It was frequent for a piano not to stay long in its owner’s house.
Even if it was an old lady’s piano when young, it could have been moved to a Marquis house due to circumstances. The reasons a piano moves are various—sale, donation, replacement, and so on.
The old lady was merely a noble who participated in yesterday’s event, not the Marchioness who hosted the charity event. I had just jumped to conclusions about the piano story.
“Being so soft and looking elsewhere, lying about spending time with a Marchioness who wasn’t even there!”
Even after hearing my claims, Mikhail still said that until morning.
“The more I think about it, the angrier I get! How can you be so lacking in social skills!”
“I’m sorry.”
Pretending to repent, I chose the apricot jam. It was the sweetest and most delicious jam.
Suddenly Mikhail gave Rilke a look. Rilke was spreading rose jam with an elegant manner. That one really tastes like eating perfume. Not knowing what he meant, when I finished spreading the apricot jam, Mikhail thumped his chest.
“Good grief, only grown tall like a beanpole… Next time I’ll watch exactly how you conduct yourself.”
Mikhail started using old-fashioned speech after inheriting the Count title at a young age, and I really should have told him at least once that it doesn’t suit him.
“Rilke-ya, are the banquet preparations coming along? Word came that the subjugation force will arrive in four days.”
Mikhail suddenly became gentle.
“Of course. I think I just need to finish up.”
Rilke put down the butter knife.
Hearing those words suddenly made me lose my appetite.
“We’ll see Stefan’s face after a long time.”
I genuinely lost my appetite.
I put down the apricot jam. I had forgotten that my cousin was coming around this time.
After the meal, Rilke followed me.
“You want help preparing the morale meeting?”
“I don’t really know how to do it.”
As Mikhail said, the morale meeting was in four days.
Rilke was in charge of the morale meeting for House Meyer’s knights returning from the ancient island.
Although the Imperial Family was planning to hold a triumphal ceremony and celebration banquet, most of the subjugation force consisted of knights requisitioned from provincial territories, so lodging while staying in the capital was an issue.
Therefore, each family would accommodate the knights who worked hard as much as possible, and if they had means like House Meyer, they would hold a separate banquet.
Since they were knights who had suffered, they deserved to be treated well.
In the past, because of that thought, the moment I heard that story from Rilke, I took charge of and handled everything. I had even completely forgotten my resentful feelings.
“Did you talk to the butler?”
But I didn’t want to do that again.
It was absurd. That child told Mikhail this morning that the banquet preparations were all done.
“I got an explanation but I still don’t understand even after hearing it. -Where are you going?”
“To get paper and a quill pen.”
I sat Rilke, who had been carefully looking around my room, across from me. I also brought documents containing similar cases that might be helpful.
The scale of the knight order dispatched by the Count’s house this time is around 30 people.
“Do you know why our family’s knights should be treated well?”
“……Because Sir Lifros is there?”
“That’s not all.”
I chuckled.
“As you know, Count Meyer’s house isn’t a margrave. We’re capital nobility, and our territory is close to the capital. We can’t maintain large-scale military forces, but House Meyer’s advantage is,”
I urged Rilke as if telling him to answer. Fortunately, he finds the correct answer.
“We have a lot of money.”
“Right. Befitting a wealthy family for generations, the knights who swear loyalty are exceptionally skilled.”
In fact, Sir Lifros was a wandering knight personally recruited by my late father during a trade expedition to Iota. Though he was a boy at the time.
Separate from not wanting to take on this event, I still thought the knights should receive splendid treatment. To the extent that I would have been willing to do it myself if Rilke had just mentioned it a week earlier.
“For lodging, I think we should prepare the main building’s guest rooms and the entire first floor of the left annex. You just need to tell Jake that we’ll do that.”
Since it was from five years ago, in some parts I had to go through documents one by one to find them.
The duration of stay, the courtesy that should be shown to them, management of the knights’ horses, banquet preparations, how to easily purchase all necessary supplies, what support should be provided when returning to their territories, and even the family’s servants who must cooperate for all of that—I wrote it all down.
I stacked up documents worth referencing separately.
Looking down at them, Rilke spoke as if backing out.
“I don’t really know how to do this. I don’t think I can.”
* * *
“Count! How long has it been!”
Stefan, who jumped down from the lead horse, had a tanned face, seemingly having participated in the subjugation expedition.
Like most people from House Meyer, my cousin had light-colored hair.
“Rilke, you’ve become even more beautiful. But why is your complexion so bad?”
