52 - The Bride of the Great Lord is a Warrior from Hell
The Grand Duke's Bride is a Warrior from Hell 52
Harry in her memory was no different from how he was now.
He was like 'Affability' personified.
If Harry were left in a room full of women, cheerful laughter would erupt within a minute.
If Harry were left in a room full of men, he could make a best friend in less than ten minutes.
Even if he were abandoned in a completely unfamiliar land, he was the type of person who could make a friend to have dinner with that evening.
Harry was a man who made friends regardless of class, age, race, or gender.
His friends were scattered across all walks of life.
In her first life, when Harry was nominated as Baronet, the Reine family was struggling financially.
It was because of the war with the Barker family.
Harry used every means possible, mobilizing his connections to bring in funds from the shadows.
Harry possessed the affability to be able to laugh and chat with anyone in the world within just ten minutes, but the Council of Elders of the Marquis Rein strongly pushed back against him becoming the Baronet.
The Council of Elders took the financial leeway that Harry brought, but they disparaged Harry's method of raising funds as frivolous and vulgar.
Unbelievably for someone who was Affability personified, he, as the Baronet, felt out of place within the Reine family.
"Write to me."
"Write?"
Perhaps it was because Harry was an outsider in the Marquis Rein that he got along so well with people outside the family.
"Once every five days."
At Alisha's request, Harry blinked.
"Fi, five days? Alisha, my sister, are we dating?"
"No."
"Right. We're not dating, and there's no reason for siblings to write to each other every five days."
Harry gave a characteristic, seemingly good-natured, smooth smile.
It was as if freshness was bursting from his talking face.
He had the ability to make the person he was facing smile with his laughter.
Alisha looked at the smiling Harry and smiled back.
"Harry."
"Alisha."
Harry's smile deepened a little more.
Alisha smiled even more deeply and said,
"Are you dating Felix?"
"……."
"Are you dating Uncle Francis?"
"……."
At Alisha's question, Harry's smile froze.
Al, Alisha.
Harry tried to call Alisha.
He only mouthed his sister's name.
He seemed flustered and unable to make a sound.
"Perhaps with Sir Joachim……."
Alisha trailed off, looking at Joachim.
"I'll write,"
Harry said hastily.
He spoke so urgently that it seemed like if she teased him any more, he would get seriously angry.
Alisha smiled contentedly.
"Once every five days."
"To use a sibling, an older brother, as a spy, you're a scary kid, Alisha."
"A spy?"
Alisha's voice was surprised, but her expression was relaxed.
It was a face that said, 'You understood well.'
Harry stared blankly at Alisha, whose words and face were separate.
"There better not be any nonsense in the letters you send me, Brother."
Harry had a talent for using truths mixed with lies to push and pull various connections.
He knew how to discern the truth from the false phrases that others sent.
The fact that their father, Marquis Rein, had nominated Harry as his successor instead of Felix was not entirely wrong.
Although he faced strong resistance within the family, when looking at individual abilities, Harry's political skills seemed better than Felix's seriousness.
Felix's seriousness was something to consider, given that the succession had changed and exploded.
"Alisha."
Harry gave a smile that said she wouldn't be able to easily control him.
Alisha didn't say anything, but as much as she felt sorry for Harry, she also had a lot of complaints about him.
She had envied and been jealous of his innate affability and ease.
Harry was largely to blame for the fact that in Alisha's first life, she had met her matchmaking partner and became close to him according to the Head of the family's orders.
Felix's connections and network were also mobilized, but Harry's influence worked better in this area.
Both of them were angrier than anyone else after Gregory Barker's problem was revealed and took the lead in the fight.
However, the resentment that he had brought a problematic acquaintance in the first place did not disappear.
"The peaches from Juma are delicious, Harry."
"Juma……."
Harry understood Alisha's absurd words perfectly.
"Have you ever been to Juma?"
"I want to go."
Harry was not the type to put on a clumsy display of pride.
"I don't forgive mistakes, Brother."
"What's a mistake, Sister?"
Alisha stared at his confident face.
Harry only gave an awkward smile.
Even though they didn't say anything, it felt like curses were pouring out of her purple eyes.
"Make some good friends, Brother."
Alisha's entire face was filled with a look of disdain.
"My friends are good."
Harry felt wronged.
The moment Harry answered, Alisha's eyebrows tilted and rose as if she were looking at something insignificant.
Just as the two were about to bicker, a cool air entered the drawing room.
The door of the drawing room opened, and the butler came inside and approached the Marquis.
The Marquis nodded with a slightly surprised face after hearing the butler's words.
"His Highness the Grand Duke has arrived."
At the butler's words, the drawing room fell silent.
Soon, the door swung open, and Reikart walked inside.
His ash-blonde hair was disheveled, as if he had come on horseback.
"Greetings to His Highness the Grand Duke."
The nobles in the drawing room lowered their bodies at the appearance of royalty.
Alisha also paid her respects.
Reikart, who had entered the drawing room, unlike other times, took off the leather gloves he was wearing and tucked them into his jacket pocket.
He rarely took off the leather gloves he cherished like his own body in a place that was not his home.
"Marquis, thank you for the invitation."
Reikart approached Marquis Rein and greeted him.
Like his disheveled hair, his voice still showed traces of his panting breath not fully calmed.
