“……Seyard?”
Kisa, suddenly wide awake, blinked as she stared at him.
“Yes, it’s me.”
That pleasant voice from her memory. This wasn’t a dream. It really was Seyard.
“W-when did you-!”
Seeing Seyard put his index finger to his lips reminded her that this was a library where silence was required. Kisa hastily lowered her voice to ask.
“How long have you been here?”
Seyard answered casually.
“About ten minutes?”
Goodness. That long? Despite being drowsy, she hadn’t noticed him opening the door and entering at all. Moreover, she had shown such an embarrassing sight.
“…You could have said something when you came in.”
“Would that have been better? I apologize. You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to disturb you.”
So in his eyes, she hadn’t just dozed off but had been fully asleep. Wanting to crawl into a hole from embarrassment, she covered her face with both hands.
“Please forget what you just saw.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s embarrassing.”
“Not at all. Drowsiness is a natural physiological phenomenon.”
Still, as a noblewoman, it wasn’t something that should be shown to others. Especially for Kisa, who had received conservative education from Count Vansfelt, she felt this even more strongly.
But somehow, when Seyard said it, it really didn’t seem as embarrassing as she thought. It was strange.
“I see you were reading the ‘Theory of Possession.'”
Seyard whispered, glancing at the book.
“Well… I can hardly say I read it, given how little I managed.”
From his perspective, she was someone who had received a book recommendation only to fall asleep after reading barely two pages. Still embarrassing.
However, Seyard spoke kindly as he watched Kisa’s reddening face.
“It’s alright. They say starting is half the battle. Taking the initiative to try something unfamiliar is already a big step forward.”
“…Thank you for saying that.”
He is a good person. Unlike when she received encouragement from the noble princess which only left her heart feeling cold, this warmed her heart.
“Did you come to read?”
Wanting to continue the conversation, Kisa asked him an obvious question. How foolish. What else would someone come to a library for, if not to read?
But Seyard’s answer was unexpected.
“No. My mind was troubled, so I was wandering around to sort out my thoughts when I found myself here.”
“I see.”
The momentary flash of weariness that appeared and disappeared on his face sparked a strange sense of kinship. Even Seyard, who seemed capable of solving any problem with his intelligence, had his own worries. Just like her.
“Ah, I also came in because I thought I might find you.”
“What?”
“When I saw the library, I just had a feeling you might be inside.”
“…Are you joking?”
“I’m being serious.”
Seyard’s smiling face confused Kisa. Is he flirting with me now? Though she posed the question to herself, no clear answer came to mind.
She was well accustomed to romantic advances from men. If it had been any other man, Kisa would have judged those words as mere sweet talk and kept her distance.
But unlike men who typically expressed interest through subtle glances, Seyard’s manner was utterly straightforward, making it difficult to judge.
After brief consideration, Kisa tentatively concluded that Seyard’s words and actions were simple kindness. It was also a conclusion heavily influenced by her personal hopes.
For some reason, she wanted to keep their relationship as a pure connection born from chance encounters.
“Would you like to get some fresh air? It might help clear away your drowsiness.”
And so she wanted to believe this proposal too came from goodwill. Kisa looked out the window where Seyard was pointing and replied, “Yes, I’d like that.”
The two went out to the back garden through the library’s rear door. In fact, Kisa was secretly relieved when Seyard first suggested using the back garden, as using the main entrance might have meant running into Marsha.
“Wow, there’s no one here besides us.”
“Well, compared to the one by the main entrance, this place is more formally arranged.”
As Seyard said, the back garden was small and the library building blocked much of the sunlight.
Moreover, being early afternoon on a weekday, the library’s main users – university students – would be in class, making the entire library quite empty.
“Do you visit the Royal Library often, Seyard?”
At this question, Seyard stroked his chin with an interesting expression.
“Not really. Actually, I haven’t been in the capital long. I first came here while touring the capital recently, and I’ve only visited a few more times because I quite liked it.”
“Oh, you’re not from the capital?”
“I was born and spent my early childhood here in the capital. But due to circumstances, I had to spend most of my teenage years in another region.”
“I see. I thought your capital accent was too perfect for someone from elsewhere.”
