Chapter 166

 

* * *

 

However, she immediately bit her lip, saying ‘No.’

“Attaching other feelings to that beautiful master-servant relationship is nothing short of an insult to both families!”

That was a very correct statement.

Between him and her, there was trust and a robust master-servant relationship that the two families had built over many years.

Having illusions about his special kindness or their particularly close relationship and harboring other feelings was clearly a mistake.

Moreover, that mistake was no different from betraying her adoptive parents.

She…couldn’t recklessly grow such feelings.

“…”

Melody managed to tear her gaze away from him and pretended to look out the window.

It would be better to do that until they arrived at the mansion.

If he was out of sight, she could at least escape from these strange thoughts.

…That was a complete illusion.

Even if she didn’t keep him in her view, she couldn’t shake off from her consciousness the fact that they were together in such a confined space.

Moreover, strangely, in the quiet carriage interior, the sound of their clothes brushing against each other kept being heard.

At the faint sound of different fabric textures meeting and flowing, Melody unconsciously found herself listening attentively.

Soon, a tingling sensation crept up the back of her neck.

Why was this happening?

It was really just a sound that meant nothing.

Something very small and trivial that she wouldn’t have paid attention to normally…

In the end, unable to endure it any longer, Melody abruptly turned her legs towards the corner of the carriage.

As he turned his head to look at her, Melody quickly answered with a bright smile.

“I thought it might be cramped for you, Young Master.”

“Ah. I made you uncomfortable, sorry about that.”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have noticed things like the sound of their clothes brushing.

It was clear seeing how he casually apologized as if it was nothing.

Melody shook her head while suppressing the somehow disappointed feeling.

“No, it’s because my carriage is so small to begin with.”

“I think it’s cute. Miss Melody’s carriage, that is.”

Calling the carriage cute.

Thanks to those strange words, Melody could think about the compliment he gave last time saying “You’re so adorable, what should I do?” from a new perspective.

In the sense that his impressions of the carriage and Melody were exactly the same.

‘Well, since the carriage is the feet and I’m the hands.’

Perhaps he had been treating them the same way.

“…”

“I’m fine, so please sit comfortably, Miss Melody.”

“I’m fine too. We don’t have much distance left to the mansion anyway.”

As she turned to look outside the window again while saying that, Claude hesitated for a moment before carefully asking a question.

“Miss Melody, are you perhaps busy? Do you…not have time?”

Melody turned to him with slightly surprised eyes.

Until now, he had rarely politely asked Melody for her time. It was natural since she was a “Higgins.”

Even when he did say something about requesting her time, it was just to confirm.

But now it seemed quite different from that.

He looked anxious to the point of impatience. As if…he was worried she might refuse.

“I have time. But…why?”

“I was wondering if you could spare some time for me if it’s alright.”

“Um, Young Master. Did I perhaps…do something wrong?”

Melody thought that unless that was the case, she couldn’t explain his attitude that was somehow different from usual.

“…Have I been that rude usually?”

At the question he asked as if sad, Melody shook her head.

Actually, there were times when she did think he was a bit rude… But she couldn’t honestly say that was the case.

Wouldn’t that be no different from directly handing him Melody’s weakness?

She couldn’t give him an excuse to act mean, saying “It’s okay to bully you, right? I’m a rude person anyway.”

“Even if you ask probing questions like that, I won’t fall for it. I’ll give the proper answer as a Higgins. As a Baldwin, you have the right to my time.”

The clever answer she gave was worth full marks.

But it seemed to be far from what Claude wanted. He shook his head for a moment and apologized in a small voice.

“I’m…sorry.”

“Why?”

At the question asked out of pure curiosity, Claude had no particular answer.

It felt somewhat strange to apologize for treating her as a Higgins when she was one.

“I think I should have…asked for your time a bit earlier. I asked too suddenly.”

“If it’s about that, you don’t need to apologize anew.”

Melody thought his attitude was strange today and added a bit more to her words.

“If you hadn’t come, I would still be worrying about how to get out of that music room even now.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“Not at all. But where are you trying to go?”

Melody looked out the carriage again. Before she knew it, they had moved a bit away from the road to the ducal residence.

“To Jeremiah’s land.”

“The Magic Tower?”

“No, we’re really going to that child’s land. We jointly lease a fertile piece of land on the outskirts.”

“Oh, um. Do you have some work for me to do there?”

At the question she asked just in case, he buried his face deeply in his hands for some reason.

This time too, he seemed to be regretting something, but Melody couldn’t discern his intention at all.

