Chapter 3

Silence flowed through the drawing room for a moment. Even though Julia kept spitting cookies at Seina, not a single person stopped her. Rather, they looked curious to see what sort of reaction Seina would show and how she would handle it.

“Oh dear! My Lady, this will not do.”

At least Hilda stepped in, hurriedly pulling out a handkerchief and wiping Seina’s face, which was covered in cookie crumbs and saliva.

“I hate it! Ugly teacher!”

Julia stamped her feet and shouted loudly by Seina’s ear.

“Bring another one! A pretty teacher!”

Seina’s gaze turned not to Julia, but to Michael, who sat beyond her, observing the current situation. Of course, Butler Henry and Julia’s maid were acting as though they knew nothing as well. No one stopped Julia’s improper behavior. Well, it was not something Seina could not understand. Julia too was their lofty employer. Moreover, who would dare act freely toward a member of the Imperial Family of Lebia?

“Ptui! Ptui!”

Julia was busy spitting, and Hilda, flustered, was too occupied wiping Seina’s face. At that moment, a strange reaction from Michael passed through Seina’s sight. A light flashed in his nearly silver ashen eyes, and the crooked lift of his lips made it seem as if he were mocking her. Like a spectator watching a highly entertaining farce.

“Julia, calm down. Ah! Do not be angry that I called your name. Since you are the student I will teach and live with from now on, it would be better for us to be close, wouldn’t it? That does not mean I am not respecting you.”

Looking at Julia as she raged before her, Seina spoke calmly.

“I hate it! Get out! Ugly teacher!”

“Ah, I have not introduced myself. My name is Seina Denier.”

Seina introduced herself with a full smile toward Julia. Her tone was slightly raised, but she was enduring rather well.

“Hkak! Ptui!”

Julia’s viciousness did not stop. Soon, cold silence spread through the drawing room, so much so that it felt for a moment as though time and space had frozen. Even without looking, Seina knew far too well what everyone’s expressions must be, and where their gazes must have turned.

Seina slowly raised her head and looked steadily at the agitated Julia. Then she took a flower from the vase on the table and walked toward Julia. Yet her action was all the more surprising because, rather than seeming unable to endure her rising anger, it was so leisurely it felt premeditated. Seina lifted the vase over Julia’s head and slowly poured the water out.

“Kyaa!”

The one who screamed was not Julia, but her maid. As if unable to believe the scene unfolding before her eyes, she trembled all over.

“Miss Denier! Have you lost your mind?”

Butler Henry thundered at her like a bolt of lightning. But Seina paid him no heed. She looked only at Julia and waited for the reaction she would take. Thus cold stillness fell once more. Julia herself remained blank for quite some time, then, as if only belatedly understanding the situation, dropped to the floor and burst into tears.

“Waaah!”

Even while watching Julia cry out and thrash about, Seina did not say or do anything. Just then, the maid moved toward Julia.

“Leave her alone!”

Seina shouted firmly at the maid. At that, the maid first looked to the Grand Duke for cues, then soon checked Henry’s reaction. Seina could guess, even without looking, what expression the Grand Duke must be wearing at present.

He was still sitting with his legs crossed, watching the situation. Again, he showed no emotion at all. Rather, when the maid tried to comfort Julia, he slightly shook his head and stopped her.

Julia’s frenzy gradually worsened. Rolling about on the floor of the drawing room and shrieking, she even yanked at her own hair. Yet Seina merely watched indifferently. It was rather Julia’s maid who stamped her feet and cried. After some thirty minutes had passed like that, Julia finally stopped crying. Only then, as if she had calmed down, she got to her feet as though nothing had happened and breathed in short gasps.

“Julia. How did it feel, having water poured over you?”

Seina took out a handkerchief, wiped Julia’s wet face, and asked. Yet her voice was calm and gentle, like ripples on the surface of a lake.

“It felt bad. I felt bad.”

Though sniffling, Julia answered.

“That is how I felt too. I felt bad because you spat the cookie you were eating at me.”

“……?”

At Seina’s reply, Julia blinked, apparently rather surprised.

“You’re a maid. You’re poor. A teacher.”

It probably meant she deserved such treatment.

“Even if I was a poor maid, I still feel bad when something mean like that is done to me.”

At Seina’s soft, measured voice, Julia calmed considerably. She stared blankly and listened to the rest of what Seina said.

“Julia, I am sorry. For pouring water over your head.”

Seina apologized politely.

“……?!”

“Now it is your turn.”

“My turn? For what?”

“Please apologize for your rude behavior toward me.”

Julia wore a dumbfounded expression, then soon came crawling toward Seina on her knees. She looked at her new governess with a sullen stare, then brought her own face close to Seina’s.

“Ptui!”

Julia spat in Seina’s face again.

“I won’t apologize! Not to poor people!”

She looked at Seina with a spiteful expression.

Seeing Seina’s flustered face, Julia at last seemed to feel relieved, and with a satisfied smile, she dashed out of the drawing room.

* * *

“Miss Denier.”

Michael’s cold voice filled the place Julia had stirred up and left behind.

“Yes.”

“Is your educational philosophy firm, or do you simply not understand how the world works?”

“What…… do you mean?”

