You’re avoiding it again.

You don’t realize that when you avoid it so obviously, it makes me want to get closer.

Alejandro watched her retreating back until the end. As a sweet smile appeared and disappeared on his lips, Johnny, who was behind him, approached and patted his shoulder.

“Did you do something wrong to Lady Nerea… Why are your eyes like that?”

“Who are you to casually call my knight’s name?”

The low voice was vicious. Johnny unconsciously made excuses.

“Whether it’s knight or count, she tells us not to call her that, but I can’t dare call her ‘miss’ either. So what am I supposed to do? Wait, is it wrong for me to call Nerea ‘Lady Nerea’?”

“Don’t call her.”

Like a viper. The curt words were fierce.

“Now I can’t call her count or knight, and I can’t even call her Lady Nerea. How are those of us without a knight supposed to live with such sorrow?”

Johnny grumbled as if for Alejandro to hear. Even so, Alejandro didn’t listen to a word he said, but there was only one thing that stuck in his ear.

“By the way, it reminds me of our youngest. You know, our Lariet? She runs away just like that these days.”

Johnny seemed to realize his mistake and repeatedly added that he absolutely didn’t mean the knight ran away.

But Alejandro narrowed his eyes. He clearly understood in what context Johnny had said those words.

The knight was slow. And clumsy.

It was natural. She hadn’t learned how to interact with people or build social relationships during the most important period, and all she was good at was killing emotions.

Being clumsy could be a weakness in noble society. But it didn’t apply to the knight.

He would be by the knight’s side, and he had the vice head Grace Lancaster in mind as a candidate to protect her from the attacks of social circles.

Above all…

“Excuse me. Mr. Alejandro.”

The voice breaking his thoughts was quite impolite. It was Heather.

Alejandro nodded slightly and Heather spoke, snorting.

“Did you do something wrong to our lady?”

Oh ho. Alejandro let out an exclamation in his mouth. Seeing his pitch-black eyes gazing at Heather with interest, Johnny broke out in a cold sweat.

As an unpleasant signal flashed red in his head, Heather shouted challengingly.

“If not, why did our lady go straight in after the meal without even taking her favorite nap?”

“Um, Alejandro. Heather is still young, so…”

Johnny instinctively blocked Heather’s front.

Alejandro smiling beautifully enough to dazzle was dangerous, and Alejandro Rosa with his eyes curved as if genuinely enjoying himself was terrible.

That’s when it happened.

Clap clap-. Alejandro clapped elegantly. The words that flowed out softly were completely different from Johnny’s expectations.

“…Indeed, a true maid. Heather.”

“…What?”

“That attitude of thinking that if someone did something wrong, it certainly wasn’t the knight. Very good.”

Heather’s cheeks, which had been full of discontent, flushed with joy.

Both Heather, who was genuinely happy to be acknowledged, and Alejandro, who was saying strange things as if praising her. They were both dumbfounding.

“You’re not being sarcastic, are you?”

“Sarcastic? I’m just happy that such an excellent maid is serving the knight.”

Alejandro gently pulled up the corners of his mouth. A gentle but firm voice was directed at Heather.

“But Heather. No matter how excellent a maid you are.”

“…”

“If the knight asks for bath attendance, that’s the job of her most intimate servant, me. Understand?”

That bath attendance again, really.

Johnny looked at Alejandro as if disgusted.

But Alejandro focused on Heather, ignoring Johnny completely. The ends of his dense eyebrows were slightly raised as if facing an important contract. Heather rolled her eyes for a while before finally nodding.

“…Since I met the lady later than Mr. Alejandro, I guess that’s unavoidable.”

Alejandro smiled deeply.

“But this is a negotiation.”

“A negotiation?”

“I want to keep being the dedicated maid even when the lady becomes a count later. But I heard that institutional maids are good at writing and such.”

Heather looked up at Alejandro as if checking his reaction. And she unconsciously opened her mouth.

The lady’s servant, who always smiled like a cheerful boy in front of the lady, sometimes smiled with such a cunning face.

“Well. You’d need to know how to write to manage herbs properly, right?”

“How did you know? That I often misspell when distinguishing herbs?”

Heather asked without even breathing. The lady had definitely said to keep it a secret that she knew how to handle herbs.

The corners of Alejandro’s lips pulled up leisurely. His pitch-black eyes, whose true intentions were unknowable, drew everything in.

“Well, a good servant should know everything, after all.”

.

.

.

“But why do you always call the lady ‘knight’, Mr. Alejandro?”

She had come down because her throat was dry and she couldn’t help it.

