31. The Man's Kindness
The reception room of the Klaus estate was bathed in bright sunlight streaming through the windows.
Opposite Lesban, who sat in the high seat, Esika slowly took her seat.
While Sella prepared the tea, a heavy silence settled between them.
Esika’s gaze drifted downward, but Lesban continued to stare at her.
It was enough to make her uncomfortable.
“His Grace will be arriving shortly.”
After a long stretch of silence, the voice that emerged from her lips was nothing more than that.
A faint smile curved Lesban’s lips.
“Is that all you have to say to me?”
“….”
At Lesban’s words, Esika lifted her eyes and met his gaze.
Her reflection shimmered on the surface of his brilliant golden eyes, the symbol of the royal family.
His red lips moved again.
“You ate a cookie that might endanger you for my sake, yet I still haven’t heard a word of thanks.”
Esika’s eyebrows twitched.
It was not so much that she truly wanted to hear the words of gratitude, but rather that he seemed to be teasing her by pretending to be unaware of them.
“…Thank you.”
It was easier to give only the answer she wanted without beating around the bush.
At Esika’s stiff reply, Lesban let out a soft chuckle.
“As expected, your reaction is exactly what I anticipated.”
Lesban’s intervention was far beyond Esika’s expectations.
Kalian did not need to eat the cookie.
What Esika wanted was to sow doubt between them.
Subtle cracks that formed within oneself were far more destructive than obvious manipulation.
By intervening, Lesban had driven a wedge into Kalian’s suspicions.
It was a success beyond her expectations, yet she felt a certain burden, as if she owed Lesban something.
“I will accept your thanks, but only under protest.”
Lesban’s hand lifted the teacup.
Even the way a master sips tea is different.
The subtle shimmer of the tea within the cup carried a faint difference.
“Your Highness, do you truly have a peanut allergy?”
“Mm.”
In a low voice, Esika’s eyes flickered faintly.
The image of the crown prince biting into the cookie while gripping her wrist and staring at her remained vivid in her mind.
“Why did you do that? It could have been dangerous.”
There was no concept here of using internal energy to suppress symptoms.
Whether one could finely adjust the energy needed to alleviate the allergy was another matter.
Such things were the domain of those who handled medicines.
“You are not the type to show your hand without conviction.”
Lesban placed the teacup to his lips with a calm voice.
“Had you been clumsy, you would have kept your mouth shut. Like this.”
His words suggested he had seen through everything about her.
Esika, after a moment of thought, opened her lips.
“The reason you have not asked in detail about what happened earlier is….”
Esika opened her lips.
“Since His Highness already knows the number of knives in the Klaus family and the affairs of the family as well.”
Lesban’s Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed the tea.
A man who combined beauty and masculinity, he set the teacup down with leisurely grace.
And with golden eyes filled with thoughts that held no meaning, he simply gazed at Esika.
Esika felt inexplicably restless.
As if her stomach had been churning even though she had eaten nothing.
*Why is he showing me kindness…*
Just as she reached for the teacup, Lesban’s low voice reached her.
“If you are from the Brigate family, you would be familiar with Prihatz and the sea.”
At Lesban’s words that turned the subject, Esika felt a jolt inside.
The characters ‘Hasets’ from the note he had sent her came to mind.
Hasets was a notorious smuggling port area even in Prihatz, and as a child, Esika had gone there with her brothers.
But she had no need to show that she had seen the hidden characters in the note.
“……Yes.”
When Esika answered in a calm tone, Lesban’s gaze grew deeper.
Esika did not avert her eyes.
She could not read his intention, but she stared back at him silently.
After a moment, Lesban’s lips curved.
“Beneath the surface of calm water, the currents run deep. The Klaus estate seems to be the same.”
Esika replied as if she had not been particularly concerned.
“Everything in the world is different on the surface and beneath it. How could it be the same here?”
“That is unfortunate. Even the Duke of Klaus is not on your side.”
It was a blunt remark that carried no trace of regret, one that pierced straight to the heart.
