Chapter 50
“I see. So Sir Heter expressed affection toward my lady at every opportunity because that was what my lady wanted.”
“Stop.”
“And you even get aroused sometimes… Well, my lady is a woman before she’s a noble, after all.”
“Stop it already….”
“No way… Was that why my nightclothes were covered in blood that day?!”
“….”
The day after we arrived in Drosselmeyer territory.
On our way to the dining room for breakfast, I glared at Ruby, who was teasing me.
This is the line.
The moment she crossed it, twenty years of friendship or not, I would show her my genuine anger, but—
“Haha, I’m sorry! I’ll stop teasing you now!”
“….”
Perhaps because we had known each other for twenty years, Ruby was uncannily good at knowing where the line was.
“Sigh, it’s one thing to say that in front of me, but don’t ever talk about it in front of anyone else, okay?”
The moment word got around that an unmarried noblewoman had said something like this, she would obviously be ostracized by noble society.
“Come on, what do you take me for? I know how to separate public and private matters!”
‘Says the person who casually calls me by my name and swaps out my clothes without asking.’
I swallowed the words that had risen to my throat.
It would only tire me out to say them.
Squeak.
Anyway, when we arrived at the dining room and entered, we saw Marquess Drosselmeyer and Esdia, who had arrived before us.
But the two of them looked…?
“Hehe….”
“Ahem.”
Esdia was beaming with her cheeks flushed red, while the marquess avoided her gaze with a stiff expression.
But when I looked closely, the marquess’s cheeks were faintly flushed as well, so it didn’t seem that he was avoiding Esdia’s gaze because it made him uncomfortable or uneasy.
Apparently, Esdia had tried what I taught her as soon as tea time ended yesterday, and it had gone well.
‘Nice.’
I disliked getting involved with the two of them, but that was only because I was certain I would suffer if I did.
In my previous life, I was a reader who had finished 『I Became the Villainess of a Count’s Family』.
That meant I had no reason to dislike the two of them as a fan.
From that perspective, watching the heroine and hero flirt in real life was truly…
‘This is delicious….’
“My lady? Were you hungry? Why are you smacking your lips?”
“Hmm, Baron Fortune. You have arrived.”
Apparently only then did the marquess notice that we had arrived. He cleared his throat and invited us to sit.
“It seems you got along well with Raindeer, as I asked.”
“Haha. ‘Got along’? If anything, your wife was the one who treated me well.”
“In any case, I only wanted to thank you. By the way… weren’t you planning to meet the mages today?”
“Yes.”
Yesterday, it had been too late and we had been worn out from the journey, so it couldn’t be helped. But today was different.
“How many are you planning to take with you?”
“As you said, the more mages, the better. Ideally, I’d like to take all of them, but….”
That would be physically impossible.
There was room for four more people in our carriage… or five or six at most if we counted the coachman’s seat.
“So I was hoping around four or five of them would come to my territory.”
“I see.”
The marquess nodded.
“I only hope people willing to go to your territory will volunteer.”
“I hope so too.”
The fact that the marquess had asked how many people I intended to take probably meant he would make sure I got that many, no matter what.
If no one wanted to come to my territory, he would probably select five people himself and allow me to take them with me.
However, naturally, taking mages that way would be a bad idea.
The first reason was that a mage’s magic was influenced by emotions, and the second was that I needed mages who wouldn’t betray me.
If they had been dragged there against their will, would it really be possible to expect them not to betray me?
That was why I sincerely hoped volunteers would come forward of their own accord, just as the marquess had said.
However.
“Leaving this place behind to go somewhere far away is a little….”
“W-We don’t know when those bastards will come to kill us, and I-I think it’s safest near the marquess… I’m sorry.”
“Your rank is… baron? Hmm, I think I’ll just work for the marquess.”
“Ugh… I’m sorry.”
Contrary to my expectations, almost none of the twenty mages wanted to come to Fortune.
Since Drosselmeyer territory was frequently attacked by magical beasts, I had expected many of them to want to leave.
Apparently, the attacks by mage supremacists had frightened them more than magical beasts.
Of course, “almost none” didn’t mean there was no one willing to come at all.
“We can live in the same mansion as my lady!?”
“I absolutely want to go with you!”
‘Phew….’
The problem was that those two wanted to follow me because of my appearance.
The moment they learned about my relationship with Heter, I felt as though their faces would cloud over as they thought, ‘My lady….’
Even so, I couldn’t exactly refuse to take them in a situation like this.
Just as I was wondering whether I should settle for these two—
“Please take me with you!”
