Kitten Blue Eyes (5)

After the confession, she had meant to ask about the will her father left.

She planned to reach a conclusion.

‘Who is the Viscountess of Loire?’

Her father’s will and the surrounding circumstances were telling her that the Viscountess of Loire was the former Grand Duchess of Tessen who had disappeared.

If she learned about that, she would draw near to the secret Reichardt was hiding.

One way or another, it would have to come to a conclusion.

Yet her lips would not open.

She could not bring herself to say something pressing to a face that smiled as if scattering light on every side.

She did not want to.

The tangle in her head faded faintly, and only the face that stole her gaze remained vivid.

Before the face beaming a radiant smile at her, her lips—unable to utter even a clear, single confession—felt pathetic.

Alicia was coming to understand what it meant for someone to be a dazzling presence in one’s sight.

“Your Highness.”

She barely tried to pull herself together, but it was not easy.

“Did we not agree to use each other’s names?”

Reichardt was still smiling.

Following that face spilling a brilliant smile, she felt she ought to smile as well and call him by his name.

If she did not, it felt like committing a great sin.

“R-right, we did…….”

Some corner of Alicia’s mind thought, ‘I wasn’t going to say this.’

But that thought vanished in an instant.

If the face that never let go of its smile offered her a seat, she sat.

If he spread an even deeper smile, she stared blankly.

She could not take her eyes off him.

There were moments she wondered if a man could smile so well, but the question quickly flew away.

She had run here because Reichardt was in pain.

She had come wanting to help him in his suffering—and even that reason blurred in her mind.

The power of a face truly smiling was tremendous.

Each time laughter flowed, the golden eyes warped and reflected light in a singular way.

“Will you not say my name?”

Reichardt asked, spreading a sugary smile.

“……Uh, do you—mm. Do you have a name that’s easier to say?”

After stumbling several times, Alicia managed to complete the sentence.

Her head was so hazy that she did not even think, This stammering is awful.

Reichardt fell briefly into thought.

Since childhood, his brothers had called him “Reichardt.”

Once his brothers bore titles, those who were not the Emperor called him “Grand Duke of Tessen” rather than by name.

Since becoming Grand Duke of Tessen, there had been no one close enough to shorten his name.

The Emperor, his elder brother, called him “Reichardt” without fail—but only the Emperor did so.

These days, both Reichardt and his brothers were addressed as “Your Highness” more often than by name.

Sinking into some thought, Reichardt erased his smile for a moment.

Then he spread it across his lips again.

“Rei.”

For a very short time in his life, there had been someone who called him that.

“Rei… Rei.”

Alicia repeated the name.

She did not dislike “Reichardt,” but “Rei” felt far more familiar.

“Yes.”

Reichardt answered with a smile to Alicia’s call.

“Rei, are you in pain?”

“Earlier……”

Alicia nearly let go again of the clarity with which she had been speaking.

At the word earlier, she belatedly recalled why she had done that the instant she saw the man.

“Yes, earlier…”

Reichardt, who always faced helpers with a composed face and bearing, seemed pitiable.

It hurt, and she felt sorry for him.

If she liked him, and if he liked her, she came to think what she had done was not so bad.

Acting on it at once had been impulsive.

Alicia’s heart, which had been settling, pounded violently again.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course—I’m fine. Then Rei, you’re all right as well?”

Alicia strove to hold on properly to awareness and thought.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Reichardt answered, letting a faint smile spread.

She felt relieved.

Alicia nearly joked boldly that this simple “treatment” seemed to have a good effect.

Her heart pounded so hard she could not collect herself.

The man before her surely heard it all, yet he gave no sign.

She did not want to say something she didn’t mean and put her beloved in a foul mood.

Nor did she want to spill words she would regret and feel ashamed at her own childishness.

“Then, um……”

Alicia was just about to rise.

Reichardt’s hand overlapped hers, which fidgeted in her distraction.

His large hand grasped Alicia’s firmly.

“Don’t go—stay here.”

“Okay.”

Alicia answered at once to Reichardt’s words.

It was embarrassing that her motion to rise became meaningless, but she paid it no mind.

With their joined hands between them, the pounding echoed.

An awkward, uncomfortable sweetness flowed in calm waves.

Even breathing felt difficult.

Doing nothing but holding hands was hard—but it was a hardship she did not dislike.

The illusion that her fingertips throbbed—thud, thud—continued.

The congratulatory banquet of Felix Rain, Marquess of Rain, was postponed.

On the surface, the reason given was that it was a time to honor the late marquess.

The new Marquess of Rain replaced the banquet with a family meal.

Though there was no banquet, Felix sent gifts to the imperial delegation and the marquessate’s retainers.

The imperial household and the retainers also sent congratulatory gifts to Felix as a token of sincerity.

In truth, the banquet was canceled because they had received word it would be difficult for the Grand Duke of Tessen to attend.

It was Alicia who conveyed the Grand Duke’s absence to Felix.

She said the grand duke had had a hard journey and was in poor condition, so it would be difficult for him to attend.

‘Who’s in poor condition?’

Had anyone but Alicia delivered the words, Felix would have snapped back picking a fight.

The Grand Duke of Tessen, known as the axe-wielding demon, in poor condition after a mere few days of travel?

To Felix’s ears, it sounded like saying a rhinoceros’s horn had a scratch and hurt.

Seeing the worry filling Alicia’s face as she spoke tied his insides in a deeper knot.

