🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 12
“I should get going. I’ve been away too long under the excuse of helping others.”
“That’s true… Though it’s kind of sudden, thank you.”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Well, to be honest, your position as captain is mostly a formality, isn’t it? It was meant to politically win you over, so I didn’t expect you to actually care about the duties.”
“You’re the one who said I wasn’t doing my job as captain before… Anyway, I just do whatever I feel like.”
“So that means you’ll continue doing the captain’s duties only when you feel like it?”
“You’ve just realized that?”
Riena laughed cheerfully and roughly ruffled Ron’s hair.
“And I know you’ve been worried about the young lady because of personal reasons… Never mind, that’s none of my business.”
“It’s fine.”
“Fine, my foot. You need to redo your dye job.”
Riena pointed with her chin at Ron’s hair, where his natural blond color was beginning to show through.
“Ah!”
Startled, Ron hurriedly covered his head.
“And one more thing — you’ve been meeting the young lady and young master quite often these days, haven’t you?”
“Well…”
Seeing him avert his gaze, Riena looked again at his hair, sighed, and continued.
“I can guess why you’re visiting so often… but don’t tell the young lady that you’re suspicious of Rick.”
“I think the reason you’re guessing might be different from the real one…”
Ron muttered with tired eyes, and Riena raised an eyebrow.
“Hm… then maybe I should dig a little deeper?”
“No! But about that boy, Rick…”
“You’ve never had access to maps or documents before, so you wouldn’t have found it strange, but you’ll realize it soon enough.”
Still, Ron hesitated to speak openly. After all, Riena often mentioned Rick when she served the young lady.
They must have been quite close…
“Anyway, for now, don’t say anything about that.”
“Yes, understood.”
“I’m back, my lady.”
Riena entered the room and approached Eloise.
“…”
But Eloise didn’t respond, her gaze still fixed on the garden outside the window. It seemed she was waiting for someone to bring news of Rick. Seeing that, Riena quietly sighed.
“My lady.”
When she called again, Eloise quickly asked,
“Oh, did you finish helping? By the way, has any other news come in?”
“No, not yet… I’ll let you know immediately if we hear anything about Rick’s whereabouts.”
Hearing what she didn’t want to hear, Eloise nodded gloomily.
“I see…”
“Please don’t worry too much. We’ll find him soon.”
At Riena’s careful tone, Eloise turned to her and saw the concern in her face.
“Right!”
I can’t be like this. Riena’s worried too.
Forcing a bright smile, Eloise tried to change the mood.
“Anyway, it’s snowing a lot.”
“It really is. It just keeps coming down. I wanted to show you the northern plaza and the pretty streets.”
“It’s too hard to move around right now.”
“In the north, even northerners stay inside during winter. Leaving the house now would be impossible.”
Riena murmured wearily.
“You look exhausted.”
“Ah, it’s just… the northern winters are so harsh.”
“Really?”
Well, Ron had said Riena was born and raised in the desert. No wonder she struggled with the completely opposite climate.
After that, Kylian and Eloise often spent time with Ron, hearing many things from him — including that Riena was not a maid but actually the captain of the Reston family’s knights.
Since few servants knew she wasn’t a northerner, she had been assigned to the mission of finding the spy.
“Still, isn’t it beautiful? I love watching the snow fall.”
“At this point, it’s starting to get tiring.”
“That’s true.”
Eloise nodded and stood up.
“Are you going to the library where the young master is?”
“Yeah.”
“You two seem to have gotten close.”
“Huh? Now that you mention it, I guess we have.”
At Riena’s words, Eloise realized how much closer she and Kylian had grown.
I’ve never felt this comfortable with anyone before. Maybe it’s because we fought? I’d never fought with anyone like that before, either.
Even though they’d bickered and teased each other countless times since, they now spent their days together easily. Eloise could barely remember what they had fought about in the first place.
“Should I bring some refreshments to the library?”
“No, I’ll take them myself.”
Eloise hurried to say it, recalling Kylian’s uneasy face whenever Riena was around.
“I feel like the young master really hates me.”
“Stop teasing him, then.”
Though he clearly disliked it, Riena had once brought Kylian to Eloise’s room anyway. It wasn’t that he disliked seeing Eloise — he simply couldn’t handle Riena being right there.
After the day Riena had insisted on feeding him herself, Kylian had fled to the library to avoid her ever since.
Remembering his horrified face, Eloise glanced sideways at Riena.
“I’m just a lowly maid. How could I dare! I just want to make a good impression on the young master, that’s all.”
“There’s no way that’s all…”
Eloise recalled the scene she and Kylian had secretly watched a few days ago with Ron’s help — Riena easily defeating large knights with swift, precise movements.
Even to Eloise, who knew nothing about swordsmanship, Riena’s skill was clearly exceptional.
“Yes?”
“It’s nothing. Just bring the snacks — I’ll wait in the library.”
“Yes. The cookies should be done baking by now.”
“Okay.”
After waiting about five minutes, Riena came back looking troubled.
“My lady, I’m sorry. Could you go to the library first? I’ll bring them to you shortly.”
“All right. Take your time.”
She must be busy.
After all, the Grand Duke was supposed to arrive today. The mansion was full of bustling servants preparing for his reception.
Passing through the commotion, Eloise opened the library door.
“You’re here?”
Kylian waved at her casually. Eloise sighed. He didn’t have much to do, yet he was still avoiding people.
“Riena said she’d bring some snacks later. I tried to get them myself, but she seemed too busy.”
“Riena? That’s… inconvenient.”
“Don’t avoid her so much.”
Ron, a knight who also carried a sword, didn’t make Kylian uncomfortable — but Riena, dressed as a maid, somehow did. Eloise shook her head.
“You can say that even after seeing what happened?”
“Well, yeah. She was incredible with that sword.”
Anyone who’d seen Riena in action would’ve understood why Kylian avoided her, especially after she tried to feed him.
“But doesn’t that sword bother you? Ron carries one too, and you don’t seem to mind.”
“At first it did. But now… I just feel stupid.”
After a careless slip of the tongue a few days ago, Ron had given them plenty of blackmail material and was now being relentlessly teased by both Kylian and Eloise. Watching his increasingly gloomy face made Eloise feel a little guilty.
“I get it. If you’re going to hide something, at least hide it properly. It’s too obvious.”
“At this point, avoiding Ron makes me feel like an idiot. He’ll get found out soon anyway.”
“Not really — the other knights are avoiding her too, so it might actually help him stay unnoticed.”
“Why?”
“Well, it’s like at work — you don’t necessarily hang around your boss all the time.”
Eloise muttered, recalling a scene from one of the dramas she’d watched in her previous life. Kylian looked puzzled.
“Work? What’s that? You use strange words sometimes.”
Oh no! I just said something from my previous life!
Why now, of all times? I’ve been watching too many dramas!
Eloise hurried to change the subject.
“Uh… So anyway! Why do you keep hiding in the library?”
“You’re obviously trying to change the subject. Now I’m even more curious. What’s ‘work’?”
“Can’t we just… move on to another topic?”
