Chapter 39

39

Jenis and the mercenaries had been given a separate guest annex, but Leonard, as the future consort, was given a bedroom on the east side of the third floor of the main house.

To be precise, a bedroom was not all he had been given. Including the bedroom along the east corridor, a study, an office, and the lobby leading to the balcony, all nine rooms were his.

“Of course, once we’re married, you won’t be using this bedroom anymore.”

“Even if my wife throws me out?”

“Then you’ll just have to treat your wife well, won’t you?”

Giving Leonard a quick wink, Irenea stepped back and told him to rest for the night.

“From tomorrow you’ll be too busy to catch your breath, so brace yourself.”

“The groom lessons, I take it.”

Irenea nodded with a smile.

“And we have to prepare for the wedding, too. I’ve drawn up the whole first draft, so all that’s left is for you to choose what you like and stamp your seal. Here.”

Irenea herself slipped a thick ring onto Leonard’s left little finger.

It had originally been worn on the Marchioness’s ring finger, so it only just fit over Leonard’s little finger, and the Blair family crest was engraved into it.

“You’re the Marquis consort now, so you know you’ll be running this mansion’s household from here on, don’t you?”

“I’m not sure I can manage it well.”

“You’ll learn. Daymond will help you.”

Even at the mention that the head steward would assist him, Leonard wasn’t confident, but he couldn’t complain before he had even tried, so he simply nodded.

“There’s something I’d like to ask. Who is responsible for the security of this mansion?”

“Our family’s order of knights, of course.”

After answering so, Irenea made a small sound of realization a moment later and added:

“Could you be asking because of the unidentified people surrounding the mansion?”

Leonard’s eyes widened.

“You knew?”

“Of course I knew. They’re my secret bodyguards.”

“Is that so?”

In that case it was fine, Leonard thought, and nodded.

When he had visited this mansion before and after the banquet, he hadn’t paid it much attention and so hadn’t noticed, but when he returned today, something had grated against his senses.

People concealed all around the mansion, ringing it. Their stealth, which blended into the surroundings at regular intervals, was well beyond the level of ordinary knights.

To be precise, it was the craft of assassins.

One or two would have been one thing, but there were well over ten of them, so Leonard had walked into the mansion pretending not to notice. If it came to it, he had planned to enlist his comrades’ help to find out who they were.

“For your information, your comrades have already found those people and stirred them up once. My poor shadows still haven’t gotten the bruises off their faces, so don’t be suspicious of them and go to bed early. All right?”

“Understood.”

So they had at least tried to earn their keep. Leonard nodded with a small smile.

As if she found him commendable, Irenea gave a pretty, smiling-eyed look.

“I’ll introduce them to you when there’s time. Oh, and the post of commander of our knight order is currently vacant.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the position of Marquis consort has been empty all this time?”

In other words, that seat was Leonard’s.

“Daymond will take you to the training grounds tomorrow and introduce you to the knights.”

“In short, it’s a case of the newcomer pushing out the one who was here first.”

“Correction. The newcomer is slipping into an empty spot.”

It was truly late, Irenea said, and left with only a light, smiling-eyed look behind her.

“In this mansion, you hold rights equal to mine. So if there’s anything you want to do, do as you please. Don’t lose heart over being the newcomer or anything like that.”

Leonard couldn’t bring himself to ask the receding back.

How could she tell him to do as he pleased when she didn’t even know what he meant to do?

‘I’m almost afraid she’d answer, “Anything.”‘

After raking a hand through his hair once, Leonard sent away the valet who clung behind him like a shadow and went into the bedroom.

The room, which must originally have been the Marchioness’s bedroom, was filled with heavy-feeling wooden furniture with barely any ornamentation. Perhaps it had been chosen with his tastes in mind.

‘…It’s not bad.’

He almost regretted that he wouldn’t be able to use this room once they were married.

Should he ask whether he could at least use it for short naps during the day? Leonard huffed out a laugh, bewildered at himself for thinking such a thing.

“Well then, I suppose it’s time…”

To go have a proper talk.

Irenea had told him to sleep early since he’d be busy from tomorrow, but that was exactly why he had to finish this conversation tonight.

After leaving the bedroom, Leonard glanced for no reason toward the west corridor where Irenea had gone, and then slipped quietly outside without making a sound.

Servants who hadn’t finished their work yet were still moving about the corridors, but no one noticed Leonard, who had concealed his presence.

Thanks to that, Leonard was able to reach the annex dining room without being seen by anyone.

A wide table that could seat more than five people, and a place that was well soundproofed once the door was shut.

There, as he had told them beforehand, the mercenaries were gathered around the table.

“You’re here?”

“Earlier than I expected.”

They must have been drinking while they waited, because the table was covered with bottles and snacks like sausages, smoked duck, and roasted beans.

