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Side Story Part 7

「I guess she just wanted to make it clear that they shouldn’t be seeing each other again. 」

Irvine muttered while neatly cleaning the dishes.

「And the only thing that got clarified because of it were young lady’s feelings towards Lord Alexis… 」

Cammy mutters while helping Irvin with his work.

「Perhaps she was surprised too. And now she’s puzzled about them… 」

Layla looked at Irvin with a hollow expression on her face.

「Hey, what do you think we should do now? 」

「I was reluctant about getting involve din their matters, but it would seem that with the way things are now, we don’t have that much of a choice anymore. We need to do everything we can for them. 」

Irvine said so and looked back at Noelia.

「Let’s have the two of them meet each other. I trust that you’re going to cooperate with us on this, right? 」

「Of course. In fact, I came here precisely because I wanted to ask for your help with that. 」

The maid of the Ducet family nodded quietly.

* * *

A few days later, Marine was invited to dinner at Ulrika’s mansion, and she left the Kraische family mansion in a carriage.

It was still quite a long while before nightfall, but Marine guessed that she might as well take it slow and chat with her for a while.

(If I spend some time with her, then I’m sure that’s going to be a good distraction.)

Marine murmured in her mind.

Ever since that night party, Marine couldn’t stop herself from thinking about Alexis, and she was greatly confused about why she was feeling that way.

When she kissed Alexis, he must’ve secretly cast some kind of spell at her, because ever since then, he was the only thing that she could think about, no matter if she was awake or asleep.

At that time, Marine suddenly felt a sense of incongruity. The scenery outside the window is different from usual, and the horse-drawn carriage ran slowly through the backstreets without any ruts.

「Is it just me, or is the road we’re taking a different one? 」

Marine asked Layla.

「Under normal circumstances we would’ve taken the usual road, but apparently one of the carriages had an accident there and the luggage it was carrying got scattered all over the place, thus preventing the passage. 」

「Oh, I see. 」

Marine leaned back in her seat without probing into the matter too much.

After a while, the carriage finally came to a halt.
「My lady, please look outside the window. 」

Layla told to Marine, but her voice sounded unusually nervous.

Even though she thought something was wrong with her just now, Marine did as she was told and opened the window and looked outside.

And in that moment, she could hear her heart starting to beat loudly, because the person who was standing across the street was not Ulrika, but a young man with curly golden hair.

「What is the meaning of this? 」

Marine turned around and glared at Layla.

「I’m prepared to take the scolding. However, I couldn’t bear to see you suffer any longer. 」

Layla answered with a mysterious expression on her face.

「Your concern for me is appreciated, but it was largely unnecessary. 」

Marine spoke harshly to Layla, but her gaze returned to Alexis. Just looking at him made her heart feel all warm inside. She hated to admit it, but she needed to admit that what she was feeling for him was indeed love. If only she didn’t read that letter he sent her, then perhaps she never would’ve realized her own feelings in the first place?

In any case, it looked like right now they were located in the lower-class residential district, where all of the buildings had their walls colored brown.

Alexis was surrounded by a bunch of shabbily dressed children. They all looked pretty haggard. He had a smile on his face, but he didn’t look as lively as when she saw him back at the night party.

「After coming back from the night party the other day, it would seem that he looked as if he was about to take his own life. 」

「Take his own life? What is he, stupid? 」

Marine raises a voice that was neither surprised nor angry at what she just heard.

Unaware that Marine was watching him, Alexis eventually began singing along with his children. The songs sung by boys and girls were all slightly different. But when they came together, it feels like they were all unexpectedly deep.

The children were then tutored by Alexis on how they could improve their singing, and then sang along together with him happily. After they sang a few songs together, they got a silver coin from Alexis and then left.

After that, an old man who seemed to be sick appeared and asked Alexis for something. Alexis smiled and nodded, using the power of his Crest on the old man.

The old man seemed to have recovered from an injury that he apparently sustained, thanked Alexis many times over, and then returned to his own house.

People in this back street seem to know Alexis, and everyone who passes by greets him warmly.

「This place is not far from Lord Alexis’s mansion. People often come here on foot to interact with him they way you’ve seen just now. 」

「So this is supposed to be a kind of an exchange? 」

There were still traces of anger left in Marine’s voice.

「Because the way I see it, this is a form of charity rather than anything else. And that’s something that a Lord should never do. 」

Marine said with a stern expression and pushed open the door of the carriage herself without waiting for Layla. Then she got out of the carriage and walked straight towards Alexis.

Alexis also seemed to have recognized Marine, and for a moment his face became brightly lit with a smile, but then he saw how stern Marine was looking, and he dropped his head down with sadness.

Marine put her hands on her hips and stood in front of a dejected Alexis.

「You are the heir to Silvestre Ducet, leader of the Fantasia Union. In the future you’re going to become the next Archduke in place of your father, and you’re going to be expected to carry the future of the entire Union on your shoulders. 」

「That’s why I was coming here… 」

Alexis panicked and looked around.

「It doesn’t matter. Here or anywhere else, it is going to be exactly the same. I am from the Kraische family, and you are from the Ducet family. We are enemies by birth, and one day we’re going to have to fight each other. 」

「And do you really think that the Factory Alliance could win against the Fantasia Union so easily? 」

Alexis smiled sadly once more.

「Of course the Factory Alliance is going to win against the Fantasia Union. And once that happens, my father Matthias is going to become the Emperor and rule the entire continent. 」

「I have heard about the splendor of the Kraische family’s governance. Your family is said to be incredibly strict but fair, and it always respects the established laws. 」
「That’s right. That is our method to make sure the people living in the territories that we rule over would accept our rule over them without voicing any complaints. Now you, on the other hand, you were handing out charity to those children that played with you. You might be satisfied with doing something like that yourself, but that doesn’t change the fact that this was nothing more than pure hypocrisy. Why, you ask? Because now that you’ve given money to some of these children, you gave way for injustice in only giving it to some of them instead to all of them, an in time, that injustice of yours will turn into a source of dissatisfaction that’s one day going to start making cracks in the current government. 」

Marine said all those words in an outburst of rage, almost as if she was using what Alexis had done as an excuse to went everything that was still lingering heavily upon her heart.

On the other hand, Alexis was just listening to her words silently.

「It might be just as you say it is… 」

Alexis nodded his head.

「But even so, I have no intention of giving up on doing my charity work. All I want is for you to understand why am I doing this in the first place. 」

After saying that, Alexis begged Marine to stay with him for just a little longer.

「Hmpf, I suppose I can at least do that much. 」