So we each held each other’s eye corners, raising one and lowering the other, looking at each other.

While fiercely glaring at each other to avoid losing, a smart knocking sound came, so we simultaneously let go.

The person who entered the room after the knocking sound was Andrea.

“Your Excellency, the carriage is ready.”

“Understood.”
These days, I was trying to heed my grandmother’s advice and gently correct Sicar’s behavior. However, Sicar was resisting like a wild animal refusing to be tamed. If the carriage had not been waiting, we might have been in a standoff like that all day.

Because even after getting into the carriage, we continued to criticize each other’s eye expressions until we arrived at Sharin’s house, where we were invited.

“Think about it. Who would welcome you with a good heart if you request a handshake with such a fierce look?”

“Instead, they might not be able to withdraw their hand easily out of fear.”

“Out of fear, they might try to withdraw their hand even faster. So, try it my way.”

“Okay. But if your words are wrong, I won’t treat people with such foolish eyes next time.”

Even if Sicar lowered his eye corners a bit, he certainly did not become a fool. No, he didn’t even look particularly gentle. What’s the point of just lowering the eye corners? His sharp gaze remained despite the lowered eye corners.

As Sicar got off the carriage and extended one arm towards me, I grabbed his arm and entered Sharin’s mansion.

In Sharin’s house, Hersia and Claire, the Queen’s maid, had already arrived.

“Thank you for inviting us.”

“Thank you for accepting the invitation, Lady Blake. Lord Blake.”

Sharin’s gaze towards Sicar seemed quite cautious, but perhaps because I was smiling so kindly, she quickly relaxed and eased her expression.

After Sharin and I finished our handshake, Sicar immediately extended his hand, as if he had been waiting.

Sharin seemed to hesitate for a moment on whether to shake his hand, but after seeing Sicar’s smiling expression, she shook hands.

“We didn’t prepare anything, but I hope you enjoy the informal gathering and leave.”

“Thank you.”

Sharin seemed as if she was about to let go of Sicar’s hand, but he continued to shake hands.

“Oh, by the way, I heard that the Viscount likes wine with cards.”

Sharin initially seemed pleased at the mention of card wine, but soon her expression darkened, and she said with a weary voice, “Yes, but it’s hard to get wine with cards now because of pests.”

“I have some that I prepared before. If it’s okay, I’d like to give it to you as a gift.”

“If you do, I’ll be extremely grateful! Your Excellency!”

“In that case, when would be a good time to send it?”

“Anytime is fine!”

Meanwhile, Sicar continued to hold hands and kept shaking. Sharin, despite looking a bit surprised at the card wine conversation, eventually grabbed his hand and continued shaking hands.

By the way, was there card wine in the Duke’s mansion? Although card wine was known to be famous, I had checked the wine cellar before, and according to Andrea, there was no such wine in the house.

So, it seemed like Sicar was lying.
So, after shaking hands with Sharin for a while, I casually asked Sicar, who returned.

“Sicar. Is there really card wine at the Duke’s mansion?”

Sicar replied with a smirk, as if asking such an obvious question.

“Of course not.”

“But why did you say that?”

“Well, you can get it. It’s nothing to find such a thing by probing the memories of a card farm owner.”

Ah, he meant finding it by looking into memories. Although Sharin seemed to believe that because of Sicar’s lie without blinking an eye, as Sicar said, it was a matter of finding it.

Hersia, having a conversation with Claire in the distance, glanced at me, seemingly asking if everything was okay. When I nodded with a smile, Hersia seemed relieved and smiled broadly. So, I raised my thumb towards Hersia.

Sicar soon exchanged greetings with Claire, but they didn’t engage in a lengthy conversation. Perhaps Sicar had already found what he wanted in Sharin’s memories, or there wasn’t much in Claire’s memories. I’m not sure, but we quickly finished the greetings and enjoyed the dinner.

While sipping tea after the meal, Sharin cautiously brought up a topic.

“Actually, when Hersia first suggested inviting the Blake Duke and Duchess, I hesitated a bit because I didn’t know you two well. But now that I’ve hosted you, I think it would be nice to have frequent meetings. Especially since I didn’t know how wonderful the Duke was, the thought came to me even more.”

“We think it was a meaningful dinner to get to know that you’re such a wonderful person, Lady Sharin. If you invite us again next time, we’ll come to visit. The dinner was really delicious today.”

After the meal, while we were in the carriage on the way back to the Duke’s mansion, I asked Sicar something I was really curious about.

“What did you see in Sharin’s memories? What did you see that made you shake hands for so long?”

Sicar, slowly lifting his head, seemed to imply something very unpleasant with his gaze.

“Something very unpleasant seems to have happened.”