Chapter 52

A small, pale face with a straight, elegant bridge of the nose.

Thin lips, faintly colored cheeks, and long eyelashes.

Water droplets trickled from her bangs down her slender jaw, dripping onto her chest.

When she noticed and blinked lightly, her large eyes revealed themselves—they were the color of the sky at the break of dawn.

“..! ..! …!”

He wanted to say something.

He wanted to praise this beauty.

But—as if his very soul had been snatched away, Kevin couldn’t utter a single word.

Kevin remained frozen, pointing a finger at her while his mouth flapped open and shut like a fish. Elma, while wiping her glasses, tilted her head in confusion.

She seemed to read the sentiment of “This is unexpected!!” from his expression, and after wondering for a moment what there was to be so surprised about, she clapped her hands together.

“My apologies. It was the state of my clothes you were pointing out, wasn’t it?”

Apparently, she had processed the situation in that manner.

Without hesitation, Elma grabbed the hem of her skirt. To wring out the moisture, she shamelessly began to lift it, exposing her pale legs and their glamorous curves—

“Wai-wai-wai-wait a minute!”

As she prepared to pull it higher, the women present stopped her with desperate looks on their faces.

—Whoosh!

Simultaneously, Lucas swiftly grabbed her arm and draped his jacket over her.

He brought his face close to Elma’s with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

“You idiot! Don’t lead a ten-year-old brat down the path of ruin!”

He scolded her. Elma looked bewildered—an expression so calculatedly adorable that it made those around her groan—and nodded obediently with a “Wait, ah, yes…?” but it seemed it was already too late.

“…”

Kevin’s face turned so red it looked as if the blood in his entire body had reached a boiling point, and he collapsed unsteadily on the spot.

She wasn’t a god.

She wasn’t a god after all. She was something far more dangerous—a girl with a devilish charm that could bewitch a man’s very soul.

He ruminated on that thought over and over within himself.

“Um, Lord Kevin…? Are you alright…?”

Elma knit her brows in worry and spoke to him.

Hearing her voice, Kevin sprang up and shouted, stumbling over his words grandly.

“I-I-I-I’m fine! I’m fine! No problem at all! None! At all! There is no problem! Just, um, well, uh…!”

His agitation was so great he couldn’t even maintain a consistent tone.

After all, having spent his life cooped up in the manor, he’d had very little contact with women outside his family to begin with.

How should he answer this beautiful girl so as not to worry her, to look sophisticated, or rather… to raise his standing in her eyes? Kevin’s mind raced.

“W-Well…! I-I feel like I’m not feeling great after all, so I’m going to go pick some herbs! No, actually, I’m totally fine! I’m energetic, in fact! I just thought it might be good if you drank some too! Together! Yes, together…!”

Wanting to do something for Elma, but not wanting to make her feel burdened, yet also not wanting her to worry—Kevin ended up spewing a string of nonsensical words.

Unwilling to expose his flustered state any further, he spun on his heel and charged toward the forest.

“I-I’ll be right back!”

He even stumbled over that parting line.

“Good grief…”

Irene, who had been watching the whole exchange, softly covered her eyes with her hand.

She’d done it.

Her friend had turned even the eccentric son of a Margrave into a loyal dog in an instant.

Deborah merely watched with a rapturous gaze, murmuring, “As expected of Lady Elmael…” but Lucas looked extremely displeased.

He grabbed Elma by both shoulders, turned her around to face him, and spoke in a low voice.

“…You. You understand what I’m about to say, don’t you?”

“…?”

Elma looked up at Lucas curiously.

While she could read the irritation in his expression, she didn’t seem to have a clue what it stemmed from.

Elma pondered for a moment, then let out an “Ah!”

Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed.

An unmistakable look of joy spread across her face.

“You’re going to give them to me, aren’t you? Those words.”

“…Say what?”

Lucas met her with a look of pure suspicion.

