Prison Freedom - 3
A sudden request for a meal. No matter how unpredictable Section Chief One’s mental world might be, even she wouldn’t seriously suggest scarfing down combat rations in the office. Whether she meant the cafeteria inside the ministry building or some famous restaurant in the Imperial Capital, either way it was going to eat up time.
This is awkward.
I was someone who had no business lingering in the Imperial Capital. I’d been summoned for committing the history-making Spicy Proletarian Punch, and once the business was finished I was supposed to return to my post as fast as possible. If something blew up while I was away, it would only be a headache. That was why, during the first semester, I had always headed straight back the moment my errands were done.
But things were different now. Ever since the club members had all been amicably rejected by Luise, the odds of an incident exploding had plummeted. And it was noon right now—every member was in class anyway.
Besides, starting tomorrow I was under disciplinary confinement. Whether I rushed back today or not barely mattered. The Crown Prince himself had told me to prepare properly and go, so I could afford to take it easy.
So the situation really does matter.
Getting hit with discipline had loosened my mind to a shocking degree. Cornered at the edge of a cliff, had I simply decided to let whatever happen, happen?
“We’ll just eat and then head back.”
“Yes!”
After some deliberation I accepted. I had no particular reason to share a meal with Section Chief One, but I also had no real reason to refuse. It wasn’t as if a superior had grabbed a subordinate first, so it should be fine.
“I know a great place—I’ll take you there!”
“Alright.”
I nodded at her giggling face. She looked confident, so she must have known somewhere decent.
But if she knew a place that good, wouldn’t it make more sense to go with friends or a lover? Who on earth took their boss?
Is it because Section Chief Four is gone?
The only same-sex executive officer had been Section Chief Four. Thinking that she had lost her only friend and ended up eating with her superior made me feel a little sorry for her.
I followed after Section Chief One as she waved me forward, telling me to hurry. Sorry the workplace is full of nothing but men.
That pity vanished in an instant.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“You said we were going to eat.”
The moment I saw the place she had guided me to, a hollow laugh escaped me. This was the meal location?
“The cooking here is reeeally good.”
The way she declared it so boldly, as if she couldn’t imagine what the problem was, left me momentarily speechless.
Was this actually normal? Had the culture of the Imperial Capital changed while I was stuck at the Academy?
No. Impossible. Even if culture shifted, it would never shift into this.
“This is your house.”
I had never visited in person, but I knew the locations of every major mansion in the Imperial Capital well enough. The Section Chief who had invited me to a meal had just led me straight to her own residence.
Sure, the cooking would be excellent. This was where a Marquis family’s young lady lived—there was no chance of a half-baked cook. But by that logic, wasn’t the finest restaurant in the entire Empire the Imperial Palace itself? Did this make any sense?
“Director, if we eat anywhere else we’ll draw stares. Are you fine with that?”
“Why do you only make sense at times like this?”
And if she was worried about stares, she could have just suggested the cafeteria inside the ministry building in the first place—
“Come on, in you go!”
Ignoring my words, Section Chief One shoved me insistently in the back, and I ended up being herded into the mansion.
I successfully shoved the grumbling Director into the mansion.
Got him.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected much. The Director was the type who appeared out of nowhere and vanished just as suddenly, so I had assumed this time would be the same.
Still, I had to keep inviting him in advance and collect a few rejections so that later I could force the issue with a “Why do you always avoid me!” That was why I had spoken up, thinking of building justification.
“We’ll just eat and then head back.”
Luck was on my side. Even I hadn’t thought I would succeed on the first try.
The wall really has gotten thinner.
I had suggested eating together plenty of times before. Lady Hecate’s shadow still hung too heavy for me to confess my feelings to the Director, but there was nothing wrong with getting closer in a pure sense, right? I needed to build favor so that when the time came to confess, it would go more smoothly.
Yet every single time I had been rejected for the most ridiculous reasons. Food didn’t taste good if a superior joined. Too much work today, so it was difficult. Too little work today, so he needed to leave early. He had actually started a diet.
Thinking it over again, it was infuriating. Had I really only ever been rejected for completely absurd excuses?
I’ve never heard anyone say I was lacking no matter where I went.
I felt hurt. Outrageously so. Looking at the back of the Director’s head, the urge to smack him once surged up.
Before the Academy, during my school days, and even after graduation, plenty of people had liked me. Good family, pretty face, real ability—nothing was missing.
Senior Aria had even said that whoever married me would be blessed.
And he’s younger than me.
Four whole years younger, even. If he was going to act like a little brother, he should rely on and follow this pretty noona properly.
Of course, the Director’s prickly side was charming in its own way, but sometimes a girl wanted to see a different side of him.
“You’ll burn a hole in my head.”
I must have been staring too hard; the Director spoke curtly.
He had noticed my gaze even though I was looking at him from behind, not the front. Didn’t that mean the Director was very interested in me as well?
Aha.
I almost let a laugh slip out but held it back.
Looking at it this way, he really did seem like a little brother. He couldn’t be honest with his noona and just kept snipping at her. Right now I wanted to stroke the back of his head rather than hit it.
