Chapter 26
“Wow.”
The day after I nearly died from menstrual cramps.
My body was miraculously fine.
“Are you really all right?”
“Yes.”
“Phew, what a relief. You were so pale yesterday.”
Ruby, who had been serving breakfast, let out a sigh of relief when she saw me looking better.
Then she suddenly put on a mischievous expression and leaned in, bringing her lips to my ear.
“Your condition improved this much probably thanks to Sir Heter, right?”
“!”
Come to think of it, Ruby was the one who had told Heter that I was ill.
“Hmm….”
Normally, I would have been too embarrassed to admit it.
“A little?”
Well, I had settled things in my own mind.
“Oh my!”
Ruby opened her eyes wide at my answer, patted my shoulder, and made a fuss.
“What is this? Did something happen? Normally, you would have said, ‘Oh, no, I didn’t!’ and played innocent.”
“Nothing happened. We just talked a little.”
“Liar~ Nothing happened, yet there’s no way you’d react so girlishly.”
“G-girlish?”
“Yes!”
Ruby vigorously nodded at my question.
“What about me was girlish just now?”
“Everything!”
Ruby smiled at me brightly.
“Ah~ I’m jealous. Seeing you makes me want to date someone too.”
“Date someone?! I’m not in that kind of relationship with Sir Heter!”
It was only that I thought it wouldn’t be so bad if I had no choice but to marry him.
That didn’t mean I liked him as a man!
“What were you discussing for my name to come up?”
“Sir Heter?”
“Good morning, Sir Heter.”
“Yes, Ruby.”
They say even a tiger comes when you mention it; the moment we mentioned his name, he came into the dining room and sat down.
“This morning, we have sandwiches made with bread, grape jam, bacon, and pickled vegetables, along with diluted wine.”
“That sounds delicious. So why did my name come up?”
“Oh, it’s because the head of the household looks much better than yesterday. I wondered if that was thanks to you, Sir Heter.”
“Is that so?”
After hearing Ruby, Heter turned his head toward me and gave me a suggestive smile.
“My lady, was I of assistance?”
It was embarrassing to say that to him, but since I had already told Ruby…
“…Yes.”
I answered as calmly as possible.
There was no point in showing my feelings and giving them something to tease me about.
“That’s what she says, Sir Heter?”
“I see.”
Ugh, that look in his eyes.
Seeing the meaningful looks Ruby and Heter were exchanging made me feel strange.
“Thanks for the meal, Ruby. I’ll head upstairs first.”
After hastily finishing breakfast, I tried to head straight up to my office.
“My lady. Surely you aren’t planning to start working right away today?”
“I am.”
Even as this was happening, my debts continued to pile up.
Now that I was feeling better, shouldn’t I start working right away?
But Heter didn’t seem to like that.
“How about resting just for today?”
“That won’t do.”
It had already been a week since I’d been unable to do any paperwork because of the Marquess of Drosselmeyer’s wedding.
On top of that, I had more documents than usual to review because of the soap factory.
If I didn’t start processing them little by little now, I’d work myself to death tomorrow.
This was no time to rest.
“….”
“You understand, don’t you?”
When I explained all this to Heter, he reluctantly nodded.
I thought that meant I could finally focus only on work.
“Smack, smack.”
When I quietly opened my eyes, I saw that Heter was still kissing the back of my hand.
“Even if my hand belongs to you, isn’t kissing it for an hour a bit much?!”
“If you dislike it, go rest in bed. I won’t bother you while you rest.”
“Grr…!”
His manner of speaking had changed from casual speech back to polite speech.
He was probably doing it deliberately to get me to rest.
“Haaah….”
In the end, one of us would have to give in.
Either I gave up on work,
or he gave up on trying to make me rest.
“But if I just keep resting and end up unable to repay my debts….”
Until now, I had always been the first to raise the white flag in the face of his slyness.
“If I end up marrying into House Friedel, would that be all right with you?”
But I wasn’t going to keep letting him have his way.
“….”
When I looked up at him through half-closed eyes and said that, Heter made an expression I had never seen him make before.
“That won’t happen.”
“How?”
“If it does, I will take responsibility and cut down the head of House Friedel.”
“…Wow.”
I had thought of giving the same answer by relying on my family’s power, but something far more extreme had come flying out instead.
“Are you serious? You’ll become a criminal if you do that.”
“It does not matter.”
“How does that not matter?!”
Unprovoked killing between nobles was a serious crime.
It was a grave crime, one that could bring severe punishment not only upon Heter himself but also upon his family!
‘Still… it doesn’t feel bad.’
In any case, it meant he was prepared to become a criminal for my sake.
