“Then, have a good time.”
After Makia left, Masera was lost in thought, watching a man in a clown costume handing out balloons to children.
The man named Makia, whom he didn’t even remember, had stirred up forgotten memories. He felt extremely unpleasant, but he didn’t show it, thinking of Cynthia.
On the way out after touring the zoo, Cynthia talked incessantly about the animals she had seen there.
“This place is so nice. The animals looked healthy, right? I should definitely come back with Eugene. I’ll buy that penguin plushie with the bowtie then. What was its name, Pengie?”
“Baron Gunther von Duran.”
‘She doesn’t seem very interested in that man from earlier.’
Masera, finding himself relieved, awkwardly swept back his platinum blonde hair.
Cynthia, walking with a parasol, tugged at his sleeve and asked,
“Where shall we go now?”
“There’s a park nearby exhibiting ice sculptures, a war memorial, and a riverside promenade with a view of the river.”
“The promenade.”
The two headed straight for the promenade.
Arriving at the riverside, Cynthia clapped her hands, watching the river frozen white and sparkling.
“It’s so pretty! Look at the ducks crossing over the frozen river! How could you keep such a romantic place to yourself?”
“Now I’ve told you.”
To Masera, it was just ice, but Cynthia was the kind of person who made a fuss and rejoiced even at the obvious.
As if she had never experienced an ordinary life.
Cynthia pointed to a bench with a view of the town across the river.
“I want to sit here.”
“Are your legs hurting? Then let’s go somewhere else….”
“It has to be this bench.”
“It’s covered in snow.”
“I’ll just brush it off.”
She patted the bench with her gloved hands and gestured for him to sit down.
Masera sighed, took off his coat, spread it on the bench, and then sat her down on it.
“Thank you.”
A faint pink blush rose on her white cheeks, and she pulled out the sleeve part of the coat underneath her.
“Brigadier General, please sit here.”
“……”
“Thank you, right?”
It’s my coat, why are you taking credit…
Sitting next to Cynthia, Masera glanced at her, who was staring blankly at the river.
‘But why are we sitting here?’
As he waited, unsure of her intentions, Cynthia said,
“Brigadier General, you must be able to see the scenery of the town across the river clearly. I’m jealous that you were born with hawk eyes.”
“Two drunks are fighting over there. The one with the beard will probably win.”
“Wow… you can even give commentary.”
Cynthia, her emotions shattered, made a deflated sound and looked somewhere else again.
Masera, noticing her seemingly wistful expression, wondered.
‘What on earth is she thinking? Could she be figuring out an escape route using the frozen river?’
Contrary to his suspicions, Cynthia wasn’t thinking about anything in particular.
‘I want to eat cup ramen.’
Masera, unaware of this, suddenly recalled the doctor’s words.
“If you want to hear the other person’s deep stories, you must first open up and share your own.”
He pondered for a moment about what story to tell, then opened his mouth with a determined look.
“I don’t remember the man I met earlier, but.”
“……Pardon?”
Cynthia, who had been lost in other thoughts, looked at him.
Masera continued, staring at the children playing in the town across the river.
“He was probably at the facility that temporarily housed refugee orphans.”
Cynthia knew something about Masera’s past, but this was the first time she was hearing it from his own mouth.
Cynthia nodded carefully.
“I see.”
“That place was like a selection center. To find special children who were likely to be adopted.”
She listened quietly, waiting for his next words.
“I was also a candidate for adoption there. Because many nobles wanted to take me in because of my unusual eye color.”
Masera seemed to be tracing back to distant, long-ago memories, as if looking at a distant place shrouded in fog.
“But I was temporarily adopted and then came out due to an unsavory incident, and was labeled a troublemaker and sent to another orphanage. The noble who adopted me was….”
His words caught in his throat.
It was a story he had never told anyone.
It was such an unsavory incident that he had lived his life treating it as non-existent.
Suddenly, the afterimage of a noble man handing a balloon to his younger self flashed through his mind.
Masera frowned.
“Sharing sadness is helpful, but it’s not easy to bring it out.”
As the doctor said, it wasn’t easy.
“Because of the fear of not being understood and the fear that the other person might leave me.”
