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Chapter 67 Part 4 – A minuet to be remembered. In the memories of happiness, Rona blames herself and wails.

Unable to understand the situation, Rona was puzzled, but she quickly pulled herself together. Rona’s brunette hair swayed and her earlobes were dyed red as she bowed to Wendell.

「Wendell-sama, I apologize for what happened earlier. Thank you for rescuing me. For giving me a place to work. I, along with my younger brothers who are not present here, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.」

Wendell smiled gently.

「I apologize as well. I’m so glad to see that you’ve recovered. I see that you’re wearing the rose hair ornament that I gave you. I’m happy to see that. Will you accept these roses as congratulations on your recovery?」

「Y-Yes ……!!」

After Rona replied in a voice an octave higher, her nervousness was replaced by an apple-like blush in her cheeks as her fingers touched Wendell’s fingers when she received the bouquet. As Rona rushed to cover her blushing face with the bouquet of roses, Wendell moved one leg backwards and bowed with his hand on his chest.

「Well then, Miss Rona. Can I ask you to a dance to celebrate your recovery? Please take my hand.」

Rona couldn’t believe her ears when she saw the exact same development as she had seen in her dream. She was stupefied.
There was no way that Wendell, the prince charming, would ask her to a dance.

「…… I guess you don’t like it if your partner is me.」

Rona panicked when Wendell looked at her sadly with a hint of melancholy in his eyes.
It’s not a dream. It’s real.

「T-There’s no way I would dislike it!! But I’ve never danced before ……!!」

「Then I hope you won’t turn me down. If you do it twice in a row, my feelings will be hurt.」

「I-I’m sorry. But ……」

Rona was so flustered that she dropped the bouquet on the floor.
Flying through the air and being dropped, it was a difficult day for the roses.

「S-Sorry.」

Rona reached out to pick up the bouquet, but then, Wendell took the lead and gently grasped her hand.

「I’ll consider this as acceptance okay? I pulled the shy princess to the point that the roses fell to the floor. I hope you won’t let the roses’ sacrifice go to waste. Don’t worry. I’ll take the lead during the dance.」

It was a bit coercive, but Rona, a former dreamy girl, was completely taken in by the fairytale-like situation.

「Y-Yes. Please take care of me.」

Rona blushed fiercely when her hand was pulled by Wendell and she stepped forward to the wide open space.
Right at that moment, Marielle gently strummed the lute and transformed the atmosphere of the study into that of a ballroom.

「Rona-chan, it’s still too early for you to tease and play games with men. Just be honest and go dance. I’m sure it will be a wonderful memory that you will never forget.」

It was just as Marielle said.

Since it was her first time, she could not dance the waltz, so they danced a simple minuet, but this short dance would shine brighter in her memory than all the tens of thousands of times she danced afterwards.

When Wendell released her hand, her heart ached.
Then when they went in the trajectory of 「Z」 and came around again to come in contact with each other, her heart almost jumped out of her chest with joy.
When they took each other’s hands and spun around like amusement park teacups, Rona thought that her feet were floating and her soul would burst.

Rona had such a heart-throbbing time that she might have fainted if it was a waltz where the dancers had to be in close contact with each other.
It was as if she had burned up a lifetime’s worth of love.

「…… You’re being really supportive of that girl. Acting like an older sister. Have you been moved by affection?」

The white-bearded Brian teasingly asked Marielle as she played the lute with an expression of watching over a daughter’s little love.
Marielle answered in a small voice without moving her gaze away.

「…… The treatment was successful, but that girl can no longer conceive a child. I couldn’t tell her. It’s because of my lack of ability …… So, this is the least I can do to atone for my sins. I want her to make lots of happy memories. I hope that when she passes away, she will feel that her life wasn’t so bad.」

The white-bearded Brian put his hand on Marielle’s shoulder.

