Chapter 121: The Game Goes Down Well

“Ahh! What do you mean, minus two points!”

“Marcus, that’s our win.”

“Come off it, Scott, you’ve only taken three points yourself so far.”

“Cindy, take it steadily.”

Marcus, of the Noisette Count’s house, checked where his rolled pebble had gone and groaned. Scott, of the Caramel Viscount’s house, tossed his pebble lightly up in one hand, caught it and struck a pose.

Cindy, of the Brûlée Margrave’s house, gripped her pebble carefully and studied the squares, while Cindy’s elder brother Patrick cheered her on.

The squares game went down well. Once it was made house against house, it grew oddly heated.

When Ren drew diagonals through the middle square to divide it into four and wrote large numbers and negative numbers into them alternately, one player after another landed by a hair’s breadth in a minus section, which lifted the mood further still.

“Five points!”

Cindy came hurrying delightedly over to the score table. The score table, too, had been drawn on the ground. Lewis heard the score and wrote the number into House Brûlée’s column.

“This is fun.”

“I’m so glad. Here, your next pebble.”

As Cindy smiled, Liese held out a pebble from the pail of washed stones. It was Liese who had brought it up — that it was hard on a young lady in a dress to crouch down and pick up pebbles — and the collected stones had been washed with Yona’s Water Magic.

“Thank you. Do you always play games like this in House Cream?”

“Let me see……. One used to see it often enough.”

Liese was answering Cindy’s question with a little thought when Yona, who was nearby, turned round.

“Ren-niisama thinks them up for us. ……Though lately we hardly play them at all……”

“There are so many of us. Ren used to look after the younger boys and keep them amused.”

“How nice that is. To be able to compete and play together with skills making no difference at all……. Don’t you think so, Brother?”

Cindy turned for agreement to Patrick, who had come over. Patrick nodded.

“Quite so. Boys and girls can play it alike, so I can play with Cindy and Tina too. ……If only one could play it in the carriage as well.”

“We could at the rest stops along the way.”

Ren was at work drying the washed pebbles with a cloth. There were so many of the Cream baronial house that Royce, Yuan and Yona had gone in for the contest, while Liese, Lewis and Ren did the work behind it — entering scores, washing pebbles and handing them out. It was Liese who had offered, “We shall keep the score here,” and told Lewis and Ren to help.

The invited guests amused themselves with the squares game until the dusk was coming on. Glancing up, Ren found several figures near the mansion building watching how it went, and his heart thumped inwardly.

Dinner wasn’t in the usual dining hall but in a hall that wasn’t normally used, laid out with a great many tables.

He felt he had thawed a little towards the young gentlemen, but they were still divided up by house, a table to each.

Greetings were exchanged with each noble house before they took their seats. Seeing the Margrave close to, Ren felt vaguely that he looked a little like his grandfather — but the piercing sharpness of his gaze was frightening.

“……Lewis-niiue, did you know that Grandfather is the Margrave’s younger brother?”

After dinner, walking down the corridor beside Lewis, Ren tried asking him.

“Yes.”

Lewis nodded lightly.

“……Apparently you’re taught it in something called Noble History. Ryan-niiue was taught it by the tutor who came during the winter. I heard it from Ryan-niiue.”

“Noble History……. There was no book like that in the study room, was there.”

“The copy of the History of the Founding was put in the study room, wasn’t it. It’s like that — all we have is what Ryan-niiue wrote out by hand. I should think Liese-neeue has it now.”

“So that’s why Liese-neeue knew too……”

(If I asked Liese-neeue, would she let me see the copy……?)

Ren was thinking about getting leave to copy out the Noble History when Lewis spoke.

“Grandfather distinguished himself and was made a baron, they say. The first of the Cream baronial house.”

“The first!”

“The first” had rather a fine ring to it, Ren thought.

“Yes, it’s remarkable, isn’t it. A second son, not the heir, and to gain a title all the same……”

Lewis narrowed his eyes as though dreaming.

“……Scott and Theo’s grandfather is Grandfather’s younger brother, isn’t he? Does House Caramel being a viscount’s house mean he distinguished himself more than Grandfather did?”

When Ren said it under his breath, Lewis stopped dead. He spoke low, close to Ren’s ear.

“That’s the part that gets you, isn’t it. Ryan-niiue wondered about it too and asked Father, apparently. But all the asking did was put him in a bad temper. Only, the Noble History does say that the Caramel Viscount also distinguished himself and gained his title.”

Having whispered it, Lewis looked about him the way the knights do.

“We’ve guests in the house at present, so it’s better not to go in for gossip.”

If the Caramel Viscount happened to hear them talking about him, Lewis added, it wouldn’t put him in a pleasant frame of mind. Ren looked about him too, and nodded.

They came to the corner of the corridor and stopped. Round it was the way out nearest the annexe.

“Ah, I’m going to that room over there.”

“……”

As Ren made to head for the annexe, Lewis’s brows twisted slightly.

“Ren, isn’t that room cramped? Won’t you stay in my room after all?”

“Then you’d have to say the same to Royce. But three of us would be cramped, wouldn’t it.”

“It would.”

“And we’d make a racket, just as Grandmother said. It’s only today and tomorrow, so I’ll manage. ……I never thought there’d be that many guests.”

“I thought the same.”

The two of them pulled slightly rueful faces, laughed, and went off in their separate directions.