Episode 12
Kiel felt a little uncomfortable when he heard this answer.
Huh? Does that mean you were originally planning to go together?
Although he had recently noticed that the couple had become a little closer since they had been having tea time together every day, Kiel thought that it was because Alphonse liked tea, and he had not thought at all that he was interested in Chloe.
Alphonse was just as indifferent to others, especially to Chloe, who had been cold to him for the past thirteen months.
After hearing Alphonse’s answer and leaving his office, Kiel suddenly had a thought.
‘Perhaps the relationship between the madam and his grace might change.’
He had been serving Alphonse for a long time and knew his master well. His guesses about Alphonse were never wrong.
‘This may be a sign.’
Kiel smiled as if he found it interesting. If this guess is true… it could be a big deal.
***
The next day, Chloe and Kiel arrived together at the Empire’s largest port city.
Tea culture was barely developed in the empire. So, there was virtually no way to obtain tea leaves, tea utensils, and related items other than importing them.
They had come to a tea shop specializing in foreigners in a port city.
“Oh, it’s over there. Shall we go and take a look, ma’am?”
As Kiel spoke, a huge carriage suddenly stopped next to them. And a man got out of it.
“Your grace!”
Chloe screamed in surprise. The person who got out of the carriage was Alphonse.
He glanced at Chloe with a blank expression and said this without even offering a greeting.
“I came here because my business appointment was canceled. It was not too far away.”
He said that as if making an excuse for coming, and then avoided eye contact. However, Chloe didn’t notice and just smiled as if she was happy to see him.
“Oh, I see. That’s lucky!”
However, Kiel, who knew Alphonse’s schedule for the day, could not react as innocently as she did.
‘It probably isn’t that close. At the very least, it would take an hour by carriage to get there…’
Kiel thought so and smiled meaningfully. Suddenly, he shouted loudly.
“Ah! I forgot to buy something. Sorry, I’ll be back soon. Have a nice time, you two!”
“Oh my? Kiel!”
And then he suddenly disappeared somewhere.
As expected, he was a butler who was quick-witted and good at reading his master’s mind.
Alphonse held out his arm to Chloe, who was following Kiel’s fleeing figure with puzzled eyes. It was as if he was offering to escort her.
“Then, would you like to go?”
Chloe looked up at Alphonse. Now that she thought about it, it was her first time going out with him and being escorted by him.
She smiled shyly, feeling a bit strange.
“Yes.”
The tea shop came into view not far away.
“Oh my god!”
As soon as she entered the store, Chloe’s face began to glow as if a switch had been turned on.
She quickly let go of Alphonse’s arm and looked at the display case.
Look here and there, it was all tea, tea related stuff. There were beautiful teapots and teacups of all kinds, various enamels, tea plates, coasters, strainers, infusers with lovely designs, and so on.
There was nothing that wasn’t there.
Alphonse was standing next to her with an expression that made it hard to tell whether he liked it or not.
“Oh my god, it’s a real teacup!”
Chloe was happy as she picked up the exotic-looking teacup. Alphonse asked her.
“A real teacup? Is it different from the coffee cups in the duke’s residence?”
“Of course! Teacups are flatter and wider than coffee cups to enjoy the taste and aroma. Also, the tea set is different for each type of tea…”
Now that Alphonse had become quite friendly with her, Chloe was excited and started talking.
Alphonse, who had been silently listening to her with an expression that made it unclear what he was thinking, suddenly spoke.
“Wife, your eyes light up when you talk about tea. Do you know that?”
Chloe, who heard something unexpected, opened her eyes wide and asked.
“Huh? Am I like that?”
“Yes.”
‘Did I get too excited and talk too much?’
Chloe felt embarrassed only belatedly. Her ears turned slightly red.
Alphonse, who was staring down at her, was thinking differently.
He didn’t mind Chloe talking about tea.
The last few days, he felt that she truly loved tea. Whether talking about tea, thinking about which tea to drink that day, or when Alphonse himself drank all the tea she had brewed, she sparkled with life.
