Chapter 4

Seina ran frantically out of the residence. Even at the sound of Hilda’s voice desperately calling her, she could not stop her angry steps. Truly, this was the first time in her life she had experienced something like this. She had never had much reason in life either to become deeply angry or to shed tears in overwhelming emotion, but this was the first time she had suffered such humiliation that trampled on a person’s dignity. Honestly, she was bewildered. To be put in danger of hanging after a single interview. No matter how she thought about it, it was full of nothing but absurdity.

Huff, huff, huff— Seina stopped walking, gasping for breath.

After running for quite a while, she had gotten a fair distance from the residence. Why was the evening glow staining the spruce forest red so beautiful? The autumn scenery, so opposite to her miserable feelings, was beautiful enough to make her eyes ache. Somehow it made her feel even more complicated. Suddenly, Seina turned around. As expected, there was no one there. Well, it would have been too much for elderly Hilda to chase after her.

‘I was happy after coming to Lihe.’

Lihe, the capital of Bellus and the seat of its administrative office, was a large city. How excited she had been to come to a great city after living in a rural place little different from the backwoods like Montes. And that was not all. While her other friends had gone to become governesses in ordinary noble houses, she, who had ranked first every year, had actually come to work at the Grand Duke’s residence. When she had first heard the news, she had thought it only natural. It must have been by academic ranking, so no one had been able to object. But then the situation had changed suddenly.

‘Am I going to die?’

Pouring water over the head of Julia Impea, the Imperial Princess of Lebia, clearly fell under the crime of insulting the Imperial Family. Even so, at the time she had not been afraid at all. No, from the beginning she had not even hesitated to do such a thing.

‘It was only natural as a teacher.’

She had been motivated by the desire to become a good governess, and she had been proud of having diligently completed her teacher’s training, so she had not thought her words and actions would become a problem. It had clearly been a teaching method, not revenge against Julia for treating her carelessly.

‘How futile.’

She had spent such a long time striving to become a teacher, yet it had all turned to bubbles in an instant. If she returned to Montes like this, she would soon be arrested. It was when she had been walking in a daze for about an hour. The scenery passing beside Seina had changed quite a lot. She was sure she was still near the residence, but she could not tell exactly where she was. Lost in her violent emotions, she had walked aimlessly and ended up somewhere she had never intended to reach.

‘Wait, where is this?’

Seina stopped where she was and looked around. It seemed she had crossed a vast lawn that could hardly even be called a garden, but before she knew it, she was in a dense forest of spruce trees. It was probably the forest surrounding the residence. Well, the grounds of the Grand Duke’s residence really were quite extensive. This must be why the residence was called Woodville.

Still, running out of the residence had not been entirely bad. If she had remained there, she would probably have said something even worse to Michael. Seina calmed her ragged breathing and gathered the emotions that had surged up.

‘I’ll go back and calmly state my opinion without getting worked up.’

If she was to be a prepared teacher, she must not lose cool judgment under any circumstances. She had regarded that as a conviction throughout all her teacher training, and yet at the crucial moment, she had failed to act according to that principle. More than anything, she could not let the reputation of Montes Convent be damaged because of her. By now, Hilda must be very bewildered as well.

Seina started walking back the way she had come. But after only a few steps, she had to stop at the soft sensation under her foot.

‘What is this?’

It felt as though she had stepped on something……. Just as she was lowering her head in doubt, a flash of light swept across her vision. At the same time, she could smell several scents. The fresh smell of the brush, the damp smell of sulfur, and even a refreshing yet elegant fragrance that canceled them out.

“…….?!”

Before she knew it, Grand Duke Michael was standing in front of her.

And the flash that had crossed her eyes had come from the rifle in his hand. If her eyes had not deceived her, she knew exactly what Michael’s rifle was aimed at.

“Your…… Highness.”

With her face gone pale, Seina called to him. He had said the result of insulting the Imperial Family was hanging, but surely not here? Without even a proper trial, with a single bullet? Well, he was Michael Impea, Grand Duke of Lebia. It was entirely possible. But Seina’s knees went weak. The humiliation she had suffered today was a first, but being threatened in her life with a gun was also something she would never forget as long as she lived. No, if she died here, even that experience would vanish.

“Close your eyes.”

The Grand Duke’s voice, as he aimed the gun at her, was calm. There was no murderous intent in him, no bloodlust of a man about to kill. That only made her more afraid. Perhaps Michael was the sort of cold-blooded man who could shoot a person without feeling anything at all.

“What?”

“And cover your ears.”

Though trembling with extreme fear, Seina obeyed his instructions like a well-behaved child. It seemed to be his way of consideration, to let her die with a little less pain. Consideration— what thought could be more absurd than that? Where in the world was there such a thing as a better death? The pathetic thing was herself, unable even to make one final desperate struggle against Michael, who held a gun on her.

