HMWD 10

Chapter 10

“The Wizard’s Tower?”

Lorenzo furrowed his brow at the unexpected reply.

The Wizard’s Tower was not a place he could enter carelessly, let alone anyone who wasn’t a mage. Furthermore, the Wizard’s Tower and the Repello Order were practically oil and water. Because Lord Magnus had always treated the Repello Order like a pack of nuisance troublemakers, the mages up in the tower held a rather chilly view of them.

Naturally, there was no reason the Wizard’s Tower would warmly welcome someone belonging to the Repello Order like himself.

Shaking his head, Lorenzo replied in a softened tone. “That is not a place just anyone can visit.”

“Weren’t you supposed to be a Repello knight?”

She asked in return, wearing an expression of outright disappointment.

Lorenzo hesitated slightly before opening his mouth.

“The Repello Order and the Wizard’s Tower are entirely separate institutions, so……………….”

“If you were just going to make excuses, you shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. I suppose the mighty Repello Order isn’t so special after all?”

Stung by the mocking tone that belittled not just himself but the entire order, Lorenzo bit down on his lower lip. His pride took a severe hit.

What was so great about the Wizard’s Tower anyway?

It wasn’t some sacred sanctuary or a strictly forbidden zone. It was just that lazy mages hated leaving the tower, though on very rare occasions, meetings were held there. To have his cautious warning about potential dangers thrown back in his face like that—even knowing it was deliberate provocation, Lorenzo couldn’t help but bristle.

“Fine. I will take you. But I have a condition of my own in return.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“If you fail this upcoming exam, you must promise to never obsess over me ever again.”

Lorenzo spoke with a solemn, resolute expression.

While he felt a slight pang of guilt for being so harsh to a delicate woman, this was the only way to get her off his back. He didn’t want to be entangled with Melissa Tiony for another second. Wasting precious time that should be spent rushing to Castium on petty bickering like this was unbearable.

Even if she cries, I mustn’t let my heart soften, he thought, staring straight into her eyes.

Ente met his gaze with a blank, innocent face and thought to herself: What is this? That’s it?

Asking her not to obsess over a fledgling she barely even knew?

With a signed memorandum from the Marquis already tucked away, making a silly promise like that a hundred times over was nothing.

“Deal.”

Ente readily agreed. Her brisk, unhesitating response left Lorenzo looking rather more flustered than before.

“I have a favor to ask first, though.”

“A favor?”

“My Castium entry permit was destroyed in the carriage accident. The Repello Order can enter without a permit, right? Be my guarantor.”

Faced with this entirely unanticipated request, Lorenzo fell into deep thought.

He couldn’t give an immediate answer out of concern that if he acted as Melissa Tiony’s guarantor, it might spark bizarre rumors back in Castium. Besides, it was the academy entrance examination season, meaning the city would already be swarming with outsiders.

Hesitating, Lorenzo trailed off.

“That’s a bit…”

“Shall I take that as you backing out because you’re afraid of losing our bet?”

He felt as though he could hear a phantom voice whispering, How ungentlemanly.

Weighing the wager against the potential damage to his reputation, Lorenzo finally answered with a resigned sigh.

“Very well. I will do it.”

True to his word, the positive response came from a man who ultimately couldn’t bring himself to abandon a gentleman’s duty.

A satisfied smile playing on her lips, Ente wasted no time as she grunted and hoisted herself up onto the horse.

Lorenzo stared dumbfoundedly at the woman who clambered awkwardly onto the mount with her petticoats flashing wide open, completely unbothered.

She shouted back briskly from atop the horse.

“What are you standing around for? Let’s get moving.”

Blinking in bewilderment, Lorenzo watched Ente seated on the horse before barely managing to pull his wits together. He called over a guard who was trying his absolute hardest not to gaze at the exposed petticoat of the Marquis’s young daughter.

“I am moving ahead with Lady Tiony. Wait at the very first inn we encounter along the road, fix up the carriage, and follow us.”

“Understood, sir.”

Finishing his instructions, Lorenzo swung himself up onto his horse.

For an unmarried noble young lady to ride a horse alongside a strange man was a scandalous affair, but when the man was a titled knight like Lorenzo, the rules were different. Repello knights carried a standing duty to protect innocent imperial citizens.

It was awkward, to say the least, but since he couldn’t take back his words, Lorenzo decided to treat the Melissa Tiony sitting right behind him as nothing more than a lost, stray child.

“Hold tightly onto my belt so you don’t fall off.”

It was a common occurrence for noble ladies on horseback to suffer accidental falls because they were too shy to properly grip the knight steering the beast.

Without a shred of hesitation, she wrapped both arms tightly around his waist instead of the belt.

The heat of her body pressing flush against his back nearly caused Lorenzo to drop the reins entirely.

