“Nadir!”
I ran to where Nadir was, and found him surrounded by children. And my goodness was there a stark difference between this and his usual behavior. He was even letting one of them sit on his head.
“What?” he asked, still looking a bit displeased. But it was fine, he’d come around soon. He always did.
Chuckling, I pulled the child off Nadir’s head. “You should’ve told me sooner.”
“Told you what?” he asked, looking at me as if expecting something.
“That I was the child you were after!” I said, pointing proudly at myself.
He promptly ignored me, and went back to playing with the child.
“H-Hey!” I protested. “Hey, come on! I was a better child than Ben, right?!”
“That’s not very nice, Anna!” Ben whined, panting heavily as he caught up to me.
Resigned, Nadir moved the child from his lap. “And?” he asked.
“Well, you should give me his job!”
Exasperated, Nadir put the child back onto his lap.
Ben was the one to protest. “That’s not fair, Anna!”
“Well, you originally wanted to hire me, right? Why not just get Ben to resign? I can take over his duties. You’d save on his salary, and I’d be in your debt! There are no downsides!”
“You should pay off your current debts before you take on any new ones,” Nadir admonished me.
“Uh, yes, that... Yes. I should do that first.” I did indeed already owe him quite a great deal. “So, Ben should just resign! That way I can repay you faster.”
“What’s with you and wanting me to ‘just resign’?!” Ben snapped. “I’m not gonna quit! Absolutely not! I’m staying!” He took the child from Nadir’s lap, and laid his own head there, nuzzling Nadir’s stomach. “Young Master! You’re not getting rid of me, right?! I wouldn’t be able to survive anywhere else now! I’m bad at my job! And stupid! You wouldn’t throw me away, right?! Right?!”
“The notion is very tempting right now, actually,” Nadir said.
“Why?!”
Because you’re rubbing your head on his stomach, I’d wager.
“We’ve known each other since I was five! You adopted me, so you need to take responsibility forever!” he protested, continuing to nuzzle Nadir.
“Well,” the nobleman said, sighing deeply, “I don’t plan on getting rid of you for now.”
At those words, Ben quickly lifted his face, his eyes lighting up as he looked at Nadir.
“I did take you in,” Nadir agreed. “I plan on taking responsibility. And I don’t have to be nice to you, which is a plus.”
“Oh, Young Master!” the young butler exclaimed, clasping his hands in front of his chest, seeming deeply moved. Why? Nadir had literally just said he didn’t have to be nice to this guy! Did Ben just...not mind?
“Huh,” I mumbled. “I figured it’d be a good way for both of us to save money.”
“I did raise him up to this point,” Nadir said.
Ben was still on Nadir’s lap. As I watched this, a thought occurred to me. Yes, Ben was less of a butler, and more of a—
“He’s like your pet!”
I pretended not to hear Ben complain about the way he was treated.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I came to invite you to dinner.”
I hadn’t thought he actually would.
Abel showed up with a bouquet of flowers, claiming it was to make amends for the other day. The fact he’d brought a gift with him painted him as quite the gentleman.
And of course, since he’d invited me to dinner, my employer was in an outrageously foul mood. He must’ve really meant it when he’d forbidden me from going to dinner with his friend.
“No dinners,” Nadir immediately snapped, glaring at Abel.
“Whaaat? You’re so selfish,” his friend protested.
I agreed! What a selfish thing to do, interfering with an employee’s dinner plans!
“How about lunch, then? It wouldn’t be as fancy as an evening outing, but—”
“No!” Nadir interjected sharply before Abel could insist any further.
His friend’s gaze went over Nadir and me. “Do you two usually eat together?” he asked.
“Um, yes, in the mornings and evenings,” I explained. Nadir was gone for work during the day, so I ate lunch with the rest of the staff.
“And you’ll be eating together today too?”
“Yes, in a few moments.” At my words, Nadir suddenly glowered at me as if to admonish me for having said too much. Well, I’d already said it. I couldn’t exactly take it back.
Beaming, Abel tried to plead with Nadir. “Can I join you today, then? You wouldn’t mind, right, Nadir?”
“I would, in fact, mind.”
“If you say no, I’ll keep coming over to invite her to dinner,” Abel insisted, a charming smile still plastered on his face. What a persistent man! He and Nadir truly must’ve had quite the long history.
