Chapter 39
The day of the tea party.
Early that morning, I was summoned to the Duke’s study.
“Excuse me.”
I wasn’t as nervous as before, but I still wasn’t fond of the stiff atmosphere in this room. Huh? There are knights here besides Vice.
“You’re here. Tiana, your personal guard has been decided.”
My personal guard—so it’s finally been decided.
In the novel, she never had a personal escort; the knights took turns accompanying her when she went out.
Maybe I’m overthinking it, but this makes me feel like I’ll be much safer now when I go out.
At those words, one of the knights knelt on one knee before me.
“Dino of the Royal Knights greets Lady Tiana Aster.”
(I’d heard all sorts of bad rumors since I’d never met the young lady before, so I wondered what kind of person she was—but she’s ridiculously cute in person. I’m glad I survived the Duke’s Spartan training. From now on, this precious person is the one I must protect.)
“It’s nice to meet you. My name is Tiana Aster.”
Whoa—he’s seriously impressive.
You can tell how strong his muscles are even through his clothes.
I’m not exactly into muscles or anything, but this… I just genuinely like it.
Despite his sturdy, muscular body, his face still has a trace of youthfulness.
He looks quite young for a knight, actually.
“I swear my sword and my life in loyalty to Lady Tiana Aster, our family’s treasure.”
He’s swearing loyalty? I’ve never had anyone do that before—how am I supposed to reply?
I glanced toward the Duke.
He met my eyes and gave only a small nod.
Flustered, I turned to Vice next. He also just nodded.
Do these two seriously think I know what I’m supposed to say here?
What should I say?
“Thank you”… maybe?
Ah—
“U-um, I look forward to working with you.”
That’s fine, right?
He’s someone who’s going to be protecting my life from now on, and we’ll probably be spending a lot of time together, so I hope we can get along.
“Thank you for accepting me,” Dino said, lifting his head.
“When danger approaches, he will be your shield and your sword,” the Duke said by way of formal introduction.
“I will protect you with all my strength and devotion.”
A real knight, through and through.
“When you go to the Count’s estate today, take him with you. Dino—if any threat approaches Tiana, protect her even at the cost of your life.”
“Yes, sir! I’ll guard her with all my heart!” he answered crisply, hands clasped behind his back and voice ringing firm and proud.
True, the Duke’s residence and the Count’s estate are quite a distance apart.
If someone from House Aster were to be injured, it would be a scandal.
Still, that was quite a dramatic way to put it.
It almost sounded… like he was worried about me.
“Be careful on your way.”
“Yes. I’ll be back soon.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Now only the Duke and Vice remained in the study.
“You personally selected the man yourself, Your Grace. That’s reassuring.”
Vice smiled warmly, as though watching something endearing.
“I wouldn’t call it reassuring,” the Duke replied.
(Up until now, His Grace showed no interest in Lady Tiana, but lately he’s been trying to reach out. He’s such an awkward man—when he speaks, his face always looks so stern. No wonder Lady Tiana stays on guard around him.)
“I just hope the day goes by without incident,” Vice said.
“Tiana has been learning to solve her own problems lately. She’ll be fine. Stop wasting time talking and get back to work.”
For once, a faint smile appeared at the corner of the Duke’s lips.
“Heh… as you say.”
Seeing that, Vice smiled softly too.
(I wonder when the day will come that Lady Tiana and the Duke truly open up to each other.)
