<Chapter 20>……………………………………………………………………………………….
“Shall we step outside for a walk?”
At Terence’s words, I asked back in a daze.
“Pardon?”
Not an acceptance or rejection of my proposal—suddenly he wanted to go outside?
Terence rose from his seat with his characteristic polite smile.
“Isn’t it stifling to stay indoors? The weather’s perfect for a stroll, too.”
It was a smile that gave nothing away.
We walked along the bustling streets. Perhaps thanks to the clear weather, the passersby all looked cheerful.
In truth, the weather played a part in why I’d made such a bold proposal to Terence today. You can’t ignore how much the weather affects a person’s mood. If someone’s in a good mood, the odds of them agreeing go up.
Though it doesn’t seem to be helping much right now.
Even though he was the one who suggested coming out first, Terence’s expression was subtly tense.
We hadn’t even been facing each other for that long, yet the difference between a polite smile and a genuine one was already obvious. Really.
Anyway, he seemed to be thinking over my proposal. Hmm—maybe I should help him relax a bit.
“Marquis.”
At my call, he turned his head slightly.
“We…”
He probably thought this was a continuation of our earlier conversation—that I was about to press him for an answer.
But what I said was completely different.
“Shall we go shopping?”
“…What?”
“We’re out anyway.”
“If you’re planning to buy things for me again—”
“Oh, no, not that. I’ve learned by now that you’re far wealthier than I am anyway… haha.”
I’d known from the start, of course, but when I pretended to be embarrassed, Terence replied as if making excuses.
“Regardless of the circumstances, I did deceive you, so I will repay the cost of the gifts in money.”
“Who returns gifts? I gave them because I wanted to.”
“But—”
“If it really bothers you, then how about you give me a gift this time, Marquis?”
In other words, he would be paying.
When I winked with one eye, Terence’s expression brightened, if only a little.
“Choose as much as you like.”
“Oh? If you say that, I won’t hold back.”
“As you wish.”
“If you go bankrupt, that’s not my problem.”
“Then I suppose I should buy a tent as well, in preparation for living on the streets.”
As if our conversation in the teahouse had never happened—just like always—we joked around and headed for the shopping district.
That said, my appetite wasn’t big enough to empty the wallet of the story’s mastermind.
“Hmm, what should I pick?”
“Do you really need to choose just one? Let’s simply buy everything. Please give us all the items in this display case.”
“I’ve decided on this one! Please wrap it up!”
Shopping went on like this. Luxury, it turned out, wasn’t something just anyone could indulge in.
After wrapping things up quickly, we sat at a nearby open-air café. Terence asked with an annoyingly smug look,
“Didn’t you say you were going to bankrupt me?”
But even the proud marquis surrendered when faced with a parfait piled high with ice cream and sweets.
“I don’t really like sweet things…”
“Just one bite.”
“My apologies for teasing you.”
“That’s not why.”
I was smiling in victory as I scooped up a spoonful of parfait and brought it to my mouth—when I noticed a man in a navy-blue uniform.
That’s the uniform of the Cassius Knights…!
It was a face I didn’t recognize, and he was some distance away, but I opened the parasol I’d just bought and hid myself.
At times like this, it was a blessing that everyone who served Cassius—knights, servants alike—wore such distinctive uniforms. You could recognize them from afar.
The outfits had been issued by Riena to emphasize their identity as members of the ducal house and instill pride by differentiating them from other families.
Huh?
For some reason, the Cassius knight was walking straight toward us. I was sure he hadn’t seen me.
The mystery was quickly solved when the knight shouted at Terence.
“You there, suspicious fellow! Identify yourself at once!”
Terence stood up as if to shield me behind him and replied calmly,
“And who are you to demand my identity?”
A voice thick with indignation came back.
“Do you not know what this uniform and the crest on my shoulder signify?”
“I don’t.”
“You fool! It is the great House of Cassius!”
“I see. And what business does Cassius have with me?”
Terence’s unruffled response—when the knight clearly expected him to shrink back—visibly flustered the man.
“It is our duty to investigate those who appear suspicious and dangerous like you. Reveal yourself immediately, or leave this place at once.”
Something was off. The people of Cassius were notorious, but they didn’t usually go around stopping people in the street for questioning just because they wore swords.
They weren’t even a nation—what right did knights of a single house have?
When Terence pointed this out, the knight answered smugly,
“Soon, a person you could never dare look up to will be visiting this area. We have been granted authority by His Majesty the Emperor to protect her.”
A bolt of realization struck me. Riena is coming!
It was a familiar scene from the novel. Every time Riena went out into the city, the Cassius Knights followed her.
Naturally, she was a duke’s daughter—but the security was absurdly excessive. Still, common sense didn’t apply to Cassius, especially when it came to matters involving Riena.
