#10. At the End of the Season (3)

The study in the mansion was filled with furniture and decorations in dark tones.

The large walnut desk Albris had just slammed his fist down on was one such example.

So was the sofa where Eleonore, Eugenie, and the two knights sat facing one another.

The muted red carpet spread across the floor, the dark gray curtains hanging beneath the windows, and the various knickknacks all helped create the study’s subdued, almost suffocating atmosphere.

That atmosphere had been shaped by the anger Albris had been radiating just moments ago, and by Captain Everett’s interrogation of the red-haired female knight kneeling before him.

Those feelings had settled over the room, not so much sharp as heavy and oppressive.

Amid that atmosphere.

“Oh, seriously! Albris!”

Eleonore’s shrill, sharp voice pierced straight through the heavy, restrained anger. In an instant, the subdued air in the study changed completely.

Eleonore glared at the two men before her, eyes narrowed into slits.

Everyone looked dumbfounded.

Albris, who had poured out his heavy anger over his precious younger sister being in danger. Eugenie, the maid who had failed to properly attend to her lady and now hung her head. The female knight and her captain, both kneeling with expressions as if they had committed a capital offense.

Everyone in the study stared blankly at Eleonore as she voiced her sharp anger.

Their young lady—his younger sister—had never been one to raise her voice.

Of course, when Eleonore was little, she had been a rambunctious girl like any other. But from the time she grew older and began to show the bearing of a lady, she had learned to skillfully conceal her feelings beneath her outward appearance, just like other women.

Besides, Seo Juha, who had entered her body, wasn’t the sort to start by shouting either.

“Why do you keep interrupting me!”

What was more, she was speaking so bluntly even to her older brother, whom she normally addressed with the utmost politeness.

At the sharp voice that rang out again, Albris stammered, his face full of confusion.

“W-Well, Eli. I think this is—”

“This is what!”

Eleonore shrieked. At the sight of his younger sister, Albris tucked his tail between his legs.

“I mean, Eli… this is the Order’s business, after all.”

“What does the Order have to do with it? It’s not just any Order—it’s our family’s! I’m a member of House Béarn, too. How can this be none of my concern?”

“No, that’s not what I mean… I… sigh.”

Having brought her older brother to heel in one fell swoop, Eleonore abruptly turned her head to the side. Her sky-blue eyes were now trained on the middle-aged knight in a neat uniform.

“Then, Captain Everett, tell me. Is this really none of my concern?”

Captain Everett, whose Order had now been caught in the crossfire, was no different from Albris.

“Well, um… My lady, you’ve only just come of age. And this is something you’re not accustomed to, as a woman…”

“Even if it’s the Order, it’s still an organization made up of people. What is there that I can’t get involved in just because I’m inexperienced or young?”

Under Eleonore’s sharp sky-blue gaze, Everett had no answer.

Looking at the two men who had been brought to heel one after the other, Eleonore continued.

“And to begin with, wasn’t that mine abandoned a long time ago?”

“W-Well, yes.”

The captain replied, cowed by Eleonore’s forceful presence.

“If you, Captain—and you too, Brother—really cared that much about me, shouldn’t you have sent someone to inspect the mine before we set out? Isn’t that right, Brother?”

“Ah, y-yeah. That’s right.”

Hearing Albris’s stammering reply, Eleonore moved beside her escort knight, Viola, who was kneeling. She rested a hand on Viola’s shoulder over her white uniform and continued.

“Even so, don’t you think it’s unfair to put all the blame on my escort knight here?”

There was no reply. Albris and Everett merely listened to Eleonore in a daze.

“Of course, I can’t claim I was just an innocent victim dragged into this when I acted on my own without checking with anyone around me.”

Silence followed those words.

Just as Eleonore’s voice had gradually lowered as she laid out her reasoning point by point, the study had settled back into the calm it had held when she first entered.

But the suffocating tension from earlier was gone. Everyone was simply quietly collecting their thoughts.

After looking over each of them, Eleonore continued.

“What happened that day was a mistake on all our parts, not just Eugenie’s or Viola’s. So why don’t we quietly put this matter to rest here, Brother Albris? And Captain Everett?”

Albris raised a hand and stroked his stubbled chin.

There was nothing particularly wrong with what she had said.