Such sides of hers were very strange to Alphonse, because it was one of the things he could never do.
‘How can you love something so much?’
In his opinion, Chloe was quite a curious person.
“Ahem, ahem, ahem.”
Chloe turned to the direction of the sound in surprise. It was the owner of the tea shop who coughed to attract their attention.
“Ahem, ahem. If you need anything, please call me anytime, and feel free to look around.”
So Chloe really followed the owner’s words. She went to every corner of the store and looked at every item, as if she didn’t want to miss a single one.
‘A round teapot is best for making delicious tea. However, a unique design is not bad for a change of mood. The capacity should be about 2 people. Or, since I drink with many people, a large capacity would be better. However…’
‘There are many wonderful tea utensils other than teapots. Oh my, look at the delicate engraving on this teacup.’
‘This milk pan is really pretty. It looks like it has good water saving power. Oh, this muddler is really cute.’
Seriously, there were so many things she liked. It was so hard to choose which ones to buy.
Alphonse approached her, giving her time to look around to her heart’s content.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes! Very much.”
Chloe smiled brightly.
“Thank you for bringing me to a place like this.”
Alphonse, who was staring at her sparkling face, said softly,
“I’m glad you like it.”
Then he finally turned to the store owner, keeping an indifferent expression on his face the whole time, and said.
“Sir, please give me everything in this store.”
***
Alphonse bought everything on display in the tea shop, as well as everything in the warehouse.
In order to load all the items he bought, he needed six more carriages, not counting the carriages that Chloe and Alphonse rode in.
It wasn’t just the shop owner who was shocked. Chloe was shocked too.
Chloe, who had been riding in a carriage, had a blank expression on her face the whole time, leaving the shop owner, who was closing up shop for the day, behind.
“Wife.”
She barely came to her senses when she heard Alphonse calling her. When she turned around, Alphonse had a strange expression on his face.
“Aren’t you happy?”
Alphonse was curious. Since Chloe liked tea, he thought that buying her a tea set would definitely make her shine.
Chloe shook her head wildly.
“No, I’m really happy! Really. I just wanted to know if it’s really okay.”
“Okay, in what sense?”
“Actually… I feel like we bought a lot, don’t you think? I wonder if there’s enough space in the mansion, and I’m worried that it might cause a financial burden…”
Only after saying that did Chloe realize that she had made a slip of tongue.
A thin crack appeared between Alphonse’s eyebrows.
‘Oh, he hates it when people doubt his abilities.’
Thanks to Alphonse’s arrogance, wasn’t she very surprised on the day the tea she requested had arrived?
“Wife, don’t worry. Didn’t I tell you that you can buy whatever you want?”
“Oh, you did. I’m sorry.”
“A few pieces of porcelain do not make even the slightest difference to the finances of a duke.”
Alphonse, who said so, took out a cigar from his bosom.
They couldn’t be ‘just a few pieces of porcelain’, right?
And they were all imported products, so Chloe guessed that even though they were porcelain teapots, they were expensive.
Alphonse cut off the end of his cigar, lit it, and inhaled deeply. The smoke he exhaled drifted out the open window of the carriage. He said.
“I will expand the tea house to provide space for tea sets. The expansion should provide enough space for not only this purchase but also future purchases.”
“Yes… Yes? An extension?!”
Chloe was surprised once again. The duke’s residence was a mansion with a long history, and its materials and design were unique, making it impossible to remodel it arbitrarily.
Even to Chloe, who was a layman when it came to architecture, it seemed clear that it would require a huge amount of manpower and money to remodel it.
But Chloe couldn’t argue or refute, because if she did, Alphonse would hate her even more.
So, she decided to just keep her mouth shut. Thinking that the Duke’s common sense and spending habits were on a different level from her, a commoner.
Within a few days, Alphonse had actually enlarged the teahouse to accommodate all the teas and remodeled it to maintain the right temperature and humidity for storing tea. Chloe didn’t know whether to be happy about this or not.
And, from that day on, Chloe had difficulty making a choice every time she drank tea, having to worry about which tea set to use.
