The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies

113 – Reunion (05)

114.

The Garsi family’s manor was ordinary.

Kallen didn’t realize it, but every family he’d visited had been far removed from the norm.

He’d experienced all but one of the five great families of the Claire Empire.

Truth be told, Kallen’s aesthetic sense had unknowingly risen to the level of those five families.

It was fortunate that half of them didn’t like opulence.

Otherwise, if all five families’ manors had been extravagant, Kallen’s standards would have undoubtedly become even higher.

The Garsi family was a lower-ranked count family.

Of course, count-level nobles weren’t common, but they weren’t the kind you couldn’t even share a table with.

Lakatus, Hiatt, Dranus, Plache.

Each name could shake up society.

Kallen, close to the daughters of those families, dismissed the Garsi manor with a brief, ‘ordinary’ impression.

“…Honestly, it’s hard to believe. Ryle Merchant, that Flavre Ryle…”

“You don’t have to believe it. You’ll know soon enough.”

It was understandable that Desed’s attitude changed to politeness.

When Kallen had spoken to him earlier, his cautiousness had felt out of place.

To him, Laris was still the noble daughter of Plache.

Even after Laris and Belvet got out of the carriage, it was too much to make small talk.

Such a thing shouldn’t happen between a family head and a daughter of a noble house.

But it’s understandable between a count, not particularly of high standing, and the daughter of one of the Empire’s five great houses.

If he hadn’t heard Kallen’s words, Desed’s attitude would have been even more deferential.

“Then… how…”

“…’Young Lady’ is enough, Lord Head. And since I do not carry the Plache name, please dispense with honorifics.”

“…I understand… no, I get it.”

Desed simply couldn’t believe Kallen’s words.

Everything Kallen said seemed to be utterly divorced from reality.

Desed knew some of the story, having taken Lunea as his son’s wife.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to tense up at the first mention of the Plache family name.

However, the fact that Belvet was originally a dead person, how Plache’s former mistress had come to be, barely anyone knew.

And that included Desed.

For that reason, Kallen had twisted the truth a little when speaking to Desed.

About what had become of the head of the Plache family and the head of the Lyle Merchant Guild.

Ultimately, it was a good thing for Desed.

A mere head of a lower count’s family could not even dream of defying Flaber, backed by the Plache name.

Plache had come to repent his wrongs, and Flaber had paid the price.

That was the gist of what Kallen had told Desed.

Desed glanced sideways.

Belvet and Laris, walking side-by-side.

He felt a pang of sadness for their entangled past, but at the same time, a sense of admiration.

Desed, knowing who Flaber was, couldn’t even imagine not listening to him.

One of the Empire’s five great houses, and one of the two leading merchant guilds of the Empire.

Taking Lunea had been a desperate measure, forced by the difficulties of managing his territory.

It was true that they had offered a great deal of financial assistance.

But they had also meddled in family matters more than that assistance warranted.

However, having already received their help, it was impossible to shake off their overbearing hand.

Desed glared back.

And that was why he found it difficult to believe the boy’s words, or the boy himself.

Perhaps, the reason what Kallen and Laris had said was possible was only because Kallen was there, Desed thought.

Listening to Kalen speak, there were many parts that felt off.

Especially the parts related to combat, the talk about how they won by combining their strength.

If they were an opponent that could be beaten by combining forces, Desed wouldn’t have needed to endure those humiliating days.

And every time Kalen said that, Laris would extol his actions.

The assassination Plaber ordered, the battles that happened in the family, and finally, making Plaber kneel before Laris.

In the girl’s voice when she spoke of the boy, there was deep gratitude, and another emotion was also evident.

That more than filled the parts missing from Kalen’s words.

That’s why it’s hard to believe.

That a boy who looked as if he hadn’t even had his coming-of-age ceremony yet, made Plaber, who held the five great families, kneel.

“We’re al… we’re here. If you wait in this reception room, I’ll send someone to call Runea.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, Head of the House.”

“It’s nothing. Now, I have things to do, so I’ll be off.”

So, Desed found it hard to believe those words.

But it wasn’t as if he didn’t believe them either.

