The Donut Knight (5)

“Oh…? Why, if it isn’t Shirley. What is it? Did you need something from me?”

Lawrence-sama looked somewhat tired, but he put on a smile as he spoke.

As the man in charge, Lawrence-sama had been busy interrogating the intruder and dealing with various other matters, so in the end, he never returned to eat any donuts.

I smiled brightly at him and held out the lidded basket I had been hiding behind my back.

“You missed out on the donuts, didn’t you? So I made some separately for you.”

As I spoke, I opened the lid of the basket.

Inside, a colorful assortment of donuts peeked out.

“Mm…”

I could see Lawrence-sama’s eyes being drawn irresistibly toward them.

Besides the simple donuts from earlier, there were two other kinds: chocolate donuts and honey-dipped donuts.

As someone who had adored Mister Donut in my previous life, I had poured my heart into recreating some of my favorites.

“These are for you, Lawrence-sama. Please, have some.”

“N-no…”

Lawrence-sama stared fixedly at the donuts for a while, but eventually forced his gaze away and spoke.

“No, I must decline. I am a knight. I may partake of sweets for social reasons, but I would never choose to eat them of my own accord. Never.”

That was bravado.

An excuse for why he did not eat sweets.

No… perhaps I should say it was his reason for why he couldn’t eat them.

But it was no use. I already knew the truth.

I lightly touched a finger to the corner of my mouth, smiled, and said,

“──You have a piece of donut stuck to your mouth, Lawrence-sama.”

“…!”

The way Lawrence-sama panicked at that moment was quite something.

He looked as shaken as a criminal whose crime had just been exposed, hurriedly feeling around his mouth with his hand.

But he could not seem to find it, so I took out my handkerchief and gently wiped his mouth for him.

“You like them enough to eat even the crumbs left on your fingers, so why do you hide it?”

Indeed, Lawrence-sama had not been able to eat a donut earlier.

But there must have been some crumbs left on the hand he had used to pick one up.

And he had found even those too precious to waste….

In other words, just as I had suspected.

Lawrence-sama was, in truth, quite the lover of sweets.

“…Do you think everyone noticed?”

Lawrence-sama’s shoulders drooped as though he had finally surrendered.

I answered him,

“No one would have noticed unless they were watching very carefully. Besides, everyone else had crumbs around their mouths after eating the donuts too. It was nothing unusual.”

“I see. Then that is a relief…”

“Why do you hide it?”

“…My father is a very strict man. I was raised with him constantly telling me how a knight ought to conduct himself. Sweets in particular were one of the things he forbade me from having.”

I see. A parent’s teachings shaped the child. It was a common enough story.

Though it was hardly pleasant for the person being deprived of something they loved.

“Besides, I am the Commander of the Knights. If it became known that someone in my position had a fondness for sweets, my authority might suffer. It would look bad in front of the others as well. So…”

“Yes, of course. I will keep this a secret.”

“I see. You have my thanks.”

“However…”

Lawrence-sama looked relieved, and I smiled at him before continuing.

“From now on, if you ever feel like eating something sweet, please tell me. I will gladly prepare something for you whenever you like.”

“…Why? Why would you go so far for me?”

“Why, that is obvious. For one thing, it is my way of thanking you for saving my life. And the other reason is…”

“The other reason?”

“We both love sweets. People like us should help each other out when the need arises.”

Yes, during snack time earlier, I had noticed that he was holding himself back.

But denying yourself something you wanted to eat was simply a waste of life.

Even in my previous life, I had often seen men trying to hide the fact that they liked sweets.

A man would stand outside a pancake shop filled entirely with girls, staring inside enviously. Whenever I saw something like that, I could not help feeling sorry for him.

So if someone wanted something sweet, I would share a little sweetness with them.

If a woman offered it first, it made things easier for a man to enjoy it too.

“…I see. Thank you. You are a kind girl.”

Lawrence-sama said this while staring intently at the donuts. Then he glanced around, confirmed that no one else was nearby, and quietly picked one up.

“To tell the truth, I have been unable to stop thinking about them. I simply had to know what they tasted like. Just one…”

Lawrence-sama stared at the donut for a moment before taking a bite.

He slowly chewed and savored it, and before long, his eyes softened dreamily as he murmured,

“…Sweet…”

He must have been exhausted from the search over the past several days.

Lawrence-sama seemed to take quite a liking to the donuts, and in the end, he ate three of them right there.

And as I watched him, I secretly began calling him the “Donut Knight” in my heart.

“Well then. Thank you again, truly.”

With those words, I bowed and parted ways with Lawrence-sama in the corridor.

Lawrence-sama cradled the basket carefully in his arms, and it seemed he really had taken a liking to the donuts.

I felt as though I had done something good.

Even when the person eating my food was not the young master, perhaps it could still be enjoyable to see someone delight in something I had made.

And besides! Naturally, I had made some of those donuts I had just given Lawrence-sama for myself as well.

Once I returned to my room, the very same treats I had just watched someone enjoy so deliciously would be waiting for me.

Was that not simply wonderful?

I would brew some tea and enjoy them by myself to my heart’s content.

Ahh, such a wonderful time was waiting for me!

I walked down the corridor in high spirits.

And because of that… I completely failed to notice something incredibly important.

Yes, at the very moment Lawrence-sama and I parted ways.

Someone had witnessed the entire thing.

The red-haired girl with twin tails had been utterly shocked by what she saw, mistakenly believing that Lawrence-sama and I had been having a secret rendezvous… and at the time, I had no idea that the flames of jealousy were already roaring within her.

And there was one more thing.

“Shirley.”

As I continued down the corridor, a voice called to me from behind.

It was a young voice I knew very well.

Surprised, I turned around… and there stood the young master himself.