Chapter – 10
Startled, she turned her head and saw Heinrich smiling menacingly. Her intention had been a wish for Heinrich to get along well with her parents, but it seemed it hadn’t come across that way to Heinrich.
Although Heinrich was clearly smiling, he seemed to be in a worse mood than when they had discussed the coming-of-age ceremony. Solitaire wiggled her hips slightly, putting a little distance between them.
“Huh?”
At her action, the space between his eyebrows twitched again. This was undoubtedly a bad sign.
Solitaire tried to quickly get up from her seat, averting her gaze. However, against her will, she had to remain seated.
Because Heinrich had grabbed the armrests of the chair and pulled it—and her—closer.
“Euk.”
“Where do you think you’re running off to?”
Simultaneously with the low sound, Heinrich brought his face close to hers. Because of that, all of Solitaire’s nerves were on edge.
His crookedly raised lips, his cold golden eyes, and even his black hair tinged with a hint of sunlight—as each of these came into view, it felt as if time had stopped.
She tried to turn her head away from his overwhelming gaze, but it was useless.
Heinrich, firmly gripping both armrests, looked at her as if to say there was no escape. Finally surrendering, Solitaire offered a tiny protest in a voice small enough to come from a mouse hole.
“I wasn’t running away.”
Despite her words, Heinrich showed no sign of leniency and brought his face even closer.
When Heinrich’s hair brushed against Solitaire’s forehead, the atmosphere grew even more tense and peculiar, ready to explode.
Ultimately, unable to bear the atmosphere, Solitaire chose to turn into a rabbit and escape.
“Ah?”
As she shrank, the distance that had been close enough for their breaths to mingle widened once again. Heinrich, with a blank expression, glared at Solitaire, who had slipped out of her clothes.
Solitaire also looked at him, but tears were welling up in her eyes.
“Why are you crying?”
She had been sulking all morning because of his flippancy, and these were tears filled with resentment towards Heinrich, who didn’t understand her feelings.
Heinrich asked again as if it was absurd, but Solitaire shook her head and bit her lip firmly. Seeing her like that, Heinrich issued a firm warning.
“Don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re cute, this isn’t the first or second time.”
“……”
“It’s no use pretending you didn’t hear. Next time you try to run away like this, I’ll catch and eat you for sure.”
As a sign of very timid defiance, Solitaire sharply turned her head away. And so, a cold war—or something like it—between the two began.
* * *
After parting from Solitaire, Heinrich couldn’t get ahold of himself due to a strange emotion.
With Raon nagging him beside him, Heinrich suddenly realized that he was angry.
“I just feel so sorry for our young lady.”
“Whose young lady? I’ve told you before to do something about that title.”
“Not ‘Lady Lien’! Not ‘young lady’ either! Then what should I call her?!”
“You could always choose not to call her anything.”
Because of Heinrich’s murderous intent, Raon’s mouth twitched.
His mouth opened and closed as if he were debating whether or not to say something. After bothering Heinrich for a while, Raon finally voiced what he wanted to say.
“If you treat the young lady like that, she’ll run away completely one day.”
“What?”
Heinrich froze on the spot. It was a scenario he had never even imagined.
“No, just think about it. The young lady will be an adult soon, and she might say she wants to be independent. And if she leaves, she might meet someone new……”
Raon, who had watched this fool who didn’t even understand his own feelings for four years from the closest distance, spoke as if he could no longer hold back.
“Leave? Meet who?”
A rather satisfying reaction came from Heinrich. Although it seemed slightly more unhinged than what Raon had hoped for.
“No, well, at the young lady’s age, it’s natural to start becoming curious about the opposite sex.”
“Knight Raon, the way you’re talking makes it seem like you’re very interested in Sol.”
“Of course! Rather than serving a good-for-nothing young master, our young lady is……”
As Raon spoke, Heinrich, who had been nodding, lightly picked up the sword lying near the desk. As the blade glinted, so did Heinrich’s eyes.
Even the clueless Raon could tell at this moment that his life was in danger.
“Uh, wait a moment. Young master, put that down.”
“Thinking about it, I feel like my life would be much more peaceful if you were just gone. Don’t you think?”
