[CHAPTER 60]
7. There Is No Secret That Lasts Forever
The capital stay felt long if I thought of it that way, and short if I didn’t, but either way I finally returned to the North.
I almost teared up the moment our house came into view.
Maybe it was because I met too many strange people in the capital, but I felt a little homesick.
I went to see Mother and Father first, bringing the gifts I had bought for them.
“Ta-da! Guess what this is. It’s a super famous cookie set from the capital!”
It was from a dessert house opened by a baker who had worked in the Imperial Palace for years before resigning.
I proudly opened the box and fell into despair.
The cookies had shaken on the way and were all broken and mixed together.
“No!”
I tried to piece the cookies back together with trembling hands, then dropped my head.
“I’m sorry. Please pretend you didn’t see this……”
“Ah, no! What’s wrong with a few broken cookies? They all taste the same once you eat them.”
“That’s right. I bet they taste good.”
Seeing how discouraged I was, the two of them each took a bite of a broken cookie and spoke warmly.
“It’s good, Jena.”
“Yes, I don’t really like sweets, but this is pleasant for the first time in a while—”
“A while? This was released not long ago……”
I tilted my head.
The baker opened the dessert house just last year, and this cookie set had only recently become popular.
He said he often served these to visitors when he worked in the Imperial Palace.
“Ah…… I meant it’s been a while since I had something sweet. This kind of sweetness feels nice.”
“Ah, I see. Then please eat lots! I bought several boxes!”
“Haha, thank you……”
Father tapped his chest as if something had gone down the wrong way, so I quickly pushed a teacup toward him and took out the next gift.
I started with Mother.
“Mother, please take this.”
“Oh my, what is it?”
She accepted the scarf with a bright face, a gentle smile forming at her lips.
“Thank you. I really like it—”
“If you look here, there’s embroidery too!”
I spread the scarf wide and pointed at the corner where “I♡BRITZ” was stitched.
You needed something like this to make it feel like a proper travel souvenir.
“My…… heart…… really……”
“You like it?!”
“……Yes.”
Mother couldn’t take her eyes off the scarf as she neatly folded it and placed it back in the box.
When I turned to give Father his gift, he flinched and waved his hands quickly.
“I’m fine. I don’t wear things like scarves. I hate them.”
“Don’t worry. Yours isn’t a scarf.”
“W-what is it then?”
I handed him a box containing a very stylish black fedora.
His hands trembled as he lifted the hat out of the box.
It had the same embroidery as the scarf, only bigger.
“How is it? Do you like it? I picked it while imagining how good it would look on you!”
“……What thoughts led you to imagine that.”
“That you would look amazing! The hat will make you look even more distinguished.”
“……I’ll accept it.”
He put the hat back and closed the box with a firm thud.
Their reactions weren’t bad, so I felt pretty pleased.
Later, I went to give Til a souvenir while delivering news about the contract.
It was a keychain with the same embroidery.
“……Th-thank you. But you signed the contract with someone other than Danilo? What happened?”
Til quickly tucked the keychain into his pocket and focused on business again.
So professional.
I briefly explained what had happened and showed him the contract.
His eyes widened so much they looked like they would fall out.
“T-tr-triúnfar Trading Company?!”
“Why? Do you know them?”
“Yes! There isn’t a merchant who doesn’t! They appeared like a comet about ten years ago, grew fast, and now they’re one of the top five in the Empire!”
Til spoke in an excited rush.
So they were that impressive.
I hadn’t known.
Aizen had only said he happened to know them.
“The head of the Triúnfar Company is a mystery. Hardly anyone knows who they are. Did you meet them, ma’am?”
“Uh…… yes, she was quite the beauty.”
“Ooh……”
To think the first contract I made in the capital was with such a major company.
My luck was ridiculous.
Til blinked rapidly, then regained his focus and read the contract carefully.
“It’ll be hard for just the two of us to keep up with this volume. You should hire additional workers and start producing in larger quantities.”
“Oh, good idea.”
“Then I’ll recruit people!”
I briefly wondered how Aizen knew Vicki, but his excited tone erased the thought.
