Published: August 15, 2025
Darmel was so captivated by Brigitte that he didn’t move, and even the seamstresses and Corinna noticed, beginning to cast warm, knowing glances his way. It was clear that their eyes held an affectionate recognition of “Ah, spring has come.”
“Nobles really shouldn’t show their emotions so plainly on their faces,” I sighed lightly.
“Darmel, how do you feel about it?”
“Huh!? Ah, uh...”
When I tugged lightly on his cloak, Darmel snapped to attention and looked at me, then at Brigitte, and cleared his throat as if to cover up his embarrassment.
“Ahem... well, I think it’s nice.”
...If you don’t stop blushing and say it more clearly, your compliments won’t come across! Come on, you can do it!
I silently encouraged him, but Darmel was basically a shy guy. He couldn’t look straight at Brigitte when speaking, his gaze drifting away slightly, and no more compliments came out.
Everyone around was waiting for one more word, but Darmel just kept shifting his eyes around without saying anything else.
“I see. Lady Rosemine, about the outfit you designed—do you think it could be recommended to the other female knights as well?”
Brigitte looked down at her outfit and asked, and Darmel gave a vague nod, “Yeah, well...”
I wanted a clearer opinion, but Darmel’s head was clearly melted by love and not very helpful.
“If there are no problems, then let’s have Brigitte’s outfit tailored as is. The cutting will be finished, so Darmel, please leave now.”
I said this to wrap up the matter and ushered Darmel out of the secret room.
After closing the door softly, I peeked back at Brigitte. With Darmel’s obvious behavior, there was no way Brigitte didn’t notice.
“...Um, Brigitte.”
Surrounded by seamstresses, I called out to Brigitte, who smiled with just a hint of bashfulness.
“Darmel is quite straightforward, isn’t he? It’s the first time someone has looked at me like that, so it’s a bit embarrassing.”
...No, no, it’s just that no one had been so blatant before. Brigitte is beautiful, so there must have been others.
I think either she was so focused on family, her land, and fighting that she didn’t notice, or she only had eyes for her fiancé.
“Brigitte, what do you think about... Darmel?”
“I don’t think Darmel is a bad person. He’s not the type to take over Ilkner, he’s the second son without a title, so he’s unencumbered, and basically, he’s serious. Also, from the perspective of being Lady Rosemine’s favorite knight, he’s not a bad candidate for Ilkner.”
I brightened, feeling this was surprisingly positive, and Brigitte smiled gently.
“However, the mana difference is too great, so he’s out of the question.”
She cut me off smoothly with a beautiful smile.
Now that I think about it, I heard from the high priest that a large mana difference means children can’t be born, so marriage isn’t possible. It seems a large mana gap also excludes them from romantic interest.
...To be disqualified from love at first sight is just too cruel.
Apparently, Darmel’s mana has been gradually increasing thanks to my blessing, but exactly how much and how far he still needs to go, I don’t know. If he tries hard, could he become a suitable match for Brigitte?
I thought about it a little, but someone like me who has no romantic experience, and no sense of common customs, meddling in someone else’s love life won’t end well. I decided to just quietly support him in my heart.
...If he can somehow fix the mana issue, maybe a path will open up. Hang in there, Darmel.
“Now then, which story should I choose?”
After parting ways with Benno and the others, I went back to the head priest’s office. I sat at the desk and began furiously writing manuscripts to print a book full of text for the test run of the printing press.
During winter, I’d heard various stories from the children and jotted them down. Among them were a few knight tales. Using those as a base, writing the manuscript wasn’t that hard.