Stefan, who shook hands with Mikhail, hugged Rilke.
Then with a reluctant face, he hugged me too.
“Joachim, it’s been a while.”
Stefan and I had similar builds.
I wanted to let him know that my feelings about being hugged were even worse, but I just roughly patted his back.
“This friend here is Sir Lifros! You too, you should come forward at times like this.”
Stefan pulled over a handsome young man who had been standing in formation without moving. The servants who had come out to greet them murmured softly at the sight of the tall knight.
Sir Lifros, with long black hair hanging down, kept his calm gaze downward.
“Ah, I’ve heard about you.”
Despite having praised and boasted about him endlessly, Mikhail answered composedly.
“I’ve already heard of your hardships and achievements. Even if someone accomplished remarkable feats, it must be because they had excellent comrades they could trust and rely on behind them.”
Saying he was extremely proud thanks to them, Mikhail briefly mentioned the knight order’s overall achievements. It seemed he was trying not to create a sense of alienation since it was a public setting.
With Mikhail’s commendation and the knight order’s resounding response, they were led to the morale meeting venue.
“My goodness.”
Stefan briefly raised his head.
“What a truly splendid garden party venue!”
I looked at Rilke too.
“Didn’t you say Rilke prepared this? Rilke, did you really do all this?”
Unlike his words that he couldn’t do anything, Rilke was smart.
At Stefan’s admiration, Rilke was smiling.
That child in a navy blue suit had a pale complexion since morning. I wondered if perhaps the preparations weren’t finished, but it seemed that wasn’t why—rather, his face had become like that from working hard for a good result.
Why did he do that when he knew he could do so well?
“Gentlemen, this little one prepared all this for you! If you’re knights, you should give your thanks. Now that I look, you’ve lost weight. You didn’t suffer needlessly because of this, did you?”
“No. Not at all.”
The banquet venue set up outdoors was really nice.
Large garden party tables and magic candlesticks decorated in white, the Count family’s symbol, were lighting up the early evening like lanterns. A band dressed in tailcoats began playing a solemn march.
Rilke, who received the knights’ greetings, flushed. I was stupid to think that child didn’t know how to do anything.
“Lord Joachim?” At a passing servant’s quiet call, I realized only then that I had stopped.
The men of House Meyer except for me were already ahead in the distance. I nodded to the servant and followed.
With Mikhail’s congratulatory speech, the small welcome banquet began.
“Joachim, I heard good news.”
To allow the knights to enjoy themselves comfortably, Mikhail put us in his reception room.
Taking advantage of Mikhail briefly leaving his seat, Stefan opened his mouth. He had insisted on following inside instead of relieving his fatigue with the knights.
“Your pheromones really seem to have stabilized.”
“It’s not completely yet.”
“Hmm, is that why? Your complexion still seems bad. You’re still only grown tall like a beanpole too.”
Stefan was two years older than me but had never once been taller than me.
The reason I bother remembering this is because young Stefan asked to measure heights every time he met me. Stefan had done the tiresome action of comparing me, who was an Alpha, with himself.
“Rilke, every time I see you, I pay tribute to your perfection.”
And he also tiresomely praised Rilke’s appearance.
“You have no color in your face. Didn’t you overdo it with the banquet preparations?”
“It’s still unfamiliar work… But it was fun. I felt proud seeing people happy.”
“You left him to get to that state? You should help your brother, you do this kind of thing easily.”
Stefan, who had never once helped me, his brother, said to me. Rilke urgently waved his hands saying no.
“Stefan-hyungnim, your face is much worse.”
“I struggled a bit.”
“How was the island?”
“Ugh, full of monsters. There were centipedes this big, with fangs the size of a young child.”
Knowing that a longworm’s average tooth size is about an adult’s finger, it was boring from the first round. Moreover, ancient island monsters in hot environments have poorer individual development than land monsters.
“Sir Lifros worked as hard as I did. We were like the two wings of the assault unit, you could say?”
Stefan recounted his heroic tales as if they were nothing, but it continued to be unrealistic stories.
Just when I was starting to want to get up, Mikhail returned.
“Ah, Brother!”
With delicious food.
Seeing freshly baked scones and jam to my taste, I sat back down. Stefan recounted relatively realistic reports to Mikhail.
“Come to think of it, Count. Shouldn’t Joachim get married now too?”
Ugh, I wondered why he hadn’t brought that up.
Still the same as in the past, my cousin with a southern-style name revealed his greed while pretending to think of me.
