Chapter 5
The man passed Letier and moved to the sofa in the center of the room.
He slumped down on the soft-looking sofa and nodded to the sofa on the other side.
Letier turned to the man with a puzzled expression.
“I didn’t give you permission to enter my room?”
“I don’t know if you remember that this is the room I paid for.”
“I said I would give you the money?”
“Don’t you think it’s too much for someone who worked hard all day for the lady?”
“Hah…”
Letier let out a big sigh and moved to the sofa on the other side.
I was dying of exhaustion, and she wasn’t looking forward to having a man in her room.
However, he seemed quite stubborn, so I had a strong desire to quickly end the conversation and send him away.
“What the hell do you want to talk about tonight?”
“First, I need to know who you are.”
The man raised his upper body and leaned toward the table between them.
Through his slightly disheveled bangs, his red eyes looked at her clearly.
Letier didn’t look away and made eye contact with him, then let out a gruff voice.
“You haven’t even told me your name yet.”
“Well, yes. Then let me tell you, as you may have already noticed, I’m not Simon’s younger son.”
Hearing the man’s words, Letier instantly felt cold.
He wasn’t Simon’s younger son…?
Letier had firmly believed that the man in front of her was indeed Simon’s son.
But to be told so bluntly that he wasn’t, she couldn’t help but notice something she hadn’t noticed before.
“Hmm…. Of course I knew! You’re not Simon’s younger son!”
Letier raised her head and gave an exaggerated answer.
“My name is… hmm….”
“I’ve never seen people thinking this much over their name.”
“… It’s Reuter.”
The man thought for a moment and smiled.
“My name is Reuter.”
“Reuter? Aren’t you Simon’s younger son?”
“No.”
“Judging by the way you treat me, are you also a son of a high noble?”
“No. I’m just uneducated.”
After hearing the man’s answer, Letier nodded as if she knew that.
I didn’t have much expectations.
How could such a man of such pure selfishness be the son of a high-ranking aristocrat…
“Where is the young lady from?”
Instead of answering the man’s question, Letier rummaged through her bag.
She took out a transparent glass bottle from her small bag and handed it to Reuter as it was.
“I don’t know if you’ve seen this product before.”
“What is this…Lenever… Moisturizing Cream…?”
Reuter slowly read the words on the label attached to the vial.
He turned the vial around and looked at it, then opened the lid and peered at the contents.
“What are you going to do with this?”
“Hmm… Isn’t it still not very popular among young men?”
Letier muttered with a serious face.
“Lenever…. Are you perhaps the daughter of the Lenever family?”
At Reuter’ question, Letier nodded slowly.
“That’s right. And by the way, the cream is also a product released by my company. I am in charge of the cosmetics development business.”
“Development of cosmetics?”
“Yeah, I went through a lot of trouble developing the one you’re holding right now. There is no raw material that has a good feeling of use, good efficacy, and stability at the same time.”
“Raw material….”
The man looked at the cream with a thoughtful face.
“Are you done now? Is my introduction enough? What else do you want to talk about?”
“Is that why you know so well?”
“What do you mean?”
“Anything. Nixie’s blood, and litupis flower extract. This is information that is difficult for young ladies who have grown up to be precious in general.”
After listening to it, it wasn’t a difficult or embarrassing conversation topic than I thought.
Feeling relieved, Letier leaned back on the sofa and stretched out her legs slightly to take a comfortable position.
“Yes. As I said before, I studied a lot to find ingredients that could be used in cosmetics. Thanks to that, I learned about all the materials that exist in this world.”
As I answered the man’s question, the tension slowly released from my body.
Sitting on the soft sofa in the warm room, I felt tired in an instant.
“… Are you familiar with poison?”
“Poison?”
“Something like a substance that threatens the human body.”
“Those ingredients can never be used in cosmetics. I’m not interest. I only know what kind of toxicity is in the raw material, and I don’t know much more than that.”
I could feel my eyelids getting heavier.
Letier slowly blinked her eyes.
“I see.”
“But… Once you know the properties and characteristics of the material… It is possible to get a rough idea… You can get a rough idea of what kind of chemical reaction occurs with certain raw materials….”
“Like today?”
“Yes…”
So sleepy…
Letier’s answer gradually slowed down.