As Kalen said, the truth would soon be confirmed, and the two young people’s appearances convinced Desed.

The girl’s voice, which seemed to endlessly trust the boy, and her expression.

The boy who stood a step behind, as if protecting the two women.

It was a story where he wouldn’t lose anything by believing it.

The people of the Garsi family also feared and disliked Plaber.

It would be best if those words were true, and even if they weren’t, nothing would change.

Desed led the three to the reception room and was about to leave the room.

Then he paused, with his hand on the doorknob, and looked back at Kalen.

“…Thank you.”

“Didn’t you say it was hard to believe?”

“The world doesn’t go the way I think it will. Very occasionally, even unbelievable things happen.”

With those words, Desed left the reception room.

Kalen, who was watching the closed door, briefly pondered his feelings and then nodded vaguely.

*

“Hah… Hah…”

Tap…!

Hurried footsteps.

By birth, a noble lady must always live with propriety and modesty.

For it is how she elevates herself, and brings glory to her family.

Even a village woman who happens to marry a nobleman is no different.

Rather, such women must be more careful in front of others than those who were noble ladies from birth.

And so, now.

The woman who dashes down the hallway of the Garsi Count’s manor shows no sign of modesty.

Clutching her uncomfortable shoes and skirts, the woman running through the hall, Luneah Garsi, had no time to notice the stares of the maids.

Once, she was a woman who followed the Flarche name.

The maids, ignorant of the full story, thought that the daughter of Flarche would struggle to adapt to this nameless count’s family.

But that was a great misconception.

Luneah would lend a hand with the housework herself, and was even better at it than the maids.

Unbelievable for a noble’s daughter raised with such privilege.

The Garsi family vassals who looked at her held looks of goodwill.

And those who learned even a little of her situation looked at her with pity.

But it was okay.

Luneah was kind and strong, and never lost her beautiful smile.

And so, her hurried appearance was worrying.

The woman, gasping for breath and flustered, perhaps even desperate.

Luneah quickly walked down the hall, under the worried gaze of the maids.

Luneah was a noble lady by birth.

Furthermore, the Garsi Count’s family was of a lineage so noble that it could not be mocked.

This unseemly behavior was unfamiliar, and she was running out of breath.

But she didn’t stop walking.

The unbelievable news she had heard just a moment ago.

It was a tale so difficult to believe that she would rather dismiss it as someone’s empty delusion.

Laris.

Her precious younger sibling.

The sibling she was forcibly separated from by that terrible man, Plaver.

She had said she would contact them but had not been able to.

A life constantly watched by Flavier’s hounds.

If the husband she was forced to marry hadn’t been a good man, Runea would have lost her mind long ago.

And now, that sibling of hers had come all the way here.

Even that fact alone was hard to believe, but that wasn’t all.

Velvet.

Her beloved mother.

Normally, believing that would be even stranger.

But the situation is different now.

It wasn’t some rumor picked up from the streets.

The Countess Garci’s handmaiden brought the news herself.

In other words, it’s a fact confirmed by Count Desed Garci.

And lastly, the recent disappearance of the surveillance, it shook Runea’s heart decisively.

Flavier’s men, planted to watch the Garci household.

She’d been finding it odd.

Runea is a wise woman, not foolish enough to mistake reality for delusion.

Velvet being here, it means a dead person has literally come back to life.

An impossible thing, yet everything speaks with one voice.

That her vain delusion has come to pass.

Her dead mother has returned to life for some reason.

And the sibling she’d been separated from, who she’d not been able to meet, has sought her out on their own.

It’s not just her own wishful thinking.

The handmaiden, the head of the house, everything else is saying this absurd thing is true.

Runea walked swiftly, arriving at the reception room.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Whether it was from running fast or for some other reason, she didn’t know.

Runea gripped the door handle with trembling hands.

It can’t be.

It’s something that can’t happen.

Even as she continuously urged herself that, a sliver of hope kept blooming.

In the end, a question that could only be resolved by seeing it with her own two eyes.

Runea lowered the handle, just like that.

*Creak…*

“…”

“…”

She faced the girl and woman sitting in the reception room, their ash-grey eyes hauntingly like her own.