“Then is the Director going to end up like Section Chief Three?”
“You little bastard.”
I tossed the light joke with that affectionate feeling, but the Director seemed genuinely peeved and whipped around in a flash.
Was comparing him to Section Chief Three going too far?
“Calling a precious subordinate a bastard, of all things.”
When I pouted my lips and said that, the Director immediately pinched them.
Ugh, it still hurt.
But I like it.
Warmth spread through my chest. Back in the office I had been too busy inviting him and hadn’t managed to catch him. The timing had been bad, which had been terribly disappointing.
But in the end I had caught him, so it was fine. Unlike last year, these days the Director was stationed at the Academy, so I couldn’t catch him every day.
This was something the Director did only to me. Not to Lady Hecate. Not to Lady Margeta. A private little communion shared with me alone.
Thinking that made my expression melt, but it was fine. The Director would just assume it was because of the pain.
“Young miss?”
At the voice coming from behind the Director, his hand left my lips.
Ah.
Regret and irritation flooded me at the same time. How dare someone interrupt my time with the Director.
I glanced toward the source of the voice and found the butler standing there. Butler, I hadn’t thought of you that way, but you really have no tact. I wanted to scold him on the spot, but with eyes watching I held myself back.
“Butler, prepare a meal. We have a guest, so make it for two.”
Instead I left the Director behind and walked toward the butler.
“Very carefully. Perfectly. Understood?”
And I whispered low into the butler’s ear. This was a meal with the Director—if there was even the slightest shortcoming, my face would be ruined.
At my words the butler’s eyes flicked quickly to the Director, then back to me.
“It may take a little while.”
“Good.”
I nodded at the satisfactory answer.
If the food came out quickly, the Director was the type to simply eat fast and leave. To keep him as long as possible, the food itself had to be delayed.
Alright—cancel the “no tact” judgment. A little regrettable, but that handling just now was acceptable, so I’d let it slide.
I sat blankly in my seat and looked around.
It’s splendid.
Of course Section Chief One’s mansion was splendid. Strictly speaking the title belonged not to her but to the Marquis Massalo family, yet every other member of the house stayed only in their territory, so for all practical purposes it was her mansion.
In any case, ever since the Marquis Apsilon family had been demoted to Count, the Massalo family had been contending for first or second place among the remaining Marquis houses. A residence built in the Imperial Capital by a family of that standing was naturally going to be lavish, but…
Of all people, the owner is…
I turned my gaze to the opposite seat and found Section Chief One grinning at me.
My head hurt. Until now I had known she was of the Massalo family and simply accepted it, but seeing it with my own eyes like this brought on full cognitive dissonance. A mansion like this, and that person was the master? It felt as though we were committing some sort of rudeness against the house itself.
Am I any better?
Truthfully I was in no position to talk. I was the one who had taken over the mansion of the (former) Marquis Apsilon family.
Superior and subordinate, side by side—a pair of pearl necklaces hung around pigs’ necks. We didn’t need to resemble each other in this particular way.
“Director, how have you been lately?”
“What?”
The sudden question drew an automatic retort.
How had I been? Since when were we the type of people who exchanged that kind of small talk? It felt exactly like hearing “So what’s your hobby?” at a blind date for no reason.
Apparently sensing my bafflement, Section Chief One continued with the same smile.
“You even knocked out royalty, so I figured there must be plenty of other things going on.”
She was digging at me in such a roundabout way.
“Nothing special. You know how careful I am.”
I really had been careful—careful and careful again. Words a man who had knocked out royalty had no right to say, but Ryutis fainting was not my fault. It was his fault for being weak.
…I had decided to think of it that way.
“Even with the Lady?”
The words she tossed out while tilting her head made me flinch for a second. Why bring Margeta into this?
“Looking at you during vacation, it seemed like good news would be coming soon~”
At the teasing tone I couldn’t even open my mouth. Had I been that obvious in front of her too? Enough that it showed even in the office, not just at the mansion?
No—there was Section Chief Four. Clearly Section Chief Four had told her all sorts of things.
“I’m fine even if it’s this year. I’ll pick out a wonderful gift and come visit!”
“Someone devoted to her studies—what’s this about this year.”
I had no desire to pile more work onto Margeta when she was already busy with Student Council duties.
Besides, if we proceeded while she was still a student it would have to be a simplified ceremony, and that would be rude to Margeta, who had waited this long already.
Slyly… no, asking outright had pulled out some excellent information. Whether engagement or marriage, it would be right after the Lady graduated?
Still more than a year left.
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t disappointed. I had already waited two years; now I had to wait nearly two more.
Still, it was fine. No matter how disappointing, a promise with a date was better than no promise at all.
Where would be good for the wedding venue?
I hadn’t even confessed to the Director yet and already I was having happy worries. Imagination was free, after all.
The Imperial Capital? Or our own territory? The Director’s territory would be fine too. All three appealed to me, which was the problem.
Should we just do it three times? No one seemed to have gotten married three times before.
Not bad.
The position of first wife would go to the Lady. In that case, wasn’t it only fair that I claimed the first with the wedding ceremony itself?