Third Arc: Thirty-Sixth Chapter

As I slowly rubbed Sissi's trembling back, the shaking gradually settled.

"Sissi. Thank you for worrying about me. I know it's dangerous too."

"Then...!"

Sissi looked up at me, tears standing in her eyes, and I shook my head in answer.

"But no. I can't turn my back on someone just because it's dangerous. Even if it's someone I've known less than a month, I can't stay quiet and watch when he might die."

I looked at her with all my resolve, and Sissi looked straight back. A drop of tears spilled from her big eyes, and it made my chest hurt.

"Do you... care for Michael that much?"

"...I wonder. No, probably not. Yes, it isn't for Michael's sake. I'm doing it so that I won't regret it. So it's only my own selfishness."

"Miss..."

"I'm going to save Michael. I've decided. There's no use stopping me."

When I said it plainly, with a smile, Sissi at last shook her head as if giving up.

"I understand... no, I don't want to understand! I won't stop you anymore. But!"

"But?"

"You will tell me properly what you're doing! Or else I'll follow you to the ends of the earth!"

Sissi tilted her chin up and declared it with a "Hmph!" Her eyes were bright red, and when I looked closely there were dark circles beneath them. She really had been worried. I'm sorry, Sissi.

"Th-that's a fine thing... snf, snf. Sissi, I always thought you were a scary one, but you're actually kind... hnk!"

The sound of Georg blowing his nose brought me back to myself. Then, as if he had been timing it, Remias made his announcement with a lovely smile.

"Naturally, you'll tell us everything as well. We'll be taking part in the operation."

That advanced skill of smiling while furious. Remias, you're something else.

Cornered by our angry friends, we were made to cough up every last detail of the plan.

---

On a warm early afternoon, cheerful laughter rang through the inner garden of a quiet mansion. The garden, dotted here and there with plump, pretty shrubs, was thick with blooming spring flowers. Among the winding paths, laid out to screen anyone strolling there, stood a white and elegant gazebo, and on the equally white tea table an array of sweets and tea was crowded edge to edge.

The owner of the high, bell-clear voice wore a daring dress that bared her shoulders, out of place in the bright afternoon, and leaned against the young man at her side. She was a sultry beauty with passionate flame-red hair. The bright-blond young man, for his part, did not refuse, taking it with a calm smile.

"My! Viscount Dranju, you are so very learned. Impressive, for one so young."

"For the lovely Lady Lyonetta to say so, even my dark past as a bookworm seems touched with light. Heh heh..."

Remias gave full rein to his natural good looks and sent her a bewitching, sultry sidelong glance, and Lyonetta's white cheeks colored faintly as she smiled, pleased.

What on earth is that faintly wicked air about them? No, I have to face reality! There is no way he's seventeen. Did something happen to him in the time we were apart? Where has the pure, scrawny boy Remias gone? As I gazed off into the distance a little, the excited head chef called to me from behind.

"Master Cordelia, those tea sweets were a great success! As expected of you! I'd never have dreamed gold could be used like that!"

"Really? Wait. Did you eat them?"

"I did not!"

"Not the least bit sorry?! You say it so flatly..."

If you didn't eat them, how would you know whether they worked. The sweets I had prepared this time were colorful ohagi. I made every kind I could think of, from lavish ones dusted with gold leaf, to black-sesame ones, to plain ones, to ones with zunda bean paste.

The gold leaf, which Elliot's Cecil Trading Company had got for me, was perhaps a waste. I only used a tiny bit, but I couldn't picture anyone biting into a pitch-black sweet, so I ended up dressing it up.

"All the same, that Altrian noble is very beautiful. A man, and yet I find myself charmed."

"Yes... now then, let's start on the dinner preparations. Tonight's supper calls for real effort. We have to surprise the guests!"

"Ah, yes! Teacher!"

I nudged the head chef, who was still gazing at Remias in admiration, and we left the inner garden.

---

Catching a glimpse of the two retreating figures through a gap in the shrubs, Lyonetta tilted her head and murmured to herself.

"That's... the cook who joined recently? The one with a name for skill... but, oh? Somehow she looks familiar."

"She must be someone one sees everywhere. Never mind such trifles... hm?"

Remias took the hand of the head-tilting Lyonetta, smiled with a beauty fit to steal the breath, and gently pressed into her slender fingers an ohagi.