Lady Reiling (3)

Connie, who loved splendid lace, elegant lace, grand lace, and the most intricate floral lace in the world, looked worriedly at Reichardt, who was acting like a thug from the back alleys.

“Your Highness, what do you mean, underlings? The Grand Duke ought to use refined language. You’ll startle Her Highness the Grand Duchess. Sometimes His Highness behaves so immaturely, Your Highness.”

Alicia blankly looked up at Connie, who smiled benevolently.

Lady Relling.

Relling was a great lordship that governed the region west of the Coral Mountain Range in the Rune Empire. The Coral Mountains were so rugged that almost no one crossed them unless they were a particular sort of person. Because of that, the Marquis of Relling was all but a king west of the Coral Mountains.

Moreover, the Coral Mountains had a cool and temperate climate all year round, making them ideal for growing wine grapes, and thus it was a wealthy land.

Alicia felt she finally understood the mystery of how Connie had managed the enormous economy of Tessen Castle so casually. It was not simply because she had worked long in the Grand Ducal household that she could, without batting an eyelash, replace rare and fantastically expensive things throughout Tessen Castle whenever the occasion demanded.

Ah, so that was why.

The former Lady of Relling had possessed a strong hand that loved beauty, loved splendor, and readily bought extravagant things.

“Lady Relling. Will you help me?”

“Lady Relling, what a distant form of address. How may I help you, Your Highness? Do you also need some stuffy retainers still left in Relling?”

“Yes. Please spare me a little of your time. And lend me your son as well.”

Connie, who had been smiling kindly and nodding at Alicia’s words, merely blinked at the last request. Reichardt, who had been listening beside them, frowned as though he had heard an unpleasant joke.

“Alicia.”

“Rei has something else to do. Before the disaster called the imperial family strikes, let’s go find the missing lady.”

Alicia said it resolutely.

“T-the imperial family? Your Highness, the imperial family? What do you mean? Could it be that the imperial delegation—oh my! Good heavens. Shall I add more lace to the curtains?”

Connie clapped lightly in sincere delight. The boldness of the Lady of Relling was astonishing.

Theodor’s little hand flailed in the air.

“Hello!”

“Hello.”

Dalia waved back and smiled at the child who recognized her and came running. Her face twitched in surprise as she realized that she herself was smiling.

“Wow!”

Theodor, playing in the garden with children his own age, turned toward where Dalia was and beamed brightly. At that sight, it was not easy to harden her expression or put on a stern face. Feeling the corners of her mouth creeping upward, Dalia let out a shallow breath.

「She stole what was mine!」

A sharp cry surfaced in her mind, which had sunk into thought.

“He is adorable, isn’t he?”

The gentle voice of a noblewoman softly touched Dalia, who had sunk into gloom. When Dalia turned at the presence beside her, Connie offered her a benevolent smile.

“Ah, yes…. This may be rude to say, but he is so very cute.”

Becoming aware of the presence of the Baroness of Rens, Dalia offered a suitably polite remark for social exchange. Theodor chattered with the other children, then every so often looked back at Connie and waved sweetly.

“I heard Lady Dalia came from the Swan family.”

“Yes.”

Dalia offered only the necessary words, briefly. Her manner was mild and polite, but she showed none of the social warmth of someone expressing interest in the other party through glances or gestures.

“Does the Swan family crest have a swan on it?”

As though Dalia’s reserved attitude did not bother her in the least, Connie skillfully continued the conversation. The refined and dignified figure of the Baroness of Rens set many thoughts running through Dalia’s mind.

「Forgive me for asking, but does the Swan family crest include a swan?」

And she also recalled what Jamie Rens had said to her yesterday. It even struck her as remarkable how such a sensitive and difficult man had been born between the good-natured Baron of Rens and the Baroness of Rens, who still retained something girlish about her.

“No.”

Dalia turned to Connie with a faint smile. At the smiling face, Connie looked puzzled.

“My lady? Did I perhaps make a mistake?”

“No. There is someone else who asked me that same question. You are the Baroness of Rens, aren’t you?”

“That is right. Come to think of it, I introduced myself late. I am Connie Rens. I oversee Tessen Castle as a whole.”

At Connie’s greeting, Dalia gave a light abbreviated bow.

“I am Dalia Swan.”

“……”

Connie only gave her an affectionate smile.

“The Swan family crest does not contain a swan. Instead, it contains a design depicting a lotus made of quill pens. It is said to have been included to show support for the Lotus School followed by the great scholar Lord Lisman.”

