Gift.

’…For now, I’ll keep it.’

If it happened to breed, he could at least use the offspring as bait for bird hunting, the castle lord thought.

‘With proper training — like a hunting dog…’

The sagging wad of fur didn’t look like it had that kind of intellect, but Gus kept making excuses to himself, fishing for any rational reason not to drive the little rat out.

The gift from his wife’s knight had caught him off guard.

He had gone to ask for advice on a gift and somehow ended up receiving one himself; he couldn’t understand how that had happened, and he had no desire to go back and ask that fellow again.

More than anything, the castle lord had already spent his entire day’s allotment of sociability.

‘I don’t want to work.’

All at once, the stubborn will of an introvert who refused to go out and deal with other people produced a new solution.

The important thing was to understand his wife’s position.

But understanding — that was something one could grasp without having to ask in so many words, wasn’t it? Actions spoke louder than words, as they said.

‘As for actions…’

His wife’s every gesture, he had watched without fail. From one step behind, from a distance, always.

To the point that Ugli had told him, for pity’s sake, to ease up.

Gus cast his mind back to the times when Aspara had seemed happy, and wrote them down in his head.

Wordplay with her knight… rejected.

When business had gone well… not my field of expertise, tabled.

When she poured vinegar on fried fish to eat it… doesn’t suit a holiday, rejected.

The First Flagpole Slug Incident… how on earth that had become what it became was still unexplained, rejected.

In the southern kingdom… rejected.

The day they came out from burning down Catfish Baron’s estate.

That day, with the flames roaring up behind her, the expression his wife had worn.

He had only learned later that the words she spoke had been an apology, but in the depths of those eyes, Gus had seen, unmistakably, the cool, crisp joy that dwelled there. That scene alone he could still recall with perfect clarity. That had been the day the pity and guilt he held for his wife had truly sublimated into love.

‘I would like to see them once more — those eyes that looked so unburdened…’

That baron, he had been told, kept three households.

Which meant,

‘Two more remain.’

Gus had briefly closed his eyes in a gentle reverie, and now he snapped them open. A very romantic idea had just occurred to him.

When the finger-gift idea had been rejected, his friend had begged him, for the love of anything, not to do deep thinking on his own; advice Gus now considered a perfectly unnecessary concern.

From the very moment she first laid eyes on that knight, Star had wanted to be friends with Jack.

Star belonged to a generation where the birth rate and the infant mortality rate were both hopeless, and friends her own age were scarce. So when she confirmed that the one stepping down from the fine carriage was not some stiff-necked old man or an elderly wet nurse but a boy her own height, she had been beside herself with joy.

‘If only it weren’t for his personality…’

But once she got close to him, the real Jack turned out to be quite different from her imagination. Forever glued to My Lady’s side, chattering away in a language only the two of them could understand. The other maids said his quiet manner was cute, but that was pure nonsense.

When she asked him to teach her a little of the southern tongue in hopes of getting closer, he simply ignored her, and My Lady’s northern tongue wasn’t improving either, all because he kept her monopolized to himself.

If that fellow would step back from My Lady just a little, it would surely be a good thing for everyone.

《Master Ugli, what are you doing for the holiday?》

《Hmm, who’s to say?》

《You’ll be busy, I bet.》

《Right, picking which one.》

《What kind of image do I even have among you lot?》

Ugli slipped past the question like a loach, neither confirming nor denying.

《So, Sis, are you really going to ask My Lady’s knight?》

《Mm, I think I might just not.》

The senior maid was credulous with rumors and flighty at heart to begin with, and the idea had fizzled out on her.

《My Lady’s knight? You’d be meeting Jack on the holiday?》

《I hadn’t actually brought it up yet. I was thinking about it, but now I don’t know.》

《That’s how it is. Well then, Master Ugli, why don’t you ask him?》

《Me?》

He laughed and waved his hand.

《We were just talking about it, weren’t we. Even setting that… issue aside, dating people from work is hard — it gets awkward if you break up.》

《Somebody needs to snatch that fellow up quick so the weird rumors stop going around. This is all for the castle lord’s sake too. And as long as you don’t break up, it’s fine!》

《Like Master Ugli could manage that.》

《What is my image, really?》

Star puzzled over it for a moment and then asked the senior maid beside her.

《What’s the polite way of saying a XX kind of XXXX?》

《Um… someone whose romantic ethics are a little below average, but who’s a nice person?》

《I think of you as someone whose romantic ethics are a little below average but who’s a nice person.》

《Oh, I see…》

The senior maid grabbed the youngest by the back of the collar, just as she was getting worked up and rising from her seat, and pulled her back down.

