Chapter 7

Chapter 7

“…I’m Leonard Elpiers. It is I who should thank you for the invitation.”

“Not at all. No number of words could thank you enough, Sir, for so readily indulging my whim, but since time is short, may I ask you to escort me right away?”

In her anxiety, wondering what she would do if he refused now, she had simply held out her hand first, and fortunately Leonard took it at once.

“If someone like me will do, then gladly.”

Those who looked at him through tinted glasses because of his mercenary background could never guess how righteous a man Leonard Elpiers was.

‘And I’m a truly wicked woman for taking advantage of that.’

What man in the world would agree to a troublesome request like escorting a lady, all for a single bit of guidance down an alley?

What’s more, her request was not going to end with the escort.

“Marchioness Blair and Count Elpiers are entering!”

At last, they stepped into the banquet hall.

Standing atop the central lobby on the second floor, Irenea, with the eyes of all the guests gathered on the first floor upon her, linked her arm even more snugly through Leonard’s, as if to show it off.

She could feel his body stiffen at that intimate contact. No, his body had been stiff even before that.

“…Marchioness Blair?”

He was only realizing that now? Honestly, so dense.

With a faint smile on her lips, Irenea steadied her breath and opened her mouth.

“Thank you for accepting my invitation, everyone. Before we begin the banquet in earnest, there is someone I would like to introduce to you.”

‘Please smile beautifully. That is the last of my requests.’

Of course, even without her saying so, her kind and well-mannered man would never let a lady become a laughingstock before so many people.

Barely holding back a big laugh, Irenea called out in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear.

“This is the very person I’ve promised to marry!”

Though she had even asked him in advance to smile, she could feel the shocked gazes stabbing at her cheeks.

‘Well, it can’t be helped, can it?’

It would be stranger if they weren’t startled by a complete stranger suddenly announcing a marriage with him.

But she couldn’t let an awkward atmosphere show before so many people.

Before her uncle could find even the slightest flaw, Irenea wrapped both hands around Leonard’s neck and kissed him.

To be precise, she pretended to kiss him, her lips narrowly grazing the corner of his mouth.

“Oh my!”

“Good heavens!”

Several noblewomen clapped their hands over their mouths in surprise, as though they hadn’t expected to see such a passionate display of affection in front of everyone.

But when someone whistled and began to clap, they all burst into cheerful laughter and began pouring out their blessings.

“Congratulations on your engagement, Marchioness!”

“Be happy!”

Irenea slowly unwound her arms from Leonard’s neck and lowered the heels she had pushed up onto her toes.

Leonard, with a dumbfounded face, raised his hand to his cheek. As though he had no idea what had just happened to him.

How fortunate that he had his back to the crowd. At his face, which looked as if his soul had literally left his body, Irenea felt a little sorry.

‘I’ll steal our first proper kiss with his consent.’

Rinsing her mouth with wine in advance, though no one was even thinking of giving her the cake, Irenea waved broadly in reply to the guests blessing her.

“Thank you, everyone! We’ll live happily ever after!”

In front of her, Leonard muttered in a drained voice.

“Just now, what exactly happened…? I think you owe me an explanation, Marchioness…”

Still standing with his back to the crowd, he had lost even the strength to be angry or shocked, and was only fiddling with the corner of his mouth.

Well, he was a man who had kept his purity even in the past until he met her, so it made sense that even such a light kiss would stop his thoughts.

Irenea drooped the corners of her eyes, filled with apology.

“I’m sorry for causing such a scene so suddenly. But I’m in a bit of a hurry, quite a big one. One wrong step and I’ll be forced to marry a man who wants to kill me.”

At the word that she might be murdered, Leonard’s gaze changed in an instant.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’ll explain everything later. I’m truly, truly sorry, but please play along just a little longer. Please?”

Irenea knew that Leonard was weak to the eyes of the weak, eyes that looked ready to burst into tears.

“This doesn’t seem like something that will end after playing along a little…”

Despite his muttering, in the end Leonard nodded.

‘As expected of my knight.’

He couldn’t simply walk past someone in trouble. It was because he was this kind of man that she had loved him, and still did.

With a cheerful heart, Irenea rested her hand on Leonard’s arm and went down the long staircase with him.

Wondering how to hook the nose of this innocent man, who had no idea he’d been tricked.

* * *

‘What on earth am I doing here?’

His hand kept trying to rise to the corner of his mouth, which still seemed to hold some warmth.

He could read the movements of a delicate woman who had never trained in martial arts with his eyes closed, so he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t been able to dodge her kiss.

“Goodness, I never imagined Marchioness Blair’s fiancé would be Count Elpiers.”

“Nor I. Until two years ago… he was quite famous, wasn’t he?”

