While pretending to look straight ahead, Jace took a sideways glance at Irene.
She was beautiful, but there seemed to be nothing remarkable about her, actually.
"Hmm."
However, it truly seemed like Ciel had fallen in love. Honestly, Jace wasn't averse to the fact that Ciel had another woman in his heart. Although he still didn't know where the saintess was right now, he was glad that a rival had disappeared from the race.
Ciel glanced at the crown prince as well, who was being so brazen with his eyes on Irene. Jace must have already stopped by the temple before coming here and heard the truth about the saintess's abilities-yet he really still came to the Closch Barony.
Just the same as it was in the past, the saintess could travel through dimensions, and this was already known by a few people. Both past and present, the high priest secretly told the emperor about this.
If the saintess would disappear and not return right away, the high priest would no doubt be questioned, so they had to prepare some countermeasures.
Besides that, Ciel could already guess as much from just Jace's current demeanor. If he was still under the impression that the saintess was missing, he'd never be far from being civil with other people.
Well, in general, just the thought of their Guide disappearing would make an Esper go utterly inconsolable.
Ciel, too, was like that.
"Mm, this tastes quite delicious."
As he let out a pleased exclamation, Jace raised his head. As a matter of fact, they had the most famous chef in the empire working at the imperial palace, so since that's what he had been so used to already, it was only natural not to have high expectations for the food served in a countryside baron's residence.
"It's quaintly rustic, but the meat is so tender. And the sauce is very flavorful," the crown prince further praised.
"I'm glad Your Highness likes it, hoho. Our chef's skills are much recognized in these parts."
"That sounds about right, Baron. Don't you think so too, Duke?"
Ciel immediately responded to Jace's words.
"I've already had the chef's food many times before, so of course I already knew. Hans's skills are on par to the skilled chefs in the capital."
Ciel proudly emphasized the phrase, 'many times', as he said it. Once again, Jace couldn't help but think about why exactly his long-time friend had changed like this.
Where on earth had the arrogant, cold-minded duke go? It's as if someone else had taken his place.
While taking a sip of water, Jace continued to watch Irene as she was quietly cutting her steak. Really, she wasn't all that attractive to him.
Even so, she was a strangely eye-catching woman. Was that the reason that the duke was so anxious?
It's come to the point that he was here, hovering around her family as well, frankly being so immature. Though this was something that Jace should tell his father as well, he felt like he had to scold Ciel.
It looked like she had already rejected him, so wasn't it impossible to force the woman to get married to him, even though she was refusing?
Then, something peculiar caught Jace's eyes. Irene's steak wasn't leaking any of its gravy. If a person who didn't know how to wield a sword saw the same thing, they might not have noticed it, but as Jace had been trained in swordsmanship since he was a child, he clearly saw the difference.
If the steak had been cut sloppily and without regard, its gravy would naturally flow down. Well, not exactly sloppily, just ordinarily as how normal people would do it.
However, there was only one case when a steak slice wouldn't overflow after being cut.
It was when it had been cut quickly and sharply with the knife. There should be no way that she would show such swordplay while just cutting steak, but...
Curiously, Jace looked at the steak of all the members of the Closch family. And, he was surprised.
Not only the daughter, but even the son and the baron himself had made such precise cuts.
"Ah..."
This family, which seemed so ordinary, began to look special in his eyes.
Arthur carefully asked the crown prince.
"I beg your pardon, Your Highness."
"Go ahead."
"May I ask what brings you to the Closch territory? To be honest, it's my first time seeing a member of the Imperial Family coming all the way down here."
It was a rather rude question to be posed to the crown prince, but Jace answered without caring about it much.
"I came by to ask the Duke for a favor."
"Ah, I see."
"Hmm, I already owe you this much, so I would like to tell you about a secret. Of course, there's nothing I can't tell you as you are so devoted to our country."
"There is no need for Your Highness to go so far..."
Reflexively, Arthur wanted to decline the crown prince's offer. There was one thing that Arthur learned that his father had thoroughly instilled in him.
There's nothing good about knowing other nobles' secrets.
To make it worse, it was the imperial family. Why should he even listen to it?
Arthur tried to refuse right away, however the crown prince was a little faster.
"The saintess has disappeared. So, considering his abilities, I came to see if I could ask for the duke's aid in finding her."
"......"
As the atmosphere quickly dampened, Jace hurriedly added.
"Ahh, you don't need to freeze like that. According to the High Priest, it seems like there's already a way. Isn't it impossible for our Almighty Asteras to abandon us?"
Ciel looked sideways at Jace, who was smiling brightly as he delivered these words. The imperial family truly had no idea how to be considerate of the aristocrats.
Perhaps it was a habit automatically instilled due to his birthright.
