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Chapter 12
A trace of suspicion flickered across Isel’s face. After a long pause, she answered Lahan.
“This kind of high-end carriage feels a bit burdensome for me… I’ll take another carriage.”
“I already paid for it.”
Isel looked back and forth between the coachman and Lahan. The coachman, who had been watching them with slightly widened eyes, nodded firmly as if in agreement.
When did he even arrange and pay for a carriage? Was it when he went to fetch my master earlier…?
Still, Isel looked straight at Lahan and opened her lips.
“I appreciate the consideration, but I can get home on my own. You don’t need to escort me.”
Her calm tone carried a faint sense of caution. As she stepped back slightly, Lahan stopped her.
“In fact, I was asked by Ceres earlier to make sure you got home safely.”
At the name Ceres, Isel blinked.
My master…?
“She seemed worried because you didn’t look well,” he added.
Isel suddenly recalled her master’s face, furrowed with concern.
Her suspicion didn’t fully disappear, but she thought it was possible Ceres might have made such a request. The shop couldn’t be left unattended, after all.
“I would appreciate it if you would allow me the chance to see you home safely.”
Lahan’s eyes gently but persistently studied her face.
In the end, Isel took his hand. His touch was firm and cool, steadying her.
She told the waiting coachman to take them to the Lawrence district and boarded the carriage. The coachman bowed respectfully again and climbed onto the driver’s seat.
Isel sat down with her hood up, and Lahan took the seat opposite her.
With the crack of the whip and the sound of hooves, the carriage began to move.
As it headed toward the Lawrence district on the outskirts of the capital, Lahan and Isel remained silent, as if they had agreed to it. A quiet, slightly tingling atmosphere filled the carriage in the late afternoon light.
Isel, looking out the window, suddenly turned her head at the feeling of a gaze from the front.
Lahan was looking outside just like she had been.
Was it my imagination…?
She turned away again, puzzled.
And at that moment, as if he had been waiting, a clear gaze landed on her.
Isel tried hard to focus on the passing scenery.
It wasn’t her imagination. Lahan was looking at her.
Even just being watched made the side of her face feel hot.
Isel deliberately had the carriage stop in a residential area a bit away from the manor.
She had worried he might try to take her all the way to her door, but fortunately he didn’t. Instead, he got down first and supported her hand so she could step down easily.
Isel gave him a small bow.
“Thank you for bringing me home.”
As she turned to leave, Lahan’s low voice stopped her.
“Isel.”
She looked up at him.
As the sun set, the sky behind his shoulders darkened.
A cool evening breeze passed between them. In the distance, children could be heard chatting and laughing—families preparing dinner.
“Let’s meet again next time.”
Lahan smiled gently. His eyes curved softly.
Something warm and unidentifiable swelled in her chest. Isel pressed her lips together slightly.
“Yes… Lahan.”
Saying his name felt strangely sweet on her tongue. But soon it turned bitter.
We probably won’t meet again.
She bowed slightly and turned away, walking toward the manor.
Lahan stood there for a long time, watching her back. After she disappeared around the corner, he spoke to the coachman.
“Wait here.”
The coachman, startled, quickly replied, “Yes, my lord.”
Lahan then walked in the direction Isel had gone, following her at a distance.
He made sure she entered the manor safely before returning to the carriage.
Inside the Manor
Isel changed into clean clothes.
She expected to be scolded for returning so late, but strangely, she couldn’t find Harris anywhere in the manor.
Just as she was about to ask Bell, noise erupted outside.
The knights who had been called for mobilization were returning. Isel hurried downstairs.
Alley, who was removing his sword, ran toward her.
“Miss!”
“Alley.”
“Are you alright? Nothing happened while I was gone? Did you have lunch?”
“I’m fine. More importantly…”
Isel noticed a small piece of grass stuck in his hair and pointed at it.
“Ah!”
Alley hurriedly removed it.
“Were you… pulling weeds instead of training?”
“How did you know?”
The knights gathered around her, indignant that she had guessed correctly. They were saved by Harris.
“Miss.”
“Harris?”
He pulled her aside.
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
Harris sighed in relief.
“About the knights from the Kanos Grand Duke’s house approaching you earlier…”
Isel blinked.
“What?”
Harris explained: while following her, he had been called away by a sudden mobilization order and had asked a knight from the Kanos Grand Duke’s house to escort her.
“I knew the Grand Duke was insane, but I didn’t expect him to avoid training while causing all this chaos.”
Isel tried to process it.
A knight from the Kanos Grand Duke’s house?
Then she remembered the man who had escorted her.
“Next time, let’s meet again.”
Lahan.
Could he have been a knight of the Grand Duke’s house?
Harris, noticing her silence, asked sharply, “Did he do something to offend you?”
“No, not at all.”
But Harris pressed further, suspicious.
“What happened?”
“Nothing… really.”
She reassured him, then quickly escaped upstairs.
So he was a knight. And he knew she was a Blisha count’s daughter.
Is that why he treated me so politely…?
Her mind was complicated. Yet his smiling face wouldn’t leave her thoughts.
Servants’ Room
Bell and Anne were cleaning Isel’s room.
“I got scolded again by the butler,” Anne complained.
Bell asked, “Your hand injury—healed already?”
“Yeah. Completely.”
“Already?”
Bell was surprised. She clearly remembered Anne crying over a deep cut.
“It healed really fast.”
Bell thought of her own ankle injury that had also healed unusually quickly.
“I heard knights talking—maybe there’s some kind of energy in this manor.”
“Energy?”
“Maybe the blessing of the Goddess Enix?”
They laughed.
Then Bell looked at a small sculpture on the desk.
A white plaster sculpture Isel had completed a week ago—a white falcon, the sacred animal of the Goddess Enix.
The craftsmanship was so lifelike it seemed ready to take flight.
They stared at it in admiration.
Then the clock chimed.
They resumed cleaning.
Bell found a vase of red and white peonies by the window.
“They’ve been here for weeks… but they still look fresh.”
Anne brushed it off, saying it was probably just sunlight.
But Bell kept thinking it was strange.
Still, she shook it off and moved on.
“Probably nothing.”
