Ch#45
The Capital (4)
The Madame’s hands trembled as she took his measurements.
It was a natural reaction, but it still left a bitter taste in his mouth.
These were scars carved into his entire body during the days when he was still unskilled with a blade.
And it wasn’t just sword wounds.
There were places where the skin had festered from burns and gunshot wounds, losing its original shape entirely; even to Elric’s eyes, the scars covering his body were quite gruesome.
A thought naturally drifted into his mind.
‘This isn’t something I should show my wife.’
The moment he imagined her shocked face, Elric flinched.
A hollow laugh escaped him.
‘What on earth am I thinking…?’
In the first place, what reason would there be to show her?
Feeling as though he had fallen into a vulgar daydream for no reason, Elric quickly shook the thought away.
“A-All done!”
The Madame forced a cheerful laugh as she finished marking the measurements.
A professional was a professional, after all.
Elric gave a thin smile as he put his shirt back on.
“Thank you. What must we do now?”
“Let’s go look at fabrics and designs! After all, the wearer’s taste is the most important part of a garment, wouldn’t you agree?”
“That is true. Let us go.”
When they stepped out of the workroom, Tiria was sitting on the sofa looking through a catalog.
As he made his presence known, she looked up.
“Are you finished?”
“I am. Now we shall look at fabrics and designs.”
“Yes, I have been looking through them in advance.”
Without consulting me?
The words almost slipped out, but Elric soon recalled the events of the previous day and accepted it.
Elric’s tailcoat would be decided entirely by Tiria’s choice.
As the Madame glanced between them, Elric responded with an awkward smile.
“……My wife has a much better eye for clothes. You should speak with her.”
“Oh my, you’re such a devoted husband!”
Clap!
She clapped her hands and immediately chimed in, for which he was merely grateful.
Tiria’s expression wavered for an instant, but it was too brief a moment for Elric to discern her inner thoughts.
“Then, Madam, which ones did you find to your liking?”
“……First, this one.”
Tiria and the Madame quickly became absorbed in conversation.
It mostly followed a pattern where Tiria would pick a cloth, and the Madame would add comments on which fabric matched which color and what style of suit suited his build and frame. To Elric, it was simply a headache-inducing dialogue.
Thus, he killed time by greedily snacking on the refreshments on the tea table and gulping down black tea, but there was no sign of the conversation ending.
Just how much longer were they going to be?
It was the moment boredom began to rise within Elric.
Ting—
The door to the boutique opened.
A new customer had arrived. The Madame looked up, her face brightening to greet them, and then—
“Welcome—”
She froze.
It wasn’t just the Madame.
Tiria’s brow also furrowed slightly.
She was someone who rarely showed discomfort; who could it be to make her react like that?
Curious, Elric looked toward the entrance.
“……Well now, if it isn’t the Young Lady of Wibin.”
A greasy-looking blonde young man stood there.
His jaw was crooked as if he had been punched, but his clothes were luxurious, suggesting he was the scion of a fairly influential family.
“Wife, do you know him?”
When he asked, the man’s gaze shifted to Elric.
Elric could feel a faint hostility within it.
But it soon vanished.
“Ah, Baron Portman? I heard the news……”
His eyes scanned Elric once, then moved to the cane held in his hand.
A smile as crooked as his jaw formed on his face.
“……My, it seems you suffered some misfortune during your period of wandering?”
Elric was no fool.
Or more accurately, he was more perceptive than anyone regarding certain emotions he had experienced.
‘He’s picking a fight.’
Hostility, wariness, and then superiority and relief.
Those feelings were messily intertwined, transforming into the sarcasm in his tone.
The look he gave Elric as he looked down his nose was quite slimy.
A hint of annoyance was also visible.
‘What is this……’
Since the man had shoved such a face at him right upon their first meeting, Elric felt more bewildered than offended.
Should he be angry?
No, the opponent was too pathetic for that.
‘A single flick of the finger might make his head explode.’
He understood that as a noble, the man might not have undergone rigorous mana training, but he wondered if he wasn’t far too out of shape regardless.
A quick scan showed his muscle mass was disastrous. His outward frame looked decent enough, but there was far too much visceral fat, and his physical metabolism was creaking.
‘A diet issue? No, his lifestyle itself is poor.’
A total mess.
The most prominent thing among his flaws was the trace of a venereal disease. He seemed to be a man of quite promiscuous sexual habits.
It was obvious that if left as he was, he would die young.
“……Head of the family, this is Young Master Aman Nimrud, the heir to the House of Count Nimrud.”
Tiria stepped forward to introduce him.
Elric let out an “Ah” of realization.
It was because he remembered hearing that name before coming here.
‘I must make an acquaintance with Count Nimrud at this banquet. You’ve researched his tastes, right?’
To be precise, he had heard the words of a noble on the street just a moment ago who was looking to get close to his father, since she had mentioned the surname and that he was the heir.
As expected, it seemed to be a powerful family.
Their arrogance was understandable. Since there was no need to deliberately make an enemy, Elric leaned on his cane, stood up, and greeted him properly.
“I am Elric of Portman. You need not call me Baron. I have not yet completed the succession process.”
