Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Ordinary Person, Extraordinarily Treated
“Karen, I’m home.”
“Oh… welcome back, Julius.”
When Julius spotted Karen coming out to meet him, his face broke into a wide smile, and he crossed the distance in long strides, pulling her into a tight embrace.
“I missed you, Karen.”
“We were only apart for about two weeks. Aren’t you exaggerating a little?”
Karen laughed softly. Julius furrowed his well-shaped brows.
“Didn’t you miss me? …I’m more than willing to do as you ask, but the time without you was almost unbearable for me.”
“I missed you too! Don’t give me that look at this distance!”
Julius deliberately emphasized the overwhelming beauty of his face as he stared down at Karen from point-blank range. Karen had built up more resistance to it than she once had, but he had clearly seen right through the fact that she was still very much susceptible to that face.
“Woooow.”
At the sight of the two of them, Lily—Sepl’s wife, baby in arms—let out an impressed little sound.
Behind Julius stood Sepl—and beside him, the woman holding the infant: Lily. She was a few years older than Karen and was perhaps around Julius’s age. She stood next to Sepl, who had both arms full with what seemed like rather little luggage for a move, staring at Karen and Julius with a slightly dazed expression.
After being squeezed thoroughly, Karen extracted herself from Julius’s arms and spoke:
“Mrs. Lily, it’s been a while!”
“It really has, Little Karen.”
Lily’s color looked healthy despite a journey of over ten days, and Karen let out a quiet sigh of relief.
It had been several months since they’d last spoken properly. Lily had been living in the apartment next to the alchemy workshop for some time, and yet for some reason—different hours, perhaps—Karen had barely seen her at all.
She was a cheerful woman with brown hair in a ponytail, and she looked fuller in the face than Karen remembered, which was surely from having given birth. Apparently, she had delivered the baby around the time Karen had left for Ehlertt for the hunting festival.
Karen peered at the baby in Lily’s arms and smiled. The baby blinked his big, round eyes.
“Those eyes are just like his father’s, but he’s adorable.”
“What do you mean ‘just like his father’s’? Of course, my Cyril’s adorable!”
“Speaking of which, why didn’t you even tell me he’d been born? Actually, you should have told me the due date in the first place!”
Karen shot Sepl a sharp look. In other words, because Sepl had accompanied Karen as her supporter, he had missed the birth of his child.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Lily. If I’d known the dates overlapped, I would have left Sepl behind in the capital…”
Karen herself hadn’t thought to ask, but it was also because Sepl had told her almost nothing about Lily. Even in a workplace, there was only so much consideration you could show unless your employees actually informed you.
“I wouldn’t want you leaving him behind, Little Karen. There’s nothing he could have done standing around next to me anyway—I’d much rather he were out earning good money.”
Lily said it with a look of genuine surprise. A difference in values. It was true that women in the adventurers’ district generally preferred a man who charged headlong into dungeons, fired up by his wife’s pregnancy, over one who hovered tenderly at her side.
“I’d hate it if my husband wasn’t there for the birth, though.”
“When the time comes, men are usually useless anyway. Ah… though I suppose your husband might be different.”
Lily glanced toward Julius with something like wariness. Some women lost all composure in Julius’s presence, but thankfully Lily was not among them. She was simply intimidated by him as a nobleman of an entirely different station.
Karen had more or less expected Lily would be fine with him. Lily had always tended toward a preference for rugged, solidly built men who gave off a dependable air—the same type as her father, who ran an adventurers’ tavern. Which was why Karen had never quite understood how she’d ended up with Sepl.
Karen glanced over at Julius. He was writing something down, clearly trying not to forget what he’d just heard.
“I don’t care whether you’re useful or not. I’d absolutely want you by my side.”
Karen said it loud enough to be heard, then took Lily’s hand.
“You must be tired and cold. Come inside.”
“Oh, um… actually, I think I’ll get a room at an inn in town… a noble’s manor is a bit much for me… oh no oh no oh no…!”
Lily protested, but Karen dragged her along regardless, and she stumbled helplessly through the doors of a noble’s manor.
“Mrs. Lily, just say the word if you’re cold, and I’ll put more wood on the fire. I can also warm the room with a magical tool. Little Cyril looks well—let’s tuck him into this nice warm cradle. The servants here at the Ehlertt household will help as well, so feel free to hand the baby off and rest whenever you’re tired. Everyone here is kind, and since this west wing is Julius’s, please make yourself completely at home. Here, have some warm soup, Mrs. Lily—oh.”
Karen had been bustling about without pause—helping Lily out of her coat and hanging it up, fetching a lap blanket, bringing a warm, damp cloth for her to heat her hands with—and was now trying to hand Lily a bowl of soup. Sepl reached over and took it from the side.
He held his personal appraisal mirror to it and gave a wry smile.
“This is a potion. …This is exactly why I kept quiet about Lily—I knew you’d end up like this.”
“End up like what?”
“Going completely overboard with the special treatment.”
Sepl gave her a flat, exasperated stare, and Karen blinked at him.
“Of course, I’d give her special treatment. I’m not giving you any, though.”
“The thing is, Lily is a person with a perfectly normal set of sensibilities…”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Sepl gestured for Karen to look at Lily, who was sitting on the edge of the bed.
“A B-rank alchemist… shows me special treatment…! I’m going to be ruined…!”
Lily was trembling, her face a portrait of anguish.
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