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“We also know many high level mages. Corpse or whatever, it’s fine as long as we find it.”
“. . .”
“There’s something I’m more curious about than that. Like what are you asking about to the dean?”
“I only did that to vent anger. There’s nothing special to find out.”
“It sounds like you have something you want to find out, right?”
I nodded silently.
If I even denied that when I asked for a private meeting, it was the same as treating Orion as a fool.
As I was immersed in the silence, Sir Rune spoke as if comforting me.
“It is fine. I don’t know about the other things, but Orion Miller is dependable on that one.”
“On what?”
“Good judge of character.”
“. . .”
The light brown eyes looking at me curved thinly along with a smile.
“Orion knows enough of how many worries you have before you call him there, My Lady.”
“. . .”
“Even the truth that ‘unfamiliar and burdening’ isn’t the reason you pushed him.”
I didn’t know what to say so I only played with my hair.
“‘At least before it gets late, she will tell me what I should know.’ That fellow would probably think like that.”
A carriage that was running slowly lowered its speed and stopped before us.
I gazed up at the carriage that was a bit more ‘sophisticated’ than before.
The glossing door looked a bit older, and the wheels were changed to normal light weight wheels.
“He said the wheels stood out because they were made of good materials. That’s why it is changed to the normal ones and put on reinforcement magic.”
“Is this what the mage with influence you mentioned before does?”
“Orion never neglects anything. A perfectionist, you see.”
Certainly, the carriage looked perfectly normal.
“Come on, My Lady.”
He reached out his hand and helped me onto the carriage.
When the door closed, under the hands of the skillful coachman, the speedy horses swiftly ran to the Duke’s mansion just like any other day.
“The thing that you want to say at today’s dinner, is it about what happened today?”
“No.”
I replied shortly.
What I wanted to say to the Duke was something else.
* * *
“I’m planning to return to the old house.”
The maid, who had finished putting down the food plates, dragged the tray and froze.
The Duke continued to slice his steak, putting it in his mouth before staring at me with a puzzled expression.
“You’re going back?”
“Yes.”
Orion dropped a fork with food speared on it under the table.
He forgot the etiquette and picked up the fork before staring at me with an unbelieving gaze.
The first one to regain their composure was the maid with a marvelous professional spirit.
She quickly came closer and did her best to exchange the new fork in her hand with the fork in Orion’s grip.
Her hand that was holding the fork trembled vigorously.
She desperately beseeched Orion while she herself was having an uncalm face.
“You should be calm, My Lord. At times like this, you should be more . . .!”
With her whispers, Orion quietly loosened up his grip and successfully exchanged the fork.
I tried my best to not meet his eyes.
There was no doubt that he must have been looking at me with eyes close to tears.
Actually, this was something I had been planning to say for two days.
It was only that I couldn’t say it to Orion while he was busy fulfilling my request and handling the problem.
Since I already anticipated getting dissuaded, I already prepared for the situation and practiced in advance.
However, the one who shook my firm determination was unexpected.
“How about you just staying here?”
Those words came from my mother’s mouth.
While propping her chin, she spoke again with an indifferent face to me.
“Afterall, the academy is closed so you can’t live in the dormitory.”
She had a point, but it flustered me, making it so that I couldn’t say anything.
That being that, all this time, Mom never argued about my choice of residence after her remarriages. Not even once.
Always, it was her role to leave the home and to return, while my role was to wait at home.
“I think it’s a good choice to stay here from many aspects.”
Saying that indifferently, she sliced the glossy steak elegantly.
Orion stared at Mom as though she were an oasis he found in a dry desert with a glaring sun.
There were not a few who gave my mother envious gazes, but Orion never gave her that gaze until now.
Sending her a gaze filled with admiration, Orion acted kindly to her with an affable tone.
“Lady, if you want it, there’s a new dish prepared by the chef.”
“Oh gosh, thank you.”
All the employees stared at the warming interaction between this pair of mother-son not blood related with a pleased gaze.
Even the chef quickly prepared the new dish right when Orion finished his words, nodding in delight all the while.
Looking at the two, Lord Duke added as if ending this discussion.
“How nice seeing the heartwarming relationship between you two. A family should be like this.”
“. . .”
The atmosphere between these three people was too peaceful.
What’s going on with this atmosphere?
Was it only I who was unable to get used to it so easily?
The maids and the chef, even the guards standing, were watching them with warm gazes.
Was it only I who couldn’t understand the bond between them at this dinner?
I only blinked my eyes, unable to find anything to say.
Surrounded by this atmosphere, I felt alien.