“Huh?!” I gasped. “Oh, um! If this is a bad time, I can wait—”
The door opened to reveal a large man in his mid-forties inside, along with a handsome young man with golden hair—the one and same I’d spotted on Vizer’s premises.
“My lord, I’ve brought forth Lady Misha, daughter of Viscount Ritual,” the butler announced.
The middle-aged man, presumably Marquess Leviathan, whirled around, shock riddled all over his face. The young man only widened his eyes and said not a word. The marquess stood up eagerly and bowed his head solemnly.
“Ah, so you’re the daughter of Viscount Ritual!” he boomed. “I am Marquess Oswald Leviathan!”
“H-Hello,” I stammered.
He took large strides toward me, the sheer pressure he emanated overwhelming me. He was over two meters tall and towered over my small stature, his hair cut short and fluffy, reminding me of a bear. When he looked at me with his terrifying eyes, I was petrified, but the man gave a gentlemanly bow and treated me with the utmost respect, welcoming me warmly.
“I swear to you that I shall risk my life as your guardian!” he boomed.
Uh… I’m not sure if this duty is that serious… Still, I can tell that he’ll be a very reliable ally.
“I apologize,” he said. “I was waiting for you here, but then he suddenly came in through the window, and— Huh?” When the marquess turned around, the young man was gone. “I suppose he left the same way since our conversation was over.”
Um, aren’t we on the second floor? Was that young man athletic enough to jump in and out of the second floor as he pleased? If I thought too deeply about it, I’d drive myself crazy. The marquess kindly offered me a seat, and I was swiftly served a cup of tea and some snacks when I sat down. The food was quite normal, and I wondered why he had dancing black roses and running mandrakes in his garden, but I left those questions for another day. The Bloody Marquess felt like a fitting moniker for Marquess Leviathan, but he seemed to have a sunny disposition.
“I hope you’ll think of me as your father in the royal capital!” the marquess insisted in that booming voice of his.
“I-I’m honored by the offer,” I replied.
The marquess, apparently, was over the moon to receive a letter of request from my father and eagerly awaited my arrival, hoping to do well by me.
“As you can tell from my appearance, many tend to be quite distant with me,” he said sadly. Only my father dared to treat the marquess normally. “Young ladies tend to scream at the sight of me, you see… But Lady Misha, you don’t seem to fear me at all!”
Admittedly, I almost screamed when I saw the butler prowling about with a knife. He apparently was trying to get rid of rats that plagued the estate, and that seemed like a dangerous endeavor.
“It was Viscount Ritual who set me up with my wife as well,” the marquess explained.
“Ah, yes, I’ve heard that story from my father,” I replied.
Right on cue, there were a few knocks on the door. A beautiful, petite woman—Marchioness Leviathan—waltzed inside.
“How do you do?” she greeted. “I’m Emma von Leviathan. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” I replied. “My name is Misha von Ritual.”
The marchioness was my father’s distant relative, his first cousin once removed. She came from a branch of House Ritual, and her family didn’t live within Lawlife.
“What were your first impressions of our manor?” the marchioness asked.
“Huh? Uh, well…” I trailed off, trying to be polite.
“Do be honest.”
“I found it quite…creepy.”
“I hoped as much!” She smiled happily and revealed that she was a fanatic for the occult. Her dream was to make a manor of monsters akin to a haunted house. “My wonderful husband made my dreams come true,” she beamed.
Marquess Leviathan was all smiles, grinning proudly, clearly enamored by his wife. At a glance, they seemed like Beauty and the Beast, but they were ultimately a perfect match for each other. At least my question about the garden was answered. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’ll see black roses and mandrakes wriggling about in the garden, so do be careful,” the marchioness warned. “They won’t do anything if you leave them alone.”
“Y-Yes, I’ll be careful,” I stammered.
The couple warmly invited me to have some dinner, and I decided to join them. I assumed that stewed monster meat or a whole-roasted demon might appear on the dinner table, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dishes all looked normal and delectable. I had more fun at their manor than I thought.
The marquess and marchioness had two sons. Both worked as knights. They lived in the dorms at their workplace and returned home around once a month when they could.
“I wonder if this is what our days would’ve been like if we had a daughter,” the marchioness wondered.
“Indeed, this is quite nice,” the marquess said. “It brightens up our manor.”
The adorable couple asked me to visit them for a meal every now and then. I was so grateful, and they were just so nice and welcoming that I almost shed a tear, but I’d never tell them that. They sent me off as I thanked them for a lovely evening and left the manor.
Before my days of work began, I wanted to check food prices in the city. Bread was about one bronze coin, or about a hundred yen. Vegetables were one or two bronze coins, and a cut of meat was one large bronze coin, or about five hundred yen. If I wanted to eat a meal at a restaurant, each meal would cost around three thousand in paper currency, or around three thousand yen. Eating out was an expensive luxury, likely because rent within the royal capital was expensive. If taste wasn’t a concern, I could eat at a shady store in the alleys—they were more affordable and only charged a few bronze coins, but I was worried about sanitation. I wasn’t keen on eating their food.
It’ll be more economical to make my own food. I toured the market to see which stores sold fresh vegetables and meat. Some would happily sell half-rotten food to trick unsuspecting customers, and I had to be wary of that.