Knock knock. I opened the door.

Seemingly without reason, Dida was standing there.

Its quite late. What are you here for?

Uh, sorry. Were you already sleeping?

Yes. Milady slept early today, so my work also ended earlier than usual.

Ah, I seereally, though, dont open the door with your guard down like that. As a woman, you should stay on alert.

Well, we dont really need to worry about that in this mansionplus, Im not completely without experience in these situations. If it comes to a desperate situation, I will use force.

I said this with a smile. An awkward, bitter smile flashed across Didas face.

But quickly enough, his expression became serious.

what about opponents that you cant deal with? What will you do then? For example, I would be able to defeat you easily.

Trueout of everyone in this mansion, only you and Ryle are truly a challenge to confront. As for other enemies who might invade, if I do find any adversary truly challenging, they probably wont have come for my looks, but for my life. WellI still trust you two, for the time being.

Our eyes met. In a late night like this, when both of us were silent and there were no other noises to interrupt us, the silence between us made the atmosphere exceedingly heavy.

You win. Of course I cant do anything if you say something like that.

Saying this with a smile, Dida shattered the serious atmosphere.

So? What are you here for?

No, originally I was planning to have a drink or two with Ryle, but hes already asleep. So I thought of you.

I cant believe youyoud call me out for something like that? Im still a woman. If strange rumors start spreading about us, Im not responsible.

Thats fine.

Saying this, he laughed. I couldnt read the true intentions of this man before me.

Wellits true that its late. Youre getting up early tomorrow, right? Sorry.

Hold on a minute.

Ive already woken up anywaysits a rare opportunity. Lets go have a drink. Ill go in and change, wait a minute for me.

All right.

After that, I changed and walked out of the room.

Going to a bar or somewhere like thatit was quite a strange time for that. In the end we started drinking in the servants chat room.

The chat room is a room that all the servants share. As per its namesake, its a place where servants can communicate and say whatever they want.

Duke Armenias family has a mansion corresponding to its social status. More than half of that space is specifically for servants.

To maintain such a huge mansion and allow the masters of the house to live comfortably, they ended up needing a huge group of servants; at the same time, this structure was very fitting for a family that treated its servants so kindly.

What do you want to drink? I brought this.

Isnt this a Makarama* specialty product? How did you get it?

I grabbed it from Master.

What a startling declaration, I couldnt help but sigh.

You

Isnt it great? Master felt sorry about what happened, especially to me and Ryle. He said that this way hed be making it up to us.

Saying this, that bitter, awkward smile came onto his face again.

Seemed to be quite a fit for this mans personalitythinking that, I accepted the bottle from him without a word.

If this is to repay you for your hard work, should I be taking a share like this?

Ryle said he didnt want it. It didnt really count as labor anyways.

Thats what you say, I thought to myself as I took out two cups and began to pour us drinks.

Of course I knew that the two of them were busy running about each day for Master. They trained the soldiers as aides to the coaches.

At the same time, they protected milady and carried out various other tasks, all while using their free time to train everyone who followed them from the territory to the capital.

Recently I hadnt seen them around mostly because they were so busy with all of that.

In the past Id also brought up the fact that they could have appealed to the master or milady to take a break from their work in the mansion.

But Ryle was stubborn. The man before me, on the other hand, bragged that he was only going to Masters place to play.

We took the full wine glasses into our hands.

Cheers.

The clear sound of glasses bumping together echoed through the room.

We poured the wine into our mouths.

A taste that was a bit sweet, but also quite rich spread open in my mouth.

Ahhow delicious. A Makarama product indeed.

Yes. You really got something good out of this.

Everything that Master owns is good wine. Hes such an alcoholic that hes needlessly picky about it. Thats why people call him the drinking guard.

Laughing, Dida poured all the rest of the wine down his throat.

Time to go back, I guess. Finally.

He said suddenly.

Yes. So you dont have to keep running between the mansion and Masters place.

True. There are still various things to prepare.

Are you also looking forward to going back?

Also?

Dont read too deeply into it. Just answer the question.

HmmI dont know if I can truly call it a return. Where I am must be where milady is at. So its a bit strange for me to return to the territory.

True.

This man was also like me, willing to sacrifice himself for his lady. His usual arrogant attitude made a lot of people question his loyalty though.

Butwell, when we go back to the territory with our ladythere are really too many obstacles here. We cant really be by her side like we can back theremost importantly, there are so many people here who surpass us in power by far.

There dont seem to be that many people who are stronger than you?

I said this, playing dumb. Dida laughed. He seemed to understand as well. There was a strange bitterness in his eyes, a bitterness that he couldnt express in words.

I was kidding. Yeah, in the capital, you truly feel that youre insignificant, weak. What we havebefore the crushing strength of political power. No matter how long you train, you can never compare to that.

Exactly. So I want to go back soon as wellas miladys protector.

Yes

* I didnt find this in the translations before, so I just ran with this romanization.