Alicia was quite flustered when she heard that her mother, the Countess of Lancaster, had invited Eric.

But she soon changed her mind.

She thought it was better this way, since she didn’t have the courage to go and thank him after flatly refusing him.

However, when they actually met, Eric didn’t show any signs, making it difficult to find the right timing to bring it up.

Nevertheless, she struggled to open her mouth.

“Don’t worry. This will be the last time.”

“Pardon?”

“You won’t have to worry about this kind of thing anymore.”

“…That’s not what I meant—”

“Look at the time. Today, no, I’ve been quite rude today as well.”

“Are you leaving already?”

“Excuse me?”

“Ah, no, that’s—”

Eric spoke again, as if emphasizing, perhaps misunderstanding Alicia’s flustered silence.

“As I said earlier, you don’t need to worry about this matter. I’ll handle it well.”

“Yes, I’m sure you will.”

Seeing her disgruntled expression, Eric asked curiously.

“Then?”

“Actually, I have something to say to you, Count—”

At that moment, there was a knock, and the reception room door opened as the Countess peeked in.

“Have you talked enough?”

“Ah, yes. I was just about to leave.”

“If it’s alright, why don’t you stay for dinner?”

“Pardon?”

“Wow, let’s eat together.”

Edward’s face brightened as he grabbed Eric’s arm.

While Eric hesitated to answer in surprise, the Countess nodded to the butler waiting outside for a response.

“No, um.”

“Then come out. Edward, come along.”

“Let’s go. Hurry.”

As Edward pulled his arm, Eric looked at Alicia in confusion.

“We haven’t prepared anything special, but I hope it suits your taste.”

“Pardon?”

Surprised by the unexpected words, Alicia replied, but she walked ahead of Eric and Edward towards the dining room, pretending to be nonchalant.

***

Eric was surprised once again when he saw the children lined up in the dining room.

“…I didn’t know you had more siblings.”

“It’s more than average, I suppose. Say hello, children.”

“Hello. I’m Emma.”

Emma, who seemed to be around Edward’s age, greeted politely but somehow appeared to be on guard, while the young twins Ryan and Layla looked up with curious eyes and waved at Eric.

Eric awkwardly smiled and briefly raised his hand before quickly lowering it.

“They look very alike.”

“We hear that a lot.”

‘Yes. It’s like seeing the growth process.’

Thinking to himself, he sat down following Alicia.

***

Eric tried to focus solely on the meal, but it wasn’t easy.

He felt gazes piercing him here and there, leaving no room to savor the taste.

‘I think I’m going to get indigestion.’

He had eaten well even in the middle of battlefields without any problems, but this was the most difficult meal he had ever had.

Finally, when tea and dessert were served, his mind cleared a bit with the relief that it was almost over.

“Elder brother— Are you a knight?”

“Huh? Yes.”

“Wow. Are you good at fighting?”

“Uh— I suppose so?”

“Who would win if you fought a tiger?”

“…I’ve never fought one.”

“Why not?”

“Huh?”

‘When would I ever fight a tiger in my life? No, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve even seen one in the wild.’

Unable to come up with a suitable answer, he pondered seriously before opening his mouth.

“Tigers are probably an endangered species? So you’d get arrested if you killed one.”

“Huh. Why?”

“Hm?”

“Ryan. You should finish eating before talking.”

“Okay—”

Ryan closed his mouth as if he had never asked and began to focus seriously on his pudding.

“You don’t have to think so hard. He’s not really curious, you know.”

“Ah, I see.”

When Alicia quietly explained, Eric nodded, looking a bit embarrassed.

“Layla. Be careful. You’ll drop it.”

The child who had been shy for some reason insisted on sitting next to Eric whom she had just met, so they had no choice but to let her.

But Alicia was stricter and more nagging than usual, worried that she might make a mistake in front of Eric.

“It’s yummy— It’s so yummy— Right? Yeah.”

“Layla.”

“Yes—”

At Alicia’s stern voice, Layla stopped humming and closed her mouth, then dropped her spoon while trying to scoop up some pudding.

Clang.

“Waaah. My pudding—”

“Don’t cry. Have this.”

Eric pushed his untouched pudding towards Layla, who was about to cry looking at the pudding that had fallen on the floor.

He was rather relieved since he didn’t think he could eat anymore anyway.

“Aah—”

“Huh?”

Eric stared in confusion at Layla, who opened her mouth as if asking to be fed.

“It’s okay. I’ll do it.”

Unable to watch any longer, Alicia went to Eric’s side where Layla was sitting, put the child on her lap, and started feeding her the pudding.

“Is it good?”

“It’s yummy—”

Layla smiled brightly. Ryan, who had been staring at this scene, got down from his chair and tugged on Eric’s clothes.

“?”

“Ryan too—”

“Huh?”

“Hold me—”

When Ryan spread his arms, Eric reflexively picked up the child and sat him on his lap.

“Aah—”

“You want me to feed you?”

“Ryan, you can eat by yourself.”

When Alicia scolded him, Ryan clung tightly to Eric, whimpering.

“But I wanna— I wanna be fed too— Don’t just do it for Layla—”

Eric patted Ryan’s back awkwardly as he clung to him, looking to Alicia for help.

And Alicia looked to Edward and Emma for help, but the siblings avoided her gaze, seemingly annoyed, and focused only on their desserts.

‘Those kids, really. I’ll deal with them later.’

Alicia had no choice but to turn to her mother.

