Once everyone boarded, the carriage slowly departed. Perhaps because it was sent by a ducal family, the carriage had comfortable seats and almost no shaking.
“To put it simply first, the person you’ll be meeting today is Duke Bern Hernia of the Hernia Ducal House.”
The Hernia Ducal House. It was a family with quite a deep history in the Erwin Empire and had also maintained formidable power for a long time. Above all, the Hernia Ducal House was known as a family with a good reputation even among the Empire’s citizens.
“It seems to be a family trusted by the Empire’s citizens.”
“Just as Naro-ssi said. Most of the successive Dukes of Hernia have had gentle dispositions. They didn’t carelessly look down on people using their status as nobles as a weapon, and they didn’t turn away hands reaching out for help.”
Naro nodded his head. If that was the reason, it was certainly worthy of being trusted and liked by the Empire’s citizens. Naro suddenly recalled Noah of the Viscount Kailey family who had caused the kidnapping incident before. He had committed all kinds of atrocities wielding his status as a noble. It seemed that even among those with the same noble status, not everyone was like that.
While listening to Jerian’s explanation, Naro checked on Ray intermittently. Ray was faithfully sticking close to Naro’s side while being preoccupied with looking around at the surrounding scenery beyond the window. As expected, he didn’t seem very interested in what Jerian was saying.
“Once we pass through this road, the Hernia Duke’s residence will appear. We’re almost there.”
At Jerian’s words, Naro also stared beyond the window. The trees lined up lengthily on both sides of the evenly paved road all looked extraordinary. The species themselves looked rare and their maintenance condition was top-notch. He newly realized that they had entered grounds managed by a noble.
At the end of running down the straight road, a fairly large gate appeared. The carriage that had briefly stopped started moving again after a few seconds.
After moving a bit more, the carriage carrying Naro’s party arrived in front of the duke’s residence. Coming out through the door the coachman opened and stepping on the ground, Naro looked up ahead in a daze.
A tremendous mansion spread out before his eyes. Naro was dazed for a moment at the tremendous size that could never be matched even if several of Naro’s houses were combined.
“Naro, if you keep your mouth open like that, you’ll drool.”
“The mansion is incredibly huge… Ray, aren’t you surprised?”
“Not really. I like Naro and my house better.”
Probably Ray was the only one who would say he liked the small, modest home in Rodelus Village better than this huge duke’s residence.
At that moment, the mansion’s door opened and a middle-aged woman with a neat atmosphere came out and bowed her head properly.
“Have you arrived? I am Hayla, the head butler of this residence.”
“Hello.”
Naro also greeted her back a bit nervously, and Ray glanced at Naro then imitated his action.
“Head Butler Hayla, these are the people the Duke hoped to meet. This is Naro-ssi, and this is Ray-ssi.”
“Yes, you both must have worked hard coming such a long way. The Duke also asked me to convey his thanks to the teacher who helped.”
“Not at all. These two were the ones who accepted the proposal. Then since I’ve finished my role as guide, I’ll be going now.”
At Jerian’s words, Naro was startled.
“Weren’t you coming in together, teacher?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I wanted to, but I have a lot of materials to review for preparing for the professorship.”
When Jerian declined with a regretful expression, Naro had nothing more to say. Jerian, who he had naturally thought would be with them, left waving his hand like that.
“You two, please come inside then.”
“Ah, yes!”
Naro’s voice rose a bit. Ray stared intently at Naro, who kept fidgeting with his fingers as they entered.
“Naro.”
“Hm?”
Ray spoke in a small voice.
“I’ll be by your side the whole time.”
Naro’s eyes widened slightly, then he smiled and nodded his head. Strangely enough, with just that one sentence, the tension he had felt until just now melted away like snow.
Receiving guidance from Hayla, the head butler, the two entered the drawing room. As soon as they sat down, servants entered in turn and placed tea in front of the two. Naro habitually smelled the tea’s fragrance first before drinking it.
“The Duke will arrive soon.”
Hayla briefly left her seat and only Naro and Ray remained in the spacious drawing room. Only then did Naro let out the breath he had been holding.
“Naro, are you okay?”
Ray habitually examined Naro and asked. His complexion hadn’t been good in the morning, and now seeing him fidgeting restlessly, worry came first.
