TRHK Chapter 14

"I thought he'd come back later than this. He got here sooner than I expected."

"He's really grown handsome, hasn't he. Maybe the Academy suited him."

Handsome, my ass. Having only ever known Joel Coutner through a book, I was hopelessly biased. He was the man who'd toyed with Maylin and gotten her killed by his own parents. It would've been stranger if I weren't biased.

"Anyway, today it's just a small party for the household, and they're planning a big welcoming ceremony sometime soon."

"……I'll go get what we need from the storeroom."

If I went to the party hall, I might run into Joel Coutner—I meant to work as far in the back as possible.

Eifel looked at me with an oddly curious expression.

"You really have changed, haven't you? You used to be desperate to get close to Master Joel."

……So that's how it was. It sounded exactly like something the original novel's Maylin would have done, so I had nothing to say to that. I smiled awkwardly and headed for the storeroom.

The world I'd come from had had its own class divides, but this world's were sharper still. Commoners admired nobles and longed to become them, while nobles never let commoners cross that line into their ranks. Thinking of how Maylin's story ended only made me more troubled.

"Maylin, need a hand?"

As I carried things back and forth, the servants kept striking up conversation with me. Usually they only ever stole glances, wary of the butler, but today they were unusually forward.

"I'm fine. I can manage alone."

I turned every one of them down and volunteered to keep working in the back.

The head housekeeper, rare for her, praised the attitude on her way past. She seemed to like that I wasn't slacking off or straining to catch a noble's eye. In truth, I only wanted to avoid the Count, the Countess, and Joel Coutner.

Today's party was said to be just the Count's family and their retainers. It was to mark Joel's return.

Had Kahron come to the party?

The Count's family knew him only as a wandering commoner knight, so maybe they hadn't invited him at all. And hadn't he turned down the offer to join the knight order just recently, too? Thinking about it made me want to see him. Just the fact that Joel Coutner was somewhere in this castle left me plenty uneasy, and I found myself worrying about Kahron being alone.

"I should go find him later."

"Go where?"

Gasp! Someone answered my own muttering, and I spun around fast.

A man was standing in the dim entrance of the storeroom. A servant? But his clothes were too fine for a servant. And that face—I'd seen it somewhere before……

"Who are you?"

I asked, thoroughly on guard, and the man let out a light, breezy laugh. A handsome face, but somehow it left an unsettled feeling in me.

"Ah, right. You don't know me, Maylin……."

Him knowing my name meant he knew me. I stared at a man I'd never once laid eyes on in my life, dread building. Fine clothes only a noble would wear, an easy, unhurried manner, a face I'd definitely never met and yet somehow wasn't entirely unfamiliar.

"……I'm sorry."

Some part of me had already guessed who he was. I braced myself and tried to hurry out of the storeroom.

"Wait, hold on."

The man reached for my arm, and I recoiled like I'd been struck. He couldn't hide his own confusion at that.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"I have work to get back to right now."

"I'm Joel. Joel Coutner."

Goddammit. There was nothing to do but curse. My earliest plan—avoid Joel—had just been wrecked by the man seeking me out on purpose.

Was this how Joel and Maylin's relationship had actually started? Imagining a first meeting the novel had never shown almost made me sigh out loud.

After a moment's hesitation, I dropped into the same bow I'd given the Count and greeted him.

"Master Joel."

"Right. I'm Joel."

"……May I go deliver these things to the hall now?"

My question seemed to fluster him badly.

"What?"

"The things, for the hall……"

"No—I don't mean say it again. Did you actually hear me right? I'm a noble. I'm the heir who's going to lead this house someday."

Yeah, I get it, now quit it. If he hadn't been a noble, I'd have said that out loud. Wasn't I trying so hard to get away specifically because I knew he was Joel Coutner?

"Yes, Master Joel. I really should——"

"Wait, Maylin!"

He looked oddly anxious as he tried to close the distance between us again—right when Eifel's voice rang out from outside the storeroom.

"Maylin, the head housekeeper wants you, quick!"

At those words, like a single shaft of light, I answered right back.

"Coming!"

Joel froze on the spot, apparently thrown by another voice nearby. I bowed to him once more and hurried out of the storeroom. Thankfully, he didn't try to stop me.

"Are you okay? I heard voices and thought you might be in trouble."

Eifel whispered to me as we walked down the corridor together.

