Chapter 29
Chapter 29
I felt Cassis’s gaze fixed on me with an intensity that seemed ridiculous.
I deliberately ignored it and nodded.
“Can’t I make up for it by just walking around smiling?”
“…”
“Come on, there’s no need to be so serious.”
I frowned deeply and said, “Call me Lady Seike.”
In response to my answer, Sian Terezia burst into laughter.
With his laughter as background music, I looked around.
There were quite a few people.
But it wasn’t as chilly of an atmosphere as before.
Thank goodness.
It would be troublesome if Sian Terezia got kicked out like this.
I still had a lot to get out of him.
I needed to keep him by my side at least until the system returned.
“Haha, this is really funny.”
“Thank you.”
“So, about the compensation…”
I raised my hand abruptly to stop his words.
Then I grabbed Cassis, who was standing beside me with a sullen look of great displeasure.
I tugged at the sleeve of Cassis’s shirt near his elbow, and he obediently bent down to lend me his ear.
“I’ll take care of the compensation here, so is it okay if I decide what to get from Mr. Terezia?”
“…I intend to kick him out.”
Ah, that won’t do!
But honestly, if I were Cassis, I would kick him out right away too, so I couldn’t say anything.
“Me, kicked out?”
“…”
“Ah, I’m a person from a thousand years ago, so I have nowhere to go.”
I jerked my head up.
A person from a thousand years ago?
Really?
It seems that’s why Cassis had mentioned the ancient empire earlier.
Hearing it directly from his mouth made things that had been vague a bit clearer.
“Then, would you like to go to the Seike County?”
“Huh?”
“It’s not much of a family, but I’m currently acting as the Countess Seike.”
Seike, it’s a warm, beautiful place in the south where the wine is delicious.
“My younger sibling is guarding the territory, but if I say I sent you, they’ll welcome you. If you get kicked out of here, would you like to stay there for a while?”
No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t let go of this bundle of hints and keys to solve the quest.
I hastily proposed, and Sian looked at me with a subtle expression.
Cassis placed his hand firmly on my shoulder.
“Irina.”
“Yes?”
“…I won’t kick him out.”
“Huh, why not?”
Cassis shook his head with a very complicated expression.
“That’s what I’ve decided.”
“Really?”
“Just do as you please.”
And so, I compensated for this room at my own expense to Cassis, who said it was fine, and in return, I was able to add one question to ask Sian Terezia.
* * *
“Irina.”
As I was about to leave the room with Cassis’s escort, Sian called me from behind.
I turned my head.
There stood a man who had shed his sly expression and was looking at me somewhat solemnly.
“About the question you asked earlier.”
The question…
‘Mr. Terezia, have you been chosen by God?’
He brought up that question that had provoked him.
“Your approach was completely wrong, but if it’s the correct answer, then it’s correct.”
“…”
“You’ve been chosen, our Irina.”
How pitiful.
Leaving Sian’s unsettling words behind, we moved to the study.
It was due to my insistence on resting while looking at documents.
“Usually, resting while looking at documents is called ‘working’.”
I laughed and picked up a few important documents that Roen had passed to my temporary secretary.
The place I was given was the room directly opposite the study where Roen and Cassis mainly work.
When I wondered about the surprisingly small number of documents, I received a rather sad answer.
“That’s because Roen is handling all of Irina’s share.”
“No way.”
“They’re all in my study.”
“Oh my.”
Then I should return to work as soon as possible.
* * *
“I’m really fine.”
It’s amazing that I’m so okay after collapsing and immediately receiving an attack(?) from Sian Terezia.
Of course, I’m surprised too, but being fine is being fine.
I can’t say I’m in pain when I’m not, can I?
I thought it might be because I’m so used to the power of the system.
Well, I decided to ask about the details when System returns.
Since I only intended to skim through the important things lightly, I sat on the couch instead of at the desk.
Cassis just stood beside me, quietly watching.
“I’m planning to look at these documents for two hours from now and then have a pleasant dinner.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes.”
Cassis sighed and stood in front of me.
He was holding a thick blanket in his hand.
He covered me with the blanket.
‘System, is Cassis really the Grand Duke of the North?’
No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem like it.
From the moment I first met him until now, what I’ve consistently felt is that Cassis is kind.
Even in situations where he’s angry, he’s kind enough to cover me with a blanket.
I asked the system what Cassis’s original personality was, but there was no answer.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
However, Cassis didn’t leave my side even after covering me with a blanket and receiving tea from the butler and placing it on the table right next to me.
I tried to concentrate on the documents, but I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the huge man standing next to me and had to get up from my seat.
“Don’t get up.”
“My master is worried about me and standing like this.”
I removed the blanket, folded it neatly and placed it on the table, then picked up the teacup placed next to it.
It smelled of fresh lemon.
Taking a sip of the warm lemon tea, I raised my eyes to look at the man in front of me.
He slightly turned his head, avoiding my gaze.
“I’ll rest until dinner.”
“…”
“Will that ease your worries a bit?”
Cassis seemed to have something to say.
Without rushing, I waited, savoring the lemon tea.
“Do you know who that man is?”
