Chapter 133

“I didn’t hit them or anything, did I? I was just asking a few things as your brother. Isn’t it stranger that they started crying over that?”

My brother, who had been pretending not to know what I was talking about, casually slung an arm around Lenster’s shoulders.

In the hand resting there was the bouquet Lenster had intended to give me.

“Right, Lenster?”

“Y-yes, sir. Th-that’s right.”

Lenster stammered like a boy being shaken down for money by a terrifying older student.

I felt sorry for him just looking at him, but a man who got scared of Lucas and cried wasn’t really my type either...

More importantly, I need to meet Count Rowan.

The real problem was that Lucas was interfering with my plans.

What should I do? It’ll be difficult with my brother hanging around...

I discreetly looked around.

Even after seeing Lenster on the verge of tears, several young lords were still waiting their turn with bouquets in hand, their determination undiminished.

Five or six of them, maybe?

Good. That should keep him occupied for a while.

“Brother.”

“What?”

“Over there. There are some young lords holding bouquets and waiting for their turn...”

“Really? You lot, come over here too.”

At a single gesture from Lucas, several young lords shuffled toward him.

They had smiled brightly whenever our eyes met, but the instant they faced Lucas, they turned to stone.

They had obviously witnessed what had happened to the others.

Sorry, but I never asked any of you to propose to me. You volunteered for this yourselves...

Those who covet House Kreutz must bear its weight.

“What house are you from?”

“Y-yes, I’m—”

“Never mind. Keep your mouth shut. You won’t satisfy me anyway.”

I glanced sideways at my brother as he threw an arm around another young lord’s shoulders, then quietly slipped away from the group.

Fortunately, until I was completely out of sight, his attention remained fixed solely on the young lords.

“Good grief. I have no idea how anyone’s supposed to fix that personality...”

I said that, but thanks to Lucas, I was feeling rather emboldened.

Every young lord who had passed through his interrogation had ended up crying, so people had stopped approaching me altogether.

Power is the best. Being strong is the best.

I slowly swept my gaze around the room, and the young lords who had been sneaking glances at me hurriedly turned their heads away.

Finally, some peace and quiet.

Count Rowan still hadn’t arrived, so I decided I might as well pass the time with the young ladies.

“Snow blossoms from the Himali Mountains?”

“Yes. I’d never seen them in person before, but they were absolutely beautiful.”

“I wonder who he brought something that precious for?”

Hmm. Now that sounds interesting.

After leisurely scanning the different groups, I poked my face between the shoulders of the young ladies discussing the Himali Mountains’ snow blossoms.

“What are you talking about?”

***

One hour earlier.

After the monster training center completion ceremony ended, the nobles split into two groups.

Lady Nati of House Hillivia, a Baron’s house, had left the banquet hall where one group was enjoying the party and gone for a walk around the walls of the ducal castle.

It was her first time in the north, and apparently her first time seeing snow as well, so she looked around with fascination.

Surrounded by nothing but white, she felt as though she had become a princess in a fairy tale.

Though perhaps not an ordinary princess.

More like a dwarf princess from a land of little people.

“Nilly. Why is everyone here so tall?”

“D-don’t worry, my lady. If anything happens to you, I’ll scream at the top of my lungs and somehow save you.”

She had only asked out of curiosity. Why was Nilly suddenly acting so grimly determined?

“Save me from what? Every noble in the Frozen Kingdom is here. This is a banquet, Nilly.”

“Before it’s a banquet, this is the north. This place is crawling with monsters!”

“Yes. It’s crawling with monsters, which is why House Kreutz protects everyone.”

Nati found the unusually tall northerners both fascinating and attractive.

Handsome men wherever she looked.

Another handsome man when she turned the other way.

In the western region where she lived, there were neither subjugations nor wars, so many knights learned swordsmanship only in theory.

But in the north, not only the knights but even ordinary servants had broad shoulders and solid physiques.

Their expressions seemed relaxed, yet gave away no openings, creating an intimidating air that made them difficult to approach.

They say the trend in novels these days isn’t princes on white horses but dangerously alluring villains. I think I understand why.

Nati had been staring absentmindedly at a group of knights on patrol when she started walking again.