“Did you not know that laying a hand on the body of a member of the Imperial Family constitutes the crime of sacrilege?”

Laying a hand on her? It had been Seina’s own method of instruction.

“Under no circumstances may you lay a hand on a member of the imperial family. It is unfortunate that you do not seem to understand what consequences your teaching methods may bring about.”

“I merely—”

“Execution by hanging.”

“What?”

The Grand Duke, who had been sitting on the sofa the whole time with an arrogant expression, rose from his seat. She had felt it before, but he had such a large build that he could hardly be taken in at a glance. He slowly walked toward Seina. The way he walked while keeping an even pace was solemn and disciplined. It was threatening, like a black panther about to hunt a deer.

Seina stepped back without realizing it. Even in the midst of that, she savored the scent drifting to the tip of her nose.

‘The scent of tranquility.’

It was a fragrance she had smelled before. A refreshing and elegant scent made of mandarin combined with cedarwood and almond tonka bean.

“Have you only now realized the gravity of the situation?”

Having come right up before Seina, Michael looked down at her with a darkened face, yet his eyes alone shone very brightly. Seina slowly raised her head. It was not so easy to take in the face of the Grand Duke standing before her all at once. Soon, she glared at him as if provoking him. But even in a situation where he was threatening to sentence her to hanging, Seina found herself sinking into her thoughts.

‘He looks like a painting. Even so, the name of the angel Michael does not suit him. Lucifer would, perhaps.’

Once again she marveled at Michael’s face as he looked down at her frighteningly from far above. Seen up close, it was a perfect face with not a flaw to be found.

‘You’ve lost your mind. Admiring him in a situation like this.’

As though shaking off the thoughts that had paralyzed her thinking, Seina shook her head. She shut her eyes tightly and gathered her scattered emotions.

“You said Lady Julia developed an affliction of the mind because of an unforeseen accident in childhood, did you not?”

She spoke while looking straight at the Grand Duke. More precisely, she looked up at him. Michael tried to read her eyes through the lenses reflecting the light. But they looked only opaque, making it difficult even to guess the color of her eyes. When speaking with another person, one must look into their eyes and follow their gaze to judge the emotions within. Yet there was something slightly frustrating in being unable to tell what Seina intended.

“You also said that with a proper education, she could improve sufficiently.”

At the word hanging, she had first shrunk back, and then, under the sight of Michael towering over her so oppressively, she had nearly lost heart again, but she still managed to gather the courage to speak.

“I did.”

“Were those meaningless words?”

“What?”

A slight crease formed between Michael’s brows.

“If you truly wish for Lady Julia’s illness to improve, you must show trust in her teacher.”

“I do not recall you giving me reason to trust you, Miss Denier.”

“That is not what I mean. What I mean is that the guardian must show that he believes in the governess and leaves her in charge…….”

“Effort is required……?”

“Yes. I believe it will be of great help in my educating Lady Julia from now on.”

Even while speaking in a continually trembling voice, Seina still said everything she needed to say. At that attitude, Michael leisurely folded his arms. Seeing that there was no anger on his face, her inner conflict deepened, yet it seemed he found the situation highly interesting.

“This is not a matter of effort.”

His voice was quite firm.

“What? What do you mean?”

“You have broken the law.”

Seina keenly realized that before the authority of the Imperial Family, educational ideals were of no use at all.

‘Even though Lady Julia has an affliction of the mind, because her status is so high, perhaps no one tried to correct her—no, not even to educate her? At least when it comes to education, she must not be Julia Impea of the Imperial Family of Great Lebia, but simply teacher and student.’

Unable to utter a single word of that aloud, Seina could only feel the rough pounding of her own heart. Even when leaving Montes Convent, this was something she had never dared imagine. That she would stand against Michael Impea, Grand Duke of Lebia. She had to make him understand her educational theory, he who was the next Minister of the vassal state Bellus and first in the line of succession to the throne of Lebia, but honestly, under the weight of his oppressive presence, she no longer had the courage to confront him further.

‘It is because no one told her. Because no one taught her what actions and thoughts are wrong. Because no effort was made to empathize with each other’s feelings, she never improved.’

Though there were so many things she desperately wanted to say to him, the words did not come easily.

“Seina, quickly offer His Highness a proper apology.”

With a flushed face, Hilda said this while gauging the Grand Duke’s mood.

“I did nothing wrong, Sister.”

“I said swear that you will never again behave carelessly toward the Lady.”

“I am not trying to treat Lady Julia carelessly. You know that better than anyone, don’t you?”

“Why are you talking back to every word like this, so unlike yourself! Hurry and apologize!”

She had lived at the convent for seventeen years, but never had Hilda failed to take her side, nor had she ever rebuked her so harshly. Usually, whenever Hilda encountered something unjust, she never let it pass. No matter how high the other person’s rank, she had never once bent her convictions.

And yet now, she had suddenly changed into a different person and was scolding Seina, which felt only strange. She had hardly ever cried in her life, but somehow this time, she felt as if tears might come from the unfairness of it.

“Your Highness.”

Only after some more silence had passed did Seina bite her lip tightly and force down her angry feelings.

“I will apologize to Lady Julia.”

If an apology had to be made, then naturally it should be made to Julia, the person concerned. Barely suppressing her resentment, Seina left the drawing room.