Chapter 2
On the way back to the mansion.
“Huh?”
In the distance, I saw a familiar figure waving from the mansion entrance.
“Ruby?”
“Welcome back!”
Ruby welcomed us like a puppy greeting its owner.
I couldn't help but be surprised to see her.
“What? How did you know we were coming back and come out ahead of time?”
“I've been waiting here ever since I saw Alice…or rather, my lady—off.”
“Huh.”
Having heard Ruby's words, I let out a dry laugh.
Should I scold her for waiting foolishly without knowing when we would return? Or should I thank her for waiting all this time?
“Phew. Yes, we're back.”
In the end, my gratitude was greater, so this time I decided to accept her goodwill without complaint.
While I was at it, I decided to let the scolding I'd planned to give her before leaving slide, too.
“Is Grandpa Gold all right…? Wait, what happened to his arm?!”
Ruby's face turned deathly pale when she saw Sir Gold's arm.
Apparently, even Ruby thought his condition looked extremely serious.
“Hoho, don't worry. An injury like this is nothing to a knight….”
“You're already old, and your bones won't set properly anymore.”
“You little…!”
“But what about him?”
After their brief banter ended, Ruby looked at the young man who had come with us and asked.
“He's the one who rescued the injured Sir Gold from the magical beast. So, Ruby, could you prepare some bathwater?”
“Oh my! I'll prepare it right away!”
“Wait!”
As soon as she heard the order, I grabbed Ruby, who was about to run to the mansion.
“My lady? Why? If you don't wash quickly, you'll catch a cold.”
“He won't know where the bathroom is. You need to show him the way.”
“Ah~ Come to think of it, you're right.”
“Couldn't you have another servant show me the way?”
The young man, who had remained silent all the way to the mansion, spoke up for the first time in a while.
“The thing is…she's the only servant in our household.”
“?”
“Yes! I'm Ruby, the Fortune family's head maid and chief attendant, as well as its cook and stable hand! But Grandpa Gold, what happened to our horse? Why did you come back riding Uncle Paul's horse?”
Surely she should have been able to figure it out by now. Yet Ruby stared at Sir Gold and asked with an innocent, utterly guileless expression.
“Ruby, you see, it's….”
“I was attacked by a magical beast.”
Instead of the flustered Sir Gold, I answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What?! Then I guess you're not the stable hand anymore…. Well, anyway, I'll show you to the bathroom, so follow me.”
Ruby looked downcast for about five seconds, then quickly perked up and spoke to the young man.
“…Very well.”
Apparently a little flustered by Ruby's energy, the young man nodded and followed her, leaving only Sir Gold and me at the mansion entrance.
“Let's call a physician first.”
“No, my lady. Isn't there something more important than treatment right now?”
“There can't be anything more important than treating Sir Gold.”
I replied coldly to his words.
This wasn't an empty retort. If Sir Gold's arm healed improperly and forced him to retire, the family would have not a single knight left.
An aging knight was one thing. Having no knight at all was another.
That alone made a world of difference in how the neighboring territories treated us.
“However, this matter concerns not only us; the future livelihoods of the territory's people are at stake as well.”
“….”
“If the grape harvest really is ruined, we'll have to plant emergency crops right away. Then we'll need to plow the fields, obtain seedlings, and so on. Isn't this a situation where every minute counts?”
Gold made it clear that he had no intention of backing down.
“My lady.”
“Sigh, all right.”
Could it be helped? This time, I had no choice but to concede.
“But you can't go on like that. At the very least, you need a splint.”
“Understood.”
However, it was difficult to apply a splint to an arm using only one hand.
In the end, I decided to administer first aid myself and brought him to the study.
“So, please explain what exactly happened in the vineyard.”
“Yes.”
While I bandaged his arm, Sir Gold explained that Paul had told him a magical beast had appeared, and what had happened after he went to the vineyard.
I also learned how he had been injured in the process.
“Good grief… Your arm was broken not because the Snow Wyrm attacked you, but because you fell off your horse.”