Just what in the world is this woman…

Swallowing hard, he gave the horse’s flank a gentle nudge.

The animal broke into a brisk, steady trot. His gaze kept straying back to the hands locked tightly around his waist.

Biting his lip at the bizarre sensation, Lorenzo tried to focus.

“Why won’t you accept me? What is so lacking about me? Answer me!”

“It isn’t that you lack anything. I simply don’t have the room in my life to turn my gaze toward you.”

“Then I’ll become a woman worthy of your gaze. Don’t cast me aside. I’ll even kneel right here. Please, Lorenzo.”

“Do not do this. You are a young lady of the Tiony household. Uphold the honor of your family.”

“I don’t care about upholding any honor! If you won’t accept me, I’ll die right here on the spot!”

Melissa Tiony was a woman who simply did not know the meaning of surrender.

Her relentless fixation had begun ever since he rescued her from a gang of ruffians at a banquet she happened to attend, escorting her safely back to the Marquisate. Starting the very next day, Melissa began sending a steady stream of letters and gifts through her servant.

Though he politely declined, stating that no gratitude was necessary, her courtship never stopped. The ceaseless barrage of gifts aside, she made it a point to pull him aside whenever their paths crossed at official functions.

And it wasn’t just Melissa.

Every single time the Marquis of Tiony saw him, he would drop heavy hints about his daughter and press him on when he intended to take her’s hand in marriage. That was around the time formal marriage proposals started arriving at his estate like clockwork.

The speed at which rumors spread among the nobility was faster than light.

“My heartiest congratulations, Duke.”

“Pardon?”

“I hear you’re marrying the Marquis’s daughter? Do make sure to send an invitation to the wedding.”

“What on earth are you talking about……?”

Persistent rumors that he was soon to marry Melissa Tiony ran rampant. Everywhere he looked, people offered him cheerful well-wishes.

Deciding he couldn’t live like this a moment longer, Lorenzo volunteered indiscriminately for monster subjugation missions typically reserved for low-ranking foot soldiers, using it as an excuse to avoid her.

Once the campaign to subjugate Callisto began, he had even less time to think about Melissa. For a long while, he lived with her entirely pushed to the back of his mind.

The moment he returned home after the subjugation to recover his battered body, another letter arrived from Melissa, begging him to meet her just once.

Lorenzo sent the letter straight back. And the very next day—

“Your Grace, the young lady of the Tiony household has attempted suicide!”

Word reached him that she had ingested poison.

A heavy wave of guilt washed over him. At the same time, a flicker of resentment flared up toward Melissa for burdening him with such guilt.

He considered visiting her sickbed, but he couldn’t summon the courage to face the Marquis of Tiony.

A week later, news came that Melissa had finally regained consciousness.

Lorenzo immediately sat down and wrote a letter, praying from the bottom of his heart that she would finally understand him.

No reply came. And so, Lorenzo assumed she had finally given up on him.

And yet, here she was, barging forward to enter the Magic Academy.

Is this all my fault?

Blaming his own incompetence for failing to break her infatuation long ago, Lorenzo glanced down at his own hands.

Not long after they set off, an inn came into view.

“We have arrived. Can you dismount—”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Ente hopped down briskly from the horse.

Feeling rather foolish, Lorenzo dismounted and stepped into the inn.

“Welcome, Your Grace.”

An innkeeper familiar with Lorenzo greeted him warmly. Ente, holding her aching lower back, trudged into the lobby and plopped heavily onto a chair.

“How many rooms should I prepare?”

“All of them. More of my entourage will be arriving shortly, so make sure there are plenty of rooms available.”

“Understood, sir. Then for the two of you—”

“Prepare them separately.”

“Right away, sir.”

Finding it deeply fascinating that Lorenzo—who usually avoided women to the point of seeming like a germophobe—was traveling in the company of a lady, the innkeeper cast a curious sideways glance at Ente.

After instructing the innkeeper to escort her to the finest room available, Lorenzo turned his attention back to Ente.

“Will you be able to stand?”

“I’ll manage.”

Groaning as she leaned heavily over the table, Ente forced her stiff body upward.

The fact that the inn rooms were on the second floor was a major tragedy for Ente. Using her trembling legs, she dragged herself toward the base of the staircase as if crawling.

Ugh, my aching bones………………..

Griping the wooden banister tightly, Ente placed her foot on the first step. Even that simple motion made her entire body ache as though it were being shattered.

Tsk. Watching her stubborn, struggling back as she slowly climbed the stairs, Lorenzo clicked his tongue and walked over to her.

“Would you like me to assist you?”

“I’m fine. There are only four steps left.”

If he was going to offer help, he should have done it sooner.

Waving him away, Ente practically hauled herself up the remaining steps, clinging desperately to the handrail.

“I’m going straight to bed.”