The subject of the conversation that could be heard softly was clearly about Nerea herself. Nerea stood pressed against the wall.

Alejandro, Johnny, and Heather. The conversation of the three sitting on the sofa was interesting and yet somehow uncomfortable in one corner of her heart.

“Your goal is to take her to the Empire anyway, right? Once you go to the Empire, the lady will naturally be able to reclaim her count title.”

“You’re smart, aren’t you?”

“I’ve always been smart. That’s why I can serve the lady here. The lady is very cool, strong, and she saved me,”

It was embarrassing. Both Heather praising her familiarly and Alejandro nodding in front of her as if it was natural.

“…Of course, she has a slightly clumsy side, but.”

If only she hadn’t added that last part, it would have been much more touching. Heather spoke quickly as if excited for the first time in a while.

“When I first came, she gave me lily bulbs saying they were potatoes! It’s a good thing she didn’t eat them. Of course, even if she didn’t, I would have had to detoxify… No, anyway! I’ve always been curious why you call her ‘knight’. Haha.”

As Heather’s words ended awkwardly, Nerea observed Alejandro’s expression.

Detoxify.

Unlike Nerea, whose heart had turned cold, Alejandro smiled gently.

As if he was already thinking of something else, a familiar smile was drawn over his delicate features.

“Knight is the only title the knight allowed me to use when I couldn’t call her Rosa Nerea anymore.”

Ah.

Nerea belatedly realized when she had seen that familiar expression before.

It was really from a day twelve years ago, hidden in a corner of her memory.

“Rosa? Surely you’re not referring to Count Esteban as Rosa? That’s an insult to the imperial family, you fool.”

It was the story of when someone pointed out that Alejandro was calling her “Rosa Nerea”.

At the words “insult to the imperial family”, sadness poured out of the large black eyes. Seeing those eyes, Nerea briefly regretted letting go of the guy who had spoken so carelessly.

“Then what should I call Lady Rosa Nerea now?”

Rosa Nerea. It sounded nice.

Nerea was just as disappointed. But she didn’t want Alejandro to get into any more trouble.

“There must be another title, right?”
“Ah, Count! You’re a count, aren’t you? Mom was so happy when she heard the young count became a count.”

Looking at the eyes like shiny obsidian, Nerea shook her head.

Although she had received the knight title and ascended to count to go to the battlefield, she still felt that title didn’t suit her.

With her father already acting as count, the count title was just a pretext to send her to the battlefield.

Alejandro fell into thought again. Nerea had the thought that she wanted to poke Alejandro’s chubby cheek.

Miss, Master, Lady Nerea, Knight.

Alejandro called out various titles in a clear voice, then quietly mumbled words in his mouth. Then he looked at Nerea.

“Knight. How about Knight?”

That’s right.

It was the title I allowed.

Nerea clenched her fist.

.

.

.

“You have such a touching story, yet you won’t even let me call Lady Nerea ‘Lady Nerea’? Seriously, you jerk!”

“You can’t call the lady at all? Why?”

Johnny and Heather’s words gradually faded away.

Alejandro nodded nonchalantly and looked elsewhere. His loose gaze was directed at the part where red hair was sticking out from under the wall covering the stairs.

The hair that had been staying in that spot since they started talking about the knight soon disappeared up the stairs again, fluttering. Swallowing a sigh of regret, Alejandro muttered to himself.

I guess I’ll have to brush it for her soon. I wonder how long she’ll keep avoiding it.

Just the thought of the red hair he had missed so terribly slipping through his fingertips was delightful.

The ends of his long eyes gradually curved obliquely. The deep smile spread to his red lips as well.

The game of hide-and-seek that seemed like it would go on forever ended that evening.

“Heather was so excited. She said you praised her a lot as the best maid.”

Thanks to Heather for that too. Alejandro laughed softly, soothing his sore feelings.

“I’m the one who should be grateful.”

Nerea couldn’t understand what Alejandro’s answer meant. It was clearly Heather who had been excited earlier about being praised as the “best maid”.

“Heather does so much for you, Knight.”

For a moment, Nerea thought Alejandro might have noticed about the herbs. He must have figured it out from the word “detoxify” that Heather had mentioned. But Alejandro continued speaking as if he had no intention of changing the subject.

“Even giving you gifts.”

“Gifts?”

Alejandro smiled gently.

“Yes. The hat and pin. Heather told me that you smiled so happily when she gave them to you as gifts.”

Ah. As her face nodded in understanding, looking pretty, Alejandro felt a part of his heart melt.