“…Lord Magzeta?”
Rodi gave him a slightly startled look, then muttered something under her breath.
It sounded vaguely like, ‘Is it already that time…?’ He had no idea what she meant.
“…”
Likens was about to speak, but he hesitated.
He found himself momentarily unsure of how to address her.
‘Properly speaking, I would call her Lady Evant.’
Yet he sensed that Rodi would hardly welcome that title now.
Seeing no need to provoke her unnecessarily, Likens asked plainly,
“Why are you here?”
She gave a simple reply.
“To sell a mansion.”
“A mansion? Isn’t your home in Lagro Village?”
“I already sold that one and bought a new home in the capital.”
Answering with utter nonchalance, Rodi turned back to the broker and began insisting once more, “Eight thousand gold!”
Likens watched her with mild fascination.
‘How did she manage to sell that house?’
House Evant would never have handed an expensive estate to an illegitimate daughter.
‘They surely gave her some dilapidated ruin.’
On top of that, the price gap between properties in the capital and those in provincial villages was vast.
‘Even if she sold the house in Lagro Village, it shouldn’t have yielded anywhere near enough to buy property in the capital.’
Just then, looking completely drained of life, the real estate broker spoke up.
“A-All right, fine… I’ll list it for eight thousand gold….”
He added in a warning tone,
“As I have told you several times, you had best abandon any expectation that this house will sell quickly.”
“I heard you the first time.”
Nodding with satisfaction, Rodi whipped her head around.
“Lord Magzeta.”
Never anticipating she would address him, Likens responded a beat late.
“…What is it?”
Approaching him, she stood squarely in front of him.
“Did you come to buy a house?”
“Ah, yes….”
Before she could ask why, Likens added almost defensively,
“The ducal residence is rather far for commuting to the knight order.”
He could hardly admit he was fleeing the house because his grandfather would not stop nagging him to marry.
Yet Rodi looked as though she grasped everything already.
“Duke Magzeta seems as robust as ever.”
“…”
Likens fell silent at that.
It was an open secret in high society that Duke Magzeta was trying by any means necessary to marry off the young duke, so she had likely pieced it together.
“If you have some time to spare…”
Rodi smiled with supreme confidence.
“A wonderful property just came on the market. Care to take a look?”
Likens looked at her with a hint of surprise.
‘She feels somehow different.’
He had sensed it earlier, but after being exiled from her family, she seemed distinctly more poised and self-assured.
‘In the past, the only time she ever showed any spirit was when glaring at Dame Gretia or tormenting some noble lady.’
Apart from those moments, she had always stared gloomily at the floor or worn a simmering, resentful scowl.
‘And yet now…’
Her eyes were radiant with life, as though harboring starlight within them.
It was exceedingly peculiar.
How could a noble lady cast out of her own household brim with such vibrant energy…?
“…So, as it happens, my mansion is close to the Imperial Palace Knights. Interested?”
Distracted by his wandering thoughts, Likens nodded without thinking.
“Hm? Ah, yes.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he winced inwardly.
“…!”
Yet Rodi’s face brightened so dazzlingly that he could not bring himself to correct his mistake.
“Wonderful!”
She beamed broadly.
“Let’s go see it right away!”
Rodi whipped around to face the real estate broker, who stood behind her wearing a bewildered expression.
“Mr. Thomas, show us the way!”
Cold sweat poured down Thomas’s face.
“S-Surely you don’t mean to show that house to Young Duke Magzeta?! N-N-No, absolutely not….”
Rodi retorted with a petulant pout,
“What on earth is wrong with my house?”
Likens looked back and forth between the frantic broker and Rodi.
Was there something wrong with the estate she had bought?
‘…Well, I’ve already agreed to look.’
It would be poor form to go back on his word now.
Likens spoke up.
“I will decide after I have seen it.”
“…”
Thomas’s cheeks hollowed with profound dread.
✦ ✦ ✦
The mansion Rodi owned truly was within walking distance of the Imperial Palace Knights.
“Right here!”
Standing before the mansion whose interior she had remodeled from the ground up just days earlier, her confidence was palpable.
‘Likens is bound to love this house.’
There was not a single detail that could possibly cause an issue.
The entire interior was tailored to his tastes—simple and classic—while the layout had been designed for maximum efficiency.
“…Impressive.”
Indeed, Likens was scrutinizing every corner of the interior with evident interest.
“There are separate servants’ quarters as well. Three or four people could stay here quite comfortably.”
High nobleman though he was, Likens had never favored having a trail of servants hovering behind him.
He would undoubtedly hire only a handful of staff to manage the grounds.
Likens asked, sounding somewhat surprised,
“Did you renovate the servants’ quarters as well?”
It was a natural question. Most nobles who remodeled a mansion never spared a thought for the staff rooms.
“Naturally.”
Rodi added,
“People have to live here, too. I couldn’t very well leave it in disrepair, could I?”
“…How unexpected. I would not have thought you would care about such details.”
She merely shrugged.
‘Admittedly, the original Rodi might not have.’
…Yet she herself understood the plight of an employee down to her bones.
She, too, had been ground into dust by the corporate machine in her past life.
‘Working under someone is no easy task!’
If nothing else, she wanted the staff to be able to rest comfortably in their quarters.
‘Besides,’
Likens was relatively humane and considerate by nature; a clean, proper staff room would certainly appeal to him.
Likens gently ran his hand along the wall of the entrance hall.
“You used Anaglypta.”
Anaglypta referred to textured wallpaper with deeply embossed reliefs.
Seeing that he recognized it made Rodi rather giddy.
“They say it’s quite popular these days. Isn’t it lovely?”
“…Indeed.”
He continued inspecting each room one by one before coming to a stop in front of the fireplace in the parlor.
“…Here, you used marble.”
He truly had a keen eye.
“I put quite a bit of thought into it.”
Likens then ran his hand across the parlor table.
“The solid wood… is it elm?”
“The brightness of oak or mahogany has its charms, but I thought elm was better suited for creating a natural, timeless ambiance.”
“I agree with you—”
As if something had suddenly struck him, Likens’s face hardened and he cut himself off abruptly.
“Lord Magzeta? Is something the matter?”
“…No, it’s nothing. Please forget what I just said.”
“…?”
Though she looked perplexed, Rodi soon nodded.
“Very well.”
Carrying a slightly rigid expression, he completed his inspection of the interior and stepped outside.
“I left the garden untouched. If there are any flowers you fancy, you can plant them yourself.”
“…I shall do so. And over there?”
When Likens pointed toward the annex, Rodi smiled with absolute confidence.
“That’s the annex. I set it up in a rather special way. Would you like to take a look?”
Likens looked at her with curious doubt.
People rarely put much care into the appointments of an outbuilding.
‘At best, they are used as storage.’
Just what had she done to it to make her look so sure of herself?
The two of them walked over to the annex.
Rodi pulled the key to the building from her pocket.
Click.
The lock turned with a crisp sound, and the door swung open.
Likens’s eyes widened at the sight of the interior.
“This is….”
Rodi swept her arm out toward the room with theatrical flourish.
“Take a look!”
Likens’s gaze swept across the inside of the annex.
“…A workshop.”
It was precisely that.
Rodi had turned the annex into a workshop suited for simple craft and benchwork.
‘Likens enjoys crafting items so much that it’s his main hobby.’
So this annex was guaranteed to hit the mark—
“I regret to say,”
…Wait, what?
With an utterly stiff, stony face, Likens declared,
“I cannot possibly buy this mansion.”
Whaaaat?!
