So this time, unlike before, she would have to make the right choice― but she could no longer trust anyone.

The one she had loved, the one she had believed loved her.

She now knew that they had both deceived her.

‘The Baroness asked me to tell you. She says she truly hopes to see you tomorrow. And she warned that if you put off the meeting again, she will force her way through the mansion gates.’

Eleanor’s endless refusals had clearly pushed the Baroness to decide she would act by force if necessary.

Anna had delivered Baroness Gotren’s message in a rush a few hours ago, visibly anxious.

Eleanor had told Anna to let her know when Baroness Gotren came the next day, then sent her off. She admitted to herself that she could not keep avoiding this forever.

‘If I end up meeting the Baroness tomorrow, or that man……’

What on earth was she supposed to do?

Rustle.

It was then.

Eleanor had been staring at the surface of the pond, its water shimmering with the same unsteady light as the moon above, when a soft shuffling sound from behind made her startle.

She turned around, and in the darkness, a pair of eyes shining with a clear, steady light met hers in the air between them.

“Oh.”

He had clearly been trying to move quietly.

A flicker of embarrassment crossed the man’s face when he noticed Eleanor’s wide eyes.

A man with black hair as dark as a night sky full of stars, and eyes the color of deep darkness.

He had hair and eyes rarely seen in the empire, and features sharp enough to stand out even from a distance. He held Eleanor’s gaze.

The reason it was difficult to approach him easily, despite his handsome face, was the long scar that ran horizontally from beneath his right eye all the way to his ear.

“It seems I have disturbed you, Miss. My apologies.”

Despite the hour being close to midnight, the man who had broken Eleanor’s reverie as she wandered near the garden pond bowed his head to her as she stood staring at him, and moved to turn away.

“Sir Cayel?”

And to that man, Eleanor spoke before she could stop herself.

‘Goodness!’

Eleanor clapped a hand over her mouth the moment the man, who had been quietly taking his leave, stopped in his tracks.

What have I done!

This deep into the night.

If anyone were to witness her exchanging words with an unfamiliar man who was not family, there was no telling what kind of scandalous things they might say.

Eleanor hesitated, wishing she could take back the words that had slipped out.

Before she could, the man, who had not missed what she said, let his low voice pass through his lips.

“You…… remember me?”

* * *

“Come and greet him, El. This is Cayel. He is a dear friend who saved my life.”

The late Marquis, Arthur Sivert, had once called Eleanor to him personally to introduce a man.

The Sivert Marquisate had knights in its service, and among them, Cayel was the only one her father had introduced to her directly, despite being a common knight rather than the captain of the order.

Cayel.

A commoner by birth with no family name, he had become a knight of the Sivert family after saving the Marquis from bandits near the northern border, when the Sivert Marquis had been on patrol of the border region under imperial orders.

After rising from commoner to knight, he could have received a family name if he wished, but he had declined on the grounds that he was not worthy of one, asking only to be called by his given name. And so everyone in the marquisate called him Sir Cayel.

“Even for a man, it is a visible scar. He would have every right to resent me and feel bitter about it, yet he has never shown that side of himself once. He really is a man of few words. El, you can trust that one.”

A few years after Cayel became a knight of the Sivert Marquisate.

Arthur Sivert spoke with conviction as he looked down from the window at Cayel working up a sweat in the training grounds of the marquisate, a man who never spoke more than three words a day.

Eleanor stood beside her father and looked down at Cayel swinging a sword alongside Arthur, but felt no particular interest in him.

Then one day.

On a weekend, Eleanor found herself attending a tea party hosted by a young noblewoman, about forty minutes by carriage from Korenca.

Eleanor had barely set foot outside the house at the best of times, and had intended to decline this occasion as well, but Roziment Vinocen, a girl she had known since childhood, had pestered her into going along.

“Oh dear, what shall we do? Miss Vinocen has already left!”

“She has left?”

“Yes. She said she had no companion, but…… This is a problem. The sun will set soon.”

“……”

“All the carriages we have prepared are already in use, so returning one would not be possible until after dark. Would you like to wait inside?”

Eleanor shook her head at the young noblewoman, whose name she could no longer even recall, as the girl stood flustered and at a loss.

