A Small but Certain Happiness
Meanwhile, at Count Pelgaroin's castle, a carriage waited near the drawbridge.
“My lady, isn't that heavy?”
The head maid regarded the large, square leather case in Ashley's hands with concern. Clouds had begun gathering across what had been a bright spring morning, but Ashley smiled as warmly as ever.
“It's fine. There's a lightening spell on it.”
She lifted the case to show how little effort it took, then lowered it again. The gesture did nothing to reassure her attendant.
Even with its weight reduced by magic, the case was enormous.
“Could you leave a few things behind? I could prepare something smaller for you.”
“But there's nothing I can take out.”
“Surely there is. The lunch box and thermos alone take up quite a lot of room.”
“I can't leave those!”
“Why ever not?”
Ashley lowered her eyes. A faint blush rose in her cheeks.
“Because… I worked so hard on them.”
The maid's objections died on her lips.
It was true. Despite her duties preparing the spring hunting gathering, Ashley had spent what little spare time she had taking cooking lessons from the castle's chefs. She had sacrificed sleep, prepared the same dishes again and again, and eaten her failed attempts rather than throw them away.
She wanted to serve Theorad the very best meal she could make.
Having witnessed that effort, the head maid couldn't bring herself to ask Ashley to abandon the food.
“Very well. If you insist, I won't stop you. Did you remember an umbrella?”
“Yes. It looked as though it might rain.”
“Good. And you haven't forgotten anything else?”
“No. Everything's here. But…”
Ashley put a hand to her chest, her expression suddenly troubled.
“Have I gained weight?”
The head maid restrained a sigh.
“If someone with your figure worries about that, what am I supposed to say? You look perfectly well. You're slender.”
“I'm sorry. It's just that when I walked by the lake with Sir Theorad, he asked whether I'd put on weight…”
“He was joking. Surely you know that.”
“But what if he wasn't?”
The head maid sighed at last.
Ashley was usually sharp, calculating and almost impossible to unsettle. All that composure seemed to vanish whenever Theorad was mentioned. Denying the matter again would get her nowhere.
“Then yes, my lady. You've grown terribly fat compared with when you were younger.”
Ashley's eyes widened. A small, stricken sound escaped her.
The head maid had to hide a smile behind her hand.
“Don't misunderstand me. I mean your breasts, not the rest of you.”
“…My chest?”
“You've developed so much that your dresses have to be fitted especially for you. Nowhere else has changed noticeably. There's no reason to worry.”
But Ashley was already looking down at herself, barely hearing the reassurance.
“My chest…”
She compared her proportions to a cow's and grew more miserable by the moment.
“What a dreadful figure. Sir Theorad must think I'm so…”
“My lady.”
“Like a fool, all I've managed to do is grow a large pair of breasts…”
A vein rose in the maid's forehead. Ashley might not have meant to insult anyone, but her continued self-deprecation was becoming intolerable.
“Generally speaking, men find large breasts attractive.”
The maid's voice was firm. Only then did Ashley realize she'd upset her.
“Y-yes. You're right.”
“Then stop worrying and get into the carriage.”
“All right.”
Ashley hurried inside. The two escort knights mounted their horses, and the coachman closed the carriage door.
She set her case beside her, opened the window and looked down at the head maid.
“I'll be off, then.”
“Take care of yourself, my lady. Come back before sunset. His Excellency may worry if you're late.”
Ashley nodded without hesitation.
Under a sky full of dark clouds, the elf sat on the front steps of Deharem Manor with a bucket of water beside her. She stared into the distance without moving.
Havid had assigned her to wash the outside windows along the courtyard corridor. She had chosen to sit out here instead.
Theorad was probably no longer in the courtyard, but she couldn't bring herself to go back inside. What if she ran into him? What if he laughed at her?
Yesterday…
The mere memory was mortifying. She had approached the encounter with absolute confidence, only to be overwhelmed and brought to a climax. In her eyes, it was a more shameful defeat than their first time together.
Worse, remembering it left a strange, aching sensation in her lower abdomen.
