Volume 2 Chapter 9

I made five different tea blends for Sophia, preparing a variety of flavors so she could choose the one to her preference. One that was easy to drink with a refreshing aftertaste, one with a hint of sweetness, one with a deeper flavor, and so on. I also made one blend with a strong aroma, but pregnancy can heighten the sense of smell and make certain scents intolerable. It would probably be best for Sophia to choose which tea to drink depending on her condition and mood.

After writing down those precautions, along with the best way to enjoy each blend, I brewed the teas myself and decided to taste them once. I invited Yunan, who was guarding me, to sample them as well, but the serious man declined. He said it would be a problem if he relaxed while on guard duty.

「I know how skilled you are, Cyril-dono. If I drank something you made to ease Her Highness Consort Sophia’s mind, I fear I might let my guard down as well…」

I am a healing magic user. Even when I do not consciously infuse something with magic, the things I make seem to be affected to some degree, and the effects of medicine and food are often enhanced. Tea would probably be the same. Compared to the effect of actually casting magic, it would be negligible, but Yunan’s concern was not entirely baseless, so I decided to enjoy the tea alone while taking a short break. …Though ordinary tea should not have such an effect. He truly is an earnest man.

「Um, Cyril-dono. There is something I have been wondering about…」

「Yes, what is it?」

「It concerns Gray, no, Her Highness Consort Sophia’s chief guard knight… She dislikes Hector, so I was concerned that she might also treat you harshly as his fiancée.」

He was referring to the female knight who had openly regarded me with suspicion. When I asked for more details, Yunan explained that she was so rigidly earnest and stubbornly straightforward that even he, an inflexible man himself, considered her overly serious. Apparently, she felt aversion toward Hector because he appeared frivolous. Yunan added, looking slightly apologetic, that she was much like he himself had once been.

「I have opportunities to speak with you, Cyril-dono, and I have learned that Hector is not the kind of person he appears to be. So I no longer admonish him or complain about him.」

It had not been long since Hector returned to the Royal Guard and resumed training alongside them. Apparently, he had occasionally participated in training even before I came to the castle. From that time onward, Hector had become an object of envy and resentment because he never stopped smiling during training and appeared relaxed and unserious, yet would win matches with effortless elegance. It seemed Yunan and Gray had been the ones to tell him that, at the very least, he should change his seemingly careless attitude.

「Hector-san is the kind of person who works hard where no one can see. The less time someone spends with him, the easier it is to misunderstand him.」

Hector’s room is next to mine, separated only by a single wall. Sometimes, after we say good night and part, his prediction lines extend through the wall from the neighboring room. Watching their movement makes it obvious that he is continuing whatever training he can do inside his room, and I find it somewhat heartwarming. …Though perhaps that is because the line protruding through the wall is the color of love, which has grown extraordinarily long.

「Now I understand that he can move that way because he trains diligently every day… but I believe Gray, like I once did, still has her view of the two of you clouded. She is not a bad person at heart.」

「It’s all right. I have never sensed any malice from her, so I’m not concerned.」

It was easy to see that the knight named Gray, who treated me with undisguised caution, deeply cared for Sophia. Alongside her distrust, colors of concern and anxiety would extend from her. From the perspective of someone who was not aware of the circumstances, there could hardly be anyone more suspicious than me.

I am a commoner suddenly taken into a prince’s service, the fiancee of a famously amorous man known as the Flower Knight, and I have not even been a Court Pharmacist for half a year. I have not built any record of achievement, yet I am trusted enough to advise the Crown Princess. Even I believe it is only natural to regard me with suspicion, so I do not particularly mind. Furthermore, although Gray remains wary, she has never shown the color of malice, the desire to hurt me. She is probably an honest person at heart.

「Thank you. I would have spoken to her myself, but… ever since I invited her to bathe after training, she seems to have been avoiding me.」

「…You invited her to bathe?」

I had heard that the knights’ training grounds included a communal bathhouse. However, it should have been a place used only by men. According to Hector, women do not expose their bodies to others, so they use the baths in their private rooms and do not visit the communal bathhouse. He himself never uses it because, whenever he is there, women wander around nearby and have even attempted to spy on him. In any case, the bathhouse was not normally a place women visited.

Even in this apothecary tower, both my room and Hector’s have their own bathing chambers. Among commoners, it is not unusual for a house to lack a bath entirely, forcing families to visit a public bathhouse in town, so I had been astonished by such luxury. Apparently, though, it is normal for rooms in the castle to have attached baths.

The rooms assigned to knights within the castle should naturally have baths as well. In other words, I could not understand the situation in which Yunan had invited Gray, a woman, to bathe with him, so I tilted my head.