"You saved my life. Thank you."

I wasn't exaggerating—it was practically true. If anyone other than Eifel had seen me in there with Joel, word might have reached the Count and Countess in no time.

"That was……Master Joel, right?"

At the careful question, I nodded. My expression right now was probably very grim.

"Ugh. Rough for you too, huh."

Eifel patted my shoulder a few times without another word. Even in the middle of my confusion, it was a real comfort. It wasn't as if Eifel knew the whole situation and was speaking from knowledge.

"Thanks, Eifel……."

"Don't thank me. Oh, and it wasn't a lie that the head housekeeper wants you. Take that and hurry over."

I went to the head housekeeper as told, and was sent to attend the Dowager Countess in the party hall.

The Dowager Countess sat in her chair, staring blankly into empty air. It made a strange contrast against the somewhat lively mood of the party. I attended her the way I always did, feeding her the foods she liked.

"Ah."

That was when I spotted Kahron.

He came, after all……

He wore a black tailcoat over a white shirt, black trousers beneath—and after seeing him in nothing but tunics every day, the formal cut was strikingly new, and… my eyes about rolled back in my head. Just Kahron's face alone was enough to scramble my thoughts, and dressing him up like this on top of that felt like a deliberate attempt to kill me.

Fortunate or not, plenty of people in the hall besides me were struggling to hold themselves together over Kahron. Women who looked noble had gone faintly pink and kept sending him quiet glances. Kahron himself just looked bored, drinking his wine.

Just then, Knight Commander Landale, also in formal wear, called Kahron over. It looked like he meant to greet the Count and Countess and their retainers.

Setting down his glass with visible reluctance, Kahron walked over looking like the whole world was a bother. Was it a relief, at least, that he wasn't only like that with me? Same with nobles, too. He was a noble himself, of course, but the people here didn't know that.

Around then, Joel had somehow already made his way back into the party hall. Pretending not to notice while dodging his eyes every time they drifted toward me was killing me. Whatever he and the original novel's Maylin had been to each other, it had nothing to do with me—and going by our earlier conversation, at this point in the story he hardly seemed to be anything to her at all, so I had no idea why he kept acting like this.

I sighed inwardly and settled a shawl over the Dowager Countess's shoulders. She'd looked a little chilled.

Just then, the Count and Countess sent a servant to ask how the Dowager Countess was doing. Naturally, everyone's eyes near them turned toward me—which meant Kahron's too, and Joel's.

"Hm……"

Their voices didn't carry this far, but I could feel their appraising stares nakedly, all the same. Just like when the Count's gaze had raked over me in the Countess's room once, the nobles—the men especially—swept their eyes over every inch of me now.

"She seemed a little cold, so I put a shawl on her."

I answered, my voice trembling slightly. The servant relayed it to the Count and Countess. The Count nodded. I hoped they'd tell me to take the Dowager Countess back to her room now, but they clearly weren't ready to let me go yet.

The servant brought me another shawl.

"Another maid will attend the lady. You go and clear the plates."

The butler had come over and said this out of nowhere. Of all people, why me? I couldn't refuse an order, though, so I moved as slowly as I possibly could.

Worse, every plate and glass that needed clearing sat right by the nobles. I dragged my feet, pretending to be busy with something else, until the butler kept giving me pointed looks and I ended up practically dragged over there.

The closer I got, the more suffocating the men's stares became. Why were they looking at me like that? And Joel was among them, too.

My eyes kept dropping to the floor to avoid meeting theirs.

"Here."

Then an elegant hand held out an empty glass toward me. Something about it felt familiar, and when I looked up and saw it was Kahron, I smiled with relief.

"Aren't you drinking a little too much?"

I'd wanted to say that for a while now. What kind of wine did he drink like water like that? His color looked perfectly fine, which only made it stranger—he didn't seem drunk at all.

"Well, well, Kahron. Do you need the lady's permission to drink now too?"

A visibly drunk Hwirozen threw an arm around Kahron's shoulders and butted in. My cheeks went hot again at the word "lady." Had that man still not heard from Eifel that we weren't lovers?

"Cut it out."

Kahron said flatly, and Hwirozen threw both hands up in instant surrender.

"Not about asking permission—I just……"

I started to protest, face flushed, when my eyes met Joel's, staring at us from nearby. It was an expression of someone who had just taken a heavy blow to something he couldn't quite believe.