“It is an honor to meet you, Count. I am Baroness Darina Brodiskaya. At present, I serve as acting head of the Bertrand & Lee Merchant Company.”
Count Castilla’s eyes widened.
When he heard that some Barshain had suddenly become one of the Prince’s closest aides, he had imagined a tenacious, vicious barbarian woman. Yet Baroness Brodiskaya, now standing before him, was unexpectedly a woman with an extremely sophisticated, cosmopolitan air.
She was dressed in riding clothes covered in dust from her long journey, but even those shabby garments could not conceal her smooth brown skin or beautiful emerald-green eyes. Her slender figure possessed both the elegance of a noble lady and the firmness of a well-trained knight.
She was so excessively attractive that even the old Count, who had been through every manner of hardship in life, found himself unable to look away from her for a moment.
But…
“Did you say acting head of the merchant company? I was told that you had brought a message from Prince Morres.”
“Of course, I am only acting as head of the merchant company because Prince Morres ordered me to do so. Therefore, even regarding matters beyond the company’s business, you may consider everything I say to be a message from Prince Morres himself.”
Even while openly invoking nothing less than a Prince of the Holy Empire, Baroness Brodiskaya’s expression remained supremely confident. It seemed the rumors…