《That’s enough. And even Master Ugli or no, Jack is a bit of a stretch.》

One of Ugli’s eyebrows rose ever so slightly.

《Right, Jack’s a bit off — Master Ugli has his age to consider, too.》

Ugli’s eyebrow rose a little higher.

《I’m not that old, though.》

《That’s true, but compared to that knight, it’s a bit…》

《He’s about Star’s age, right?》

Ugli’s eyebrow looked like it was about to touch the top of his forehead.

《…I’m not that much older than young Star, you know.》

《What? I heard you’ve been a sailor since the castle lord was a child.》

《I started working young. And the castle lord is much younger than he looks.》

《I didn’t mean it in a bad way — age isn’t anything to worry about!》

《Right, and anyway — even Master Ugli or not, you’d never manage to charm that one. He’s turned into a proper standoffish beauty — won’t even entertain a word, not at all.》

Ugli, who had been listening quietly with a smile fixed only to his mouth, drew in a small, hissing breath — sssp — and opened his mouth.

《Shall we make a little wager, then?》

“Jack!”

The moon had changed shape twice, and the Day of Love had come.

Fang Castle’s capable middle manager, too, had set out at dawn to seek out and greet his lover.

“What’s with you, speaking to me first, out here in the open.”

Jack answered with a colder attitude than usual, not because anything was wrong, but because he was dog-tired.

He was on his way back from yet another rat hunt, having returned with nothing but his hair soaked through with snow.

It was better than before. The last few days, at least, he hadn’t tripped or fallen flat.

If anyone had been watching him, they might have noticed Jack was making steady progress. Starting from such a low point, it hardly seemed to mean much, though.

“Your hands are blue. Want me to warm them?”

“Yeah.”

Ugli clasped his hand naturally in his.

“Your lips are blue too.”

“Cut out the funny business.”

Laughing it off as though it were a joke, he changed the subject.

“Lately, every time the sun comes up you go out — what are you doing?”

“Rat hunting.”

“Rats?”

“Mm-hm, you know, the silk-furred rats. My lady likes them.”

“As a holiday gift?”

“Yeah.”

Ugli sounded less than convinced.

“I don’t think she’d like that.”

“I think she would.”

“Can’t say I’ve seen many fine ladies who liked rats. Did your lady actually ask for one?”

“Mm-hm.” It was an ambiguous noise, neither affirmation nor denial, and Jack let it pass.

She did tell me from the very first day that I could forget about it. And every day since, she’s kept saying there’s no need to go to such trouble.

But Jack wouldn’t stop.

“She says she doesn’t need one, sure, but I can tell she’ll like it. Back at her old house, she kept one silk-furred rat as a treasured pet.”

“You shouldn’t be second-guessing what’s in someone’s heart. You’re starting to sound like the castle lord these days.”

“That’s out of line.”

Jack made an exaggeratedly displeased face.

“All right, all right. Do as you like — unlike the castle lord, you look cute even when you pull this kind of stunt.”

Ugli went on, smiling.

“But since you’re not the sharpest on your feet, isn’t it more likely that my thoughts are right rather than yours?”

“Why would you say it like that.”

Jack made a noise through his teeth like a piglet. It was the sound of someone who wanted to complain but couldn’t quite form the words, so the feeling only came out as mumbling.

Ugli paused a moment, then spoke in a sulking tone that didn’t quite suit him.

“And here I am, your actual lover, and you don’t spare me a thought.”

“Ah.”

“It’s fine. I’m the same way, after all.”

He watched Jack fidget awkwardly, laughed, then caught his jaw lightly in one hand and tipped it up a little.

“So in place of a gift, how about—”

Just before their skin could meet, Jack threw both hands up.

“No!”

With a pointlessly resolute look on his face, Jack barred his lips.

“Between lovers, you can’t let s— sexual stuff become a habit substitute for an apology.”

What is he talking about.

“I was taught that apologies have to come from the heart… ah, but I’m not really feeling that sorry right now. Probably because I’m tired. Once I’ve got some time to actually feel sorry, I’ll put my heart into it and write you an apology letter.”

“No, that’s not necessary…”

“No! I have to! I’ll go wash up right away so I can hurry up and have the free time to feel sorry — then eat breakfast, then take a nap. You should head in too!”

Watching his lover scamper off toward the great bathhouse, Ugli muttered under his breath.

《Please, stop writing letters… I can’t read your handwriting…》

Not long ago, Ugli had made a wager with the maids. With the maids who had no idea about the actual relationship between the two of them.

A wager that, if he could charm Jack into a kiss within the festival period, he would win; a wager that, thinking about it now, was nothing short of idiotic.