When their eyes met, the Countess of Lancaster smiled and spoke.

“It seems our Ryan has taken a liking to Eric. He wanted to sit next to him earlier too.”

Alicia looked at her mother in surprise, as she called him by name even though they had just met today.

“Thank you so much. For being so considerate. Do you like children?”

“No, that’s. Yes.”

He answered reflexively due to Ryan whining and tugging at his tie, asking to be fed quickly, and as he was scooping up some pudding, his eyes met Alicia’s.

“He keeps crying, so…”

Eric explained with an embarrassed expression, and after looking at him for a moment, Alicia let out a short laugh.

“?”

“Feed him slowly. If you give him too much, he’ll spill it, and he’ll finish quickly and whine for more.”

“Ah, is this amount okay?”

“That’s good.”

“Aaaaah—”

“Okay, sorry. Here you go.”

When Eric quickly fed the pudding to Ryan, who kept whining, the child chewed for a bit and then smiled, “Heh—”

Worried he might spill, Eric watched the child and unknowingly smiled along.

‘Ah. So is this perhaps the picture the Duchess of Gloucester was talking about?’

He recalled the Duchess of Gloucester who had been excited, saying that as soon as she saw Alicia, an image of her with his son popped into her head like a picture, and that she absolutely had to make the two meet.

‘Hmm. A picture, she said.’

She looked with interest at the two sitting side by side, feeding pudding to the twins.

***

“Pfft.”

The Countess of Lancaster, who had been resting in her bedroom due to poor health, burst into laughter as she hurriedly read the letter brought by the butler.

“He seems like a good kid. I hear he’s skilled too. Though his nickname is a bit… funny.”

After Eric had left, she had asked a junior acquaintance to look into Eric, and this letter was the reply to that request.

The Countess, who had been smiling as if finding it cute, took out a new sheet of paper to write a letter to the Duchess with a calm face again.

“If I push too hard, he might dislike it, but if I don’t, he won’t move at all, so I have no choice. Shall I draw a sketch for now?”

***

“Mother. You called for me?”

“Yes, you’re here?”

The Countess greeted Alicia while secretly hiding the letter from the Duchess.

“I was curious about something.”

“What is it?”

“About Eric. What do you think of him?”

Alicia looked incredulously at the Countess who was asking with a broad smile, then sighed.

“Mother. We’re not in a situation to be thinking about that right now.”

“Why not?”

Alicia was at her wits’ end with her mother’s innocent smile.

Her father, the Earl of Lancaster, had been traveling domestically and abroad for years, claiming to be doing research, and her mother, who was physically weak, was excessively positive about everything.

As a result, Alicia was the only one left to take care of the household.

“The twins are growing up, Emma needs to prepare for her studies, and we’ll need more money to send Edward to the military academy.”

“Oh my, is that so? Why don’t you ask Eric? He should know well.”

“…Please stop trying to set us up like that.”

Although she expressed her dissatisfaction with her whole face, her mother just kept smiling.

“Alicia. I’m talking about you. I wish you would think about yourself first, rather than worrying about the house.”

“That’s why I told you what I think. I said I don’t want to get married.”

“Who said anything about getting married right away? I’m just saying you should meet him once. How can you get married after meeting twice? You’re going too far, dear.”

“……”

“Oh my, did you perhaps think about marriage? I guess you didn’t dislike him that much?”

Alicia was at a loss for words at her mother’s teasing remarks.

Well, when he was feeding pudding to Ryan, she did think for a very, very brief moment that he might make a good father.

But anyone could have such thoughts, right?

It’s not like she suddenly started liking him because of that.

“Besides, he’s the Captain of the Knights, isn’t he? Wouldn’t you prefer someone strong enough to protect you?”

“Then he should protect the country rather than me.”

“He can do both. You’d be included in that scope anyway.”

“What are you talking about?”

The Countess smiled gently at her pouting daughter.

“Alicia. Being the Captain of the Knights means he has a high salary, and he gets almost as much in danger pay. Plus, it’s a public office, so he gets paid regularly every month.”

“……”

“And you don’t have to worry about the house. It will be resolved when your father returns.”

She was slightly tempted by the mention of a high-salaried public official, but Alicia’s senses returned at the mention of her father, the Earl of Lancaster.

‘What solution could come from father’s return? Unless he comes back after discovering a gold mine or something.’

Alicia was grumbling inwardly while pouting when she suddenly became curious.

“Why do you like him so much, Mother? You’ve only met him once.”

“He seemed like a good boy. Didn’t you think so too?”

“Well—”

He did seem like a good person. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have helped her then, wouldn’t have been considerate by pretending not to know, and wouldn’t have been nice to her siblings.

Come to think of it, she realized she hadn’t thanked him or apologized yet, so she closed her mouth.

“And he had a cute side to him.”

“…Pardon?”

Alicia looked at her with wide eyes at the unexpected word, but the Countess just chuckled to herself before speaking kindly.

“I just don’t want you to miss out on the opportunity for a good relationship. That’s all.”

“……”

“You can’t know a person after meeting them just once. Honestly, don’t you think he’s not bad?”

“He’s not bad. But—”

“But?”

“But I’ve already refused him. So we can’t meet again, that’s what I’m saying.”

Eric had also promised to settle things clearly and emphasized two or three times not to worry.

But the Countess of Lancaster smiled as if to say not to worry.

“Don’t worry about that. This time, Eric invited us.”

“What?”