“I will walk.”

“Pardon? But on foot……”

Looking back, the fact that she had said she would go back rather than wait for a carriage was a reflection of Eleanor’s limited social graces.

Any ordinary young noblewoman would have simply waited quietly for a carriage to return, rather than go off on her own.

But the Eleanor of that time was reluctant to impose on people she barely knew. She had thought it better to make her own way home than to be a burden to someone.

On top of that, she reasoned that taking action herself was a faster solution than waiting indefinitely for a carriage that might not return for some time, as the young noblewoman had implied.

The surroundings would naturally grow dark on the walk back to the mansion, but if she moved quickly, she thought she could arrive before the sun set completely.

“I will be fine. I’ll be on my way.”

Eleanor gave a brief answer, dipped her head lightly to the startled young noblewoman, and left her estate. But.

‘Ugh!’

Some time after setting out from the estate, Eleanor had to admit her mistake. It had been a bold choice to refuse anyone’s help, but walking along a carriage road without even a single escort was its own kind of hardship.

Especially in pointed shoes and a dress trailing with lace, no matter how well-kept the road was.

‘This hurts a little.’

With every step forward, the stiff shoes scraped the skin off her heels. She still had more than twice the distance she had already walked before reaching the gates of Korenca, and her feet throbbed so persistently that going any further was becoming difficult.

Neeigh!

It was then.

Eleanor had been debating whether to turn back to the estate where the tea party had been held, or to take off her shoes to somehow make it home before dark, when the sound of a horse’s cry reached her ears.

She looked up in surprise and saw someone approaching from the direction of Korenca, riding a black horse.

“Miss.”

At first she had not recognized him and stood on guard for quite a while, but Eleanor soon realized that the person who had appeared before her was none other than Cayel.

“Sir Cayel?”

The man quickly dismounted and approached her.

“So it really was you, Miss.”

“What brings Sir Cayel out here……”

“Are you on your way back to the mansion?”

“Pardon? Oh, yes.”

“……On foot?”

The question reached her before she could even get an answer from him, and Eleanor felt a faint twitch at the corner of her mouth. It sounded very much like he was wondering how she, who had clearly left the mansion in a carriage with the young Lady Vinocen, could be standing alone on this desolate forest road.

‘Never mind.’

What was the point of explaining it all?

Eleanor looked at Cayel, whose expression had not shifted in the slightest, and answered with a smile.

“I was walking to get some fresh air. It is not that far, after all.”

“……”

“Besides, my legs are perfectly str…… Sir Cayel?”

“Please, get on. I will escort you back to the mansion.”

Eleanor quickly shook her head at Cayel, who had drawn close before she realized it and extended his hand.

“No, I am fine.”

“……”

“Besides, were you not on your way somewhere? Do not mind me, just go about your……. Oh!”

“Pardon the liberty, Miss.”

Her body, which had been smiling awkwardly and trying to continue speaking, suddenly lifted into the air. Cayel, who had reached out to her, had taken hold of her slender waist and set her onto the saddle in an instant.

Neeigh!

His black horse, now carrying a slight young woman instead of its sturdy rider, let out a cry. Eleanor could only blink at the situation that had unfolded in the blink of an eye, unable to hide her bewilderment. Cayel took hold of the reins and stood calmly beside the horse.

“I understand that you wish to walk on your own, Miss, but if you are late returning, His Lordship will worry.”

Ah.

“Please allow me to escort you back to the mansion.”

Cayel had clearly stopped whatever he had been doing and was intending to escort Eleanor home. Not for Eleanor’s sake, but for her father, Arthur Sivert.

Eleanor looked down at Cayel’s eyes, which shone even darker beneath the reddening sky, and answered.

“I will…… allow it.”

That day.

On that road back to Korenca, where the only people walking were Eleanor and Cayel, Eleanor glanced over at Cayel more than once as he silently held the horse’s reins.

And later, when she heard that Cayel had stopped his training and left the mansion to look for her because she was late coming home.

She had thought she ought to repay him somehow.

But then.

“Miss! The master…… hic, the master and the mistress!!”

Something terrible had happened.