Chapter 62
Chapter 62
Vroom-vroom turned out to be a surprisingly autonomous truck.
Even without inputting a specific destination, it knew how to navigate the sky skillfully.
I initially flinched at the sensation of floating in the air, but our Vroom-vroom, scoring a perfect 10 out of 10 for ride comfort, drove through the sky more excellently than anyone else.
When I opened the window wide, the wind rushed in.
“Woaaah!”
My hair became a tangled mess, obscuring my vision.
So this is what it feels like to fly through the sky.
Turning my head away from the wind that was blowing so strongly it nearly suffocated me, I met Cassis’s eyes.
It seemed he hadn’t opened his window, wasn’t looking outside, but had just been watching me.
No wonder, our gazes met the moment I turned my head.
As our eyes locked, it felt like time stood still for a moment.
Whether it was because of the cold wind or if he was naturally like this, his pale face gleamed even more bluish under the moonlight.
And it was so pretty, so beautiful…
I abruptly lowered the window on Cassis’s side too.
He seemed a bit startled by the sudden gust of wind in his seat.
His neatly arranged black hair became completely disheveled.
His face showed a hint of surprise, but he quickly turned his head towards me to avoid the wind.
Even with his hair in disarray and a lingering look of surprise on his face, his beauty didn’t fade.
I burst out laughing “Hahaha” and asked.
Due to the loud wind, it was more like shouting:
“Lord Cassis! How is it?”
“…!”
Cassis opened and closed his mouth a few times as if trying to speak, but unfortunately, his voice didn’t reach my ears.
Eventually, I closed both windows.
As the windows closed completely, silence returned to the car.
Outside, a city sparkling with brilliant lights spread out, and Vroom-vroom drifted leisurely through the night sky.
With my hair still a mess, I asked Cassis:
“How was it?”
“…It was my first time flying through the sky.”
“That’s obvious. Besides that, how did it feel?”
No, no.
Not that obvious fact.
“Irina, you’re really a strange person.”
“Thank you.”
He reached out and held my hand.
Unlike my hand that had cooled from the wind, Cassis was warm.
“What’s this, are you trying to seduce me?”
“Pardon?”
“No, it’s just…”
Usually, when someone’s driving next to you, they fiddle with your hand to flirt.
I experienced that a lot in my past life.
‘It feels nice to think such a handsome man is trying to seduce me.’
[Oh my.]
Regardless, I was in very high spirits, enjoying a drive after a long time.
Riding a horse through the forest is certainly pleasant, but this has a different kind of joy.
‘I’m happy, Vroom-vroom.’
Beep beep!
“Irina.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t you have anything you’re curious about regarding me?”
I sat up straight at the sudden question.
Isn’t this the typical probing question just before starting to date?
‘What, does Cassis like me?’
[He might…]
‘That won’t do!’
[Why…?]
[Because Cassis has to date the female lead?]
[To save the world?]
After quickly reading the system’s chat window, I frowned deeply.
What nonsense.
The original story went off track long ago, and my ultimate goal is to make the business successful, so Cassis can properly protect the world and pay off Luwin’s debt.
‘Dating your boss leads to disaster!’
[True…]
[That could happen…]
Well, it might be nice when getting approvals.
But I don’t need approvals obtained without persuasion, under the pretext of love.
So I answered Cassis, who was waiting for my response.
“Of course, I have many questions. What kind of background you grew up in, how you grew up. How you’ve endured until now.”
Does Sir Violet Knight remember me?
“I’m curious about a lot.”
“I have many questions too.”
At his sudden interjection, I stared at him blankly.
‘What should I do? I think Cassis likes me.’
“I’m curious about what thoughts you had while living to endure and become who you are now.”
“I didn’t have any particular thoughts…”
“That can’t be true.”
Cassis dismissed my words.
“Did you suffer and struggle as much as I did?”
“…”
“From the first time we met in the South, I found you truly fascinating. And I was envious too.”
I felt like I understood what Cassis was trying to say, yet I couldn’t quite grasp it.
“Of what?”
“Everything about Irina that I could never become.”
He paused here, taking a deep breath before exhaling.
“So I thought if I brought you to the North, maybe I could become like you, but that turned out to be impossible.”
I could finally understand why Cassis had changed his mind about taking me to the North.
He, who had refused from the beginning, suddenly changed his mind not because I was competent.
“…So it wasn’t because I was capable.”
“No.”
That answer resonated with me quite a bit.
The quest had said to gain Cassis’s trust and build rapport to go to the North.
