CH 143

Words : 1093 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

Nicholas Returned to the Mansion “I’ve returned.” “Nicholas.” Just as I was going through the entrance hall in order to return to the garden to train, the front door opened and Nicholas entered. After that, Sebastian was called, and they went to the drawing room in order to hear the report. I was told that I could attend. “So, Nicholas. What did His Grace say?” “Lord Ekenhart…” Apparently, Nicholas had been able to meet Mr. Ekenhart at the halfway point between this mansion and the main residence. This was due to the fact that Mr. Ekenhart had been taking his time and traveling at a leisurely pace. It turned out that my herbs had also been useful, and Nicholas thanked me. I was glad to hear it. “I see… Very good. Well, you must be tired, so you can go and rest.” “Yes.” After finishing his report, Nicholas left the drawing room. As it would have been a tough ride, he would be quite exhausted. “Now, I must relay this information to Lady Claire.” “Yes.” And so Sebastian left in order to speak to her. I stayed behind with Leo and Ms. Lyra. As for Milina and Ms. Gelda, they were in the garden watching Tilura and Sherry. “Watch and wait, huh…” I thought back on what I had just heard. Before leaving to see Mr. Ekenhart, Nicholas had done some searching in Ractos as well, and had a grasp on the malicious store. I suppose he had also spoken with Sebastian as well. He even knew that the count was involved, that they had been buying all the herbs and medicine in the town, and that they had started selling shortly after the spread of the disease. After telling everything to Mr. Ekenhart, the reply had been to wait and see. “Even someone like Mr. Ekenhart isn’t able to take action immediately…” As the store was in his territory, he could easily have it shut down. Only, it could lead to other complications with the noble house later on. And so he would rather act once they had irrefutable evidence. That’s why Sebastian has been so busy these days. Also, Mr. Ekenhart himself was going to look into this matter with the count. While it was unlikely to be resolved soon, I still wanted to do something about this store that was hurting the people. “But I suppose there is no point in me thinking about it.” I drank the rest of the tea that Ms. Lyra had poured, and then I went out into the garden to switch gears. “Why are you running too, Milina?” “Ha…ha… Because I’m quite confident in my athletic ability…” When I arrived at the garden, I saw that Milina was running with Tilura and Sherry. Sherry always ran with her, but I didn’t see why Milina needed to run as well. After running, Milia smiled happily as she caught her breath. While she was tired, she was clearly having fun. So I suppose it was alright. “Anyway, I’ll be training here until lunch. Is that fine?” “Yes. Then we can study after that!” But first, I had to train. Moving my body would help me forget all those unpleasant thoughts. As there was currently no good way to deal with the store, I had been feeling a sense of anger. After that, I continued to train until Ms. Lyra came to call us. As studying would take up a lot of my time, I had trained harder than usual. Milina seemed a little worried, but it was fine, as I had the herbs. …I just had to be careful that I didn’t get sleepy while we studied. “I’ll study hard!” After lunch, we went to the drawing room like yesterday in order to study. As I had been reading late last night, I was quite ahead already. Thanks to this, I was able to answer Milina’s questions smoothly. …So it was worth the reduced hours of sleep. “Mr. Takumi, it’s time for dinner.” “Thank you. Milina, that’s enough for today.” “Yes.” I nodded to Ms. Gelda, who had come to tell us that dinner was ready, and we finished studying for the day. We were going through the book at a much faster pace than I expected. I wasn’t sure if it was because I had read ahead, or because it was just easy to understand. But I went over everything in my head as I headed to the dining hall. As Milina was now here as a servant, she would eat with them. They had a separate place to eat their meals. “Mr. Takumi, I just talked with Sebastian.” “I see.” During dinner, Ms. Claire talked about what she had heard concerning her father. She had an angry expression, which suggested she too felt frustrated that they were not able to do anything about the store. We had to wait for Mr. Ekenhart to provoke the count into action, or for Sebastian to find concrete evidence… “Wuff.” “Kyau. Kyau.” Seeing that we were in a dark mood, Leo and Sherry tried to cheer us up. Yes… There was no point in brooding over it like this. Thanks to their efforts, we were able to get through dinner amidst a peaceful atmosphere. “Hahaha. That tickles, Leo.” “Wuff. Wuff.” “Kyau.” It had been a while since I last saw Leo and Sherry playing with Tilura like this. I mused as I sipped my tea. Perhaps Tilura had also sensed the dark atmosphere and was trying to lighten the mood. “I’m sorry, Mr. Takumi.” “No, I should be the one to apologize. Thankfully, we have Leo, Sherry and Tilura to help us.” I said to Ms. Claire with a chuckle while watching Leo and the others. Children were often sensitive to the moods of grownups… I had to be more careful. …Well, Leo wasn’t a child… Ms. Claire smiled cheerfully after that and watched the others play. Yes, the sight of them playing was somehow very calming. “Well, good night.” “Good night, Ms. Claire.” After tea time, we said good night to Ms. Claire, and then Tilura and I went to the garden. We did our daily sword swings, and then retired. I then read what remained of the book on medicine, and then went to bed. Tomorrow, I would have to ask Sebastian if he didn’t have any other books.

CH 143

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