He offered a handshake with a friendly smile, but the reaction he received was lukewarm.
The man’s gaze was already shifting back toward Tiria.
And that—
“The Young Lady has become even more beautiful in the meantime.”
—somehow, sparked a sense of unpleasantness inside Elric.
“……You flatter me.”
“How have you been? I was very worried, as the last news I heard was of the Baron’s return. To think he only came home after ten years of being away from the house…… Oh dear, my apologies.”
He gave a thin smile and looked at Elric.
Elric pondered for a moment.
‘Should I kill him?’
No, let’s calm down. I shouldn’t do that.
This isn’t the West; it’s Ferdin in the East, and this man is the heir to an influential Count’s family.
If he acted on personal feelings, dealing with the aftermath would be quite a nuisance.
Furthermore, Elbus Graham wasn’t here to clean up after him.
He suddenly felt a longing for the man’s presence, but since he couldn’t ask for help in a place like this, Elric laughed.
“I am fine—”
“But why is the Young Lady at a boutique? Ah, are you trying to have a tailcoat made for the Baron?”
“……Yes.”
“Hmm, it seems your relationship isn’t that bad.”
Elric’s smile vanished instantly.
The gaze of the man named Nimrud was annoying.
To be precise, the way his eyes scanned Tiria was so disgusting he wanted to gouge them out.
Besides that, every time he insisted on calling Tiria “Young Lady,” Elric felt the urge to punch him in the face.
Elric was surprised at himself for even having such thoughts.
He hadn’t thought this way even once since he turned twenty; how could he be this angry?
There was an emotion boiling up inside him.
The destination of that emotion was clear.
Elric absolutely hated that this man was hovering near Tiria.
“Young Master, if it is not an intrusion, may I finish my business with the head of the family first?”
“Hmm?”
“We were in the middle of choosing fabrics.”
Even though Tiria spoke with blatant discomfort, Aman Nimrud didn’t budge.
Elric’s grip on his cane tightened.
But then, what kind of scheme was this?
“If that’s the case, I can help.”
Aman Nimrud spoke with a chuckle.
“A man’s clothes are best understood by another man, are they not? I wished to share some fellowship with the Baron. I shall help the Baron personally.”
Elric let out a hollow laugh as the arrow was turned back toward him.
Aman Nimrud took money out of his wallet, handed it to the Madame, and said,
“Listen, Madame, why don’t you go to a nearby dessert cafe for a while? I wish to have a private talk with the Baron.”
What was his motive for wanting to be alone?
No, there was no need to think. His intention was quite clear.
“T-That is……”
The Madame looked at Elric.
Elric pondered for a moment, then finally nodded.
As always, the hotter his heart grew, the colder his head became.
“That is fortunate. I have no acquaintances among the royalty’s nobility, so I was quite worried about what to do at the banquet.”
A flicker of worry appeared on Tiria’s face.
Ah, it made him feel a bit more stable.
‘Am I crazy?’
In truth, it was an expression not much different from her usual one, yet he felt it as worry, and the fact that his anger subsided because that made him happy suggested that, looking at it objectively, he probably was crazy.
“Wife, please step out for a moment.”
“Head of the family……”
“It is fine.”
Elric gave a thin smile.
Tiria’s lips quirked, but she eventually let out a deep sigh and left through the door with the Madame.
That was the moment Elric was left alone in the boutique with Aman Nimrud.
Elric deepened his smile and looked at Aman Nimrud.
‘I must keep a smiling face.’
Wasn’t that the teaching?
That a smile brings composure.
In order to send this insolent man out with his limbs intact, he needed composure……
“The Young Lady is truly as she always—”
“Baroness.”
……Composure my foot.
Elric cut off Aman Nimrud’s words and took a step towards him.
There was about a head’s worth of height difference between the two.
Aman Nimrud stumbled backward.
Elric looked down at him and spoke once more.
“She is the Baroness. The Baroness of Portman.”
Perplexity, and then something like shame, began to spread across Aman Nimrud’s face.
Of course, it was none of Elric’s business.
The sensation of blood rushing to his head was so peculiar that he was occupied just thinking about how to calm it down.
“Listen here, Young Master.”
It was a pity.
If this were the West, he would have torn off his limbs and thrown them before his parents.
But it was fine.
As always, there was a way.
“A married Young Lady is called a Madam. Tiria Portman is my wife.”
Aman Nimrud’s aura turned quite hostile.
Elric felt quite a welcome sensation.
What he recalled was the nature of nobility he had once heard from Elbus Graham.
‘Nobles live by justification and die by justification. Thus, in a conflict between nobles, even if one tries to kill the other first, there is a tendency to accept it if the justification is sufficient. To put it elegantly, that’s how it is, but to put it a bit more bluntly……’
‘Bluntly?’
‘……It means when they want to have a scrap, they use the tactic of slowly provoking the opponent until they explode. Nobles are a more petty breed than you’d think.’
Elric fervently hoped.
“Since I am the one to receive the title of Baron, it is correct to call my wife the Baroness. It seems you are lacking in education in that regard.”
Please, bark just a little more.
So I can create that grand justification.
The Wife Waited in the Wheat Field (Serial)
