The Prosperous Western Territory - 4
Looking at the brown chick left alone and trembling, I was at a complete loss.
She really just left her.
Thanks to the Wise Duke's suggestion and my uncle's support, the Young Duke had been abandoned in an instant. Officially she had been entrusted to her cousins, so it wasn't abandonment—but from the Young Duke's point of view, it might as well have been. A cousin you've never met in your life is no different from a stranger.
It was cruel. Tossing a ten-year-old who liked reading books in her room out into the wild like that. Did the Salon ducal house prefer lion-style child-rearing? Even lions doted on their own cubs, though.
"Young—"
"H-hiii…"
I carefully opened my mouth, meaning to comfort the Young Duke, who was surely steeped in betrayal and despair. The reaction I got was pitiful. Her already shaking body vibrated even harder as she shrank in on herself.
"Honestly, when hyung's face is blank like that, even I get scared."
Damn it.
Erich's whispered comment from beside me only piled misery on top of misery.
I hadn't deliberately scowled, and I still got called scary. This was just my default expression. Wasn't that a little much?
"Young Du—"
"H-huuut…!"
But when Erich stretched a hand toward the Young Duke and got the exact same reaction, the misery gave way to a warm sense of relief. So she wasn't scared of me specifically—she was scared of everyone. That was reassuring.
Still, maybe it would have been better if only I were the terrifying one. Looking after a younger cousin only works when you can actually approach her or speak to her. If both of the cousins left alone with her are objects of pure terror, how are we supposed to take care of her?
What do I do about this.
Hide somewhere out of sight and keep watch? No—then the Young Duke might panic completely. Having a scary cousin right in front of you and having that cousin vanish entirely were problems of entirely different dimensions.
"She must find it very strange, meeting cousins for the first time."
While Erich and I traded awkward looks, Margeta, who had been watching the scene, approached with a gentle smile.
The Young Duke eyed even Margeta with wariness as she came near—but thankfully her reaction was milder than the wretched trembling she'd shown Erich and me. It was a little bitter, but I understood. From the Young Duke's perspective, a bright, lovely young woman would naturally be less frightening than two solidly built men.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Lilliana. I am Margeta Barenti of the Barenti ducal house."
Margeta crouched down in front of the Young Duke, matching her eye level. The way she smiled and held out her hand looked so much like a nursery teacher looking after a child that I wondered if I was imagining it.
"I-I'm not a lady. I'm the Young Duke…"
"Oh my, I've made a mistake. I'm sorry, Young Duke."
At Margeta's greeting, the Young Duke opened her mouth in a hesitant mumble, and Margeta apologized in an exaggerated tone.
Oh.
The ten-year-old Young Duke visibly perked up with pride. Having Lady Margeta address her as Young Duke seemed to please her immensely.
"That's right. Young Duke Lilliana is the one who will inherit the ducal house. Even a lady must not treat her carelessly."
Catching the change at once, the Demon Duke fired off supporting fire. The chick that had been shaking like a leaf had, before I knew it, turned into a chick proudly flaunting its wings. Still a chick, though.
"That's true. The Young Duke may be young, but she is a proper heir."
"And after Her Grace the Demon Duke, she is the highest-ranking person here."
"How impressive. At the Young Duke's age, I was nowhere near this composed."
The blatant praise that followed from Luise, Irina, and Sera made the Young Duke's shoulders lift even higher. For anyone a little older, the compliments would have been overwhelming—but the Young Duke was only ten.
"I'm the heir of the Salon ducal house, so of course I'm impressive!"
She had even forgotten the persona she'd put on when she first greeted me, bragging in a thoroughly childish way. Ten years old, after all… the age when you take other people's praise at face value.
"She's cute."
"She is."
I answered Erich without a second's hesitation. Being on the receiving end of fear made it hard to know how to treat her—but difficulties like this, I could handle just fine.
The future of the Salon ducal house was truly bright.
Thanks to Project: Our Young Duke Is the Best, the Young Duke's mood recovered at remarkable speed. Come to think of it, Margeta must have quite a few nieces and nephews of her own, so of course she was used to handling children.
No wonder she was so smooth at it.
Luise, for her part, had the friendly nature of a capybara; Irina had a younger sister; and Sera was full of determination to get along with Erich's cousin. With four people ready to dote on her at full power focused on one child, things were bound to go well.
The Demon Duke, on the other hand, had no particular reason to be used to children—
"To see a little one still so young carry herself so firmly as Young Duke. How admirable."
—yet she casually hammered the word Young Duke at me over and over, making her intentions clear. She wanted to get used to it. Was she thinking that if the Salon Young Duke was this adorable, she wanted a Young Duke of her own in the Catoban ducal house as well?
"True. I hope our child takes after our fifth cousin."
"Heh heh. Don't you?"
So I gave her the answer she wanted. Nobles marrying each other and having children was the most natural thing in the world; there was nothing to dodge about it. Dodging an answer that obvious would have been the stranger thing.
And so the Young Duke, who had taken a direct hit from the Wise Duke's particular brand of madness, had her self-esteem rocketed into the stratosphere by endless praise, while the Demon Duke—who had nearly been forced into informal speech with the Wise Duke—received a firm promise about the future and wore a thoroughly satisfied smile. Naturally, the mood of the whole party lifted.
"Oh? Advisor?"
The problem was that the carefully raised atmosphere was about to plunge straight back into the abyss.
As soon as we moved into the nearby Elf Sanctuary, tourists began to appear one by one. A tourist district having a lot of people was only natural, so I didn't pay it much mind—until, regrettably, I spotted club members mixed in among the visitors.
"…So you were here too."