The duke had issued a harsh warning to the knightly order: if even a single hair on his daughter’s head was harmed, they would all be dead.
As a result, over a hundred knights were mobilized every time to guard her.
In the novel, it was just described as them guarding her diligently at her side…
In reality, they were setting up in advance, clearing out anyone who arrived first at places she might visit. Judging by the scene ahead, they were even controlling traffic.
What a nuisance. The surrounding people looked displeased too, but since it was Cassius, no one dared complain.
“I doubt His Majesty granted Cassius the right to maintain a private knightly order for this sort of thing,” Terence muttered with a sigh.
The knight’s face twisted.
“How dare you—!”
He reached for his sword, but Terence closed the distance in an instant and stopped him.
“Ghk!”
With his other hand, Terence drove a fist squarely into the knight’s solar plexus.
“Well, this is disappointing. Your skill is subpar. I suppose that says enough about the level of Cassius.”
Ignoring the knight collapsed on the ground, Terence turned to me.
“We should leave before we draw attention.”
Given that Cassius knights were posted all around, it was indeed best to get away quickly.
“Yes, let’s go.”
“W-wait…!”
The fallen knight forced out the words, reaching toward Terence.
“You… though you may be a low-ranking knight, I’ll acknowledge this much—your strength in defeating a knight of Cassius…”
For someone so lowly, he sure was puffing himself up. What was he getting at?
“With your ability, you could rise to greatness as a knight. Would you not consider formally joining our order?”
“….”
Terence replied with a look that suggested he had never seen anything so pathetic in his life.
Once we were far from Riena’s route, our pace slowed.
Terence spoke.
“We should file a formal complaint later about causing such trouble in the streets.”
“Mm, even if you do, Marquis, I doubt that family would listen obediently.”
“Then we’ll have to use unofficial channels.”
“For example?”
“For example, tearfully appealing to my father that his son was mistaken for a suspicious person and nearly driven off?”
I couldn’t imagine him sniffling like that and burst out laughing. The tension around Terence’s mouth eased as well.
For a while, the two of us walked in silence, smiling, along streets dyed red by the sunset.
“Up until now, the life given to me has been exceedingly monotonous,” he began, his gaze fixed on the distance—speaking to me, or perhaps to himself.
“Enjoy what is given, but do not desire more. Live quietly, as if you are there and not there.”
It was a somewhat abrupt opening, but I understood him immediately.
That was the life of an emperor’s unacknowledged child. Born of noble blood, they could enjoy a life comparable to that of high nobles—but they must never attract public attention.
Their birth did not stem from a union sanctioned by the gods.
They could not go to war as knights to earn merit; their very existence was denied, making it difficult to turn to religion; and out of fear of granting them too much power, they were not allowed to study magic.
At best, they could become scholars…
Even then, they could not spread their name widely—no matter how great their academic achievements, they were forbidden to publish them.
No matter what path they chose, a clear ceiling existed. So the knight’s earlier claim—that Terence could rise to greatness as a knight—did not apply to him.
In Terence’s case, it was even worse: he was barred from entering high society at all.
Other bastards, so long as they kept their heads down and caused no trouble, could marry, start families, and integrate into noble society.
But Terence was the emperor’s firstborn—born before the crown prince. The empress, fearing that this might one day negatively affect her son’s claim to the throne, thoroughly isolated Terence.
The emperor, who loved his son but chose to be a wise ruler rather than a good father, did not actively stop it.
A life with plenty of money, yet nothing to do but breathe.
“As you might guess if you know my circumstances, I have lived more often under aliases than under my true name. ‘Tayran’ is one of them.”
That was why he had wandered the streets posing as a common mercenary rather than the Marquis of Freihyden.
“I have rarely stood before others as my true self.”
Only then could he feel even a palmful of freedom.
“So I need some more time to think.”
He crossed his arms—an unmistakably defensive posture.
“To accept the deal you proposed, Lady Idel—to check the Cassius ducal house—I would inevitably have to reveal myself and become something beyond a marquis in name only.”
A postponement. That was Terence’s answer.
But I was confident—confident that he would eventually take my hand.
“I understand. It was a sudden proposal; it’s only natural that you’d need time.”
In the novel, even without me, Terence ultimately chooses to become a prince.
At his core, he was not someone who could be satisfied with a life like livestock, raised and restrained.
And once he became a prince, conflict with Cassius—aligned with the crown prince—would be unavoidable.
If they were destined to become enemies anyway, there was no way he wouldn’t see the advantage of dealing with me and obtaining the potion.
So the reason he asked for time was—
He wants to understand what kind of person I am.
To decide whether I was someone worth letting inside the boundaries he had drawn.
