Not Here to Break It

"It has been some time, Lady Foregreen."

A man stepped out of the building, and my eyes went wide. A breeze moved with him, mild in a way that seemed to take after the man himself.

"Reinhardt... Your Grace."

I said his name in a daze.

"And in the time we have not seen each other."

Asad's gaze rested on me, then shifted to Sion, pressed flush against my side. Their eyes met.

"The young lady seems to have been getting along very well indeed."

A strange current passed between them.

What is this. Seriously.

Asad's and Sion's gazes, colliding in empty air, showed no sign of coming apart. I took a step back and gave the matter serious thought. Why on earth were the two of them acting like that?

No conclusion presented itself. There was no reason, to begin with, for two perfect strangers to lock eyes so fiercely.

I couldn't leave them like that, so I tapped the shoulder of Sion, who was at least the more manageable of the pair.

"Sion."

At my call he pulled his gaze off Asad and turned to me. Heat still lingered in his eyes. Even so, the way he listened so carefully to every word I said felt, somehow, a little endearing.

I patted his shoulder, hoping to settle him. A pat like that calmed me, at least, so it seemed worth trying.

Fortunately it seemed to take. Sion's intensity eased, and I turned my head to find Rita and Asad, who had been waiting, staring at me as if they could not believe what they were seeing.

Rita, I could understand. A man she had never seen in her life, one I had brought home, had launched straight into a staring match with Grand Duke Reinhardt. But Asad? When our eyes met, his narrowed.

He looked thoroughly displeased.

Because of Sion?

A man he had never met had been glaring at him, so it was fair enough. Except he had been glaring right back. And then he wore a face like that. Needlessly distracting.

"You must be busy as it is. What brings Your Grace all the way here in person?"

Needling him for arriving without a word was only right. He was the one who had appeared out of nowhere. I was perfectly entitled to be baffled and exasperated.

At my question Asad hesitated, unlike himself, and then spoke.

"...I sent a letter. There seems to have been some trouble with it. It must have arrived at about the same time I did."

I studied him in silence.

Why is he like this?

Something about Asad felt off. Almost as if he were making an excuse.

But that, of all things, was impossible even if heaven and earth turned over.

I nodded anyway. I had been meaning to contact Asad again myself before long.

Before I could speak with him, though, there was a problem to deal with: the oversized dog standing right beside me.

The moment I glanced his way, Sion—already catching the hint—plastered himself against me again. I was going to start sweating at this rate.

"Um, Sion..."

"Don't throw me away."

"I'm not throwing you away..."

"I'm staying with Master."

"No. It's only for a little while."

Sion shook his head, stubborn. Argh. I am no good at soothing children. Whining like a little kid, he did not look likely to accept a single thing I said.

That was when it happened.

Unhurried footsteps, and a calm voice.

"How childish."

"Can you not see that the young lady is in a difficult position? Seeking only to satisfy your own greed is never something done for the other person."

At first I didn't understand. Then his feet stopped in front of Sion, and I realized the words were meant for him.

Sion realized it too, and a low growl rolled out of his throat.

Asad's dark gray eyes sank, cold. I watched him from right beside them.

His looks were arresting, as expected. Sion was by no means outdone, and set side by side the two of them were quite a sight. Beauty the world itself had signed off on.

"If you truly care for someone, think first of that person's comfort and circumstances. That is the courtesy owed to a lover."

"..."

I listened quietly to words more profound than I had expected, then caught something strange in them. I meant to object, but before I could, Sion drew away from me with a thoroughly crestfallen face.

I stared at him in surprise.

He drooped ears that were not even there, like a puppy left out in the rain, and said,

"I don't want to."

"...Sion?"

"I don't want Master to hate me. So for now, I'll give way."

He seemed to be speaking to me, but by the end his words had landed on Asad. Asad regarded him in silence. Some nameless current passed between them—the same current that had been nagging at me from the start.

There was no time to work out what it was. Sion had made up his mind, and I had to act. I turned to Rita, who stood there at a loss.

"Rita, give Sion one of the rooms closest to mine. And prepare something comfortable for him to change into as well."

What he was wearing now existed purely to look beautiful. It was no good for actually moving around in.