Heinrich scraped the sword against the floor as he took step by step towards Raon.
“Y-Your eyes have gone crazy! Snap out of it! You crazy young master!”
“My eyes what? And crazy young master? So you’ve finally lost it, have you?”
Choking sounds filled their space. The sword in his hand traced an arc, coming close to Raon’s neck.
And just before the sword touched his neck.
“Still, it’s still too early to kill our capable Knight Raon.”
“Huhuk. Huhuk…… Really, you were really trying to kill me.”
“Shh, Raon. If anyone saw, they’d think I’m the only villain here. You should get up now.”
As Heinrich sheathed his sword and smiled brightly, Raon felt all the hair from his spine to the top of his head stand on end.
For a while, the room was filled with the sound of Raon’s crying and the vigorous sound of something being pounded.
Only after quite some time had passed did a much calmer-looking Heinrich open the door and come out.
James was waiting for him, having come to inform him of his next schedule.
“I’ve placed the documents you need to review in the office. You plan to make time to visit the library in between, correct?”
“I have to. I need to see that rabbit who only sleeps and doesn’t read books to improve my work efficiency. And besides, she seems really angry, so I need to appease her.”
Heinrich, remembering the absurd fight from the morning, ran his hand through his hair.
“Shall I then send some refreshments for you and Lady Lien to enjoy at the library?”
“Lemon cake would be good. She likes sour things, our mischievous young lady.”
Heinrich hummed, seemingly having forgotten that he himself disliked sour things. Seeing this, James nodded lightly.
Knowing that somehow, his young master’s standards had become centered around Solitaire, he did so. James wrote the phrase ‘Time for the young master and his companion’ in his schedule notebook and smiled broadly.
“Then I’ll have them delivered at the appropriate time. Oh, and by the way, Lady Lien seems to have been napping around the library area lately.”
James, who was about to bow, relayed something he had forgotten to tell Heinrich. And upon hearing this, Heinrich smiled radiantly.
Like the happiest person in the world.
“So that’s why there was grass stain on her hair.”
This was always his reaction when Solitaire was mentioned.
He didn’t seem to be aware of it himself, but to James, who relayed Solitaire’s daily schedule to Heinrich, it was clear what the expression on Heinrich’s face meant.
“Maybe I shouldn’t let her sleep. She seemed tired lately from staying up late, and it’s all because she naps. She never listens to me.”
Heinrich then turned his back and disappeared, saying he should go see her. James bowed, seeing Heinrich off.
Seeing Heinrich’s light footsteps as he headed towards Solitaire, James grinned.
There were those who were frustrated that there had been no progress in their relationship over the past four years. But James thought this time wasn’t so bad.
His young master, who used to have monotonous emotions, was learning quite a variety of feelings now, so he almost wished this time would last a little longer.
And that wish unknowingly brought a catastrophe that no one had anticipated.
* * *
Solitaire lay down in the grassy area near the library and let out heavy sighs. As she closed her eyes, the events of the morning unfolded before her.
She didn’t understand why the emotions she usually hid so well had acted up so much today, or why Heinrich’s approaching figure kept coming to mind.
Solitaire, having steadied her breathing, muttered to herself.
“…Act like a pet rabbit, Solitaire.”
To organize her thoughts, she recalled the plans she made for herself every day.
“You’ll be an adult soon. When that time comes, you’ll leave Hiruphs and live on your own. If you reduce the time spent next to the young master, these strange feelings will probably disappear too.”
Traveling to the places she had read about in books didn’t seem like a bad idea either.
The allowance Sophia secretly gave her each month was substantial, so it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to support herself alone.
“Ah, I don’t know. Haven’t I repaid the favor enough by sticking by his side relentlessly for four years? No… I should take a little break and then live near Hiruphs, repaying the young master’s kindness while living my life. How can you just up and abandon the person who saved you? Tsk, how heartless.”
While she was lost in such imaginary scenarios, an unpleasant noise reached her ears. She tried to ignore the noise and go to sleep.
But unfortunately, a rabbit’s hearing was phenomenal. Soon, letting out a hollow laugh, Solitaire began listening to their conversation.
