Chapter 38

“Nnngh! Finally, a comfortable seat.”

In the reception room of the Margrave of Frenzel’s mansion, Irene gave a long stretch as she was guided to a simple but spacious sofa. The servants withdrew to prepare the tea.

Standing behind her, Elma showed no signs of fatigue, calmly observing her surroundings.

According to their cover story, Irene was a Baron’s daughter and Lucas’s secret lover, while Elma was a fellow commoner maid acting as a smoke screen. Thus, while Irene could sit on the sofa, Elma remained standing by the wall.

As for Lucas, he had skillfully lured the master of the house, Jonas—who had been wide-eyed at this sudden visit—down to the underground cellar to sample the Frenzel family’s prized wine.

While not quite on the level of Elma’s brainwashing techniques, Lucas’s conversational skills were quite impressive; his light, charming, and unoffensive choice of words allowed him to slip easily into people’s good graces. For the time being, the residents of the mansion seemed to believe their visit was exactly as described.

Namely, that Lucas had traveled to Frenzel—famed for its wine—accompanied by his current lover, Irene, and her friend. While they had originally intended to just pass through, the vineyards were so magnificent that they wished to stay for a few days to enjoy the bountiful nature.

Therefore, he had come to ask the Lord for permission to stay at the mansion for a few days while keeping his identity a secret.

“He really is a charmer, isn’t he? When you hear just the outline, the setup sounds preposterous, but when he says it so confidently with a laugh and a shrug, it somehow sounds plausible.”

“I agree. His mastery of the ‘foot-in-the-door’ technique to assertively convey his request, while skillfully weaving in the reciprocity of self-disclosure and liking, was quite seasoned, in my opinion.”

“…Excuse me? Could you speak in Ludenese, please?”

Irene retorted almost reflexively.

This friend of hers occasionally spat out esoteric terminology as naturally as breathing.

Elma seemed to believe she was striving daily to learn how to be “normal,” but Irene felt that Elma herself was trampling over that goal from the sidelines.

“If you want to learn how to be ‘normal,’ shouldn’t you start by changing your vocabulary? Once we’re back at the castle, I’ll lend you my Bible so you can study.”

The “Bible” she referred to was, of course, not the holy scripture, but a thin, self-published book.

Elma pondered what the assertive avoidance method for this offer would be, and responded by subtly shifting the subject.

“…Come to think of it, you didn’t bring your Bible this time. Since it’s a long-awaited holiday, I thought for sure you’d be engrossed in it even inside the carriage.”

At that, Irene looked utterly exasperated.

“Honestly, Elma! You don’t understand anything. When you read a book, you need space to collapse backward while shouting ‘This is too precious, I can’t even!’ There’s no way I could read in a cramped place like a carriage.”

“Is that so?”

It seemed that reading in the outside world was quite a complicated affair.

Just then, the door opened, and two figures entered the reception room.

There was Lucas, who looked to be in quite a good mood after enjoying the fine wine, and the middle-aged man guiding him—the master of this mansion and the Lord of the territory, Jonas.

He had prominent white hair trimmed at the shoulders and a stern, wrinkled face.

He shouldn’t have been fifty yet, but combined with his expression, which seemed stripped of all emotion, he looked terribly aged.

With few words, he showed Lucas to the sofa and had him sit next to Irene.

He summoned the servants to serve tea to the three of them, including Elma, and then spoke with an air of great weariness.

“…Allow me to greet you properly once more. Welcome to my territory. I shall not pry into the circumstances of Your Highness or the maid, so please make yourselves at home. Please feel free to make use of everything in this mansion, including the servants, as you see fit.”

His posture was humble and his words were generous, but it felt less like he was welcoming Lucas and more like he was profoundly uninterested.

He didn’t even seem to suspect any scrutiny from the Royal Family.

“I appreciate your excessive consideration. It is difficult for someone in my position to spend time freely in the Royal Capital, after all.”

Even when Lucas draped his arm casually around Irene’s shoulder with the grace of a true lady-killer, Jonas didn’t show a hint of disapproval, simply nodding with a flat “Is that so.”

Incidentally, Elma also directed a gaze at him that held no emotion whatsoever—as if she were looking at a common weed growing by the roadside—and when Lucas noticed, his eyes went distant for a moment as he quietly removed his hand from Irene.

In a monotonous voice, Jonas offered a perfunctory invitation for them to join the upcoming Harvest Festival, and finally, he summoned his children to the reception room.

“Allow me to introduce my children. If you require anything, please do not hesitate to command them.”

It was a humble offer, and it sounded as though he trusted his prized children.

However, the two children who were called into the room were, by any measure, people who seemed entirely unsuited for entertaining guests.

“Good day. I am Deborah, daughter of Jonas, Margrave of Frenzel. Prince Lucas, welcome to these frontier vineyards. I welcome you from the bottom of my heart.”

The first to offer a greeting, pushing past the son who was the next lord, was the daughter, Deborah.

With her flabby physique and bloated face stuffed into a flighty pink dress, the way she bowed while looking up through her lashes was beyond hideous—it was bordering on comical.

While the voice she used to address Lucas was sweet and ladylike, she shot a sharp, glaring look at the servants who had stiffened at the phrase “frontier vineyards”—likely because their own families worked in those very fields.

“The rest of you may leave now.”

She took it upon herself to dismiss the servants, bypassing even the Lord’s authority.

Then, she spun back toward the guests, a fawning smile plastered on her face.

