Chapter 6
Unable to share my full situation, I gave a hollow chuckle, earning a pouty look from the maid. After all, if I got covered in dirt like this, she was the one who had to clean and do the laundry.
Tsking her tongue as she dusted me off here and there, the maid spotted the Pepe doll lying on the floor alongside me and pursed her lips.
“How old are you to still be carrying that doll everywhere? You’ll be getting married soon, My Lady.”
Pepe flinched at the maid’s grumbling. Fearing he might lose his temper and move, I scooped Pepe up in my arms.
When I stood up, the dirt and dust clinging to my skirt tumbled down in a heap. The maid’s face crumpled.
“Ah, I’m going to need a broom.”
Holding Pepe tight, I stepped to the side. Returning with a broom and dustpan from outside, the maid immediately began sweeping the dirt off the floor. Watching her, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Say… what if…”
“Yes?”
I hesitated over whether it was right to ask the maid this, but I had no one else to turn to. My only friends were Emile and Roseanne.
In the end, I asked the maid in a small voice: “What if Emile doesn’t want to marry me?”
“Oh my, you were worrying about something like that? My Lady, really.”
At my words, the maid burst into a giggle. Then, as if her mood had brightened a bit, she answered while dusting off the dirt tangled in my hair.
“How many people in this world marry for real love? Everyone just settles down and learns to grow fond of each other. It’s the same for me. As long as I don’t leave this fief, I’ll eventually end up marrying one of the local boys I vaguely know…”
Talking casually about marriage in a matter-of-fact tone, the maid suddenly opened her eyes wide like a rabbit.
“Ah, right! Speaking of which, a help-wanted ad posted in the marketplace!”
“A help-wanted ad?”
“An advertisement looking for someone with dazzling silver hair and fresh green eyes like yours, My Lady! They say the workplace is in the capital, too!”
Singling out silver hair and green eyes—it was somehow a strange help-wanted ad. Unlike me, who narrowed my brows at the unusual qualification requirements, the maid stared down at my hair with a dreamy expression and muttered: “If I had looks like yours, My Lady, I could have left this fief. What a shame.”
“Isn’t it suspicious?”
“The employer was the Veil Merchant Guild. It’s the most reliable merchant guild in this empire.”
Her answer made me feel sheepish for having imagined something terrible.
‘If it’s the Veil Merchant Guild, at least they aren’t trying to sell someone off.’
Come to think of it, the ad simply specified silver hair and green eyes; it contained no detailed conditions like having to be plump or slender, pretty or ugly.
Nodding my head, I asked: “I see. Does it pay well?”
“Yes! It was quite considerable. But rather than the pay, isn’t being able to leave the fief the real attraction? Who knows? Maybe love will bloom in the capital!”
“I see.”
Would love—which hadn’t even bloomed here—suddenly bloom just because I went to the capital?
I was quite skeptical of that opinion, but not wanting to shatter her dream, I answered in an awkward tone.
After seeing the maid off and closing my bedroom door, I chewed over her words.
‘I can go to the capital.’
To me, who had relied entirely on Count Cline’s estate for food and shelter since childhood, this help-wanted ad sounded like a splendid opportunity to break free from the fief.
Observing me, Pepe fluttered his wings and spoke「Yvonne, what are you thinking? Don’t tell me you intend to apply for that suspicious help-wanted ad?」
“Wouldn’t it be fine?”
「Yvonne!」
I knew it was suspicious, too. Of course, the Veil Merchant Guild was trustworthy, but searching for a woman with a specific appearance was exceedingly fishy in itself.
Even so…
“Either way, going through with the engagement to Emile is impossible.”
Had I not known, it might be different, but having discovered the relationship between Emile and Roseanne, I couldn’t nonchalantly hold his hand. I bit my lower lip.
“Even so, kicking away the engagement and leaving is difficult, too.”
With Countess Cline being so pushy, if I suddenly declared I wouldn’t marry, she wouldn’t accept it meekly. Above all, it was already known throughout the entire fief that Emile and I were to wed.
Hearing my response, Pepe fluttered his small wings and asked:
「Since Roseanne and Emile love each other, how about trying to persuade them that you want to support their relationship?」
I hadn’t left that thought unconsidered, either. But…
‘Could the Countess really not have known that Emile and Roseanne were in that kind of relationship?’
