TMWDS Chapter 11

"Exactly."

Marsha, only then grasping something, looked carefully around the room.

However early the morning, someone ought to be attending Ionna as a matter of course—and yet there was no one here besides the two of them.

Marsha asked, her tone suspecting the worst.

"Am I the only one looking after you, my lady?"

"I've made a lot of enemies in this life, as you know."

At Ionna's indifferent reply, Marsha's expression hardened.

Ionna could feel the other woman's gaze land on the bruise marring her cheek.

"I hear you're marrying the Duke."

"I've made it."

"Even a baronet's wife doesn't use people this thinly, my lady."

"Once we're married, I'll take on more staff. It's only a few months off—I'd be grateful if you could bear with it until then."

"I'm not trying to complain about the workload. It's just—how are you still exactly the same, my lady……"

Marsha let out a sigh, as though stifled.

It seemed the other woman hadn't changed either, but rather than point that out, Ionna only smiled faintly.

Marsha glanced cautiously toward the door and asked:

"Does the Count know about this arrangement?"

"Who knows—the steward's probably told him by now. And if not, he will soon enough."

"There's no way the Count would allow me to serve you, my lady."

"I don't see what that has to do with anything. I've already decided to bring you back, and that decision doesn't need anyone else's permission."

At Ionna's firm answer, Marsha's head snapped up. Her expression carried the look of someone wondering whether she'd truly heard that right.

It was understandable. Right up until Marsha had left the capital those years ago, Ionna had known no option besides submitting obediently to the Count.

Back then, Marsha had been one of the few people who'd stepped forward for Ionna, who couldn't even protect herself.

Then as now, Marsha had remained stuck at a rank low for her years of service, and the reason was her stubbornly honest nature, which didn't know how to flatter.

Marsha herself never counted this a virtue, but at the very least, Ionna had benefited from it.

The reason Marsha had looked after Ionna's daily life in the first place was, of all things, precisely that inflexible way of living.

Marsha simply wasn't a woman who could look away from a child being bullied and pretend not to see.

In the end, that had put her out of Hayden's good graces and gotten her transferred all the way out to the distant estate.

'Now that I think of it, Marsha was the only one who ever spoke a single honest word to me about my marriage, too.'

'There's no way His Imperial Majesty didn't foresee how this would turn out.'

Every time Ionna had been treated in some way unbefitting her rank at the ducal house, and every time Ionna had tried to bear it as though it were only natural, Marsha had grown angry on her mistress's behalf.

Her greatest grievance was that the loyalty Ionna had offered her liege had gone entirely unrewarded.

Ionna had privately agreed, but she'd never once let a word of censure against her liege leave her mouth.

Marsha spoke as though pitying her for it.

'You need to think of yourself first, Dame Ionna. As everyone does.'

Ionna felt, only now, that she could understand that a little.

Marsha, you were right.

But I couldn't follow it, because I wasn't even a proper person to begin with.

I couldn't bring myself to break free of a family that never loved me and a liege who'd never repay my loyalty—

Not until I'd been saved by a man who should, by rights, have hated me—and only then did I realize something had gone wrong.

"……Did I mishear you just now?"

"No, you heard right. Let me lay it out plainly so there's no mistake. If I'd cared one whit what the Count's temper had to say about it, I wouldn't have brought you all the way back here."

But she had no intention of repeating the same mistake twice. And so Ionna had earned the standing to call Marsha back to her side once more.

Looking at Marsha's dazed face, Ionna went on seriously.

"There's something I should have said long ago, and haven't. Marsha—thank you, sincerely, for looking after me when I was worth so little."

"……I don't remember doing anything so grand as that."

"No—you told me to hold myself dear, when I couldn't even value myself. That's been a comfort to me for a very long time. It's hardly repayment, but I swear to your good will—things will never be the same again from here on. And……"

"…….."

"And I will hold you dear in my service as well, without fail."

A tremor stirred in the eyes watching her.

Then, as though to hide the reddening around them, Marsha ducked her head quickly. But beneath the dampness that rose in her eyes, the smile that surfaced was, without question, one of relief.

