“Joachim.”
The day before leaving, Benedict pulled me in.
“I’m asking this of you, but what happened here… you must not let anyone else know.”
His eyes sank after pausing briefly.
I was fine with it.
“That goes for me as well.”
I said that to reassure him.
“You’re not asking why?”
Rather, he asked puzzledly.
I opened my lips, then just closed them again. Because I was really fine with it.
He, who had been quietly looking down at me, let out a thin sigh as if facing an unexpected situation and said.
“I’m concerned, so I have no choice but to tell you.”
He slowly lowered his head.
“You kissed me even when I was in a very pathetic state.”
On my cheek, once on each side alternately, he quietly kissed me like I had once done and withdrew.
“I think I should confess first that I’m really a pathetic person. Even after hearing that, can you still like me?”
* * *
By the time the carriage entered the capital, the sun was high in the sky. Miss Sana, who accompanied me, was examining her unfamiliar-looking outfit in the sunlight and straightening the slightly wrinkled places.
“So, I’ve been at the great mansion all this time.”
“Yes. The omegas from the Regent Duke that Prince Benedict didn’t accept used to stay there before leaving.”
Miss Sana answered while finishing adjusting her collar.
“Since I’ve been pretending to be you staying at that mansion until now, if you just remember a few things, it won’t be difficult to match our stories.”
Miss Sana briefly added that I rarely came out of the room.
“Did you use ‘that’ to impersonate me?”
I used a pronoun because Miss Sana had said it was classified.
“Yes, I’ll show you later.”
While hearing precautions from her, I could see Meyer Manor in the distance. Perhaps because it was the manor I was seeing after a long time, it somehow felt strangely unfamiliar.
“Who— hey, Joachim! You bastard……! —Ahem!”
Mikhail seemed to be in the middle of going out with Jake, just getting on a carriage. Mikhail, who had made a fierce face upon discovering me, looked at the unfamiliar knights around and deliberately softened his momentum.
“I heard it secondhand through Rilke! But who are these people?”
Mikhail’s suspicious eyes turned to Miss Sana. As she had said she would show me, as soon as the carriage door opened, she had become an unknown woman in her thirties. At first glance, the illusion magic was so perfect and amazing that I had to make an effort not to keep looking at her.
“How do you do. I serve Lady Celtic Quina.”
The voice, however, was Miss Sana’s. No wonder she could barely leave the room while impersonating me.
“Ah, the owner of the great mansion’s—”
“Younger sister, yes.”
Mikhail made a lukewarm expression and received the letter Miss Sana offered. It bore the seal of the Quina family.
“Well. What business does the Quina family have?”
“We discovered Young Master Meyer separated alone from his party and escorted him home.”
Miss Sana told the story as ordered. Actually, this wasn’t important. Mikhail, who had heard all the minor circumstances, summarized it in one sentence.
“It seems my younger brother caused trouble.”
Miss Sana answered expressionlessly. Mikhail took off his gloves.
“I cannot simply send away such kind people. Please come inside, it may be inadequate due to the suddenness, but I will treat you sufficiently.”
“Not at all. Our master has matters to attend to, so we must hurry.”
After politely seeing off the knights, Mikhail grabbed my head.
“Full of holes! If you can’t properly explain things later, know you’ll be in trouble!”
Even though he had been leaving, Mikhail unavoidably dragged me into the main building.
Rilke seemed to be calling his close friends and holding a separate short summer salon. Marchioness Nord’s summer salon had already ended and he had returned.
Mikhail wanted me to be there while he went out and came back.
“You must stay here without moving. If you act like a stupid puppy who can’t find his own food bowl again—”
My shoulders felt heavy at his words to see him when he returned.
“What are you doing without going in?”
After Mikhail left, Jake asked sharply from the side. She, who had been about to go out with my brother, seemed very displeased at being left behind as a surveillance role because I suddenly returned.
Indeed, when I entered the reception room, it was crowded with people.
