Gauzer came out with a sulky face, still not fully sober, and he looked different from the man Lisi remembered.
When he had been at the ducal house, Gauzer had always worn a proper suit. His hair, fixed firmly with pomade, had never allowed a single strand to slip out, giving him a sharp and neat impression. But the Gauzer now standing before Lisi had long, untrimmed hair hanging in a tangle, a thick unkempt beard, and clothes that were wrinkled and filthy. If it had not been for Gauzer’s distinctive amber eyes, she might have assumed she had come to the wrong person and turned away.
“What is it?”
Even his manner of speaking had changed. Gauzer was not looking at Lisi but up at Kay. Without answering, Kay turned his palm upward and pointed at Lisi. Only then did Gauzer’s gaze shift to her. The dull haze in his eyes suddenly filled with shock.
“M My lady…?”
Gauzer was one of the few people who had ever called Lisi “my lady.” Remembering the rigid expression with which he had always addressed her that way, Lisi gave a bitter smile. In her previous life she had only known Gauzer from the time he became the imperial treasury administrator. She had never known how he had lived before that.
“So this is how you lived. After your wife and child left, alone and suffering… living like this until you pulled yourself together and finally rose to that position.”
“Are you… truly… truly Lady Iris?”
When Lisi did not answer, Gauzer asked again. Just as she had changed greatly from when she lived at the ducal house, Gauzer also could hardly recognize her.
“Yes. I am Iris. Though I am no longer a lady now.”
“What? Then… then those people finally drove you out? No, no. Perhaps being driven out would be better than being treated like that…”
Still half drunk, Gauzer pressed his fingers against his temples and rambled.
“I was not driven out. I left on my own. I got married. To him, Count Kayvrant Green.”
Gauzer’s eyes widened so much they nearly popped out as he looked up at Kay.
“Count Green… Hah…”
He stared at Kay’s face for a long moment with his mouth open. Then tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. Sniffling loudly, Gauzer suddenly grabbed Lisi’s hand.
“That is good… truly good, my lady. To marry such a fine and splendid man… that is truly fortunate… sniff… sob…”
Kay had been glaring at Lisi’s hand held in Gauzer’s grasp, but when he heard the words “such a fine and splendid man,” his expression softened.
“Ah, I apologize. I was simply overwhelmed… I thought those damned bastards would… Ah, pardon me. In any case, those people in that household would have… No, never mind.”
Lisi knew what Gauzer had been about to say. He had meant to say that those people in that household would probably have sold her off to someone like Alford. He must have stopped because Kay was present.
“For now, please come inside. Ah… the house is not cleaned… just a moment…”
“Gauzer. Wait.”
Lisi stopped him as he began to step into the house.
“I came because I have something important to discuss with you. First sober up, then come to the tavern beside the central square.”
+++
In her previous life, Alford had eventually come to run the largest merchant company on the continent, and he loved taverns. It was not only the alcohol. Taverns were places where countless rumors could be heard, and if one listened carefully and sifted through them properly, they could be extremely helpful in business.
Lisi had liked it when Alford went to taverns. When he went there, he usually did not return home for a day or two. What Alford did in taverns, or what women he met there, had never interested her in the slightest.
When Lisi and Kay entered, the people who had been chatting around the room fell silent for a moment and turned to look at the refined pair. Instinctively Lisi pressed down the front of her fedora to hide her face and followed Kay to a table in the corner.
“See? I told you we would stand out.”
Kay said it as he sat down.
“It is because of you. You are too big.”
“I doubt that.”
“Then it must be because of this hair color. It is unusual.”
Lisi said as she twirled the end of her reddish silver hair around her index finger.
“If you do not want attention, you should wear a hooded robe, Lisi. From the top of your head to the tips of your toes, you have the sort of appearance that makes people want to keep looking.”
As if proving his words, Kay’s eyes did not leave Lisi for a moment. Strangely, whenever he looked at her like that, Lisi felt restless. Her chest tickled faintly, her waist tensed, and her toes curled inside her shoes.
“Anyway.”
Fortunately Kay turned his gaze away.
“You do know that the rumor about your secret relationship with Baron Alford Huchis is gradually becoming accepted as truth, do you not, Lisi?”
“I know. It was even printed in a newspaper article recently.”
“You must know where the rumor came from… How long do you intend to let it continue?”
“Has this rumor caused you any direct harm?”
“No, not yet. But who knows about the future.”
“Then let us wait a little longer. Things taste better when they have ripened properly.”