After discussing the schedule some more and parting with Til, I went to meet Mathias.
He grumbled that I stayed too long in the capital, so I handed him a doll as a gift.
It wore embroidered clothes.
“Oh, but maybe you’re too old to play with dolls now……”
I hesitated, wondering if it was too childish, but Mathias snatched the doll from my hands and hugged it.
“I’m fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes…… and the outfit isn’t bad.”
He tried to sound indifferent, but his cheeks flushed pink with delight.
I smiled warmly and patted his head.
“But I have something for you too, ma’am.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“This…… I made it myself.”
He shyly handed me a small cloth pouch.
Inside was a thread bracelet with a clover-shaped cubic charm.
“You made this? Really?”
“Yes. I only give these to family and you.”
“Oh my, that’s such an honor. Thank you!”
So I was the only person outside his family to receive one.
Afraid it might break, I tucked it gently back inside the pouch and patted his head and cheeks several more times.
It was too precious to wear carelessly.
* * *
While Jena was going around meeting people, Aizen was handling the mountain of paperwork that had piled up during his trip to the capital.
As he worked like a machine, Ralph placed a new document before him.
“An Ethereal Diamond has been mined. There are many who requested to purchase it. Which family should we give priority to?”
Aizen’s hand slowed for a moment.
It was a diamond from a Kalard-owned mine, considered the rarest gem in the Empire.
The heads of House Kalard usually sold or gifted these to major families to strengthen ties.
Or they gifted them to someone precious.
“I personally recommend selling it to Count Shilling.”
“Why?”
“He said he wants to make a ring for the countess for their tenth anniversary.”
“……A ring?”
“Yes. They couldn’t afford a proper wedding ring when they married, so he wants to make up for it now.”
For some reason, Aizen thought of Jena.
While pretending to be a poor baron, the only thing he had given her was a sapphire necklace.
She never complained when she saw the empty jewelry box.
She never even asked where her wedding ring was.
Because she was being considerate of him.
‘I went too far. I should have given her a proper ring even if it was fake……’
Her bare, slender fingers flashed through his mind, and regret washed over him.
Would it be too late to give her one now?
“Your Grace? What will you do?”
“……I’ll think about it.”
He placed Count Shilling at the top of the list, moved by empathy, and focused on the most urgent tasks first.
After a hectic day, he crossed over to the Kreutz estate for dinner with Jena.
She returned late from her outings and stood in the entrance hall.
‘……What is she doing?’
She held a piece of paper and read it carefully.
Then she folded it neatly and handed it to Greta.
Greta immediately ripped it up and stuffed the pieces into her pocket.
“My lady, you’re back?”
“Oh? Honey! Yes, I just got home.”
Jena smiled brightly as he approached, and Aizen felt his lips lift on their own.
“What was that paper Greta tore up?”
“Ah, that? Nothing important.”
She waved her hands, which only made him more curious.
“Nothing important like what?”
“Ah, someone didn’t know I was married and gave me a confession letter. Said to contact him if I liked him, but of course I won’t.”
She shrugged lightly and looped her arm through his.
“Ah…… I see……”
But Aizen’s expression had already darkened ominously.
His jaw clenched hard enough to make a faint cracking sound.
Some lunatic had given a love letter to his wife.
His gaze fell to her left hand.
Her bare ring finger.
If a ring had been there, they would have known she was married.
Then that pathetic letter wouldn’t have existed.
‘I need to get her a ring.’
One that made it obvious from a hundred meters away.
His violet eyes flashed with resolve.
After dinner, he returned to the Kalard palace to find Ralph.
“Cancel every purchase request for the Ethereal Diamond.”
“Does that mean you’ve decided who to sell it to?”
“Yes.”
Ralph assumed he meant Count Shilling.
He thought his advice had been accepted and the duke had decided quickly.
But then Aizen said something unbelievable.
“To me.”
“……Pardon?”
“I’ll be using it. Contact the jeweler. I’m commissioning a ring.”
“Wh-what?!”
Ralph gaped in shock.
But Aizen didn’t change his mind.
He was completely consumed by the desire to give her a ring that screamed marriage from miles away.
