By Zephyria 
“Are you really just going?”
“Yes, I’m really just going.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
At my repeated confirmations, his dejected eyes looked just like a wet puppy, so innocent. I noticed Carlisle’s subordinates, who were standing a few steps away, surrounding us as if guarding us, all making awkward expressions as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have, but I didn’t pay much attention. I even felt proud, thinking that he was managing his image in front of his subordinates as the future Grand Duke. Geez, I was too biased.
“But if you go in this time… we might not meet again for a while…”
Carlisle, in that dejected state, didn’t give up easily and kept pestering me. He seemed to have completely forgotten that he had already been caught by his charm, played several games of chess, enjoyed dinner, and delayed my return home by several hours.
Hearing his relentlessly pleading voice, I couldn’t help but waver. I wanted to do whatever he asked. But I couldn’t immediately nod to this request.
“You don’t know how good the fluffy goose feather bedding feels. You know it’s one of the specialties of the North, right? I prepared a new one for Noah to use… And the newly made silk robe is in a color that suits you perfectly…”
“Stop, stop. No. It’s no use no matter how much you pester me.”
“Ah, Noah.”
The reason he was dragging his feet and begging me like this was, of all things, to stay the night.
Because the person the Crown Prince had marked as the Crown Princess was also receiving courtship from Grand Duke Graham, there were already many eyes and ears following my every move. Because I had been suddenly pushed into this situation, I hadn’t been able to silence anyone during the move. I didn’t know for sure, but from tomorrow morning, all sorts of rumors would be circulating in society, saying that Noah had properly worked on Grand Duke Graham while the Crown Prince was away from the capital, or that her skills in managing two such big shots were extraordinary. It would be fine if I were to become the Grand Duchess of Graham as it was, but since I had decided to go through other connection stages in between, it couldn’t be like that.
“Next time, I’ll formally invite you. I promise, it won’t take too long.”
“…You really have to.”
“Of course. There’s also the role you’ll be showing in front of the Countess.”
Who Carlisle has in his heart wouldn’t be a big deal to Allen. But what about the Countess? I couldn’t help but wonder how the Countess’s expression, which had become so arrogant whenever Carlisle visited as if she had already welcomed a son-in-law, would change when she saw Carlisle heading for me instead of Allen.
“Leave it to me. I’m confident I can do it better than anyone else.”
Seeing her smiling so brightly, saying that she could do even the work that was ordered with a nasty intention to make fun of others, I just smiled back.
At least an hour had passed since the carriage waiting had completed its preparations for departure. It was when Carlisle was finally about to call that carriage with a regretful voice.
“Then it’s really a shame, but… I’ll send you off for today. Just a moment. The carriage is waiting…”
“Young, Young Master. It’s the Hamilton family’s carriage. The Hamilton family’s carriage has arrived…!”
Clatter, clatter. At a moderate speed, neither fast nor slow, a black carriage bearing the Hamilton crest was approaching the main gate of the Graham residence. As if they had been watching, with perfect timing.
“Noah…”
Carlisle tightly gripped my hand once, with a worried look. It was clearly different from just now, when he was begging me to stay the night like a spoiled child. I hadn’t even conveyed any information to Hamilton that I was here, but the carriage that came to pick me up at such a precise timing was strange no matter who looked at it. Knowing that Allen was not a normal human being, he seemed to be concerned about having to send me alone to that dangerous mansion.
“It’s okay. Nothing will happen.”
The black bead I received from Lennox hung heavily under my pocket. My vision was still clear. The System’s intervention had disappeared without a trace. I reassured Carlisle again, feeling the presence of that bead with my whole body and mind.
“I’m telling you it’s really okay, don’t you trust me?”
“No! No, no! Absolutely not!”
Seeing Carlisle, who was flustered and busy denying it with a wave of his hand, even the slightest tension that had been unconsciously built up melted away.
