Cider saw a black reaper standing on his terrace. It would have been perfect if she had been holding a scythe, but even empty-handed, she was sufficiently eerie. Black from head to toe, she looked like there would be an eyeless skull inside the hood.
It wasn't a form that would suddenly appear at a count's mansion. No, nothing could suddenly appear at a count's residence. No matter how well someone disguised themselves as a plausible lady, they had to follow courtesy and procedures.
His emotions changed from bewilderment to amusement, flipping like a card.
"Esperanza, what kind of appearance is that when there's a perfectly good door?"
Cider laughed helplessly as he opened the window for her. Esperanza swept back her black hood and entered. Only then was the face he knew well revealed. Sunlight shone white on her pinned-up hair.
A reaper-like body with an angel-like head. That discord was very much like Esperanza.
"Mrs. Lux was in front of the front door!"
"So you were scared and came straight into the study?"
"This was the only place I could enter without being caught."
Esperanza mumbled, trailing off her words. Of course, getting caught by Cider Claiborne didn't matter. She'd just get a little nagging and that would be it.
However, instead of saying she should observe courtesy or asking how she could just enter through a window no matter what, Cider shrugged and said mischievously.
"I already knew I couldn't expect gentleman-class etiquette from you."
"I follow it when I need to, you know?"
"But not right now?"
"Not right now."
If that's how it is. Cider laughed softly again. Esperanza opened her eyes wide. He seemed strangely in a good mood today.
"Take off that black hood first."
"You won't like it though?"
Cider, who had been puzzled, soon understood the meaning. Esperanza's hood fell to the floor, forming a round circle. Then pants that revealed her body's curves exactly, a green blouse, and a short cloak appeared.
Aesthetically, it was quite excellent, but it was still clothing that would provoke cries of "scandalous" before any discussion of artistry. Would everyone really wear such things 13 years later? He still couldn't mentally accept it.
"That outfit again?"
"This is comfortable for moving my body. And it's less conspicuous."
She mumbled as if making excuses. Though it wasn't really something to make excuses for.
"Ah, Lord Avondale. Do you have a moment?"
"Why?"
"I want you to look at this."
When she casually tossed the receiver she'd taken from her inventory, he easily caught it with his large hands. She threw it carelessly but he caught it well? When she didn't hide her surprised expression, Cider clicked his tongue.
"Just because you're good at shooting doesn't mean you're stupid, right?"
What's he talking about?
She understood only after a while. So he meant that just because he was a genius at using his brain didn't mean he couldn't use his body? If only she could know whether she understood correctly. She tried to read his mood, but Cider seemed to have completely forgotten what he'd said and was only examining the receiver. It was probably just him saying he was great anyway.
"Where did this come from?"
"Is it dangerous? An information broker gave it to me."
"No, it's not dangerous. But it has location tracking."
"......That guy did look suspicious after all."
"Should I turn it off?"
"I'm probably already caught. But please turn it off."
There was one thing that worried her. Had location tracking worked even while that thing was in her inventory? She'd rather be tracked—that would put her mind at ease.
Anyway, he already knew Esperanza lived at Avondale mansion, so it wasn't surprising. That guy probably knew that if this ended up in the Count's hands, everything would be exposed. It would only serve to reconfirm facts already known.
But if tracking didn't work while it was in inventory, that would be a problem.
However, there was nothing she could do about it right now. While Cider skillfully stimulated the receiver with his stimulator and removed the pipe related to location tracking from among the precisely intertwined miniature pipes, Esperanza pondered the information broker's dangerousness.
"Lord Avondale. Don't you know anything about information brokers?"
"No."
Cider answered matter-of-factly after removing the location tracking device.
But why?
"I'm a well-raised noble young master, aren't I? Of course I don't."
It was funny that he could say such things so casually with his own mouth, but shouldn't he have connections precisely because he was a noble young master?
"Don't nobles usually all have dirty connections with back alleys?"
Am I the only one who thinks this? Aren't duke lords supposed to have some kind of friendship with back alley information guild leaders and all that?
"Businessmen would have them."
"......Businessmen are nobles too, aren't they?"
"Well, that can't be generalized that way."
There were various reasons, like the subtle boundary between gentry and noble classes, but he didn't have enough passion to explain them all in detail.
"If I'm going to introduce you to society, I'll have to talk about basic common sense."
She'd suddenly become a kid without basic common sense. It wasn't even her first time in noble society.
"But 13 years later I even had a knight's title."
"You probably just used it to receive a pension."
It was too on point to argue with. When she received a knight's title directly from the Queen after her uniform was full of medals, having a title added a whopping 30% to the money received upon quest completion. That was really sweet.
"Do you know what a noble is?"
