With my thoughts tangled in an inexplicable mess, I lightly raised one hand toward Rastan.
“Um, I am going to rest for just a moment. There is something I need to think about.”
Rastan nodded in agreement. While he left me and went to the window to look outside, I quickly organized my thoughts.
‘While we were in the yard earlier, I didn’t see any of Rastan’s subordinates at all—anyone other than Ris, that is.’
I hadn’t heard the sound of people running around, let alone the sound of feet pushing off the ground or blows landing on the assailants.
There were no bloodstains in the yard either, which meant someone must have broken their bones and knocked them unconscious using sheer force rather than a blade.
‘Just who hit them, and how, to leave the assailants lying there like that, unable to regain consciousness? It was almost as if magic had been used…’
As soon as that thought crossed my mind, the Archmage’s words from the Imperial banquet flashed through my head like lightning.
‘He also possesses a special power.’
And when asked whether there was something special about him, Rastan hadn’t exactly denied it.
Then could it be that Rastan himself had subdued the assailants using that magic-like power?
As that hypothesis formed, I looked at his eyes as he leaned against the window on the other side of the room, watching me. More precisely, at his pupils.
Right now, his eyes were the same beautiful blue as always.
And yet, as I looked at them, the image of another color overlapped in my mind.
‘Why? Come to think of it, every time something strange and unexplainable happened, it feels like Rastan’s eye color looked different.’
Right. There had definitely been times before when his eyes had looked red.
They weren’t events from long ago, but strangely, my memories of the specific situations were blurry.
All I could vaguely recall was seeing his eyes either completely red, or swirling with red mixed in.
And each time that happened, my thoughts would grow hazy, and I would stop questioning what I had seen.
‘But then why isn’t that happening now? Why do I remember those moments so clearly this time?’
Just as I was thinking that Rastan’s face, standing some distance away, looked oddly troubled, he slowly turned back toward me.
“If your thoughts won’t settle easily, why don’t you come to the ducal estate and sort them out slowly, somewhere safe?”
My head was so muddled from what I’d been thinking that I didn’t immediately understand what he meant.
“Pardon? Why the ducal estate?”
For a moment, I wondered if I had agreed to visit his home, or if perhaps some kind of banquet had been planned.
Seeing the confusion plainly written on my face, Rastan smiled faintly.
“This place has already been exposed to someone who tried to kidnap you. It would be hard to look for another place to stay at this hour, and even if you moved, how could you be sure something like this wouldn’t happen again?”
‘Ah.’
That was right. I’d been too shaken to think it through, but hearing it laid out like that, it was obvious.
“And it isn’t as if you’d want to return to the Lansval mansion or your family home right now.”
“Th-that’s true.”
At that, the handsome line of Rastan’s lips curved into an appealing smile.
“Then your options are rather limited. In that case, as the Head of House Blake, I formally invite you to the ducal estate.”
Playfully, he bent at the waist with an exaggerated, old-fashioned flourish. A dramatic, princely bow.
When it came to immediate safety, there was no better place. Still, I couldn’t easily bring myself to agree.
“Um, we are not even engaged, so how could I possibly stay at the Blake estate?”
It was almost unheard of for an unmarried noble lady to stay at another noble’s home when they weren’t engaged, and I couldn’t help being conscious of how others might look at it.
As if he had been waiting for that question, Rastan replied at once.
“You can come as a guest. You would stay in the annex.”
At that moment, there was a knock, and the door opened at the same time.
For an instant I hunched up, thinking the assailants had returned, but the one standing in the doorway was Ris. It seemed she had finished tidying my room and come over.
“That’s right, my Lady! And the servants of House Blake are very tight-lipped.”
In other words, no matter the pretext, it was unlikely that word of me staying at the Blake estate would leak outside.
I looked at Ris and then realized that the bruises on her face, the swollen areas from where she’d been struck, had visibly improved in that short amount of time.
It really did seem true that her recovery was exceptional. But she didn’t give me a chance to ask about that almost miraculous healing and pressed on instead.
“Please think about it, my Lady. What will you do if something like this happens again—no, if it keeps happening?”
Honestly, I hadn’t thought that far yet, so I could only widen my eyes.
“Wouldn’t that just mean you are wearing me out instead?”
Hearing it put that way, it was hard to deny.
After all, until Rastan arrived this time, Ris had held them off almost single-handedly and protected me for quite a while.
‘Why is she suddenly so good with words?’
Everything she said made sense, leaving me with nothing to do but roll my eyes helplessly, unable to argue back.
“Th-that’s true for you, but still…”
“Tonight, His Grace arrived in time, so it ended at that. But it is not as if His Grace can come every single night and stand guard outside your room, is it?”
‘Ugh. Now the bones I got hit earlier are starting to ache.’
Because of tonight’s incident, I could no longer dismiss as ridiculous the talk about the possibility of a kidnapping attempt happening.
And Rastan, who was clearly more worried about my safety than I was, would definitely not be able to sleep peacefully at his own manor every night anymore. Even more so for Ris, who always had to stay by my side.
Sending her back to the ducal estate, and then somehow finding a new maid who was immediately trustworthy, loyal, skilled in martial arts, and compatible with me, would also be extremely difficult right now.
At a loss as to what I should do, I turned my head and looked at Rastan’s face.
It was a completely unthinking action, done in the faint hope that he might take my side, but he shrugged with a slightly annoying expression.
“Are you going to stay at an inn or a rented house, trembling with anxiety every night? While tormenting poor Ris? Or…”
With each word, he took a step closer to me, until he was already standing right beside the bed where I sat.
“Will you come to the Blake estate, which is quiet, safe, and has everything you need?”
‘Wow, a true master of guilt-tripping.’
Of course, I wanted to stay somewhere safe and comfortable.
But more than that, when I thought about Rastan worrying over me, and above all, Ris’s sacrifices, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse.
After hesitating, I glanced briefly at Ris, then finally nodded very slightly.
“…I will. Just until the next destination is decided.”
At that, both of their faces brightened instantly.
From Rastan’s side, it almost felt like his face was glowing.
“You have made a good decision. Let us go right away.”
At this hour of the night?
‘…No, actually, that makes sense.’
If we waited until daybreak to leave, Rastan would either have to wait outside or sleep in this room.
‘Neither of those makes any sense.’
Ris chimed in energetically as well.
“I will pack the luggage we brought right away!”
Then, without even waiting for my answer, she immediately started packing the luggage again.
Watching her hands move at an absurd speed, I also stood up to gather my important belongings.
Thankfully, after resting a little, the trembling in my body had subsided.
Maybe it was because I felt reassured knowing that, on top of Ris, I now had an overpowered bodyguard like Rastan by my side.
As I put valuables and things like my identification card into a small handbag, I was startled to see the communication tool inside the bag flashing wildly.
‘What is going on with this?’
According to Ifrit, it could react to strong mana.
‘But even if it reacts, there should be some limit. This is a bit much, isn’t it?’
Earlier, it had only been a tiny red light blinking, but now the entire device was flashing violently, as if it were some kind of siren.
‘If the earlier blinking was a reaction to my ability, then now could it be…?’
The light was so dazzling that I closed the bag, then glanced subtly toward Rastan.
At that moment, our eyes met as he was already looking in my direction.
He had been watching with a slightly suspicious expression, and as soon as our eyes met, he strode straight toward me.
“What is that?”
