Light gunshots rang out as birds took flight. A bullet embedded itself in the target.
"Wow!"
Cordelia, lowering her gun, exclaid in delight. It was the first ti today she had hit the center. She whipped her head around expecting praise, but Esperanza spoke sternly.
"Don't lower the gun."
"Shouldn't you praise
first?"
"You did very well. Well done, but keep holding the gun. You need to finish shooting."
Grumbling while holding the gun, Cordelia carefully pulled the trigger. But she couldn't achieve the sa good results as before.
"I guess it was just a fluke after all."
"The first ti is always a fluke."
"Were you like that too?"
"Probably?"
Though she couldn't even rember when that was. Cordelia complained that it was unfair, then raised her gun again. Her arms holding the heavy rifle trembled.
"Shall we call it a day?"
"After I finish shooting all of these!"
She lacked stamina and strength, but she had persistence and pride. Cordelia only put down the gun after using up all the bullets. However, she grimaced as even straightening her arms was difficult.
"A pistol would have been fine too."
"But rifles look cool! It's not like I carry a gun around all the ti like you do."
Cordelia, laughing like a child, led Esperanza toward the drawing room. When they opened the drawing room door, a rich butter aroma wafted out. Freshly baked scones and apricot marmalade, clotted cream. Sandwiches with thinly sliced cucumber. As they sat down, maids poured them tea.
After the strict shooting lesson ended, the two relaxed completely with sweet snacks before them. Since it involved handling firearms, Esperanza hardly allowed any chatting during lessons. Cordelia, who had much to say, had no choice but to wait for this ti.
Actually, there was sothing she particularly wanted to ask about today.
"Esperanza, you have sothing pretty on your wrist. Is it a bracelet?"
"Ah, this?"
Esperanza extended her wrist adorned with the golden accessory.
"Oh my, it's a watch! It's so pretty. It must be a gift from Lord Avondale?"
Since it was a watch of all things, it was sothing anyone could guess. Esperanza nodded with a bashful smile.
In that era, wristwatches were closer to bracelets with pendant-style watches attached. They were reasonably useful normally, but quite inconvenient during combat or while moving.
Hearing this, Cider conspired with a watch company famous for precision and presented her with this suspicious watch. It looked like jewelry in daily life due to its bracelet form, but the length could be adjusted to fit the wrist or the cover could be opened and fixed in place.
"I asked if it was really a watch, and he said it really was a watch. As you can see, I can check the ti just fine."
"Indeed! Oh my, it's already three o'clock?"
Cordelia glanced outside with a troubled expression. If it was a visitor that made sociable Cordelia so troubled, there was only one type.
"A suitor is coming? Who was it?"
Cordelia had many suitors. Like any lady with many admirers, Cordelia was particular about their conditions and character. So far, it didn't seem like anyone to her liking had appeared.
"Baron Jas Brundell of Permoy. He's been involved in business since childhood so he has rough edges, but he's wealthy and reasonably young. Most importantly, we clearly have things to offer each other."
"How old is he?"
"Twenty-seven."
Cordelia was twenty. That wasn't a big age difference by society standards.
"I think he's going to propose to
today."
If she intended to accept that proposal, she wouldn't be drinking tea without even washing off her sweat.
"Haven't you already rejected about ten people?"
"Today will make it eleven."
Cordelia, setting down her teacup silently, stood up abruptly.
"People say I have no intention of marrying while I toy with gentlen. But I'm truly examining every suitor one by one. There have been people with good conditions, but not a single one has moved my heart."
"Cider was saying sothing like that..."
"Lord Avondale's opinion isn't particularly needed."
"But it was helpful last ti, wasn't it?"
There had been a case where soone who seed decent was actually a gambling addict with massive debts underwater. She would have rejected the proposal anyway, but what was more important was reputation. Reputation is like paint mixed in water—being associated with such a person for long taints others' reputations with bad color.
