Fragrant Things 4
“I heard you muttering my name every night.”
“You joke in a situation like this? I can tell Hawin has really come back.”
Lobelia let out a small sigh and gave me a cold, cutting look.
I flashed her a bright smile.
She frowned as if she found that smile especially irritating, then clicked her tongue.
“That fake smile is still exactly the same.”
“It’s my signature. I’m delighted to hear you’re fond of it.”
“...I never said I was fond of it.”
Lobelia rubbed at her forehead.
Her eyes looked more haggard than they had the last time we met, weary enough that I could almost feel it.
Then her red gaze turned icy and settled on the person beside me.
“Eep!”
Lady Aran flinched under that stare and shook all over.
Lobelia said nothing, just watched her steadily. Rather than anger or irritation, there was something almost fascinated in the lift of her brows.
“You came to poison me, and yet you follow him so loyally.”
“She’s one of our intelligence agents, sent back with evidence of treason, so don’t be too harsh.”
“Are the two of you involved somehow? Defending her like that makes me suspicious. Should I assign a guard to watch her?”
Lobelia spoke lightly with her hands clasped behind her back, but a chill ran down my spine.
That fleeting glance as her eyes swept over me had been downright eerie.
Hmm.
I knew her personality had changed a lot, but seeing her now, she’d grown much sharper.
And publicly humiliating Roswell, whom she’d once liked, was shocking even to me.
“Did you really have to do that?”
“...What are you asking me?”
Lobelia asked with a faint smile.
She knew perfectly well what I meant and was making me say it anyway.
“Roswell. There had to be a cleaner, quieter way to handle him.”
“As a ruler, I’ve learned a thing or two about virtue. Wrongdoings must be punished, and good deeds rewarded. If I’d dealt with him in some place no one could see, what would happen to your dignity, Hawin? And how would Roswell understand what he did wrong?”
“I see. I don’t really need you to worry about my dignity, but yes, that was rather excessive.”
“Pfft!”
Lobelia suddenly burst out laughing, as if she found something absurdly amusing.
I looked at her, dumbfounded.
She naturally stepped closer to my side, then pressed her index finger against her own chest.
“I wanted to do it. Is that all right? My loyal Hawin was being humiliated, and I couldn’t stand it, so I, Lobelia, Little Sun of the Empire, wanted to do it.”
“I understand, so please don’t stand quite so close.”
“I said it back then too, but you’re hopeless when it comes to things like this. You can’t even hide where you’re looking.”
Lobelia turned as if she were spinning in place, then gave me a sidelong glance.
Under those thick lashes, her eyes were alluring.
Lady Aran wore a momentarily blank expression.
Then her eyes went wide.
“Y-you!”
“...Don’t say anything. It’s a misunderstanding, Aran. Her Highness is just teasing me.”
“You really were a gigolo?”
“Sigh...”
I let out a long, heavy breath. Would that convey how I felt?
Aran clicked her tongue as though she were offended by something and folded her arms.
Her sulky stare kept following me.
What’s wrong with her...?
They say when someone changes completely, it’s a sign they’re about to die. So was this timeline’s Lobelia even kind enough to include the cliché?
She’d had a childish side before. Now she was turning sly, almost like she was becoming more and more like me.
“You came back alive, and being at my side is such a blessing. Even the briefest moment without you felt like agony stretched into endless fragments. I was so flustered when Karten’s head arrived.”
“I only commanded you not to die, so I didn’t die. Taking the head off one traitor is hardly a difficult task.”
“Oh? Then if I asked you to kiss my feet, would you?”
“That...”
Lobelia smiled teasingly and turned her head away again.
The minister from the Security Bureau, standing nearby, kept his hands behind his back and looked down at me in silence.
I could feel the monumental irritation rolling off him, but it should be fine.
“For now, we’ve recovered everything Hawin brought back. We’re keeping the Twin Crystals... but why, exactly?”
“To put it simply, the Nine Kingdoms have nine heads. Isn’t it only natural that a few pieces of false information would send them collapsing into chaos?”
“...I see.”
That calm conversation carried us to the small meeting chamber.
The people already seated there hadn’t changed. Neither had the arrangement nor the number of attendees.
If anything had changed, it was their expressions.
They weren’t suspicious anymore. They looked bewildered.
“Well then, long time no see! Have you all been well?”
I spread my arms wide and smiled.
...
Thud.