It wasn’t a formal salon, it felt more like just a gathering. There was no consistent decoration or items, and people were freely scattered without any standard. Glancing gazes touched me and fell away as if uninterested. Fortunately, the atmosphere had improved quite a bit since my social reputation had gotten better.
Since I had no desire to join a place where they had already created a comfortable atmosphere among themselves, I moved to a leisurely spot as I always did. It seemed they didn’t want to care about who I talked with inside the salon either, as Jake whispered something to the passing servants and went right outside.
On the long sofa where I sat, someone was already there first.
“It’s been a while, Saren.”
The reception room wasn’t spacious, so there were no empty sofas. Among this crowd, I had at least exchanged a few words with this guy, so I came here.
“Hi, Joachim.”
Saren, who was reading a book, glanced up.
“What’s the occasion? You coming to a place like this.”
I couldn’t understand what he meant. Saren glanced around once with his eyes and said.
“You don’t like us.”
Right. I don’t like you.
“This is Meyer House. No matter how much Rilke organized and opened it, it’s not right for Rilke to look after all the guests alone.”
“Aha, so on the last day, you appear and you’re looking after me?”
Talking with Saren was relatively better. Even though he looked like that, what he said wasn’t sarcastic, he was just saying it.
“Nothing to look after. You’re doing well.”
With my eyes, I pointed to the book he was reading and asked.
“Have you been there?”
“Ah… I really like this place.”
Saren was reading a travelogue about the free city. Looking at the title, it seemed recent, but the corners were worn as if he’d looked through it many times.
“Don’t tell me, Joachim, you’ve been there too?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it is a famous place among those who know.”
For a while, Saren talked excitedly about the free city of Linlisgo and its art culture. He seemed captivated by the free city’s unique uninhibited atmosphere, which could be called the essence of art.
I also knew well about the free streets, so I could respond with a few words. It was one of the places where I had settled here and there like clouds catching, after escaping from the capital as if running away.
“If you go in a little from the drawbridge, there’s an instrument shop that’s damn famous in that district!”
Saren said in an excited tone. I casually agreed with the topic I knew about.
“The old man there is really good at tuning instruments.”
“Right! Everyone buys a lot of instruments, but the real value of that shop is that they really tune the sound accurately!”
As expected, a cat can’t just pass by a fish shop. Among childhood friends, Saren was the only noble child who learned music together with me.
True to Saren who had been interested in instruments even in childhood, he knew the hidden value of that instrument shop. I felt glad remembering the old man. Saren, who had somehow sat closer, seemed to be feeling similar emotions.
“How can an old man like that have such accurate pitch? I wanted to bring him to the capital! Did you also have him tune something?”
In the future, I had once purchased a used lute and had it tuned, but I shook my head. Even while answering, I felt a bit wistful for my small instrument that had become familiar in my hands.
“That black grandfather is the old man’s father.”
We talked about trivial things regarding the old man’s shop for quite a while. When I told him that the shop had been passed down for four generations and that the old man still gets scolded by his elderly father who was still alive, he really liked it.
Saren mentioned the very wrinkled black grandfather precisely and laughed, saying no wonder the old man’s attitude was strange.
“Still, the most famous attraction of Linlisgo is that.”
Our eyes met. We said it simultaneously.
“Angelica Drawbridge.”
Around that time, I also felt a bit excited as if I had returned to childhood. Until now I had only been agreeing, but I spoke first.
That marvelous magic bridge, the tower’s masterpiece, was truly beautiful aesthetically. That bridge that roundly crossed the canal, opening its low body to let ships through when they entered.
“Really, even just watching it all day isn’t boring. When the morning sunlight comes in, when the noon sun is high.”
It seemed I could endlessly list and still not be enough about the beauty of the drawbridge dyed red with sunset then fading blue in darkness.
While talking like that, I suddenly felt that the distance between us had gotten quite close.
I raised my eyes. Saren was looking at me very closely.
He leaned his body more toward me.
“From you… there’s been some scent since earlier. Like roses—”
“What are you talking about?”
Ah, Saren, who briefly admired, raised his head.
I also followed and raised my gaze.
Rilke, with a subtle smile, was standing right there.
