IMHMF 16

Chapter 16

“Are you finding the ducal residence comfortable?”

“Everyone is kind and pleasant.”

“I see. What was it you wanted to say?”

“I have a favor to ask. I would like to visit the imperial palace library.”

“……”

“There is something I want to look into, and it was not in the count’s residence library.”

“There should be just as many books here as in the imperial palace library.”

Eden’s words were true. Before coming to his office, I had stopped by the ducal residence library first. The library here was incomparably larger than the one at the count’s residence, and there had even been books on sorcery that I was looking for.

However, there had been only one such book, and the most important content had been no more than fairy tale level.

“I actually visited there with Alb before coming here. The book I am looking for was not there.”

“What book are you looking for?”

There it was again. Eden would occasionally ask me questions I could not answer. Faced with questions I could not easily answer, I could only trouble my lips needlessly.

Eden, who had drawn near before I realized it, touched my chin and stopped me from troubling my lips any further with my teeth.

“There happens to be a summons from the imperial palace.”

“From the imperial palace?”

“When I told them I had become engaged to you, the emperor seemed about ready to die of curiosity.”

Excuse me. Is it alright to speak of the emperor in such a manner?

“I should inform them we will visit now.”

“Now? I am terribly hungry right now.”

Good heavens, even if you are a mad duke, are you going to ignore your fiancée saying she is hungry? Back in the Republic of Korea, not feeding someone is a serious matter!

When I clutched my stomach and looked up with pitiful eyes like a starving cat, the corner of Eden’s mouth lifted ever so slightly, though barely perceptibly.

“Did you just smile?”

“Hardly.”

“No, your lips just curved up a little.”

“You are imagining things.”

“No, they did.”

As I tried to playfully press the matter, he had apparently learned from experience and deflected swiftly.

“Let us eat first.”

“Tsk, that did not work.”

When we stepped out of the office, Alb was waiting as though he had anticipated it and spoke up.

“Shall I have a meal prepared?”

Eden gave a light nod and then added.

“Send a letter informing them we will visit the imperial palace tomorrow.”

Upon entering the dining room, appetizing dishes were laid out, steaming warmly. Just as I had told Eden, I wanted to fill my stomach with the food on the table as quickly as possible. As I was eating without a second thought, I felt Eden’s gaze fixed plainly on me.

Wondering if I had been eating too greedily, I set down the fork and knife I had been holding and, uncharacteristically, dabbed around my mouth with a napkin in a demure manner.

“Eden.”

“What is the matter?”

“It is uncomfortable when you stare at me like that.”

“You were eating so well.”

“Even if I am eating well, a look like that makes me feel like everything I have eaten might come back up.”

At my words, he withdrew the gaze he had been directing toward me.

Now you know how it feels!

Since my stomach was already full, this time I stared plainly at him. To be more precise, observed would be the more fitting word.

As though to display the dignity befitting a duke, even the way he cut his food and brought it to his mouth was elegant and flawless. It was also fascinating how his hair, which was closer to golden in ordinary light, turned silver beneath the moonlight.

“What are you looking at?”

His gaze remained on his plate, yet his question was directed at me.

“I was staring so you could experience how it feels.”

“That is not…”

Right, uncomfortable, isn’t it?!

“…not bad at all.”

“Pardon?”

“Finish eating.”

With that brief reply, Eden called for Siobhan, who was somewhere nearby, and left the dining room.

You are really leaving all this delicious food behind?

Alb approached behind the maids who were clearing his place. Alb assisted skillfully with the meal service as well.

“You are good at this too, Alb?”

“Twenty years as a butler have not been spent in vain. That aside, it is quite remarkable to see the master eating so much.”

“Pardon?”

“He is someone who skips meals so often that I have been worried, but thanks to the prospective mistress’s arrival, he has been showing his face in the dining room and eating like this, so I am relieved.”

“Does Eden not usually eat well?”

At my question, Alb only gave a small nod. I thought I would have to say something to Eden when I saw him.

“I am glad the prospective mistress has recovered and is up and about.”

“I am sorry. You must have been very worried.”

Alb recalled the events of not so long ago.

“By now, the master should have arrived at the temple.”

“The prospective mistress is truly beautiful.”

Among the servants, each one was saying their piece about the master and the prospective mistress, when the master appeared using a transport magic stone.

The prospective mistress held in his arms, as though to prove she had lost consciousness, had her slender hand hanging lifelessly.

The sudden appearance was one thing, but the sight of the master’s intensely turbulent eyes and the prospective mistress cradled in his arms was enough to startle every single servant.

“My lord…?”

“Call for Schmitz. Quickly!”

The sight of Eden shouting with eyes sharpened to a fine edge, wound up to the utmost, was something he had never seen in all the moments he had served him as the master’s son and then as the master himself, across twenty years.

However, if he were to speak of this, the prospective mistress would surely find it terribly burdensome. It was an unavoidable choice, as in his eyes, the master’s feelings appeared far greater than the prospective mistress’s.

“Everyone in this household was worried.”

I finished my meal accompanied by Alb’s warm concern. Not long after leaving the dining room, a small garden with wisteria in full bloom caught my eye. Perhaps it showed that my heart had been captured by those wisteria blossoms. My footsteps slowed without my realizing it.

Dias, who had been quietly following behind me, drew forward before I knew it.

“Would you like to take a walk?”

“Oh, yes please. But was there a garden like this here?”

“It seems you were not aware of it, as it is only visible on the way back from the dining room. This is a garden the late Duchess cherished very much.”

The late Duchess.

That would be referring to Eden’s mother.

“Are you well acquainted with this estate, Dame Dias?”

“I would not say I know it particularly well either. The one who knows it best is undoubtedly the master.”

That goes without saying. Eden is the duke, after all.

As we reached the garden, I could see Eden’s back as he was conversing with someone inside. At the sound of approaching footsteps, Eden turned around.

“Loa?”

“I was on my way back to my room after eating and discovered this garden. Dame Dias was in the middle of showing me around.”

“My lord, good evening.”

“I will take over.”

At Eden’s words, Dias quickly stepped back. As Eden drew closer to me, the face of the person he had been speaking with came into view.

“Were you not in the middle of a conversation?”

“It was a rather pointless conversation.”

“Who was it?”

“Someone sent from the imperial palace.”

“Were we not going to the imperial palace tomorrow?”

“That is right. But they asked us to come this evening.”

So that is why he called it a pointless conversation.

“Ah, right. I heard from Alb. Is it true you do not usually eat well?”

“He told you something unnecessary.”

“How can the Sword of the Empire, Hylus himself, train so rigorously and not eat?”

“Is that so important?”

“Of course it is!”

I answered without hesitation to Eden’s question as though it were obvious. For someone like me who lives on the strength of a good meal, it was simply unthinkable.

“Are you worried about me right now?”

“Worried?”

“Yes, worried.”

Eden, who had stopped walking, suddenly thr*st his face toward mine. His eyes, which resembled moonlight, shone with a forlorn glow.

The bewitching feeling that Alb had spoken of, and that I had felt in the forest before, began to wash over me.

“Hm?”

Oh dear, this is getting a bit dangerous…

“Lo…”

My response to his gaze as he stared intently at me was to flee. I had no idea where I was going in this garden I had come to for the first time, but if it meant avoiding Eden’s eyes, it did not matter.

“Do not look at me with those eyes.”

But Eden’s long strides were faster than my short quick steps.

“Those eyes, what kind of eyes do you mean?”