“I greet Grand Duke Graham. Young Master Noah, I have come to escort you.”
“Okay. You’ve worked hard.”
The familiar-looking servant opened the door of the carriage with a dark gaze that somehow lacked luster, and I lightly boarded the carriage without looking back even once. I felt Carlisle’s presence trying to look after me anxiously, calling out Noah…, but I ignored it to the end. I could tell just by looking at the servant’s eyes. This guy is now… under the control of Allen, or rather, the System. The System could no longer stir and look into my head as it pleased like before, but it would be able to see all my actions that were outwardly revealed through this guy’s eyes. So it wouldn’t do. How much I was opening my heart to Carlisle, how precious Carlisle was to me… I absolutely couldn’t let it be found out.
“……”
The inside of the carriage was empty. If I had been formally picked up by order of the Count or Little Count, there should have been at least two more servants, including my exclusive attendant, Nicole, but only the coachman with empty eyes, who had driven the carriage, was there.
“Then we will depart.”
No sooner had I sat down on the plush seat than the wheels began to turn again. When I arrived at this mansion, the speed was quite leisurely, but now it was even more urgent, as if being chased by something. The slow sound of hooves, clatter, clatter, quickly turned into impatient galloping, clatter-clatter. The curtains covering the windows were firmly fixed so that they could not be opened. After Lennox and I escaped, did they get quite angry on that side? I didn’t feel particularly nervous. I just found it funny.
The only thing that made me afraid was the unknown enemy whose identity I couldn’t grasp. I didn’t know anything about the great god who supported this world, but I was quite familiar with one aspect of the System, which had a strange obsession with me as an existence. So why would I be afraid of Allen or anything else? All that was left was to struggle with all my might. I wasn’t afraid at all of a fall where I knew the ending would be shattered.
“We have arrived.”
Even if it was within the same distance, it wasn’t possible to arrive this quickly, but the carriage seemed to have almost flown. The coachman who opened the door of the carriage bowed politely and then disappeared without a trace.
It wasn’t just my imagination… for some reason, my vision was blurry. The Hamilton mansion was suddenly shrouded in a thick fog. I carefully got out of the carriage.
“Ah…!”
No sooner had I taken my foot off the last step than everything in the carriage, including the pillar I was holding onto and the seat I had been riding on until just now, turned into smoke and disappeared. Could it be… that the carriage, as well as the disappeared coachman, were all illusions created by the System?
Even after swallowing the entire mansion, the thick fog didn’t know satisfaction and tried to swallow even me. The smoke gathered at my feet, as if trying to climb up my calves. It was then. The bead I had put in my pocket cried out with a fierce force, as if threatening me. The fog that had been wriggling around my calves quickly retreated as if running away.
“So it was that after all. How did you find it so well…”
Deep night. A mansion shrouded in fog. A clear voice that didn’t suit the background at all was directly embedded in me. When I looked up, it was Allen, as expected. He still hadn’t fully recovered his appearance, and still half of his face was scattered into particles and then repeatedly gathering again, but how could I not recognize that face, not anyone else but me?
“Why are you coming so late, Noah. And with such unclean things.”
“…What about the others? What happened.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t have that much strong power left right now. Everyone is just asleep for a while.”
Ah, this method is uncomfortable after all. Allen muttered as if complaining. I didn’t let my guard down. If Allen, the System, was really a god, there was no way he could be defeated by just this much. There was no way it was true that he had exhausted all his power with just this much.
“But I can’t help it. I’m planning to keep this shell for as long as possible.”
Allen, smiling brightly even with half a face, stroked his body here and there as if he loved it even more.
“Why are you doing this to me…? What, what do you want to do?”
I wondered what I should say when I met the System wearing Allen’s mask again, but what I was most curious about, what I was most desperate for, was this.
“I’m the one who wants to ask.”
Half a face grinned, grotesquely.
“Why did you do that to me, Noah? Why… did you ruin our perfect selves?”