　

「Yes. We had been exercising, so I thought we could wash away the sweat together… No matter how much she sweats during training, Gray never removes a single piece of clothing, so I imagine she must have been extremely hot.」

At that moment, I realized something. Gray has androgynous features, and for a woman she is tall and has a sturdy frame. Her hair is short as well. I do not know whether she binds the feminine curves of her body, but none are visible, and although I have never heard her voice, perhaps it is low. Gray is also a name used for both men and women, which meant… Yunan had mistaken her for a man.

「Yunan-san, Gray-san is a woman.」

「Eh?」

A color of surprise stretched above Yunan’s head. Then colors of anxiety, guilt, and regret began expanding and contracting as though displaying his agitation. From his perspective, he had probably grown friendly with a compatible colleague and casually invited him to bathe. However, the other person was a woman, and unless they were spouses, there was no possibility of bathing together.

I had not seen Gray’s colors at the time, so I could not know what she had thought. Still, if she was avoiding him, there was a high possibility that she had found it unpleasant. Perhaps she believed she had been subjected to a vulgar joke and distanced herself, or perhaps she had been hurt that he mistook her for a man. Whatever the reason, Yunan’s image in her mind had likely worsened. …Yunan went pale and fell silent, and I began to feel sorry for him. The translucent color of guilt that was scheduled to grow even longer afterward also worried me.

「…If Gray-san is as serious and sincere as you say, then apologizing earnestly may allow you to repair your relationship.」

「You are right. First, I must apologize…」

「I was just planning to ask someone to deliver a message to Her Highness Consort Sophia’s room. Why not ask Gray-san to spare you some time during her break while you are passing along the message?」

「Thank you, Cyril-dono. I will do that.」

As I watched Yunan’s prediction lines and advised him so the outcome would not be bad, the translucent guilt disappeared. In its place, however, a translucent color of love extended, which surprised me slightly. …Could this romantic feeling be a future emotion directed toward Gray? I decided to quietly support him in my heart.

When Hector returned some time later, Yunan completed the handover more quickly than usual and ran off. Hector tilted his head slightly at Yunan’s behavior, so I briefly explained the matter with Gray.

「Yunan-san had a small misunderstanding with Gray-san, and he went to apologize for it.」

「Oh? Were those two fighting?」

It had become customary for me to put Hector’s earrings back on when he returned from training. He naturally sat down in a chair, and I faced him while picking up the earrings I had been keeping. We continued chatting casually as I did so.

Before he became my guard, Hector had come to the royal capital for training and had apparently often encountered Yunan and Gray, who were around his age, and crossed swords with them. Now that Yunan served as his replacement guard, the three of them no longer gathered together.

「I still train with Gray sometimes, and she always gets angry and tells me to take things more seriously.」

「…You may smile, but you take the training itself seriously, don’t you? That is simply the kind of person you are, Hector-san.」

His eyes narrowed softly in pleasure when he heard my words, and I could see orange above his head. Since we were nearly at eye level while he was seated, I could see his expression clearly as well. …Even without seeing the color, he looked so happy that it was obvious.

「It’s enough that you understand me. Ah, and Kyos too, of course.」

Because he speaks his true feelings in a joking manner like that, people misunderstand him. Once again, I thought he was a very troublesome person. After attaching his earrings, I gently cupped his face with my now-free hand and stroked his cheek with my thumb. This face has an unfortunate habit of forming an expression that contradicts his desire to be understood. His features are extremely beautiful, and because he creates such flawless expressions, perhaps people are all the more easily deceived by them.

「No matter what expression you make or what words you use, I can understand you. But… when I hear others misunderstand you, it makes me a little sad. Because Hector-san is such a wonderful person.」

He is certainly not the womanizing, unserious, frivolous man the rumors describe. But perhaps it could be called prejudice, if someone judged him by rumors and appearances before learning what he was truly like, they would never understand him. He is very skilled at hiding himself.

…Or so I thought, but at that moment he was gradually turning red around the ears and eyes, looking away with a troubled expression while his eyelids trembled. He was not hiding his emotions at all. His prediction lines of love and joy had already pierced through the ceiling, so I could no longer see how they were moving, but perhaps they were violently expanding and contracting somewhere out of sight.

「Um, Cyril-san… I’m… happy, but… Sorry, may I hide my face?」

「………………Go ahead.」

Apparently, because I was holding his cheeks in my hands, he had been unable to cover his face as he usually did. I wanted to watch his dear expression, overflowing with feelings he could not conceal, for a little longer, but it could not be helped. When I moved away, Hector immediately covered his face and let out a small sound like a groan.

Honestly, I felt that if he showed this side of himself to others, they would understand at a glance how innocent he was when it came to romance. Yet somehow, I also felt that I did not want anyone else to see it.