Lesban, who had spoken as if mocking her, continued with a soft laugh.
“Ah, it is proper not to know the affairs of another’s house, but I am a man who has wandered the battlefield for years and forgotten manners. I hope you understand.”
Esika knew he was not.
Lesban never acted without manners or according to his emotions and feelings.
He was rather a schemer who saw ten steps ahead while taking one.
Otherwise, there was no reason why Esika, who was quick to see through people’s hearts, would find him so difficult and troublesome to deal with.
“…..”
Lesban leaned his upper body slightly forward and met Esika’s eyes.
And in a low voice, he whispered.
“If I, with my blood-stained hands, reach out to help, will you tremble and flee?”
In the golden eyes that held a faint gleam of madness, Esika suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
The voice carried a dense pressure.
For an ordinary woman, simply facing such eyes would have been enough to instill fear.
But Esika was different.
“My own affairs….”
It felt strangely difficult to speak.
“……I can handle it myself.”
At Esika’s words, Lesban’s eyebrows twitched.
Esika continued with a calm face.
“I am grateful for His Highness the Crown Prince’s concern, but I am not foolish enough to be unable to open my own path.”
Of course, Esika did not trust Lesban.
She could not know his true intentions. She could not gauge what his interest in her was based on or how dangerous it might be.
In her face that smiled without revealing her heart, Lesban’s lips curved into a faint smile.
“As expected… you are interesting.”
After a while, Kalian entered the reception room.
Unlike when he had glared at Esika earlier with sharp eyes, his face was now stern.
“I apologize for keeping you waiting, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Lesban replied to Kalian with a calm gaze.
“How is the Duchess?”
“……She is recovering.”
Esika could see Kalian’s pupils shaking at Lesban’s question.
She could read the confusion and suspicion still lingering in those eyes.
Lesban shifted his gaze to Esika and said.
“My wife was satisfied, so she was not bored.”
Esika, who had not expected those words, flinched.
Kalian slowly looked at Esika.
However, Esika, who had not met Kalian’s eyes even once, bowed her head lightly in greeting to Lesban and left the reception room.
***
After leaving the reception room, Esika walked down the corridor.
Maids who had been wandering stopped and closed their mouths, and the servants who had been whispering fell silent.
Everyone knew what had happened today.
The incident where Leon had tried to flip the allergy accusation onto Esika and failed.
And that the Duke’s mood was not good.
Sella, who followed behind her, had her nose in the air.
“…….”
Maids who had never greeted Esika before bowed their heads.
This atmosphere spread to all the employees of the estate in an instant.
Those who had worked beneath others all their lives were quick to read the air.
Who held power, who was the second-in-command, who was being ignored by the others.
Through such information, they quickly calculated how to deal with their superiors.
Esika’s contempt had been openly encouraged by the Duchess.
But today, the Duchess had tried to play the allergy card and had been carried away and disappeared.
The Duchess of Klaus, who had won the war against her, had even received the crown prince, Lesban Deron Lucain, for a short time.
“You were really amazing today….”
When Sella entered the room, her eyes sparkled as she whispered to Esika.
“I never thought the situation would turn out as you said. It’s so surprising.”
Esika had known that the Duchess would try to frame her with an allergy accusation at the tea party.
Through the lady-in-waiting Yuri, she had deliberately ordered some peanut cookies to be made.
If Esika had not taken precautions beforehand, she would have been in trouble.
Kalian, who had deep affection for her mother, would have been angry with Esika.
“Today was a bit tiring.”
Esika frowned and looked out the window.
Despite the successful day, her heart raced at an anxious pace.
Unlike the sunless room, the beautiful garden was visible from one glance.
In her eyes were Lesban’s figure and Kalian’s figure learning beside him.
Although the sun was at its zenith, Lesban’s shadow was short, yet she felt as if an unseen shadow was reaching here.
Just as she tried to tear her eyes away from him, Lesban suddenly raised his head and looked at Esika.
Her heart gave a jolt again in that deep gaze.
Even with the curtains drawn, the faint smile on his lips lingered like a afterimage.