I felt like I was about to yawn any moment, but I wasn’t brazen enough to open my mouth in front of a guy I hadn’t seen today.
Letier tried desperately to stay awake, I holding back a yawn.
However, today was a day that really consumed a lot of stamina.
After getting ready early in the morning and departing from the duchy, as soon as I arrived in the capital, I couldn’t rest and went to Simon’s raw material store.
The man’s handsome face kept blurring.
“Young lady.”
“… Yes….”
“Lady Lenever.”
“… I’m listening… Reuter…”
“You’re listening.”
Letier’s hand fell to the side.
The man sat on the sofa and looked at her as she fell asleep.
When she looked straight at him with purple eyes, she had a rather bold face, but when she tilted her head defenselessly with her eyes closed, she looked gentle.
Looking at it, it seemed that she was younger than I thought.
“You’re running your own business.”
In addition, the physical and chemical knowledge of raw materials was considerable.
The man put his hand on his chin and began to observe the sleeping Letier in earnest.
“The daughter of the Lenever family….”
Interest appeared in the man’s eyes as he looked at Letier.
Back at the Imperial Palace, I’ll have to order Reuter to conduct an extensive investigation into the Lenever family.
*****
Letier opened her eyes to the strong sunlight coming through the window.
Letier, who blinked her eyelids for a moment and looked at the monotonous pattern on the ceiling, slowly raised her upper body.
“What, when did I fall asleep…?”
I definitely remember having a conversation with Reuter on the sofa…
When I woke up, I was lying alone on a spacious bed in the guest room.
“Reuter…?”
Looking around, the room was empty.
To leave without saying goodbye, it must be someone who hasn’t learned properly.
Letier stepped onto the floor with a small grunt.
As I got a little more conscious, I was clear about what I had to do.
“I need to find Lucy and Ephron….”
Letier, who had been standing there blankly, began preparing to visit the guard post.
A few hours later, Letier approached the door of the guardpost, which had been firmly closed last night.
Click—
When the door to the guardpost was pushed open, the chime hanging above the door made a cheerful sound.
“Hello….”
“Princess!”
As soon as the door opened, someone rushed into Letier’s arms.
Letier patted the back of the person running towards her without even looking at her properly.
“Lucy?”
“Princess! Where the hell were you! Do you know how worried we were all night?”
Behind Lucy, Ephron could be seen looking at her with tears in his eyes.
He had a very emaciated face during the day, but I thought he must have been in a lot of pain all night because he had completely lost the person he had to risk his life to escort.
“I met a kind capital city resident and was helped. and I got a room at the hotel in front of here, so I’m on my way out for the night.”
“I see…! Thank god… At the scene of yesterday’s incident, instead of Princess, we bought another woman out. When we were near the inn, I took off the robe and was surprised to see a head of red hair… I’m so sorry… I should have seen it coming…”
“”I admire her for following you all the way there without saying anything.”
“I asked her why she followed me, and she said she was on her way, so she said because it was on the same road…”
Letier stroked the crying Lucy’s head.
I knew very well that it wasn’t intentional, so I couldn’t think of anything to say.
At that time, Ephron, who was standing a step behind, lowered his head and came closer to Letier.
He quickly pulled out the longsword he was wearing and held it out to her.
“Princess! Please kill me. I promised to devote myself to protecting the Princess… Due to a momentary mistake in judgment, I was unable to properly protect you.”
“… Kill? I can’t even hold that sword properly.”
Letier answered, looking down at the enormous sword Ephron held out.
Ephron paused for a moment and looked around.
“Well, then… Ask that guard to slit my throat!”
“Yes? Me, me?”
When Ephron pointed at the guard who was sitting in a chair watching them with interest, he was suddenly pointed out and jumped up from his seat.
“Ephron, don’t lift heavy burdens to the poor, let’s go and have a meal. I’m hungry.”
Letier patted the two of them on the shoulders lightly, then turned around and left the building.
“Princess, let’s go together!”
Lucy quickly followed her out.
Letier looked back at Lucy and said quite sternly.
“Lucy, I think you’re getting a three-month pay cut.”
At her words, Lucy stopped walking and nodded resolutely with her mouth closed.
Ephron looked at Lucy with pity and approached Letier with infinitely light steps.
Letier opened her mouth to Ephron as well.
“Ephron, you too.”