He didn’t want to show her his dark side. He felt that the moment he showed it, the daily life he had been spending with her would completely change.
“Nobles pretend to empathize on the surface, but they don’t understand even minor flaws. They think of an unfortunate past as a blemish.”
“Misfortune creates monsters.”
So, recalling someone’s words that he could never mix with people who grew up in a greenhouse, Masera sighed silently.
After a long silence, Cynthia pointed somewhere.
“Did you just see a duck fall on the icy road?”
Cynthia let out an exaggerated laugh.
Masera, well aware that it was her way of showing consideration, watched the duck that was getting up and walking again as if nothing had happened.
“Even if it slips several times, it doesn’t give up and keeps walking, the duck.”
Cynthia murmured quietly to herself.
* * *
The day after their not-date, Diego came to see Masera in his office.
“Brigadier General, former Count Vicente has sent another letter.”
Recalling former Count Vicente, he felt a surge of disgust.
He had seized even the title as collateral for the debt, so it seemed he was left with resentment and lingering feelings.
“He shouldn’t have gambled in the first place.”
Masera muttered with a displeased expression and waved his hand.
“As always, destroy them as they come. He’s no longer a count, so there’s no need to elevate his title.”
Fortunately, he had never come to visit, since there were many soldiers in the residence.
“And Princess has decided to attend the Duke Rukanosa family’s formal gathering….”
Diego, who had been reporting, suddenly said to him.
“Come to think of it, Brigadier General, you seem to be sleeping well these days. You used to wake up often, didn’t you?”
It was a habit that had developed from having to wake up immediately at the slightest sound on the battlefield.
Thinking back to that time, Masera found an eyeball sticker attached to the document clipboard.
‘The culprit is obvious.’
Recently, Cynthia had bought strange stickers from a toy store with Eugene and had started secretly sticking them on his belongings.
As he pondered how to get revenge, he belatedly replied.
“It’s because of the Princess.”
Recently, he had been sleeping in the same room as her for surveillance and protection.
“Sleeping? Should I tell you a fun fact? I heard at the zoo earlier that if you eat gum and chocolate together, the chocolate melts.”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
Cynthia’s constant chatter was exhausting and close to a lullaby that forced him to sleep.
It was to the point where even the king in One Thousand and One Nights would have kicked her out, saying he was wrong and never to come again.
Masera pulled at his uniform tie and frowned slightly.
“She makes it hard for me every night.”
“……Ew.”
Diego, having taken Masera’s words in a certain way, covered his mouth and gave him an embarrassed look.
Then, after clearing his throat, he said,
“I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but I thought you wouldn’t know until dinner, so let me tell you.”
“Tell me.”
“You have eyes on your back, Brigadier General.”
“Ah.”
Masera sighed and rubbed his forehead.
* * *
Duke Rukanosa belatedly learned that the maid Anna had disappeared.
‘The culprit is obvious.’
He looked at Helene, who was sitting across from him, eating elegantly.
He was certain of his suspicions, but he couldn’t ask her first.
Helene was in the same situation, keeping her thoughts to herself.
‘Of all people, a lowly maid. If it were a noble lady of the same status, it wouldn’t be so embarrassing to others.’
In the uncomfortable silence, only the occasional clinking of tableware could be heard.
“In two days, my mother and aunts, along with guests from my mother’s side of the family, will be arriving. They are all royalty and high-ranking nobles, so prepare with more care than usual. Your family is also scheduled to come.”
The Duke rose from his seat first and spoke as if giving instructions to a subordinate.
Helene was quite annoyed by him, but she nodded in response.
“By the way, who is Lady Eleanor on the list?”
At the Duke’s question, Helene replied with an indifferent expression.
“I heard she’s a distant relative of the Duke’s family. Maybe an eighth cousin. I only found out this time.”
‘Isn’t that practically a stranger? Why isn’t her title listed? Is she a friend of my mother’s?’
Unlike the Duke, who was filled with questions, Helene knew very well who Lady Eleanor was.
“She will be useful. She is Brigadier General Vicente’s weakness and a past he wants to hide.”
Countess Eleanor Vicente.
The Vicente family was the noble family that had adopted the young Masera.