Thud.

Her forehead struck something hard, bringing her to a stop.

Startled, she looked up and saw—

“Eek!”

“M-my lady, d-danger...”

A dark shadow fell over the top of her head.

And above her were violet eyes unlike anything she had ever seen.

Beside her, Nilly couldn’t even manage a proper scream and only cried out in a whisper.

Nati barely noticed.

Now that the person in front of her had finally entered her full field of vision, she could only stare in a daze.

It felt as though time itself had stopped.

He was an extraordinarily tall young man dressed in a black robe, with hair as white as snow.

Below features that looked as though they belonged in a masterpiece, the dense musculature characteristic of the northerners Nati had been admiring earlier was concealed beneath a fitted robe.

Beneath thick, pale-silver lashes, shadowed eyes turned toward her—

“I apologize.”

“Y-yes?”

Nati, who had been staring blankly at the man, jumped at the sudden sound of his voice and stammered.

“We bumped into each other. I was apologizing for that.”

A deep, heavy voice emerged, one that seemed strangely mismatched with such a beautiful face.

Nati slowly shook her head while wondering who he could possibly be.

She had never seen him in high society, so he probably wasn’t a noble.

But he was far too handsome to be an attendant, and he looked down at her—a noblewoman—with far too much confidence.

The backs of his hands were covered in scars and prominent tendons, but instead of a sword, which one would expect from a knight, he was holding some kind of bouquet...

A bouquet?

Her gaze dropped unconsciously.

She stared for a moment at the unwrapped flowers, then realized what they were and widened her eyes.

They were Himali snow blossoms, flowers said to bloom only in the coldest reaches of the northern snowfield, the sort she had seen only in fairy tales.

“Those flowers...!”

“Ah. I need to give these to her. Do you happen to know where Princess Aisha is?”

Princess Aisha?

At the mention of the woman who had recently become the hottest topic among young lords, Nati slowly raised her head.

And the instant she met the violet eyes of the man who had remained unfailingly polite throughout their conversation—

she understood.

Even though she was standing right in front of him, he wasn’t looking at her at all.

He had apologized merely because they had collided.

He had asked her a question merely because she happened to be there.

The violet eyes aimed in her direction had already gone elsewhere, as though they had reached Princess Aisha’s side long before the rest of him had.

“I... I don’t know either.”

Unconsciously intimidated by that single-minded gaze, Nati murmured as she stepped backward.

The young man passed her without a moment’s hesitation.

A short while later—

“O-oh goodness, my lady! Are you all right?!”

Nati’s legs gave out beneath her, and Nilly finally snapped back to her senses, hurriedly catching her and bursting into tears.

“I’m sorry, my lady! I should have done something, anything, but my body just froze before I realized it...”

“Nilly. That man is planning to give those flowers to Princess Aisha and propose to her, isn’t he?”

“I-it does look that way, but... is that really what matters right now? You nearly collapsed—”

“Of course it matters! This is huge!”

Strength suddenly flooded back into Nati, and she sprang away like a released coil.

“My lady! Where are you going?”

She heard the startled Nilly calling after her, but Nati was already entirely focused on finding a group of young ladies gathered together for gossip.

As someone nicknamed “the megaphone of high society,” there was no possibility that Nati could see a man like that and keep quiet about it.

***

At the same time.

While the other nobles enjoyed the banquet, another group was being guided through the interior of the monster training center.

They were people Calypse had personally selected and invited according to strict criteria.

The heads of northern houses who were likely to take an immediate interest in monster training.

Members of the monster enthusiasts’ gathering and King Grace.

And representative nobles who would spread news of today’s event throughout their respective regions.

Standing beside Guide, Knox explained to the nobles,

“Monster training began with the species known as Feris. Feris were originally considered pests because they had a habit of leaping onto people’s faces whenever they encountered them. Thanks to our monster trainer, however, we discovered that this behavior is actually their form of greeting.”

“Leaping onto someone’s face is a greeting?”

“That is certainly an enthusiastic way to say hello.”

Several nobles murmured in disapproving tones.

Then one of the young Feris tilted its head and climbed onto Guide’s shoulder.

The moment the nobles saw its adorable face, their wariness visibly softened.