The Story of a Middle-Aged Knight Who Tried to Live a Relaxed Slow Life in the Countryside, Only for a Duke's Daughter Whose Engagement Was Broken Off to Move in With Him

The Eve

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「Lord Leonardo... Um...」

Cistilia's hesitant voice came from behind me as I stood at the doorway, watching my former superior vanish into the twilight.

It had still been late afternoon when we returned from the dwarf village, but over the course of my discussion with Patrick, night had all but fallen.

「Ah, Cistilia.」

I turned around awkwardly.

「W-What happened...?」

Looking up at me with anxiety in her eyes, Cistilia asked. Standing at her side was that maid of hers, Maryse.

「We're going to have a duel.」

At my words, Cistilia gasped.

「Does that mean... Patrick challenged you to a duel, Lord Leonardo?」

「No... the opposite.」

「The opposite? Um, does that mean you challenged Patrick to a duel, Lord Leonardo?」

As Cistilia sought confirmation, her eyes held roughly seventy percent fear and thirty percent expectation.

Facing that expectation, I found myself choking on my words.

「Don't overestimate me,」 I said. 「It's just the best way to settle this.」

At my line, Cistilia froze for a moment. Understanding and resignation gradually washed over her face.

「In other words... by challenging Patrick to a duel and losing, you intend to protect the bare minimum of honor for both Patrick and me, don't you?」

「...That's right.」

「Ngh...」

「I told you right from the start, didn't I? That this was impossible. It's time to stop dreaming, Cistilia. Besides, in your case, you'll be happier waking up from this dream. Settling down as the wife of the future Order Commander is obviously far better than burying your bones in a remote backwater like this.」

Averting my gaze from Cistilia, I said those words as if trying to convince myself.

「Are you... being serious?」

「Yeah.」

Speaking dismissively, I turned to head back inside the mansion.

Maryse stepped forward to block my path.

「Move.」

I spoke without even bothering to soften my tone, but Maryse didn't budge.

「First, allow me to introduce myself, Baronet Leonardo Bacchus.」

「No need. We're parting ways tomorrow anyway. I doubt we'll ever meet again for the rest of our lives.」

「I hail from the East, where we have a proverb: 'ichigo ichie'—once-in-a-lifetime encounter. It means every meeting happens but once, making each one a miracle in its own right.」

「That's a nice proverb. But I have no reason to get friendly with you.」

「That is quite fine, but considering this a twist of fate, won't you answer just one question for me? After that, whether you harshly reject Lady Cistilia or intentionally lose the duel is no concern of Maryse.」

「W-Wait... Maryse!?」

Cistilia blurted out in shock. Ignoring her, Maryse stared fixedly at me as she asked.

「I have heard of Lord Patrick's 'secret plan.' You challenge Lord Patrick to a duel with Lady Cistilia as the stake. You lose intentionally or fight with all your strength only to be genuinely outmatched by Lord Patrick. Lady Cistilia marries Lord Patrick. Afterward, as compensation for shouldering the dishonor, Lord Patrick officially enfeoffs you as the landed lord of Ascot Village.」

「W-What...? Is that true!?」

Cistilia's eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Maryse and me.

「Am I correct in assuming that you accepted those conditions, Lord Leonardo?」

Maryse's blunt question left me speechless.

Answering 'yes' would be lying. I had told Patrick that the condition of being enfeoffed as lord was the one thing I couldn't accept. Sooner or later, Cistilia and the others would realize that anyway.

But if I told Cistilia that I had rejected that condition, she wouldn't be able to completely abandon her hopes in me. It was true that I didn't want her thinking I was the kind of man who would 'sell' her out of greed for land, but if I stated that clearly right now, it might leave her with lingering regrets.

「I can't disclose the terms of the duel without Patrick's consent.」

「That is mere sophistry. Lady Cistilia is an interested party in this matter. Are you telling her to quietly submit to a duel with unknown conditions and play the role of a living prize?」

Maryse's counter was spot on.

Seeing me struggle to answer, Maryse spoke again.

「...Haa. Just as I was told, you truly are poor at political maneuvering, aren't you?」

「What did you say?」

「If arrangements have already progressed this far, there should be no need to walk on eggshells around Lady Cistilia now. It will all come to light eventually anyway. Even if she learned about the land deal, the worst that would happen is her berating you right here and now. Yet you evaded the question. Which means... you accepted the duel while rejecting the condition of being enfeoffed as official lord... am I correct?」

I fell silent at Maryse's words. In this situation, silence was practically an admission.

Cistilia looked at me with eyes rekindled with hope.

「Is that true? Did you accept the duel without receiving anything in return, Lord Leonardo?」

「...Tch. Yeah, that's right.」

I grumbled, reluctantly admitting it while scratching my head.