「Haah… Cyril-san’s affection feels like it pierces straight into my heart… I want to marry you…」

「We are planning to, aren’t we? …Though it may take a little while.」

Both holding a wedding ceremony and getting married require preparation. One thing that is absolutely necessary is marriage medicine, but medicine sold by other apothecaries would probably not work on me, so it would be better to make it myself. However, compounding it takes more than an entire day, and during the process I can hardly leave the medicine unattended. If anything happened to Sophia or Kyos during that time, it would be a serious problem. I should remain as free as possible so I can rush to them at any moment in an emergency. I probably will not have enough time to prepare at leisure until Sophia gives birth safely and Kyos succeeds to the throne.

After I explained that, Hector finally lowered his hands. His face was still flushed, and although traces of embarrassment remained, he was trying to smile as usual. …I found expressions like this dear, but if I said so, he would probably hide again, so I kept the words inside my heart.

「I see. So you’re going to make it yourself.」

「Yes. I can guarantee its effectiveness.」

What is commonly called marriage medicine is a type of painkiller and anesthetic. A man and woman who marry pierce one another’s ears, and the medicine eliminates the pain. If medicine made by a skilled apothecary is used, there is no pain when the hole is made, and the area around it will not fester afterward. However, poor-quality medicine may fail to suppress the pain or cause the wound to become infected.

Because its use is so specific, it is not something kept in constant stock. It is normally ordered from a trusted apothecary and specially prepared. In my case, I would make it myself, but doing so required a considerable amount of uninterrupted time, so it would be difficult for the foreseeable future. I needed to systematically finish the castle’s orders and the orders sent from Apothecary Vedito in order to create that time. In other words, I first needed a preparation period merely to begin preparing for the wedding.

「It seems I won’t be able to visit Vedito for a while. I can’t leave this place.」

「That’s true. Jean-san might be worried too, don’t you think?」

Before coming to the royal capital, I had told Jean that I would return occasionally to see how the shop was doing. If not for the matter with Sophia, I had intended to go back on my next day off. Just as Hector said, if I did not tell Jean that I would be unable to return for some time, he would worry.

「…I think I’ll write him a letter.」

I would tell him that I had important work at the castle and would be unable to return for a while. And then, I would also tell him about my engagement. Jean is like a parent to me. I know he has always cared about me.

I have found someone who will walk beside me. I am no longer alone. I would send him a letter telling him that he no longer needed to worry.

「Hector-san, once everything settles down, would you meet Jean-san? He is like a parent to me, so… I want to tell him about our engagement.」

Previously, I had told Jean that Hector was my friend. At the time, he truly was only a friend, and I had had no intention of building a relationship beyond that. …So I wanted to introduce him again, this time as someone precious to me.

In my case, both of my parents are already gone, so formally greeting my family should not be necessary. Even so, I at least wanted to tell Jean.

「Yeah. I’d actually like you to introduce us. Jean-san helped me a little too.」

I had heard that after I was abducted by the merchant, the two of them had an opportunity to speak alone. The small color of goodwill extending above Hector’s head was probably directed toward Jean. They are both precious people to me, so knowing they did not dislike one another made me feel quietly happy.

「Will you meet my parents too? They want to see you.」

「Yes, of course. …But I’m nervous.」

Hector’s family belongs to the knightly nobility. Although they are closer to commoners than other nobles, we are certainly not of equal social standing. I had come to live in a corner of the royal castle and now dealt mostly with royalty, but that did not mean I had become accustomed to meeting nobles. If they were the family of the man I intended to marry, it was only natural that I would feel even more tense.

「I don’t think you need to worry too much. They seem happy that I’ve finally found someone I want to marry.」

Unlike me, Hector apparently kept in contact with his family, and he said this with a smile. Since they were his family, they would naturally know about his true personality and the fact that he had once disliked women. Apparently, after he informed them of our engagement, they replied that he should bring his partner home to meet them.

「They said they’re going to welcome you lavishly. My mother wants to have tea alone with you.」

「…I will need practice before I can enjoy tea alone with a noblewoman. Would you help me?」

「Yeah, of course. I’ll be your practice partner.」

Hector knew noble etiquette. If he taught me, I would be able to prepare myself mentally as well, or so I had thought.

「My. Is there truly no sugar in this? It is very sweet and delicious. …And Cyril-san, are the sweets to your liking?」

「…Yes, very much.」

I did not understand why I was now sitting across from Sophia, alone with her, drinking tea and eating sweet pastries. As I chewed lightly on an elegant cookie that crumbled delicately in my mouth and seemed to absorb every trace of moisture, I fixed a smile onto my face.

I had never even imagined that I would be having tea with the Crown Princess before drinking tea with Hector’s mother. …Why? How did this happen?