Chapter 64. Testing and Trial, Part V

Translator: Khan

Editor Group: Liber Reverie

If there were sisters, it was common to bring gifts that were similar. But she received only a bouquet of flowers like this. Nevertheless, Aria received the bouquet of flowers with a happy face, not expressing what was really on her mind.

"Thank you. It's a pretty tulip."

"It's my master's favorite flower."

"I see. Usually, people like the flowers of their family the most, but he must be very patriotic."

"Well... I can say that."

Aria, who gave a fresh smile in return for the bouquet, took her nose to the tulip bouquet and smelled it. