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Chapter 64

* * * ‌‌‌

There ‌‌‌‌seemed to be a strange gap in my childhood memories.
"What is this?"
While memory does fade with age, I wasn't old enough for that yet, and something felt off when I looked at Aunt Corinne.
Aunt Corinne knew me well.
Well enough that I'd chattered away to her about my past life.
Now that I thought about it, it was quite strange that I had no memories of Aunt Corinne at all. If she'd left the house when I was seven, I should ‌‌‌at least remember her face... but I didn't. ‌‌‌‌
Why couldn't I recall anything?
"There's something I don't know."
I flipped through the unfinished book Aunt Corinne had been writing, page by page.
It was filled with accounts about ‌possession.
Next, I reread "A Lover of the Night." It still didn't look like a story I'd helped write.
But there was that part where the male protagonist was injured.
"The male protagonist, having been harmed by the villain, lost his memory and didn't recognize the female protagonist."
Something about this passage bothered me.
I had sharp instincts and keen intuition. The fact that this kept nagging at me meant I was sensing something without realizing it, wasn't I?
After shutting myself in ‌‌my office and pondering for a long time, I finally reached a conclusion.
"Enya."
Dale opened the door and approached, handing me a cup of milk tea.
He'd dissolved exactly the right amount of ‌‌sugar cubes—five of them—into his special milk ‌‌‌‌tea blend. I ‌‌‌‌sipped it and inhaled its fragrance quietly.
"Dale, you said I'd ‌need a nobleman's endorsement to accomplish what I'm planning, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"I don't think I have much time left. Because Duke Hexagon will soon be released from his confinement."
Dale nodded in agreement as he sipped his tea.
Nothing catastrophic would happen the moment Hexagon appeared. He'd be cautious at ‌‌first.
But it was certain that period wouldn't last ‌long.
"I want to succeed in this before ‌‌then. I ‌‌‌need to do it ‌during a ‌‌‌‌time when no one can ‌‌‌‌interfere."
"From where I stand, it appears you've just made a firm decision, Enya."
"That's right."
I looked ‌‌‌at Dale, who was leaning slightly against my desk.
"I'm going to take a quick ‌‌trip to the Capital."
Dale's nodding head slowed gradually.
He set down his teacup and stared at me with wide, startled eyes.
But soon, as if he'd read something in my expression, his rigid face slowly relaxed.
"So you've made ‌‌‌the decision to return to House Lockhart."
"Yes, I have."
As Dale had said, I was indeed planning to return to House Lockhart.
There was a noble there who could vouch for me, and most importantly—
this unsettling past that had been gnawing at me.
When the thought occurred that there might be something about myself I didn't know, the only place where I could uncover the truth was there.
The Lockhart Duchy Estate, the home where I had lived ‌‌‌my entire ‌‌‌life.
"You don't seem particularly surprised."
"It was always a place you would have to return to eventually. I simply believe the time has come."
His composed and unflappable response, so characteristic of Dale, oddly reassured ‌‌‌me.
"I ‌‌‌need to make this visit to the Capital alone. You'll be fine managing without me, won't you, Dale?"
Dale set down the teacup he'd been holding and smiled softly.
"I shall do my best."
"Come now, ‌‌‌‌won't you miss me?"
"Even when I see ‌‌‌you, I always miss you. Nothing changes in that regard."
Dale caught my elbow as I jabbed his ribs playfully, and he laughed gently.
It wasn't his tender words that made my face flush—it was my own reaction to them.
He gracefully accepted my foolish teasing. I ‌‌extended a finger toward him.
"Don't open the door to anyone you don't know while I'm away."
"Of course."
"And don't lend money to people, even if they're close to you."
"I shall remember that well."
"And don't cry just because you miss me."
I said it teasingly, poking him lightly.
But this time, Dale's expression grew somewhat sorrowful, and ‌‌‌‌he ‌didn't answer.
"Dale, I was only joking this time."
"I'm afraid I cannot take that as a jest."
It ‌‌was I who was startled by his words.
"If the time stretches long, I shall truly grow sorrowful. I hope you will return before ‌‌‌I find myself weeping."
His words flowed out like a smooth stream, and I found myself staring at him blankly.
Dale gazed at me with eyes as forlorn as a dejected puppy's.
"Ahem! Well then, I must return quickly for Dale's sake!"
I fanned my flushed ‌‌‌face with my hand.
"Ha ha, ha... How can I possibly leave Dale like this? This is quite the predicament. Ha ha, ha."
"You'll be back soon anyway, won't you?"
"Well, yes, but..."
I worried about Dale the way one might worry about a small child left by the water's edge, yet it ‌‌‌seemed he viewed me the same way. It was a most peculiar feeling.
"...To ‌‌‌‌be honest, I can't be certain ‌‌‌it will be quick. The matter may take some time. But I'll write frequently, and I'll return as soon as I possibly can."
"Are you confident the family won't detain you?"
"It's fine. I have a trump card I can play if that happens, so I'll be able to escape."
"Your trump card?"
Dale's eyes widened in confusion as he asked the question.
"I'm ‌sorry, but there's someone I can entrust the family to instead of me."
I held up Madame Cozette's ‌‌‌book to show him.
Someone who has been away from home even longer than ‌‌I have.
My Aunt Corinne.
"I have my reasons for trusting her, too."

