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Chapter 10 — 7. Sunset and Darkness (1)
The tea had long since gone cold.
He kept trying to lift the teacup, as if conscious of Lucienne’s gaze, but each time it only rattled quietly before he set it down again.
“Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I don’t really drink beverages given by others.”
“I’m the one who asked without thinking. You don’t need to apologize. And I used to be the same way.”
Lucienne replied lightly, as if it were nothing.
“You used to…?”
“I don’t know why, but it felt uncomfortable. After I started working, I didn’t have the luxury to care about things like that, so I got over it. My younger brother is still like that though. I guess a lot of people are.”
There was no way many people were like that.
Nobles who attended social gatherings drank tea or drinks offered by others half the time.
And that habit wasn’t something he originally had…
He was distracted so abruptly that the blinding glow of the sunset pierced his eyes.
The red light pouring onto her kept bothering him, and before he realized it, he reached out his hand.
“What are you doing?”
“…It looked like the sun was in your eyes.”
Lucienne’s mouth parted slightly in disbelief.
To be fair, the sunlight had grown long and bright enough to be dazzling.
The sunset no longer shone on her once his hand cast a shadow above her head. But now, in a different sense, she was dazzling.
He didn’t seem to know why he liked shielding the sunlight from her, yet he looked satisfied only after doing so.
He kept doing such foolish things—and that face of his was ridiculously harmful to the heart.
“Are you planning to stay like that?”
“……”
Chester stayed silent.
He had nothing to say, but neither did he want to move his hand away.
Every time her hair was dyed by the red glow of the sunset, something inexplicable stirred inside him—so strongly that it felt unpleasant.
Lucienne was smiling, as though she found the whole situation amusing.
She didn’t seem guarded at all, and that made him relax a little. She was unpredictable.
Her body was so fragile it made you wonder if she was truly human, yet her temperament was such that she could throw a punch at any moment.
Her hair, skin, eyes—every color on her was pale, and yet her expressions and actions were endlessly vivid and hard to keep up with.
She was the one who had shocked high society and him by boldly claiming she had feelings for Chester Rosanacht—someone no one dared approach—and then, just as suddenly, withdrew all her affection one day.
It had been a relief, really. Nothing good could come from getting tangled with him.
And yet… it had left emptiness, like sand slipping through his grasp.
But the moment he realized everything had been a misunderstanding, he’d wanted to shove his useless head straight into the fireplace.
The only reason he could sit calmly in front of her now was because Lucienne herself had not noticed his misunderstanding.
For someone who worried unnecessarily about everything, she was surprisingly oblivious.
She’d cross boundaries without hesitation, then draw new boundaries on her own whenever he tried to approach—
as if taking back something she had placed into his hands.
“…May I ask you for a favor?”
“So that’s why you were acting like this! I told you earlier—I owe you, remember? Go ahead.”
Still, one thing was certain.
She was generous when someone needed help or a favor.
Among the few things he’d learned about the person who had been the subject of his foolish misunderstandings, he had kept this one in mind.
Though he didn’t know why he wanted to remember something like that.
The blazing tail of the sunset soon calmed, and he finally lowered the hand he’d held over Lucienne.
On the way back to his mansion in the capital from Noctua, Chester lifted his eyes from the documents and looked out the carriage window.
It had been ten years since he last traveled this road, yet strangely, it didn’t feel unfamiliar.
The moment the carriage wheels—whose movement he had wished could last forever—finally stopped, everything had changed…
“You’ve returned.”
The butler’s calm voice broke his thoughts.
“Anything unusual?”
“Nothing yet. I’ve placed the letter Lord Ethan sent on your desk.”
“Alright.”
He walked down the long corridor toward his office and at last removed the formal attire he had worn all day.
Even if it was crafted with all kinds of mechanisms for comfort, wearing something that wrapped him from fingertips to toes in this weather wasn’t pleasant.
His body felt lighter, but his mood sank even further.
His servants must have tended to the room well, yet the office held no warmth at all.
Compared to where he had been just moments ago, it felt even colder than usual.
The places Chester Rosanacht stayed were always like that.
“Hey, who did you meet?”
A voice asked from the corner of the room—settling there naturally as though it were its own space.
Chester removed his gloves and slowly turned around.
In the thick darkness, a pair of golden eyes glowed ominously.
“Your mana flow isn’t the same as usual. Ahh, so that’s why your corpse-like face looks a little fresher today?”
“……”
“What’s with that expression? Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”
Cackling, the boyish figure burst into a carefree laugh and suddenly leaned right up to Chester’s face.
When he got no reaction at all, he clicked his tongue and leaned back again.
“If I were you, I’d cling to whoever that guy is and squeeze him dry down to the bone. Your mana, which usually riots even in front of me, is behaving so nicely right now—and you’re telling me you didn’t notice?”
Only then did Chester remember—
not once today had he reached for a cigar.
The sinister power he could barely endure with a human body—
the tangled mix of all sorts of stray mana that weighed heavily on his lungs—
that awful sensation… was completely gone.
His special medicinal cigars, made to purge that toxic residue, were still untouched in his inner pocket.
Why?
As if reading his question, the boy answered casually.
“Sometimes it happens. Your mana and someone else’s are an incredibly good match. At this rate, you’d be better off charming that guy than relying on those little magic trinkets you wear everywhere. So? Who was it?”
The person closest to him all day had been Lucienne.
But instead of giving that name to this ominous being whose motives he couldn’t guess, he offered a different one.
“As you said, I met Noctua’s headmaster—Aten.”
“Oh? That old man? His mana shouldn’t be compatible with yours. He must’ve taken pity on your miserable face and patched you up a little.”
The boy looked about the same age as Headmaster Aten on the surface.
But since he called Aten “old man,” he was clearly far younger.
Well, Aten had the speech of an old man but acted younger, while this brat before him looked young but acted with the insolence of something far older.
“So, Aten agreed to cooperate?”
“He said he would.”
“Good. He’s obsessed with money, but he keeps his word.”
The boy flopped back down on the sofa. The oversized robe draped over him spilled messily to the floor, but he didn’t care.
Annoyed at the sight of a mere freeloader sprawled out like it was his own home, Chester yanked away the cushion the boy was using as a pillow.
The boy smacked his head on the armrest and burst into furious yelling.
“Hey!! How dare you—!”
“I’ll uphold my end of the bargain. So get lost and go back to where you came from.”
“This brat—! Is that how you talk to your elders? Oh, right, you don’t have parents!”
“And yours never taught you basic manners, I see.”
Two orphans exchanged barbed, merciless insults.
“I don’t need manners! You—! If it weren’t for me, you would’ve died ages ago!”
Was he planning on bringing that up every single day?
Chester threw the cushion back at the screeching brat and pressed his fingers to his temple.
‘That thing’ had nested in the ducal mansion a month ago.
He had been in the capital for only three or four days. Then, drenched in the early spring drizzle, the uninvited guest had come—and sat exactly like this, waiting for him.
“Long time no see, little Rosanacht.”
Ten years ago, on a battlefield, Chester had met this demon.
“I kept my promise. I gave you power, and you used it to reclaim the ducal seat just like you wanted.”
“And now, ten years later, you’ve come back here…”
“Yes. It’s time for you to keep your promise.”