He had intended to give her a piece of his mind for diving into the sea despite his orders, returning on the back of a whale, and then ensnaring another man by flaunting her bare face and legs. He certainly didn’t remember doing anything that would lead her to expect anything else from him.

Elma, however, was in an unusually good mood, rambling on with a hint of excitement.

“I never expected to receive your stamp of approval so soon, Your Highness. Please, don’t look so irritated just because I produced results faster than anticipated. I would be honored if you could join me in celebrating the growth of your humble disciple.”

“…Say what?”

“Well, you’re about to praise me for my performance this time, aren’t you?”

Elma was smiling with a look of utter innocence.

“You told me that swimming wasn’t ‘normal,’ so I refrained from swimming. And you said it was impossible to find a ring in the vast ocean, so instead of searching for it myself, I had a school of flying fish find it for me.”

“You had flying fish look for it!? More importantly, how do you even ask a whale or a fish for a favor!?”

“Well, I simply asked them politely.”

When Lucas delivered his full-force retort, Elma blinked and tilted her head.

“If you bow properly and ask with sincerity, whales, fish, and even Sirens will gladly cooperate, won’t they?”

A truly outrageous word had slipped into her argument.

But Elma merely continued to diss the outside world with a cheerful air, adding, “Surely you aren’t going to tell me that people in the outside can’t even manage something that simple.”

—Here it comes.

Irene, who had been watching the exchange, reflexively gulped. True to expectations, Elma made her grand declaration.

“Having the professionals—the fish—find a lost item in the sea, and returning by borrowing the strength of a whale instead of swimming. Surely, at this level… it qualifies as ‘normal,’ right?”

It was the endearing, earnest, and yet supremely arrogant question of a hard worker.

Lucas froze solid, and Irene collapsed onto the ground in defeat.

—What kind of logic is that…?!

The “soul-shouts” of the two played out in accidental harmony.

Just then—

“Lady Elma! This! Look at this!”

Kevin, now a completely transformed pure-hearted boy, returned with his arms full of green leaves.

It appeared he really had gathered a massive amount of medicinal herbs.

If he’d had a tail, he would surely be wagging it furiously as he proudly held out the herbs.

“This is an herb that has grown wild only in our territory since ancient times—it’s a relative of the clover! It’s believed that its refreshing scent repels evil, including magical insects. So, I’m sure it will be incredibly effective against the miasma-tainted seawater you were exposed to, and… and! There’s a legend that these lovely-shaped leaves will call forth one’s precious significant other…!”

By the end, even his cheeks were flushed.

The group watched Kevin, who had been reduced to Elma’s devoted servant, with gazes that were a mix of pity and encouragement.

“…Young love is a terrifying thing…”

Lucas found himself muttering under his breath.

Who cared about miasma-tainted seawater?

This was a girl who rode whales, commanded fish, and would probably even lead Sirens.
Could he not see that reality?

“Whether it’s the power to ward off evil or the power to attract the opposite sex, there’s no way Elma would be affected by mere grass like clo—”

However, a strange thing happened right then.

Elma, who should have been calmly nodding along to Kevin’s story, suddenly stopped moving.

“…”

She had been about to put back on her freshly wiped glasses, but they slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.

“…Elma?”

Something was wrong.

Seeing her suddenly lose all strength and take on a floaty atmosphere, a memory from the past flashed through Lucas’s mind, making him gasp.

No way.

“…Um.”

With sluggish movements, Elma raised both hands to her cheeks and let out a soft murmur.

Her face was flushed a faint rose-pink as if she were intoxicated, and the focus in her eyes had begun to melt away.

“I… since a long time ago, for some reason… I’ve been… bad with… this scent.”

Her tone of voice became somewhat childish, just like “that time.”

“Elma, wait, you—”

“I am… terribly sorry, but.”

“Hey, wait! Is this happening again—!?”

“I shall now… lose consciousness.”

No sooner had she spoken than Elma slumped forward, falling heavily into the arms that Lucas had instinctively reached out to her.