It seems he had something to say about Sian Terezia.
“Sian Terezia. I only know his name.”
Besides that, I know that he’s someone who has been chosen by God like me, and that he was so tormented by that choice that he despaired.
‘You never answer my questions.’
The system is always a kind, fun, and amusing guardian-like existence to me.
But I think it might not be the same for everyone.
“…It’s better not to get close to him.”
“We’re not that close.”
What are you talking about?
“Then that’s fortunate, but…”
“I don’t know why you have such a misunderstanding.”
I laughed and made excuses.
“There’s a reason why I invited Mr. Terezia to Seike…”
“You didn’t pity him?”
I jerked my head up.
“Pardon?”
Cassis said with a gloomy face.
“Because Irina is kind.”
“Come on, me? No way.”
How cold-blooded am I!
You just haven’t done business with me yet!
Me?
When I was running Seike Winery, it was known for its southern red grapes.
People seem to have been quite impressed by my ominous presence amidst the burst wine barrels.
Ah, Kim Irina.
There was a time when things were going well.
Cassis spoke in a slightly depressed and somewhat resigned voice.
“I was one of those people too.”
“No, you’re not!”
I knew why Cassis was acting like this.
He seemed to believe that I chose Cassis out of pity.
I had clearly explained that it wasn’t like that, but still.
I deliberately wrote the contract coldly and harshly in my favor, so I don’t understand why he has such a misunderstanding.
“If I had chosen out of pity, I would have become a philanthropist!”
“But.”
“I understand what kind of misunderstanding you have.”
It’s true that I pitied Cassis.
But I didn’t come all the way to the north just out of pity to pay off this enormous debt.
“But you’re different, Cassis.”
It’s not because he’s the male protagonist, and although preventing the fall of the empire is… the goal, that’s not the only reason I came to the north.
It’s just because I remember Cassis’s kindness before he became so gloomy.
It’s because I received help from that kindness, and because I still know that he is a kind person.
“You’re different.”
I said firmly.
* * *
Isiel is really consistent.
“I really… when I saw you collapse that day.”
“You were worried.”
“Of course!”
I bowed my head.
“Thank you.”
“You should thank Mr. Sian, not me.”
Sian?
The name that came out of Isiel’s mouth sounds quite friendly.
“You two seem quite close?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Isiel really has a good personality.
Seeing how he gets close to just anyone like that.
“He seems to have a bit of an unusual personality, but he doesn’t seem like a bad person. He treated you too.”
That’s why.
How surprised I was to hear that this snake-like person looked at my condition.
“Was there anything else unusual?”
I thought there must be something else, seeing how a successor of a family like Lemiere was keeping him close.
Isiel reacted with a bit of surprise to my question.
“You’re quite sharp.”
“Thank you.”
“Sian Terezia is really an interesting person, you know.”
Isiel seemed to have some more information about Sian.
I sighed once at the system that showed no reaction at all and chose a question to ask Isiel.
<My introduction was always enough with just my name.>
<Sian, Terezia.>
There aren’t many people in the world who can introduce themselves with just their name.
The emperor, the crown prince, or famous royal family members.
Next are the people closest to power among the high nobility.
Like Isiel Lemiere or Cassis Luwin in front of me.
But I had never heard of the family name ‘Terezia’ before.
“I’ve never heard of the Terezia family before.”
“I had a bit of trouble finding Terezia too.”
Isiel got up from his seat and brought a book.
On the page he showed me, there was a map drawn.
“Do you know where Ias-Lind is?”
“It was the dynasty before the current empire, right?”
If my memory is correct, the Ias-Lind family would have been the founding dynasty of that kingdom.
“That’s right. The oral legends from the Ias-Lind side are believed to be the only ones dealing with the world’s dark ages.”
The era where nothing remained in records and disappeared.
That’s the dark age from a thousand years ago.
Occasionally, huge architectural structures are discovered, and traces of civilization from that era appear intermittently, but there were no records anywhere.
The dark age from a thousand years ago was always an unknown era.
“One branch of those oral legends deals with the story of a hero who saved the world from destruction.”
Saying that, Isiel pointed to a place on the map.
“Historians who have studied the oral legends estimate this to be the place where the hero fought and won against destruction.”
It’s a continent shape I’ve never seen before.
By its location, it seems to be in the middle of the sea now.
“How should I read this? O, Odersha?”
I learned ancient language, but I wasn’t a particularly good student, so I could barely pronounce it.
“Obedih.”
The voice I heard wasn’t Isiel’s.
“Mr. Terezia?”
“This letter is ‘O’, followed by five letters spelled out as ‘bedi’. The last part is pronounced as ‘prayer’.”
When did he come?
I was a bit embarrassed because Isiel and I were earnestly talking about Sian.
It feels like we were gossiping, you know.
“When did you arrive?”
“Just now.”
He smiled brightly.
Isiel didn’t care whether Sian was there or not.
Rather, he spoke clearly as if for Sian to hear.
“Obedih is described as an empire in the legend.”
“…”
“The imperial family of the Obedih Empire is Terezia.”
I turned my head abruptly.
So that’s why there was talk of royalty and ancient empire.
