A Stone Was Cast

“Ow!”

The gray-haired maid collapsed onto the floor.

She immediately straightened herself and bowed deeply.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

Right now, even her apologies irritated me.

“What are you doing!?”

Just as I was about to kick the irritating maid again, a voice rang out, and someone stepped between us.

She shielded the small maid in her arms and glared up at me.

“…………”

“What are you doing!? To a servant… and such a little girl at that!”

“…Tch.”

Once I realized it was my fiancée, Cecilia, I regained a little composure.

Truthfully, I wanted to hit this woman too, but while laying hands on an ordinary servant was one thing, hitting her would cause problems.

“…There won’t be a next time, you little brat.”

I quietly spat those words while looking down at the kid crying and apologizing in the woman’s arms, then left.

No matter how much time passed, the irritation inside me refused to disappear.

I had agreed to the arrangement because it was for the sake of my family.

My prospective partner was the eldest son of House Fols, the great noble family that commanded the south.

Judging only by his family and position, he was probably the sort of fiancé others would envy me for having.

But I, Cecilia Wilder, did not think of him as my fiancé.

And surely he, Zeroad Fols, felt the same way.

To begin with, there was no word that could properly describe the relationship between us.

From the moment we first met, we had gotten along about as well as oil and water.

Of course, I was sure I had my own faults too.

But Zeroad’s personality was something I simply could not accept.

He was violent and rough.

He could also be irresponsible, and worst of all, he never considered other people’s feelings.

I knew that he had relationships with many women besides me.

I also knew that none of his feelings were directed toward me.

I did not like him in the slightest either.

Even so, his mother, Lieselotte-sama, had always treated me kindly.

I had nothing but grievances when it came to him, but nothing but gratitude toward Lieselotte-sama.

That was why I believed that even after he inherited House Fols and became its head, our relationship would remain completely cold.

It would be a typical political marriage—no, probably something even colder than that.

At the very least, unless his personality improved somewhat, I did not think I could even bring myself to take the first step toward him.

But I never imagined he would raise his hand against a child like this.

“What are you doing!? To a servant… and such a little girl at that!”

The small maid in my arms trembled as she desperately apologized over and over again.

I had been a little late intervening, but I had clearly seen him kick her.

Worse still, I had seen him try to kick her again.

“…Tch.”

His response to such an unbelievable act was, astonishingly, nothing more than a click of his tongue.

I glared at him fiercely over that attitude. This man… I never imagined he could be this awful.

“…There won’t be a next time, you little brat.”

He spat those words and walked away.

Looking at his back, I could tell he was angrier than I had ever seen him before, but that still did not justify what he had done, and anger began boiling up inside me as well.

I waited until he had completely disappeared around the corner, then looked down at the girl in my arms.

She did not seem badly injured, but I wondered if she was truly all right.

“…Are you okay?”

“Yes… Thank… you very much…”

“What happened?”

“It was… it was my fault… I was running because I was in a hurry… and I bumped into Zeroad-sama… It was all my…”

I stroked the small maid’s head as she blamed herself.

Perhaps because I had a younger sister of my own, I could not simply leave her alone.

“What’s… your name?”

“S-Sonia…”

“I see… Sonia… Listen to me, okay? Forget what just happened. You were simply a little unlucky. Don’t dwell on it… Also, if possible, I think you should avoid seeing too many people today. I’ll try to arrange for you to go home as soon as possible too, but if he sees you again afterward, he might hit you again.”

“…Okay.”

I smiled as I stroked her head. It was all right. She was young, but she should understand what I was telling her.

As for Zeroad, he was in an extremely bad mood right now, but as long as Sonia avoided him, she would not suffer any more unreasonable violence.

“Go on, Sonia… Try to think about something pleasant and get through the rest of the day.”

“…Yes… Thank you very much, Cecilia-sama.”

Sonia bowed deeply, then hurried away in the opposite direction from where he had disappeared.

I hoped that from now on… no, that she would never catch his attention again.

After watching Sonia enter a room farther down the corridor, I stood and started walking.

I had only intended to take a short stroll through the manor to clear my head, yet I had stumbled across something terrible.

It had also taken longer than expected, and thinking Lieselotte-sama might already have arrived and was waiting, I hurried back the way I had come.

When the door to the room I had originally been in came into view, I saw Lieselotte-sama reaching for its handle.

“Lieselotte-sama.”

“Oh? Cecilia-san, what happened?”

I hurried over to Lieselotte-sama and gave her a wry smile while catching my breath.

“S-Sorry… I thought I had some time, so I went for a walk, but I ended up going farther than I meant to.”

“My, my… So even you have moments like that, Cecilia-san.”

Lieselotte-sama smiled and opened the door.

I followed her inside.

As I looked at the gentle profile of her face, I found myself speaking without thinking.

“Ah…”

“? Is something wrong?”

I hesitated as Lieselotte-sama turned back toward me.

I wondered whether I should tell her what had just happened.

“…Cecilia-san?”

“No, it’s nothing. Let’s go.”

In the end, I chose not to say anything.

Part of me did not want to tell her that her son had struck a small maid and see how much it saddened her, and I also did not want to ruin the mood when she had been looking forward to spending this time together.

So I said nothing.

—It wasn’t that serious, and Sonia would surely avoid him afterward. So everything would be fine.

That was what I told myself.

Sometimes I wondered whether something might have changed if I had told Lieselotte-sama at that moment.

But surely…

Even if I had told her, nothing would have changed.