Chapter 61: Winter and Gifts (1)

The winter winds were chilling.

Usually, the temperature would warm up a bit around this time 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 homes, 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 something he usually wouldn’t, something he felt was embarrassing, had changed Elric’s demeanor a little bit.

It started at breakfast.

“It looks like there won’t be any work for a while. It’s that time of year when the entire territory takes a break.”

Bread, bacon, and eggs.

It was a simple meal, 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 time thinking about it?

Neither option seemed appealing to him.

The former seemed too careless, and the latter seemed 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 shame.

‘What should I do?’

His worries stemmed 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 time 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 some reason.

When he asked Aldio where she was, he replied,

“She’s in the study, reading.”

Come 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 time, ever since he left the battlefield.

Elric narrowed his eyes.

“Why are you looking at me 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.

“Come 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 times before, and yet it still felt unfamiliar, only because he was the target this time.

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 somehow captivating to him.

“What brings you here, Milord?”

She, bearing the same 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’ arrangements were coming back to him in a visible way.

He now definitely remembered the incident wherein the princess of Ferdin, who loved tea parties, took an interest in her.

“…Do they not suit me?”

She seemed embarrassed.

Elric shook his head immediately.

“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 time. 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 time 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 recommend 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 some point.

When he asked for recommendations, Tyria stood up and immediately 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 come up in conversations with nobility. They’re easy ones that you should be able to memorize in no time.”

“So it’s not about actually reading, but memorizing?”

“It’s easier to pretend to know that material if you memorize it. Understanding it is a much more difficult task than remembering it.”

She was sounding like Elvus.

He laughed at that, causing Tyria to tilt her head.

That look of hers was somehow adorable, and he was reminded of the fur cloak again.

“Shall we try reading it? I’ll help you.”

“Uhm, okay.”

Feeling hot for some reason, Elric couldn’t bear to look at her any longer and turned his attention to the book.

The letters were extremely small.

As he concentrated on them and read one letter at a time, he began to pay more attention to the things around him for some reason.

Crackle, crackle. The sound of the fireplace gnawing on the firewood.

Her breath and the warm smell of her shawl.

And then, her words, “This means this,” at certain points.

In other words,

“…”

“…Milord?”

He was sleepy.

Elric opened his eyes belatedly to the smell of something cozy and warm.

The view in front of him was strange.

After blinking his eyes a few times, he saw the ceiling and Tyria’s face.

His nape was laying on something soft, and for some 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 meant that he had slept extremely deeply.

How long had it been since he had slept this deeply?

When he realized this, he felt quite refreshed.

That was the moment 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 time?

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 moment.

“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 meant.”

She just meant for them to leave the study.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

As he was about to nod in agreement.

‘…Wait.’

A good idea came to him, perhaps having come 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 some 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…]