Chapter 14
Chapter 14
The journey after the port gate opened was quick.
It was my first time traveling such a long distance through a gate at once.
When told it would take about five hours to arrive, I immediately leaned back in my chair and fell into a deep sleep.
So when I opened my eyes to Roen’s hand gently tapping my shoulder, I gasped in amazement at the surroundings that were once pitch black now taking vague shape.
Soon after, the blurry surroundings became clear, and I arrived in the northern part of the empire, the Grand Duchy of Luwin.
“Aaah! It’s so cold!”
“Ah, I didn’t consider Miss Irina.”
The northern cold was intense.
It was incomparable to the winters in the south.
Despite thinking I had dressed warmly enough for a southern winter, I couldn’t help but shiver uncontrollably.
Seeing my state, Cassis fumbled about before finally taking off his cloak and wrapping it around me.
Even with the fluffy cloak, the biting cold was unbearable.
I didn’t even care that I had just taken the Grand Duke’s clothes.
“Are you very cold?”
“Yes.”
Roen chuckled at my response and said, “It’s not even that cold today. What will you do?”
“I-I don’t know.”
I tightly wrapped the cloak Cassis had given me up to my neck and shivered, waiting to feel better.
“I forgot that southerners are weak to the cold. It’s my oversight.”
As I chattered my teeth, I noticed Cassis standing unfazed even with just his jacket on and quietly marveled.
“I’m… fine. I forgot too.”
“Thank you for saying so.”
“But, Your Grace? Are you really okay…?”
Are you really fine wearing just that?
You even gave me your cloak.
Cassis shrugged at my words.
He didn’t even answer, suggesting this level of cold was nothing to him.
Even Roen, whom I had underestimated, calmly brought the horses he said were tied nearby.
“Lady Irina, no. I’ll call you Miss Irina.”
“Go ahead.”
After all, Roen and I would be working together for Luwin now.
“Miss Irina, can you ride a horse?”
What kind of question is that?
I nodded.
And so, the three of us – myself, Cassis, and Roen – were to head to the Grand Duke’s mansion on horseback.
The only problem was…
“I’ve never ridden a horse in the snow before…”
[Don’t get discouraged, our Irina!]
Moreover, my frozen hands made it difficult to control the horse.
“…Then ride with me.”
Cassis swiftly dismounted and stood in front of me.
As I hesitated, unsure how to get down from the tall horse with nothing proper to step on, he extended his arm.
“I’ll catch you. Just come down.”
As expected of a male lead.
[What makes him seem like a male lead?]
‘The fact that he can catch an adult woman jumping off a horse without difficulty and without making a fuss about it.’
If it weren’t for Cassis’s debt, I might have fallen for him and confessed right away.
He lifted me again and placed me on his horse.
As I was adjusting to the suddenly elevated view, Cassis swiftly mounted behind me.
Our Cassis is really a male lead, isn’t he?
[You’re the protagonist here. Why do you keep calling someone else’s son the main character?]
Oh my.
This is quite touching.
I grinned and leaned back against Cassis.
[What’s this, Irina? Are you trying to seduce that debtor?]
[Huh? Uh…? That’s right! Arschen objects! Objects!!]
Mmm~ The male lead has a nice body too.
[No, Irina! I object!]
I just smirked at the systems shouting their objections.
‘As if I’d be crazy enough to seduce a debtor. This is business. I’ll just pay off the debt and return to Seike.’
Come to think of it, in the original story, the player just focused on paying off debts, while the romance happened between the female lead and the male lead…
Our male lead went bankrupt and came to find me, but what is the female lead doing now?
Although the female lead was pushed to the side in the original work, she’s still the Empire’s princess, so her situation should be better than mine or the male lead’s.
I haven’t heard any news about the Imperial family being drowned in massive debt yet.
I can’t even remember her name properly.
Lee… was it Lianda?
[Leilyranda.]
Right, Leily.
The original story has already gone off track, and your male lead is now a debtor.
Let’s just prevent the empire’s downfall and cut our losses quickly.
If you get involved with him, you’ll have to pay off debts too.
[Isn’t it good to pay off debts together?]
…I suppose?
Should I make the female lead fall for this debtor for faster debt repayment?
But Leily fell for Cassis when he had lots of money, not when he was drowning in debt like this.
As I clung to Cassis to ward off the cold and pondered these thoughts, the horse emerged from the forest and entered a town.
“Cassis?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“I have a question. Is this the central city of Luwin?”
“Yes, this is Luwin’s central city, Leknes.”
* * *
The central city of Leknes was an incredibly beautiful place.
Befitting the capital of a grand duchy, its splendor was on a different level from the south.
Of course, that might be because I hadn’t frequented the wealthy cities in the south.
Still, recalling the memories of the supposedly prosperous southern cities, the atmosphere was different, perhaps due to the weather.
The south was more boisterous.
There were more people, the weather was nice, the colors were vibrant, and people were always eating and playing…
In contrast, Leknes had an overall quiet and mysterious atmosphere, perhaps due to the cold. Maybe it was because of the snow covering everything.
