The winter winds were chilling.
Usually, the temperature would warm up a bit around this ti of year, but the winter season this year had been particularly frigid.
Thanks to this, the fields were frozen solid.
To make matters worse, a blizzard had blown through the territory, forcing the territory to a standstill.
It was a season of silence.
Everyone was holed up in their hos, huddled around the fireplace.
The only signs of life were the giggles of the children and the tiny footprints they left behind playing in the snow.
It was on such a day,
“Milord, the cloak is finished!”
The cloak he had ordered was complete, made from the pelts of the beasts he had killed during the previous hunt.
The jet-black fur shone with a glossy luster.
Its texture was smooth.
Elric smiled slightly as he thought of the person who would wear this cloak.
The thought of having to do sothing he usually wouldn’t, sothing he felt was embarrassing, had changed Elric’s deanor a little bit.
It started at breakfast.
“It looks like there won’t be any work for a while. It’s that ti of year when the entire territory takes a break.”
Bread, bacon, and eggs.
It was a simple al, but unlike most days, he was only nibbling on it.
Elric just kept glancing at her as he listened to her words.
His thoughts were still on the fur cloak.
How should he give it to her?
Should he just give it to her and tell her to wear it? Should he tell her that he had spent ti thinking about it?
Neither option seed appealing to him.
The forr seed too careless, and the latter seed too pathetic.
Elric wanted to show her just the right amount of emotion.
In doing so, he wanted to show Tyria that he was thinking of her.
If one asked him why he couldn’t just say it directly, he would have no answer.
If he had to give a reason, it would be out of sha.
‘What should I do?’
His worries stemd from the fact that he had never had the opportunity to give a gift to anyone before.
In his childhood, he had been a spoiled young master, and as an adult, he was a killer.
It was a rather foreign and difficult task for him to express his gratitude or goodwill in the form of a material object to another.
He groaned about it for a long ti in his mind.
Thanks to that, today’s nightmare had been quickly erased from his mind.
“Milord.”
“Hmm, yes.”
“You seem particularly absent-minded today.”
“That…”
Elric’s voice trailed off, but then he broke into a small smile and offered an excuse.
“It was a bit cold in bed, so I’m a little tired.”
“I’ll tell the servants to make the fire hotter.”
“Thank you.”
The truth was, his bed was hot.
If it got any hotter, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all due to the temperature.
He would need to tell Aldio about the matter separately.
Tyria didn’t show up at the office for so reason.
When he asked Aldio where she was, he replied,
“She’s in the study, reading.”
Co to think of it, she was a woman who loved books so much that she would read an encyclopedia even when she was sick.
“Would you like to go see her?”
“Since there’s nothing else to do, I’ll go read as well.”
“You, reading a book?”
Aldio looked at him as if he had seen a ghost.
It was a look he hadn’t received in a long ti, ever since he left the battlefield.
Elric narrowed his eyes.
“Why are you looking at like that?”
“…Are you not feeling well?”
The sight of Aldio looking all over his body with a look of genuine concern made him feel a little self-conscious.
However, he couldn’t get angry.
Even he had thought that “Elric Portman” and “reading” were completely incompatible, a combination that had never been and would never be.
“…I shall go.”
Elric limped out of the room and made his way to the study.
He felt her presence inside.
He quickly knocked on the door which brought a reply.
“Co in.”
It was a voice that was both dignified and firm.
It was the tone of a voice used when ordering a servant.
It was a voice he had heard so many tis before, and yet it still felt unfamiliar, only because he was the target this ti.
Elric smiled for no reason and opened the door.
There he saw Tyria.
“…Milord?”
Her eyes widened.
She was dressed differently than usual.
A pair of round glasses sat on her wide-open eyes, a brown shawl was draped over a comfortable dress, and her hair was braided and tied in a bun.
The stray hairs that stuck out from under her ears were sohow captivating to him.
“What brings you here, Milord?”
She, bearing the sa facial expression as Aldio, looked as if she had seen a ghost.
Elric felt a little hurt, but he couldn’t show it.
He realized that, in the future, he would have to pretend to read in front of others. [1]
“I stopped by because I was bored and heard that you were here.”
Elric then moved to sit down beside her.
The couch was large, so thankfully there was room.
“Why are you wearing glasses? Are your eyes not well?”
She made an “ah” sound as I asked the question.
“It’s a magic tool.”
“Hmm?”
