TEWRIT 43

“Why would I be surprised? You pretended to be his younger sister and tricked me, remember? I’ve already been inside his room before.”

Astin said proudly and popped another cookie into her mouth.
When she glanced at Flint, his face was calm as ever. What a boring man.
So she just went straight to the point.

“I delivered your letter safely. The lady checked it right there on the spot. The request is complete.”

Flint’s request had been very simple.
Just delivering a letter. Not glamorous, but easy work. And the payment was generous.

After handing the letter to Lia, Astin casually asked what was written inside.
She hadn’t really expected an answer.

But Lia read it out loud without the slightest hesitation.

It didn’t take long.

Apart from the bare minimum of politeness and formality needed in a letter, it could be summed up in one line:

「I’ll be away from the capital for a while.」

No mention of where he was going, nothing else to say.

Astin felt not just let down, but embarrassed for him.
Flint was born and raised in Lynsgen, but he was exactly like those blunt men from the North. Blood and roots were scary things. If she had been Lia, she would have ripped that lifeless letter into shreds.

But Lia hadn’t looked very disappointed.
She had simply smiled at Astin and said:

— If he was going to send you, he could’ve just said it himself. Why would such a busy man go to the trouble of writing a letter?

She gave no reply, asked nothing about Flint’s well-being.
Looking back, it was clearly a mocking remark. But Lia had said it so gently that Astin hadn’t realized at the time.

Flint asked,

“That’s it?”

“What else should there be?”

Astin was baffled.
He should be grateful that the lady hadn’t thrown him out right away.
Still, she felt a little sorry for this clueless man, so she added:

“If it were me, I would’ve given her those earrings as a gift.”

Because of Lia’s request, Astin had searched through all kinds of stolen goods.
She even asked around guilds that handled items thieves sold.
That’s how she found out that someone else was searching for the same thing.

And surprisingly, that someone was Flint Howard.

The shock was bigger than the irritation of him peeking into her contract. Flint Howard, of all people…?
He was indifferent to everything, yet upright. Such a man had secretly checked one single contract.

That could mean only two things:
Either that person was his enemy, or his object of interest.

And since it was Lia Rosanna… the latter made more sense.

Astin’s mouth fell open.
Unbelievable. So that blockhead actually liked someone?

It didn’t seem one-sided, but calling it mutual was a stretch…

From Astin’s view, Lia didn’t look very interested in Flint.
Usually, the one who likes more is the one restless with longing. But Rosanna’s eldest lady was perfectly relaxed.

So Astin thought it was just a tired young noblewoman seeking a little escape from her father’s overprotectiveness.

‘You can’t tie down an innocent woman with marriage over a simple fling.’

Even with that thought, she gave him the advice about gifting the earrings.
But the man coolly denied it.

“I don’t know what earrings you’re talking about.”

Astin let out a sharp laugh.

“It was teamwork, wasn’t it? You had your share in completing the request.”

It was Flint who had told her about the jeweler holding the earring.

“Completing it? Too hasty.”

One side was still missing.
You couldn’t hand a lady just one earring and call it a gift. Flint thought that would look pathetic.

“Thanks to you, it was faster. I’d feel guilty taking all the credit.”

Flint didn’t answer. He just lifted his teacup.
Instead, guilt gnawed at him.

Lia had gone so far as to use her younger sister Isabella’s name for secrecy. Yet he, a third party, had meddled deeply.

Put the other way around, it would’ve been offensive.
And the way he’d learned about her request—by secretly reading another’s contract—was not honorable at all.
Worse, he hadn’t done it for any noble reason.

It had been pure curiosity.
Even trying to invent a more dignified excuse felt shameful.

Saying he couldn’t give her a single earring was just a flimsy excuse.
Even if he had found both, he still wouldn’t have been able to give them to her.

Whatever the reason, poking into a lady’s private request and interfering—
it was utterly ungentlemanly.
If he had offered them as a gift, she would’ve scolded him about a gentleman’s duty, and been disappointed.

Feeling like a rogue, Flint was ashamed.