"We meant to take it easy on the first day, but Tanian made a huge fuss about coming."
At Ryutis's shrug, I glanced over and saw Tanian smiling faintly.
"There is a parish installed in the Elf Sanctuary. It is the only parish that guides the other races into the faith, so I was eager to see it as soon as possible."
It was such a thoroughly devout and reasonable explanation that I couldn't even open my mouth to complain. If it was the only parish managing the other races, I probably would have wanted to come too if I were a priest.
"But Brother—who is that young sister?"
At Tanian's words, every club member's gaze locked onto the floor—more precisely, onto the Young Duke holding Margeta's hand.
Oh no.
Unfortunately, the Young Duke who had been afraid even of her own cousins clearly grew frightened again under the club members' stares.
You absolute disasters. Do you have any idea how hard we worked to calm her down?
"Is she by any chance Young Duke Lilliana?"
Just as Margeta hurriedly tried to soothe the tearful Young Duke, Ainter spoke, and the Young Duke's eyes went round.
Even I was surprised. Ainter knew the Young Duke when even I, her cousin, hadn't?
"Have you met before?"
"Ah, no. I had simply heard that the Wise Duke's daughter has brown hair and golden eyes."
And the look he shot me said, And seeing her walking with you, the Wise Duke's nephew, who else would she be but the Young Duke? I had to concede the point. Before the Second Prince's faction fell, he had been an ordinary imperial prince. Knowing the distinctive features of a ducal family's members would have been natural.
"The Young Duke? To think I'd get to see the future duke—what an honor!"
At Ainter's explanation, Ryutis burst out laughing and strode straight toward the Young Duke.
The approach of a big, red-haired giant. The Young Duke would have been perfectly within her rights to scream and cry—but the fact that a member of the imperial family had recognized her was enough to conjure courage she hadn't possessed a moment earlier.
"…Hic."
Of course, there were things in this world that even courage couldn't manage.
She was only ten. She probably hadn't learned that yet. A pity.
"Huh?"
And at the Young Duke's little sniffle, it was Ryutis who ended up flustered. Watching that shameless guy not know what to do with himself was deeply satisfying.
The party that had left the lodgings as seven had, before anyone quite noticed, grown to twelve.
I wasn't particularly complaining. The Young Duke of the Salon house was also my baby's cousin, so I was more than willing to look after her, and the other four were club members—familiar faces. If they had been complete strangers I might have balked, but this much I could tolerate.
Honestly, after being put through the wringer by the Wise Duke just moments ago, I was more or less ready to accept anyone at this point.
"Young Duke. I bought far too many of these—would you share some with me? It'd be a waste to throw them away."
In the middle of all that, the sight of Prince Ryutis—who had made the Young Duke cry—coaxing her with candy was a spectacle in itself.
Unexpected. He looked like the type who would laugh at a crying child and declare, What a powerful set of lungs—you'll make a fine knight! And yet here he was, being considerate. Even a rough man, it seemed, still had a soft spot for little children. He had a surprisingly careful side.
"V-very well. Throwing away something obtained at a price is wasteful, so I shall accept Your Highness's request."
The Young Duke, voice trembling even as she took the candy, drew a smile from me without effort. Not only me—everyone watching the two of them was smiling, including Prince Ryutis as he handed over the sweets. Even the Young Duke with the candy in her mouth.
To be that happy over something sweet… did the Wise Duke forbid her daughter snacks?
No chance.
Someone who drank every single day was not going to be cold about her own daughter's treats. If she were, she'd have no conscience at all.
Which simply meant this child found happiness even in the smallest pleasures.
What a precious child.
I smiled again. If the Catoban family had a Young Duke like her, I was confident I could raise her with all the love in the world.
True to the name Elf Sanctuary, races you never saw elsewhere filled my vision. Turn your head right and there was a dwarf; turn left and there was a beastman.
It was amazing to see so many races gathered in one place—but the area we were in now was the commercial district for tourists. Each race had its own residential quarter, so disputes over racial differences were probably rare.
There are a lot of elves, too.
And throughout the commercial district, elves selling souvenirs and food were visible everywhere.
Ears sharper than mine. Faces that, by human standards, looked barely into their twenties. Anyone could tell they were elves. Pure-blooded elves, unlike me, a half-blood.
I wish Mother could have come with us.
Dozens of elves in sight alone. How wonderful it would have been to see so many of her own kind with Mother at my side. How proud she would have been to show her people that she had left the Elf Sanctuary for the human world and become a full member of a ducal house.
…Her own kind.
A bitter feeling welled up. Would the elves of this sanctuary even think of Mother and me as their own?
About a hundred and fifty years ago, Mother had fled the sanctuary and never once contacted her people here again. And I was the half-blood born of the love she shared with a human. Of course Mother said she did not regret leaving the sanctuary, and I was not ashamed of the Catoban blood that ran in my veins.
But that was only how Mother and I, adapted to the human world, felt. Would our kin, who kept their distance from human society, feel the same?
I don't know.
It was a question I had carried for a long time and still had no answer to. Perhaps that very question was why I had avoided coming to the Elf Sanctuary all this time.
Still, now that we had come this far, I couldn't keep avoiding it for—
"Ariadne?"
My steps stopped cold.
"Oh my, oh my. Looking at that broom-sweeping gait of yours, it really is Ariadne."
I had heard a name I could never forget—and that no one ever spoke aloud.
I turned my eyes toward the cheerful voice and saw a smiling elven woman. She had been in the middle of making cotton candy for her stall; the moment her eyes met mine, she spoke again.
"…You're… not Ariadne, are you?"
"……"
I had met one of Mother's kin.