It was a sudden question. Esperanza blinked and fumbled for words.
"Rich, marry among themselves...... the ruling class?"
"That's not wrong, but. Let's just say that 'nobles' are a class that doesn't labor to earn money."
In short, landlords.
While some people desperately exterminate monsters to accumulate money, others just sit and watch money pile up.
"Isn't magical engineering research also labor? You'll make money from it too."
"That's a hobby."
"Ahhh, a hobby...... I see."
Really annoying.
"Then, then what about being a member of parliament? Is that also a hobby?"
His brow furrowed sharply—he seemed quite displeased. What did she say wrong? When she rolled her eyes around, Cider clicked his tongue and said.
"It's an honorary position that doesn't pay a penny."
"Ah, they don't pay money. But you have a lot of money."
"I do."
He answered readily. Ah, so annoying and enviable.
His soft blonde hair fluttered in the wind. When his straight forehead was revealed, his eyes looked even clearer. Sitting quietly, he was like a painting. Then when their eyes met and he smiled brightly, he finally looked like a living person.
A living person. A person?
Actually, that was true.
'Is there a need to set up a character who dies before the game even starts in such detail?'
Cider Claiborne felt more like a person than a game character. Everyone she'd met since coming here was like that. That wasn't such a big problem. All the NPCs in 'Golden Claw' were like that.
It was a game famous for details so thoroughly realistic that you couldn't tell how long they'd prepared for it. Part of the reason Esperanza had kept her distance without getting close to anyone was to avoid becoming overly immersed in a game world that seemed more real than reality.
But that was only after the game opened. Could a character who was already dead at the game's opening be this realistic? It wasn't just a matter of appearance. Thinking, speaking, changing.
So, this might really not be inside a virtual reality game but an actual world.
It wasn't surprising. Rather, she was calm. She'd suspected it to some degree in her heart. It was just a little annoying that the trigger for realizing this was Cider Claiborne's smile.
Hadn't there been quite a few fantasy novels about entering game worlds for a while? Even then, Esperanza, who was playing 'Golden Claw,' had quickly put them down.
'In case I might enter Golden Claw...... that's what it was.'
But it seems that became real. She should have played a peaceful farming game that gave good rewards. Or a romance game where male leads were smitten with the female lead from the prologue and floundered around.
'But why did it have to be a crazy steampunk monster hunting game for me?'
"Esperanza? What are you thinking about?"
That said, nothing would change. Even if this was another dimension or another world, as long as there was a quest window, it was connected to the original world. Right now, she had no choice but to believe in the 'return ticket' that was the quest completion reward.
Esperanza tied up her thoughts. And said casually.
"I was thinking what an enviable life that is."
"Everyone says that. Though it's not without its own hardships."
The gentleman who had cleared life like a tutorial while others cleared it on hard mode spoke easily.
Thinking of him as real rather than a game character made Cider Claiborne twice as annoying.
"Ah, speaking of parliamentary duties, we'll have guests at home tomorrow."
Originally, such houses should have guests coming and going until the doorstep wore down, but having no one for two weeks was stranger. Considering his personality, it wasn't surprising though.
Even Cider Claiborne hadn't had tea time in the drawing room more than five times in two weeks. Exactly four times.
"Should I be careful not to run into them?"
"No, since you'll need to meet them, we need an excuse."
"An excuse?"
"The circumstances of how a grown lady came to stay at a house where an unmarried man lives alone."
"It's not a house where you live alone though, right?"
There was Mrs. Lux, and Annie too. There were many women. Many men too. They all lived in this house.
"In their view, employees aren't people."
"Not to that extent...... the treatment isn't that bad."
It probably wasn't a society where employee human rights hit rock bottom to that degree? There were quite a few bad-tempered masters, and harsh treatment of employees wasn't unheard of, but it was never a universal or recommended society. Especially long-serving employees couldn't be ignored or treated carelessly even by their masters. Like Howard or Mrs. Lux.
"To put it bluntly, even if we were cohabiting without propriety, there's no married, middle-aged woman in a position to stop it."
"Cohabiting without propriety... ah, yes."
Didn't seem like something befitting a dignified count's dignity? Seeing someone who wasn't like this before acting this way, he must be quite bothered. Esperanza subtly gave him a look, but Cider was unrestrained.
"We know we wouldn't do that."
He stated with a strange tone.
"But we need a guarantor that we 'really' didn't do that."
"What a worldview obsessed with watching others cohabitate."
Esperanza ended up uttering vulgar words too. Whether others cohabitated or not.
"Anyway, this society is quite conservative, but there are still a few cases where such deviant behavior is permitted."
Cider extended his hand straight and said while folding his fingers one by one.