ITIF Chapter 60

Master? Not Even Funny

“Don’t you like being called Master? Then what should I call you? Miss? My Lady?”

It seemed like an answer he’d given after some serious thought, but somehow she had a feeling she shouldn’t let him address her that way.

“Sit down and let’s talk.”

Giselle Grante decided to have a calm conversation and sat down on the sofa.

The young man then tried to sit next to her.

“No. Sit over there.”

Giselle Grante immediately indicated the seat across from her. Fortunately, the young man sat on the opposite sofa without complaint, doing as she instructed.

The young man looked at Giselle Grante with an expression that seemed to ask if this would do. She nodded and observed his appearance.

As she’d noticed yesterday, she couldn’t sense the peculiar servility or submissiveness typical of slaves from the young man. Moreover, his posture was oddly upright.

This meant there was a high possibility he’d received etiquette training from a young age.

In his choice of words and manner of speaking, there was a subtle aura characteristic of nobility.

From his Imperial accent to his appearance, it was clearly evident he was from Solzakai.

Giselle Grante speculated that the young man might be a noble from Solzakai. She soon decided she should treat him more carefully and changed her manner of speech.

“My name is Giselle Grante.”

“……A slave cannot presume to address their master by name.”

“It seems you don’t want to tell me your name.”

“…….”

“Fine. The form of address is settled. Will you tell me how you came to be captured?”

The moment she asked that question, a shadow fell over the young man’s face, which had been relaxed until then.

“Must I?”

“It must be an uncomfortable memory to recall…… but please, I’m asking. If only for the sake of the citizens of the Kingdom of Solzakai who might be captured as slaves and become playthings of the nobles here.”

The young man’s face contorted. He seemed to be recalling painful memories. But soon he continued with difficulty.

“I’m a bit…… of a special case.”

After that, Giselle Grante continued to ask the young man various questions. How he came to be here, what process he went through.

He never answered questions directly, but Giselle Grante persistently attempted to converse with the young man.

****

“Could you wait here for a moment?”

A maid from the Amaterasu ducal household asked for Kavelaseth’s understanding and walked toward the door. The maid soon knocked on the door and said,

“Miss, you have a visitor.”

“Who?”

Giselle Grante’s voice could be heard from beyond the door.

“Duke Cardia.”

“…….”

Perhaps because it was such an unexpected visitor, there was no response from inside the reception room beyond the door for quite some time.

The door opened just as the maid was glancing at Kavelaseth with a troubled expression. Giselle Grante stepped into the corridor and tilted her head, staring at Kavelaseth.

Her expression clearly showed how unexpected this was.

Well, she probably never expected he would be the one to visit her first.

“You’re…… here to see me?”

Kavelaseth nodded with an expressionless face and said,

“I’d like to have a conversation. Can you spare some time?”

It was the most gentlemanly proposal he could make, but Giselle Grante didn’t answer right away and hesitated.

Come to think of it, this was truly laughable.

It had always been her who asked first to make time. Then he would deliberate for a while before giving his answer.

But now the situation was completely reversed. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who felt awkward about the reversed situation.

“Then let’s go to the reception room.”

Kavelaseth’s eyebrow shot up at the sight of her moving as if to change locations.

“My Lady.”

“Yes.”

“I believe the place you just came out of is a reception room for receiving guests.”

“…….”

At Kavelaseth’s extremely rational suggestion that they converse right there without going far, Giselle Grante made a troubled expression.

Having visited the Amaterasu ducal residence more than once or twice, he knew the layout of this vast ducal residence quite thoroughly.

And Giselle Grante would also be aware of that fact.

“What’s wrong?”

Just as Giselle Grante’s lips moved as if to say something in response to Kavelaseth’s question—

“……Master?”

Following a low, husky voice, a young man with bronzed skin walked out of the reception room.

“……!”

Like a startled rabbit, Giselle Grante’s eyes widened. Meanwhile, Kavelaseth’s handsome brow furrowed slightly.

“Did I…… hear that correctly?”

Kavelaseth asked to confirm.

‘Master?’

Giselle Grante’s pale white cheeks flushed bright red.

“Well, you see, that is…….”

Her flustered, bumbling appearance was very unfamiliar, but a little cute.

‘Wait……’

Kavelaseth questioned his own thought about Giselle Grante.

‘The Lady of the House of Amaterasu…… cute?’

Kavelaseth’s brow deepened in real time.

Watching him, Giselle Grante soon opened her mouth.

