Chapter forty-three
Cassion narrowed his eyes and frowned.
“Dale and I are just friends.”
“We're not even friends.”
Dale, who was chopping vegetables in the kitchen at that moment, interrupted him with a sharp refusal.
Cassion, who had been staring into the kitchen with a blank expression for a moment, shrugged.
“Then I cannot explain it, since you say that we are not friends and must be ex-lovers, as the princess fancies, are you satisfied?
Mr.
Dale?”
“…….”
When Dale raised his eyebrows, Cassion laughed.
"Why are you staring at me?
I'm just trying to clear up the princess's misunderstanding.
Your wife asked me if I was targeting you."
“……?”
"Is this correct?"
"no?"
When she denied it, Dale looked at Cassion with an even more horrified expression.
Cassion opened his mouth to protest, but I pretended not to notice.
“Enya.
Come here, please.”
"Yes!"
Dale hid me behind his back as I approached with trudging steps.
“Be careful.
The Marquis is very fond of women, so Enya, you should stay away from him.”
"I?"
"Yes."
Dale whispered seriously.
“Because Enya is the most beautiful woman in the world……”
“Ooh!”
“…….”
If he's not flirting with Dale, and he's clearly into women, that's fine.
Marquis Cassion Schultz is not my type!
“But then again, I might like you, Dale.
You never know what the future holds.”
Dale's facial expression sharpened.
"Calm down.
I was just kidding.
Well, we're friends, right?"
“…….”
Cassion smiled and sat down.
The Marquis acted casually as if Dale's house was his brother's house.
“Anyway, I didn't expect to see Princess Lockhart there again.”
Cassion smiled.
He was acting casually as if he had been in this house before.
There was nothing awkward about the way he sat on the sofa, the way he crossed his legs.
As if he was used to coming in and out of Dale's house.
As if he had done this many times before.
But if I look closely, I can see that Dale is upset too.
however.
Do they go to each other's house?
Well, no way, Cassion.
'He must have been fooling Dale.'
It was not Dale's habit to be unfriendly, but since he was not polite to the Marquis, it was a possibility.
That Marquis Cassion easy smile.
That evil smile of a man who deceived many people.
“Dale, has the Marquis been bothering you a lot?”
I whispered, leaning close to Dale.
Dale's eyes narrowed as he reached for the plate.
“Was he bullying you?”
“…….”
He looked at me calmly.
"Is this correct?"
“…….”
“Nod if I'm right, or shake your head.”
Dale nodded, his expression grim.
“I knew that.”
I approached him a little.
I whispered softly in his ear.
I didn't want Cassion to hear me.
“Does he brag to you that he is a gentleman?”
He nodded.
“Is that why you didn't want to meet him?”
He nodded.
"I think so.
Do you want me to avenge you?"
He nodded.
“Telling him to go home first?”
He nodded.
The way he nodded made my heart ache.
'I think just thinking about it makes him angry.
How angry does he have to be to make his face red?'
I finally realized.
She looked at Cassion warily.
'What is he looking at?'
Surprisingly, Cassion wasn't looking at us.
He seemed alone and quiet, but I carefully followed his gaze, wondering what he was looking at.
'Weeds?'
Cassion was staring at some seedlings I had bought in the capital.
“Are you going to plant this?”
“Yes, why?”
“Hmm…….”
Cassion was stroking the underside of his chin.
He seemed to be thinking hard about something.
“There are more of them in the countryside, aren't there?”
“I didn't say we live in the countryside.”
“Hronwald.
I know.”
I was startled by Cassion's stalking speculations but there was something else that bothered me even more.
“But wait, Marquis Schultz.”
This is strange.
“Didn't you stop talking to me earlier?”
“Did you?”
indeed.
I think he did.
Cassion smiled shamelessly.
“I know that much because I run the Magic Tower.
Just know that my intelligence is better than you think, and that I will go beyond Dale.”
Cassion, who had not taken his eyes off the weeds, slowly rose from his seat.
"naturally."
Cassion picked up the coat he had left behind and put it on.
"I'm an uninvited guest today, so I'll leave quietly.
I'm a man of my word.
I don't want to get caught in the middle of a couple's meal, or someone will kill me."
He looked at me with a smirk before leaving.
“See you again, princess.”
* * *
[To Emma]
I wrote a letter to Emma after my return to Grunwald.
It was about the fake Princess Lockhart that I met at the boutique.
'Of all the noble girls, why me?'
There was a pause, but the answer was easy to guess.
There are only two dukes in the empire.
Duke Lockhart and Duke Hexagon who happens to have a daughter.
I was told she was older than me but I never saw her face.
'Duke Hexagon's daughter was also placed under house arrest with the Duke.'
There was only me, Duke Lockhart.
“I'll have Emma look into it.”
I folded the letter into small pieces, tied it to the bird's leg and sent it off.
I opened the window and the wind was blowing strong.
'I think it's going to snow.'
The sky was overcast and the day was dark.
I was glad I had given Dale some comfortable winter clothes beforehand.
Our Christmas gift was quickly prepared and delivered to our home.
Dale was happy with his gift.
'We should prepare our house for winter too.'
I went to the shed and got a large amount of firewood.
Then I covered the windows with winterizing kit (from Dell) and caulked the gaps to keep the wind out.
'Every little thing, Dale had prepared.'
I have to make something.
What should I make?
I think warm soup would be good, since I've been working all morning.
Lots of meat.
Lots of vegetables.
‘The ingredients are…….’
I opened the warehouse door.
Bam!
Something hit me hard on the head.
* * *
“Ouch!”
The thing that hit me over the head was an ID card.
I saw Dale's ID card on the floor.
'Why is this here, and why did he leave something so important behind?'
Dale said he was traveling to another property to meet someone for work.
You are supposed to have ID when moving between properties, however.
'He just left, didn't he?'
I scratched my head, was it possible to pass through the checkpoint without an ID card?
Unless you were a member of the public, passing through checkpoints was mandatory.
It used to be lenient, but after the hero was crowned emperor, everyone, even nobles, had to show their identification cards.
So how did Dale get away with it?
I narrowed my eyes as a reasonable guess came to mind.
'Did he sneak through the mountain pass?'
After months of observing him with my keen observational skills, I now knew a little about him.
Dale was meticulous in many ways, but also careless and inflexible in others, and adaptable in others.
'Dale was taking the road less traveled rather than wasting time.'
Because it takes a lot of time back and forth.
Anyway, I'll take care of it.
I dusted off the ID card and put it in my pocket.
Wait a minute this is weird.
If Dale always carried his ID, why was it collecting dust?
'It's like he never wore it.'
Sometimes I wondered about Dale still going out in the morning and coming in at night.
What does he do there to occupy himself?
I think he's doing something I don't know.