Chapter 46
Edward’s voice, smooth enough to raise goose down all over her skin, whispered from above.
“Not so long ago, you couldn’t even lift your head, you were so scared.”
At the half-teasing note, Lucy prickled, oddly.
“That was because you, Your Grace…”
“And on top of that, you slept sprawled out like a lazy thing.”
“S-Slept sprawled out…”
…Well, it was true. She had nothing to say.
Edward, who had insisted they leave at once, had taken off with Lucy in his arms and flown the whole night through to get here.
She, meanwhile, had dozed and woken, dozed and woken in Edward’s arms. By the time she came to properly, they were already in Thesseron.
‘And earlier, I was even drooling in my sleep.’
How much cold sweat she’d shed, wiping the drool off his armor without him seeing.
‘Still, he’s something else.’
Edward’s stamina was a wonder, now that she thought on it.
He’d gone the whole night without sleep and flown all day with her in his arms. Yet he showed not a trace of tiredness.
No. If anything, the body pressed to hers was growing warmer and warmer, as if he’d been fed some charge…
“We’re here.”
Before Lucy could finish the thought.
Edward slowly sank to the ground.
Lucy lifted her head and marveled again.
“Wow.”
A green garden spread before her, hard to believe this was the north.
It looked to be a garden kept by magic, with magic stones set like jewels into the statues scattered throughout.
The huge castle rising beyond it was surely the ducal castle.
At the entrance, a line of people stood at the ready.
“You have returned, Your Grace.”
“Welcome home.”
‘…Feels like a crime boss just rolled in.’
The servants, lined up in neat order, greeted their master with stiff, careful form.
‘So this is the Ducal Castle of Thesseron…’
She was safe now. Truly.
Relief washed over her, and her heart eased.
“Euh… huh?”
Lucy, who had been about to slip down from Edward’s arms, felt the nape of her neck snatched up by his hand.
“…”
When Lucy looked up at Edward, at a loss, she found him frowning too.
“What is it?”
“I-I’d like to greet everyone, too…”
“What for.”
“Oh, come now. These are the people I’ll be rubbing shoulders with and living beside from now on.”
She had come here on a work contract, after all. She was no different from a servant herself.
There was a good chance she’d be sharing their quarters and eating from the same pot.
And she felt uneasy leaving her first impression before such people while cradled in her employer’s arms.
That was all she’d meant by wanting to get down.
“…Rubbing shoulders?”
At those words, Edward’s voice held a note of displeasure.
The servants standing at the ready flinched, as if they sensed something off too.
‘What is it?’
She didn’t know where things had turned, but Edward’s mood was bristling, plain even to Lucy’s eyes.
Her urge to survive kicking in, Lucy rounded her eyes wide.
“Nooo. That is to say… we’ll run into each other naturally, sharing the same quarters.”
“Why would you share quarters?”
“Well, since I’m here on a work contract too, for now… Ah, right!”
“What.”
“The contract. Now that I think of it, just when are you going to stamp…”
It was just as Lucy was about to press on.
“Your Grace.”
The servants parted to either side like the Red Sea.
Through the gap, a stern-faced woman of middle years showed herself.
The glasses she wore flashed sharply as they swept over Lucy.
Lucy flinched, but met the woman’s eyes head-on.
‘That person is…’
A woman with a trim figure, dressed smart in a suit, who seemed to say with her whole body that she was the one who ran this house.
And past that, she looked fiercely loyal.
‘Ah!’
Lucy smacked her own thigh as it hit her.
‘The head butler of the Ducal Castle of Thesseron. Rosendal Velum.’
A butler born of the Velum line, a family that had served the dragons for ages. She would do anything for Edward.
Even in the old story, readers had liked her for her steady, fiercely loyal nature.
Lucy, too, had been rather fond of her.
‘Though her coldness toward all things not the duke is a flaw.’
