Partners. In the same boat.
It was a blunt yet oddly awkward string of words.
“As I told you before, I’ll be backing you from now on, Miss Janette.”
“But then Vice Captain, you’ll be the one taking too much of a loss—”
The man cut off Janette’s hesitation with a firm reply.
“Of course, Miss Janette will also need to do her best to fulfill the contract.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’m confident when it comes to giving my all.”
At Janette’s spirited answer, Theo let out a small chuckle.
“This is your letter of recommendation, Miss Janette.”
“My letter of recommendation?”
Curiosity flickered in her dark blue eyes.
“May I open it?”
“Of course.”
Janette carefully unfolded the letter. The first thing that caught her eye was the name Liam Ortea.
That name was definitely...
“Isn’t he the Margrave of the North?”
“That’s right. So you knew about the Margrave?”
Theo sounded genuinely surprised, making Janette blink.
“Ah, well...”
...Come to think of it, how did I know?
Janette had always been far removed from high society. Considering she had been adopted as a substitute servant, it was only natural.
Which meant there should have been no opportunity for her to hear stories about a margrave.
‘Or maybe...’
Janette quietly swallowed.
‘Could it be a name I heard during the period I lost my memories?’
In truth, Janette remembered absolutely nothing from before the age of fifteen.
Fifteen years old.
When the war orphan Janette had been adopted into the Viscount Graham household, she had already been suffering from amnesia.
She could barely remember her own name and age, and nothing beyond that.
Where she had been born, who her parents were, how she had become separated from her family...
‘I guess the war must’ve destroyed my memories.’
Ironically, the viscount and his wife had liked that about her.
They said it was better that she didn’t have some clingy past to drag around.
Well, Janette herself had tried at first to recover her lost memories, but...
‘Eventually, I stopped caring.’
She couldn’t even bring herself to believe her parents were still alive, nor did she think her past memories would necessarily have been happy ones.
‘So what if I never recover them? What matters is the present and the future.’
And even now, she was moving forward to protect that important future.
“I just happened to hear about him somewhere, that’s all. More importantly...”
Janette answered naturally before tilting her head.
“To think Count Ortea wrote me a recommendation letter. Is Count Ortea also connected to Illinia?”
Instead of answering, Theo simply smiled in silence.
‘So it’s a secret.’
Reading the mood, Janette closed her mouth.
She wasn’t tactless enough to pry into someone else’s secrets.
“If anyone asks about your relationship with Count Ortea, just answer according to what’s written on the paper inside.”
“You even prepared something like this?”
“We need to avoid drawing unnecessary suspicion wherever possible. You should memorize the contents beforehand, just in case.”
“I will.”
Their conversation ended there.
Taking advantage of the brief silence, Janette began memorizing the note.
It would be better to have it memorized before arriving at the Ludwig Grand Duchy, after all.
Leaning his head against the carriage window, Theo quietly watched her.
‘Hopefully she doesn’t get motion sickness.’
Thankfully, she didn’t seem to show any signs of it. Her face looked a little pale, but she had been like that since the first time he met her.
After staring at Janette for a while, Theo suddenly spoke.
“If there’s something you want to ask, feel free.”
“...Pardon?”
“You keep glancing over this way. Don’t you have something you’d like to say?”
Having been caught red-handed, Janette’s cheeks warmed slightly.
‘Oh no. Was I really doing that?’
But her embarrassed self-reproach only lasted a moment.
“There actually is something I’m curious about.”
Janette decided not to miss the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity.
“Why did you suddenly start speaking to me so formally?”
Hm?
The completely unexpected question made Theo’s eyes widen. Seeing the rare look of confusion on his face, Janette’s eyes widened as well.
Theo was the first to burst into laughter.
“As I said earlier, we’re partners now.”
“So it’s something like showing respect to your partner?”
“Exactly.”
Oh. So that really was the reason?