They walked side by side through the small back garden, which had few plant varieties. The fresh breeze improved her mood considerably from just hours ago when she had felt like wallowing in misery.
“Did you return to the capital to attend university?”
“Unfortunately, I’ve never attended university.”
“What?”
Kisa only then realized she had been assuming he was a university student.
“I’m sorry. I made an assumption.”
“It’s fine. There’s nothing to apologize for. Shall we sit here for a moment?”
He led Kisa to what appeared to be a bench placed in one corner of the garden.
If he’s not attending university, then he’s not a student? Then what brought him back to the capital? Various questions about the man sitting beside her swirled in Kisa’s mind.
But since they weren’t close enough to ask about personal matters, she was holding back when Seyard took the initiative.
“Do you have something you’d like to ask me?”
Their eyes met.
“Why don’t we do this? We can each ask one question fairly.”
“One question each?”
“Yes, or more if you’d like.”
“Earlier you mentioned having a worry. May I ask what it is?”
Seyard’s eyes widened at the unexpectedly direct question. In truth, Kisa herself was more surprised. Was this what they meant by one’s mouth moving faster than their mind?
“Ah, no, what I just said-”
She was about to tell him to ignore it, but Seyard spoke.
“It’s about marriage.”
Since it was the same issue she was struggling with, Kisa found herself unconsciously listening intently. Seyard spoke with a bitter smile.
“Due to family circumstances, I need to marry a certain woman, but I really don’t want to. I’ve been looking for any way to avoid it, but it’s not as easy as I’d hoped.”
Amazing. Who would have thought he was struggling with exactly the same problem as Kisa? Encouraged by this miraculous coincidence, she carefully spoke up.
“I’m in a similar situation. I’m in a position where I have to go through with an unwanted marriage.”
Seyard also seemed quite surprised.
“You too?”
“Yes, there’s an engagement my father arranged, but I can’t see any way to avoid it.”
“…Then was that the reason you were crying when we first met?”
The man looked at Kisa with serious eyes.
“At that time, you said you were crying because you couldn’t understand Barth’s Doctrine, but honestly, I didn’t think that was the whole story.”
Kisa just fidgeted with her lips, unable to answer easily.
“This is my one question.”
Whether it was her imagination or not, the reddish-brown eyes she faced held the characteristic pressure of someone who had lived their entire life giving orders to others.
“Kisa, would you answer me?”
It was the most polite way of pressing for an answer she had ever heard. Partly of her own will and partly due to gentle coercion, Kisa moved her lips.
“Yes, that’s right. I received harsh words from my fiancé that day. I also found out that he had a more intimate relationship with another woman than with me.”
It was hard to understand. The shame she never wanted to reveal in front of the princess and the ladies flowed easily from her mouth. As if she had desperately wanted someone to ask.
“My fiancé said that-that I was stupid for not even knowing what Barth’s Doctrine was. Because of that, I became determined… I came to the library thinking I would check it out myself…”
As she spoke, her emotions welled up. Though she paused occasionally to catch her breath, she continued speaking.
“I don’t know what to do. The people who were precious to me suddenly became distant, but thinking about it now, they were probably always like that, and I was just deluding myself.”
Finally, tears welled up in her eyes. Tears she hadn’t shed in front of Daniel or Melissa were now shown twice to a man she had met only recently.
No, perhaps it was possible precisely because of that. To Seyard, she was just Kisa, not Kisa Vansfelt. Just a woman he happened to meet at the library.
He silently held out a handkerchief to Kisa.
“It’s alright.”
Not wanting to soil his, she tried to take out her own, but Seyard pressed his handkerchief into her hand.
Surprisingly, his hand, which she touched for the first time, had calluses. She had vaguely assumed his hands only turned pages of books.
Finally feeling too awkward to refuse, she wiped her tears with his handkerchief. The cool scent of bergamot tickled her nose.
A moment later, only the sound of Kisa sniffling could be heard in the back garden. Apart from feeling relieved, embarrassment suddenly rushed over her.
“Kisa, in that case.”
Seyard suddenly spoke, meeting her eyes.
“Would you marry me instead?”
