Chapter: 10
Evania cautiously raised a question.
“Are you not sending this person away?”
“A lady of a great house naturally requires a knight.”
The question had been directed at Seven, but the answer came from Guillermo.
It seemed this knight, like Hannah, had also been recruited for the sake of the new mistress.
To think he had been forcibly detained in a place he did not want for three whole years.
It was unfortunate, but I was merely a passerby who would stay briefly and leave. It was not my place to interfere recklessly.
He had been caught trespassing into the castle, so it was difficult to readily take his side.
Seeing Evania’s conflicted expression, Guillermo added as if to help her make a swift judgment.
“If you wish, you may take that knight with you. However, it would be best for you to know in advance that he once infiltrated this castle with the intention of theft.”
“Ah……”
“That’s not it, milady! Th-that’s not wrong, but I absolutely didn’t do it with bad intentions, milady! You’re listening to me, right?”
As Evania let out a low groan, Max desperately struggled to change her mind.
Judging by the way he insisted he had no ill intentions, he did not seem entirely innocent either.
She had no desire to voluntarily add new hardships to the already difficult second act of her life.
Avoiding Max’s eyes, Evania muttered,
“I’ll think about it……”
“Milady! Please reconsider just once more!”
“Do not cause a disturbance, Sir Max.”
Guillermo cut him off with an irritated tone.
His warning did not stop at mere words.
The moment Guillermo lightly flicked his fingertips, Sir Max disappeared before their eyes. It seemed he had been sent somewhere else entirely.
She had never seen anyone move in that manner before and had thought only Ram was capable of such a thing. Perhaps that was not the case.
Having easily removed the nuisance from sight, Guillermo rested his cheek on the very hand he had used to move Sir Max and spoke in a voice tinged with concern.
“To shout so uncouthly before the mistress… Did I perhaps recruit a knight lacking even the most basic refinement?”
“You made him chop firewood for three years and expect him to behave like a proper knight?”
Seven retorted incredulously and let out a long sigh.
Shaking his head, he continued,
“If introductions are over, I’ll be going. Hey, kid over there—if talking to that fish head gets you nowhere, come find me. Not too often. Only when it’s absolutely necessary.”
The crow called Levi did not miss the chance to say farewell as well.
“I’m leaving too. Tell my master that if he doesn’t bathe me again today, I’m running away. Caw!”
Seven exited through the door as he had earlier, and Levi through the window.
The problem was that the window had been closed, and the crow—larger than a child—was sturdy enough to shatter glass.
The moment Levi took flight with agile grace, the glass shattered with a sharp crash, bars and all.
Evania’s bedroom was reduced to chaos in an instant.
Startled out of her wits, Hannah cried, “I’ll bring a broom!” and hurriedly ran out.
After a commotion even greater than when Sir Max had been present, silence finally settled over the room.
“Well, setting aside matters that aren’t particularly important.”
After a brief pause, Guillermo shrugged and dismissed the situation. Folding his arms, he slowly approached Evania.
His mysterious silver hair swayed softly over the black mask.
The mask covered nearly his entire face, yet from the exposed eyes and lips one could roughly read his expression.
Looking down at Evania with a gaze mixed with curiosity and suspicion, he spoke.
“By the way, why is our bride trying to leave this place?”
“……”
“Is there some reason you must?”
Evania thought.
If he learned the hidden truth, would this man seek to punish the one who deceived him, or would he show leniency considering the tragic circumstances?
She did not take long to answer. The answer to this question was clear.
“Is it strange that I want to leave?”
“It is. Did not Sir Max say so himself? The world is dangerous for a woman to wander alone.”
“Ritberg is no different from foreign soil to me. It’s hardly a place I can confidently call safe.”
Guillermo’s brows lifted slightly, as if weighing the truth of her words.
A being like him would likely feel no danger anywhere in the world; perhaps that made it all the harder for him to grasp the standards of ordinary people.
As expected, he merely fell into uncertain silence and did not rashly condemn her.
Evania pressed the point.
“There’s also a crow that snaps at me for looking at it, and a knight who seems like he’d give me tetanus if I touched him wrong.”
To escape the awkward situation, Evania conveniently offered up the two who had been less than friendly toward her.
Fortunately, it seemed effective. Guillermo took a step back.
“Is that so?”
Hearing his near-muttered response, Evania felt the tide turning in her favor.
Now it was time to naturally shift the subject.
“If it isn’t rude, may I ask you one thing?”
“Please.”
“Why do you find it disagreeable that I wish to leave?”
Though the opportunity to question him had arisen unexpectedly, it was something she had long been curious about.
Why had this man tried to bring a false bride before his master?
Even knowing that what the man sought was not a daughter of the House of Hessen, but the reincarnation of his former wife.
The question seemed to pique Guillermo’s interest as well.
Curling the corner of his lips in amusement, he passed Evania and walked toward the window.
She had thought so before, but he did not look like someone meant to serve beneath another.
He could assume a courteous demeanor whenever necessary, yet he did not hide that such treatment depended solely on his own mood.
Tapping the gaping, bird-shaped hole in the restored window, Guillermo asked,
“Do you remember what that crow said earlier?”
Evania quietly retraced Levi’s words.
It was not difficult. The crow had not said very much before leaving.
“……That if he isn’t bathed again today, he’ll run away?”
“He called me a slave.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, he had said that. Twice, even, for emphasis.
She had thought it mere provocation, but perhaps there had been more serious meaning behind it.
Pressing his forehead as if burdened by anguish, Guillermo muttered,
“Damn it all, that happens to be the truth.”
“……Weren’t you something like… a butler?”
“Once, I was a great being. Until that arrogant blessed one—born human yet having grasped immortality—came looking for me.”
As he spoke, Guillermo slowly brushed his free hand over the window.
The shattered glass returned to its original state, and within it, color rose like smoke.
Only after the window was fully restored did Evania realize he was depicting a scene from the past.
Within the doll-like stage, two tiny figures no larger than fingers were locked in fierce battle.
Though due to the style of depiction, it did not feel particularly fierce.
“We fought for three days and nights. Quite unfair, really. I had done nothing to him, yet he came to me unilaterally and picked a fight. He knew of me, but I knew absolutely nothing of him.”
“Ah……”
“There were moments when victory leaned toward my side, but in the end, he cowardly exploited my weakness and brought me down. It was a humiliating defeat. He even took me captive and dragged me to his home. ‘If you don’t wish to die, you may as well scrub floors in this castle,’ he said. Ha!”
“I see……”
Evania responded half-heartedly.
Even listening only to his side of the story, she felt there must be other circumstances hidden beneath it.
From what she had observed, Agram was not a brute who would seek out and use force against someone without cause.
On the other hand, the man before her had already committed quite an elaborate fraud against both her and the people of Count Hessen’s house.
With an exceedingly rational expression, Evania asked,
“And what does that have to do with your wanting to keep me here?”