“The Lotus School. It is sometimes also called the Lotus Society because it means lotus flower, but I hear it was named for the idea of reaching ecstasy through a higher level of contemplation.”

“I believe it did have that meaning as well……”

At Connie’s words, which sounded like kind instruction, Dalia nodded in agreement. It was a different reaction from Jamie, whose sharp-featured face had shown surprise at her explanation before merely accepting it in simple acknowledgment.

“Well then, I shall see you again next time. Theodor, what is it?”

Connie gently took the hand of the child running toward her and spoke warmly.

“……”

Dalia thought that when she had said “the great scholar Lord Lisman,” there had been, however faintly, a mocking smile in the corners of the gentle Baroness’s eyes.

“Bye!”

Theodor, holding the Baroness’s hand and tugging her along, waved to Dalia. Seeing that the Baroness, like the child, also waved to Dalia, it seemed that the lady had made the child do so as a matter of manners.

“Bye……”

Seeing Dalia exchange greetings with Theodor, the other children cheerfully greeted her as well.

“Bye!”

“See you again!”

“Bye.”

Dalia returned each of the children’s cute farewells with a wave. In Tessen, winter began in November, and the wind was biting, but the cheerful voices offering greetings made her heart tingle.

“……Should I just live here?”

Listening to the sounds of the children running and playing in the distance, Dalia murmured faintly.

Dalia—or rather, Rose—did not dislike Tessen. It was tremendously cold, and that was hard to endure, but she liked the people of Tessen.

Tessen, once known as the land ruled by a devil-like Grand Duke wielding a huge axe, was now a story of the past. But isolated as it was, Tessen still felt like a strange and difficult land.

If she were truly Dalia Swan, she would have stayed and lived here. But Rose Combat could not do that.

「That was all mine!」

The illusion of a shrill cry striking her ears arose. A face appeared before her eyes, pouring out tears like a hallucination and grieving in injustice.

「I was the one who was supposed to be the Grand Duke of Tessen’s prospective match! That northern country bumpkin stole my place! This cannot be happening. For it to become a grand duchy. I could have been the Grand Duchess…! That bitch took what was mine!」

Lily had said that the Grand Duchess of Tessen’s place belonged to her. Lily’s delusions regarding Alicia Rain had grown worse and worse of late.

「Lily, you will become the Marchioness of Relling.」

At Rose’s attempt to comfort her, Lily had shot her a cold glare. She was not satisfied with what she possessed, showing only longing for what she had failed to obtain.

「Ha! A mere marchioness. I was originally meant to become the Grand Duchess of Tessen. But because the Rain family cut in line… everything was ruined!」

Lily had wept sorrowfully for many days over the injustice of it. At times she had thrown tantrums, smashing all kinds of objects in violent fits. Even so, she had pretended to obey her father’s wishes, acting the part of the elegant Lady Combat.

Where had it all gone wrong?

In truth, nothing had gone wrong. If Lily had only given up her empty delusions and her attachment to an opportunity that had already passed, there would have been no problem. Probably.

As she sat lost in thought, a voice called to her.

“Lady Dalia.”

Dalia Swan was the daughter of a vassal family within the Combat domain. Dalia lost things easily, so Rose had stolen Dalia’s invitation without difficulty.

Even now, Dalia probably still had no idea that she had lost the invitation to the banquet that the Grand Duchess of Tessen had sent to the Swan family. Dalia was that sort of friend.

“Dalia……”

Scatterbrained, but kind to people.

“Lady Rose.”

A neat voice brought Rose back to herself. Startled, Rose whipped around toward the man who had called her by her real name. Jamie calmly watched Rose, who still was not accustomed to the alias Dalia and had almost slipped.

“……”

Rose stared blankly at the person who had called her by her real name.

How.

She barely managed to hold back the words that nearly slipped out, but the uneasy trembling at her eyes and the awkward silence were nearly the same as answering aloud. Rose thought of Jamie and the Baroness of Rens asking her about the Swan family.

She also recalled the faces that had looked after her, approached her first, and shown interest through kind questions after she arrived here.

「The place where the Swan family lives must be warm, right?」

「I heard winter does not come there until January. Is that true?」

「Have you ever been to the imperial capital, my lady?」

Looking back, those light and trivial conversations meant to build familiarity had also been ways of asking around about her identity.

‘They all already knew.’

Lady Dalia was not Lady Dalia.

She thought she knew who had revealed that.

Alicia Rain.

Instead of pressing her directly, she had used a kind, meticulous way of uncovering the truth by making it seem as though people were only showing her small bits of interest.

“They say the Grand Duchess of Tessen knows everything.”

Rose let out a dry laugh.