Just as expected, Hayden said not a word regarding the matter of Ionna bringing Marsha back.

In truth, Ionna's choice fell well within the range he could have predicted, in any case.

It was Hayden himself, after all, who'd sent Marsha off to the distant province in the first place, which meant that when Ionna went looking for someone outside his sphere of control, Marsha would be the very first name to come to mind.

Not wanting to blow the matter up any bigger before the wedding, Hayden had Marsha placed directly under Ionna without further comment.

It worked out well for both Ionna and Marsha. As it happened, the meeting with the Duke was now right around the corner.

"It's almost funny—the way he seems to think this marriage is good for him too."

"The Count, you mean?"

"Yes. He's probably hoping his ties to the Imperial Household will grow closer from here."

Ionna said, opening her eyes, which she'd had closed.

In the mirror, her face—carefully made up by Marsha—glowed with a soft light.

It was the result of all manner of skill Marsha had spent quite some time working before this meeting.

The makeup sat a little awkwardly on her skin, but objectively speaking, her appearance really had become far more bearable to look at. Just as Hayden had hoped, the bruise on her cheek, too, had been perfectly concealed.

Marsha, still touching up the finishing powder, asked:

"Come to think of it, wasn't this match arranged through the Imperial Family? I was so startled when I first heard……"

"Word reached you all the way out there, and quickly too. And we haven't even had the actual wedding yet."

"I always kept careful track of your news, my lady. I worried too, thinking the Count meant to leave our lady sleeping alone her whole life through, never given to anyone."

Ionna let out a short laugh.

The reason no marriage had ever been arranged for Ionna until now was that Hayden had begrudged the dowry.

Not that he hadn't dressed the story up well enough for society's ears, claiming he wanted his adopted daughter to succeed as a knight first.

"Lucky to have found a match before it was too late?"

"I only hope he's the right fit for you, my lady."

Marsha murmured, worry in her voice, fussing with the ends of Ionna's hair.

Ionna wanted to say he was a very good man, and that there was nothing at all to worry about—but in the end, she chose silence.

She knew empty words alone couldn't put Marsha's mind at ease.

"There, done."

Marsha said, taking her hands away from Ionna.

She didn't have the eye to catch the faint flaw in the reflection in the mirror.

Ionna checked only her left cheek, the one Hayden would examine carefully, and rose from her seat.

It had been a while since she'd worn a dress instead of a knight's uniform, but it didn't feel especially strange. She hadn't, after all, been entirely negligent about appearing in public as a duchess.

Just as Ionna, preparations complete, stepped out through the open door—

someone hurled a jab at her without warning.

"Drawing lines on a pumpkin doesn't make it a watermelon?"

As though she'd been waiting there in front of the door, Yvonne let out a sneer the very instant Ionna appeared.

"Well, would you look at that—done up and still looking like a plank of wood, not a shred of style. And why's the makeup on so thick? The Duke's going to take one look and recoil. I suppose there's only so much you can do about cheap breeding."

Saying so, Yvonne shot a sidelong glare at Marsha standing behind Ionna.

She seemed displeased that Ionna had gotten herself a maid to help with her grooming. Perhaps it was worse still that of all people, it was Marsha.

As though something had just occurred to her, Ionna turned to Marsha and said:

"Marsha—thinking about it, I left my sword behind."

"Shall I go fetch it now?"

"I'd appreciate it."

At Ionna ignoring her entirely and asking after her sword instead, Yvonne's face flashed with considerable alarm.

She'd witnessed the duel challenge issued to Nils, but it seemed she hadn't imagined Ionna would ever lay a hand on her, a lady, no less.

Yvonne raised her voice further still, putting on a show of bravado.

"You—you're going to hit me too? How can a knight lay hands on a woman?"

"Seems you've forgotten I'm a woman too."

Ionna said, closing the distance toward Yvonne in a single stride.

At the sudden closing of the gap, Yvonne, unable to resist an instinctive flash of fear, stumbled backward.

Her back met the wall, and startled by her own reaction, Yvonne dropped straight down to the floor.

"Eek!"

For someone who'd frighten this easily, it was hard to imagine why she'd gone picking a fight in the first place.