“Can’t you stop calling me ‘Young Master’?
“Young master, if I don’t call you Young Master, what should I call you then?”
“Haah…”
It’s something he couldn’t change even after more than twenty years. No, it might be more accurate to say she’s the only person he can’t do anything about.
“I need to properly look at our Young Master’s face after so long, but my eyes are like this.”
“……”
Memories start from the moment I was born.
She’s the only one who took care of me. And before that, she raised my mother, they say. However, even as a noble family’s reserve, that’s only up to the point of receiving wages as part of the household.
There was no obligation to serve even the young lady who came to him barefoot and starving, but Mrs. Hart did not do so. She spent her painstakingly saved fortune to help with my mother’s childbirth and even shouldered the burden that is me.
Truly, an incredibly unlucky and ill-fated life.
Well, it’s not for me to say,
“How have you grown up so splendidly? If Lady Levelin were still alive.”
“Stop.”
“……”
“I’m not interested in dead people.”
“…Young master.”
Anything else could be overlooked, but not this. When Kainel strongly refused, Mrs. Hart drooped her eyebrows but soon lifted the corners of her wrinkled lips as if understanding him.
“The rumors about Young Master are famous even here. Every time I hear them, my shoulders rise with pride.”
“Don’t pay too much attention to nonsense.”
“What nonsense? Even the neighborhood kids are singing songs about Young Master as they go around. By the way, how did you really come all the way here?”
“Why? Can’t I come?”
“…Of course you can. It’s just, a person who should be going to a good place today is here, so that’s why.”
As Mrs. Hart vaguely glossed over her words with an innocent smile, Kainel sharply turned around.
What else did she say?
Major Gerald, feeling guilty, averted his eyes, and Kainel wearily brushed his bare face.
“It’s nothing much.”
“Of course it’s not nothing. They say our Young Master might become the Duke!”
“…Haah.”
Kainel glared sharply at his adjutant. It was good that the elderly woman, who could barely move, was excited after a long time, but once he knew the reason, he couldn’t simply welcome it.
“Useless talk.”
In this noisy world, she’s the one person he wants to cover his ears for. Even if he can’t repay the favor, he must keep her from hearing his dog-like rumors. That’s the duty and everything he can do for the woman who raised him.
“I guess we need to move to a place where the nonsense can’t be heard.”
“Shall we do that?”
At Kainel’s rough words, Major Gerald grimaced as if embarrassed for him, but Mrs. Hart just smiled. She was simply happy just to have met her precious Young Master. Mrs. Hart, who had been slowly scanning him from head to toe, narrowing her eyes as much as possible despite her blurry vision, wore a benevolent smile.
“So, why has our busy Young Master come all the way here?”
“Why do you keep asking?”
“Well, our Young Master always comes to find this old woman whenever you’re about to face something very, very important.”
“……”
As Kainel furrowed his brows, Mrs. Hart smiled again. The last time he had come to her without notice was to tell her that he had to leave to save His Highness the Crown Prince.
“Why? Are you going to stop me?”
Even after throwing words like a bolt from the blue, he smirked as if it were someone else’s business, and her heart had crumbled. By then, he had already prepared everything for her to spend the rest of her life in this place. Even when telling her that he might never see her again, that he was going to stake his life, Kainel had been calm, but today, for some reason, he was only hesitating.
“Is there something else going on?”
“What do you mean something.”
“……”
“Nothing like that.”
Kainel suddenly stood up abruptly. He couldn’t bring himself to shake off even the wrinkled hand that had been holding him. As the wind rustled through the grass, his red eyes were revealed.
“Our Young Master must have stayed up all night. From childhood, whenever you pulled an all-nighter, your eyes would get like that.”
“Do you need anything?”
“……”
At Kainel’s abrupt question, Mrs. Hart blinked her grayish-blue eyes. He didn’t know how many times he would have to say the same thing, but usually, when he did that, there was a reason of that magnitude. As the sound of Major Gerald’s footsteps approaching to escort him rang out, Mrs. Hart hurriedly called Kainel.
“Young Master.”
“If you’re going to say something like how I should live.”
“I won’t stop you.”
“……”
It was a somewhat out-of-place remark. Major Gerald’s eyes widened in bewilderment, but Kainel only looked down at Mrs. Hart with a somewhat flustered expression. Then, as if something clicked, instead of asking what she meant, he silently closed his mouth.
“What would an old woman like me know, but our Young Master should do as he wants at least once.”
“……”
Mrs. Hart nodded.