He hid his unrest and spoke evenly:

“Astin, keep looking for the other one.”

“Of course. It’s my request, after all.”

A moment of silence passed.
When Astin rose to leave, Flint spoke.

“…Astin.”

“Yes?”

“……”

She looked at him curiously.
He seemed like he had something to say, lips moving slightly. Astin patiently waited.

“The letter…”

Flint trailed off. Astin made a strange face.

“I already told you. I delivered it, and she opened it right away.”

“Ah, right…”

His voice sounded bitter at the end.
Astin’s expression grew stranger still. She was barely holding back her laughter.

Flint, in his usual low voice, said:

“Then go. I’ve kept a busy person too long.”

Astin smiled brightly.

“Yes, I’ll go now. And the lady—she seemed a little low in spirit, but otherwise fine. May the fairy of luck bless you, Sir Flint.”

With those words, and Lia’s condition casually added though no one asked, Astin left.

Flint’s face grew gloomy in the quiet drawing room.

It seemed there truly was nothing Lia wanted him to know.

‘I sent a letter. Isn’t it natural to receive a reply?’

He forgot all the countless love letters he’d received from ladies. And that he had never once answered any of them.

“Hm…”

Could she be unwell?
She was so delicate—perhaps her health was poor.

Then he remembered Astin had said she was fine.

‘But she also said she seemed low in spirit…’

Flint pondered seriously.
Then, by his own standards, reached a more reasonable guess.

‘Could it be because of Duke Rosanna?’

Maybe that man had warned her not to speak with a northern brute.
Afraid his precious daughter would be tangled with a ruthless warmonger.
He must’ve forbidden her to have anything to do with him.

A man who could die any day on the battlefield—of course no father would want his daughter widowed young.

But Flint had no intention of dying in battle.

Still, he couldn’t deny his own unstable situation.
Dig deeper, and his foundations were fragile.

So… should he give up, for the sake of her future?

Maybe that was why his father had wanted to leave everyone behind in the North and go to Lynsgen alone.
Hadn’t he even refused his wife’s wish to go with him once?

Flint took out a small jewel box.

He opened it, revealing a butterfly-shaped hairpin of gold.
So finely crafted it seemed ready to flutter its delicate feelers.

His large fingers traced over it carefully, afraid he might break it again.
Then he closed the lid without taking it out.

With a heavy heart, Flint departed for Molkia.

After receiving Flint’s letter from Astin, Lia sat in thought.
At her signal, her maid Jane brought a square box and opened it.
Inside was the invitation she had once received to the Howard banquet.
Jane blinked in surprise when she saw it.

‘That’s definitely…’

Because it had come from such an important figure, and because it had felt strange, Jane remembered it well.
When Lavender, who handled the mail, had sorted through, she had pulled out only the ones from young noblemen. All those had been burned—except the one marked Flint Howard.

That letter’s wax seal had no family crest stamped on it.
Just a plain, pressed seal.

Jane had been the one to notice.

The two maids, troubled, decided to hand it directly to Duke Rosanna and ask him.
But Lavender pushed the task onto Jane.
Meeting the duke alone regularly for reports was already exhausting—and terrifying.

The duke wanted to know all of Lia’s outings, and whether men were involved.
He had also ordered them to report anything unusual. But the two maids hadn’t known what counted as “unusual.”

To win his favor, Lavender had once tried reporting every little detail.

— You fool! What’s so important about Lia complaining about dresses and visiting a flower shop?!

— But, my lord, it was different from usual…

— Silence! Waste my time with nonsense again and I’ll throw you out with nothing! Take her away and whip her ten times!

That punishment had been brutal.
They had never been so terrified.

So after that, the two only reported the things the duke absolutely demanded.
Compared to them, Pamela, who kept a close relationship with the frightening duke, seemed almost admirable.

Holding the suspicious letter, Lavender and Jane stood outside his office, each trying to push the task on the other.
“You give it.”
“No, you do it. I gave the last report.”

While they bickered, the young duke appeared.

— What are you doing in front of Father’s office?