"Your Highness. I invited you in case you might come, but I didn't expect you to actually come. It is an honor for the Reine family."
Marquis Rein expressed his deep gratitude to Reikart.
"I didn't think I could make it."
Harry, who was paying his respects next to Alisha, whispered in a low voice.
"You invited him, right?"
Alisha also whispered almost inaudibly.
"I timed it to coincide with Grand Duke Tessen's visit to the southwest. How did he get here? Do you think the Grand Duke has jealousy towards his wife, Alisha?"
Alisha slightly raised her bowed body and hid her arm in the folds of her voluminous dress.
Then, she lightly punched Harry in the side, who was standing close by.
She didn't put her full strength into it.
But Harry, who was suddenly hit in the waist, almost screamed.
"Be sure to write, Brother."
"You……."
Instead of a groan, Harry gave a seemingly relaxed smile.
"Juma."
Alisha said briefly, like some kind of code.
"Juma, good."
Just as Harry and Alisha were finishing their promise with ambiguous words, a long shadow fell in front of them.
It was Reikart.
The man's bare hand caught Alisha's attention.
"Alisha. How have you been? It seems I'm too late. Please rise."
Reikart took Alisha's hand and immediately helped her up, greeting her.
Only after he had finished speaking did he, as if passing by, order the nobles who were still paying their respects to rise.
"Your Highness."
Alisha wondered if Reikart might be sick.
The face looking at Alisha was perfectly expressionless.
Just as he was about to say something, the hand that had raised Alisha slipped out of her hand.
"Thank you for accepting the invitation."
Alisha swallowed various emotions at the hand slipping out of her hand.
Embarrassment, regret, disappointment. A strange sadness.
Reikart's hand didn't seem lonely at all, but her empty hand seemed pathetic.
And despair at herself for feeling such emotions.
She was bothered by the inexplicable discomfort.
"I will escort you to Ludern."
"Yes."
The banquet was slowly coming to an end before Reikart arrived.
She was waiting to see if anyone would buy a painting.
There were no paintings here that she particularly needed.
"Has that painting been sold?"
Reikart, who was heading towards Marquis Rein with Alisha, asked the painter.
The painting he was referring to was the largest painting that Alisha had been looking at just now.
It was a painting of the Dolore Ruins against the backdrop of the night sky.
The small girls praying inside the ruins were about the size of a finger joint when viewed as a whole painting.
"It does not have an owner yet, Your Highness."
"Then I will take that one. Baron Langs will take care of the payment."
"It is an honor to be able to show my painting to His Highness the Grand Duke."
At the painter's words, Reikart said that he had enjoyed the painting and approached Marquis Rein.
"I would like to escort the Lady to Ludern."
Reikart, standing in front of the Marquis, got straight to the point.
Alisha's dress was voluminous, and her hand, resting comfortably to the side, was hidden by the skirt.
The hand that had come in from the cold evening breeze brushed against the back of her hand, buried in the skirt.
"……."
Alisha looked to the side, but Reikart was only looking at the Marquis.
"To trouble Your Highness."
Marquis Rein was apologetic in words, but his expression was not at all.
There was even a hint of the confidence that it was natural for a fiancé to escort her.
Alisha found it difficult to understand her father's intentions.
From inviting her on the day he knew the Grand Duke would be away from the Imperial Capital, to scraping together and introducing her to the matchmaking partners from her first life to her, who had a fiancé.
It was obvious that he was trying to interfere with her relationship with the Grand Duke, but he was demanding that she, as the fiancé, act faithfully towards the Grand Duke.
What was he supposed to do? There was no consistency.
Alisha was dissatisfied with this situation, but it wasn't the time to argue about it now.
Her plan was to first greet her father, the host, and then leave.
At that moment, Reikart, who was standing next to her, moved a little closer to Alisha.
Again, a cold hand brushed against the back of Alisha's hand.
"……."
As a result, Alisha paused in her attempt to greet him.
"Please invite me again."
"I hope you will accept the invitation again. Take care. Go carefully, Alisha. Don't forget the next banquet either."
Alisha reacted reflexively to the Marquis's words.
"Yes."
This was not the original plan.
She was going to give a vague reply while conveying her greetings, rather than obediently saying yes.
But because she was distracted by the incomprehensible situation, obedient words came out.
The Marquis smiled happily at Alisha's answer.
It would only be a twitch of the lips to other people, but by the Marquis's standards, that was the same as laughing out loud.
Alisha didn't remember how she got from the drawing room to the gate where the carriage was.
Whenever she tried to say something, a large, cold hand brushed against her dazed hand.
If it was holding hands with Reikart, it wouldn't be surprising if he held her hand for ten days straight in Tessen.
But she was flustered every time he suddenly came close and his fingertips touched Alisha.
She couldn't figure out if it was just accidentally brushing against her, if it didn't mean anything, or if he was sick and not saying anything.
His cold fingertips, chilled by the cold wind, kept coming close to Alisha as if they were about to touch her, then retreated.
Alisha was so distracted by whether she should reach out more firmly to the touch of another person's hand brushing against her, or whether she was just being overly sensitive to a meaningless action, that she was out of her mind.
"Shall we go?"
Just as Alisha was about to shake off her embarrassment and speak, Reikart stole the timing to speak.