Just as Ray was about to stroke Naro’s cheek and check his condition, Naro froze right there.
“Ah, yeah. I’m okay. I guess I got nervous without realizing it since it’s my first time entering such a large mansion.”
Naro slipped his face slightly to the side with an awkward gesture. It was an instinctive movement to keep Ray’s hand from touching him.
It was the same touch and contact as usual, but strangely his heart tickled. He became much more conscious of Ray’s touch than usual. Was it because he saw such a sight last night? Naro gulped and tried not to be shaken.
By the way, although he had accepted Jerian’s proposal with a different purpose for now, he couldn’t guess at all why the master of a prestigious ducal house would want to personally meet someone who just ran a medicine shop in a small village.
Just what could it be, he was thinking, when the drawing room door slowly opened. As Naro abruptly stood up from his seat, Ray also stood up following him.
A middle-aged man slowly entered inside. The man had an exceptional elegance befitting the head of a ducal house. Even though he wasn’t wearing expensive accessories or dressed in splendid clothing, the feeling of being a noble literally emanated strongly.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting.”
Even his voice was elegant and dignified.
“Not at all. Ah, I’m Naro, who runs a small medicine shop in Rodelus Village. This friend next to me is Ray, my cousin who helps with my work.”
Naro, who had been momentarily overwhelmed by the unapproachable atmosphere, quickly introduced himself.
“You must have heard from Jerian beforehand, but I am Bern Hernia.”
Bern suddenly extended his hand to Naro. At the unexpected handshake request, Naro respectfully clasped his hand.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Duke.”
Naro understood very well that this world he had dimension-traveled to operated on a class system. He had devoured almost all works set against a class system background. That’s why he knew very well how great and high the title of duke was.
The second son of the Viscount Kailey family was also a noble, but the difference between a viscount and a duke was tremendous to begin with. Perhaps the matter had been resolved well because that young master’s family didn’t have the same prestige as before. If the one who had caused that incident back then had been this duke standing before him now, probably neither Naro nor Ray would have been safe at all.
Bern also extended his hand to Ray. Ray stared down at the hand held out before him, then grabbed it firmly and shook it.
Naro watched from the side with a trembling heart, but fortunately Bern didn’t say anything about Ray’s behavior. Rather, he stared intently at Ray’s face to a somewhat strange degree.
A moment later, Hayla entered and placed tea in front of the Duke, then disappeared closing the door, telling them to converse comfortably.
“Have some tea. I don’t know if it’ll suit your taste.”
“Ah, it was really delicious. The fragrance was very refreshing. In contrast, the herbal tea’s characteristic pungent taste wasn’t strong but subtle, so the aftertaste was clean too—I think you used Robe tea leaves, is that right?”
At that, Bern, who had been about to lift his teacup and drink, paused. His eyes widened slightly.
“I heard you were well-versed in medicinal herbs, but it seems you know about tea leaves well too. Yes, you’re right. Robe was cultivated a lot in the past, but now it’s not handled well within the Empire, so there should be few who know about it—how did you know?”
“I studied about tea while studying medicinal herbs.”
Bern smiled satisfactorily and nodded his head. Then his gaze soon turned to Ray, who was sitting still.
“Why aren’t you drinking?”
The tea placed in front of Ray hadn’t decreased by even a single sip.
“It doesn’t suit my taste.”
Naro almost dropped the teacup he was holding. At the same time, his heart also sank with a thud. Ray had been making efforts to learn human language, culture, and so on since becoming humanized. Thanks to that, these days he had developed to the point where he wouldn’t stand out much even if mixed among humans. Of course, except for occasionally saying strange things or using the word “human.”
But there was one thing about Ray that wouldn’t be fixed, and that was honorifics. No matter how much he taught Ray the method of speaking with honorifics, the habit just wouldn’t stick. It felt like he knew the theory but couldn’t understand why he had to do that.
And Naro had overlooked the fact that Ray didn’t use honorifics. He had forgotten that important thing because he was only thinking about the immediate matters.
“D-Duke! I’m sorry. Actually, my cousin lived in a foreign country for a long time and just entered the Empire, so he’s not yet familiar with the Empire’s language. Please forgive his rudeness.”
