Chapter 117
Lea suddenly felt a surge of motivation. After thanking Rose, she looked up at Zion and answered energetically.
“Then, let’s go meet your retainers, Young Duke.”
“I shall escort you. But…”
Zion hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“Could you call me just Zion, instead of Young Duke? Since I was your first, I’d like you to call me a bit more familiarly.”
Though he always spoke with knightly formality, his earnest request made Lea’s ears feel strangely hot. She smiled and readily agreed.
“…Please lead the way, Sir Zion.”
At her reply, Zion’s handsome face lit up with a bright smile as he offered his arm. Placing her hand on his arm, Lea steadied her pounding heart and made her way to the conference room where the retainers were gathered.
When Zion and Lea arrived at the door, a waiting servant opened it for them. Seeing the many people assembled inside as the doors gradually opened, Lea swallowed dryly.
In the conference room, there was a large round table, around which the retainers were seated in a circle. A middle-aged man, seated at what looked like the seat of honor, rose and came forward to greet them.
“Welcome. I apologize for not greeting you sooner. I am Aaron, the head of the Grayson family. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady.”
Introducing himself, Aaron extended his hand politely. Lea realized that Zion’s somewhat overwhelming formality resembled that of his father.
Lea withdrew her hand from Zion’s arm and reached out to Aaron. He, like Zion, took her hand and pressed the back of it to his forehead.
This, too, was one of the overly formal gestures Zion often made, and Lea almost let out a laugh, but she realized now was an important moment.
A moment where the Duke personally presented a Guide to the household. A moment to prove she truly was a Guide.
Relying on her accumulated experience with guiding, Lea quickly and effectively demonstrated her ability by performing a brief but powerful guiding.
“Ugh.”
Aaron let out a pained sound and swayed. Zion hurried to support his father.
Lea was a little startled since it wasn’t the reaction she’d expected. She let go of his hand and stepped back, only for Aaron to follow her by exactly that much.
“…Please don’t be alarmed. I just felt a bit dizzy, that’s all.”
Aaron was speaking, but his mind was elsewhere. This was not his first time receiving guiding. Before, he’d sometimes received it as a reward from the Empress for carrying out her wishes.
But the guiding he’d just received was nothing like the Empress’s.
If the Empress’s guiding was like pouring just enough water into a dried-up fish tank for the fish to barely survive, then Lea’s was like filling the tank until it overflowed with water, and very quickly at that.
To have his thirst quenched so suddenly. Now he could understand why his son had abandoned the Empress in favor of Lea.
Lea, wanting to avoid his overwhelming gaze, turned her head… Only to meet Ilion’s eyes. He appealed to her with an intense look.
He was saying, ‘Guide me too.’
Those green eyes… She’d never seen such intensity from him, not in her past life or this one. For some reason, Lea felt a subtle reluctance for the first time.
For the first time, there was an Esper she didn’t want to guide.
Lea proceeded to guide the Grayson family’s retainers one by one. To manage her stamina, she could only provide a moderate amount, but all the retainers looked satisfied and wore dazed expressions.
At last, it was Ilion’s turn, the one who had been waiting with immense anticipation all along. Having heard that Lea would be coming to his residence today, he had agonized over it.
He had misunderstood her and had acted poorly toward her, so now to ask for guiding weighed on his conscience.
But, on reflection, even Calix—who was the reason he’d come to dislike her—received plenty of guiding from her, so why should he not as well?
That was how, brazenly, Ilion had come to the meeting room he hadn’t even been invited to and taken a seat.
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