ITIF Chapter 93

Two People, But Only One Carriage

Watching Lindsey scold him for being incompetent, Giselle Grante pressed her forehead, and Pratt immediately apologized.

“I’m terribly sorry.”

“It can’t be helped. It’s not even Pratt’s fault, and actually, this works out well.”

Lindsey looked at Giselle Grante with an expression that asked what she meant.

“I should take this opportunity to get some fresh air and go out to the shopping district. I’ve been wanting to look for fabric to replace silk.”

“Ah…….”

Seeing that Giselle Grante wasn’t particularly upset, Lindsey nodded in relief.

Giselle Grante apologized to Pratt with her eyes. Then Pratt shook his head as if to say it was fine and not to worry.

However, Pratt’s gaze toward Lindsey seemed somehow a bit… sharp.

****

After preparing simply for her outing, Giselle Grante headed to Kavelaseth’s office.

Just as she raised her arm to knock, the office door opened from inside.

Kavelaseth stood before the door.

He too seemed to have been about to leave the office.

Seeing Kavelaseth’s perfectly formal attire, Giselle Grante asked.

“Were you on your way somewhere?”

“I was just about to get some fresh air outside.”

“I see.”

Giselle Grante nodded slightly and continued.

“Something came up that requires me to go out, and I thought it would be better to let you know before leaving, so I came to see you briefly.”

Before preparing for her outing, Giselle Grante had informed the butler of her departure, and the butler had suggested that since Kavelaseth happened to be at the mansion, it would be good to see him in person before leaving.

Giselle Grante readily agreed.

She would visit Kavelaseth after finishing her preparations.

Since arriving at the Cardia ducal residence, she hadn’t felt any particular need to go out until now.

Since it was unclear what harm the Empress and Joshua might try to inflict on her, Kavelaseth had prevented her from leaving the Cardia ducal residence.

But she couldn’t stay in the mansion forever. For the sake of what was to come, she couldn’t remain locked inside indefinitely.

To go out, a carriage and escort knights were absolutely necessary, and she had planned to discuss this with Kavelaseth.

“Let’s go.”

Contrary to her expectation that they would have the conversation inside the office, Kavelaseth left the office and walked into the corridor.

“……?”

Giselle Grante’s head tilted in puzzlement.

Watching him suddenly leave the office for the corridor, the confused Giselle Grante soon figured out the situation.

‘Ah…… he must be busy right now.’

Kavelaseth was the lord of the fertile and vast Cardia duchy.

Just managing the territory—jurisdiction, public safety, order, and so on—would keep him busy without a moment to breathe.

And that wasn’t all.

Though not yet known to the world, Kavelaseth was the Emperor’s son and the person who would become the Empire’s emperor in the future.

It would be stranger if he were idle.

He had said he was just about to go out himself.

Understanding immediately that he meant to converse while heading to the carriage, Giselle Grante left the mansion together with Kavelaseth.

‘But why is there only one carriage?’

Her wonder at seeing only one carriage waiting at the mansion entrance was brief.

Giselle Grante soon deduced the reason.

Unlike Kavelaseth, her outing hadn’t been planned.

She had decided on it right after receiving news about Count Frederick through the Radcliffe Trading Company.

The Amaterasu ducal house had three carriages always on standby, but the Cardia ducal house’s circumstances were different. Kavelaseth had no other family.

‘I suppose it takes a bit of time to prepare a new carriage.’

Just as she finished assessing the situation, the butler opened the carriage door. Kavelaseth stood before it and extended his hand toward Giselle Grante.

Realizing he intended to escort her to make boarding easier, Giselle Grante blinked rapidly and asked.

“Am I interpreting this correctly?”

With his hand still extended before her, Kavelaseth nodded.

‘Wasn’t he in a hurry to go out?’

She was a bit puzzled.

If he had urgent business, rather than being considerate of her, he should have boarded the carriage first.

But soon, thinking that a carriage for Kavelaseth would be prepared, she boarded the carriage.

Meeting Count Frederick to receive a report on the situation was the purpose of today’s outing.

And since being seen together with Count Frederick wouldn’t do them any good, she had deliberately brought no companion.

She wore a dress more comfortable for movement than usual and had Lindsey and Olla rest at the mansion.

Since she would be riding alone to her destination, Giselle Grante naturally sat in the center of the carriage seat.

But after arranging her wrinkled dress, she realized the carriage door still hadn’t closed.

“……?”

Turning her head to the side in puzzlement, she saw Kavelaseth looking at her with a slightly displeased expression.

