Chapter Two Hundred and Eleven: Anniversary Date
Sara came to drag Karen out of bed at the crack of dawn and began getting the still half-asleep Karen ready.
“Sara…? What are you doing here…?”
“Mister Thor, who was already up early, let me in. You’re going out with Master Julius today, right? So I’ve come to dress you up properly.”
“Mrph.”
As her face was wiped vigorously with a damp towel, Karen woke up a little.
“Thank you for coming all the way here, Sara.”
“Hmph, think nothing of it.”
Sara puffed her chest out proudly. Karen drifted in and out of her half-asleep haze for a while, but eventually something caught her attention.
“Wait!? I don’t recognize this dress!”
“It’s a summer dress Lady Alise had made for you, Lady Karen.”
It was made of thin white fabric embroidered with gold thread. Layered over that were several more sheets of white cloth so sheer they were nearly transparent, giving it a soft, fluffy design that was utterly charming.
“When did she have time for this!? Is it really all right for me to accept it…?”
“Of course it is. It’s for Lady Alise’s in-laws’ outing, after all.”
“I see. It’s for Mr. Julius’s sake, then.”
Karen murmured that in a sleepy, absent-minded tone, and Sara shook her head as if to say, “What am I going to do with you?”
“Well, for now, I suppose that’s good enough. If you enjoy yourselves, that’ll be all Lady Alise could wish for.”
With that, Sara set about finishing Karen’s preparations with brisk efficiency.
“Ah… you look lovely, Karen.”
Julius, dressed in formal noble attire, said it with a soft smile, and Karen gave a sheepish, lopsided grin.
“D-Do I? You look absolutely wonderful yourself, Mr. Julius!”
She thought that standing beside him, she couldn’t help but pale in comparison—but she kept that to herself.
Julius looked at Karen’s neck, and his smile deepened.
“You wore the necklace, too.”
“Yes. The colors seemed to work well enough with the dress.”
Karen placed her hand over her chest. There gleamed a necklace set with a golden gemstone, the same color as Julius’s eyes. The set included earrings too, yet because she already had piercing, those had stayed behind. It was the piece of jewelry Julius had once given her in return for a sachet she had made.
“It brought me great delight to see you adorned in my colors.”
As Julius leaned in to look more closely at the necklace, Karen noticed the embroidery on his cravat. The thin white cravat bore gold embroidery worked into the fabric.
“Mr. Julius, that cravat…”
“It’s not just the cravat—today my entire outfit was tailored to match your dress, Karen.”
“…I’m so happy.”
Karen said it with a quiet smile. She meant it from the bottom of her heart. At the same time, she thought it must look rather ridiculous to anyone watching—but she knew that Julius would not be pleased to know she thought so, and so she said nothing.
“Shall we go, then, Karen?”
“Yes! See you later!”
She took the hand Julius offered with a smile, waved to Sara and Harald, who had come to see them off, and climbed into the carriage.
“Where are we going today?”
“If it doesn’t trouble you, I’ve changed my thinking somewhat—I thought we might go somewhere quite public. What do you say?”
“I don’t mind at all, as long as I’m with you, Mr. Julius.”
“In that case, would you be willing to attend a party tonight as my partner?”
“If you were certain I’m suitable… but could one really join a party so suddenly?”
Karen had once seen Alise preparing for a party for Sieg’s recovery celebration. After sending out invitations, she recalled seeing Alise grow anxious over those who failed to reply regarding their attendance.
“There’s a party I’d received an invitation to—I had already sent my regrets, but on a whim I dispatched a messenger last night, and by early this morning I had a reply saying my attendance would be most welcome.”
“I see. I suppose anyone would be delighted to have you come, Mr. Julius.”
Alise, too, had gone to great lengths to invite famous performers and musicians to liven up Sieg’s celebration. If the guests were to enjoy themselves and feel compelled to attend, someone as celebrated as Julius would always be welcome—any time, without question. The only regret would be not having been able to tell the other guests in advance that Julius would be there.
As for an extra like Karen—well, no one had asked for her.
“I cannot say how much value I hold in others’ eyes, but I intend to show them that the one person before whom I, rated as I am, willingly bow—is you alone.”
“I don’t dislike that at all.”
If anything, it was exactly the kind of romantic stories Karen loved most. And yet she tilted her head in thought.
