Starting Over - 4
Just thinking about the two department heads—each worrying me for entirely different reasons—made my head spin. Not that fretting would do any good. A superior pestering his subordinates about when they planned to get married was grotesque enough on its face.
Especially when that superior was still single himself. From a third party's perspective, it was a spectacle of pure horror.
They'll sort it out when the time comes.
It wasn't that either of them couldn't marry—they simply weren't doing it. They both had their quirks of personality and taste, but neither was lacking in any real way. A little eccentricity was fine. It would be fine.
I flicked a glance toward the Fourth Department Head. She immediately lowered her gaze, demure as anything. Turning a dashing knight into a flawless maidservant had taken no more than a single summer break.
...It'll be fine, right?
Somehow I couldn't picture the Fourth Department Head married at all. The First Department Head, for that matter, either.
The thought was bleak. Surely the department heads weren't chasing bachelorhood just because their chief was still unmarried. My karmic debt ran deep.
I shut my mouth for a moment, then drew a pouch from my coat. Bleak mood or not, better hand it over before I forgot.
"Here. A gift."
"It is an honor."
The Fourth Department Head bowed even lower and accepted the pouch with both hands.
There was really no need to go that far. Calling it a gift was generous—the thing was so trivial it embarrassed the giver.
The Fourth Department Head, stuck playing maid at the mansion for the first time in her life. The Mukgwangdae, prowling nearby because showing their faces risked drawing suspicion from the three kingdoms. They had all suffered plenty through the heat of summer.
"You were busy enough without being dragged into this nonsense and losing your rest. Everyone worked hard. There's a bit of coin in there—share it among yourselves."
I'd tucked in a few silver pieces so they could at least throw a dinner. Honestly, they weren't so poor they needed it—but a meal on someone else's coin always hit different.
"Aside from the Twilight Cult business, I barely even see the Mukgwangdae. Shame."
"Then if Master would grace the occasion with his presence—"
"Don't even say something that cruel."
I cut her off at once. Having their far-distant superior sit in on a company dinner wasn't an honor—it was torture. Better to see them next time.
The way she drooped her head, clearly disappointed by the firm refusal, almost made me waver. Almost. Some lines still weren't meant to be crossed.
"The Audit Department Chief's contributions have been great. House Crassius is truly a blessing upon the Imperial family."
"I am humbled, Your Majesty."
I had sworn it at that dinner the Emperor invited me to. I would never sit at the same table as my subordinates.
I had to be the one to break that hellish chain… I'd been so indigested that night I barely slept.
The Academy was only a little ways off now. Come to think of it, I'd spent nearly the entire break in the Imperial Capital.
Right at the start of the holiday, I'd braced myself for a tour of every major city in the Empire, bowing my head raw before every mayor. Just imagining it had been enough to make me dizzy with dread.
Apparently, when it came time to actually travel, the others had found the idea tiresome too. Fair enough—the Capital was plenty; why bother going anywhere else?
Thank god.
In the worst case, I'd steeled myself for a trip to Luise's estate. At least I'd been spared the sight of that kindhearted baron and baroness fainting on their feet.
Shit.
The fact that I was grateful even for something like that left me feeling sorry for myself. Those little bastards—next winter break, please, just go home.
"There's no law that says what happens once can't happen twice."
"Your Highness speaks wisely."
Don't talk crap, you bastard.
The voice coming through the communication crystal pulled a surge of feeling straight out of me. That I'd at least packaged the reply was my last remaining scrap of reason.
The Crown Prince spoke with the exact expression Ainter would wear if he ever dark-evolved. One of these days I really wanted to set rank aside and punch him once.
"I ought to prepare on the assumption you'll come again in winter. Scrambling like this on short notice is exhausting."
A vow to brace for the worst—or a brand that said, You're going to suffer through winter too. Strange. On the surface it was the remark of a thoroughly prepared man. Why did the second reading weigh so much heavier?
I forced my twitching lips still and managed to open my mouth.
"I hope Your Highness enjoys a peaceful winter."
I'll do everything I can to stop it over winter break, so don't hold your breath.
"I'm grateful for the Audit Department Chief's concern. And yet—is not an unknowable future the gift Enen has bestowed upon us?"
So you barely tried to stop it this time and that's why we ended up here? Cut the bullshit.
This bastard left a man with nothing to say.
True enough, I'd failed to block them this time too, and had been dragged along shedding tears of the heart. There was no guarantee winter break would be any different.
No—if anything, having done it once would only make the next time easier.
Winter is off-limits.
If the Baking Club came to the Capital over winter break as well, I was finished. That season already overlapped with the New Year's Audience—I'd lose my mind entirely.
The New Year's Audience, where every titled noble in the realm gathered in one place. And in that same window, a foreign royal and the next Living Saint would both be in the Capital? The social-obsessed nobles would kill themselves trying to secure invitations.