「Why? It was the same with that false report to the Knights Order earlier. Why are you doing all of this for my sake...?」

「I can't give you the answer you're hoping for, Cistilia. I simply took pity on a noble lady who stumbled onto my doorstep and thought I'd let you stay for a while. But you were found much sooner than expected. Now that you've been found, I have to send you back without delay for the sake of your honor. And to preserve my peaceful rural retirement, too.」

「Please stop pretending to be the bad guy like that! I cast aside my honor to come here!」

「Then let me say it's for your true happiness. I didn't want to say this, but you haven't adjusted to life in this village at all. It'd obviously be much easier for you to live back in the royal capital, where you actually have baking powder and sugar. And what about Aisha? Do you intend to make a fine horse like her plow the fields? You're completely out of place in a village like this.」

「P-Please don't say things you don't mean! I know you recognized my efforts, at least a little! I made mistake after mistake, but I was learning and remembering things step by step... We were just getting started! I can learn to be a proper wife to you, Lord Leonardo!」

「You can't. There's no way you ever could.」

「Lord Leonardo!」

「And even if you could, so what? Stop forcing an impossible dream onto a forty-year-old old man! You'll see after tomorrow's duel! Patrick comes from a prestigious family, he's the rising star of the Knights Order, he's handsome, skilled with a sword, and possesses a proper sense of noble responsibility! He's the one who can actually protect a duke's daughter like you forever!」

Shouting those words, I shoved past the standing Maryse and headed up the stairs to the second floor.

「Lord Leonardo!」

Covering my ears against Cistilia's heartbroken cry, I barricaded myself inside the study.

Cheaply built and showing its age, this mansion left much to be desired when it came to preserving privacy.

Sitting in the study's chair, I tried my best to shut out the sound of Cistilia's weeping drifting up from downstairs.

「Hmph. As if a duke's daughter could ever be happy as the wife of some countryside magistrate.」

It was just as Patrick had said. Romantic feelings cool with time. Once the initial thrill settled down, the reality lying ahead of Cistilia would be a dull life filled with manual labor in a remote backwater. If you were someone like me, who didn't mind hard work and felt more comfortable in nature than in the city, that was fine. But Cistilia was a duke's daughter; she wasn't built for that.

(No, maybe that's not entirely true.)

Cistilia had tended to her horse herself, worked the soil to cultivate moon-waiting grass, and recently started cooking using whatever was available in the village. Cistilia had put grass in her own mouth in the pasture to check Aisha's preferences. Cistilia had used secret magic to defeat that Boarfang when it pinned me down.

Bit by bit, Cistilia had been adapting to village life. Just as she had said moments ago.

「If it was going to end like this, I should have reported her to House Eldryuse immediately.」

Cistilia might have resented me for it. But it wouldn't have led to an outcome that left her with lingering attachments. Yet, making one excuse after another, I kept delaying the report, eventually even sending a false report to keep Cistilia in this village.

Why had I done such a thing?

I had arrived at the answer long ago.

Right then, a knock sounded on the study door. The formal, distant cadence couldn't possibly belong to Cistilia.

「Maryse, is that you? What is it?」

「May I come in?」

「Yeah, do whatever you want.」

Lacking even the energy to stand, I answered listlessly.

The door creaked softly open, and Cistilia's maid walked inside.

「Are you drinking alcohol? Even though the duel is tomorrow?」

Maryse frowned as she glanced at my hands.

「I'm going to lose anyway. What difference does it make?」

「It will be a problem if you do not win.」

「What, you're on her side?」

Since she had arrived with Patrick, I had assumed she was on his side.

「I am on my lady's side. While I feel a sense of obligation toward Duke Eldryuse, if forced to choose, I would choose my lady without hesitation.」

「Then all the more reason you should get Cistilia to give up.」

「Do you truly believe my lady will ever give up?」

Maryse asked. I opened my mouth to reply, then closed it.

「...Time will heal things.」

「If you genuinely believe that, Lord Leonardo, then you must be blind.」

I remembered the day Cistilia first arrived here.

It was an unforgettable, rainy day. Soaking wet, Cistilia had held a dagger to her own throat and demanded that I take her as my wife.

「Isn't that what you're here for?」

「My lady treats me with great affection. However, she is a person who will ultimately carry out her own will to the end.」

「That's true enough. She looks quiet and meek, but she's quite the wild horse.」

「If you understand her that well, why do you refuse her?」

「How am I supposed to accept her?」

「If you cast aside appearances and dignity, you could manage somehow.」

「What, are you telling me to elope with Cistilia?」

「Is that truly impossible?」

「Why should I throw away my peaceful retirement for a girl who barged in here uninvited?」

「If that is how you truly felt, you should not have accepted the duel in the first place. You accepted an unwinnable duel precisely because you couldn't convince yourself otherwise without doing so, isn't that right?」

Put that way, maybe she was right. Or maybe she wasn't. Even I didn't know for sure. If someone said it was the best way to resolve the situation, I still believed that wasn't wrong, but...

「I will handle stalling Lord Patrick.」

「Hey, what are you saying?」

「If you intend to elope, tonight is your last chance.」

「I'm not doing something like that.」

At my age, starting over from scratch in a new land with a young girl? Out of the question—yet even while thinking that, a strange part of my heart fluttered. But looking at reality, such a thing was impossible. Once you took that first step, making excuses like 'turns out I couldn't do it after all' wouldn't fly. If it were just me, that's one thing, but there was no way I could bring about Cistilia's ruin like that.

「Is that so?」

Maryse spoke expressionlessly.

「...Very well. However, please do not hold back in tomorrow's duel.」

「I'll give it my all. And after giving my all, I'll lose. Things like that happen all the time in life.」

After Maryse left the study, I sat beneath the lamp light, staring intently into empty space for a long, long time.

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