Chapter 49

Chapter 49

“Did Jenis tell Lady Elizabeth outright that her very existence was overwhelming?”

“…Not exactly.”

Elizabeth glanced at Leonard hesitantly before slowly opening her mouth.

“W-Well, you know that enormous man made a strange sculpture in the garden of the annex, right? I went to have a look at it, and I happened to overhear them talking.”

“A strange sculpture… Do you mean the camel?”

“A camel? Is that what it’s called? I’ve read about them in books. They have water pouches on their backs, which allow them to survive in the desert, right? Is that really a water pouch on its back?”

Watching her excitedly pour out one question after another reminded Leonard of something Michelle had once said.

‘Leave him alone. It’s his hobby, after all. The moment he sees a child, he reaches for his carving knife.’

‘Oh, did he carve that for Charlotte to look at?’

‘He’s making something else for that adorable little girl.’

Ah, so that was it.

The camel sculpture had been made for Elizabeth to look at, not Charlotte.

‘Did he deliberately choose an animal that Lady Elizabeth wouldn’t be familiar with?’

Perhaps Heath had noticed the distance between Elizabeth and Jenis long ago.

That was why he had wanted to give Elizabeth something they could talk about, something that might encourage her to approach Jenis first.

‘It’s not as though Jenis has any friends, either.’

After falling into debt, Jenis had swallowed her pride and asked people to lend her money, only to grow distant from the friends she had once associated with.

One of them had even stolen Jenis’s fiancé.

In the end, Jenis was just as friendless as Elizabeth, and Leonard hoped his younger sister wouldn’t miss the opportunity to make a new friend.

“Have you tried asking Jenis that question?”

“Huh? About the camel? No, I haven’t. Why would I ask her?”

“Try asking her sometime. Jenis knows quite a lot about places like Illum, where the snow never melts even in summer, and the Weinberg Great Forest, not just the desert.”

“The Weinberg Great Forest? You mean the place where they discovered the ruins of a collapsed royal palace last year? How does she know about that?”

In response to Elizabeth’s question, Leonard brought up something rather unexpected.

“Ever since Jenis began drowning in debt, she started putting a price on everything around her.”

She began keeping a record of gifts she would once have accepted with a simple thank-you, making sure to repay each one with something of equivalent value.

It was the last way she could preserve her pride after suddenly finding herself buried in debt.

Over the past three years, what had made Jenis feel most miserable wasn’t the letters that went unanswered, but the small sums of money sent to her like charity, accompanied by the words, ‘Don’t contact me again.’

“The only gifts Jenis could accept without feeling compelled to repay them were the stories we told her. So, Lady Elizabeth…”

Elizabeth felt that there was something strangely familiar about the expression on Leonard’s face as he looked at her.

“If you ever find yourself giving her something, ask her to tell you a story about the desert in return.”

Elizabeth immediately recognized that expression.

It was much like the one Irenea sometimes wore when looking at her.

“She’s very good at recounting stories she’s heard from others as vividly as though she’d experienced them herself. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time listening to her.”

It was an expression that seemed to hold both concern and affection, something that couldn’t quite be captured in a single word.

Were older siblings always like that?

Would she look at Charlotte the same way?

Unable to imagine it at all, Elizabeth grumbled for no particular reason.

“Neither of you is even that much older than me.”

“Pardon?”

“I was talking to myself.”

Putting on an intentionally haughty expression, Elizabeth brushed the grass from her hands and stood up.

“I’m going to bed now. You should get some sleep, too, Brother-to-be. Don’t you dare show up tomorrow with swollen eyes and make people say my sister was forced to marry a man she didn’t even want!”

“I’ll just say I cried because I missed my late parents.”

“Uh…”

Caught completely off guard by his unexpected response, Elizabeth couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

She glanced around, recalling what she had said earlier and what Leonard had just told her.

“Ah, um… So you mean you don’t actually cry when you think about your late parents? I guess your parents must have died quite noisily, too. Mine did. My uncle even conspired with the butler to steal our inheritance, going so far as to forge a will and a fake family seal.”

“You mentioned that the retainers were close to your uncle. It seems there were more people involved than I thought.”

“There were plenty. He’s Viscount Calio now, but my uncle was once the young master of House Blair, too…”

The retainers who had sided with Viscount Calio were a bunch of hardheaded fools.

They had resented the idea of Irenea, a woman, becoming the next Marquis of Blair.

It was ridiculous, really.

The current Empress was a woman, too. Would they dare say the same thing to Her Majesty’s face?

Despite being retainers sworn to serve House Blair, they had treated Irenea, the rightful heir, with utter contempt.

As punishment, they had lost both their money and their titles and been banished from the Blair territory.

But that hadn’t been enough to satisfy Elizabeth.

Even after all these years, she still couldn’t forget the faces of her former friends, who had knelt before her, begging and pleading, saying they had been friends for so long and asking her to forgive them just this once.

“…Brother-to-be, you must never do that. My sister chose you, so I’m sure you’ll treat her well. But if you ever betray her, I’ll chase you to the very depths of hell and make you pay. Understand?”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You really mean it, right? You’ve sworn!”

