Episode 8

"… … You are weird."

"I?"

"—People say you like me."

Cassel added, "Yes, that's right," in an awkward tone, as if he didn't understand what he was saying. When Ines didn't respond to his words, he became a little impatient, and started talking again, without thinking.

"But if you like someone… you wouldn't do this to someone you like."

"what."

"You treat me like this, you don't even smile, you don't seem happy, you're annoying me… ."

She said immediately as Cassel started to tap the floor with his toes and muttered.

"Stop mumbling and speak clearly."

"… Look, like this… … ."

"Once you start something, finish it."

"… … Look at this."

He looked completely intimidated. Who on earth would point out something like that to someone they like?

"It's strange. It's strange."

"Is it weird that I like you?"

"No, you're weird."

Cassel answered firmly. Then his face turned red again and he asked belatedly, stammering.

"… Okay, you like me?"

Ines just shrugged her shoulders with a self-centered expression. Cassel's expression distorted. What is that… .

"You like me, what is it?"

"If I hated it, I wouldn't have told you I would marry you."

Her answer was ambiguous, but it seemed positive enough in context. Thanks to that, he felt somewhat satisfied, but then he started to wonder why he was satisfied. He felt dizzy.

"People say that you are too young to know how great the Crown Prince's wife is."

"okay."

"So, he just chose me because I looked pretty."

Cassel said so without a moment's hesitation, referring to himself. Ines stared at him, resting her chin on her hand, and then admitted it coolly.

"That's right. I only saw your face."

"… … ."

"Are there people who don't like pretty things?"

"So you really like my face?"

"Yeah. It's useful."

"… … ?"

Useless? What use? Am I an object? Cassel looked at her, unable to utter a single question that immediately came to mind.

Despite her meaningful answer, she was once again indifferent to him. He looked at Ines, who was flipping through her book with a frowning expression, and thought.

A pretty face when young tends to grow up to be handsome.

His face was perfectly symmetrical and beautiful, regardless of gender, but he also had some of his grandfather's and father's manly features, so he was sure to be so handsome when he grew up that it would be tiresome.

Yes… then the possibility of that future would be something that her fiancé could judge.

No matter what, it's of use to people.

"… Being useful is a good thing, right?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"So you like me?"

"Let's say that's true."

"You like me, but why are you being so cocky? Don't you even think about showing off?"

"What do I lack that I need to look good to you?"

Was there anything lacking…? Cassel blinked blankly and answered.

"No, because you like me. So if you want me to like you too, then of course… ."

"No, that's not true. That's not true, Cassel."

Ines shook her head and said.

"You don't have to like me."

"… … ."

"I don't need that, Cassel."

"… … ?"

"That's what love is. It doesn't expect anything in return."

It was an expression far removed from love. But Cassel was already listening seriously.

"So what you're saying is, you like me, but I don't need to like you?"

"That's right."

"… And you say you love me?"

Ines shrugged again. Think what you want. She seems too embarrassed to say it directly… She's still a shy girl.

In the mirror far away, half of Cassel and Ines' faces were reflected. Cassel looked at only half of himself and thought, "This is indeed a face that anyone would love."

"… … I still don't understand. You say you like me, but you don't show any signs of it."

"If you are a noble noble of the Grandes de Ortega, you don't show your personal feelings. Write it down somewhere."

"So you're deliberately hiding the fact that you like me?"

"yes."

"You didn't choose me even though you didn't like me?"

"Right… why would you do something like that?"

She seemed perplexed for a moment, even though she agreed enthusiastically. As she answered, she had an expression on her face that said she had never thought he would think of such a contradiction and point it out. She had ignored Cassel so much that she had not even considered something so easy.

But Cassel, who was still young, didn't know. He was busy hiding his flushed face.

Why am I so embarrassed?

Over the course of six years, which may be short if it's short, but long if it's long, Cassel has been suffering from the confessions, excessive attention, and excessive affection of young ladies more than a hundred times since the earliest memory he can recall.

The girls who said they liked him were no longer special. There were too many of them. It was embarrassing to even be embarrassed about it. But why Ines Ballestena, who wasn't particularly pretty, affectionate, or cute?

Why on earth does a kid like this like him?

"Cassel Escalante. Remember."

"…what?"

"I like you very much."

She spoke to him again, as if brainwashing him. I like you. You know? Remember that. He nodded with a knowing expression, but looked at Ines as if he was possessed.

If I'm going to brainwash her anyway, wouldn't it be better to brainwash her in a way that she likes me? That's what he thought, but in Cassel's opinion, Ines wasn't such a sly child. She sometimes acts like an adult, or just acts like a bad-tempered adult, but a child is still a child.

Cassel felt that there was no need to teach him such tricks. For the time being, let him just like him purely. How hard had it been for him to deceive her until now? It must have taken superhuman patience to like him so much and treat him so badly.

If treating Cassel like nothing was a way of expressing shame, there was no need to be discouraged every time. With just one word of liking him, Ines lost her special meaning and became ordinary, just like the countless other girls who passed by him.

In the mild world of Kassel, where all girls were kind, Ines, who had chosen him first and had never been bothered by him, was bound to be peculiar. That was over now. Of course, I would get married, but I would never be swayed by that voice again. Never again… … .

"Kassel? Could you get me a cushion from the table over there?"

Cassel reflexively sat up and then stopped.

"Your maid?"

"I just went out."

"When the maid comes…."

"The maid isn't here right now."

So it's only natural that you should do it instead.

"You are my fiancé."

I don't know what to do with my face that is burning hotly even at times like this. If you had listened carefully, you would have known. That Ines was treating her maid and her fiancée as equals.

But Cassel quickly got up and did what she told him to do, trying to hide his flushed face again. When she gave him a cushion, he asked her to do something else, and when she did something else, he ordered her to do something else as soon as he sat down again. He sat still and didn't move a finger, but ordered her to do this and that, and it seemed like she depended on him, so it was cute… … .

***

'... ... cute? Who?'

Here he is again, twenty-three years old, Cassel Escalante. He sits hunched over in his fiancée's bedroom, looking around the empty room with suspicion.

Who the hell relies on whom?

It was because of the scenery of Ines' bedroom that the old memories were so vivid. When was the last time I came to this room... ... . Yes. It was when I was twenty, graduating from the military academy and about to be commissioned in the Calstera coastal fleet.

And that day, I had the same thought as today. Is it possible that time is not passing only in this room?

Ines' room really seemed to have stopped in time. Six, ten, fourteen, seventeen, twenty, and twenty-three... ... Over a very long period of time, Ines's appearance remained unchanged.

Isn't it strange? The six-year-old duke's daughter and the twenty-three-year-old duke's daughter, who is about to get married. It would be hard to find a common denominator in their tastes, but even a small piece of furniture, the color of the curtains, they are all perfect and unchanging. This is not because the twenty-three-year-old Ines has childish tastes like a six-year-old.

'I'm already old since I was six, no.'

But she was a woman who would marry him. So let's say it was an adult's taste.

'… It was strange from then on.'

It was weird from the moment I first met him, it was weird from the moment I chose him, and it was weird when I told him I liked him.

Thinking back now, there wasn't a single corner that was in perfect condition from the beginning to the end. Cassel still looked at every corner of the room with suspicious eyes. No matter how much he poked at every corner, nothing had changed.

It's not hard to understand that even the room is so boring, just like its owner. But he was looking for something right now.

Something like a clue to a change of heart.