Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Leonard waited for their eyes to meet, then glared at the nameless greenhorn, putting killing intent into it.

Killing intent was putting it grandly. It was closer to thinking “watch your back tonight” while staring murderously at the gaping openings around the man’s vital points.

And then.

“Gah, hah…!”

As if someone had grabbed him by the throat, the greenhorn’s face went deathly pale.

Flustered by the strange reaction, Leonard quickly eased the force in his eyes and looked elsewhere.

He’d taken the man for some pampered young master, but had Viscount Calio dragged in some kind of extortion racket that feigned injury? Why would anyone cower like that over a mere glare?

“What is it, man? What’s the matter with you?”

At the choking sounds behind him, Viscount Calio turned around too, his face equally flustered.

The greenhorn dodged the hand held out in concern and backed away, and before long, trembling as if a beast stood right before his nose, he fled the spot. Screaming in sheer terror as he went.

“H-help me, somebody!”

He screamed so loudly that he drew the gazes of everyone scattered across the vast banquet hall all by himself.

Leonard joined in, looking on with worried eyes, wondering why on earth the man had suddenly gone like that. Fortunately, this was an act he was very good at.

“What’s with that man? Why is he behaving like that all of a sudden?”

“I wonder. More to the point, who is he? I’ve never seen that face.”

“I saw him come in with Viscount Calio.”

After a few exchanges, the guests’ gazes turned toward Viscount Calio.

Looks that asked what on earth he meant by bringing such a hysterical person to the occasion where his niece was announcing her fiancé pricked at Viscount Calio’s face.

Flushed red, he closed and opened his lips a few times, then whipped around toward Leonard so fast it made a whooshing sound.

“It was you, wasn’t it? What did you do?”

“I’m not sure what you mean… From where I stood, he was just standing there, and then he ran off as if something had frightened him.”

With an innocent face, Leonard turned to Irenea, who had her arm linked through his.

“Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, I saw it too. I rather suspect he fell asleep standing up and had a nightmare…”

Irenea smiled brightly and asked Viscount Calio,

“Shouldn’t you go after him? I worry he might have another nightmare like that.”

“You wretch, if it ever comes out that you’ve been up to some trickery…!”

At Viscount Calio, who was glaring at him with terrifying eyes, Leonard felt slightly wronged.

‘Hold on, how is what I did any different from what he did?’

It wasn’t as if a look could stab a man to death, so why had he run off like that?

While Leonard stood confused, utterly unable to make sense of it, Irenea let out a bright, bubbling laugh.

“I don’t know what misunderstanding you’ve fallen into, but my fiancé is not the sort of ruffian who picks fights with people standing quietly by. He is such a righteous knight.”

Looking up at Leonard with sparkling eyes, Irenea boasted of him to her uncle.

“Look. Just as I told you before, isn’t he the very embodiment of my ideal? Golden hair, handsome, well built, and a tidy knight besides.”

‘…What?’

Sensing a strange dissonance in her seemingly naive, girlish voice, Leonard glanced at Irenea.

In the instant their eyes met, she gave a brief smile.

That was how he realized it. That the man who wanted to kill Irenea was the one standing right in front of them.

‘So the rumors that Viscount Calio was involved in the late Marquis and his wife’s deaths were true?’

Of course. A man who would kill his own brother would hardly hesitate over a niece.

“Hmph. At least it’s fortunate that he’s a nobleman, whatever else he may be.”

Viscount Calio looked Leonard up and down, his eyes full of displeasure.

“For three whole years you did nothing but go about holding your guard knight’s hand, so I was worried you’d bring that fellow to this occasion too.”

“Oh my, Sir Hawk is only ever my guard knight. I’ve told you so many times already, so I can’t think why you’d worry about that.”

Waving her hand as though dismissing such nonsense, Irenea stole a glance at Leonard’s reaction.

Probably she was acting out concern that her fiancé might misunderstand. Guessing as much, Leonard admired Irenea’s acting and smiled at her.

As if he couldn’t bear the sight, Viscount Calio cut in abruptly.

“So, when exactly did you start seeing this man? From what I hear, it seems you’ve been meeting for quite some time…”

When Leonard, in response to Viscount Calio looking him up and down so brazenly, put on a smile for show, the man instantly straightened his face.

The sight was so absurd that Leonard had to bite back the laughter threatening to burst out.

“You surely told me to my face that it would take three years before you could recover from the grief of losing your parents.”

“That’s right, I did. But then you told me, Uncle, remember? That my late parents would want me to be happy.”

As she said so, Irenea smiled radiantly. Radiantly, as though she truly were happy now.

“Those words gave me courage. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you once more, truly and sincerely, Uncle.”

With an elegant bearing in which not a single flaw could be found, Irenea curtsied to Viscount Calio.

