Chapter 05……………………………..
To make up for her mistakes, she tried again to go out with him and confess.
But for some reason, the couple at the next table began fighting.
They ended up throwing tea at each other, only to start kissing right after—so abruptly that she wondered what on earth was happening.
For the record, immediately after the kiss, the man got slapped and was carried off to a physician.
…It was not the right atmosphere for a confession.
The third and fourth attempts were similar, and the fifth one too.
Around that point, Irenes finally realized that normal methods were never going to work.
So she started looking for every possible moment in daily life to confess to Laseil.
Of course, every attempt failed.
A sudden gust of wind swallowed her voice—failure.
A loud crash nearby drowned it out—failure.
Someone suddenly covered her mouth—failure.
Laseil simply didn’t hear her—failure, failure, failure…
The day a ghost interfered and ruined her confession, she was completely speechless.
She even seriously considered whether she could cut down a ghost with aura.
But none of that mattered—the reasons for failure only grew more absurd by the day.
It got so bad that people around her started placing bets on how her next confession would fail.
“If only Lord Zaen would just say, ‘Do you perhaps like me?’ even once…”
Muttering to herself, Irenes slumped in defeat as she remembered her past failures.
“I’m being this obvious—how does he not notice?”
“No idea,” Riela replied absently while flipping through papers.
But Riela had the same question.
Isn’t it obvious to anyone?
At the mention of Laseil’s name, Irenes perked up; she wore accessories matching his eye color (which was a bit creepy), brought him flowers or gems or swords every time they met, exchanged letters…
She even grew her hair out because of something he said as a child.
Even if they suddenly started dating, no one would find it strange.
Hm—no, wait.
Riela reorganized her thoughts.
She’d forgotten an important detail in her focus on work.
“It’s because you always talk only about the young Lord Resean when you talk to him.”
“At the beginning, that was literally the only topic we had in common!”
She just… wanted to start a conversation somehow, but she had no charm for that sort of thing, so she picked the best topic she could.
Since they hadn’t met through family arrangement or anything, they rarely saw each other—there weren’t many shared topics.
So she talked about Yujire in spring, summer, fall, winter—year-round.
“Why did I do that?”
“You really talked about him for an entire year?”
“When I talked about young Lord Resean, Lord Zaen looked so happy…”
“That’s still a bit much.”
In Riela’s view, this was entirely Irenes’s fault.
“Why did you fall for him in the first place?”
“You’re finally going to listen properly?”
Riela immediately shut her mouth.
She’d just realized she said something she absolutely shouldn’t have.
Now she’d have to listen to a story she wasn’t even curious about for a long time.
“That’s a great question. It was when…”
“No, never mind.”
“It was back when a ghost appeared—”
“Not listening.”
“…After he accidentally slapped me, my heart started pounding and…”
As always, the story made absolutely no sense.
Riela didn’t bother arguing and went back to her documents.
Strange the reason may be, but Irenes was undeniably in love.
“Anyway, I’m going down to the territory for a bit.”
“Territory? Which—”
Riela stopped mid-sentence, struck by a bad premonition.
There was only one territory that made sense right now.
The place where Laseil had gone with Yujire recently.
“Lord Zaen invited me.”
“What?”
“Besides, I don’t have anything to do!”
“That’s not true…”
Irenes was on vacation, not unemployed.
Though her job was pretty relaxed to begin with.
“What about your duties as Captain?”
She was the captain of the imperial Third Knight Order.
Not the First or Second, so there wasn’t much work.
The real problem was that her vacation ended the week after next.
A round trip to the territory would eat up most of her remaining time.
“I’ll use aura to get there and back.”
“…Will the horse survive that?”
“No, I’m going to run.”
“…”
Riela gave up thinking. Imperial aura users were all like this.
She’d never seen Laseil use aura, but he was an aura user too, so he was probably similar.
In that sense, the two seemed made for each other—
Not that they were dating yet.
“Fine… go.”
In any case, as long as Irenes returned on time, Riela had no complaints.
“Oh—Lady Sieren!”
Irenes arrived much sooner than Laseil had expected.
“Did you use a teleportation circle?”
“I ran.”
“Well, yes—that is faster.”
For ordinary swordsmen it wasn’t, but for a swordmaster running was always faster.
To exaggerate only slightly, they could move about five times faster than a carriage.
“Young Lord Resean, it’s been a while. And Miss Elian—long time no see.”
“……”
The moment her conversational partner changed, so did Irenes’s attitude.
She kept proper manners, but compared to how she spoke to Laseil, her eyes were completely different.
Moments ago she’d looked like a puppy wagging its tail at its owner.
How has he still not noticed?
Elian pushed aside the question that had plagued her for days and was struck by another one.
Even after seeing that expression, Laseil still thought Irenes liked Yujire—utterly unbelievable.
It’s not that his self-esteem is low…
Judging by how confidently Laseil challenged others to duels, that wasn’t the case.
He always started with, “As the First Sword of Resean, blessed by the blade…”
He simply… had no awareness whatsoever.
Good grief.
Looking at Yujire’s face, he probably hadn’t picked up on it either.
He was staring at Laseil with a complicated, speechless expression.
In any case, this was a problem for Laseil and Irenes to sort out.
Elian had a bigger issue.
“…So that’s what happened. What do you think?”
The issue of dealing with the marquis family.
Elian had waited until greetings were done, then explained everything.
“Ah, the paper is here.”
“Let’s see…”
It took Irenes only a few seconds to be certain.
It was definitely the handwriting of the marquis’s second son.
The question mark’s shape was unusual, the vowels were practically indistinguishable—no one else wrote like that.
Even imitating it would be too hard because it was that peculiar.
“…Yeah. Looks like it…”
Once she said it, she felt strange.
After all, this meant someone she once knew had become a ghost.
And they hadn’t even given him a proper funeral.
“I’ll go boil some tea.”
Unable to bear the heavy atmosphere, Luzea slipped away.
Elian fell into her own thoughts.
And Laseil… was thinking about something else entirely.
“I shouldn’t say this, but…”
After a moment of hesitation, Laseil murmured quietly.
“How do you think he died?”
“……”
Everyone glanced cautiously at Irenes.
She was the only one here who had known the marquis’s second son.
Guess we didn’t need to worry.
Elian quickly realized her concerns were pointless.
For some reason, Irenes looked like she had fallen for Laseil again.
Yujire noticed it too.
They had known Irenes long enough to read her thoughts.
She was probably thinking something like,
‘How admirable—he can ask such a blunt question even in this atmosphere.’
She had always lost all sense when it came to Laseil.
Good thing Laseil had at least some morality.
If the empire’s only two aura users were both unhinged, there would be no saving the world.
