Nia went silent at my words, a single tear slipping from her eyes.
“Is it really okay?” she asked. “I’m not so used to depending on other people.”
“Of course it is. Really, I’m always the one relying on you. So please, let me act cool, at least right now,” I said a bit jokingly, getting a tiny smile from Nia.
I was glad. A little relieved. And that was bad.
“But, Lord Ark, um. You’re always cool, you know?”
“Nnghh!”
Nia’s unexpected statement did a critical hit on the soft bits of my heart.
Come on, Ark, stay strong! We can’t get flustered like we always do! It’s times like this that we need to be cool! What would we do if we can’t manage it?!
I did my best to not let my emotions rise to my face as I scolded myself. “Hearing you say that makes it all worth it. I’ll have to try harder to make you think I’m even cooler.”
“I might be in a bit of trouble, then. If you got any cooler, I don’t think my heart could take it.”
“Nggghghhh!”
This was bad. I thought I was on the verge of a heart attack.
She hit hard—the gap between her usual look and the fleeting, shy look on her face right now made her usual destructive power significantly magnified. At this rate, my heart was the one that wasn’t gonna survive!
“I would be in trouble, then. So please, just take it easy and rest for tonight.”
“Okay, I will.”
The soft smile on her face made my heart rate spike even higher. Her power was off the charts. I was seriously in trouble!
I frantically tried to repress the panic in my heart. I am an adult. I am a gentleman. I am an adult. I am a gentleman. I repeated that inside my mind as I spoke. “Good. That’s a relief. I’ll be heading back to meet with His Highness and the count now, then.”
“Okay. See you later. Um, Lord Ark?”
I had stood up and was just about to ask Laura to take care of Nia when the former princess stopped me. I looked at her, wondering what she needed, and she smiled.
“I’m glad that you found me. I’m glad that I can be by your side.”
“N-Nia?”
Wait, this was not a good time for her to say that. It was really bad! But of course, I couldn’t put my wussy feelings into words. Which meant that Nia continued speaking without pause.
“I’m sure that meeting you must have been fate. I understand that now, and I’m really happy.”
“Nggghghhhghhh!”
I stopped breathing. My heart barely managed to withstand the hit. But I was at my limit. I couldn’t take any more! I was absolutely thrilled, but my heart just couldn’t take another hit!
“Thank you, Nia. I’m happy too, you know,” I managed to say.
“Hee hee, I’m glad. So this is what happiness feels like,” Nia said, smiling again.
Ahh. Damn. I was really at my limit.
“Yes, it must be. And I’ll be leaving so I can protect that happiness.”
“All right. See you later, Lord Ark. I’ll be waiting for you to come home.”
“No, don’t wait. Please go to sleep.”
We gave each other another smile, and I walked out of Nia’s room. Then, I took a few steps before suddenly gripping my face in my hands. The moment I did, the tears started overflowing.
Nia said she was happy. She really said it. She’d come to the point where she could. That made me so overjoyed that I couldn’t handle it.
I hope you’ll forgive me for being thrilled that at my side she felt even a bit happy. I couldn’t help being selfish like that. But I was so glad that I didn’t even care. I was just so happy.
I did all that I could to stop my feelings from coming out vocally, which turned them into sobs instead, but I managed to keep myself quiet. It would have been beyond humiliating if Nia overheard me. And, knowing her, she’d worry about me. I’d feel too bad if I worried her over something like this. I wouldn’t be cool at all if she did. And I really wanted to be cool.
“Here, Master,” said Tom as he appeared out of nowhere with a cool, damp towel, which I gratefully accepted. The cool cloth felt nice on my heated eyes, and it calmed me a little bit.
“Thanks, Tom. You’re good.”
“Oh, no. This is nothing.”
That was all he said when I thanked him. He didn’t say anything else unnecessary. He really was good at what he did, and a good guy to boot. I belatedly felt just how much he had helped me—on multiple fronts.
“Tom. I’m really glad you, no, that all of you, are here.”
“What are you saying all of the sudden, Master?”
His reaction sounded exasperated, but that was truly how I felt.
Tom supported me like he was doing now, and I could leave Nia, who needed to rest, safely in Laura’s hands. It wasn’t just them. Every servant in the manor was someone I could rely on. I was really blessed.
Which was why I couldn’t let go of this blessing. I had to protect it.
“Sorry, but I need you to send word that I’ll be heading back to the garrison.”
“Understood.” As soon as he answered, Tom spun around and headed outside.
Now. I gotta do something about my face.
If I showed up looking so miserable, His Highness would never let me live it down. And most importantly, I couldn’t decide what we’d do with Balthazar looking like this.
“Don’t think you’re gonna get off that easily,” I muttered without consciously deciding to do so.
He was the mastermind behind everything. For his own selfish reasons, he’d sown mayhem everywhere, going as far as to attack Brigandia again; in doing so, caused massive amounts of damage. We might’ve kept the casualties in my troop to a minimum, but some soldiers had still died. Plus, we didn’t even know how many of the mercenaries he’d hired had lost their lives. We had no pity to spare on someone like him.
But. I couldn’t let Nia decide his fate, his punishment. I couldn’t let her be there. It was my job to dirty my hands, and His Highness’s job to order me to.
“Get ready, you bastard.”
With that, I headed back to my own bedroom to get myself ready for what was next.