Chapter 27
#27
We sat in the cool shade of a tree.
We could have gone inside the headmaster's office and drunk the tea I had bought, but choosing the outdoors might have been instinctive.
The story I was about to tell might upset Ricardo, might even make him angry.
"You always seem to get along well with Lara."
Ricardo spoke first, watching Lara playing house a short distance away.
"No one dislikes a cute child."
"That's true."
Ricardo nodded and took a sip of water.
"Did you come all the way here just to see me?"
"Yes."
"If you're here to bring up the annulment again because of the letter I sent to the Croford Family, I think I'd rather go back and watch the children's posture."
Ricardo said, as if to block the topic in advance.
Of course, there was a lot I wanted to discuss with him about that as well.
If he was willing to talk.
Having known Ricardo for ten years, I knew that he was a man of few words, a man who didn't say frivolous things.
That he always kept his word.
So, repeating what he had already said was pointless.
"No. It's about something else."
So, I had no intention of arguing with Ricardo about the annulment in the first place.
Unless the basic premise was overturned, a discussion with him would be meaningless.
"Ricardo, I came because I have a favor to ask of you."
"A favor?"
Ricardo, who had tilted his head back to take another sip of water, paused as if he had heard something truly unexpected.
Then, he put down the water he was holding and stared at me.
"Why?
"No. I just thought it was a word that didn't suit you at all."
Ricardo resumed his paused movement, drank the water, and then looked at me.
"What is this favor?"
"Do you remember me telling you last time that I was planning to hold a ball next month and asking you to keep your schedule open?"
"Of course. And I've kept my schedule open."
"Actually, that ball is a charity ball for this orphanage. The building seems too old, so we're trying to move, and we're trying to raise funds to build a new building."
"I heard about that from the headmaster."
"And I'm thinking of holding a Debutante for a young lady at the ball as well."
I said as if it were nothing.
As if it were primarily a charity ball, and the Debutante was just a side event.
But in fact, in my plan, the Debutante came first, and I was going to hold a charity ball to raise donations for the orphanage if possible.
"Have you heard about the Wensbury Family?"
"What happened there?"
Ricardo, who was indifferent to social affairs, seemed to know nothing.
"Lord Wendsbury is said to have an illegitimate child."
"Lord Wendsbury?"
Ricardo said, as if truly surprised.
He was known as a likable and good-natured man, but he had never been mentioned as a womanizer.
When he was young, he had devoted himself solely to swordsmanship, and that was why he had made a name for himself as the best swordsman in the empire.
In some ways, it was similar to Ricardo. In that, when he was young, he was not interested in anything other than swordsmanship.
It was only after Lord Wendsbury put down his sword that he began to turn his attention to other things, and that was meeting people.
So, it was no wonder that Ricardo reacted with surprise when he heard that he had an illegitimate child.
"Lord Wendsbury, who recently learned of this fact, brought the illegitimate child to the capital. He plans to formally adopt her and register her into the Wensbury Family."
"I see."
Ricardo nodded after listening to my explanation.
At first, he was a little surprised to hear that Lord Wendsbury had an illegitimate child, but he seemed to have accepted the fact.
"Of course, the Marquess was not happy about the illegitimate child, so she didn't seem to want to debut her in society. Reintar asked me to take care of her."
"Reintar?"
Ricardo, whose face had already lost interest in the story of the illegitimate child and society, suddenly frowned and looked at me.
Could it be that he didn't get along with Reintar?
Ricardo, the captain of the 1st royal guard, and Reintar, the captain of the 2nd royal guard, could seem like rivals at first glance.
They were of similar age, and both had become captains of the royal guard at a young age.
But if you looked at the situation in more detail, that was not the case at all.
It was difficult to find a rival for Ricardo's overwhelming skill within the empire.
Some even said that the only person who could compete with the current Ricardo was not the young Lord Wensbury, the captain of the 2nd royal guard, but his father, Lord Wendsbury, the best swordsman in the empire, in his prime.
Of course, Lord Wensbury could not turn back time, which meant that there was no one in the empire who could compare to Ricardo.
