Chapter 6
As always, the Béarn family’s table was lavish.
It had been that way even before Eleonore came down with the fever, and the extravagance had only grown since she woke up.
People said that breakfast at House Béarn was more lavish than dinner at the Imperial Palace.
The story had even made the rounds.
Today was no different.
The perfectly seared steak was veal tenderloin, an exceedingly expensive cut.
The spices scattered over it were worth as much as an ordinary commoner family’s monthly food expenses.
But the meal was no more generous in quantity than it was lavish in presentation.
Never mind Eleonore—even Albris himself wasn’t much interested in food.
Their dinner might have been more lavish than the Imperial Palace’s, but it wasn’t as plentiful.
Seated at the head of the table, Albris elegantly picked up his knife and cut the steak into small pieces.
Though he had only moved his knife back and forth a few times, every motion radiated grace.
“Father and Mother are due to arrive at Central Station tomorrow afternoon.”
The response came rather late.
“…Is that so?”
“They were both terribly worried. Father even said he’d drop everything and come up to the capital, and apparently everyone had a hard time stopping him.”
“…Really?”
Unlike her elegant older brother, Eleonore was busy tormenting her meat with her fork, her expression showing little interest in what he was saying.
It was strange.
Albris watched Eleonore and gently tilted his head.
Ever since she’d suffered the fever, Eleonore’s personality had changed a great deal.
His sweet, affectionate little sister had become a rather mature young lady after getting out of bed.
To be honest, Albris wasn’t particularly pleased by the change.
He knew all too well that Eleonore’s newfound maturity came with a lack of interest in him.
And now...
Eleonore had answered him indifferently.
But there was something different about her now.
That unenthusiastic reply wasn’t the same indifference she’d shown her older brother until now.
At the moment, Eleonore seemed completely absorbed in something else.
Even the way she was eating showed it.
Ever since she’d been ill, she’d been eating much less than before.
Still, at least she used to bring the food to her lips with obvious delight.
That was why Albris hadn’t been too worried about Eleonore’s appetite.
That was how Eleonore had always been.
But now, in front of the steak she would normally have lunged at with stars in her eyes, she was just jabbing it over and over with her fork, tormenting it this way and that.
“Um, Eli. Is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Worry made his voice lower and deeper than usual.
Eleonore jolted in surprise, her shoulders jerking.
The silver fork in her small hand fell beneath the table with a sharp clatter.
“O-oh, no. I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.”
“What are you thinking about so intently? You haven’t even touched your food.”
“Ahaha…”
Eleonore laughed awkwardly, then bent down to pick up the fork from the floor.
It was the maids’ job to pick up a fallen fork.
For Albris and Eleonore, who had lived their lives as nobles, that was only natural. It was how things had always been.
And yet his beloved youngest sister had bent down herself before the maids could come.
Looking at how much his youngest sister had changed, Albris could only let out a deep sigh.
Just then...
“Big brother.”
After picking up the fallen fork and carefully setting it in the corner of the table, Eleonore raised her head and softly called Albris.
This time, Albris’s sturdy shoulders jerked.
It was because of the way she’d addressed him.
Ever since she’d gotten out of bed, Eleonore had hated calling him “big brother.”
And yet now she’d said it of her own accord.
Something was definitely up.
“Eleonore, are you really all right? I heard the viscountess visited today. Was that too much for you? Should I call the doctor?”
“No, no, it’s not that. More importantly, big brother.”
“Yes, little sister.”
Despite the worry filling his head, Albris couldn’t help the corners of his mouth from lifting slightly.
“There’s something I’d like to ask you, big brother.”
Her golden eyebrows were neatly groomed against her snow-white skin.
The philtrum above her pink lips trembled slightly, and her sky-blue irises stared straight at Albris from the centers of her snow-white eyes.
Albris swallowed dryly.
Whenever Eleonore made a face like that, she usually asked for something difficult to grant.
She’d made that face when she was still a little girl, not yet eight, begging to be put on a gray warhorse.
She’d made that face when she begged to follow their father to the front as he went to fight off the heretical invaders.
She’d made that face when she wanted to see the capital before her debut and begged to leave her parents and go to the townhouse a whole year early.
But he hadn’t seen that expression since she’d suffered the fever.
That only made him more worried.
As a man, Albris had no idea what Eleonore, who was no longer a headstrong little girl but a proper young lady, might ask him.
“All right. Tell me.”
“You know the Young Duke of Vallatiere?”
“The Young Duke? Why are you asking about that bastard all of a sudden?”
At Albris’s raised voice, Eleonore tilted her head slightly.
Why does he hate Julian so much? Could he know the future, too?
“I do. What do you think of him, big brother?”
Albris swirled the wine in his glass.
It wasn’t a particularly difficult question.
Besides, whether he liked it or not, Julian was someone Eleonore would encounter during this social season.
“Well, people have all sorts of opinions about the Young Duke of Vallatiere. There’s no one else in the empire who goes by so many different names.”
His deep-blue eyes met her sky-blue ones.
Albris’s voice had grown even deeper, and Eleonore naturally straightened up to face him.
“Some call him one of the wretches born of the emperor’s promiscuous private life. Others call him a hidden talent, someone whose abilities are obscured by his status. And some call him a third-rate lowlife who plots nothing but underhanded schemes.”
Albris’s answer was fairly long, but it didn’t reveal his own opinion at all.
What Eleonore wanted was Albris’s opinion.
The sturdy man before her, her own flesh and blood, was surely someone who would remain on her side in this world until the very end.
And right now, Eleonore needed the opinion of someone like that.
“Then...”
“Then?”
“Then what about you, big brother?”
The deep-blue eyes, dark as the depths of the sea, wavered slightly at Eleonore’s question.
Even though he’d clearly understood what she meant, Albris carefully asked her to clarify.
“Me? You mean you want to hear my opinion?”
“Yes. What do you think of that man named Julian?”
Albris set the wineglass he’d been swirling in his hand down on the table.
Beyond the clear glass, the dark-red liquid rippled gently, and a tiny bubble rose within it.
Albris was a hostage.
The Galatea Imperial Family had granted House Béarn the title of Margrave for guarding the border, but in return, they demanded a hostage.
As a result, the young heirs of House Béarn had to remain in the capital from adulthood until they inherited the family estate.
This year marked a full ten years since Albris had begun living at the townhouse in the capital.
During his luxurious life as a hostage at the townhouse, Albris’s job was to gather information from the capital and send it back to the estate.
The land of Béarn, at the far western edge of the empire, was very far from the capital.
It took three full days of riding on horseback, and even after the railway was connected, the journey still took nearly a day.
That was why information from the capital was so important.
The boy who had come to the capital at eighteen was now an old bachelor.
Over the years, Albris had become skilled at reading and compiling information.
And, in the interest of objectivity, at some point he had begun leaving his own opinions out of the information he gathered.
That had been the case just now, too.
Albris had always made his hostility toward Julian clear.
But this time, he had deliberately left out his own opinion and simply told Eleonore what people were saying about him.
Yet his beloved youngest sister was asking for his opinion.
So Albris needed a little time before he could give his sister the answer she wanted.
When the surface of the dark-red wine had stopped rippling and grown still...
Albris spoke to Eleonore in a very low voice.
“A pathetic schemer wrapped up in his mother’s skirts.”
#1. I Possessed a Romance Fantasy I Had Been Putting Off (End)