"By the way, you're learning to read from Gazeff without any issues, right?"
"Ah, yes. Sir Gazeff teaches me very well."
"It's good to work hard, but don't push yourself too much. It hasn't been long since you got out of bed, and if you overexert yourself and harm your body, which has finally recovered, that would be more troublesome."
"But I can't help feeling anxious."
"We have plenty of time, so take it slow. I'll be satisfied if you just learn the basics well."
Cabelenus kept repeating that there was plenty of time, but it didn't particularly resonate with Alicia.
Alicia smiled to match the mood, but she hung her head.
She tried not to let it bother her, but she couldn't help feeling down whenever the topic of time came up.
It had already been almost half a year since Cabelenus and his group stayed in Neustein.
Everyone knew that the time for their departure was approaching.
'What will become of me after he leaves?'
Alicia let out a brief sigh.
When she first saw Cabelenus, he was merely a frightening figure, but now it was different.
It wasn't that he wasn't scary at all, but his presence had become familiar now.
Sleeping in the same bed and waking up to confirm his presence had become a daily routine.
‘It seems like it will be lonelier than I thought...'
The more Alicia reflected on her daily life, the more she realised how deeply Cabelenus had become ingrained in it, which made her feel down.
“What on earth are you thinking about that makes your expression change so frequently?”
“Y-yes?”
"It seems you've grown quite comfortable with me, to the point where you can think about something else even when I'm right in front of you."
Was it just her imagination, or was there a hint of sulkiness in his voice?
Alicia snapped out of her thoughts and quickly shook her head in denial.
“No, that's not it!”
"If it's not, then it's not — there's no need to harden your expression like that."
“Well, it's just that Your Grace is a special person, after all.”
“Special? What makes me special?”
Cabelenus rested his chin on his hand and looked at Alicia with a raised eyebrow.
The content of the evaluation wasn't important.
What mattered was that to make an evaluation, one needed to consider the other person, even if it was just for a moment.
He simply liked that fact.
“Well, you are the Lord of Schwarhan.”
"Is that all?"
“And you're also the Duke of the Blanche Empire.”
“What else is there? Besides the obvious facts everyone knows, tell me something more substantial.”
Cabelenus's gaze persistently searched Alicia's face.
Under his intense gaze, Alicia desperately racked her brain to come up with an answer that would satisfy Cabelenus.
"...I think you’re kind."
"Kind? Me?"
Cabelenus let out a reflexive, hollow laugh.
“Of course, it might be different from what people usually mean by kindness, but that's how I feel.”
Alicia also knew that kindness didn't exactly fit with the image of the Wolf of Schwarhan.
No, to be honest, she didn't really understand what kindness truly meant.
But sometimes, Alicia thought that if she had to define the way Cabelenus looked at her, it would be kindness.
Otherwise, she couldn't explain how this man, who seemed indifferent, would frown at even the slightest scratch on her.
“Honestly, I don't particularly like being called kind.”
"Ah, then–"
“Still, it's not as bad as I thought.”
He had always viewed kindness as a sign of weakness, so he didn't particularly like it, but Alicia's evaluation didn't sound unpleasant.
No, perhaps it was inevitable, as her very existence had been that way from the start.
"Well, that's a relief."
"Are there no other evaluations?"
Cabelenus, still with an indifferent expression, tilted his head.
However, his gaze toward Alicia had subtly softened compared to before.
"Well, not yet..."
“Good. Then I'll ask again next time, so think about it more.”
“What am I supposed to think about?”
"If it's about me, anything."
Cabelenus's lips curved into a slight smile.
・・・・・
Cabelenus sat in his office, reading documents.
No, to be exact, he wasn’t actually reading; that was merely a facade.
His attention was directed towards the man and woman sitting on one side of the office.
"Maliuna."
"No, it should be pronounced 'Mariauna.' Please try saying it again."
"Mariouna?"
"No. It's 'Mariauna.'"
