Chapter 119 - Cooling off
Eventually, Scarlett was sitting in the parlor with Evelyne and Leon once again.
Cleaning up after Leon’s barging through the mansion hadn’t taken too much time, but it had been annoying to do nonetheless. Not only did she have to go find Molly and give the servant woman a vague summary of what happened so she could go check up on the Countess, but she also had to figure out what to do about the destroyed bed and the fact that a lot of people saw Leon running around like a madman with a mission.
For the time being, she’d had Molly bring the Countess to an empty room in the east wing and instructed Marlon to have a couple of servants go up to the woman’s room to tidy things up. She would also need to come up with a decent excuse for everything, though that could be left for a later occasion.
One thing she was thankful for was that Fynn hadn’t caused more of a mess after everything had been resolved. Contrary to what she might have expected of the young man, he hadn’t immediately rushed off to fight Leon again after escaping the man’s barrier. Instead, it seemed that when Scarlett had been appeasing the Countess, Fynn had noticed that the situation had calmed down somewhat and chosen to stay back, which was what allowed her to then talk things out with Leon.
It showed that Fynn was learning how to read situations, after all. Just…slowly. And perhaps a bit arbitrarily.
Scarlett turned her head, glancing at Evelyne, who was sitting on her right, before shifting her focus to Leon on the sofa to her left. She had already chewed him out enough about what had happened, but that didn’t mean her irritation had completely faded. Originally, she had invited him to come with her and meet Evelyne because she wanted to say a proper goodbye. It didn’t hurt to be a little polite to a powerful imperial knight, after all. Now, though, she didn’t feel quite as up to it.
“So, Sir Leon,” she said, some of the steeliness lingering in her voice. “Before you leave, is there anything more you wish to say?”
The man at least had the dignity to look embarrassed at her words. “No, there isn’t.”
She eyed him for a few seconds.
If she was going to be honest with herself… Rationally, she couldn’t blame him for his earlier behavior. At least not too much. She knew he had apprehensions about her even before they started working together, and she was also aware that the knight techniques he practiced directly opposed those of the Countess. They were directly tied to the empire’s patron deity of the sun, Ittar, after all. It was like mixing oil and water, and she imagined it must have come as a very sudden surprise to encounter something like that here.
It also seemed like the reaction itself was a lot more instinctual than Scarlett thought it would have been. If anyone could sympathise with the difficulties of fighting against your instincts, it was her.
That did not mean she would just forgive and forget. Like hell she was that generous. She would only go as far as to ensure he didn’t spread the information around.