TMWDS Chapter 25

“That I have no friends. That nobody wants to be around me unless I bring my own brother along...... How am I supposed to say that? With my own mouth?”

Yulia lifted her arm and scrubbed roughly at the tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.

“I asked you to come with me. I asked. And what—it's a bother? You can't manage being around strangers? Do you not have a brain?”

“…….”

“You could ask other ladies to dance. You could drop the Duke's name and fall in with people easily enough. You could at least spend time with me…….”

In society, men willing to dance with the ladies were always in desperately short supply. There simply weren't many men brave enough to ask.

If Yonas had gone ahead and broken the ice with others first, it would have been so much easier for her to fold into the crowd—but he'd never once come to his sister's aid, always with the same excuse: it was too much trouble.

Yulia drew a deep breath, working to steady the hurt in her voice.

“Tonight, thanks to Dame Ionna introducing me around, I danced without a single break for the first time in my life. It was better than I ever imagined. I didn't know it could feel this good, people actually paying attention to me.”

“…….”

“She did the thing even my own family avoided doing. In your place.”

It was true that Yulia hadn't held a particularly good opinion of Ionna until now. Anyone from the Duchy's territory would naturally carry some resentment toward the Imperial family—how could they welcome, with any warmth, the woman who stood at the vanguard of the Emperor's faction as the Crown Prince's Sword, soon to become their own Duchess?

But the Ionna she'd met tonight was nothing like the bloodless, tearless woman Yulia had pictured from rumor alone. She'd spent the evening busily talking Yulia up in front of others, and had quietly steered her away from the men known for wandering hands, murmuring warnings about each partner as they approached.

The care had been meticulous—almost as if she'd appointed herself Yulia's chaperone for the night. Ionna had told her not to feel burdened by it, but the kindness she'd extended was not something to take lightly. Not even if she'd had other motives behind it.

What did it matter, either way?

The shining moment she'd lived tonight wasn't going to vanish. And because of the people Ionna had introduced her to, she had promises for a next time.

A long silence stretched between the siblings.

Yonas felt embarrassment and shame arrive at once, and his cheeks colored. He hurried to Yulia, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

“I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking it through. Back home things aren't like this……. I just assumed, because it was convenient for me, that you'd be fine—you're good with people, after all.”

“Get off. I don't want to be hugged by you right now.”

“I'll come with you every time from now on. Wherever you go, I'll be there.”

Still not appeased, Yulia ground the heel of her shoe into the top of his foot. Yonas took the punishment without so much as a grunt.

After a moment the embrace ended, and the siblings faced each other. Yulia, fistfuls of her skirt gathered in her hands, glared up at him.

“You apologize to Dame Ionna properly. Or I swear, Yonas, I won't look at your face again.”

Having said that, Yulia seemed to suddenly register her own state and hurriedly pulled her cloak up to hide her face. She turned to Ionna, murmured a small “Thank you for tonight,” and spun straight around.

Ionna and Yonas watched, in silence together, as Yulia fled toward the carriage.

Only then did Yonas turn to Ionna, who'd been standing there this whole time like an unclaimed sack of barley.

“Dame Ionna.”

“No need to apologize.”

“…….”

“I think I have a fairly good idea now of just how oblivious you can be.”

At her words, Yonas fumbled his fingers together, not knowing what to do with himself.

Ionna crossed her arms lightly and stepped up beside him, standing shoulder to shoulder.

She looked up at his slumped figure and said,

“And more to the point—you were right. I did have another motive.”

Yonas's head came up, startled. Meeting his eyes, Ionna smiled, soft and easy.

“I wanted you to think well of me.”

“…….”

“Sir Knight, I'm more genuinely invested in this marriage than you probably think. I know you don't trust me, and I understand why you wouldn't. But I intend to get along well with the Duke going forward. As a real wife.”

But wanting that wouldn't be enough, on its own, to unwind Leroy's caution all at once. As she'd told him before, making him believe her was entirely on her—she had to prove the change in her with action, not words.

House Modrov made for a tempting bait, no question. But money alone couldn't buy someone's trust.

'If I want him to really believe me, money and things alone won't be enough.'

Leroy, unexpectedly, was someone susceptible to human warmth. If he learned she'd looked after his aide's sister, his read on her would shift, if only slightly.

More than that, there was nothing to lose by earning Yonas's goodwill. He worked for the Duke—which meant, eventually, they'd be moving in the same direction.

“If the Duke and I make it to the altar safely, we'll be heading down to the Duchy together. Unless he suddenly decides to reject me, we'll likely spend the rest of our lives under the same roof.”

“…….”

“So I hoped you'd think well of me too. You work for him, and I believe, in the end, you'll be working for me as well.”

Yonas drew an unsteady breath and asked,

“You're saying we could be looking in the same direction?”

“Don't you already know your master is a good man? ……Good enough that others envy you for serving him.”

Yonas had no trouble understanding that she was, in fact, talking about herself.

He stared at the ground for a long while before finally closing his eyes.

He felt, somehow, that he was starting to understand a little of why Ionna had made the Duke that absurd proposal.

He turned toward her and bowed properly at the waist, apologizing with real formality.

“I'm sorry, Dame Ionna. I misjudged you.”

Something tightened at the corner of Ionna's jaw.

She couldn't easily say it was fine. Because the suspicion he'd carried toward her hadn't actually been a misjudgment at all.

In her last life, Ionna had lived and died as Rihardt's person, right up to the end. She herself had only managed to think differently after crossing the threshold of death—who else would have believed her sudden change of heart?

She decided to treat this apology as unheard. She didn't think he'd done anything that warranted one.

“Lift your head.”

Saying that, Ionna took a look around them. Perhaps because of the late hour, there was no one nearby except the gatekeeper yawning by the entrance.

Ionna drew a small folded slip of paper from inside her coat.

“Your mistake, and your apology—I'll consider both never to have happened. In exchange, there's something I'd like you to pass along to the Duke.”

Yonas took the note she held out, looking bewildered.

She'd anticipated running into him and had borrowed paper and a pen earlier to write it up separately. Plainly, Ionna said,

“It's a list of the nobles who invited me to gatherings tonight. I plan to attend every single one of them, so please tell the Duke he's welcome to drop by whenever it suits him. Considering we're engaged to marry, it would look strange if I kept turning up to these things alone every time.”

“Ah—you could just send someone separately to coordinate this properly, you know.”

“I'm living under my father's roof at the moment, so if I sent someone, I risk being followed. And if our schedules crossed wires because of that, it would get complicated.”

Yonas nodded, seeming to understand.

That Ionna didn't get along with her siblings was well-known enough that even Yonas was aware of it. What he couldn't quite understand was something else entirely.

He asked, looking somewhat surprised,

“Are you planning to start entering society?”

“Rather a late decision, isn't it?”

Ionna asked back, smiling at herself, faintly self-mocking.

People's reactions to her and Leroy's marriage had been remarkably consistent. If she had to summarize it, the words would come down to something like: forced, humiliating, distasteful.

To strip away that negative framing, she needed to show their closeness to the outside world.

'More than anything, getting comfortable moving through society is what'll let me approach the target naturally.'

It seemed like it would cause a fair stir, but she wasn't particularly worried about it. She wasn't picking up a sword to fight an enemy this time, the way she once had.

Nils, probably, wouldn't even realize his own neck was on the line—unlike her.