Without a single change in his expression, Gazeff corrected Alicia’s pronunciation.
Alicia, her cheeks flushed a deep red, lowered her head deeply.
"I'm sorry."
"What are you apologising for?"
"You're teaching me so diligently, but I can't keep up with you."
Alicia's shoulders slumped weakly.
"No, it's normal to be confused by pronunciations at first. Actually, you're doing quite well for a beginner."
"...Really?"
Alicia's shoulders, which had been slumped, lifted slightly.
"Yes. You are doing well."
A faint smile played around Gazeff's mouth
At first, he was bewildered by his superior's order to teach Princess Neustein the etiquette of Blanche, but as he did it, he found it wasn't so bad.
Alicia was lacking in many areas.
She knew even less about Neustein’s culture than Gazeff did.
Nevertheless, teaching her was rewarding because she was a hard worker.
When he first started teaching Alicia, she was so tense that she couldn't even ask questions, but she never slacked off in her efforts.
Gazeff knew that Alicia would soon be able to pronounce perfectly the words he had taught her today.
“If you don't mind, may I try it again?"
"Of course. It's always better to practice pronunciation a lot, no matter what language you're learning."
With Gazeff's permission, Alicia immediately repeated the pronunciation several times.
Her pronunciation was still awkward, but after a few tries, it was much better than at first.
"You're doing well. I think you'll get the hang of it soon."
"Thank you for saying that."
"No. I merely spoke the truth. You, my lady, have talent."
"It's too early to call it a talent."
"The greatest talent in learning is effort, so you certainly have talent."
With the continued praise, Alicia's cheeks flushed even more, and Gazeff's smile grew warmer.
Gazeff wasn't one to give praise easily, but he always made sure to compliment Alicia.
Had he not become Cabelenus's aide, Gazeff would have likely become a professor at an academy.
He was well-versed in teaching and knew exactly how to bring out the best in a student's talents.
Alicia needed praise.
"You are very kind, Sir Gazeff."
“Believe it or not, I was once considered one of the most eligible bachelors in Schwarhan."
"Yes. It really seems like that."
"It's not just that it seems that way; it truly is. I'll show you later when we go to Schwarhan."
Gazeff deliberately made a lighthearted joke and turned the page.
Frequent praise and light jokes to ease the atmosphere were effective.
Alicia, who at first was so shy that she couldn’t even ask a question, had grown to the point where she now asked Gazeff questions herself.
Gazeff was proving to be an excellent teacher to Alicia.
However, that excellent teacher had overlooked the gaze of the man who had been watching them from beginning to end.
"Gazeff."
"Yes, Your Grace. You called?"
"This official document has some odd content."
"I'm sorry. It seems there was a mistake."
Gazeff hurriedly rose from his seat.
If Cabelenus frowned like that, it meant that it was a big problem.
It made no sense to delay.
"Go check it yourself and report back to me.”
"Yes, understood. Then, what about the young lady—”
“I'll be watching her. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.”
Cabelenus quickly interrupted Gazeff's words.
He still hadn’t taken his eyes off the documents and wore an indifferent expression.
"No, it's okay. I'll figure it out on my own. Besides, I've almost finished what I need to learn today, so I just need to review it."
"..."
Alicia shyly smiled and fiddled with the book she was reading.
Just being able to study was a joyful thing.
She had no intention whatsoever of causing any trouble for Cabelenus.
'Besides...'
Alicia awkwardly smiled as she recalled the past.
In fact, Cabelenus had been Alicia's first teacher.
But he had absolutely no talent for teaching.
Even if he knew the answer immediately upon seeing a problem, he couldn't explain how to solve it. He wasn't a good teacher for Alicia, who didn’t even know how to read.
Only after Cabelenus glared at the book and Alicia looked at him anxiously did Gazeff become Alicia's teacher, and they were able to make proper progress.
So naturally, even if she asked Cabelenus, there was no way she could get a proper explanation.