“It was a ridiculous accident. As Ruby said, I suppose I really am getting old. If I had been ten years younger, I would have landed safely.”
Sir Gold gave a bitter smile as he looked at his splinted arm.
“So, while you were forced to face the Snow Wyrm with only one arm….”
“That must have been when he appeared.”
“Indeed.”
Sir Gold confirmed my guess.
“His skill was incredible. It was as though I were looking at myself in my youth.”
Gold nodded repeatedly, clearly impressed.
According to what Father had told me, Sir Gold's skills hadn't been all that good even in his youth….
‘No need to say that aloud.’
Besides, I had to agree that the young man's skill had been incredible.
When he tore his way out of the Snow Wyrm.
Though he had been drenched in bodily fluids, he didn't appear to have a single external injury.
“Moving on, did you check what happened to the magical device?”
“Yes. While the young man was fighting the Snow Wyrm, I went to see whether I could reactivate it, but….”
Seeing Gold trail off, I knew.
It hadn't merely stopped working.
“It had been completely smashed.”
“Haha, is that true?”
Hearing that the magical device had been smashed made me laugh involuntarily.
Magical devices were generally expensive.
To give you an idea of how expensive, the monster-repelling magical device destroyed this time was worth about six months of the territory's income from last year.
Yet, precisely because they were so expensive, magical devices were normally protected by several spells.
That meant the odds of one being damaged were extremely low. And yet, the fact that the device had been smashed meant….
“Was it because of the Snow Wyrm?”
Or perhaps the magical beast had done it.
“No. Though it looked as though someone had tried to erase the evidence, there were unmistakable marks left by a blunt object.”
It could only have been the work of a person.
“Someone deliberately interfered with it.”
“It seems highly likely.”
“….”
Sir Gold wasn't exceptionally skilled, but he had lived as a knight for decades.
There was no way someone with his experience would mistake such traces.
The atmosphere in the study grew somber.
But that wasn't the end of the bad news.
“Besides, this Snow Wyrm was unusually ferocious.”
“I thought so too.”
As far as I knew, worm-type magical beasts normally rampaged underground and caused earthquakes.
That was why buildings and roads sometimes suddenly collapsed, but I had never heard of or seen one rise above the ground and rampage like this.
It would be fine if this were limited to this particular creature or to Snow Wyrms. But if all magical beasts had become more ferocious….
“Sigh… We're really screwed.”
I rubbed my face and sighed.
The ruined grape harvest had already left me at a loss, and, to make matters worse, someone had smashed the magical device while the magical beasts had grown more ferocious.
“Maybe I really should marry into another family.”
I couldn't see any way to resolve this situation other than that.
If I married into another family, the Fortune family would die out with me.
It was sad to see the family disappear, but it couldn't be helped.
If I kept holding out like this, it wouldn't just be me who suffered—the people of the territory would suffer too.
I absolutely couldn't allow that.
‘Fuck.’
It was unfair.
And very much so.
What had I done in my previous life to deserve this?
I hadn't even written a lengthy 5,400-character letter or comment to the author, like in the opening of some web novel.’
If this were a novel, I would have called this a plot development with absolutely no logical buildup and cursed whoever had done this to me, when—
“My lady. I have a way to make money while simultaneously keeping the magical beast and the person who destroyed the magical device in check.”
Gold spoke up with a solemn expression.
“What?!”
My eyes grew as wide as saucers at his sudden declaration.
It had never even occurred to me that Sir Gold might have been hiding such a brilliant move.
“What method?”
I hurriedly urged him to continue.
I was already in a situation where marriage—the worst possible option—was all I had left.
I had nowhere else to turn.
I was prepared to follow whatever Sir Gold said.
“It is….”
“It is?”
“Dating the young man who defeated the Snow Wyrm.”
‘…What?’
I carefully thought over whether I'd heard him correctly and concluded that I must have misheard.
“I must be too tired—I think I misheard you. Could you say that one more time?”
“I said you should date the young man we met today.”
“I hadn't misheard?!”