Chapter 170
“What?”
It was only then that Aila realized the necklace had disappeared from Leona’s neck, and she took a sharp breath.
Leona muttered, her face pale.
“It was there when I changed clothes…”
She remembered considering taking the necklace off before her swordsmanship class, but she couldn’t put it on properly by herself, so she left it around her neck.
It was highly likely that the necklace had broken during class.
Leona turned toward the training grounds.
“Aila, go ahead. I need to look for the necklace.”
“I’ll help you look!”
At that moment, Aila insisted on following her.
Leona tilted her head, confused at why Aila was so eager to help.
“…You really want to?”
“You said it was from His Highness the Grand Duke. Then we have to find it! I’ll help. It’ll be better than searching alone.”
Aila looked more anxious than Leona herself, as if she had lost something precious.
Though Leona didn’t understand why, she thought it would indeed be better to search together, and she accepted Aila’s help.
Leona and Aila searched the training grounds thoroughly.
They dug into the bare dirt with their hands, but all they found were piles of stone fragments. The necklace was nowhere to be seen.
The sun was slowly setting.
Once it completely disappeared, finding the necklace would be even more difficult.
Leona brushed the dust off her skirt and stood up. Aila, who had been diligently digging in the dirt with her cheeks smeared with soil, looked up and asked.
“Leona? Did you find it?”
Leona shook her head silently.
She extended her dirt-covered hands to help Aila up.
As if giving up, Aila muttered uneasily.
“…Someone didn’t take it, right?”
“Of course not. The whole school knows it’s mine.”
Because it was a gem she had never seen before, she had been quite popular in school for it. As a result, the rumor that the necklace with the unknown gem belonged to Leona had spread so widely that no one at school could have missed it.
Leona felt grateful for Aila’s effort to help, but also a little guilty for worrying her so much.
Trying to make it seem like it was no big deal, Leona smiled and reassured her.
“It’s okay. I can just tell the Grand Duke and get another one.”
“Isn’t it valuable?”
“They said they’ll commercialize it soon. Surely there’ll be an extra one left.”
“Still…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
She did like the necklace, but that was because it reminded her of Minerva.
It was regrettable to lose it, but it wasn’t an heirloom of Minerva, so there was no real reason to be upset.
It worked out well, actually. She had been planning to ask Lloyd for one more necklace for Aila anyway.
“Let’s go back now.”
“Okay…”
As Aila brushed off her skirt and walked with a gloomy step, Leona’s ears perked up.
Was she imagining it?
She thought she heard a faint clinking sound from Aila.
But since Aila hadn’t shown any sign of finding anything earlier, Leona concluded that she had misheard the ornament on the uniform and walked quietly toward the waiting carriage.
“Late, aren’t you, Leona?”
Returning home later than usual, Leona found Lloyd waiting at the entrance.
Noticing his eyes flick toward her neck, Leona had no choice but to confess.
“I lost my necklace.”
“…What?”
“It must have broken during swordsmanship class. I lost it.”
Lloyd scanned her dirt-covered face, uniform, and dusty hair, and nodded, understanding why she was late.
“Alright. I’ll get you another one.”
“Could you get an extra for my friend? I think something in blue would be nice.”
“There’s no blue. Maybe yellow.”
Yellow, huh.
Leona imagined Aila wearing a yellow cat’s eye necklace.
Though she had silver hair and blue eyes, the yellow gem might suit her surprisingly well.
“Then let’s go with that.”
“Okay, I’ll prepare it.”
Leona decided against saying thanks out of formality.
When had they ever been formal with each other?
They weren’t even the kind to come greet each other just because she was late.
Having said what she wanted, Leona tried to pass Lloyd and go upstairs.
“Why not have dinner before going up?”
They hadn’t eaten dinner together in a long time.
Before, Lloyd occasionally suggested it, but after a recent quarrel, he had stopped.
Leona hesitated to refuse, surprised at the offer, but the atmosphere wasn’t tense today, so she nodded.
The table was already set with a full meal.
For two.
He must have been waiting from the start, intending to have dinner with her.
Lloyd, however, busied himself with eating, saying nothing.
‘And he didn’t even comment on the lost necklace earlier.’
He was normally quiet, but sometimes his silence made it frustrating to guess what he was thinking.
Curious since morning and feeling the quiet at the table might be stifling, Leona asked without thinking.
“What’s this business? You never did stuff like this before.”
Lloyd focused only on managing the estate; business matters were usually Priscilla’s concern.
Even without business, Lloyd’s estate was wealthy enough.
Lloyd paused mid-bite as if surprised that Leona had spoken first, then continued eating silently.
“I’m not entirely uninterested. I’ve been preparing this for a long time. Mother wasn’t particularly supportive, though.”
“Why?”
“She said it wouldn’t sell. What’s beautiful about something that looks like a cat’s eye? It’s just creepy.”
Leona was outraged.
What’s wrong with cat’s eyes?
The princess Minerva, with her refined taste, loved herself most—her own eyes, which she often looked at.
“No taste at all.”
Unable to curse Lloyd’s mother directly, Leona quietly lowered her opinion of Priscilla.
Previously, she had rated her seventy; now it dropped to ten.
Even Lloyd, whose expression hardly changed, couldn’t hide his surprise at Leona’s remark.
He didn’t dare openly criticize Priscilla like that otherwise.
“Yeah, no taste at all.”
Lloyd set down his utensils and gave a self-deprecating smile, as if envious of her courage.
Then his smile slowly hardened, and through clenched teeth came a bitter voice.
“…It would have suited her so well.”
Leona flinched at Lloyd’s muttered words.
He rarely spoke unnecessarily, but this time, he shared the same thought she had.
Realizing he had spoken aloud, Lloyd subtly cleared his throat, pretending nothing had happened.
Leona felt a strange tension.
Why had Lloyd taken her in and insisted on raising her?
And why did he still seem to recall the late Minerva so often?
It seemed that the emotion Lloyd had just shown was only the tip of the iceberg.
The necklace was ready soon.
As she got up, she saw two boxes on the vanity, unlike the single box yesterday.
After putting on her own, Leona inspected Aila’s necklace.
The color was vivid, and the luster beautifully arranged—just like hers.
Seeing it in person, she was confident it would suit Aila well.
With Lloyd’s mood lightened, she could already picture Aila’s joy.
Leona’s walk to school was more pleasant than ever.
She hoped this feeling would continue.
“Aila.”
“L-Leona.”
Unexpectedly, in a secluded hallway, she ran into Aila.
Her eyes wouldn’t leave Aila’s palm—the necklace resting there.
“…That necklace… what is it?”
Why did Aila have the necklace that she had so desperately searched for yesterday?