It hurt. So why did it feel good, too?
For an instant she understood a little of why humans were capable of becoming so obsessed with sexual pleasure. The realization only embarrassed her further.
He used witchcraft.
That was the explanation she clung to. Theorad had supposedly given her aphrodisiac pills and hypnotized her. If she'd felt pleasure, it was because of those tricks—not because she and Theorad had suited one another.
That impertinent toy…
She couldn't accept being beaten by someone she called her toy, even if magic had been involved. Strangely, anger was not what she felt now. Instead, a small, unfamiliar flutter came and went inside her chest.
Rattle…
The sound of approaching carriage wheels drew her attention.
A four-wheeled carriage bearing the Pelgaroin crest came through the manor gates.
The coachman brought the carriage to a stop and opened the door.
Ashley stepped out in her traveling dress, carrying the same large case. She looked up and met the elf's eyes across the steps.
After a short silence, Ashley said something to her coachman. He nodded, turned the carriage around and departed with the two escort knights.
The elf narrowed her eyes.
Ashley de Pelgaroin…
Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to like that woman.
She stood, brushed the dust from her clothes and approached. Ashley didn't back away. Instead, she came forward to meet her, the engagement ring on her left ring finger plainly visible.
There was no longer any reason to hide that engagement from the elf.
“My lady.”
They stopped face-to-face. Ashley studied her in silence.
“Have you come to the manor for some particular reason?” the elf asked.
Her voice was sharp with suspicion.
Ashley half-lowered her eyelids.
“I don't believe that's any concern of yours.”
“It is. I have a right to ask.”
Ashley frowned.
“Does a maid of this household imagine she has the right to interrogate the second daughter of Count Pelgaroin?”
If you're going to pretend to be a maid, at least follow the rules of your own performance.
The elf didn't flinch.
“An ordinary maid might not. But I've been intimate with Master twice.”
Twice? The thought of Theorad and the elf together made Ashley bite her lip. She forced herself to regain her composure. The number of encounters said nothing about what either of them felt.
“That's hardly something to boast about.”
“Of course it is. Master enjoyed himself. He wanted me so desperately he clung to me, and I allowed him to do it twice in one night.”
The elf smiled and stroked her lower abdomen, adopting the manner of a woman boasting of her lovers.
“He was rather adorable, begging for me.”
It was a deliberate distortion of what had happened. The elf had been the one reduced to tears and driven beyond her limit the previous night, not a gracious lover granting Theorad's pleas. Ashley, who knew none of that, was shocked by the claim that he had clung to the elf so desperately.
But desire wasn't love.
Ashley gripped the handle of her case more tightly.
“He didn't sleep with you because he loved you. It was because you threatened him—”
“No.”
The elf cut her off and fixed her with a fierce stare.
“Master likes me.”
It was a lie.
The elf knew it was a lie, but she wanted to defeat Ashley standing before her. She couldn't have said why the desire seized her so suddenly.
Before she'd thought it through, her fingers reached for the cat-paw ornament on the choker around her neck. She turned the little paw, releasing a thread of mana.
A luminous panel appeared, displaying stored recordings.
There were two.
…What?
She stared. There should have been only one—the recording she'd deliberately made at the clothing shop. Neither file displayed its time of recording, so she couldn't tell them apart.
Did I press the paw by accident last night?
Given how violently she'd moved during the sexual encounter, it was possible. The prospect of playing an intimate recording before Ashley was dreadful. The sounds could expose how badly she had lost, contradicting every word of her boast.
But she had already made the challenge. Drawing back now would look like defeat.
After a moment's hesitation, she selected the upper file.
“I… ngh… I w-was wrong…!”
The broken, breathless voice burst from the choker.
She switched it off immediately.
Neither of them spoke.
The elf's pupils widened. She couldn't meet Ashley's eyes. Her lips trembled, her heart raced and tears gathered as she clutched the front of her maid's apron.
That was the wrong one…
It's over…
She wanted the ground to swallow her. Nothing could have been more humiliating.