“I received it as a gift from the princess during our last trip to the capital. She said that it helps relieve eye fatigue.”
Ah, Elvus’ arrangents were coming back to him in a visible way.
He now definitely rembered the incident wherein the princess of Ferdin, who loved tea parties, took an interest in her.
“…Do they not suit ?”
She seed embarrassed.
Elric shook his head imdiately.
“You look really intelligent, I’m just a little surprised with how your atmosphere changed so much with just a pair of glasses.”
“Oh, I’m glad to hear that.”
By now, Tyria’s book had been closed.
Wondering what she had been reading, he looked at the cover of the book and realized it was a novel.
It was a popular novel that was circulating in the civilian world.
“You like this kind of novel too? That’s unexpected.”
“It’s good for killing ti. I can read it without thinking.”
“I thought that my wife would stick to reading history books or poetry collections.”
He laughed, and Tyria replied in a quiet voice.
“I do read them regularly. However, I don’t enjoy them in my free ti because I think that knowledge is a field of study.”
“That’s a relief. It seems like I’m not the only one who finds them boring.”
“I understand that you were looking to read a little more.”
Elric stared at Tyria.
She had to be kidding, right?
“May I recomnd a few?”
…She wasn’t kidding after all.
Aside from feeling a bit annoyed, he started to think that he really did need to read a book at so point.
When he asked for recomndations, Tyria stood up and imdiately pulled out a few books without hesitation.
“Hmm.”
It was a history book with a horribly sleepy title.
“These are the kind of books that often co up in conversations with nobility. They’re easy ones that you should be able to morize in no ti.”
“So it’s not about actually reading, but morizing?”
“It’s easier to pretend to know that material if you morize it. Understanding it is a much more difficult task than rembering it.”
She was sounding like Elvus.
He laughed at that, causing Tyria to tilt her head.
That look of hers was sohow adorable, and he was reminded of the fur cloak again.
“Shall we try reading it? I’ll help you.”
“Uhm, okay.”
Feeling hot for so reason, Elric couldn’t bear to look at her any longer and turned his attention to the book.
The letters were extrely small.
As he concentrated on them and read one letter at a ti, he began to pay more attention to the things around him for so reason.
Crackle, crackle. The sound of the fireplace gnawing on the firewood.
Her breath and the warm sll of her shawl.
And then, her words, “This ans this,” at certain points.
In other words,
“…”
“…Milord?”
He was sleepy.
Elric opened his eyes belatedly to the sll of sothing cozy and warm.
The view in front of him was strange.
After blinking his eyes a few tis, he saw the ceiling and Tyria’s face.
His nape was laying on sothing soft, and for so reason, there was a fold of clothes that blocked his vision.
He thought with his mind unburdened and in clarity,
“I didn’t dream?
This ant that he had slept extrely deeply.
How long had it been since he had slept this deeply?
When he realized this, he felt quite refreshed.
That was the mont his vision returned.
The visual information around him finally converged into one, informing Elric of the current situation.
“Have you woken up?”
It was only then that he realized that he was resting his head on her lap.
“Uh-huh!”
Her greeting made Elric jump to his feet.
Tyria said.
“I see… you really couldn’t sleep last night. I left you alone because you fell asleep so quickly. Was I rude?”
No, the rude one had been him.
“…No, it was my fault.”
How embarrassing it was, falling asleep while reading.
He was glad that he had told her before about how he hadn’t gotten much sleep.
His face was flushed, and when he looked at the clock, he found that it had been two hours.
Had he been using her lap as a pillow all this ti?
The sensation he had felt on his nape started to bother him.
His gaze traveled to her thighs, and he recalled the curves that had blocked his vision.
His cheeks flushed even more.
‘Other thoughts… other thoughts…!’
Elric was trying to gather his wits at the mont.
“Shall we leave for now?”
Tyria asked, whilst Elric looked out the window.
The snow had stopped falling.
The dark clouds were now gone, revealing a clear sky.
“Outside?”
“Yes?”
“Oh, that’s not what I ant.”
She just ant for them to leave the study.
As he was about to nod in agreent.
‘…Wait.’
A good idea ca to him, perhaps having co to him due to his clear mind.
Wasn’t he supposed to give her a gift today?
This was the perfect opportunity.
“Milady.”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t we go outside and get so fresh air? It will help us wake up.”
He broached the subject casually, and Tyria nodded.
This was going to be his chance.
[1. ED/PR note: or you could just actually read instead of pretending…]
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