COARV Chapter 15

"I've been waiting to escort her. So—"

"Lady Seria."

Lesche cut Kallis off with finality. He looked at me and asked.

"You'd better choose. Who will you go to the castle with?"

Without hesitation, I placed my hand on Lesche's arm instead of Kallis's.

"I'll trouble you, Your Grace."

"Trouble?"

He seemed to smile faintly, though I couldn't tell why.

"That's excessive language between husband and wife."

"......"

At Lesche's word—husband—Kallis's face hardened like lead. I turned my head away without looking at him again.

I knew both Kallis and Lina would watch my retreating figure until the end, so I forced myself to walk like a noblewoman with every ounce of strength I had. Only when I'd walked far enough that their gazes could no longer reach did some of the tension leave my body.

At that moment, Lesche spoke.

"Your hand is cold."

"I was outside for a long time. That's probably why."

"A long time? Linon."

Lesche called out to Linon, who was trailing behind us.

"Yes, Your Grace."

"You came all the way out there, didn't you? You could have at least given her your jacket."

Does this man think I'm some kind of jacket collector? Still, I couldn't help but smile slightly.

Linon made his excuses politely.

"I truly wanted to give Miss Seria my jacket. However, I was worried I might catch a cold myself, so I had no choice, Your Grace."

"From now on, carry two sets of clothes with you."

"Yes."

I ended up laughing outright.

We reached the castle quickly. After receiving treatment from the priestess and having my wounds freshly wrapped in bandages, I asked Lesche with a much refreshed feeling.

"Your Grace, could you perhaps offer me a cup of tea?"

"Normally, wouldn't you be the one offering to serve tea?"

"My annex seems to be occupied by certain people."

"Shall I evict them?"

"The Marquess is one thing, but the saint? The priests would faint in droves. Please don't create troublesome situations."

"I've never really felt particularly troubled by that."

"You're joking, right?"

"Does it seem like a joke?"

When I fell into contemplation, Lesche jerked his chin.

"Let's go to my office."

His office?

I was slightly flustered. Seria Stern had come to Berke territory for glacier inspections almost every winter.

Even so, on at least the first day, Lesche would share a cup of tea with Seria. Well... of course, it was literally just tea and nothing more. Both in the original work and in the fragments of memory remaining in Seria's body, there was no indication she'd ever had a proper conversation with Lesche.

And even then, they'd met in the castle's reception room.

This was my first time coming to Lesche's office. Sitting across from Lesche on the sofa arranged to one side, I bowed my head first.

"Your Grace."

After bowing, it felt slightly insufficient, so I tried to stand and kneel, but failed. Lesche snatched my arm up faster than I could kneel. Having lifted me like a paper doll, Lesche...

"My lady, did you perhaps also injure your head?"

He was looking at me like I was some kind of lunatic.

"Well... my head isn't injured."

"Then what are you doing right now?"

"I wasn't quite in my right mind earlier, so..."

Between Kallis and Lina's secret excursion, the ruined wedding ceremony, and the sudden marriage to Lesche Berke—so many things had crashed down on me in confusion that only now was I thinking clearly.

The fact that I hadn't properly thanked Lesche.

"Thank you for saving my life. I'm truly grateful."

I owed Lesche my life. In other words, Lesche Berke had become my benefactor. Normally, one would swear to repay such a debt on one's family name, but unfortunately, Seria's relationship with the Keliden Marquessate was extremely poor.

Already using Stern as my surname.

Better to consider it a complete estrangement. So it was better to treat the family as nonexistent.

"Your Grace. As you know, I'm in a state of something like estrangement from my family, the Keliden Marquessate... So instead, I'll stake everything I can and repay this debt to Your Grace."

"......"

Lesche looked at me with narrowed eyes, then grabbed my arm and pulled. He sat me down right next to him. Before I could wonder 'How is he this strong?', Lesche asked.

"My lady."

"Yes?"

"Are you really Seria Stern?"

"...Yes? Of course."

Though his question hit the mark precisely, my answer fortunately flowed out in a calm tone. As expected of the male protagonist. Though I remembered him being distant with Seria, it was strange how well he could make probing remarks even in jest.

Lesche scrutinized my face thoroughly and asked.

"Did you perhaps swap souls with the saint or something?"

"What... Absolutely not."

I could assert that much with certainty. Even after hearing my answer, Lesche just stared into my eyes, either still thinking or unable to shake his suspicion.