She seemed to realize only after saying it what implication lay behind the word “famous.” Pretending not to notice the gaze that darted to check his reaction with a sudden “oh no,” Leonard sipped his wine.

At the sight, the noblewoman who had made the slip quietly let out a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, the others, who had been waiting for their chance, seized the moment and chimed in.

“Everyone was wondering when you suddenly returned to your domain and we heard nothing, so I never expected to see you again at such an occasion.”

“Yes, I didn’t expect it either.”

This, at least, was the honest truth, without a grain of falsehood.

He had come up to the capital, but he’d had no intention of setting foot in high society. They would only make a laughingstock of him anyway.

In fact, about a quarter of the people here would probably have started by curling up one corner of their mouths if they’d run into him anywhere else.

But here, no one picked at his origins. Leonard was well aware of why.

“But when did you come to the capital? Did you come specially to announce your engagement to Marchioness Blair?”

“Where did you first meet?”

“When was the betrothal ceremony? Surely you won’t hold the wedding quietly too?”

“Oh my, everyone, please ask more slowly. Even if we wanted to answer, we haven’t the chance.”

Irenea laughed aloud and rested her head lightly on Leonard’s shoulder. With the arm linked through his squeezing tight, as if to warn him not to be startled.

Thanks to that he avoided the mishap of flinching, but the smile, which must have been awkward, he simply could not manage to recover. It was beyond his control.

“I met Sir Leonard by chance on my way back from the Kingdom of Skelum. He rescued me when I had lost my way and fallen into danger.”

“Oh my, what a romantic encounter!”

“But you’re engaged, and you still call him Sir? Not a pet name?”

At someone’s teasing voice, Leonard ran a hand over his mouth.

Had he been found out? While he couldn’t hide his panic, Irenea replied as if she had anticipated the question.

“He’s the knight who protected me, after all. I plan to keep calling him that until we marry. You don’t mind, do you, Sir Leonard?”

“No… I suppose not.”

Before people could interpret his awkward reaction otherwise, Irenea let out a clear, ringing laugh.

“Once we’re married, you’ll have to hear ‘dear’ whether you like it or not, so don’t sulk.”

“I’m not sulking.”

“Oh, but I think you are?”

At Irenea, who looked up at him with eyes folded in a smile, the back of Leonard’s neck prickled and he turned his head the other way for no reason.

‘How is she so good at acting?’

Lying with one’s mouth is easy, but faking it with one’s eyes is quite difficult. Yet Irenea was gazing at him as if she were truly in love.

‘They say every merchant who earns a lot of money has the makings of a swindler…’

Was this woman one of those, too?

Thinking this with an oddly unsettled heart, Leonard failed to realize.

That his reaction might truly look like sulking in other people’s eyes.

“Oh my… What a fresh young pair. It reminds me of my younger days.”

“They’re in their prime. I too had such good times with my husband once.”

Led by Irenea’s hand, Leonard exchanged greetings with countless people, and the conversations, though sprinkled with teasing questions, generally flowed warmly in that way.

To begin with, Irenea had chosen her guests carefully. So not a single person here would openly show antipathy toward her or her fiancé.

Even the Emperor’s chief lady-in-waiting, who had attended as the Emperor’s proxy, offered only blessings as spotless as clear beads, so who would pour cold water on the two, even if they looked a little awkward?

Except for Viscount Calio, that is.

“So, this is the one you chose, turning down all the many men I introduced to you?”

Viscount Calio, who arrived long after the banquet had started, abruptly looked Leonard up and down and frowned.

It was a blatantly contemptuous gaze, the very kind he had received constantly when he was active in the capital’s high society.

So instead of feeling fresh humiliation, Leonard turned his eyes to the man standing behind Viscount Calio.

‘And who is this?’

He swore to heaven he had never seen this man before. Yet as their eyes met, the man shot him a mocking, provocative look, which was either laughable or ridiculous, he couldn’t decide which.

He seemed to have trained his body to some degree, but it was obvious at a glance that he was a greenhorn with no real combat experience. The kind who had just crawled out of the well and, drunk on the conceit of being the best, couldn’t gauge the gap between himself and his opponent.

Leonard had run into countless such types in both high society and mercenary circles.

What he had learned from them was that whether educated or not, those who pick fights recklessly will keep following and pestering you unless you crush their spirit at the start.

‘If no one were watching, I’d have given him one good punch and asked if he couldn’t keep his eyes straight.’

I can’t very well ask if he’d like to step out into the garden for a moment, can I?

Leonard looked down at his arm, which Irenea had not released for a single moment, as if telling him not to think of running away, then raised his head and fixed his gaze on the greenhorn.

I can’t use my hands recklessly here… so maybe I’ll just scare him a little first?