Chapter 59: Permission to say No.

I walked past the Duke standing in front of me. I sent Nathan, who had stiffened like a new recruit just entering boot camp, home and locked the shop door. Even turning on the barrier and looking back, I could see the Duke still standing in place waiting for me.

Only then could I find words to say to him.

“…Did you check the design?”

“Can I look at it?”

Although the notebook was lying open beside him, he hadn’t even glanced at it sideways. It was me who turned my head this time too. To escape from the blue eyes that seemed nailed to me.

“It’s the Duke’s accessory. You should check it.”

Only when I looked down at the notebook and spoke did I feel the Duke turn his body.

Tick, tock.

The sound of the second hand of a watch came from inside the display case. I left it running as a sample to inform customers that there was no need to set the time every day, but it was the first time I heard the second hand so clearly.

Tick, tock.

The sound breaking the silence regularly grated on my nerves. I needed a place to lean on. Knowing it would leave marks on the display case Nathan had polished to a shine, I put my hand on it. Following that, the Duke’s hand was placed next to mine.

Unlike last night, seeing his hand under bright lighting, there were scars that weren’t there before. Scars roughly torn as if bitten by teeth. And by a person, not a beast.

“It’s a wonderful brooch.”

The Duke’s voice was sudden. Startled, I took my eyes off his hand.

“…Does it look like, a brooch?”

A rough voice flowed out as if my throat was locked. I frowned. Since I was bowing my head, the Duke probably didn’t see.

“It isn’t?”

Fortunately, the Duke’s voice asking back was calm. I exhaled once and opened my mouth again.

“It’s something a bit more interesting than that.”

“Interesting?”

Interest began to be contained in the Duke’s voice. So I could also examine the design in more detail.

The main stone to be polished into a 70-facet Radiant cut is the purified yellow diamond.

“This is for me, right?”

Last night, the Duke said to me looking at the yellow diamond scattering countless fragments of light even in low illumination. With certainty as if it were natural. Even though I purified it, it was the gem of a mage who must have treated him terribly before.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you planning to use it for another purpose?”

“No. That’s not it. Just… no, I have no plans as of now.”

I couldn’t make it into the Duke’s accessory after seeing such a fantasy. But I couldn’t let it fall into someone else’s hands either. I just intended to put the yellow diamond, now showing perfect transparency, somewhere in the corner of a workshop drawer. Deeply, enough for even me to forget its existence.

“Give it to me.”

But the Duke casually took the gem with the uncomfortable story in his hand.

“Make it mine.”

At that moment, the yellow diamond scattered dazzling light as if it had been waiting.

It wasn’t my imagination. The Duke infused mana to make it emit brilliant light.

I couldn’t refuse the Duke’s request. Because several images came to mind simultaneously with his order. All were things with that beautiful yellow diamond as the main stone.

What the Duke is looking at now is the last remaining design amidst elimination based on my own standards.

The Radiant cut can maximize the weight of the rectangular Baguette cut, the original form of the yellow diamond. But few people would believe it is the result of refining a simple original form. I had that much confidence.

Even on Earth, the Radiant cut was a method distributed relatively recently. It will give a correspondingly advanced feeling. In the bezel that will wrap the yellow diamond, perhaps ironically, I intend to densely embed 0.1-carat diamonds polished in Baguette cut like the original form of the yellow diamond. To highlight the unfamiliar but beautiful radiance emitted by the 70-facet main stone even more. Also to mitigate the feeling given by the advanced and thus unfamiliar Radiant cut with a classic choice.

Once the pendant is completed, I plan to make a chain with links made by setting 0.1-carat round diamonds one by one. With a length allowing about one finger’s width of room from the neck circumference.

“This is a cravat.”

I remember the formal attire the King made the Duke wear at the departure ceremony. Splendid formal attire that seemed to say the position of Commander-in-Chief was nominal and he had no use as a soldier. However, I also remember the fact that countless people sincerely cheered seeing the Duke wearing that clothes on the day of the departure ceremony.

No matter how much they reduce the scale of the victory ceremony to a minimum and block external exposure, just as there is no justification not to hold the victory ceremony itself, the Duke, who was the Commander-in-Chief whether nominally or substantially, cannot be completely excluded from the victory ceremony. Although newspapers still ignore him and don’t publish a single line of articles, rumors about the Duke’s performance had already spread throughout Noberten.

