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Chapter 22
“Are you alright, Your Highness?”
“It’s nothing.”
Lena kept asking nervously, shifting from foot to foot.
“Your Highness…?”
The count, as if he still couldn’t believe it, muttered under his breath before tightly gripping the hat with both hands. Then he stammered out an apology.
“…I-I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
“It’s fine. You didn’t know.”
The Count of Pandelton, still hesitating, returned the hat and awkwardly lifted the corners of his mouth.
“May I ask what brings Your Highness here…?”
“I already said. I came as a guest.”
“What business would Your Highness have with Marquis Miller?”
His gaze seemed to say, You don’t even do anything important.
“I planted some flower trees in the palace garden, but they died not long after.”
“Flower trees…?”
“You know Marquis Caleb is also researching agriculture for the sake of the farmers, don’t you?”
“…Ah, that useless thing.”
Pandelton muttered under his breath and let out a faint sneer.
I continued calmly.
“Well, crops or trees—it’s all the same, isn’t it?”
“……”
“So I came to ask for advice. I planted new ones in the backyard. I want to make them survive this time.”
Pandelton, who had been listening blankly, twisted one corner of his mouth.
“Ahh, flowers. Flower trees, how lovely.”
He looked me over with thinly veiled contempt and gave a perfunctory bow.
“Do make sure you listen well to the solution.”
“……”
“If anything, this level of concern suits Marquis Miller perfectly.”
With that, he turned and left the office.
What nonsense. Talking about “level.”
People who talk like that are never actually competent.
I clicked my tongue and turned toward Caleb, who was now watching the scene with his arms crossed.
I sat in the seat of honor on the sofa and nodded toward the seat diagonally from me.
“Sit.”
“Ha.”
Caleb rubbed his chin out of habit, looking mildly stunned.
But soon, he dropped heavily onto the sofa.
“Why bother entertaining someone so pointless? A waste of time.”
“Exactly. I don’t know why I even bother with that sort of thing.”
“If you have so much time, you should come see me more instead. You come every day anyway, yet barely talk to me.”
“Your Highness should stop coming every day too, then you wouldn’t have to see scenes like this.”
As always, his tone was sharp and sarcastic—but his energy was clearly lower than usual.
Caleb, with a complicated expression, glanced at the hat in my hand and snorted.
“I never said it before, but what is that outfit? If you’re going to wear something casual, you might as well wear a mask.”
“Do you know how suffocating masks are?”
“Then you should have worn a dress and hat instead.”
“Too inconvenient. It’s nicer to be comfortable once in a while.”
“I didn’t realize Your Highness was so stubborn.”
“No one asks for my opinion, so I have to say it myself.”
I can’t just sit quietly.
I glanced at a maid standing awkwardly nearby.
“Y-yes…?”
Startled by my gaze, she stammered.
Honestly, how incompetent.
“Tell her I requested new tea.”
“Ah—y-yes! I’ll bring it right away!”
Lena quickly relayed the order, and the maid hurried off to the kitchen.
Caleb rubbed his temple with a sigh.
“She’s been here since last year. The only thing she’s improved at is absolutely nothing, but she’s otherwise quite a good girl.”
Maybe that was what the guards meant when they said she was affectionate.
Only someone as strict as Caleb would tolerate a maid who never improved at her job.
I leaned back into the sofa and asked,
“Marquis, continue that story.”
“What story?”
“The massacre. That’s what you called it earlier.”
Caleb narrowed his eyes.
“Surely you don’t not know how magic disappeared from the Empire?”
“I only know the basics—that to protect the Empire from dark magic, all mages were exterminated.”
Caleb clicked his tongue loudly.
“Tsk. That’s exactly the problem. Scholars twisted things however they pleased and call it history…”
He became more and more heated as he spoke, launching into a long explanation.
His voice gradually rose in intensity, though he occasionally paused with a cough to regain composure.
“The truth is, Emperor Letoan simply wanted to eliminate magic itself because it threatened his power.”
“Oh?”
“If you look at this section here—this part—”
He even fetched a book from his study to explain in detail.
I listened quietly.
“Claiming that existing dark magic suddenly became a threat doesn’t make sense.”
I occasionally chimed in as he spoke.
“And there are far too many suspicious details. If you look here as well…”
By the time he finished his explanation, a long time had passed.
The tea the maid had brought was now cold, and Lena had started dozing off while standing.
“…That went on longer than expected.”
Caleb checked the time and scratched the back of his head.
“It was interesting,” I said.
“Hmm. I suppose you do have better focus than I expected.”
He muttered awkwardly, then suddenly stood up.
“….”
“…What?”
“Cough. Nothing. Forget I said anything.”
“Oh, I do have good focus.”
“…You heard that clearly just now!”
Caleb’s ears turned bright red as he shouted, then quickly shut his mouth.
“Please return to the palace. It’s late.”
“It’s still daytime.”
“I’m a very busy man. Tsk. You’ve already taken enough of my time.”
“Alright, alright.”
What a picky old man.
As I left the reception room with Lena, Caleb muttered behind me.
“Your comprehension isn’t as bad as I thought…”
“Hm?”
He hadn’t meant for me to hear it, apparently, because when I turned around, he flailed his hands in panic.
“Are you still here? I told you to leave!”
“Honestly, what an attitude.”
He grumbled and kept watching from the window until the carriage disappeared from sight.
Meanwhile
Dayton arrived at the estate to report on the ongoing transfer process, but he could not understand what he was seeing.
“Hoho, yes! Then what happens when we combine X and Y?”
From the slightly open study, Marquis Miller’s lively voice echoed.
He sounded completely absorbed in teaching.
Most of the time, Miller would ask questions or explain, while Melissa would respond or nod.
Just yesterday, the princess had complained that the old man only talked about what he wanted and told him to leave.
Dayton himself had even sent a letter last night asking her to supervise the lesson, just in case.
If this change was because of his request, then surely Miller would not be acting like this.
“…What on earth happened?”
Could a person change this much in just a few hours?
As he muttered in disbelief, someone suddenly answered.
“Grand Duke Colin, it seems the two of them got along well yesterday!”
A short, light brown bob swayed at her chin. It was Lena.
Recognizing her as Princess Melissa’s attendant, Dayton lowered his voice.
“What happened at the manor?”
“They talked about things they absolutely shouldn’t have yesterday!”
Lena spoke brightly.
Her round eyes carried no sense of seriousness at all.
“Things they shouldn’t have?”
“Things about truth and justice that must not be buried.”
She clenched her fist dramatically and looked up at him.
“About proper criticism and truth.”
“…There’s no mention of who they criticized…”
“I’m sorry, Grand Duke Colin, but I cannot tell you more than this.”
She said she was sorry—but didn’t look particularly apologetic.
If anything, she seemed oddly excited.
Dayton stared at her in disbelief.