"It seems you really enjoy studying with Gazeff."
"Yes. I like it. He's very kind and smart, and he explains things well."
"Kind?"
A faint wrinkle appeared on Cabelenus’s smooth forehead.
He also often praised Gazeff as a capable aide, but he couldn’t agree at all with the point that Gazeff was kind.
Gazeff was both Cabelenus’s aide and his strategist.
Whenever a particularly brutal military strategy was being devised, Gazeff was always by his side.
Furthermore...
“I think you're kind.”
Alicia had said the same thing to him.
Cabelenus’s brow furrowed even more deeply.
"Yes, very much so. He said that if he hadn’t joined the military, he might have become a professor, and I think he would have been well-suited for it."
"What's so great about being a professor?"
"It would have been at the most prestigious academy in the empire. Moreover, if he had become a professor, he would have been the youngest in the academy's history..."
Alicia, who had been chattering like a lark, inadvertently noticed Cabelenus's expression and trailed off.
Cabelenus was no longer looking at the documents.
Instead, he merely looked at Alicia with his chin tilted defiantly.
"I told you to study, not chatter."
An anxious expression hovered over Alicia’s face.
Thanks to having observed Cabelenus's mood countless times, she knew.
Right now, he was in a very bad mood.
"I’ve been studying without any issues. It’s just..."
"Just what?"
"Sir Gazeff helps me relax by occasionally telling me various stories. They were so interesting that I couldn't help but ask for more without even realising it."
As Cabelenus watched Alicia's cheeks flush slightly, one of his eyebrows raised.
It felt like cheating for her to smile like that while talking about another man.
"You don’t ask me for anything."
"Excuse me?"
"No, from the very beginning, you’ve been like that with me."
A sigh close to a groan escaped from between Cabelenus's teeth.
He knew that Alicia was gradually changing for the better.
Once someone started accomplishing even the smallest things one by one, confidence would naturally follow.
The sight of Alicia absorbing knowledge bit by bit, like a sponge soaking up water, was even admirable.
There was barely any trace of the shadow of death left in her.
However, that face still irritated him.
What had Gazeff done to make her follow him like a newly hatched baby bird?
In fact, they hadn’t even exchanged a single word before she started studying.
"Do you like Gazeff?"
The moment Cabelenus uttered those words, he felt embarrassed and pressed his forehead.
But he didn’t want to withdraw the question.
Clearly, when he asked her before, Alicia said there was no man she liked.
But people's hearts could change more easily than reeds in the wind.
"He’s a good person."
"No, I mean as a man."
"A man? What do you mean by that..."
Alicia hid her tightly clenched fist under the table.
Cabelenus still did not embrace her, and he even stopped showering her with gifts.
The only thing he did was bring Gazeff and her closer together under the pretext of studying.
Perhaps Cabelenus was even considering handing her over to Gazeff.
Slaves were property, and it wasn’t unusual for superiors to give their slaves to subordinates.
At that thought, goosebumps rose all over her body.
"Gazeff is off-limits."
Cabelenus growled in a low voice.
He had no intention of handing Alicia over to Gazeff.
If he had been planning such a foolish thing, he never would have let things escalate this far in the first place.
"...Off-limits?"
"Right now, I’m temporarily entrusting your education to Gazeff, but after leaving for Schwarhan, there's no way that'll happen."
"Yes. Of course, I know it well."
With a single word from Cabelenus, she moved between heaven and hell.
She clenched her fist even tighter.
“You don't seem to be disappointed.”
It didn’t appear like there were any deep feelings involved.
Cabelenus narrowed his eyes at Alicia’s blank expression.
"I’ve already prepared myself for this."
“Prepared?"
"Your Grace will have to go to Schwarhan eventually. So, it is only right for me to prepare for the moment when Your Grace is not here."
"...When I’m not here? What do you mean by that?"
Cabelenus’s eyes twisted in confusion.
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