‘As if.’

Felix barely restrained the curl rising at one corner of his lips.

Though Alicia had shown astonishing composure of late, she had been the first lady born to House Rain in two hundred years and had grown up cherished and pampered.

So the innocent youngest would find it hard to discern the designs of a sly royal man.

Alicia said, with a worried face, that she planned to nurse the grand duke at his side.

‘As expected, that…’

Felix was the sort to refrain from harsh words even in his own mind.

He swallowed back the words that surged up.

He postponed the banquet and proposed that they dine as a family.

Alicia seemed ready to skip even the meal out of concern for the grand duke, but Felix feigned ignorance and asked, You’ll join us, won’t you?

The moment the meal ended, Alicia left her seat.

“They say the grand duke is ill.”

Unable to swallow his distress alone, Felix let the words drop after Alicia left.

“Even a lie deserves a little effort.”

Harry laughed with a face all screwed up.

Watching Harry—who looked about to leap from his chair—and Felix, who was quietly massacring his meat, Marine spread a sunny smile.

“His Highness is handsome.”

At their mother’s betrayal, the two sons moved to protest.

“Mother.”

“He’s not that handsome……”

Setting down her wineglass, Marine smiled elegantly.

“He’s stunningly handsome. For my son-in-law to have a heavenly face—ah, how fortunate I am to be a marchioness. If either of you interfere, expect to receive guests every three days. Don’t be too hurt; my sons aren’t ugly, either.”

Her speaking face smiled, yet it was quite chilling.

And her eyes held a touch of amusement, as if at something a little ridiculous.

At dawn the next day, the Grand Duke of Tessen and the imperial delegation departed in haste for Baden.

News of the Empress’s pregnancy had broken, and the Emperor summoned Reichardt back to tighten palace security.

They could not travel with the formality they had observed when coming to Rain.

Alicia’s face, seeing the grand duke off, was filled with worry.

With a smile overflowing as she had never seen, Reichardt soothed Alicia.

“Alicia, you could never guess what state I am in right now.”

In the dimness of dawn, Reichardt’s smiling face shone.

Each time he smiled, even the guards who served him at close hand wore faces as if they had seen a ghost.

“Be careful, Rei.”

Alicia took Reichardt’s hand and entreated him.

“I will.”

“We’ll be able to see each other again soon.”

At the polite words Alicia offered, Reichardt tried not to expect too much.

Yet it was hard to set expectations down completely.

“I’ll be waiting.”

Mounted, Reichardt offered his farewell and headed toward the party waiting for him.

Alicia waved to Reichardt, who looked back.

Taking the lead of the imperial delegation, Reichardt looked back at Alicia one last time, then quickly increased his speed.

Only the grand duke’s guard rode to catch up with him.

Alicia made sure Juan was moving with the guard, then looked again at Reichardt racing at the fore.

In an instant, the grand duke and the guard shrank to dots and soon vanished.

Only a pale dust hung in the dawn air.

Felix solidified his seat as head of the marquess’s house.

House Rain quickly regained its stability.

Harry, without much thought, set off for Gaeller.

He blurted it out over breakfast as if off to play in front of the house.

“I’m going to Gaeller today.”

The butler and chief maid, Marsha, shrieked at Harry’s declaration.

Other attendants and maids cried, “To Gaeller?!” and said absolutely not.

How could he go alone to somewhere so far, they said—and looked ready to raise a party of forty.

“Take a lunch at least!”

Marsha’s cry Harry smothered with a single hug.

Gaeller was not close.

Even so, he left the house with only a single horse, a few gold coins, and what he needed to prove his identity.

“Be careful.”

Felix pulled his younger brother into a strong shoulder-grab and let him go.

“Send word.”

Catching Harry off guard, Alicia jumped into his arms and hugged him tight.

Though she wished it were not so, no one knew what might happen ahead—so she treated every moment she faced as if it were the last.

Patting her worried back with hearty slaps, Harry boomed that he’d send peaches once harvest came.

With a face full of regret, Marine saw Harry off.

Harry left in high spirits.

“But is it all right to let him go alone like that?”

Dabbing belatedly at the corners of her eyes, Marine voiced her worry.

“If it’s Harry, he’ll probably make three travel friends in the very next town. And he’ll have turned two of them into loyal followers by the town after that.”

Alicia spoke with conviction.

“That does sound like him……”

Marine agreed, looking more at ease.

“I planted a tail to stick to him starting in the next town.”

From behind the two, who were talking softly, Felix spoke with composure.

Marine and Alicia turned to him at once.

“Well done.”

“Excellently done, my lord.”

Marine and Alicia offered sincere praise to the Marquess of Rain.

Alicia, too, intended to leave Rain soon.

To that end, she sent a letter with Juan to carry to Baden.

The letter in Juan’s keeping contained only a single word.

“Union.”

If Lady Josephina had not been lax in gathering intelligence, she would grasp the meaning the instant she saw the letter.

Before sending it, Alicia had deliberated long.

Many things could change because of this letter.

Already, so much had changed since she returned from hell.

Once she decided, she had no more hesitation.

Up to now she had watched the situation and moved in response to it; going forward, Alicia chose to make the situation herself.

She planned to return to the imperial capital, Baden, within a month.

“I’ll likely be heading back to Baden soon.”

Hearing Alicia’s plan, Felix wore a disappointed face.

Though he did not show much change of expression, by his standards his whole face had gone stiff.