Chapter 51
Lately, only good things had been happening to me.
For starters, the soap sales.
The soap I thought would soon stop selling had, unexpectedly, maintained a steady sales volume.
Apparently, the young ladies who received the gifts had promoted it diligently.
Also, while we were in Drosselmeyer territory, Sir Gold even brought in a skilled carpenter.
“Is this how it’s done?”
“Well done.”
We also confirmed that the mages we brought this time were skilled enough to make items from my previous life.
Moreover, on the day we brought them to the territory—
“As you can see, Heter likes me.”
“…That is true, but why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”
I told the mages what kind of relationship Heter and I had.
I thought that if they found out about our relationship later without being told, they might feel betrayed and their faces might darken even further.
As a result, the two male mages who I had assumed came because of my appearance—
“Hmm… I see.”
“You make a lovely couple.”
—accepted it surprisingly readily.
Since their reactions were completely unexpected, I asked them about it later.
“I know my place.”
“I just came because it seemed warmer here, is all.”
“Huh?”
One of them did like my appearance, but he had never thought we could become lovers, while the other had not come because of my looks in the first place.
And the only female mage, who had introduced herself as Cecile, reacted exactly as I expected.
“Huh?”
The moment I told her the truth, bewilderment and disappointment appeared on her face.
That was hardly an appropriate reaction from someone who had come to repay me for saving her life.
“Why? Is there a problem with Heter liking me?”
“N-no….”
Still, I thought it was fortunate that she seemed to accept it rather readily(?)
Thinking back now, I believe Cecile had been thinking something like this at the time:
‘But the two of them aren’t dating yet, so maybe I can make him fall for me starting now?’
Why do I think that?
Because if that weren’t the case—
“Ah, good morning, Sir Knight!”
“…Yes. Good morning. Are you on your way to breakfast too, Cecile?”
“Yes!”
“Haha, running into each other every morning… How curious.”
“Y-yeah.”
There was no way she would put on a scene like this in front of me first thing in the morning.
‘Ha, this woman’s really something, isn’t she?’
She must have been doing this because she thought she was a better match for Heter than I was.
This wasn’t me being sensitive because I was a woman.
Even if I were a man, I couldn’t possibly avoid getting angry if someone kept implying, ‘I’m better than you.’
So, as I walked past them, I said casually,
“It’s only natural you’d run into each other. She’d been waiting for you to arrive.”
“M-My lady!”
Cecile’s face turned red like a radish when she heard me.
“Why would you say that?!”
“Was I not supposed to tell him? My apologies.”
Actually, that was a lie. I wasn’t sorry at all.
A wicked witch was trying to seduce my knight. As his master, wasn’t it only natural for me to protect him?
Seeing how flustered she was seemed to ease the knot in my heart a little, but—
“Haha, we’ll see each other at mealtimes anyway, so there’s no need to cut into your sleep waiting for me.”
“Ahaha, it’s not like that. I usually wake up at this time….”
‘…What are you doing right now?’
What Cecile had just done was stalking by any definition.
That meant he didn’t need to answer her so kindly.
But what was that? There was no need to wait for him?
If it were me, I would have firmly drawn the line by saying, ‘Please don’t ever do that again.’
“Phew.”
There were many other things I wanted to say, but I didn’t bother.
I thought Heter must have realized why I had told him that Cecile had been waiting.
However.
“Have this, then go train!”
“What is this…?”
“It’s a drink chilled with magic!”
“I don’t think there’s any need to chill something before drinking it in this cold weather….”
“Ah! You’re right.”
Even after that day, Cecile continued making advances, and Heter didn’t clearly reject her the way I wanted him to.
Whoosh, whoosh.
“Seriously… why is she acting like that!”
Eventually, when I was left alone in the study, I couldn’t contain my anger and punched at the empty air.
He had clearly rejected other women at the tea party, saying he wasn’t interested in anyone but me, so why was he acting like this now?!
Still, even if I gave him the benefit of the doubt a hundred times over, I could let it slide this far.
Right, the young lady we had met at the tea party was from another territory, so he might have acted that way since they were unlikely to meet again, but Cecile was different.
