Chapter 291: Why Does It Always Turn Out Like This?

I looked around. The maids too had finally come back to themselves, wearing awkward faces, cheeks red. And Lily wore a face that said why? how? There was even a maid pressing her crotch through her skirt. But they were dazed.

The only ones calm were the source, the Duchess, and Her Majesty, who had likely stirred her on. Both were smiling as if they found it funny. Whose fault was it that I had shown my thing in front of everyone! It was still half hard!!

Linoa looked at my face, went speechless, then covered her face with both hands and shook her head. She was thinking she had gone too far no matter how you cut it. Why had she done something like that!

At that moment I thought it! I was truly glad I had not put a hand into Linoa’s chest. If I had, the Duchess’s mental magic would have stirred Linoa even more, and we might have done it in front of everyone. Because I was an eleven-year-old boy. The body was.

—-

In an extremely awkward atmosphere, nobody spoke and nobody moved. Even Lily kept staring at her own hands. She was surely thinking, why did I do something like that?

"Then shall we have Linoa show us the outline?"

Her Majesty broke the silence. It felt like, why now, but staying locked in silence was painful. I thought we were supposed to see the outline first. How had the flow become like this?

"This is it."

Linoa said in a voice ready to vanish, and held out a booklet. I took it and read. The contents were as expected. My exploits were lifted up to excess. Would they take what Lily had told today, embroider it further, and write the script? Worrying would not help, but they would pile it on more... This had already gone into the world of fiction, and I did not feel it would stop no matter what I said.

"How is it?"

Linoa asked, looking frail.

"I think you beautified me too much."

I gave my honest impression, and Linoa looked at Lily with eyes ready to cry, as if to say, even if you tell me that. Then Lily said,

"It is wonderful! It is exactly like this! Lord Robbie does not know that his own sense and the sense of others looking at him are different! The heroic figure of Lord Robbie that I witnessed is just as written! Linoa has written as if she had seen it herself!"

She agreed with all her strength. Linoa nodded as if that was exactly what she wanted.

"See! That is right!"

When Her Majesty agreed,

"There is no mistake."

the Duchess affirmed it as well. Then my opinion was unnecessary from the start, was it not? I wanted to say. If they had called only Lily and not me, we would have been spared this hellish scene! Inwardly I was shedding tears.

That the air, once cooled, warmed again was surely the Duchess unconsciously making her own feelings something the surroundings would go along with. She was not demanding flattery. She was satisfied with mere agreement, and that, for me, was within the range I could accept.

I handed Her Majesty and the Duchess their usual medicine and had them drink. Watching Anouk drink, Elle made a face that said, huh? why can I not drink?, but I wanted her to refrain. I had already provided three cups here, and there was still the night. Linoa wore a face that asked what these people were drinking. I no longer wanted to widen the medicine’s sales routes. Direct would be fine, but supplying what Lily had wrung out... I had started not to want to increase that any further. Of course, if it were not Lily doing the wringing, but someone else, that would be another story.

In the carriage back to the embassy Lily was puzzled.

"Lord Robbie, did you not find it strange?"

she asked, so I said,

"I thought it was strange the whole time. But in that atmosphere I could not say so."

At my words,

"I too became as if feverish, and got heated along with everyone around us. I am sorry."

she reflected, at least in form.

"Yeah. I did not think Lily would actively start stripping my clothes."

"I am sorry! I did not mean to, but my hands moved on their own..."

"So your head was not thinking it, but your body moved by itself?"

"Yes. That kind of feeling. Somewhere in my head I was saying this is wrong, I have to stop, but my body moved as if something were moving it. I felt as if my body were floating. What on earth happened?"

"Even if you ask me, I would not know. It is about you, Lily. But before, when we gave a live demonstration of making medicine in front of the Duchess and Her Majesty, was it like that too?"

"Ah!? That is right! It resembles that time! That time too, it felt like go, go, onward!! Not only me. I felt as if everyone there shared the same feeling."

Well, of course. She was being guided by the Duchess’s mind, and Her Majesty was probably not being guided, but she found it amusing and left it alone. And I was the one taking the damage, or rather having a good time.

We returned to the embassy and I told Rudolf I would be going out tonight. I did not think there was anything particularly dangerous, but there was always the chance, and I might even come face to face with Rudolf. Would they take me, calling it a celebration, to the brothel where Rudolf worked? Or if I pretended to be a virgin, would they take me to that kind of shop and say they would give me my first time? I could tell Lily that men had their own dealings and she should go home first. That sort of thing.

"Lord Robbie, Lord Robbie? What is the matter?"

Hah. My mind had gone over there. Rudolf was wearing a worried face as well.

"No, it is nothing. I was thinking."

Yes. That I had been thinking was not wrong!