On the surface it looked like uncle and niece exchanging kind words, but the air around the two crackled with sharp sparks, like lightning striking. Leonard secretly rubbed his goosebump-covered arm.

‘Truly, this contest of wills is no joke.’

But to Leonard’s eyes, it felt very much as though Viscount Calio was the one being toyed with by Irenea.

‘She doesn’t seem so cornered that she’d need to put forward a fake fiancé.’

Just as Leonard was thinking so.

“At any rate, since you’ll become my niece’s husband, you’ll be family to me from now on. Since this is a commemorative occasion, shall we have a toast?”

“Gladly. Then…”

When Irenea raised her hand to call an attendant, Viscount Calio waved off the attendant who was approaching.

Then he summoned his own attendant, who had been waiting in advance further back. On the tray the attendant carried carefully in both hands sat an unopened bottle of wine and three empty glasses.

“I’ve prepared a bottle as a gift, so let’s toast with this.”

“Oh my, a gift?”

“Yes. It’s a good day, so shouldn’t we mark it with a special drink? It’s a vintage from ’67, which I went all the way to the Latvi estate to buy myself.”

Showing off the label on the bottle as if boasting, Viscount Calio took an opener from the attendant and pulled the cork.

It happened before anyone could stop him, so Irenea let out a pointedly regretful sigh.

“If it’s the ’67, I understand it’s a rare wine, with only three hundred bottles produced because of that year’s drought. Is that right?”

“Yes. There probably aren’t even fifty bottles left now. The longer it’s kept, the more valuable it becomes… but for my niece’s sake, what wouldn’t I give up?”

At her uncle, who was making a great show of how dearly he cherished her, Irenea grumbled as if used to it. “Oh, why didn’t you just give it to me by the bottle? How could you open such a precious wine so casually?”

“I’m sorry about that. It was hard to come by, so shouldn’t I at least get a taste myself?”

Viscount Calio burst into hearty laughter and poured wine into their two glasses. Then he poured his own glass himself and led the toast first.

“To my niece’s happy married life.”

“Thank you, Uncle. We’ll live happily, for all the world to see.”

At Irenea’s glance, Leonard moved the hand holding his glass for the toast.

But just before his glass touched Viscount Calio’s, a cry of “Whoa!” came from behind him.

His hesitation was very brief. Leonard yielded to the force at his back and fell to the floor together with the attendant.

*Crash!*

“Kyaa!”

“What… what is the meaning of this?!”

“I’m s-so sorry, I’m sorry! My foot caught! Are you hurt anywhere?”

As luck would have it, the attendant had been carrying a tray crowded with whiskey glasses, so Leonard ended up soaked in whiskey from head to toe.

Usually, when someone cut such an unseemly figure, the people around would pretend to worry while laughing behind their hands. But no one laughed at Leonard, sitting on the floor drenched in liquor.

Setting aside, to begin with, that he was the fiancé of Marchioness Blair, the host of this banquet.

‘Oh my, good heavens…’

Droplets of liquor trickling down his wet hair. Beneath lowered eyelids, vermilion eyes deeply tinted like flames seemed to hold a burning passion. And the hand that swept the liquor from his dampened cheek was utterly sensuous.

In particular, the motion of his thumb tracing over his wet lips was so wanton it seemed bent on bewitching anyone watching.

Amid the crowd, who swallowed dry as though by agreement, the one who alone let out a scream was Marchioness Blair.

“Good heavens, blood! Ray, your hand is bleeding!”

Irenea, who had dropped to the floor following Leonard, had her dress ruined by the broken glass and the liquor soaking the floor.

But as though none of that were in her sight, Irenea took Leonard’s hand, stained with red blood over his torn glove, her eyes brimming with tears.

Flustered by those tears, Leonard hid his hand behind his back and said at once,

“It’s nothing, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Nothing? A wound on this precious hand that holds a sword!”

Irenea snatched the hand he had hidden behind his back and examined it again.

Stroking Leonard’s hand endlessly as if at a loss, she whipped her head around and glared at the attendant who had caused the great mishap.

“You. What exactly do you think you’ve done?”

“I-I’m sorry. It was an accident. I didn’t mean it. Please, I beg you, forgive me just this once!”

“Forgive you? After leaving my fiancé in this state?”

“I’m truly all right. Please don’t cry. …My love?”

Since he was playing the fiancé, he ought to use a pet name, but he couldn’t just invent one he didn’t know, so that word was what he’d blurted out as a desperate measure.

Of course, as goosebumps rose along his arm, he regretted it the instant he said it.

‘I tried to play along, and I’ll end up marrying her at this rate.’

Not knowing that this would turn out to be exactly his future, Leonard could only make flustered sounds, “Uh, uh,” as Irenea threw her arms around him.