Since I, who had spent so much time with them, hadn’t noticed, she might truly not have known. However, my thoughts leaned toward the possibility that the Countess knew and was instead forcing the two to break up. That suited her current behavior far better.
“She is rushing the marriage far too hastily. Even if we try to persuade her, she won’t give in.”
Pepe shook his head.
「No parent wins against their child. If a son speaks with genuine earnestness, even if the parents disapprove at first, they ultimately yield in the end.」
Of course, that might be true, but the premise of the scenario Pepe described required Emile to also have the heart to earnestly persuade his mother. Yet it was hard to believe that Emile, who had gone so far as to propose to me, would change his attitude and persuade the Countess.
I answered in a somber voice: “The worst-case scenario I’m imagining is Emile asking me to just quietly marry him.”
He might tell me to keep quiet, saying that as long as I turn a blind eye, his parents will be satisfied with the marriage, and the two of them can secretly share their love behind the scenes.
‘That would be the absolute most horrific thing.’
Perhaps the future me lived painfully in a situation like that before drawing her last breath. Just imagining it made my heart feel like it was turning cold as ice.
「If he says something like that, I won’t let the rascal get away with it!」
At my words, Pepe stomped around furiously as if he were enraged by the mere thought. Giggling, I pressed a kiss to Pepe’s cheek.
“Thank you, Pepe. Thanks to you, I feel brave.”
Even without Pepe stepping in, I would never nod my head in agreement to a situation like that. Because doing so would truly lead to a miserable ending.
“That’s why I need a means to avoid the marriage. For example, leaving for the capital for a while.”
Besides, if I wasn’t going to become Emile’s wife, there was no reason for me to remain at the Count’s estate any longer.
Hearing my words, Pepe also nodded his head.
「Now that I hear it, you’re right. You said you stayed here the whole time I was asleep. It won’t do to get married relying on just one guy. There are plenty of handsome men in the world.」
“Of course, and the most dashing man among them is you, Pepe, right?”
「Need that even be said?」
Watching Pepe posture proudly, I let out a light laugh. Then, kissing his white mane, I said: “First, let’s go out and check that help-wanted ad. Please wait here quietly.”
Placing Pepe onto the bed, I pulled a hooded robe over my head.
***
Perhaps because the help-wanted ad was quite famous, as soon as I stepped outside the estate and inquired, the townspeople kindly answered me.
“Over there—if you go to that tavern and speak to the owner, he’ll bring someone from the Veil Merchant Guild for you.”
Following that explanation, I headed toward the tavern.
‘This is the first time I’ve come out onto the streets like this on my own.’
Ever since relying on Count Cline’s estate, I had gone outside occasionally, but a crowd of people always trailed behind me each time. The Countess in particular reacted hysterically whenever other people saw my face, making it difficult to even step out of the carriage.
So walking the streets on my own two feet like this was a first.
‘I’m a little anxious, but… excited, too?’
Walking with light steps, I opened the tavern door. Since the sun hadn’t set yet, there wasn’t a single patron inside. Wiping down a table, the tavern owner tilted his head and asked: “We aren’t open yet.”
“Ah… I came after seeing the Veil Merchant Guild’s notice.”
“Is that so? Then take a seat and wait.”
Looking around the tavern, I took a seat in a corner. The owner gave me, wrapped in my hooded robe, a suspicious look before resuming his work.
Sitting there, bad thoughts crept up again.
‘Since when have the two of them been deceiving me?’
Thoughts for which no answer came, no matter how much I pondered.
I shook my head left and right. Realizing it before the wedding was a relief in itself.
‘It’s thanks to Pepe. Because I came to know the future.’
I raised my hand. Sitting blankly like this, it was only natural that stray thoughts kept surfacing.
“Excuse me, sir, a beer here, please.”
“Just one mug?”
“Yes, I feel a bit lonely.”
“It’s a hassle, so just go draw it yourself over there.”
Where the owner pointed, there stood a large oak keg. Pulling out a glass hesitantly, I turned the tap. Golden ale filled the glass with a swishing sound.
Carrying over the brim-filled yellow beer and taking a seat, I stared intently at the glass with curious eyes.
Truth be told, this was my very first time drinking alcohol.