If I looked away now, it would somehow seem like guilt, so I met Lesche's gaze with strength in my own eyes. And in doing so, this man was truly...

Truly handsome.

After first possessing Seria's body and adjusting to it, one thought I'd had quite often was how fascinating it was that the characters from the novel I'd read were living and moving before my eyes. Fascinating enough that I couldn't take my eyes off Seria's reflection in the mirror for quite some time.

Since the female protagonist Lina hadn't appeared yet, the original characters I could meet were limited, but still, I'd thought the male protagonist Lesche was truly remarkable.

He was exactly as described in the novel. Dark red eyes that seemed to hold blood. Cold and sharp, and with a slight hint of a predatory, white-rimmed gaze that made his expressionless face frightening enough to bring cold sweat to my palms.

But his other features also faithfully followed the novel's description of the male protagonist. His appearance was devastating.

The blessed height approaching 190 centimeters, his long limbs and perfect shoulders. The firmly sculpted muscles visible even through his clothes and the reassuring frame he was born with—it wasn't for nothing that Lesche had been on the lips of countless ladies even when he rarely appeared in the capital.

Suddenly I broke into a cold sweat.

This magnificent male protagonist, destined to occupy a share of high society gossip until he died of old age, had performed his first marriage ceremony to save me.

His first marriage... The Grand Duke's first marriage, the only one in the entire Gleick Empire...

"I'll do my best not to block Your Grace's marriage prospects."

"Marriage prospects?"

"Yes."

"You're the first woman to worry about my marriage prospects."

I immediately groveled.

"I don't mean it in a bad way. Of course, even if Your Grace were to have a second, third... no, ninth marriage, you'd still set ladies' hearts aflame."

"......"

Now Lesche was frowning up to his forehead.

"You seem to see me as some kind of rake."

I widened my eyes.

"I don't!"

"You clearly do."

"But really..."

I felt embarrassed. But I truly had never thought of Lesche as promiscuous. Despite how he looked, in the original work Lesche Berke had no past or future of being close with any woman other than Lina. So I really had never thought he was loose, but...

"Your Grace."

I opened my mouth nervously, worried I might have offended Lesche again.

"Would it also displease Your Grace if I said that while I'm temporarily married, I'll do my best for Berke territory as a Stern?"

"......"

"Does it... displease you?"

Should I have just kept my mouth shut?

Lesche stared at me silently before asking.

"Why do you watch my moods so carefully?"

"Pardon?"

"I've never reduced your allocated budget. Never placed you under disciplinary confinement either."

"......"

Lesche asked again.

"Am I frightening?"

Strictly speaking, I wasn't afraid of Lesche himself. I was afraid of the position he held. Male protagonist. The problem was the formula that villainess entangled in romantic rivalry with the female protagonist's man meets a gruesome end.

So I decided to be honest.

"It's not that Your Grace is frightening."

"Then?"

"It's because Your Grace holds such high status... I'm just being careful."

"For someone who claims to care about status, you were screaming your head off at the Marquess Haneton."

I coughed awkwardly.

"I thought you were trying to kill the marquess."

"......"

For a moment I couldn't control my expression. I didn't know exactly what face I made, but Lesche smiled slightly. He finally released my arm, which he'd been holding the whole time, and leaned back comfortably against the sofa.

"If you'll do your best for the territory as a Stern, the financial officers will be delighted."

"I'll work hard."

As Lesche said, Berke territory's financial officers were always on edge about the Stern's movements every winter.

They had no choice, since Sterns had to come to Berke territory with its glacier every winter to assist with inspections. This was a duty no Stern could shirk. The problem was that the duration was entirely at the Stern's discretion.

Put extremely, even if a Stern helped with inspection for just one day and then left, there was no law to stop them.

So all the noble families in Berke territory were busy trying to please the Stern. If a Stern demanded their bedroom be decorated in gold, they had to provide it immediately.

Of course, no Stern actually made such demands. No matter how extravagant they were, the winters in Berke territory with its glacier were brutal. Natural, since it embraced the harsh north where humans could barely survive around a magical lake.

Better to enjoy winter socializing in the warm, glamorous capital than do glacier inspections in such a cold place.

Inevitably, Berke's winter became the Stern's season. They packed the warehouses full of expensive items to keep the Stern from leaving early. The food too. Warm, luxurious dishes that wouldn't lose to those served to visiting imperial family members appeared on the table daily.

Honestly, the food was one good thing.