Not because of money or obligation to support, she hoped her precious Young Master would live according to his own will. From the moment the umbilical cord was cut, he was someone who rarely fussed. As if he knew his own circumstances even from birth, he hardly spoke.
“Hey. Do you need anything by any chance?”
In his lifetime, there had been only once when he repeatedly asked the same thing: the time they passed by a shop in the bustling street. It wasn’t particularly expensive or luxurious watch, but around ten years old, Kainel had urged her. From the beginning, it wasn’t something suitable for an old person.
So she knew.
That unless it was something absolutely necessary enough to spend the hard-earned money on, it was that he wanted to indulge in greed at least once.
“You can do it. Young master.”
“Um, sorry, Madame. What exactly does the Commander want…”
“Anything he wants.”
“…Ah. Yes.”
At Mrs. Hart’s blind response, Major Gerald retreated with an awkward face. Kainel remained silent.
“You should live like that. What does it matter what others say? I hope our Young Master also follows his heart purely without any reason.”
“…Don’t say useless things.”
Whoosh. With the blowing wind, Kainel turned away coldly. Throughout the descent from the hill, he didn’t say a word. Major Gerald, following behind, tried to gauge his superior’s mood, but how could he guess what was inside.
‘What happened with the Cartien young lady.’
He would at least ask if the matter was that serious.
Since leaving the training ground last evening, Kainel had been extremely quiet. Whether he had nothing to say or was lost in thoughts so deep he had no words, the gaze of Kainel, who had stayed up all night, had settled coldly.
How should one describe such eyes?
If one had to compare, it was similar to when he said he would jump into the middle of the barbarian camp where His Highness the Crown Prince was captured.
No wonder that sword-like man hadn’t even prepared until he went to see the mansion himself. As Major Gerald entered the reception room and saw the pile of empty bottles in front of the fireplace, he cleared his throat.
“…Hm.”
The Major felt inexplicably anxious and pulled out his pocket watch from his pocket. As it bore the crest of his baronial family, it was a precious heirloom to him.
“Let’s head back now. By the way, since we’ve arrived in Lebron, we need to wind the time around, but I’ve forgotten until now. The Commander should too quickly.”
“I don’t have one.”
“…Pardon?”
“That kind of thing. I’ve never had one.”
Kainel, mounted on his black horse, smirked for the first time today. In his life, there were more than one or two things he didn’t have, and that watch was the same. That night, due to the hit-and-run carriage accident, Mrs. Hart was badly injured, and all the money she had saved went to hospital bills.
That thing he was drawn to without any special reason, just on a whim.
The watch he couldn’t have stopped at that blood-freezing moment when he paced the hospital waiting for Mrs. Hart to survive. Even if it was a cheap watch, how accurately could it have run? But perhaps that’s why he was even more curious.
If he had confirmed with his own eyes that the watch truly had no value, he could have easily discarded the lingering attachment that tightens around people.
“Commander, you’re heading straight to the training ground, right? The other day, when His Highness the Crown Prince contacted, I told him it would be hard to attend the banquet.”
“……”
“Commander?”
The Major, mounted on his horse, hesitated while chasing Kainel. It wasn’t the way they came. As Major Gerald traced the direction Kainel was heading, his mouth fell open unwittingly.
No way.
But in the meantime, Kainel was galloping away, widening the distance.
Without knowing the reason, no. Without needing a reason.
△▲△▲△
“My Lady, should I pin up the bangs? Or leave them down like last time?”
The exclusive hairdresser of the Cartien family fixed Tatiana’s hair, sitting in front of the mirror, with a diamond pin. Where else could one find a gem that shines brighter than this face? But with the sparkling diamond hair ornament added, it became even more radiant.
“You’re so beautiful! As expected, this is Tatiana!”
“…Is that so?”
This is me, huh.
Tatiana, with her doll-like appearance, gave a ceremonial smile. The look that was familiar to others had become strange in just a few days. As she indifferently gazed at her own gorgeously adorned figure in the mirror, Anne, who had been fidgeting all day, hurriedly sent the hairdresser away.
“There, all done, so please go now.”
“But the earrings and rings are still…”
“I’ll take care of that. You’re late, my Lady!”
After the hairdresser, reluctant to leave and turning back repeatedly, was vaguely pushed out, Anne rushed to Tatiana’s back. While Tatiana was calm, Anne’s swollen eyes looked funny. When she met eyes in the mirror and smiled gently, Anne burst into tears like a sulk.
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