Just as she’d said, the mine wasn’t far from the capital. And although there had been time afterward, Albris had failed to send anyone to check it—that was his mistake.

He had claimed to cherish Eleonore so dearly, yet in the end, he had practically put Eli in danger himself.

“What do you think, Captain?”

Albris’s voice had settled into a calm register.

“I’ll defer to the young lady’s wishes.”

Though they belonged to the family’s own Order, disciplinary matters were strictly the captain’s responsibility.

At Everett’s words, Viola’s expression finally eased. Seeing her face, Eleonore beamed at her red-haired escort knight.

“Then it seems there’s nothing more for me to be involved in. Brother, I’ll be going now.”

“Ah, yes. Go upstairs and rest, then. A priest from the temple is coming this afternoon to look at your wound, so Eugenie, get Eli ready.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

Eleonore offered the captain a small parting greeting as well, then left the study.

Everett watched Eleonore carefully make her way out of the study, then spoke quietly to Albris.

“As expected of the Count and Countess’s daughter, the young lady has a strong will, too.”

“Sigh. I just hope she’s not like her older sister, Alenia…”

Albris could only let out a small sigh and stare blankly at the firmly shut study door.

#.

Scratch, scratch.

The sound of a sharp fountain pen nib gliding across the smooth surface of paper filled the quiet office. As usual, Julian busily moved his hand, examining the words on the documents one by one.

Beside Julian, Christian was lounging half-reclined against the back of a large sofa, wholly at odds with the atmosphere.

Dropping a newspaper with an almost-completed crossword puzzle onto the table, Christian looked at his longtime friend.

Julian, seated at the desk, seemed no different from usual. But to Christian, his longtime friend, every one of Julian’s actions felt strangely out of character.

The silver fountain pen that usually danced across the paper as elegantly as Julian’s flowing handwriting was moving stiffly today, with far too much pressure behind it.

His red eyes, which usually raced busily over the dense lines of print, would sometimes stop blankly in place, idling away the time.

Watching his friend behave so differently from usual, Christian lifted his languid body and sat properly on the sofa.

“If you’re that worried, why don’t you try contacting her?”

At Christian’s voice breaking the silence, Julian lifted his gaze from the documents and raised his head slightly.

“Worried? What are you worried about?”

“Ha. Don’t play dumb.”

Christian sprang up from the sofa and walked over to Julian. At the sight of him, Julian gently set the precious fountain pen his mother had given him on the tray, careful not to drop it.

“I mean Lady Eleonore.”

Christian smiled affably and rested a hand on Julian’s shoulder.

Julian’s odd behavior had begun after Ernst came to the office a little earlier and gave him a report.

Ernst had told Julian about what had happened at the mansion, saying the information came from a spy planted in House Béarn’s townhouse.

That Grand Duke Verbritz had spent the night at the mansion, and that his relationship with Eleonore had progressed to the point where they called each other by pet names.

That the mine would be handed over to Verbritz after all, and that Lady Eleonore had suffered an injury severe enough to leave a scar on her shoulder.

The emotionless man had delivered all this in his usual dry manner, then even added something he normally never would.

‘Your Grace. I hope you’ll give serious thought to your relationship with the young lady.’

To be honest, Christian didn’t like Ernst. His scrawny build—not much use for anything—his cold gaze, and his utterly emotionless voice.

And besides, using spies and plotting schemes behind people’s backs was far from Christian’s style.

But Christian strongly agreed with that last remark. Julian was taking Lady Eleonore far too much for granted, treating her like a fish already caught in his net and barely giving her a second thought.

Of course, the Eleonore from a little while ago might have been satisfied with the occasional morsel. But something about the current Eleonore had changed. Ever since her fever, she had stopped clinging to Julian the way she used to.

“Why not at least send her a letter? Invite her to dinner or something.”

“I’ll take care of that myself.”

“And what if the Grand Duke of House Verbritz snatches her away from you?”

Bang!

Julian slammed his fist onto the desk. The pens on top rolled off and clattered to the floor with the loud thud.

“Snatches her away? Me? Julian Valatie, losing her to some Northland beggar?”

“A beggar? You heard it too. That mine belongs to Verbritz now.”

His longtime friend bent to pick up the pens rolling across the floor and set them back on the desk, his expression far more serious than usual.

“Julian. What if you keep acting so carefree and really do lose the young lady to him?”