「What are you doing out of the blue? You’re interrupting my musical performance.」

「I’m glad to see that our eyes were right when we decided to entrust you with the task. In Rona’s heart, I’m sure you are one of those happy memories. Without you, Rona would have died. I believe you have surpassed the leader of the〈Lawless Crew〉. Look at that happy expression on Rona’s face. It was you who gave Rona a future.」

「Hmph, are you guys trying to comfort me by saying that?」

Black-bearded Bobby and brown-bearded Bill put their hands on top of white-bearded Brian’s hand.

「We’d like to brag about our daughter once in a while, too.」

「Marielle really grew up to be the best daughter.」

Marielle snorted softly.

「It doesn’t make me happy to be treated like a daughter at this age. It’s heavy, you fools.」

However, Marielle didn’t try to shake off the hands of the three old warriors.
The white-bearded Brian smiled nostalgically.

「Marielle will always be a precious daughter to us. You’re too precious that we couldn’t take you as a wife. We were happy that you liked us, but as foster parents, we couldn’t possibly let our daughter become unhappy. We lived on the battlefield and could have died at any time.」

The brown-bearded Bill smiled bitterly.

「We were worried that there might be an idiot who lost control of himself and secretly got a head start. We were always in a three-way deadlock.」

The black-bearded Bobby stroked his beard in embarrassment.

「I was afraid that if I laid a hand on you, I would ruin the memories of raising you as our daughter. All I wanted was for you to marry a good husband other than us and be happy.」

Marielle’s cheeks turned pink and she sighed.

「How foolish. How could I ever have the desire to marry another man when I have three men I fell in love with? But I know that all three of you cared about me and wouldn’t lay a hand on me. So next time I’ll be born the same age as the three of you. That way you guys can’t run away from me because of the age difference.」

Marielle tilted her head and put her cheek against the hands of the three old warriors that were stacked on her shoulder as she continued to play the lute.
The three old warriors laughed heartily.

「So Marielle is going to be our childhood friend. That’ll be tough.」

「Ohhh, I have a feeling that all three of us are going to get our asses handed to us.」

「At that time, we won’t have such a stern-looking face, but we will become good-looking like the young master and propose marriage to our beloved Miss Marielle.」

The four adults saw themselves in Rona, who was dancing happily with her cheeks blushing and her breath puffing, and Wendell, who was gently watching over her and taking the lead in the dance.
Possibly the past. Or possibly the future.

Rona and Wendell continued to dance like a pair of dolls.

This became the first and last dance that Rona …… later referred to as Countess Rosenthal, danced with Wendell.

The melancholic but gentle melody of the lute rode on the wind.
Wendell’s gentle smile as he gazed at Rona.
The figure of Rona trying hard to follow after Wendell like a puppy.
Their fingertips touching each other.
Marielle and the three old warriors watching over them.
At this moment, Rona was certainly happy.
She wished that this time would last forever.

However, later in her life, Rona would not be allowed to feel happy even at the memory of this one dance with Wendell. How many times had she wished she could forget it? But the memory was so vividly happy that it made Rona even more anguished.

Rona …… Countess Rosenthal would jerk awake in the middle of the night and cover her face with her hands to weep in secret.
She called the names of her younger brothers over and over again as she wailed.

…… Just as Rona was enjoying a modest happiness, her younger brother Ronny, who had tried to bring Rona back, fell into the hands of Matthew, an official from the Inquisition, and was about to die in a dark, cold, stone-walled room.

Even as his body was relentlessly tortured and destroyed, Ronny stubbornly refused to sell his older sister.
It was the strong will of a young child resisting a cruel fate.

But the cunning Matthew took advantage of Ronny’s feelings of wanting to protect his sister Rona.
Ronny was induced by the devil’s sweet talk and ended up giving an irrevocable testimony.

Surrounded by the furious populace, Rona tightly embraced the completely changed Ronny and was confronted with the cruel truth that her actions have led to his ruin.

Due to the demon’s scheme, the flames of a witch hunt were about to blow through the town.