“Why are you standing there?”

At Giselle Grante’s question, a look of confusion rose on Kavelaseth’s face instead.

“Are you trying to act like strangers now?”

Blinking, Giselle Grante mulled over the meaning of his words.

‘Act like strangers, what does that mean?’

Meanwhile, Kavelaseth’s voice continued.

“Or do you mean for me to sit across from you?”

Reading Kavelaseth’s gaze, Giselle Grante quickly provided an answer.

“You’re… going to ride in this carriage?”

With an expression that said she was asking the obvious, Kavelaseth nodded.

Blinking repeatedly in bewilderment, Giselle Grante gestured toward the right side of the carriage and asked again.

“Should I move to the side?”

“That would be appreciated.”

Giselle Grante had no choice but to slide to the right side of the carriage.

Then Kavelaseth boarded the carriage and sat beside her.

This was an unexpected situation, and while the ride there might be fine, returning to the mansion would be problematic.

There was only one carriage, and there was no guarantee that Kavelaseth’s and her return times would coincide.

Unless Kavelaseth and she went to the same destination and returned to the mansion together…….

Just as Giselle Grante was about to ask about this, the carriage departed.

‘He must have…… some plan.’

****

As the carriage that had left the Cardia ducal residence headed toward the meeting place with Count Frederick, the conversation between Giselle Grante and Kavelaseth continued uninterrupted.

From simple conversation about how life at the Cardia ducal residence was treating her, to the Empire’s future and the movements of the nobility.

Through this, Giselle Grante realized that she and Kavelaseth agreed on many points.

Thanks to this, the conversation with Kavelaseth was so enjoyable that she felt regret that they would soon arrive at their destination.

Usually, Kavelaseth rarely opened his mouth except for necessary words, but today was different.

While nodding in agreement with her opinions, he also knew how to view and analyze situations objectively.

The fact that he didn’t just nod and say she was entirely right about everything also appealed to Giselle Grante.

When she lived as a princess, everyone seemed to have agreed beforehand to approve of all her opinions.

But this was only superficial agreement—in reality, there was almost nothing she could do according to her own will.

From the meal menu to the amount she ate, the dresses she wore that day and the accessories she donned—everything was precisely done according to the Empress’s will.

To her, who had been so conditioned to a life of compliance at that time, the remark Kavelaseth had made in the past came as quite a shock.

[They’re like dolls that are all the same except for their size.]

That’s what Kavelaseth had said while looking at her standing in a row among the Empress and the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting.

The Empress, the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting, and little Trinity.

He said they all looked like identical dolls, standing there in dresses, accessories, shoes, and makeup of similar design.

Of course, she hadn’t heard Kavelaseth say this directly—after a banquet at the Imperial Palace ended, she had heard it through Lady Zimmer, who had been her lady-in-waiting at the time.

Lady Zimmer had been indignant, asking what on earth Duke Cardia’s intention could be in suddenly criticizing Her Imperial Highness the Princess.

At the time, she had found some comfort from Lady Zimmer’s upset on her behalf, but looking back, that anger wasn’t for Trinity.

‘She was probably trying to drive a wedge between Kavelaseth and me.’

Trinity, who had no interest in love or romance, hadn’t even noticed that Lady Zimmer had harbored feelings for Kavelaseth at the time.

It wasn’t that such criticism didn’t affect her.

She had been upset for a while. She had kept reflecting on Kavelaseth’s words.

But the harsh words Kavelaseth had uttered then actually helped her.

From that day on, as she repeatedly pondered the meaning of Kavelaseth’s words, she became aware.

That in others’ eyes, she appeared as nothing more or less than the Empress’s puppet.

This meant that even if she later became Emperor, there would be nothing she could do according to her own will.

‘Kavelaseth’s words did act as a catalyst for change back then…… but still, that was too much.’

During the conversation, as memories of the past suddenly surfaced, Giselle Grante’s gaze toward Kavelaseth briefly sharpened.

Noticing this change in Giselle Grante, Kavelaseth said.

“Your gaze is peculiar.”

“Peculiar……?”

Despite having just glared sharply at Kavelaseth over past grievances, she quickly deflected.

She even blinked innocently, wearing an expression as if she knew nothing.

“…….”

Kavelaseth stared intently at Giselle Grante, puzzled.

‘……Why?’

Just moments ago, Giselle Grante’s gaze had clearly contained hostility.

Though he couldn’t know exactly what Giselle Grante had been thinking, she seemed to have been muttering something like “you bastard” inwardly.