"Anyway, he said that even if you reject about thirteen more people, there won't be any problem."
"Well, of course. I have God's shield up."
After the Sterling incident, when Alastair Renfrew first appeared in society, he suddenly erged as the most eligible bachelor. Even after seeing the disaster in Sterling, people sward to Count Sterling like bees.
And when that Alastair Renfrew proposed to Cordelia, Cordelia's value in the marriage market literally reached the "upper limit."
How shallow and fleeting is value that gets swayed by such things? But Cordelia still needed it. Alastair knew that too.
So Alastair remained Cordelia's suitor for two years, and as long as such a "divine shield" existed, no one thought it strange that Cordelia rejected other suitors. Even if they cursed behind her back.
"I'll probably have to keep the shield up for a while longer. Grandmother is already nagging that if it's going to be like this, I should just marry the Dunbarton fellow... but I really don't know."
Had her heart hardened? Cordelia carefully pressed her chest. She thought that might be the case.
"How did you beco certain? That this was the person."
It was an unexpected question. Esperanza fell into thought for a mont. From so point, there had been certainty, and there was a mont when she realized that certainty existed there.
"I just... when I ca to my senses..."
As expected, resentful glances pierced into her. Esperanza smiled awkwardly while fidgeting with her teacup.
"We had so many things happen, you know. Having the sa goals, helping each other, worrying, fighting a bit too? We overca many crises together. As those things accumulated, it naturally beca that way."
"Do I need ti?"
"Maybe. You can't entrust your life to soone you don't know. I think all the suitors you've rejected so far are still strangers to you. Though I'm sure there were so you disliked just from that much."
Esperanza added with a smile:
"It's not like we fell in love at first sight either."
Cordelia carefully sat back down on the sofa. Lost in thought, she kept her mouth shut and only stared at her own face reflected in the red tea.
Whatever storms raged within Cordelia, the drawing room was peaceful anyway. It was a peaceful afternoon.
"Miss!"
Until the door opened and a maid burst in.
"What is the aning of this!"
Cordelia, imdiately switching to her "young lady" face, scolded the maid. The maid shook her head so much that her neatly pinned-up hair ca loose.
"Countess, urgent news ca from your residence. Count Avondale has collapsed!"
"What?"
Esperanza asked blankly. Her head felt like it had beco a large bell. A bell that, once struck, wouldn't stop vibrating for a long ti. She felt dizzy.
"A servant just ca from the residence saying the Count has collapsed... The servant is resting now, exhausted."
"Why, what happened?"
Cordelia, who had been listening, quickly asked. The maid rolled her eyes as she replied:
"I couldn't ask for details about that..."
"You should have heard all that before coming! No wait, go to that servant right now, Esperanza?"
The maid's mouth fell open. When Cordelia turned around, Esperanza was no longer in her seat. She had climbed through the drawing room window and disappeared from sight in an instant.
"Miss, the Countess just—!"
"Shh. You saw nothing just now. Send the servant back after letting him rest appropriately. Understood?"
While Cordelia was keeping mouths shut, Esperanza was flying across Nine Holder.
Mabelwood mansion in the middle of Upper Lane wasn't very close to Avondale mansion. That was entirely due to Avondale mansion being tucked away in a corner, but Esperanza had never found this fact as deplorable as today.
She arrived at the mansion by leaping over buildings and grasping at air while running—or perhaps flying. It certainly wasn't a distance to cover on foot, but with only the maid's voice saying "the Count has collapsed!" repeating over and over in her head, there was no other choice.
"Ho-how did you get here without a carriage..."
"Is he in his room?"
At the question that cut straight to the point, the servant nodded. Esperanza passed the servant, opened the front door, and went inside. While running up the stairs, she belatedly thought she could have entered through the window. Her head was definitely running half a beat slow.
Standing before the bedroom door, Esperanza took a deep breath. Then she threw the door open without hesitation.
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