Amidst that calmness, the city was generally magnificent.
That’s what made this land elegant.
“Wow…”
Sitting in front of Cassis, the feeling of this moment – racing past the white and elegant city – gave me an indescribable sense of liberation.
We passed through the area where the domain’s residents lived, then through a zone with occasional small mansions, then through beautiful iron gates, and the horse continued galloping along a forest path.
The difference between this forest and the previous one was that the former was untamed wilderness in its raw state, while the latter was a managed forest path with caretakers.
After riding for a while through the snow-covered fir forest, what appeared was a very large and beautiful mansion.
Unlike the southern mansions, it was more like a beautiful castle with pointed spires reaching upwards.
I was too mesmerized by the beauty of this place to think straight.
Meanwhile, Cassis, who had jumped off the horse, skillfully helped me down just like before.
The butler, who had come out to wait for us, addressed Cassis.
“Was your journey comfortable, sir?”
“It was quite pleasant.”
“You must be tired.”
And the moment I dismounted, a system window appeared before my eyes with a ‘ding!’
[SYSTEM | A sub-quest for ‘Preventing the Empire’s Downfall’ has arrived.]
[SYSTEM | ‘Greet the People of Orsha Palace (Grand Duke Luwin’s Mansion)’]
[SYSTEM | A sub-quest for the linked quest ‘Repay the Grand Duke Luwin Family’s Debt’ has arrived.]
[Huff huff, Irina. The quest names are too long…]
[Let’s just rename it as ‘Greet and Pay Debts’ roughly.]
The system’s grumbling interjected in the middle, but I gently ignored it.
To summarize, the ‘Prevent Downfall’ quest and the ‘Repay Debt’ quest were progressing simultaneously, with the former focusing on the overall imperial situation and circumstances, while the latter emphasized debt repayment.
However, these two seemed to be linked and sometimes progressed together, sometimes separately.
[Ding dong dang-! That’s correct, little Irina.]
[But since it’s a bit difficult to distinguish between the two, I’ll mix them up appropriately.]
‘Do as you please.’
I tried to check the detailed quests, but since the butler was guiding us into the mansion, I postponed that for later.
The interior of the mansion was very classic.
There was a beauty that emerged from this space, which had been well-maintained for a long time, revealing the passage of time.
And in the center of the lobby, maids and servants were standing and waiting.
I looked around the mansion interior, exclaiming “Wow.”
“It’s a bit desolate in some corners, isn’t it?”
“Huh? Where?”
I had naturally expected a mansion with all the lights turned off like our Seike County house, but it wasn’t like that at all.
Cassis uttered some nonsense about ‘desolate corners’ while untying the string at my neck to take back the cloak he had wrapped around me.
Thanks to this, I looked up at Cassis with wide eyes from very close up, saying:
“You stayed at our mansion for a few days.”
How could you say this place is desolate after staying at that mansion?
Cassis chuckled at my reaction.
A slightly softened expression appeared on that usually cool face.
“That’s because you haven’t seen the previous Orsha Palace, Miss Irina.”
The name of the Grand Duke Luwin family’s grand mansion is Orsha Palace.
It was also the only family in the empire that could build a palace, except for the emperor.
It’s said that the first head of the family was the emperor’s beloved younger sister, for whom he built this palace and gave her the vast northern land to become the Northern Grand Duke.
Of course, I wonder if he just banished her to this harsh city…
“I don’t know about before, but now it’s very elegant. It’s classic and suits the cold north.”
Cassis nodded slowly at my answer.
“It’s thanks to William and Anna, who always worked hard to maintain dignity despite our meager circumstances.”
Cassis introduced his family’s servants to me while bitterly mocking his family’s situation.
“Let me introduce you. This is William Ken, the butler of the Luwin Duchy and the chief manager of Orsha Palace. And this is Anna Jillard, the head maid of Orsha Palace.”
As soon as Cassis finished speaking, William and Anna greeted me in turn.
“Pleased to meet you, I am William Ken. If you have anything regarding matters within the mansion, please feel free to ask me.”
“Pleased to meet you, I am Anna Jillard. I serve as the head maid of Orsha Palace. Likewise, if you encounter any problems, please contact me, and I will resolve them promptly.”
William and Anna were both later middle-aged individuals.
The way they looked at Cassis was full of affection and respect, so it was clear that both William and Anna had worked in this mansion for a very long time.
“And this is Lady Irina Seike, whom I brought from the south. She will also be in charge of managing Luwin’s debts and assets from now on.”
Instead of greeting them formally like they did, I simply nodded my head to show respect.
“I’m Irina Seike. Please feel free to call me Irina.”
[SYSTEM | ‘Greet the People of Orsha Palace (Grand Duke Luwin’s Mansion)’ Quest 01 Completed!]
[SYSTEM | ‘Greet the People of Orsha Palace (Grand Duke Luwin’s Mansion)’ Quest 02 Completed!]
As soon as I finished my greeting, the ‘ding!’ notification popped up, and I raised my eyebrows and quickly deleted the window.
My god is quite kind.
[Ahem! You just realized that?]