Since it was not yet time for a full meal, Lisi looked over the menu with the intention of ordering something simple.
“How about salted lamb with cheese, rye bread, vegetable stew, and grilled dried mushrooms? Ah, and I plan to have a mug of beer. What about you?”
Kay asked.
“I have never drunk alcohol.”
“Oh, really?”
For some reason Kay’s eyes gleamed with delight.
“Why that look?”
“What sort of look?”
“The kind that means you are plotting something.”
“Plotting? I simply think it would be nice to share with my wife something she has never experienced before.”
“Oh, I see.”
Lisi had a good idea what Kay was thinking. Since she had never drunk alcohol before and because of her image, he must be convinced she would have a low tolerance. He was probably hoping that if she became drunk, he could enjoy watching her drunken antics.
There was something Lisi had not told Kay. In this life she had never drunk alcohol, but in her previous life she certainly had. And quite a lot of it. Lisi knew very well what happened when she drank.
“Let us skip it today. Gauzer will be here soon.”
Just as they were finishing their meal, Gauzer entered the tavern.
“Well, well. Look who it is. Gauzer? I barely recognized you!”
“You were drinking until this morning, and now you are back again? At this rate you will drink yourself to death.”
“But why are you dressed up like that today? Trying to seduce Zelina?”
Gauzer seemed to be a well known figure in the tavern. Everyone recognized him and laughed. He answered them absentmindedly and walked toward Lisi and Kay. As the people’s gazes followed him, Lisi regretted choosing this place as their meeting point.
“I apologize for making you wait, my lady.”
Gauzer said politely.
“You are quite popular, Gauzer.”
Gauzer’s face reddened.
“Ah… I was drinking to forget the shock, and…”
“Sit.”
As soon as Gauzer sat down, Lisi spoke directly.
“Gauzer. Work for me.”
“What?”
“La—”
Just as she began to speak, Lisi realized that everyone nearby was listening carefully to her words, so she closed her mouth.
“This place will not do.”
After paying the bill they left and headed toward the crowded market. For secret matters, a place bustling with people was actually better. Walking between Gauzer and Kay, Lisi spoke quietly.
“There is a gold mine in Lavent.”
“Yes, it belongs to Baron Huchis.”
“Now it belongs to me.”
“What?”
“I want you to manage it.”
“Ah…”
Gauzer looked at Lisi in disbelief.
“You keep surprising me, my lady. The gold mine in Lavent belongs to you?”
“Yes.”
“And you are entrusting that gold mine to me?”
“Yes. From hiring workers to managing the ore extracted there. I will leave everything to you.”
“My…”
Gauzer rubbed his chin with his palm. His expression showed both joy and difficulty.
“I am grateful that you trust me, my lady… but I cannot take on such heavy responsibility. As you can see, I am nothing more than a drunkard now.”
“Whether you can do it or not is not important.”
“What?”
“What matters is this.”
Lisi stopped walking and looked up at Gauzer.
“I want to entrust my only property to you. That gold mine, Gauzer, must be yours to manage.”
Her tone was gentle, but it was an order. Some people might have taken offense at that, but Gauzer did not.
He remembered the Iris Whitlow who had once lived quietly in the ducal house. A child who bore the Whitlow name yet was never truly Whitlow. A pitiful and fragile child who had not even been allowed to lift her head and look at the sky once. A child who seemed as if she would be shattered and scattered by the wind and darkness.
And now that child had become a proud countess and was giving him orders.
The feeling struck him deeply, and Gauzer’s eyes filled with tears once again.
“You have changed greatly, my lady. No… Countess.”
Lisi smiled.
“Is it a good change?”
“Very much so.”
Gauzer squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again.
When he had argued with the duke that Iris’s treatment should be improved, he had been falsely accused of various crimes and expelled from the ducal house. Because of the false charges Duke Whitlow had placed on him, no one would hire Gauzer. His wife, exhausted by poverty, had left with their child. The child who walked away holding his mother’s hand had looked at him with humiliation and resentment.
With nothing left, Gauzer had drowned himself in alcohol, hoping that when he fell asleep and woke again, the world might have ended.
But the world had not ended.
And in that continuing world, the pitiful little girl had become a proud woman and come to find him. The child who had once been unable even to look a maid in the eye now looked at Gauzer with confident eyes and said:
I trust you enough to entrust you with everything I have. Live for me.
There was only one answer.
“I will live for the Countess.”