"Yes, yes! This way, please. Th-that is, my lady's..."

Rita floundered over what to call him. I said, quietly, Sion.

"Sion. Please follow me."

"Mm..."

At her words he drifted off as if being led away, looking utterly dejected. He did not take his eyes off me until he vanished from sight.

At last Asad and I were alone.

Last time it had been his house. This time it was mine. I led him toward the reception room, and he followed behind me without a word.

Walking him there, I sank into my own thoughts.

What was that, exactly.

It might have been nothing more than advice for a Sion throwing a childish fit. And yet, somehow, it felt as though he had said it to help me out of an awkward spot.

After leaving only those words, Asad kept his mouth firmly shut and simply looked at me.

Even now it felt as if the back of my head might be bored straight through by his gaze. He looked like a man with far too much he wanted to say...

This was the very thing I had waited and waited for—the breakup—and yet my heart was this uneasy.

The timing had been poor from the start. Of all days, the day I had brought Sion home.

Today was already more than enough, just with Sion.

"Young lady."

A voice cut into my thoughts, and I listened. Asad was walking a little way behind me.

All at once that day came back: the day at the grand ducal residence, when I had walked behind him.

What had I said then?

Probably...

"I can't tell what you're thinking at all."

It was a voice that spread like a passing sigh. He had likely meant it for himself alone, but the quiet carried it faintly to me as well.

Was it like that then, too?

The apology I had offered so carefully while following behind him, certain he would not hear—had he heard it just like this?

I found myself a little curious.

When we reached the reception room, I asked another maid for refreshments. Until she set down warm black tea and hard cookies and withdrew, not a single word passed between the Grand Duke and me.

He had always been a taciturn man, but the silence felt more uncomfortable than usual.

I took an awkward sip and looked at him. Just as I decided this would not do and opened my mouth first—

"Your Grace—"

"Is that man your lover?"

"Pardon?"

His words, with the beginning and the end both sheared clean off, put a what-are-you-talking-about look on my face. At the word lover, Jay's face rose unbidden.

Realizing a beat late that he meant Sion, I shook my head.

"Sion isn't my lover."

"He clings to you like that and refuses to be parted from you, and he is not your lover. Then what is he?"

"A pet—"

I shut my mouth. A pet dog was even stranger than a lover.

I thought for a moment, but no relationship came to mind that could properly define what Sion was. An orphan and a temporary guardian, if I had to force it...?

No, but look at this man. The first thing out of his mouth sounds like an interrogation?

I tipped my head at a crooked angle and answered him.

"Whether Sion is my lover or anything else, what business is it of Your Grace?"

That's right. What business is it of yours? We're breaking this engagement any day now. You came today to hand me the papers, so what does it matter to you what Sion and I are?

I could not bring myself to say all of it aloud, but I thought the meaning had carried well enough. Apparently my thoughts and the Grand Duke's were not quite the same.

Asad held his silence for a very long time. Only after a good while did he speak, low.

"Who told you that? That I came here to break my engagement with you."

"I beg your— no, what?"

Thinking I might have misheard, I asked again.

No. What is he saying? He didn't come here to break the engagement? Then what did he come for?

My eyes could not find anywhere to settle, shaking wild with disbelief. The Grand Duke seemed to deliberate even now, and then, as if he had ordered his thoughts, he said,

"The reason I came to the ducal residence today is not to break my engagement with you."

"..."

A crash, as if the sky itself were coming down. And with it, the sound of my dead ending taking one step closer.

My head was a tangle. I could not understand it at all. He would not break the engagement with me?

He didn't hate me?

The man who used to shudder at the mere mention of Aine—why had he suddenly changed his mind?

"What do you m—"

"I thought for a long time after you left. Once, I would have accepted your proposal gladly. My mind has changed. I want to come to know you a little better. And one thing more."

...There's more?

While I sat there in a full mental collapse, Asad leaned abruptly toward me. The faint brush of his breath startled me, and I drew my neck back.

He spoke with a slightly tense face.

"Before long there will be a celebration for Her Highness the Princess's return. The invitations have not yet gone out officially, but one will reach the ducal house soon. So on that day, in your capacity as my betrothed—"

"..."

I swallowed.