‘Oh?’
Someone wanted to come to my territory before I had even made the offer.
‘What’s this?’
If someone acted like this even though I hadn’t said anything yet, they must have had some compelling reason they absolutely needed to leave Drosselmeyer territory and come to mine.
“
I hadn’t even made an offer yet, but is there a reason you want to come to my territory?”
“There’s a masked knight there, right?”
A masked knight…?
Come to think of it, Heter had worn a mask at the wedding because he disliked showing his face.
“There is, but why?”
“I knew it!”
The woman vigorously shook her head, then adjusted the large glasses sliding down her face as she smiled with flushed cheeks.
“I really wanted to thank him!”
“Thank… him?”
What kind of relationship did she have with Heter that she wanted to thank him?
“Well, you see….”
“Ah.”
After hearing her explanation, I realized who she was.
‘When Heter went to persuade the marquess, he said he brought one of the human bombs to show proof that there was a mage, right?’
Apparently, this was the mage who had been dragged there at the time.
“If it hadn’t been for him, we would have died that day. So I really wanted to thank him, but I couldn’t see him here?”
“Ah….”
“But when I heard you were looking for someone to go to another territory, I realized that must be where the masked knight was!”
The woman chattered away in front of me, apparently delighted at the prospect of meeting Heter.
‘What’s with this woman?’
That gaze and that energy.
For someone who merely wanted to offer her thanks, her reaction was far too intense.
At a glance, it was clear that she had feelings for Heter beyond mere admiration.
‘Well, I suppose that was understandable.’
Who wouldn’t fall for a handsome man who suddenly appeared and saved them when they thought they were going to die?
Besides, Heter was more than handsome enough.
So, rationally speaking, I could fully understand why she was so excited.
I understood it perfectly in my head, but—
‘This is annoying.’
For some reason, my irritation refused to go away.
Right, it was because I felt betrayed.
I felt betrayed because this woman was no different from the two who had said they would come to my territory after seeing my appearance.
This woman might also become dejected the moment she realized my relationship with Heter.
Besides, a woman’s romantic feelings could sometimes run deeper than a man’s.
‘What should I do? Should I just not take her?’
“Uh… is something wrong?”
I had been staring at her with a stiff expression for so long that she seemed to realize something was wrong with the atmosphere.
“…?”
“All right.”
After a long deliberation, I—
“I look forward to working with you.”
—decided to take her with me.
Personal feelings shouldn’t ruin public affairs.
“Thank you!”
The woman bowed her head with a radiant smile.
Thus, it was decided that a total of three mages would be coming to our territory.
***
“Are you leaving already? Why don’t you stay a little longer….”
The day after selecting the mages who would come to my territory,
we immediately climbed into the carriage we had ridden there in.
“I’m afraid I’m terribly busy.”
Saying I was busy wasn’t a lie.
Now that we had mages, we had to begin working as soon as possible if we were going to pay off our debts.
“We’ll be sure to invite you once what we’re preparing is complete, Marchioness.”
I said this to Esdia not as a mere pleasantry, but with genuine sincerity.
“Raindeer.”
“Yes?”
“Please don’t call me Marchioness. Call me Raindeer.”
Esdia suddenly asked me to call her by her name.
“Even so, how could I possibly call a marchioness by her name alone….”
Although we had grown somewhat close, the gap between a baron and a marquess was simply too great, so I tried to decline, but—
Please.
“….”
“Sigh, all right.”
She seemed determined not to let go of my hand until I called her by her name.
It couldn’t be helped. I couldn’t exactly pull my hand away from hers, so I had no choice but to surrender.
“See you next time, Raindeer.”
“…Yes!”
Raindeer beamed when I called her by name.
‘Wow….’
Was this the genuine smile of the original heroine?
I could understand why Marquess Drosselmeyer had fallen so completely for her.
‘Could it be Heter too?’
I turned my head slightly and glanced at Heter, only to meet his eyes.
Grin.
Heter gave me a sly smile as he watched me.
Right, I was an idiot.
‘So what if the mage likes Heter?’
He was already completely smitten with me, after all.
Even with Raindeer’s beauty right in front of him, he couldn’t take his eyes off me. Was he really going to be distracted by a mage?
“Goodbye.”
I smiled and said goodbye to Marquess Drosselmeyer and Raindeer, then returned to my territory.
And then.
“H-Hello, Sir Knight!”
“Yes. Good morning, Mage.”
“…Huh?”
Why was that bastard smiling at that woman?
Seriously, why?