Duke Clementine for a while?”
“Huh? Is that okay?”
“Yeah, the duke is a contemporary of your mother at the academy. Let me tell you.”
Dominic ruffled his son’s head showing anticipation and gave a soft smile. In such times, one couldn’t afford to ignore intuition.