But what pushed my irritation to its peak was when I took the mages to the hot spring to solve the problem of its smell.
***
“Couldn’t we block the smell with an air curtain?”
“No. What my lady wants is for there to be no smell even when we’re in the water. If we only use that, it’ll still smell as soon as we get in.”
“We also need to consider what happens after getting out. It wouldn’t do for someone to say they still smell after taking a bath.”
Eliminating the hot spring’s distinctive foul smell.
It seemed to be quite a difficult subject even for the mages.
In the end, they said we needed to analyze the composition of sulfur’s smell and create a magical tool that generated an opposing scent.
Even I found that difficult to understand.
I could only think, Oh, I see, since they said it was possible.
Eventually, while the mages were collecting hot spring water and inspecting the surroundings—
“Kweik?”
“!”
Something else appeared between the trees.
It was different from the bear that had appeared last time.
Since we had agreed to call green-skinned giants wearing rags made of animal hide magical beasts rather than animals—
what appeared this time was an orc, a monster that appeared frequently in fantasy novels.
There were three of them, at that.
Of course, Heter and I had expected animals or magical beasts to appear.
A bear had appeared the last time we came, after all, and this was the North, where magical beasts were everywhere.
“Eek!”
“A-a magical beast!”
But the mages, who had spent all their time inside the mansion even while in Drosselmeyer territory, apparently hadn’t expected magical beasts to appear.
Perhaps they had anticipated it, but once they saw one in person, their bodies simply wouldn’t move.
Anyway, the mages’ bodies stiffened with fear, and the moment the orcs set their sights on them—
Whoosh.
Heter stepped forward to save them.
Sshk.
With a single stroke, Heter sliced through the arm of the orc targeting one of the male mages.
Then the smooth, flowing arc of his sword passed through the neck of the orc whose arm he had severed.
Thud.
Before the orc’s heavy body could even collapse, Heter moved to save the other male mage.
“Eeeek!”
“Duck.”
Heter deflected the stone hammer falling toward the crouching mage’s head with his sword.
“Kueek?!”
Sshk.
The sound of steel slicing through hide rang out alongside the orc’s startled cry.
“Kueeek….”
Having dropped its stone hammer, the orc clutched its belly with both hands and toppled forward.
Only one remained.
“Kwieeeek!”
“Aaaah!”
Naturally, Cecile was the target of the remaining orc.
She was crawling across the ground, covered in tears and snot; apparently, a lot had happened in the instant Heter spent saving the other two.
Eventually, when the orc raised its foot to stomp on Cecile’s leg—
Whoosh.
“Eek!”
Heter kicked off the ground and rushed toward Cecile, seized her arm, and pulled her behind him.
Boom!
The orc’s foot slammed into the dirt, and it then tried to swing the stone club in its hand at Heter, but—
Sshk.
Though Heter swung his sword a moment later, it reached the orc’s neck first.
Thud, thud….
The last orc’s head rolled across the ground, and the three orcs that had attacked us were cleanly dealt with in less than a minute.
“…I suppose this is all we can do today.”
Thanks to Heter, the mages avoided serious injury, but—
“A-a real magical beast….”
“Eek.”
“Sniff.”
Could this have been their first time encountering a magical beast?
They looked completely shaken.
In the end, we returned to the mansion without figuring out a complete solution, and just as I was about to head up to the study—
Clutch.
“Hmm?”
“My lady.”
Heter, who had followed me, suddenly caught my hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Even if it was Heter, he couldn’t just take my hand without warning.
That wasn’t proper behavior toward his master.
Just as I frowned and tried to pull my hand free—
“Did something happen?”
“…What?”
Heter asked me with a worried expression.
“Why would you think that?”
“Because… didn’t you meet my eyes even once on the way back to the mansion?”
“Haha.”
No, thinking something had happened just because we hadn’t made eye contact even once on the way back to the mansion.
Wasn’t I being far too self-conscious?
I smiled and was about to say exactly what I had been thinking, but—
“…because of you.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s because you’re paying too much attention to Cecile!”
“…Yes?”
Something completely different from what I had been thinking burst from my mouth.