Bang! A single gunshot rang out, and Seina instinctively flinched.

‘It smells like the smell when iron is being worked.’

This, then, must be the smell of gunpowder. Layered heavily over the metallic scent she had once smelled at a forge was the strong sulfur smell one might catch at a hot spring. Yet the bullet he fired did not pierce her head or her heart.

“…….?!”

When Seina slowly opened her eyes, a snake with its head blown apart lay sprawled at her feet. Even though she had stepped on something, she had never imagined it would be a snake.

“It’s a viper.”

‘A viper?’

Why had she not looked at her feet in time? She had almost been in serious danger.

“I believe someone said your patience was exceptional.”

With an indifferent face, Michael tucked the rifle away and spoke.

“And yet you ran outside crying…….”

“I was not crying.”

“Were you not?”

He let out a soft laugh. To anyone watching, she had looked ready to burst into tears at any moment. Yet she insisted on pretending otherwise to the end.

“Patience is not the same thing as submission.”

“Submission is the duty of a servant.”

“I am not yet in your service, Your Highness.”

“The moment you set foot in my domain, submission becomes your duty.”

“…….?!”

“In this place, my word is law.”

There was a chill in his tone. A man who spoke sophistry as though it were truth.

A servant was, quite literally, a profession in which one worked and received fair compensation, not a feudal serf or war slave from the medieval age to be driven like a dog. It felt out of step with the ideas of the late nineteenth century, when electricity, telegraphs, and trains had become commonplace. Yet there was a power about him that made people too afraid to argue back.

In that case, there was no need to oppose Michael any further. In any case, she had no ability to stand against him. Even so, she decided she should at least not throw away the last pride she had as a teacher.

“I wanted to teach as I had been taught.”

Seina began speaking in a calm tone. It was by no means to persuade Michael or to resist him. She simply wanted, as sincerely as she could, to convey her educational beliefs to him.

“I did not want to treat my student differently just because she is the imperial princess of Lebia and mentally younger than others.”

Each time Seina spoke, she watched Michael’s mood. Even if her intentions were good, her words might still displease him. But he listened to her with his arms folded, wearing a languid expression.

“And?”

“I want to give my student proper guidance. And I sincerely wanted to think about my student’s future. For that to happen, then at least when I teach…….”

She had been in the middle of stating her opinion. If Michael had not smiled coldly, she would not have stopped talking. But she no longer felt any desire to continue. No, she was worried about what his remaining response would be.

Michael looked at the terrified Seina without any particular feeling. He saw faces that turned that pale at the sight of him several times a day, so it was nothing much to him. It only bored him.

“Miss Denier, how much do you know about the world outside the convent? No, I rather doubt whether you know the outside world at all.”

No, she had only just mustered great courage to speak about her educational convictions. Yet he abruptly cut her off and instead asked a question that seemed almost to belittle her.

“What? Of course I have gone out, and I know it well.”

Seina answered with her face fully flushed. Truly, every word that came out of the Grand Duke’s mouth grated on her. Twenty-two was not such a young age. Even if she had lived in a rather closed convent, she had not been completely cut off from the world. It was far removed from the lives of the great monks of the eastern continent, who shut themselves away in the mountains and willingly embraced harsh asceticism.

“Do you think I have never taken even a single step outside the convent, Your Highness?”

“It appears that way.”

“No. I have gone to the post office, the orphanage, the butcher’s, the general store, and even to rural parishes.”

At her answer, Michael let out a soft laugh.

“We even did side work to earn extra income for the convent. We made cheese and wine, or lace, and sold them at the market.”

She explained that she was by no means ignorant of the market economy.

“Not soft little things like that. Robbery, fraud, murder, prostitution, war, plunder, assassination, schemes, power struggles……. Have you ever experienced such things?”

“What? Things like that…….”

Were those not the sorts of things that only appeared in novels? Or else things she vaguely remembered reading about in the newspapers as incidents and accidents. But since such tragic events had never happened around her, she could not readily say she had experienced them.

“Fortunately, no…… I have not.”

She hated the fact that, in Michael’s eyes, she must look like an immature child more than death itself, but she could not help admitting it.

“That is why I like it.”

‘He likes it……. What an unreadable man.’

Michael glared at Seina as if he would devour her and slowly approached.

Just then, the soft autumn wind disordered his jet-black hair. To think that even the sight of him being tousled by the wind could look like a painting. As though even each strand had been calculated in advance, it fluttered aside and fully revealed his handsome face.

“I will try trusting you, Miss Denier.”

“What?”