Unedited
I giggled and opened the second letter. Elizabeth McCarthy wasn’t much of a whiner, but her letters were full of lamentation. Apparently, developing a mine was not easy.
Nevertheless, a black crystal gemstone was enclosed with the letter in an envelope that was somewhat larger than usual. Perhaps because it was mined by novice miner Brennan Stokes himself, it was rougher than a typical crystal; it looked more like a stone. In the end, it was placed together with the sealing wax stamped by the Duke of O’Brien.
The sender of the next letter was, unexpectedly, Marquise Bolton. For an ordinary greeting letter, the sentences were long and rambling. When I looked again, I saw that it was ciphertext. By connecting the first letters of each line, it read, ‘What on earth did you do to His Majesty?’ (I guess he couldn’t find a word that starts with ‘nya’, so the last sentence was a very random ‘meow’. This allowed me to successfully weigh the possibility that Bolton was either out of his mind or that his letter contained more meaning than meets the eye.)
I remembered what Bree had said before. Almost all letters sent from the capital of Illestia pass through the imperial palace at least once. Perhaps that was why Bolton had attempted to write using such terrible sentences.
That means Keran also read this… A shiver ran down my spine. There was no chance he wouldn’t be able to decipher his lieutenant’s crappy ciphertext. I rubbed the goosebumps that rose in my forearms and threw the letter into the fireplace.
After putting Bolton’s letter along with my report card in the burning fireplace, there was only one letter left. Jaden, who is more eloquent in writing than in his spoken words, said that he was on the verge of going crazy because of the noble ladies who visited the Spencer duchy several times a day upon hearing the news of his return. It seems that the Duke and Duchess of Spencer have decided to put Jaden on the marriage market in earnest.
I thought it was a little early. But then again, if my son, who is very healthy and has complete limbs, had grown up until he was 19, still blushing at the mention of something like dick, I would have pushed him away early too, telling him to at least date, if not get married.
Anyway, from my point of view, it was a sight to behold. I was so excited that I immediately started writing a reply. ‘Oh, dear, Jayden’? No. ‘Oh, dear’ seems too teasing. Though it was intended to tease, being too obvious would make him angry, so I left it out. Just “Jaden.”
The condition of the letter he sent was so miserable that the next sentences continued with force majeure. ‘Your poor stationery is full of holes from how much you pressed down on it while writing. Next time, either use thicker stationery or control your anger—’
“Ariel! Come down quickly!”
Brianna Mosley’s voice was so loud that her shout even reached my ears in the study on the second floor. She’d gone out to watch the muscular sailors coming in and out of Dalton Harbor, but for some reason she came back right away.
The startled flying squirrel mailman shoved a grape grain into his cheek and flew away. I rummaged through my desk drawers, gathered up miscellaneous things to show Bree, and left the study.
“Why? Has Walsh’s obituary finally arrived?”
“It’s more fantastic than that!”
In my book, the only thing more fantastic than Walsh’s obituary was a diploma with my name on it. I walked down the stairs indifferently. I noticed the servants busily carrying things. There were several boxes, each of different sizes.
“Did dad buy more stuff again? I told him the elven printing style trend isn’t coming back! They live only by grazing grass, so their sense of beauty has deteriorated!”
“Probably not, miss. The other day, madam declared that she would never set sail without a contract, saying that she would cut off his hands if he spent even one more gold coin on elven-printed fabric.”
Maddie, who was helping the workers stack boxes in the corner, said it gently. ‘Is that so?’ I couldn’t help but feel curious since it wasn’t just a bunch of boring, colorful fabric. I ran down the stairs two or three at a time. By the time my feet touched the carpet in the hall, Bree was practically hopping with excitement.
“Looks like Spencer sent you a gift! Can I open it?”
“Jaden? He didn’t mention anything in his letter.”
As Bree said, the boxes were sent in Jaden’s name from the Spencer family. I was more surprised to find out that Jaden had sent them than when I found out that they weren’t Elven-printed fabric. Today wasn’t my birthday, and even if it was, there was no reason to receive so many presents from Jaden. An inexplicable feeling of anxiety pounded the back of my neck.
At Bree’s almost coercive urging, I unraveled the ribbon on the largest box, and a multi-layered, shiny dress appeared. Looking at it, it definitely wasn’t something that was only worth a penny or two. A gut feeling struck me that if I were not careful, something truly irreversible would happen.
So I pretended I hadn’t seen anything and tried to repack Jaden’s gift. However, Lilu, the mischievous cat who thought every box on the continent was her home, boldly and quickly rubbed her butt against the frightful dress. Also, Brianna had already adorned herself with the coat, shoes, hat, and accessories.
“Ariel, this is made of authentic harpytail feathers!”
‘I thought all harpies had bad body odor, but they smell really good!’ Bree waved the fan and made a fuss about it. Soon, a small, folded note fell from inside the fan. It looked somewhat familiar. I picked it up like a person possessed by something.
