[CHAPTER 93]
Sir Schmidt answered as if the question were obvious.
“She missed you a great deal.”
“I cannot even express how worried she was about you, my lady.”
“Ah……”
“Was she perhaps afraid I might betray her?”
“How could that be?”
“She was simply worried that she wanted to see you but might not be able to.”
Each word he spoke so casually stirred a gentle spring breeze inside my heart.
This, this.
I had kept doubting it, but really, no matter how I looked at it, Aizen might actually……
Like me.
“Eek!”
A strange sound burst out of me before I could stop myself, and I clapped a hand over my mouth as I sprang to my feet.
The moment I thought that he and I might feel the same, a ticklish sensation ran through my whole body, as if I were being brushed with feathers.
Unable to stay still, I bounced in place, and Sir Schmidt stared at me as if I were odd.
“M- Miss Granger?”
“Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
“Are you unwell?”
“N- No!”
“I am fine.”
“I am just in a good mood…… haha.”
I scratched the back of my head and sat back down.
Countless thoughts swirled through my mind.
Ah, where would we get married?
If we had children, what would we name them?
Do they have something like an English kindergarten here?
I was imagining myself walking down the wedding aisle holding Aizen’s hand when I suddenly snapped back to my senses.
First, I have to win the duel.
Then I will call off the marriage proposal from the Devlin young duke and charge straight at Aizen.
Everything has its order.
If I let myself get carried away and skip steps, who knew how things might get tangled.
“Sir Schmidt, this duel is really important to me.”
“So please, make sure you win.”
“Do not worry.”
“I will show you the strength of the White Wolf Knights.”
We struck our fists together solemnly.
Passion and determination burned fiercely.
* * *
These days, Aizen was not in a good mood.
It irritated him that Ralph, while preparing for the duel, was frequently meeting Jenna.
To make matters worse, Ralph even bragged about having grown close to Jenna after once calling her that woman and treating her as an enemy.
It was unbearably irritating.
Seeing her up close, she was an even finer person.
She possessed beauty, intelligence, and character.
The thought of finally realizing that now clashed with the thought of why Ralph of all people would realize it.
Aizen himself could not freely go see Jenna, yet Ralph seemed to come and go from the Granger Count’s estate with ease.
What if the two of them ended up catching feelings.
Or what if Ralph started to like Jenna, or worse, Jenna started to like Ralph.
Ha, no way.
That could not happen.
The possibility of that happening was.
Seeing her up close, she was an even finer person.
There should be no chance at all.
She possessed beauty, intelligence, and character.
……Is there really no chance.
He had already realized three of Jenna’s strengths.
The more he saw her, the more she seemed to have nothing but good qualities.
Aizen froze with his chin resting on his hand.
At that exact moment, Ralph knocked and entered the room.
“Duke, I will be heading to the Granger Count’s estate.”
He reported as usual with his hands behind his back and bowed his head, turning to leave.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Come here.”
Aizen called Ralph over with a dark expression and voice.
Ralph returned to stand before him with a confused look.
Purple eyes carefully scanned him from head to toe.
He was not the kind of man one would call strikingly handsome.
Rather, he was neat and clean, the sort women might like even more.
On top of that, he was the heir to a count’s family, with a bright future and a kind personality.
That was Ralph.
Maybe bringing him to the capital was a mistake.
He had brought him along as his closest aide and bodyguard, but now he regretted it.
At the very least, he should have sent a different knight to Jenna.
“……Ralph.”
“Yes, Duke.”
“Do you have an order for me?”
“Let your hair down.”
“You are overdressed.”
“Y- Yes?”
Aizen’s eyes fixed on Ralph’s neatly revealed forehead.
“Remember your duty as a knight.”
“You are not going to see her as a man, but as a knight.”
“You are meeting Miss Granger.”
“Ah, yes.”
“I am well aware of that, but……”
“Be careful with your words and actions so you do not get caught up in gossip in the capital.”
“……Yes, I understand.”
“But……”
“Do you not realize that someone with power and authority like you visiting my sister without a special reason could be a burden?”
The unexpected remark made Aizen close his mouth at once.
He quickly realized how he must appear to Ariana.
To her, he was a fraud who had deceived Jenna after she lost her memory.
Worse still, he would look like a man who stubbornly kept visiting even in the capital.
“When you keep visiting someone you have no relationship with, it can be harassment.”
“I…… know that from experience.”
Ariana bit her lip tightly.
She knew Aizen and Lionel were different people.
Even so, the sight of someone refusing to accept a relationship was over and continuing to appear overlapped in her mind.
Just as Jenna had helped her break free from Lionel, she wanted to help Jenna if she were in a similar situation.
“Please.”
Ariana stood and bowed deeply in a polite manner.
Aizen, having nothing he could say in response, decided to step back for now.
More than anything, the words that they were nothing to each other were, for the moment, true.
The next day.
Ralph left to see Jenna for the duel.
Aizen went out to attend to other business.
When he entered a deserted, shadowy alley and waited, a man in shabby clothes soon approached him.
“Are you the White Wolf?”
“Yes.”
“Is this the item you requested?”
The man took out a small vial from his clothes.
Aizen checked the dark purple pill inside and gave a slight nod.
“The name of that medicine is Manghon Drug.”
“This ledger lists the buyers.”
“Good work.”
Aizen handed the man a pouch heavy with gold coins and took the ledger.
Lionel’s name was not in it.
Instead, the name of his maternal uncle was written there.
This is enough.
Aizen lifted the corner of his lips slightly and left the alley with the ledger.
He was about to return to the duke’s townhouse when he paused, thinking of the duel.
He knew Ralph’s abilities and was not particularly curious about the result.
Still, if he went there, he would be able to see Jenna.
Maybe I should at least see her face.
Just as he turned his steps with that thought.
That man.
A displeasing face caught his eye, and his brows furrowed.
Arnold Devlin was entering a tavern in broad daylight with an excited expression.
Aizen instinctively followed him.
Soon, a shocking story reached his ears.