* * *

A week passed, and the day of my departure arrived.
After finishing my preparations, I grasped Dale's hand firmly and ‌‌gave him careful instructions.
"You can't fall ill from missing me so much that you collapse. Understood?"
"...."
Dale ‌‌‌didn't laugh at my joke at all. Dark clouds had gathered in those golden eyes that usually sparkled ‌‌‌‌like the sun.
The corners of his eyes, which normally curved softly when he smiled, drooped throughout the day.
"Dale, you need to take care of yourself. Do ‌‌you understand?"
"I'll do my best to endure it."
The servants standing behind us also looked at me with reluctant eyes. ‌‌‌‌‌
The person who managed the mansion overall, the one who tended the garden, the one who handled the cooking, the one who helped with cleaning.
Four servants in total carried my luggage and wiped their ‌‌‌eyes with handkerchiefs. ‌‌
"We will take good care of the master, so please don't worry and have a safe trip, madam."
"Thank you all."
I was grateful that I wasn't leaving Dale alone in this house.
Dale was like ‌a puppy left at home, and if it had still been just the two of us, I don't think I would have had the resolve to go to the Capital.
Gratitude should be expressed through money.
"Please take good care of my husband."
I handed the servants a bonus equivalent to three months' wages.
The servants nodded with sparkling eyes.
Now I could rest easy.
"Then I'll be going. Dale. I'll send you letters."
With reluctance in my heart, I turned back and left the house.
That appearance... no, I need to remember that face well. For a while, I won't be able to see that handsome... rather, that face I'll miss.

The carriage carrying Enya disappeared into the distance, and the mansion door closed behind it.
In that instant, the servants lowered their bodies into perfect, reverent posture.
"Your ‌‌Majesty, the teleportation circle is complete."
"Let's go."
Dale, whose eyes had burned with longing as he ‌‌‌watched Enya depart, transformed into a figure of cold composure devoid of all emotion as he stepped onto the magic circle alongside the servants.
It was ‌‌‌‌the moment the Imperial Palace's head chambermaid, ‌the gardener, and the chef returned to their true stations.

* * *

Hurried footsteps crossed through the Lockhart Mansion.
Emma, Enya's personal lady's ‌‌‌‌maid, rushed toward the garden, while all the ‌‌‌‌‌mansion's servants lined up in two rows before the entrance, their ‌‌eyes fixed upon the doors. ‌‌
The sound of a carriage drawing near to the Duchy Estate echoed through the air.
Simultaneously, the tall mansion doors, ‌‌which had been firmly sealed, swung open, and the servants spoke in unison.
"Welcome home to House Lockhart, Miss Adeline!"
Their joyful, resonant voices set the blooming flowers trembling.
The young lady of House Lockhart had returned.
As Enya stepped into the mansion, she exhaled deeply. She saw the delighted face of Emma and the familiar countenances of servants who had been with her for so long.
And she looked toward the figure watching over her from the highest point of the mansion. ‌
"I'm home."
Enya bowed her head in greeting.
To her father, ‌Duke Lockhart.

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