Janette nodded in admiration before murmuring in surprise,
“Vice Captain Theo... I think you’re a far more considerate person than I expected.”
A considerate person?
Theo let out a hollow laugh at words he had never heard in his life.
If the people around him heard that, they’d probably protest that it was absurd.
Just then, the carriage slowly came to a stop. Looking out the window, Janette saw towering trees.
“It seems it’s time for the unwelcome guest to leave.”
“You’re getting off first?”
“If I get off around here, there won’t be any eyes watching.”
Click.
The carriage door opened.
Fresh morning air rushed inside. The dim predawn light from when they departed was nowhere to be seen now; the world had grown bright.
“If you ever need anything or have any questions, send word to Illinia anytime. Or you can come in person.”
“Yes. I’ll do that.”
“And.”
“...?”
Adding one last remark, the man stepped down from the carriage.
The morning sun illuminated the side of his face. His flawless profile looked like something out of a masterpiece painting.
“From now on, you can just call me Theo.”
I dislike sounding distant.
With a playful grin tugging at the corners of his lips, he added teasingly.
Janette missed the timing to respond, blinking blankly as the carriage door closed.
‘Ah.’
Only after the carriage began moving again did Janette come back to her senses.
Flustered, she hurriedly opened the carriage window and stuck her head out.
But—
‘He’s gone?’
Theo was already nowhere to be seen. Janette darted her eyes around frantically before suddenly inhaling deeply.
And then—
“Okay! From now on, I’ll call you Theo! I don’t like sounding distant either!”
Behind her loud shout, it almost felt as though she could hear a man’s laughter somewhere in the distance.
“The Graham young lady has quite the booming voice, doesn’t she?”
Behind the departing carriage—
Hidden among the thick bushes, Hobbs muttered beside Kendrick.
“Indeed. It’s good to see she’s so lively.”
“You somehow seem pleased?”
“Hobbs.”
“Yes?”
“The problem with you is that you talk far too much nonsense.”
At the sharp criticism delivered alongside a bright smile, Hobbs made an incredulous face.
“That’s the first time anyone’s ever said that to me!”
The first time, huh.
Repeating the words to himself, Kendrick added teasingly,
“Miss Janette said I’m a considerate person.”
“...That’s also the first time I’ve ever heard that.”
No way. How on earth did she come to that conclusion?
At Hobbs’s drained muttering, Kendrick merely shrugged.
His dark gaze lingered on the place where the carriage had disappeared.
“Hobbs.”
“Yes, Vice Captain.”
“Send clothes and accessories to Miss Janette.”
He recalled Janette’s tiny luggage bag.
It was so small it was hard to believe it belonged to someone relocating to a new residence.
The same went for the clothes she wore.
The sleeves and hems were subtly too short for her frame.
Though they had been washed neatly, there was no hiding the worn spots here and there.
Most likely, they had bought her clothes when they first brought her in around age fifteen, and never purchased her anything proper after that.
“She’s my partner and my sister’s only maid, after all. I can’t have her being looked down on wherever she goes.”
The moment she became Julieta’s maid, attention would naturally be drawn to her.
A polished appearance was one of the greatest weapons for deceiving people.
“And weapons are essential on the battlefield.”
By the time Janette arrived at the Ludwig Grand Duchy estate, it was well past noon.
At the coachman’s notice that they were nearly there, Janette looked out the window.
“Wow.”
An involuntary gasp of admiration escaped her lips.
The gates of the Ludwig estate soared high into the sky.
To think gates could even be built this tall.
But the truly awe-inspiring sight was only beginning.
As the massive gates slowly opened, the enormous Ludwig manor revealed itself.
Endless gardens stretched out before her, intersected by a long magical roadway.
Far in the distance stood a huge mansion, with various other buildings scattered around it.
‘Does that forest belong to the Ludwig estate too?’
The grounds were so vast that she couldn’t tell where the family’s territory even began or ended.
“We’ve arrived, Lady Janette.”