Of course, being pleased by that was separate from giving in to his demand.
“Then I don’t want to turn you into a criminal, so I should work even harder to repay my debts, right?”
“What kind of sophistry is that?”
“Then refute it!”
“….”
When I said it so boldly, Heter was left speechless.
‘I won!’
I, who had only ever lost until now, had finally defeated him!
But my joy at winning lasted only a moment.
Swish.
Heter, who had been sitting beside me, suddenly stood up.
“Hup.”
“?!”
He lifted me—and the chair—with me still sitting in it!
“W-what are you doing?!”
This chair had been passed down through the generations of House Fortune, and there were two reasons we hadn’t sold it despite having no money.
The first was that its design was so tacky we couldn’t get a high price for it.
The second was its unbelievable weight, hardly something one would expect of a chair.
It was so heavy that it could be used for generations without breaking.
It was so heavy that when Ruby cleaned, she moved the desk instead of the chair.
‘But he’s lifting that chair while I’m sitting in it?!’
As expected of a monster capable of fighting a magical beast like a snow worm alone!
“What are you doing? We agreed you wouldn’t touch anything except the parts I signed over!”
“I did not touch your body.”
“What?”
Just as he said, Heter had only touched the chair.
He hadn’t touched my body directly…but wasn’t that stretching the agreement a little too far?
“That’s sophistry!”
“If you feel wronged, you should have checked carefully when you signed the contract.”
“You’re insane.”
So that was why people said never to sign carelessly and always bring a lawyer when signing a contract.
“So… why did you suddenly lift me in the first place… Aah?!”
Flop.
Instead of answering, Heter tossed me from the chair onto the bed.
I wasn’t hurt thanks to landing on the bed, but I wasn’t happy about it.
“Heter!”
Just as I was about to give him a piece of my mind for treating me like a piece of luggage—
Swish.
“?!”
After setting down the chair, he suddenly began climbing onto the bed.
“W-wha—?!”
With my mind gone blank, all I could do was back away.
Thud.
When I eventually hit the wall and had nowhere left to retreat—
“Ngh?”
Heter stretched out an arm and braced it against the wall.
His arm was positioned around shoulder height, making it difficult for me to slip through the gap.
It was literally a prison made of human flesh.
“What… what are you doing right now?!”
“I did not touch you this time, either.”
Heter moved the position of his arm with an impassive expression.
Just enough for me to lie down on the bed.
“From now on, I will remain completely still until you fall asleep. If you move and end up touching me…that cannot be helped.”
“You crazy bastard….”
He was turning himself into a prison just to make me rest.
“Nnngh!”
I grabbed his arm and strained with all my might, but Heter didn’t move an inch, as though he had truly turned into iron bars.
“Can you really stay in such an uncomfortable position? What are you going to do if I don’t fall asleep?”
If that happened, Heter would waste time, and so would I.
“If I cannot hold out until you fall asleep, I suppose I will have to give up being a knight and become Sir Gold’s squire.”
The confidence in his voice said he absolutely did not believe he would be the first to tire.
“Then let me at least change clothes! They’ll all get wrinkled if I sleep in this!”
“If they wrinkle, we’ll leave it to Ruby.”
“Heter!”
I met his gaze and spoke in as solemn a voice as possible.
“That’s an order. Move.”
“I refuse.”
‘Heter refused an order?’
How badly did he want me to rest?
At this point, I wasn’t even angry anymore; I was almost impressed.
“I’ll accept whatever punishment you give me later, so please rest today.”
“Haaah….”
I appreciated his concern, but this had now become a battle of pride between Heter and me.
I was his master before I was his (prospective) possession.
I couldn’t keep showing myself losing as his master.
“Take that!”
“What are you doing?”
I had confirmed that I couldn’t escape by force.
Then all that remained was…
“Can’t you tell? I’m tickling you.”
No matter how tough Heter was, he had to have at least one ticklish spot.
I tickled his sides, neck, and arms—everywhere my hands could reach.
“It is useless. I have never been ticklish.”
Still, it was worth trying!
Tickling him wasn’t costing me money, after all.
Ignoring his attempts to stop me, I kept moving my hands, but Heter endured it as stiffly as a pine tree. His claim that he had never been ticklish clearly hadn’t been a lie.
“Haaah….”
Was I really going to have to give up?
The moment I let out a deep sigh, having tired out first—
Twitch.
“Huh?”
Had this guy just moved?
“Hoo~?”
I breathed into his ear once more.
“Kkh?!”
For the first time, bewilderment crossed his face.
“Ah.”
I had finally found it.
Your weakness.