“There are circumstances here. Of course! It is a situation that’s understandably easy to misunderstand…….”

Her expression clearly showed she was very troubled, but Kavelaseth didn’t stop and pressed her.

“Misunderstand? Ah, right. I suppose I could listen to your excuse about what I’m misunderstanding.”

“…….”

“But the hospitality is quite poor. How long are you going to keep me standing here?”

“Unless you’re going to chase him away, shall I escort the guest inside, Master?”

The young man with bronzed skin once again called Giselle Grante “Master,” and her cheeks, which had been returning to their original color, flushed red again.

****

The three people who entered the reception room were busy scrutinizing each other.

First, Giselle Grante began racking her brain over how to explain this slave youth.

If she told Kavelaseth about the slave trade taking place, it seemed she could get help in punishing Baron Cypress.

If they could expose the slave trade and cut out the rotten parts, that would be very good for Giselle Grante.

If it became Kavelaseth’s achievement, her involvement could be thoroughly concealed.

If that happened, it would help eliminate one of the Empress’s forces.

But before that, she would have to explain how she came to know about Baron Cypress’s establishment in the first place.

To do that would be impossible without revealing her connection to Count Frederick.

‘Is there no clever way to induce Kavelaseth to ban Baron Cypress’s slave trade without mentioning Count Frederick……?’

While Giselle Grante was absorbed in such thoughts, Kavelaseth also had much on his mind.

‘Master? Not even funny.’

Recalling the image of the slave youth calling Giselle Grante that earlier, three distinct wrinkles appeared on Kavelaseth’s brow.

Kavelaseth’s straightforward gaze turned toward the slave youth.

Despite his rather sharp gaze, the slave youth paid no mind and sat stuck right next to Giselle Grante.

Kavelaseth glanced around.

The reception room’s sofa was very large and spacious. Enough for a good twelve people to sit. Which meant there was absolutely no need for that fellow to sit pressed against Giselle Grante as if it were natural.

“…….”

Meanwhile, the slave youth—no, Lawrence—was speculating about the relationship between the master who’d purchased him and the man sitting across from her.

‘Judging by what he’s wearing, he’s at minimum a duke, perhaps even higher status.’

His master Giselle Grante who’d purchased him also seemed to be high nobility, so perhaps they were each other’s betrothed.

‘Hmm……’

Lawrence’s brow also deepened.

His fiancée had purchased a slave. A young, handsome slave with a good body at that.

Usually slave trading was said to be preferred by older noblewomen whose relationships with their husbands had grown distant, rather than young ladies.

So he too had thought he’d be presented to a mature noblewoman. But unexpectedly, the one he faced was a lady slightly younger than or around the same age as Lawrence.

Lawrence wasn’t foolish enough to judge people by their appearance alone.

Though she had an innocent appearance, he’d assumed the sadism hidden within would definitely not be weak.

But Lawrence’s young master hadn’t even touched his fingertips.

No, she rather seemed to avoid him. This scratched at the pride of someone who’d prided himself as one of the most handsome men in the Kingdom of Solzakai.

So he’d approached with some initiative, but it seemed to have only backfired.

‘She’s not going to send me back to that place, is she?’

Lawrence glanced at his master beside him with slightly anxious eyes. Her attitude of seeming to have no interest in him whatsoever remained unchanged.

With the side of his face burning, Lawrence glanced toward the man before him.

‘……Doesn’t seem to be her fiancé.’

The gaze looking at him had been so burning since earlier that he’d briefly suspected the man across from him was her fiancé, but thinking about it again, that didn’t seem to be the case.

What woman would want her fiancé to discover she’d purchased a young slave before marriage? Unless she was trying to create perfect grounds for breaking off the engagement.

“I should make this clear.”

It was Giselle Grante who first broke the silence pervading the reception room and spoke.

Though she was secretly displeased with what felt like making excuses to Kavelaseth, she couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

Before Kavelaseth misunderstood that she had a hobby of bringing young men into her bedroom.

“The reason I brought this man here is because I couldn’t just pass by knowing there was inhumane treatment.”

“Didn’t you know slave trading was taking place there in the first place?”

Giselle Grante’s eyes widened slightly at Kavelaseth’s sharp question.

“……When you say ‘there’?”

“Baron Cypress’s villa.”

“……!”

Giselle Grante gasped silently.

‘How does he know?’

Seeing the young man call her Master, anyone could reasonably suspect a suspicious relationship.

But that alone wouldn’t be enough to reach thoughts of slave trading and Baron Cypress.