“E-Earl, I may be no good at anything, but please take care of me.”
Beana clearly told about her acceptance of Earl Kuzuma’s proposal to him.
After she talked with Jin in the morning, she didn’t quite head straight to the Earl’s room, and noon had come.
“I, I see, thank you. Please take care of me too.”
The Earl replied with an unwell look on his face. When Beana saw it, she worriedly asked,
“Umm, Earl? Are you feeling ill by any chance?”
“No, I’m just a bit hung over.”
The Earl replied with a bitter smile. As you’d expect he couldn’t say he had gotten himself smashed as a distraction from Beana being uncertain about her response.
“So even the Earl has a weakness like that. Here I was thinking that you were all proper.”
Beana said, and the Earl replied,
“I lost my parents early and succeeded the house, so my every day was filled with just work and work, and as a result I’m especially awkward regards to relations with women.”
When Beana heard that she unintentionally chuckled a bit,
“It would be a problem if you were too suave. Earl, please take care of me for the many years to come.”
She once more bowed her head.
“Hey, Beana, even though the official announcement of the betrothal and such will wait until we return to Blue Land, could you, umm… Call me ‘Lewis’ instead of ‘Earl’?
Earl Kuzuma asked with a red face. When he asked, Beana’s face also reddened and,
“Y-yes. L- Lewis-sama.”
Both the sayer and the sayee turned bright red.
＊ ＊ ＊
After Jin had stepped out of the bath.
While thinking about Beana, Elsa’s present, and the Unifilers without an end, there was a knock on his door.
“Come in.”
Reiko responded faster than the Royal Secret Maid Laila who was serving Jin, and opened the door. Behind it stood Reinhardt.
“Reinhardt-san has come to see you.”
At Reiko’s words Jin got up from his chair and went to greet Reinhardt at the door.
“Reinhardt, what’s the matter? Come on in for now.”
Jin said and invited Reinhardt in.
He had spoken with Earl Kuzuma until now, Reinhardt prefaced his news and said,
“Lewis and Beana have gotten engaged, and I came to tell you about it.”
Jin told Reinhardt to sit down at any rate, and the Royal Secret Maid Laila began to brew tea for them. Reiko was on guard against threats.
“After this, the two of them will surely formally announce their engagement when they return to Blue Land. And this, umm, excuse me for my language, him accepting a plebeian as his first wife would be rather troublesome, so he’s asked the nobles who are his friends to treat her as if she was an adopted daughter. That’s about it.”
He added one thing to another. When Jin heard it, he thought it was like a historical play he saw in the past about a wedding between a commoner and a samurai.
Reinhardt changed his seating posture and said,
“Hey, Jin. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“How do you think about so-called ‘love’?”
When asked, Jin thought more deeply about something he had thought of earlier.
Even Jin wasn’t made out of stone, and much like anyone else he had an interest in women. His past life was good, he thought, as he reminisced of a girl.
It was around the time he was in senior high school. As expected, she was someone who went to the same high school, but was two grades ahead of Jin.
During the day she worked part-time, which was much similar to Jin. He had heard her family was fatherless, and moreover she had three little brothers, so it must’ve been quite difficult for her.
When he was on his second year, Jin indirectly confessed to her, and that girl also accepted his confession so they began to go out.
However, as they both had to go to high school they weren’t able to have a date-like date, and at most they could talk a little on the way to class or walk to the train station together when going home.
Even on holidays one had to help with the orphanage and the other help with the little brothers, and nothing like a date happened. One year passed like that.
Then the day of graduation came.
She had been proposed to by the manager of the company she had previously worked part-time in, and she honestly told Jin about it. Along with the fact that she was thinking about accepting the proposal as it was a good prospect.
Furthermore, she said that she had enjoyed the one year with Jin.
Jin listened without being able to say anything. Still being a student, he wasn’t a financial match for the other party. Then there was her livelihood to think about. Just saying he liked her couldn’t stop her.
The words “don’t go” also couldn’t get out of his mouth, and instead of them,
“Congratulations.”
He said. On that note things between him and her ended.
After that Jin graduated and got a job at a company with some bad reputation but good wages, and his every day passed without a hint of romance…And then he fell into an electric furnace.
“Livelihood, I guess.”
Jin replied with a single word.
“I see, love is livelihood. I could say it’s an answer suiting you, but I could also say it’s very much something an old person would think.”
Reinhardt said.
“Anyway.”
Jin once more said just a single word.
“Well, certainly, currently the foundation of your life is nonexistent. Kunlun Island is, how should I say this, like a different world.”
“It is, isn’t it.”
“Thinking of it like that, your visiting of many nations is meaningful. If you found a country that suited you and settled there would be good. Although it that country was our Shouro Empire that would be the best.”
Jin said and smiled, but Jin wasn’t in the mood for smiling.
“What’s wrong? Did I rub you the wrong way?”
“Not really.”
Jin still replied with just a single word.
“Well, relationships between people aren’t straightforward. Not to mention relationships between men and women.”
Reinhardt said, and while Jin who had began brooding stayed like that, he left the room.
In the end, Laila’s tea didn’t make it in time.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Ear- …Lewis-sama, is your headache better yet?”
Beana was in Earl Kuzuma’s room.
“Oh, thanks to you it’s much better.”
“I-I’m glad to hear that.”
Earl Kuzuma then spoke plainly and without delay.
“Hey, Beana, how do you feel about Jin?”
“Eh…”
“I have no intention of blaming you if you like Jin. I only want to know.”
The Earl looked straight at Beana and asked, and she gave an honest reply.
“I liked him.”
“I thought so.”
But in no time Beana continued,
“However, thinking about it now, I only one-sidedly relied on him, that was how I felt.”
Beana said, gave a single sigh, and continued,
“It may’ve been just a childish sentiment.”
She then raised her eyes towards the Earl,
“Ear… Lewis-sama, ever since, umm, the time you rescued me from Earl Guarana I was in love with you. But our social statuses differed and I gave up hope.”
She again cast her eyes down.
“It was cowardly, and it was dishonest. But, now after thinking the reply to Lewis-sama through properly that’s over. I mean it. If this makes you say you detest someone like me then so be it, but…”
Earl Kuzuma then embraced Beana,
“It’s fine now. I can understand your feelings.”
“Louis, sama…”
For a while Earl Kuzuma kept hugging Beana close, but eventually released her from his arms,
“You can already retire to your room for the night.”
He said affectionately.