And odds were the Emperor would invite those idiots too. A guest's stature, after all, reflected on the host's prestige.
They're coming.
The moment my thoughts reached the Emperor, I ascended straight into enlightenment. For all I knew, even if the Baking Club had no intention of coming to the Capital, an imperial invitation might still arrive.
I could see it—the future. Myself, battered left and right at the New Year's Audience.
"Come to think of it, Audit Department Chief. Did something happen with my father-in-law?"
While I was still lamenting the future I'd glimpsed through the veil, the Crown Prince tossed the question out casually. Ah. So word had already reached his ears.
"I received counsel from His Grace the Duke of Victory, and went to offer my thanks."
"I see."
After unburdening myself to Margeta, I'd loaded my arms with gifts and gone to pay my respects to the Duke of Victory.
Coming home with both arms equally loaded with return gifts was the problem. Was this that tribute trade business people talked about?
In any case, once he heard my answer the Crown Prince gave a light nod and switched off his interest. Credit where it was due—he wasn't the sort to dig into a man's private life.
"He asked me to thank you for keeping my lonely father-in-law company in conversation."
"I'm unworthy of such words."
"He also asked me to pass along his regards to Lady Erzebet."
So even the Crown Prince was reduced to a mere messenger before the Crown Princess. Somehow that was oddly charming.
"Yes. Understood."
And with that, the Crown Prince cut the line. Just a check-in today, then? He always looked busy, yet somehow he seemed to have time to spare.
Still—regards for the First Department Head.
It still amazes me.
That the Crown Princess, a lady straight out of a portrait, and the First Department Head, a portrait of pure mania, had been close senior and junior back in their Academy days was hard to believe. What kind of place was the Academy?
Looking at their houses, it isn't that strange.
The First Department Head was a marquis's daughter; being close with a duke's daughter wasn't odd. Not odd, exactly, but…
No. Better not dwell on it. The First Department Head must have been normal as a student. I'd just believe that.
A normal First Department Head…
Which meant the Audit Department had ruined a perfectly good lady. The department's karmic debt ran deep.
It's too much. It's really too much.
"Yuris, are you okay?"
Sophia is trying to comfort me from the side, but the tears won't stop.
How could she do that? I only did it for Penelia's sake.
"Hic…"
Unnie is such an idiot. If she can't manage anything on her own, she should at least take someone's help. If she can't pull ahead, she should at least not fall behind the people coming up from behind.
"Being at his side is enough for me."
The words she said earlier come back to me. What? She's satisfied just as long as she can stay by Master's side?
Liar.
Someone who thinks that looks at Master with eyes that hungry? Even Sophia wouldn't fall for a lie like that.
Or maybe unnie really does think that. She's such an idiot she doesn't even know her own heart.
I hang my head under a fresh wave of misery, and I can feel Sophia fluster beside me.
I was really only thinking of her…
It's almost time for Master to go back to the Academy. The time unnie can spend with him is almost over.
Just when Master finally seemed to be thinking about marriage—just when unnie finally had a chance to draw closer. She can't stop the Duke's daughter from leading the pack, so she at least has to run right behind her.
"Being at his s—"
I shake my head hard and fling the stupid words away. Anyone listening would think they were already in some tender relationship.
"Unnie! There are already people after Master!"
"If you mean the Duke's daughter, I know."
"You idiot! I wouldn't even bother saying it if it were just her!"
I finally can't hold it in and bring up the blonde unnie. The noble lady who gave Master the hawthorn. The one who made that aggressive confession about a one-and-only love.
With a rival like that on the field, what is Penelia unnie even doing? I told her so she'd feel some pressure—and she got pressured in completely the wrong direction.
"You hid it from Master?"
That I'd known the hawthorn's flower language and deliberately given him a different meaning. That was what made Penelia unnie angry. Why get mad about that?
After that she scolded me for ages. That I had to tell Master things as they were. That I must never dare hide anything from him. And that interfering with someone else's love was a terrible thing to do.
"Then what about you?!"
I swallowed everything else, but I couldn't swallow that last part. The greatest idiot of all time, sabotaging her own love, had no business saying something like that.
I shrieked it at her and ran. I don't care anymore. It's all Penelia unnie's fault. Even if the blonde unnie becomes the second wife at the Academy, that won't be on me.
Such an idiot.
Even so, I am never, ever going to say a word about the hawthorn out of my own mouth. Honestly, looking at how completely still Penelia unnie is, the blonde unnie would probably get there first even if I did nothing.
I bite my lip a few times, then lift my bowed head. This is it. Really the last time.
Winter break.
If Master comes up to the Capital for winter break too, and by then there's still no progress between him and Penelia unnie—
I'll tell him.
I'll tell him everything.
That Penelia unnie loves Master. That the blonde unnie loves Master too.
They'll both start on equal footing.
"…Yuris?"
Sophia's uneasy voice calls from beside me, but I ignore it.