“Young Master?”

“I’ve truly committed many sins. Why do I keep…”

“Yes. But that’s not exactly new information.”

Completely discouraged by the calm answer he received, Claude was barely able to speak until they arrived near the destination.

 

* * *

 

Jeremiah and Claude were actually not that close.

Of course, compared to long ago, they had gotten quite close. At least they had reached a relationship where they exchanged greetings pleasantly when meeting.

However, there was always a strange, unbridgeable gap between them.

While such a relationship continued, one spring day.

Very rarely, Claude received a request from Jeremiah.

“I need a guardian’s signature, big brother.”

Saying that, he abruptly handed over documents about leasing land.

As the mage Baldwin, Jeremiah paid taxes and attended the imperial palace on behalf of the Tower Master, but his age still hadn’t reached adulthood.

Because of that, there were occasionally some restrictions in paperwork, and it seemed there was such a problem again this time.

“May I ask this of you?”

“Of course, it’s not even something to ponder.”

Without much contemplation, he finished signing at the bottom of the document Jeremiah presented.

“Thank you. But big brother, you shouldn’t sign without properly examining the contents.”

Perhaps out of worry, Jeremiah carefully offered advice, and Claude laughed out loud.

“Of course I don’t usually do this. I’m trusting you.”

At his words, Jeremiah frowned and turned his head for some reason.

Maybe he was feeling embarrassed.

“Got it, I’ll go properly check out the land and meet the people involved too. That should do, right?”

“No! There’s no need!”

“No, for some reason I feel like doing that now. You’re not planning to prevent the guardian’s visit listed on the document, are you?”

“…I should have asked Father.”

“I’ll be better, Father would have definitely only signed after checking the land’s composition and owner’s history.”

Jeremiah nodded slightly. In fact, that was why he had decided to ask Claude.

“I understand. I have no choice.”

Jeremiah fiddled with his glasses and permitted his visit.

“I’ll bring Ronny too.”

“Ronny has already been there. He helped choose the land together.”

“As expected, you two get along well. Then I’ll have to go with Miss Melody.”

“While I have no intention of stopping even Higgins’ visit, please make sure Loretta doesn’t come close by any means.”

Jeremiah was quite fond of Loretta in his own way, but he extremely avoided bringing that child to his workplace.

Claude found that aspect of Jeremiah a bit intriguing.

Not even knowing Loretta was a Physis, he always prevented her from coming near places related to magic.

‘Could he have noticed something?’

It seemed mages had much better minds and developed intuition compared to ordinary people.

Anyhow, following Jeremiah’s insistence, Loretta had been unaware of this land’s existence for the past year. She likely would continue to be so in the future too.

As they approached the destination, the carriage gradually began to slow down.

The land Jeremiah cultivated was surrounded by a white fence. Inside, different shaped green leaves filled each furrow.

“Could this be a place where Young Master Jeremiah researches plants?”

Melody happened to know that herbology was one of the research fields of mages.

Most of the medicine used in the ducal household was made and sent by Jeremiah after all.

“It’s similar. Jeremiah is attempting to cultivate them to reduce the time spent searching for medicinal herbs in nature.”

“Ah, that’s certainly a good method.”

Rather than searching for plants whose location was unknown, growing them like this might be better.

“But there seems to be a difference in efficacy. It’s giving Jeremiah quite a hard time. He said it will take several more years.”

Finally, the carriage stopped, and Claude pushed the door open.

Just then, a hot summer breeze blew through the medicinal herbs and rushed inside. Carrying a fresh scent.

Claude got off first and extended his hand.

“Be careful getting off, the ground is soft. I should have brought comfortable  shoes.”

“I’m fine.”

Melody got off the carriage and smiled confidently.

“I grew up close to the soil.”

However, there was one thing she had overlooked.

The fact that in the childhood days when Melody was close to the soil, she didn’t wear  shoes with such thin heels like this.

“Ah!”

By the time she realized her thinking was wrong, the thin heel had already sunk into the ground.

With a feeling like the bottom was collapsing, Melody nearly fell backwards.

If Claude, who happened to be holding her hand, hadn’t quickly pulled her into an embrace, she would have landed on her bottom with an unsightly thud in front of the carriage.

‘Phew, that was close…’

But about 5 seconds later.

Melody thought it might have been better to sit on the ground instead.

Because she had thoughtlessly grabbed onto him out of fear of falling over, somehow it ended up looking like Melody was fervently clinging to him.

‘Ah.’