He hadn’t exactly sworn anything.

Leonard had been about to point that out, but Elizabeth looked so serious that he simply nodded.

“Good. I’ll believe you.”

“Thank you.”

Even as he answered, Leonard wondered whether this was really something he ought to be thanking her for.

However, seeing the tension fade from Elizabeth’s eyes, which had been fixed on him so sternly, he decided to let it go.

“Here. I’ll give this back to you now.”

“It’s fine. Keep it on.”

“I’m not fine with that. Imagine how startled Anne would be if she went to bed with nothing in her room, only to find a man’s clothes lying in her bedroom the next morning!”

Elizabeth shot Leonard an exasperated look as she took off the jacket and handed it back to him, as if asking how he could possibly not understand something so obvious.

Now that he thought about it, she had a point, so Leonard accepted the jacket without arguing.

“And…”

Elizabeth hesitated, seeming unsure whether to say something, while lightly tapping the ground with the tip of her foot.

Leonard didn’t rush her, simply waiting for her to speak.

Rubbing her now-bare shoulders, which felt chilly without the jacket, Elizabeth blurted out her words almost on impulse.

“Starting tomorrow, just call me Elly. Don’t keep calling me Lady Elizabeth like we’re complete strangers.”

Leonard looked at her with slight surprise, then smiled, his eyes crinkling.

“Shall I…? All right, I will.”

“And speak casually to me, too. …Not starting today, though. Starting tomorrow, once you’re no longer my Brother-to-be and have become my actual brother-in-law.”

“Understood.”

Leonard merely smiled and nodded, but Elizabeth’s face suddenly grew hot.

She hadn’t said anything particularly embarrassing, so why did she feel so flustered?

Fanning her flushed cheeks with her hand, Elizabeth turned around.

“Then I’m really going now. You should head inside soon, too, Brother-in-law!”

“All right. Sweet dreams, Elly.”

“I-I said starting tomorrow!”

Apparently, she hadn’t even realized that she had already called Leonard her brother-in-law instead of her future brother-in-law.

Elizabeth glared at Leonard, who burst out laughing as though teasing her, then hurriedly ran off.

But halfway there, she stopped and turned around to look at him.

As though he had expected her to do so, Leonard met her gaze and asked in a gentle voice,

“Would you like me to walk you to your bedroom?”

“This is my house, you know!”

She had only turned around because she wanted to thank him for listening to her.

“…”

Seeing the way Leonard looked at her, so much like her sister, Elizabeth couldn’t bring herself to say a word.

Perhaps expressions of gratitude and apologies were the very things people found hardest to offer their own family, even though they could say them so easily to strangers.

‘…But having tea with me is overwhelming.’

‘I wasn’t planning on inviting her to tea ever again…’

Maybe she should invite her just one more time and try doing as her brother-in-law had suggested.

Even now, just remembering that voice made her feel a lump rising in her throat.

But still.

That girl was family now, too.

Although Elizabeth had insisted that she would be fine because it was her own home, Leonard watched from a distance until she had safely returned to her bedroom.

‘Perhaps it’s because I still don’t feel like this is my home…’

Indoors, it wasn’t quite as bad, but out in the open garden, he couldn’t help feeling tense.

He was also constantly aware of the gazes of those surrounding the residence.

It felt less as though they were guarding the house and more as though they were keeping watch over him.

‘Will it get better once I get used to it?’

At the very least, things should change once the wedding ceremony was over.

Leonard let out a quiet sigh and entered his bedroom.

Then, just as he was about to casually toss the jacket in his hand onto the table, he startled and took an abrupt step backward.

“Rin?”

“Are you done with your secret rendezvous?”

The room was dark, as the lights hadn’t been turned on, but warm steam was rising from the teacup Irenea had just set down with a soft clink.

Leaning back against the chair, she crossed her arms and legs, carrying herself with the confidence of someone who owned the room.

Leonard stared at her in surprise before finally understanding what she meant and belatedly responding.

“Did you see everything?”

“Yes, I saw everything. Including you taking off your jacket and giving it to another woman.”

Leonard walked over to the window opposite Irenea.

Looking down from there, he had a clear view of the pond where he had been sitting just moments ago.

Apparently, she had watched him talking with Elizabeth from this very spot.

“So I suppose there’s no point denying it when you saw everything.”

“…Deny what? Are you planning to elope in the middle of the night with my little sister?”

Suspicion flickered across Irenea’s face, as though she couldn’t quite believe he would do such a thing.

At her reaction, Leonard burst out laughing.

Only then did Irenea realize that she had taken his joke far too seriously, and her cheeks flushed red.

“If you’re going to joke around, at least smile when you do it. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Then who’s the one who started teasing me? Since when did my little sister become another woman?”

“Since you took off your jacket and gave it to her? You’ve never done that for me.”

Her playful glare held not the slightest trace of real displeasure.

That made it easy for Leonard to respond in kind.

“Exactly. I’ve been wearing it all summer, hoping to give it to my fiancée, but somehow the opportunity never came.”