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Chapter 55
They had been living in the same room for a while, but it had been a long time since they’d actually spent time together like this.
“Feels good.”
“What does?”
“The eye mask. I feel like some of the fatigue’s easing off.”
“Maybe that’s because you’re lying on a soft bed instead of falling asleep on the sofa every night?”
“Could be.”
His tone was as casual as always. Still, for some reason, Lyle felt different today—maybe it was because of the pink eye mask he was wearing, or because he was lying in the bed he always used alone.
“I hired new servants today. For now, I picked about twenty people in a hurry, and among them, there was one who turned out to be Colin’s cousin.”
“Really?”
“Colin’s younger brother is sick. Did you know that?”
“…Is that so? I think I heard he was frail to begin with. He volunteered for the war to pay for his brother’s medicine. Is it serious?”
“I don’t think so. When I asked, the amount of money he said he needed wasn’t that much.”
Elaine sighed softly.
“I asked him why he didn’t just join a knight order to solve the problem, but apparently none of them would take him.”
“It’s not just Colin. None of the commoners who were granted titles have been accepted into any order. They all knew this would happen.”
Lyle spoke calmly, saying that for those men, a small cash reward would’ve been more useful than a flashy knighthood.
But Elaine’s voice rose slightly in protest.
“That’s just… so unfair. To refuse them just because they’re commoners?”
“The official excuse is lack of skill, of course. Whether it’s unfair doesn’t matter. If you’re paying the same wage, it’s natural to prefer a noble over a commoner.”
“How is that natural? If they really lacked skill, they wouldn’t have survived that long on the battlefield!”
The frustration she had shaken off during her outing earlier returned.
“It’s the same as no one applying to join the Grand Duke’s order. They don’t want to take the risk.”
A wry smile touched his lips. Elaine lifted Lyle’s eye mask slightly, and their eyes met.
“What do you mean by that?”
It had only been a few weeks since he was granted permission to form a knight order. They hadn’t discussed it in detail, so she thought it was progressing as planned.
“No one’s applied? No one at all?”
“They think serving the house of a traitor is a disgrace. And they don’t want to go somewhere as dangerous as the Mabel Mountains.”
Lyle pulled the pink eye mask back down over his eyes.
“So I just met with Colin.”
“Colin?”
“And a few others who might be useful.”
He had just returned from a tavern where he met them—ten who had once served under him as captains of ten, and another ten he had noticed for their skill on the battlefield.
It wasn’t enough to call it a proper order, but the minimum requirement of fifteen knights with official titles to establish one was satisfied.
“I told some of my old subordinates to contact capable men they know. We’ll need more people soon.”
Those who hadn’t yet received official titles would be hired as trainee knights.
The men he reunited with had been rowdy and loud, drinking nonstop. They’d joked that their medals were useless trinkets and laughed with joy when they realized they could still become knights. Remembering their faces, a faint smile touched Lyle’s lips again.
“You should’ve told me that first,” Elaine grumbled beside him, embarrassed now that she’d gotten so worked up earlier.
“To clear out the Mabel Mountain Range, I’d rather have men who know how to work together. They just came back from war—their instincts are still sharp.”
Their fighting style was rougher than what one might expect of knights, but they were loyal to him.
Lyle closed his eyes. In truth, he hadn’t only met old comrades today. Before returning home, he had called Leo to the tavern—Leo had said he had something urgent to discuss. Being a noble to his bones, Leo had been horrified by the shabby tavern and filthy alleyway.
“It seems the Marquis of Redwood has been interfering behind the scenes.”
Lyle had already suspected as much, but hearing it confirmed sent a quiet fury boiling beneath his ribs.
He had thought something was strange.
The terms he’d offered for recruitment were good. Even if he couldn’t lure knights already belonging to prominent orders, there should have been plenty of newly knighted men or underpaid ones willing to join.
Yet no one came. Which meant someone was blocking them.
Leo said he’d found out while asking around among the royal guards’ recruits if anyone suitable might be interested.
“For some reason, the Marquis of Redwood seems very displeased that Your Grace is forming a knight order.”
Recalling Leo’s words, Lyle asked Elaine, “You said the Redwoods tried to secretly plant people among the new servants, right?”
“Yes. I confirmed it after hearing Diane’s warning—some of the applicants had worked for their household for years.”
It was too persistent to be just resentment over the broken engagement with Diane.
There was no reason for a powerful man like the Marquis of Redwood to keep his guard up against a house that existed in name only.
Maybe the interference with the knight order really was just petty revenge. And perhaps those maids only applied to the Grand Duke’s mansion because of higher wages or better conditions.
But Lyle’s instincts—honed over years of danger—warned him to stay wary of the Marquis.
“I think it’s actually better this way. I don’t know much about knightly life, but Leo said that a real knight order has to move as one body.”
The subjugation of the Mabel Mountains was already dangerous—lives could easily be lost. If they couldn’t recruit truly exceptional knights, it was better to take men they trusted than strangers.
“Yeah. I think so too.”
As they talked, Lyle felt the bed shift beside him.
When he lifted his eye mask slightly, he saw Elaine lying next to him.
“Haa. If I’d known that earlier, I would’ve stayed home and rested. I got all worked up and ended up following the butler to the market.”
If Colin and the other commoner knights joined the Grant Order, it would benefit everyone. Whether she should feel relieved or foolish for worrying so much, Elaine didn’t know. Fatigue overcame her, and she murmured sleepily as she lay down.
“You’re not uncomfortable, are you?”
“…Not at all.”
He wasn’t uncomfortable—just surprised. Even though they’d been sharing a room, it was so large and their routines so separate that he’d never seen her this close before.
“Mmm.”
With a rustle, Elaine turned toward him. Lyle froze for a moment, but she was already asleep, breathing evenly.
His first thought, seeing her up close, was that her eyelashes were incredibly long. They curved upward softly like waves, and a lock of pink hair slipped over her cheek as she curled up slightly.
She really must’ve been tired—she fell into a deep sleep.
Lyle couldn’t look away. Holding up his pink eye mask in one hand, he gazed at her for a long time.
He’d never had much to do with women, but he knew Elaine was beautiful. What a strange woman—beautiful, noble, blessed with everything, and yet she’d gone and done something insane like marrying him.
One of her eyelashes had fallen onto the tip of her nose. Gently, Lyle brushed it away. Elaine scrunched her nose at the ticklish touch.
She had only meant to lie down for a moment but ended up falling asleep. When Elaine’s eyes blinked open, Lyle was no longer beside her.
Looking around, she noticed a long leg sticking out from the sofa.
“What? He’s sleeping there again?”
She had made such an effort to talk to him properly, and yet somehow he’d gone back to the sofa.
He was a light sleeper, but she hadn’t noticed him move at all.
“Pfft.”
Sneaking closer, Elaine couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of him still wearing that ridiculous pink eye mask.
Stifling her laughter so she wouldn’t wake him, she slipped quietly out of the room—she needed to tell the butler to hurry up and finish the repairs on her own room.
As the door clicked shut, Lyle—who hadn’t moved an inch—removed his eye mask.
“…I’d better tell the butler to hurry up with that construction.”
Somehow, he had a feeling that sharing a room from now on might become… a little awkward.