“Ugh, I want to rest for the rest of my life... What’s the harm if Lobelia’s happy?”
I muttered into my pillow.
A simple meeting... at least, that’s what it had been before my turn came.
At long last, I’d been able to return to my sweet home. It was only a lodging Kalufen had provided, but so what?
This was the home of my heart.
This is insane...
I had too many things to think about, too many things to do.
And because everything had gone far more off-script than I’d expected, I wasn’t even sure my plan would work the way I intended.
...And I need to figure out why that bastard Roswell acted like that.
Roswell, Grand Duke of the North.
I needed to know why he’d grabbed me by the collar and thrown me aside.
He’d had his own ideas, at least once upon a time. So why had he decided to pick a fight with someone who had nothing to do with him?
There had to be some reason he called me a “gigolo” in front of everyone.
“There’s no way Lobelia likes me...”
If anything, Lobelia would have defended Roswell rather than slap him. Why would she choose me, when she already had a handsome, capable man she’d known since childhood?
Of course, that’s only if you look at the love issue by itself.
For now, the first point of suspicion was why Roswell had come to the Imperial Palace in the first place, and why he’d grabbed me by the collar as if he’d been waiting for me.
Right now, Roswell was probably busy.
He’d have to host a banquet over the subjugation of the barbarians.
“Uuuugh...”
I made a sound like a dying man.
It gave me more of a headache than the Nine Kingdoms did.
I couldn’t control every variable, but if I wanted to predict anything at all, I at least needed the bare minimum of information.
There were too many things about Roswell’s behavior that didn’t make sense.
“He can’t have just suddenly gotten pissed off at my face and thrown me around...”
In truth, it would make sense if I forced just one thing into place.
If I started from the premise that Lobelia liked me.
Roswell needed Lobelia. She was the most important figure for raising the North. He liked her, too.
But if Lobelia suddenly liked me instead, then to Roswell...
“I’d be an enemy... nothing more, nothing less. That would explain everything.”
Why Lobelia had suddenly thrown herself at me and cried, why the Security Bureau minister had looked so displeased.
Everything could be understood through a single explanation.
Truth was always simple. But could I actually accept it?
“No, seriously, there’s no reason for her to like me.”
Thwack.
I punched the pillow for no reason at all.
My thoughts were in turmoil, so I ended up doing something like this.
At first, Lobelia had locked me in prison.
Even after talking to me, she’d stayed wary, angry, and violent.
It had to be because of the memories left behind, and the lingering emotions attached to them.
That still didn’t give her any reason to like me.
“No, I mean, I betrayed the Empire and then got my head blown off. I can understand hating me, but liking me? That part really makes no sense.”
Even before I died, I’d mocked her until the end.
She must have found me hideous.
If I’d been Lobelia, I would’ve mocked me too after killing me.
...There isn’t even a reason for her to like me.
No matter how I thought about it, there wasn’t one.
And Lobelia’s changed personality only made my headache worse.
At the beginning, she’d been ready to kill me; now she’d actually relaxed because I’d come back alive.
I’d seen Lobelia enough times... it made no sense that I couldn’t predict her.
“Memory. Emotion... yes, that must be it. There’s no way she likes me. It’s probably that, or some huge misunderstanding based on it.”
I was still muttering to myself when—
Knock, knock.
A loud knock sounded at the door. I must have been so lost in thought that I hadn’t even heard the footsteps.
I hurriedly straightened my clothes again.
Roswell?
It wasn’t a polite tap, but a pounding knock. Probably a man.
There was only one person who’d come looking for me with a grudge.
That bastard Roswell.
Could I talk him down?
“Ah, and what brings such a noble gentleman to this humble place? Surely a man of your stature has no business coming somewhere like this?”
“...”
There was no answer. I stood cautiously before the door and checked the dagger I’d hidden in my coat, just in case I needed to defend myself.
Bang, bang!
The knocking came harder this time.
Am I screwed?
Was this timeline going to end with Roswell taking my head off?
I swallowed dryly and slowly opened the door.
Then—
“How daring of you to refuse to open the door in front of the Imperial Princess of the Empire.”
Through the gap, I caught sight of her cold red eyes.
“Eeeek!”
I jerked back with a scream.
Lobelia seized the opening and shoved her way into my room in an instant.
Bang.
Click.
And then... she locked the door?
Lobelia spoke in a serious voice.
“I have something important to say.”
“...Huh?”
Am I going to die?