Given the King’s nature I know, it was obvious he would try every means to make the unavoidably presented Duke look weak. Forcing formal attire that is unparalleled in splendor would be basic.

He cannot refuse the formal attire bestowed by the King, nor alter it. Attaching a brooch on the formal attire wouldn’t be allowed either. Since decorating a soldier’s formal attire is originally limited to medals or ribbons commemorating participation in battles or operations.

However, the formal attire bestowed by the King consisted only of a coat and pants. Shirt and cravat were not included. There was no regulation on the material of the cravat either.

Meaning there is no reason not to wear a cravat made of diamonds.

“Certainly, it would be interesting.”

The Duke agreed with me in a voice tinged with laughter.

“It will be excellent. Both the gem and the magic circle.”

There was no way he wouldn’t recognize the magic circle he improved himself. The magic circle that will block pheromones sent by the King will hide the Duke’s true worth from the King’s eyes.

Even so, the current Duke is a person who can never be a quiet ornament. Even hiding the tremendous pheromones I cannot smell and the great magic skills I know well.

Just as scars I don’t know appeared on his hands, the war experience leading an army left clear traces on him. The attitude of no longer trying to hide the past was the clearest evidence. Something I still cannot do.

What the King wants might be a lifeless Duke like a stuffed specimen, but the Duke decorated like a picture will capture people’s gazes. Like a shining diamond. Dazzlingly.

“It will be excellent.”

I looked down at the sketch once again. I have already seen that dazzling light, and even if I close my eyes now, the fact that I have already seen it doesn’t disappear. I know, I know, but still, I have no choice but to keep the distance one step behind him. I cannot get farther away, nor closer.

I blinked as if shaking off the afterimage of light. And I pulled up the corners of my mouth. I drew the smile that Han Jay of the past practiced countless times. Only then did I turn my body toward the Duke.

“Since you have checked it, Duke, I would like to start production now.”

“Is it uncomfortable if I’m here?”

“It is not comfortable. And don’t you have work to do?”

Even though I expressed my wish for him to leave quite blatantly for speaking to an employer, the Duke only showed an eye-smile. It was an expression looking genuinely happy, enough to make me bewildered.

“I have no more work to do today.”

“I find it difficult to concentrate if another person is present.”

It wasn’t a complete lie, but not complete truth either.

Actually, I am very used to sharing a workshop with others. At the school I attended briefly, using a workshop alone was rather impossible, and when running the jewelry shop in Jongno, I worked together even deliberately. My experience was very lacking to suddenly act like a pro, so I had to steal and learn the skills and know-how of veteran jewelers even over their shoulders.

So saying I can’t work if someone else is present was a lie.

But if limiting the ‘other person’ to the Duke, saying I can’t concentrate was true. That was also the reason I couldn’t go down to the workshop right now.

“I won’t enter the workshop.”

“Do you mean you will stay outside?”

“Correct.”

“I cannot understand. Why so…”

I couldn’t ask why he goes to such lengths. Because I felt like I already heard the answer that would return.

“Hmm?”

When the Duke urged the rest of my words, I had no choice but to change the subject.

“You look like you’re in a good mood.”

“I can’t help but be.”

“Is it fun teasing me?”

“No.”

Unlike his words, a deep smile was etched on his face.

“You didn’t tell me to get out of here right now. So it’s good. I’m satisfied, for now.”

Like his expression, his words were also sincere. So I was even more flustered.

“How could I dare say such words to the Duke.”

No matter how often I hear that I am impertinent, I have never rejected the Duke with direct words. When I tried to widen the distance, it was closer to him retreating himself. If he hadn’t done so, our distance wouldn’t have been maintained.

The one who could clearly reject me was rather the Duke. When Spes Umbra invaded the mansion, and when I said I couldn’t participate in the war.

In the first place, the word impertinent itself is established only in an unequal relationship.

It wasn’t meant to be sarcastic. It was just a correct argument that our situations are different. But my words took away the Duke’s words.

Tick, tock.

The sound of the second hand filled the vacancy of conversation. What was floating on his face could still be called a smile, but the emotions contained in that expression changed completely. Not glad and good things, but things located on the opposite side.

Slowly his lips opened, and words directed at me fell soon after.

“You can do that. I wish you wouldn’t, but still, when I try to do something you don’t want, please reject clearly. I would like that.”

Permission for refusal. That was rather a plea.