Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Chapter 5: Sian Terezia

Cassis Luwin was tired. 

He diagnosed his own state as exhausted.

There was a time when he thought he might be able to do it someday. 

But that confidence is gone now.

He was born with everything. 

He grew up hearing that the world was at his feet, and everything his eyes could see was his.

But what about now?

Cassis was barely getting by each day.

He owned nothing in this world. 

Only enormous debt and a sense of responsibility for the people of his territory.

Cassis Luwin, who had been enduring it somehow, was now tired.

All the time he had spent was merely spent because he had to live. 

Because he knew that if it wasn’t him, no one would take responsibility for Luwin. 

Because he knew no one would care for the people of the territory.

There are days when even he, the master, wants to run away and leave everything behind, so how could others truly care for them?

So Cassis barely survived each day.

That day was also a day when he had to barely endure. 

The only difference was that it was a situation where he had to be a little more shameful than usual and put down his pride a little more.

<Nice to meet you. I’m Irina Seike.>

The South, which he first visited to delay the repayment date of the enormous debt, couldn’t be a good memory for him.

This was a land where he had to humble himself and plead to pay off his debts, and at the same time, it was a land that was shameful in the eyes of his ancestors.

If he could, he would have left the South immediately.

However, the reason he couldn’t was entirely because of Irina Seike.

A young woman of the family performing the duties of acting Count Seike, following the late former Count and Countess Seike.

When Cassis first encountered Irina Seike, the first thing he thought of was a white snow field.

She seemed like a fairy living in a white snow field.

He thought she would fit better in the North where white frost falls, rather than the South where the sun is hot, the days are long, the fruit is delicious, and festivals are held.

Cassis had such thoughts while wiping off the cool autumn rain that was seeping into his clothes.

It wasn’t long before that thought was shattered.

Irina, who was bustling around the mansion, territory, and nearby warehouses saying that a festival was approaching and she was very busy, dragged him along everywhere under the pretense of needing his help.

Cassis followed Irina, willing to help those providing him with food and lodging, but soon realized that wasn’t the case.

<Your Gra… I mean, Cassis, would you like to try this?>

Cassis was silent for a long time as Irina brightly offered him fruit that she said was imported from the East. 

He didn’t know that they would eat fruit straight from the tree without even washing it properly.

<It’s delicious!>

Pressured by Irina’s expression as she looked up at him with moist, sparkling eyes saying it was delicious, Cassis eventually accepted and ate the fruit on the roadside.

Next was grape jam. 

Saying that they don’t just make wine at the winery, she brought out grape jam in a glass jar as if she was bringing out a hidden gem.

Then she spread the grape jam on a freshly baked scone and popped it into her mouth.

With crumbs still on her face, she urged him to try it quickly, saying it was really delicious, moving her small mouth busily. 

Cassis, as if enchanted again, picked up a scone and scooped up a generous amount of grape jam with a wooden knife.

All the time spent with Irina was like that.

After eating scones with grape jam, she took him to the wine cellar saying now they should drink wine, and after finishing the wine, she asked if he had ever tried freshly simmered chestnuts and dragged him to the kitchen.

While Irina was busy running here and there handling the things she had to do, she was also doing her best to put something in Cassis’s hand or mouth, who had followed her out.

Cassis silently followed Irina and just watched blankly. 

Occasionally opening his mouth when Irina offered him something to eat.

“Roen, I decided to stay.”

“What’s the occasion?”

It’s not incomprehensible that Roen is looking at him as if he’s possessed by a ghost.

Considering how he usually behaved, it’s not strange that Roen is shocked.

Because Cassis never had much free time.

Cassis was clearly tired.

Tired people start to lose composure. 

He always harshly pushed himself, barely moving forward or barely preventing regression.

Because leisure was no different from luxury for Cassis.

Every day when he opens his eyes, the debt piles up. 

But the people he has to bear and be responsible for are plentiful. 

It’s hard enough to take care of himself, but he had to support everyone.

Even if he was suffocating, even if he wanted to close his eyes and run away, he had to somehow hold his position.

The reason such a person decided to see the festival in the South was entirely because of Irina.

He was clearly tired, he still felt despair about life when he thought about the accumulated debt, but at least during the moments he was roaming the rural village following Irina, he felt alive.

It was strangely good. 

The foods he strangely ended up putting in his mouth were delicious, and when Irina grabbed his arm and led him saying he could look forward to it, a strange excitement rippled on a faint breeze from deep down.

“So I decided to stay a bit longer.”

Because I want to see a person who lives so earnestly a bit more.

Because I’m so fascinated by her who busily goes around here and there as if a day has 48 hours.

That was all.

If Cassis had known he would be enchanted by Irina, he probably would have left without looking back.

No, maybe he was already enchanted from the time he briefly stayed at the Count Seike’s house, he once recalled of his time in the South.

And now she says she wants to go to the North.

<Would you consider hiring me?>

She claimed with quite bold eyes that she could do in Luwin what she did in Seike, clearing the debt and re-establishing the family.

Cassis, of course, refused. 

Because Luwin’s debt was something even he had given up on long ago.

He had decided to sink with Luwin himself, so he had no intention at all of dragging a young lady with a bright future he met in the South to the North.

Cassis was vulnerable to her way of pushing straight into him without yielding despite his refusal.

Irina led him through the festival streets.

<I really like peaches, you see.>

Irina smiled as she handed him a peach baked in the oven with cream cheese on top, saying she liked peaches.

Cassis was amazed.

Throughout the festival period, Irina went everywhere, and wherever she went, there was always at least one person who recognized her.

There were nobles, merchants, and laborers. 

Irina didn’t seem to care much about the status of the other person.

That sight strangely made Cassis feel a rippling sensation.

It was even more so because he could see how fiercely Irina Seike had lived while she was in debt in the past.

It must have been hard, she must have been very young, and she even had a younger sibling.

But she smiles like that.

While he’s so tired and barely living each day, she, younger than him, runs around the marketplace smiling like that.

‘……’

Cassis felt as if he was wrapped in a strange anticipation just by watching her from behind.

‘Can I become like you?’

Can I love the city I was born and raised in like Irina in front of me, not easily become pessimistic, interact with others, and live positively affirming the world like that?

I’m not sure.

Maybe because he’s not Irina, he probably can’t become like her.

But Cassis was drawn to her as if enchanted by her shining like the sun, and that’s how he ended up holding Irina’s hand and coming all the way to the North.

* * *

Cassis looked down at Irina, who was sleeping as if dead, for a long time. 

Unable to bear just watching quietly, he reached out to check her temperature on her forehead, and brought his finger to her nose to check her faint breath.

Still not reassured, he even checked the pulse on her neck.

“I shouldn’t have brought her.”

“Cassis.”

“I wonder if I was too greedy.”

If I had just left her in the South, she wouldn’t have collapsed and fallen asleep as if dead like this.

I was needlessly greedy. 

I thought that if she came to the North, maybe I too could come to love the land and city I was born and raised in like her.

But the actual result is this.

He’s still tired and barely gasping through each day, and Irina, unable to leave him like that, takes time to look after him.

And then she ends up collapsing for no reason and has been unconscious for a week.

Cassis buried his face in his palms. 

No matter how much he rubbed his face with his fingers, the fatigue wouldn’t go away.