“Do forgive me. My servants are so poorly disciplined, you see. Should you face any trouble during your stay, please do not hesitate to command me, Deborah. Now, let’s see… you there, the daughter of Baron Neumann? And that girl in the glasses must be the commoner maid? Even though you are of lower status, you are still our precious guests. You are more than welcome to rely on me for anything.”

While she sounded demure at first glance, she was actually disparaging her own household staff and going out of her way to emphasize that her guests’ social standing was below her own.

Just as Irene’s face stiffened in irritation, the son stepped forward to introduce himself.

“I am Kevin, the son. Welcome to this backwater territory where monsters actually roam, Your Highness. Though, I suppose it’s the perfect place to bring a mistress if you want to avoid prying eyes. Hey, blondie. You’re the mistress, right? I assume the one in the glasses isn’t? If she were, I’d have to question Your Highness’s taste.”

He looked to be just over ten years old.

Unlike Deborah, he was quite adorable in appearance and spoke with an air of intelligence, but his spindly limbs and insolent attitude completely ruined his charm.

“…My apologies. My son has been sickly since birth. I spoiled him too much, and he has become quite the brat as a result.”

Jonas offered a mumbled apology but didn’t bother to scold the boy further. Instead, Deborah let out an “Oh!” and shook her plump frame with feigned lamentation.

“Kevin, close that disrespectful mouth of yours! Honestly, my family is hopeless! Your Highness, please forgive us. To make amends, I, Deborah, would be delighted to serve as your guide. Tomorrow, the pre-festival market for the Harvest Thanksgiving will begin to set up. There will be stalls, jesters, and all sorts of entertainment. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the sightseeing.”

In reality, it was an invitation disguised as an apology.

Lucas seemed to quickly calculate whether he should prioritize gathering information from her or inspecting the town. “No, I think I’ll save that pleasure for the day of the festival itself,” he declined tactfully.

It appeared he preferred to judge the state of the town with his own eyes.

Deborah looked disappointed, but she eventually backed down and left the room, taking her brother Kevin with her.

Jonas followed suit, leaving behind a few mumbled words that hovered somewhere between an apology and a social nicety.

As a result, only Lucas and the other two were left in the reception room.

“Well, how about that.”

The first to let out an exasperated sigh was Lucas, the highest-ranking member of the group.

He raised a well-groomed eyebrow and gave a shrug as he took a sip from his cup.

“I had heard that the Frenzel family—children included—lacked popularity among the people, but I didn’t expect it to be this severe.”

“It was helpful that they accepted us without too much prying, but… they simply ignored our circumstances so they could focus on attacking us out of jealousy,” Irene added.

During the journey, Irene had become quite comfortable around Lucas and chimed in easily. Although she was currently acting as a maid, she had been raised as a Baron’s daughter and found the behavior of Deborah—with her blatant fawning—and Kevin—with his verbal abuse—utterly unbelievable.

“Even I used to cast flirtatious glances at Prince Lucas, but I was never that extreme. Between the Margrave’s unreadable expression and those reckless children… do you think they have some deeper motive? What do you think, Elma?”

When she turned the question over, her bespectacled colleague—who had taken advantage of the empty room to help herself to the tea—tilted her head slightly.

“I wonder. At the very least, regarding Lady Deborah and Master Kevin, it did not appear that they had any thoughts beyond what they spoke.”

In short, they were exactly as they acted: simple-minded people.

Elma continued flatly.

“Lady Deborah seemed infatuated with Prince Lucas. As for Master Kevin, while he was antagonizing Irene, his pupils were slightly dilated and his breathing had grown shallow. He was experiencing a slight physical arousal—in other words, he seems to harbor a faint affection for her.”

“You both are quite popular,” she added as if it were a trivial matter.

“More importantly, there is something I was curious about—”

“What is it?” Lucas asked, feeling a slight twinge of tension as Elma’s glasses glinted.

Elma set down her teacup and asked with a solemn air.

“Is it true that the market for the Harvest Festival begins tomorrow?”

“…Huh?”

“It seems there will be stalls, jesters, and various events. May we also participate? Currently, we are technically ‘off-duty,’ so it should be fine, correct?”

“…Huh?”

Lucas let out a bewildered sound at the unexpected question.

He stared intently at Elma’s face—or rather, the glasses that covered most of it—and noticed that the surface of the lenses seemed to be sparkling much more than usual.

She was, quite likely… very excited.

He wondered, as he did every time, what kind of object these glasses were to be able to express their owner’s emotions so vividly that they transcended the realm of inorganic matter.

“…You want to go to the market?”

“No, not particularly.”

“You want to go, don’t you?”

“No, not—yes.”

When he pressed her, Elma finally nodded.

“Yes. I would very much like to try going.”

The way she looked—like a child earnestly raising her hand—made Irene burst out laughing.

Giggling, Irene took Elma’s hand.

“Oh, Elma! You’re such a fan of trendy things. Fine, let’s go! We’re just ‘accessories’ to the Prince’s inspection anyway. We’ll leave the information gathering to him and treat ourselves to some traditional Harvest Festival shopping at the market.”

“Yes. By all means.”

“Hey, wait. Aren’t you two even going to pretend to feel bad about this?”

Lucas retorted with a grumpy face, but the corners of his mouth were turned up slightly. Even he welcomed the fact that the girl he was watching over was showing interest in a market like a normal girl.

The three confirmed their respective roles and promised that Irene and Elma would focus on shopping the next day—

However, Elma’s market debut was, unfortunately, destined to be thwarted.