So I had worked hard with Cassis, gone around festivals, and done all sorts of things.
But what had filled Cassis’s trust meter wasn’t my competent working self.
It wasn’t that…
“I wanted to see not the capable Irina, but the Irina who never loses her positivity, even in the North.”
“Did I… meet your expectations?”
“Yes. Irina in the North was just as cheerful and positive as in the South.”
He whispered as he said this.
“Irina’s greatest charm is that she doesn’t easily become pessimistic.”
“…I suppose I am like that.”
“And you’re honest. When you’re tired, you’re tired, when you’re upset, you’re upset. You don’t try to hide those emotions.”
Was I like that?
I briefly reflected on myself.
But I couldn’t be sure if that was really true.
It seemed both true and not true.
I think I just whined and cried when things were hard at the time, but soon recovered and cheered myself on.
“That’s why Irina’s positivity and cheerfulness are more solid and powerful. It makes me think about how healthy and wonderful a person you are.”
“…Thank you.”
My response was set to Cassis’s heartfelt words.
“So when I look at Irina, I feel like I can do it too. It gives me courage.”
“…Thank you.”
Cassis smiled slightly.
The heavy air that had settled in the car dissipated in an instant.
The car was now flying at a low altitude along the Tennua River that crosses the empire.
I opened the window a little.
Cold air that made my nose tingle came in.
“Anyway, what I’ve said so far isn’t important. The important part starts now.”
What?
You have more to say?
Moreover, what you’ve said so far wasn’t important?
“This isn’t important?”
“No, why do you look like that?”
“I was being deeply moved with all my heart, but if you say it like that, what does that make me?”
Cassis shrugged and immediately started saying what he wanted to say.
“Do you know that running a knightly order requires an enormous amount of money?”
His talk was about money.
It was about incredibly massive costs.
Because if it’s a knightly order, it’s no different from a money-eating hippo for all noble families.
“I do know that.”
Seike went bankrupt and the first thing they got rid of was the knightly order.
Luwin’s knightly order is small but still maintained.
When I first checked the budget, what surprised me a bit was that the knightly order was still maintained, and this enormous fund was operated separately and untouchable by me.
I asked Roen several times where this money came from, but couldn’t get an answer from anywhere.
“I occasionally receive requests from the imperial family and go to the battlefield.”
“What?”
And today I learned the truth.
To think that our Cassis had been going to the battlefield to earn money.
Our male protagonist, the hero of the world, the great master of Luwin, had been living like a mercenary for the imperial family.
I stared at Cassis blankly, feeling a bit dumbfounded.
“What on earth did you do to make the imperial family dislike you so much?”
“I wonder.”
The truths I heard afterwards were quite insulting.
The imperial family called upon Cassis for big and trivial matters to insult him, and by extension, the Luwin Grand Duchy.
They gave Cassis the Imperial 5th Knightly Order, famous for its low quality.
Then they sent Cassis to places full of insults and devoid of honor, like small conflicts on the border or minor battles in far-off kingdoms.
Cassis went without complaint, he said.
Because that was the only way to put food on the table for Luwin right away.
“I’ll definitely succeed and get revenge for you.”
“You know that’s a crime of insulting the imperial family, right?”
“What about how they treat you, Lord Cassis? No matter how much in debt you are, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re the master of the Luwin Duchy.”
Come to think of it, our Cassis seems to have been frequenting the imperial palace quite often lately.
Every time I came back from zealously selling ice cream, when I asked “Where’s Lord Cassis?”, the answer was always “At the imperial palace.”
Could it be?
[Could it be that he has to go to war soon?]
[Gasp. Is that why he was praising you earlier, to set the mood?]
“No!”
“What… Yes, I understand. It can’t be done.”
When I suddenly shouted that it couldn’t be done, Cassis responded without knowing what I meant.
He smiled slightly and looked at me quietly.
I leaned slightly on the steering wheel and looked at Cassis.
“You’re not going to war, are you?”
“Haha, was that the reason for your reaction?”
“You can’t!”
“Yes, yes, it can’t be done. For the time being, I won’t have to go out on imperial orders like that.”
What a relief.
If I had to leave Luwin for an extended period and go to the battlefield when I hadn’t properly established anything yet, I would have squeezed the system to come up with some kind of countermeasure.
[Hey;;;]
“Really? Can’t you just not go from now on?”
“For now, I’ve gotten some breathing room. And if we can secure stable funds for maintaining the knightly order, I’ll consider it positively.”
I really need to work hard to earn money.