So, Ricardo, who could not dare to compete with Ricardo in skill, would not feel any rivalry towards the pitiful Reintar, but he seemed strangely sharp when Reintar's name came up.
"What did he say?"
"He asked me to take good care of his half-sister, who is clumsy at everything."
"Anything else?"
"What do you mean, 'else'?"
"Any other words?"
"No, there weren't."
"......"
Only after hearing that there were no other words did Ricardo's eyes soften a little.
"As you might have guessed, the reason I brought up the story of the Wensbury Family is because the young lady who will be making her Debutante at the charity ball I'm hosting is that young lady from Wensbury."
After finishing my explanation about Maria's story, I paused for a moment.
Because my real business started from here.
"And what I'm asking you to do is, I want you, Ricardo, to be her escort at that young lady's Debutante."
"That's your favor?"
Ricardo said with a frown.
From his expression, I could already feel that he would not easily grant my request.
"Why should I do that?"
I knew it.
"I'm your fiancé. Asking your fiancé to escort another young lady."
Ricardo made an unpleasant face, as if I had asked him to do something incredibly rude.
Of course, it was not a pleasant thing for someone who had a fiancé to be escorted by another person of the opposite sex, or to escort another person of the opposite sex.
Because it meant that they were in a close relationship with another person of the opposite sex.
But the situation was different now. I, the person involved, was asking Ricardo to do it, and I didn't feel bad at all.
"Since it's a Debutante held at a ball that I'm hosting, I want it to be perfect. But I don't know any men, so I thought it would be a little pathetic for her to enter holding her father's or half-brother's hand."
"Why me of all people?"
I already knew that Ricardo would ask this.
"Because you're the most perfect man I know."
So, I recited the answer I had already prepared.
I smiled slyly, as if to say, "Don't you think so too?" but Ricardo still had a stiff expression.
"Why are you so concerned about that woman? Is it because Reintar asked you to?"
"That's part of it, but after hearing her story, I wanted to help her."
"Want to help?"
"I met her first, and she's very kind and very pretty. And she has a good heart."
Sprinkling sweet compliments, I was finally ready to present Maria to Ricardo.
"Actually, she would have preferred to live peacefully in the countryside, but she chose to be adopted into the Wensbury Family in order to pay for her sick mother's hospital bills."
"What's wrong with her mother?"
"She was a single mother who raised her daughter alone and suffered hardships, so she got sick."
Ricardo nodded slightly, as if he understood without me having to say much.
"So, I wanted to give her as glamorous a Debutante as possible. She's already in a difficult position as an illegitimate child, and if her Debutante is also pathetic, it will be difficult for her to gain a foothold in Splendor society."
"You're very concerned."
"You know what society is like, don't you? It's full of hyenas who want to tear you apart if you show even the slightest gap. It's a scary place where if you just throw a lamb in, only bones will be left."
"Is that what balls and tea parties were like?"
The knight, who had never worried about his reputation, tilted his head.
Well, Ricardo was oblivious to such things.
That's why I tried to cover the indifferent social trends and connections.
That effort and my outstanding talent combined to earn me the title of the flower of Splendor society.
"It's too pitiful to just leave a poor lamb in such a place, isn't it? So, I want to help her."
What I had recently learned about Ricardo was that he was not as insensitive as I thought, but rather quite tender-hearted.
The reason I explained Maria's situation in such detail was precisely because of that.
I hoped that Ricardo would pity her and agree to be her escort.
"Were you like that too?"
I was looking at Ricardo, hoping that he would say yes, but what came out of his mouth was a question.
"Yes?"
"Were there times when you were a lamb?"
The man who had always been by my side at important social events for the past 10 years asked that question.
"Were there times when you were scared and afraid of that place?"
I resented Ricardo for asking that question as if he knew nothing.
It was a moment that made me realize anew that the man who had held my hand and escorted me in my childhood had really not been interested in me at all.
"I wasn't such a frightened lamb."
In the book now, I was Ricardo's first love, but that love was completed when I died.
It was a poignant first love because I died, and it became an unattainable eternal love because I died.
But I didn't want a love that was completed by death.
"Because I was a lion who would fight and win against them. A young lioness who would survive no matter what."