Just looking at this scene, he could roughly guess how they’d been spending their time here. Waving off the glass Michelle offered him, Leonard sat in an empty chair.

“The carving outside is Uncle’s work, isn’t it? Why on earth did he carve something as random as a camel?”

The answer came from Michelle, who was snickering.

“Leave him be. It’s his hobby. Pulling out a carving knife the moment he’s in front of a child.”

Heath, with a build like a mountain and a fierce face to match, was such a perfect picture of a bandit that even his own comrades were startled by him now and then.

Unlike that exterior, however, his insides were rather soft, and he was especially kind to children. That had been true for the Leonard of the past as well.

When Leonard had first been sold to this mercenary band as a squire, Camila had only subjected him to harsh training, intent on making him her successor. All the child-rearing tasks, feeding, washing, and putting the exhausted Leonard to bed, had been handled entirely by Heath.

If not for Heath’s care, wouldn’t Leonard have been unable to grow up in such sound shape? It was because of that that, out of everyone here, he called only Heath “Uncle.”

“Ah, did he carve it for Charlot to see?”

“That cute little tot has her own.”

“That young lady is going to go far. Ray, you don’t know, do you? That little one grabbed hold of Heath’s hand and went all over the garden, and ended up taking a pile of his squirrel and bird carvings.”

At Bin’s remark that her room was probably a zoo by now, Leonard made a strange face.

“Impressive. She didn’t even cry when she saw Uncle’s face…”

“You didn’t either.”

“If I’d seen Uncle first, I might have.”

The reason he hadn’t cried was that from the very first day he’d been sold to the mercenary band, Camila had rolled him around in the name of training.

In truth, that hadn’t been the first day of training. From the earliest day he could remember, Leonard had learned how to use his body from his birth mother. And in the manner of an assassin, at that.

The only difference was that Camila’s training was far harsher than his mother’s.

‘I did tell you to earn the worth of your gold coins, but I won’t keep you alive just because I’d hate to waste the money, brat.’

“Come to think of it, on your first night you slept in the same room as Heath and ran away, didn’t you? Wasn’t that because you were scared of Heath?”

“Why would I be scared of Heath? There was someone far scarier.”

“Hmm…”

Well, that was true, everyone nodded.

Over the long years, countless people had come and gone from the Iron-Blood Mercenary Band, but none had possessed charisma as intense as Camila’s.

Which was probably why she had held the post of commander from the day she founded the band with Heath, just the two of them, until the moment she left it.

“In all my days, I’d never met a woman like that. It’s a wonder I didn’t swear to live alone until I died, isn’t it?”

“Don’t make me laugh. It’s because you’d hate to spend money on a wedding.”

“Don’t slander me! How many times do I have to say it? If I ever meet a woman I love, I’ll pour my entire fortune into her!”

“If you ask me, that line alone is why she’ll never marry.”

“Michelle, give it a try.”

“Yeah. You can just take her whole fortune and divorce her.”

At Heath’s and Leonard’s goading, Michelle’s shoulders shuddered.

“Are you crazy? Not even if she offered double her entire fortune!”

“I’d hate it more!”

Watching his comrades make a raucous racket, he was overcome by the feeling of having gone back to the old days.

It hadn’t been such a long time since then, so why did it feel so distant?

As Leonard recalled Camila’s face, which had by now nearly faded, he picked up the glass pushed aside next to him and downed the drink in one gulp.

“Sorry, but I have to sleep early tonight. So let’s get to the point.”

Grabbing a handful of roasted beans and tossing them into his mouth, Leonard swept his gaze across each mercenary’s face.

“Why did you come up to the capital?”

“Uh…”

As if passing the answer off to one another, everyone looked at the person across from them or beside them.

The silence that settled in the meantime only grew heavier as time passed.

As Leonard’s eyes narrowed along with it, Michelle opened her mouth as if shoved from behind.

“Well, ahem. We came because we were worried about Miss Jenis.”

“That’s not when you came up.”

“Isn’t it? It is when we came up, though?”

“So you didn’t come to the capital following me?”

“Of course not. At that time we were at the Elpiers estate. Right?”

Seeking agreement left and right, Michelle got a vigorous nod from Bin and Heath, united in heart and mind.

Honestly, had they all turned into sly old foxes with age? Their acting was uncannily good. If he hadn’t heard the story separately, he’d have been fooled.

“In other words, Sir Hawk went all the way to the Elpiers estate and hired a guide to lead him to the Elpiers estate.”

“Uh… Right. It would’ve been easier to hire one in the capital, so why did he do that?”

“…”

Screwed.

Even without Leonard’s icy, frozen gaze, Michelle’s vacant voice as she said it made everyone sense it at once.

Even Michelle herself.