She was Rosemaria Ordo.

The next lord to govern the great domain of Melos.

Born to one day rein in Ordo’s reckless colts and lead them onto the right path, the makings of a lead colt herself.

So it was a little early, perhaps, but steadying this infuriating household was a burden she was meant to carry.

❀❀❀

An orange evening glow danced faintly across the forest sky. The chirring of insects dissolved quietly into the mist-laden landscape.

Hilude hot springs was the place Rose liked to retreat to whenever she wanted quiet time alone.

There was a healing spring closer to the castle, but she would deliberately ride for over an hour to reach this spot on the outskirts of Melos. The path to Hilude passed through a fog-shrouded forest thick with monsters, which kept most people well away.

Hilude was also sacred ground, designated as national land, which meant Ordo’s rowdy lot had no business barging in uninvited. That suited Rose perfectly.

Among the wide expanse of the hot spring area, this particular spot was especially beautiful, with vivid spring water and lovely forest scenery. Low flowering trees ringed a hot spring pool that sat like a small lake, and the whole scene was quaint and tranquil.

Sinking into the warm water and having this space entirely to herself felt like her own private sanctuary. Rose smiled softly at the thought.

“Miss Rose, over there……”

Of course, on rare occasions, other visitors did find their way here.

“Why?”

“There’s an uninvited guest over there.”

Rose looked where Terra was pointing and spotted a visitor who had already made himself at home.

Some large man was sunk deep into the hot spring, steam rising in pale clouds around him. His broad chest was spread wide in a posture that seemed to threaten the surrounding space, both arms draped over the rocks at the edge. The whole pose radiated arrogance.

“……Jade Camelot.”

This time Rose recognized him first and dismounted.

Jade simply stared at her. One corner of his mouth lifted slightly, as though finding their encounter amusing.

“Shall we just turn back, Miss?”

Terra murmured with obvious displeasure.

Rose gave a light shake of her head.

“No need.”

“One cannot share a bath with a gorilla. The water is surely contaminated.”

“Nature belongs to gorillas too, Terra.”

“Even so, Miss.”

Having this kind of exchange with Terra at Hilude was itself something that hadn’t happened in five years.

Before Jade ran away to foreign lands, he used to run into Rose at the healing springs like this from time to time. Every time, Terra would see him and wrinkle her brow.

Terra was from another empire entirely, yet she had apparently absorbed enough of Ordo’s ways to share their loathing of Camelot. Rose could only manage a hollow laugh.

“He may try something underhanded, Miss. Please don’t let your guard down.”

“With you here to back me up, what is there to worry about?”

“H, how am I supposed to argue with that?”

Watching them whisper to each other, Jade narrowed his eyes in silence. His expression was disgruntled, as though his gaze were lodging a complaint about whatever scheme they were hatching.

“What are you staring at, Camelot?”

Rose played innocent and fired back with complete audacity.

Inwardly, though, she was on the verge of laughing.

That expression suited the nickname his Ordo tormentors had given him to a tee. For Jade, who was actually quite fine-featured by Camelot standards, it was probably an unfair label, but in moments like this one, it fit perfectly.

Strictly speaking, Jade Camelot’s face was, if anything, rather handsome…… well, more than rather. Quite a lot, actually. Perhaps even very much so……

‘Holy Knight.’

Even that title, currently enjoyed by Prince Julius, had originally come about because of Jade Camelot.

Holy Knight here did not, of course, refer to the legendary figure empowered by divine authority.

In modern Hailion, the term was used in a somewhat less reverent sense.

‘Holy looks, holy skill at arms, holy wealth.’

It was slang for the most dazzlingly attractive man of the age, the one who possessed all three.

In other words, Jade Camelot had once been celebrated as the most handsome man in Hailion.

In fact, even before Jade came of age, his striking face had been enough to swell the family coffers. Gifts and tokens of courtship poured in from every corner of the Empire, so plentiful that the storerooms of Camelot Castle were said to be running out of space.

How insufferable it had been.

She could still picture it vividly, the Camelot lackeys swaggering up to Ordo members and bragging in that oily, gloating way of theirs.

“Hey. Ordo doesn’t have a handsome, well-endowed heir, does it? Want to borrow ours for a day?”

“A handsome pepper? We’ve got plenty of those in our fields. Our domain has exceptionally fertile soil, you see. Unlike your barren patch.”

There had never been a time when Camelot rode higher than that.

But good fortune and bad tend to arrive together. That was also when the Camelot family’s once-respectable image began its descent into ruin.

“Um, it is a great honor to meet you, Sir Jade.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I have been looking forward to this day so much. I’m terribly nervous.”

“I don’t recall asking anyone to look forward to it. Hmph.”

“H, have you been enjoying your travels, Sir Jade?”

“Not particularly. I just have a constitution that gets badly backed up if I stay cooped up at home, so I wander around. In the shamanic traditions of the East, they’d call it a wandering star curse.”

“Oh, I see…… I enjoy traveling as well, so if the opportunity arose, perhaps together……”

“More to the point, are you physically strong?”

“Strong……?”

“I’ve been thinking of climbing into Physis soon to search for treasure. It’s a rather treacherous mountain, and hauling gear up it is brutal work. I can’t hire porters because it’s the kind of mountain where they don’t come back down alive, so no one takes the job. You look like you might have some muscle, though?”

“I, I just remembered something urgent, so I’ll take my leave and see you another time!”

Who could have predicted that Camelot’s reputation would plummet so fast it would nearly catch up with Ordo’s.

The marriage proposals flooding in for Jade Camelot dwindled day by day.

“How do you do, Sir Jade. I have come from Stellura—”

“Pardon me, but do you smell something?”

“Smell……?”

“Did you ride a horse for a long time to get here?”

“Ah. There was a stretch the carriage couldn’t manage, so partway through I had to……”

“That explains it. The horse dung smell is something else. I’ve developed a horse dung aversion lately, so I walk most distances.”

“Oh……”

“I’m sorry, but would you mind if we spoke outside where the breeze is? Ugh.”

Jade’s conduct during those meetings, which went well beyond rudeness into something approaching atrocity, spread everywhere in no time. And so, after one final meeting with some poor unfortunate young lady, the marriage proposals stopped coming altogether.

By the time Jade ran away just before his eighteenth birthday, rumors were already circulating that even the lord and lady of Camelot had given up on their eldest son carrying on the family line.

In any case, from that point on, the name Jade Camelot had been treated among the women of Hailion as a forbidden word, one best left unspoken……

“Not coming in, Rose?”

His voice reached her and she snapped out of her thoughts.

“The water’s getting cold.”

Jade swept his wet fringe back with one hand and smiled.

A dangerous smile. The smile of a primate of uncertain intentions, whose inner workings were impossible to read.

“I’m coming in, Mr. Great Ape.”

Rose smiled right back, just as easily.

No reason to feel awkward about it. It wasn’t the first time. She was not one of his prospective brides, and this was neutral ground where sacred forces held sway.

“I’ll be disturbing you, then.”

“Mm. Disturb me as much as you like.”

This was, in essence, the equivalent of encountering a wild animal at a hot spring. If it didn’t seem likely to cause harm, the natural thing was to coexist. It would be rather absurd for a human and an animal to have a serious territorial dispute.

“Is the running away finished?”

Rose asked conversationally as she undid the laces of her dress. She was a lord’s daughter, but unless the occasion called for formality, she wore practical designs she could put on and take off herself.

Being known as a woman who could handle a sword had granted her considerable freedom from the usual scrutiny.