The moment she entered the room, Ente collapsed face-first onto the bed like a felled tree.

Her entire body felt as though it had been beaten with a lead pipe.

Because she had spent the entire journey keeping every muscle tensed to avoid falling off the horse, her arms and waist ached so badly she could barely twitch them. The delayed shock from the carriage explosion seemed to have caught up with all at once.

Falling into a sleep that felt dangerously close to passing out, she was abruptly jolted awake by a sharp knock on the door.

When she cracked the door open, Anna stepped inside carrying a trunk.

“My lady, I’ve arrived. How are you feeling?”

“Terrible.”

“Lie face down, I’ll massage your back.”

Anna began kneading Ente’s cramped, stiff muscles across every sore spot on her body.

“Nngh…… right there, a bit harder……………….”

“Here?”

“Yeah. A little more to the right… ugh.”

The soothing rhythm of the massage felt so heavenly that sleep began tugging at her eyelids again.

“You need to change your clothes before you sleep. Come on, get up.”

Prodding the heavily drowsy Ente, Anna helped her strip out of the ruined dress and changed her into clean nightwear.

“Oh, and congratulations, my lady!”

“Congratulations? For what?”

“You rode a horse together with the Duke! The two of you looked so wonderfully matched, it was literally like a painting out of a romance novel.”

A painting my foot.

Instead of joining in on Anna’s excited rambling, Ente replied in a solemn, grave tone.

“That man and I are nothing to each other. So don’t you dare go around saying things like that to anyone else. Understand?”

“Yes…… my apologies, my lady.”

Anna’s spirits instantly deflated as she nodded.

A fresh wave of pity tugged at Ente’s heart, but she knew that if she didn’t draw a hard line right now, the maid’s matchmaking daydreams would never stop.

“And make sure not to breathe a word to anyone about what happened today.”

“Yes.”

“You should go get some rest now, too. I’m not hungry for dinner, so don’t bother waking me up.”

“Understood, rest well, my lady.”

Having given strict instructions, Ente shooed Anna out of the room.

Just as she caught her breath and prepared to crawl back into bed, someone knocked on the door yet again.

Oh, who is it this time?

She yanked the door open with an expression of pure, unadulterated irritation.

Lorenzo was standing right outside.

Having changed into comfortable indoor loungewear, he looked like an entirely different person compared to earlier.

Perhaps he had just washed up, because his face practically glowed with a clean, dewy freshness, and a few stray droplets of water still clung to the tips of his damp hair. Exhausted to the bone, Ente stared blankly back at him with heavy, languid eyes.

“What brings you to my door at this hour?”

She asked bluntly, leaving him standing out in the hallway.

He answered stiffly, stating he only wanted to keep things brief.

“I’ve rented a carriage for you to ride in. We’ll be departing early tomorrow morning, so make sure to pack only the essentials.”

Lorenzo gestured toward five separate trunks unloaded from the baggage wagon.

Why do I need to pack my own things? When Ente tilted her head in confusion, he added:

“Only you will be permitted entry into Castium, meaning you’ll have to carry your own luggage inside. So pack only what you can reasonably manage.”

“Understood.”

Expecting her to throw a fit and scream that such a rule was utterly absurd, Lorenzo looked momentarily taken aback by her uncharacteristically obedient answer.

“I told the capital guard members to wait here. Having too many people around will only slow our schedule down, and since it’s only a day’s journey from here to Castium, there shouldn’t be any danger along the road.”

That was the best news she had heard all day.

She had felt deeply uncomfortable being constantly watched under the guise of an escort anyway; getting rid of those dead weights was a blessing.

“Let’s do that, then.”

Ente readily agreed.

Expecting her to hate the idea.

Lorenzo stared at her with a strange, complicated expression.

Meeting his gaze, Ente tilted her head at a stubborn angle.

Standing up straight was painful enough that she desperately wanted him to leave already, yet even though his business was concluded, Lorenzo didn’t make a move to step away.

His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed heavily. As he parted his lips to speak, looking as though he were struggling to get the words out, he finally opened his mouth.

“My rudeness from earlier… I hope you can put it out of your mind. I didn’t mean to mock you.”

Was he seriously still dwelling on that? How petty.

Ente let out a soft snort of amusement. For a man who called himself a gentleman, he certainly seemed to have a timid streak.

No matter how much of a duke he is, he probably still has to worry about stepping on the Tiony Marquisate’s toes.

Figuring it would save everyone involved a lot of lingering friction if they cleared the air, she answered breezily:

“It’s all forgotten, so don’t worry about it. Just make sure you hold up your end of our wager.”

Get some rest, then.

Without a trace of lingering hesitation, Ente slammed the door shut right in his face.

Lorenzo stood frozen in front of the closed door for a long, quiet moment, an inexplicable hollow feeling echoing in the pit of his chest.