Frustrated, Nadir instructed Ben to prepare a meal for Abel as well. Then he glared at me. What for?! It wasn’t my fault! Right?!
✦ ✦ ✦
“Leave it to a duke to eat this well,” Abel remarked. “This tastes amazing!”
Abel was a marquis, I thought to myself. Surely what he ate couldn’t be that different from this? Still, I shared in his sentiment that this did, indeed, taste amazing. It was on a whole other level from what I’d eaten back home. One bite and the quality of the ingredients immediately came through.
“Finish your food and go home,” Nadir grumbled, his sour mood a stark contrast with the exquisite meal.
“I understand you’d rather be alone with Lady Brianna,” Abel replied, “but surely my joining you on occasion isn’t that big of an issue. Right?”
Wait, why was he asking me that? He was putting me on the spot—and the spot was positively awful! Now Nadir was glaring daggers at me. Why? What’d I do?!
“Now, then,” Abel continued, smiling pleasantly. “May I ask what kind of arrangement you have with Nadir, Lady Brianna?”
I twitched involuntarily, and Abel noticed. Nadir was glaring entire swords at me at this point. Look, it wasn’t my fault! I wasn’t so cold as to remain indifferent in a situation like this!
“What do you mean?” I asked, knowing that trying to divert the topic was pointless but attempting to anyway.
“I understand, Lady Brianna,” Abel said, shaking his head and sighing deeply. “You wouldn’t consider an engagement with Nadir if you weren’t under threat. I know how he is. You couldn’t possibly be in love with him, what with his personality and all.”
Well, I wouldn’t have put it quite so harshly. Yes, his personality wasn’t exactly stellar, but it wasn’t so bad... I didn’t think...?
“He, ah, he has his good points,” I said quietly, suddenly feeling shy for some inexplicable reason.
Abel stared blankly at me for a moment before smiling cheerfully. “Ah, yes, of course! Good to know!”
“Be quiet,” Nadir snapped, looking away from me as he spoke. I thought his ears were a bit flushed. Maybe I was imagining things?
“Well, I for one see your good points,” Abel said. “So by all means, feel free to openly call me a friend from now on!”
“It seems our guest is leaving,” Nadir said to Ben, clearly instructing the butler to kick Abel out.
Flustered, Abel flailed his hands as his droopy eyes drooped further still. “Look, it actually hurt my feelings when you introduced me to Lady Brianna as your ‘old acquaintance,’ okay?!”
“But we are old acquaintances,” Nadir pointed out.
“I mean, yes, but still!” Abel continued to protest, but Nadir remained unmoved. Unwilling to push the issue further, Abel turned to me instead. “So, as Nadir’s friend, I would like to assure you, Lady Brianna, that since you’re his future wife, you can always count on me!” he said with a wink.
Maybe he’d shifted targets because Nadir had rejected him.
“Huh,” I replied listlessly.
Seeing this, Nadir continued his meal, seemingly less dissatisfied. He was probably pleased, actually. Would it have killed him to show his true emotions sometimes? Granted, though, that side of him was endearing, I thought to myself as I continued to eat.
Abel, meanwhile, remained oblivious, and eagerly continued to try and engage me in conversation. “And when you two have a child, I certainly hope you’ll allow me to be the godfather.”
“Ben, please do see our guest out,” Nadir said.
“Huh? Hey! Wait!” Abel whined as Ben started dragging him away. “Don’t be so— Wait, you’re actually kicking me out? Hey!”
Nadir, however, continued to deliberately ignore his friend’s protests.
“You’re horrible!” Abel said to Nadir. “Ah! Lady Brianna! Let us eat dinner together again sometime!”
“Oh. Of course,” I replied reflexively.
“You don’t need to respond,” Nadir interjected as Ben hauled Abel away.
“See you again!” echoed Abel’s fading voice.
Ben seemed so used to this. Did this happen often?
“Is he always like this?” I asked.
“He is,” Nadir said with an exhausted look on his face. “He always does whatever he wants and throws things into disarray. It’s quite the bother.”
“Huh...”
“He’s really...” Nadir stopped talking when he noticed me staring at him. “What?”
“Well...” I began, unable to stop myself from breaking into a grin. “I was just thinking it’s nice that you two are such good friends.”
Nadir’s face immediately turned red, and he resumed his meal in silence.
It truly was endearing how he couldn’t be honest with his feelings.