Of course, it was familiar. It was the ‘Ariel Dalton 1-day pass’ that I gave to Jaden in return for his amazing tutoring. Jaden Spencer’s uniquely pressed handwriting radiated its presence through the drawing of my face on the other side.
Help me.
***
A banquet invitation, not a rescue request, arrived in the evening. It was a banquet commemorating the day the dragon-riding hero of Milua returned. I wondered what the point was of celebrating a day that wasn’t even a birthday, but then I realized that nobility throws banquets for all sorts of reasons every day of the year.
For example, the Count of Villard and their red-haired relatives participated in a festival held in Chadrock every year on Redhead Day. Coincidentally, Redhead Day was the day before the Spencer family’s celebration banquet. Kyle’s plan to sneak in by casting a space expansion spell on my bag ended up being useless.
It was obvious why banquet invitations and dresses were usually sent together. Thanks to this, Brianna Mosley, who loves to gossip about other people’s gossip, was incredibly excited. She had been insisting that Jaden’s behavior was unusual, that I needed to step up my game, and even making a fuss without any sense of decorum in front of Kyle. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and cast a spell to glue her tongue to the roof of her mouth.
“Bree, I’m really sorry. I’ll ask Jaden to find a healer.”
So, I had to apologize to Brianna for the entire train ride to the capital. Because my terrible magic skills had left her tongue not attached to the roof of her mouth but rather long, purple, and slightly split at the end. Apparently, I must have confused the structure of the magic circle for attaching the tongue to the roof of the mouth and the magic circle for transforming someone into a snake.
Bree pursed her lips and glared at me, but when part of the brim of my hat was turned over, she carefully corrected it. She also propped a pillow-like cushion behind my neck to prevent my hair from getting squished.
Since there was only one name on the invitation, Brianna accompanied me on the train to the capital as my handmaiden. I wasn’t very happy about having my friend as my handmaiden, but Bree seemed okay with it. Rather, she told me to look forward to the fact that she would provide fantastic service with the vibe of an experienced handmaiden.
And it was indeed fantastic. Whether she was bluffing or not when she said that she was favored by the Marchioness of Bennet, the trip with first-class handmaiden Brianna Mosley was truly completely pleasant (perhaps it felt pleasant because she couldn’t talk. She was really great, but she talked too much).
Of course, there were times when I missed Brianna’s chattering. The newspaper I bought after stopping at a stopover near the capital contained various social news, including new guidelines issued by the Duke and Duchess of Spencer regarding their son’s marriage. From now on, all unmarried noblewomen who would submit a marriage proposal to the duchy had to prove their worth in some way at the banquet held the following week. In other words, it was a talent show.
“It’s like a fairy tale, man. I wonder if they’ll put peas under the chairs in the banquet hall*.”
*(This one is based on the fairytale The Princess on the Pea. The story tells of a prince who wants to marry a princess but is having difficulty finding a suitable wife. He meets many princesses, but is never sure that they are real (Danish: rigtig, lit. ’rightful’) princesses—until one stormy night, when a mysterious young woman drenched with rain seeks shelter in the prince’s castle. She claims to be a princess, but the prince’s mother, the queen, has doubts. She decides to test their unexpected guest by placing a hard, uncooked pea in the bed she is offered for the night, covered by twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds.
In the morning, the mysterious woman tells her hosts that she endured a rather restless night, kept awake by something in the bed that made her feel uncomfortable. The prince’s family realizes that she is a princess after all, since only a true princess could be so delicate. The prince and the princess are happily married, and the story ends with the pea being placed in a museum, where it might still remain.)
At my joke, Bree covered her mouth to keep her purple tongue from sticking out and burst into laughter. But immediately afterward, she seemed somewhat depressed. I could tell she wanted to crack one of her many jokes about comparing suitors to “princesses who sleep on peas,” but couldn’t. Looking at Bree with her shoulders drooping sullenly made me feel solemn.
After hanging out on the train for about ten hours, we transferred to a carriage sent by the Spencer family. A knight wearing a cloak with the duchy’s emblem on top of an ornate doublet* came out and helped Brianna get into the carriage. Suspiciously, he kept his face completely hidden by his helmet. His gigantic body shrank helplessly under the pointed gaze of my first-class handmaiden, Brianna Mosley.
*(A doublet is a man’s snug-fitting jacket that is shaped and fitted to a man’s body. )
“Thank you.”
Although I pretended not to know, I recognized him immediately. ‘Sir Spencer.’ I added quietly, and the way his shoulders flinch was quite funny.
“Is it that obvious?”
As soon as Jaden took a seat in the carriage, he took off his helmet. His forehead was covered in sweat from how long he’d been under that helmet. I dug into my bag and handed him a handkerchief. A feeling of sympathy flowed out of me.
“I don’t know why you thought it wouldn’t be obvious, Jaden.”
You can now sponsor an extra chapter by buying me a Ko-fi! 2 Ko-fi= 1extra chapter.
