Once their break was over, Nia and Laura returned to their carriage to set off once more. The moment the door closed, Nia put her head down and covered her face with both her hands.
“Princess?”
“Oh, what should I do, Laura? Lord Ark is just so cute!” Nia squeezed out, seemingly trying to suppress her feelings.
Two thoughts flew through Laura’s mind simultaneously at Nia’s words: “What part of a man like that could possibly be cute?” and “No, you’re the cute one, Princess.” But as a well-trained maid, she kept her emotions off of her face. The expression she made instead, though, could only be described as blank.
“I believe that you should just continue wrapping him around your little finger,” the maid replied in an emotionless monotone. She’d been using this tone a lot more lately. That was, of course, because she used it every time Nia started asking her for advice (or rather, mooning over Ark).
“Really? You don’t think he would dislike me manipulating him?”
“Absolutely not. I don’t even believe he would consider it manipulation.”
Laura made sure to only call him a loser within the confines of her mind. No matter what she thought of him, there was no way she could insult him so openly when he was both her current employer and Nia’s legal husband. She still had enough sense for that. But she could hardly be at fault for wanting to, not when the man had pissed her off so thoroughly by winning over the princess she’d raised yet completely failing to interact with her properly. Truly, the hearts of maids were complicated things.
“No matter how you look at it, he’s thrilled by your advances,” Laura said. “He just doesn’t know how to respond due to his obvious lack of experience. You have nothing to worry about, Princess. If anything, you should push harder and keep a firm hold on the reins.”
“P-Push harder... You give good advice, Laura.” Nia nodded along, swallowing hard.
In this day and age, in aristocratic society, it was expected for women to let the men take the lead. But in reality, most married couples were led primarily by the wife. It was to the point where great women—while donning the mask of an upright lady—would say that they grant their husbands the opportunity to look good publicly, because at home, they were completely whipped.
Having very little experience in society herself, Nia had heard via Laura that most houses where that was true ran surprisingly well. So her maid was most likely advising her to follow in those footsteps. Probably.
As Nia thought that to herself, she suddenly voiced another thought she’d had. “But it’s so strange that he has so little experience. He seems like he would have been quite popular.”
Laura nearly burst out with a “HUH?!” before her senses came back to her and stopped her mouth. She then tried to think of Ark logically, without her bias, but she still couldn’t agree.
“I think, in Master’s case, most people would sooner avoid him than try to get to know him.”
“Huh? But he’s so handsome...”
The saying “love is blind” rose to Laura’s mind, but she waved it off. Thinking about it calmly, she had to agree.
“Yes, he might be good-looking, but he also has many flaws that would disqualify him as a match,” Laura pointed out. “In the first place, he was so busy with work that hardly anyone ever saw him.”
“That’s true,” Nia conceded. “No matter how handsome he may be, that would be of no help if no one had seen him.”
“Right? So in noble circles, he would most likely have been known as ‘the third son of a baron, worked nearly to death by His Highness the Second Prince, who, as a knight in the Special Battalion, could actually die at literally any time.’”
“Th-That’s quite a description,” Nia commented. “But there’s nothing there that I can refute.”
Laura’s assessment was cutting and somewhat harsh, since there was no one but them in the carriage to hear, but Nia couldn’t deny it. Before their marriage, that would have been an accurate summation of Ark. But ironically, it was Ark’s achievements in the war against her own home country which had afforded him a change in status, and it was that development that Nia was conflicted about.
“Keeping the popular view of him in mind, anyone who saw him in the flesh would probably think he looked inhumanly strong or tall enough you’d have to crane your neck, with a strength to match. Things like that.”
“I see,” Nia murmured. “The only people who could get a good look at him were knights and other military personnel. The things which would be complimentary to them would terrify a lady.”
From Nia’s point of view, all of that made Ark look reliable. But for most noble ladies, especially those who wanted to move up in the world, he would have absolutely no value. In fact, they might look at him and worry about the possibility of domestic violence. They would probably prefer someone who could do well in noble society while also being able to benefit their family.
“That reminds me. My father-in-law told me that a flood of marriage proposals arrived for Lord Ark the moment he was named a viscount.”
“Yes,” Laura said, “he would have changed from simply being ‘an overworked knight’ to ‘a greenhorn viscount just ripe for the picking, trusted by the second prince and given his own territory.’ Of course they would flock to him.”
“Not to mention the fact that if all goes well in the future, he could easily be promoted to a count.”
Nia understood what Laura was saying, of course. But it was because she understood that she was unhappy about it. Even though thinking about marriage strategically was a given for those born into nobility.
“None of them understand Lord Ark’s appeal at all. Well, maybe it’s better that no one understands, because I’m the only one who needs to... But still!”
“I understand what you mean, Princess. But in reality, those qualities aren’t very easy to show in public.”
“You’re right, but...”
Taking her eyes off of Nia, who let out a great big sigh, Laura looked outside. She sat with her back facing their destination, so she could see Ark, who’d been glued to the back-right of the carriage since they’d left. If bandits were to attack a carriage, they would most likely do it from the angle of the door, which was difficult for both the coachman and guards to see.
This blind spot made it the most dangerous place on a carriage, and one where the strongest guard would usually be posted. And here Ark was, putting himself right there. Of course it would normally be unthinkable for the lord of a territory to do something like that, but Ark’s skills made it so that no one could argue with his decision. Even though his eyes were on the wide-open plains beyond and behind them, he still rode his horse completely straight in a clear display of superior equestrianism. The moment he unsheathed his sword, he would be stronger than any of the knights sent to guard them.
While Laura didn’t want to acknowledge his strength or determination, those qualities would be hard to bring up in polite conversation. The best one could do would be describing his acts of heroism.
“The only other option would be to openly be lovey-dovey with him and show off how much he dotes on you and you alone,” Laura advised.
“L-Lovey-dovey?! We could never...!” Nia cried in response, her blushing face shooting back upwards.
Another two things came up inside Laura’s mind simultaneously: “Aww, she’s so cute,” and “Dammit, that pisses me off.” The second one was, of course, towards Ark, a burst of misplaced anger. But despite that anger, Laura couldn’t help but tease Nia a bit, because she was so cute. And plus, seeing her mistress like this was a perk only she was given. Of course, that meant feeling jealous of Ark whenever she did it, but the prize outweighed the consequences, so much so that she couldn’t stop herself.
“You aren’t going to deny that he dotes on you?”
“Hwaugh?! I-I mean, I, um, know he does...”
As Laura poked fun again, Nia blushed and looked at her with upturned eyes. Once again, the maid was assaulted simultaneously by both anger and thoughts of her cute mistress. But she felt a little superior as well. To Ark, of course, because he still wasn’t close enough to Nia to see her act like this, and also because the former princess wasn’t used to doing things like this either.
“You could begin teaching him how to show off from this point forward.”
“T-Teach him? Would that really be okay?”
Laura had corrected herself before she said “train him,” but Nia wasn’t showing any signs of rejecting the idea. It seemed that she was okay with it. The thought of her princess growing up made her both lonely and jealous, but there was nothing the maid could do about that, since it was all a step towards her mistress’s happiness.
Motivated by a rather warped sense of loyalty, Laura began her lecture for an audience of one, inside a carriage where no one could see them.