Once I reached the corner where the rosebushes grew, I drew in a deep breath. This was my ritual every time I came out here. I let the scent of roses fill my lungs, and I felt myself gradually grow calmer. Obviously, though, given the present circumstances, I wasn’t perfectly at ease.
As I gazed intently at the roses, I thought back to Eberhart’s unnerving words as he’d left my room—not the disturbing, obsessive remarks about chaining me to him with no escape, but the underlying situation he’d been referring to. I was engaged to Eberhart’s cousin.
“When the new year begins, you’ll be mine.”
Even I had to wonder how the hell I’d managed to forget about something that major. When Craig had first mentioned my engagement, it had been a pretty big shock. The most likely explanation I could think of was that Heinreid himself just hadn’t held any interest in it at all. The memory was definitely there, tucked away in some tiny corner, but I hadn’t had any cause to call upon it. When I was playing the part of Heinreid, the memories I drew on were ninety percent just evil deeds, so maybe the engagement had gotten buried under those...?
Was this guy seriously just planning to treat a relative of the king as a trophy wife? Damn.
On top of that, when I’d started settling my affairs, I’d had the engagement pretty low on my list of priorities. Eberhart had said the wedding would happen when the new year began, but if the plot of the novel kept proceeding smoothly as written, he and I would both be dead by then. The rebellion would have concluded, Sig would have triumphed, and the story would already have ended happily. So rather than sticking my head into that whole mess, just leaving it alone would probably be simplest for both me and my fiancée. That had been my train of thought at the time.
Now that I was revisiting the idea, leaving well enough alone still felt like a reasonable option. But honestly, for the next while, I didn’t have much else to do. I’d finished writing all the letters that would lay the groundwork for freeing the hostages, and I’d had my confrontation with Sig. However, it would still take a little while for Sig to reach out and rally the various vassals to his cause. He wouldn’t even be able to get started on that until he’d finished recovering from his injuries under the care of House Kisch, so I’d need to wait a little longer before releasing the hostages.
Fixing the duchy’s unreasonable taxation policies right this second wasn’t really doable either. The taxes collected from the duchy’s citizens didn’t all go straight into Heinreid’s pocket. They were passed on to the king as well, so I couldn’t lower my tax rates without him finding out. I’d managed to smooth things over earlier, but freeing Elmer had still sown distrust between me and Eberhart. If I immediately started pulling even more suspicious stunts, I’d just be asking for another surprise visit. He’d say I was giving the people too much of the carrot, and not only would I end up getting the stick, but Eberhart might decide to torment the duchy’s residents himself.
So, as long as I didn’t have anything else on my plate, it wouldn’t hurt to start gathering info on some of the lower-priority issues. Heinreid’s memories were too vague to be of much use, so I’d need to ask Karl to bring me whatever documents he could get his hands on regarding my fiancée.
Anyway, engagement... Marriage, huh?
In my old life, I’d never even considered it. That was partly because I’d been too busy with work, but I also just hadn’t been especially interested. Sure, there’d been a few women my age at my old workplace, but I’d never thought of any of them that way. And without any normal romantic experiences back in school, I’d ended up with some strange fetishes...or unusual tastes, I guess? The few women I’d felt some interest in had all been older than me, and all the sort of people who weren’t interested in marriage in the slightest—they’d been independent and free-spirited, living life as they pleased.
I guess first times really do matter a lot... Not that there’s any point thinking about that now.
As I was getting mired deeper in old memories, I heard footsteps approaching.
Is it one of the gardeners? No, they shouldn’t be working right now. This area isn’t specifically off-limits or anything, but it’s still the evil duke’s garden—nobody comes out here unless they have to, so it can’t be one of the regular servants. Is it a guard on patrol? Shit, if he suddenly bumps into me, I’m definitely going to freak him out...
As it turned out, my speculation wasn’t far off the mark. But as soon as I recognized the approaching guard, it wasn’t him but me who got freaked out.
“Craig...”
Out from between the hedges stepped the familiar figure of my guard captain, who always accompanied me on my walks out here.
Wait, why?! I told Karl not to call him, didn’t I?
I couldn’t imagine Karl going against Heinreid’s orders. Craig must have come out here himself looking for me. He was the last person I wanted to see right now, and I’d assumed the feeling was mutual. I didn’t have the guts to look him in the eye, so I awkwardly turned away to stare at the roses again.
“So this is where you’ve been, Your Grace? I was told you were with company.”
It took me a moment to find my voice. “He just left.”
I got the picture now. He’d seen the carriage parked outside, assumed Eberhart and Heinreid were having a secret meeting, and...well, to put it bluntly, he’d tried to eavesdrop on us. But instead, he’d ended up having to see that.
You really can’t catch a break, huh, Craig? When you finally kill me, go ahead and make it as painful as you want—I’ve got no right to complain.
“Did you come out here looking for me?” I asked. “I didn’t call for you. You’re free to leave if you wish.”
Eberhart was gone, so there hadn’t been any point in Craig coming over. If he didn’t have any business here, then he didn’t need to force himself to stick around.
But Craig made no move to leave.
“My role is to guard my master no matter the circumstances, Your Grace.”
The irony was so thick I could’ve cut it with a knife. At face value, those were the words of a loyal subordinate, but Craig’s true master was Sig—the boy I’d forced him to hurt. The resentment packed into Craig’s voice was blatantly obvious. It was a natural reaction, really. His accusatory tone stabbed deep into my conscience, but if I apologized to him now, it would just sound like a mocking insult. As guilty as I felt about it, I couldn’t do anything except stand there and accept his blame.
“So be it. Do as you please, then,” I replied, still unable to look Craig in the eye.
A long silence passed between the two of us.
Okay, the conversation’s over... But I can feel him staring at me! I mean, I did tell him to do as he pleased, and I do deserve to be glared at, but, uh... It’s pretty uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of. All he’s doing is looking at me. I really ought to just shut up and take it. But I already humiliated myself in front of him earlier—I do have a sense of shame too, y’know...
Anyway, how long is he going to keep this up? I guess I’m just standing here waiting until he gets tired of it, but how much longer is that going to be?
There weren’t any clocks out here, so I had no sense of how quickly time was passing. It was just us and the roses. But with Craig staring a hole in the back of my head, I was too preoccupied to process the scent at all. I’d completely missed my moment to make a clean exit and head back to the manor. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead.
This is so awkward! Someone, anyone, just please do something!
I couldn’t really say if my prayer had been answered or not, but in that moment of frozen time, a fierce gust of wind suddenly blew through the garden. It was even stronger than the wind I’d felt the first time I’d come here as Heinreid. No matter how carefully the garden was maintained, there’d always be small bits of sand and dust around—some flew into my eyes, and I shut them against the stinging pain.
The wind soon died down, and as I was blinking the dust out of my eyes, Craig broke the silence.
“Your Grace, there’s a petal in your hair.”
“Huh?”
It must’ve gotten blown off by the wind and stuck to my head. I frantically reached up to grab it, but as soon as my fingers touched it, it slid away. I didn’t see it fall to the ground, though. As I was trying to find where it had ended up, a shadow suddenly fell over me.
“Excuse me, Your Grace.”
Craig was taller than me, and he was standing right in front of my face. He reached around behind me; I twitched slightly as his large hand lightly brushed the back of my neck. But the next moment, the red petal was in his hand.