“But is that really the date you dreamed of, Mr. Julius?”
It was a little hard to imagine that the date a young Julius had once fantasized about involved a woman standing next to him with a smug look on her face. Julius answered her question without missing a beat:
“The truth is, Brother Helfried and I have different mothers. On the surface, I am recognized as a legitimate son of the family, so there are very few even among the servants, who know the truth.”
Karen nearly let out a surprised exclamation and swallowed it just in time.
“After I was taken into the household, Mother—Brother Helfried’s mother, that is—tried to treat me as her own child without distinction. But I felt guilty. She attempted to take me to many places, and I refused every time. I usually gave excuses such as preferring swordsmanship or wanting to explore the dungeon.”
The lightness with which he spoke of it made Karen close the mouth she had begun to open, and simply listen.
“But in truth, there were times I wished I had gone with her… I was often told I resembled Mother more than my father, so perhaps we would have appeared a true family. Part of me wanted that, yet at the time, I felt it was wrong. We were not bound by blood, and yet people said I resembled her—that felt like something I had no right to. Gatherings like this party were among those occasions.”
Julius looked down at the invitation he had drawn from his breast pocket and smiled. Karen thought that perhaps the place Julius had dreamed of was less a destination for a date and more somewhere he had wanted to go with his family—but she didn’t say so. Instead, she slid across from the opposite seat to the one beside him and leaned gently against his side.
“Let’s go to all sorts of places together from now on.”
“…Thank you, Karen. I find myself looking forward to being seen as your partner.”
Karen felt, just slightly, that she understood the feelings of that young Julius who had thought it wrong to be seen as part of his family. Being seen as Julius’s partner was something the Karen of today couldn’t help but feel unworthy of. Her chest ached with a quiet, squeezing pain.
But that pain came less from her sense of unworthiness toward Julius, and more from the thought of what must have been going through Julius’s heart back then—when he had surely still been so young. She felt glad that she might have understood even a fragment of that heart.
There were so many things she wanted to ask, but she left them unasked and turned to something else instead.
“If the party is in the evening, what would you like to do until then?”
“Shopping, perhaps?”
“Is that genuinely somewhere you want to go, Mr. Julius?”
“But of course, Karen. Brother Helfried once told me that a man truly feels the meaning of being alive in the moment he sees the face of the one he loves light up with joy. And he was right.”
It seemed this was something Julius had quietly, earnestly dreamed of for a long time—having been influenced by his lovey-dovey earl brother and sister-in-law.
Julius cheerfully reached out and brushed Karen’s earlobe, touching her earring.
“Right now, I feel I could know that feeling even more deeply than when I gave you that necklace and the earring.”
No matter how one looked at it, Julius was fully intent on buying her something. It wasn’t that she was ungrateful for gifts, but letting him spend money on her did feel a little wrong. Still, he said it with such undisguised anticipation shining through his words that Karen decided to set aside any excessive modesty.
“If it makes you happy, then let’s do that, Mr. Julius.”
Whatever Julius intended to buy for her, it would only be a problem if Karen decided she wanted it. Of course, since Julius clearly wanted to buy her something, she would let him—some small thing. She would choose something at a reasonable price from the things she actually wanted, accept it graciously, and make a great show of her delight.
Ideally, something Julius would find worthwhile to give, and something Karen could cherish for years to come. She was confident she could show genuine, unfeigned joy. No performance would be required. Karen drew up what felt like a perfect plan in her mind and left the choice of destination entirely to Julius.
That was her greatest mistake.
“Here we are, Karen.”
Julius took her hand to help her out of the carriage, and Karen looked up at the shop before her and went pale.
“‘Urgo’s Magical Tool Shop’…!?”
It was the most prestigious long-established magical tool shop in the Kingdom of Earthfill. The shop every alchemist and magical tool artisan who dealt in such items dreamed of setting foot in.
“B-But this shop is by referral only…! The proprietor is terribly particular—they say even the king himself can’t get in without meeting the conditions…!”
Karen stumbled over her words, and Julius smoothly produced a card in front of her.
“I have a letter of introduction to Urgo’s Magical Tool Shop, so there’s nothing to worry about, Karen.”
Could Karen manage not to want anything at all? Could she accept some modestly priced item, and then convincingly perform the picture of complete and utter satisfaction?
Thus began Karen’s battle against her worldly desires.
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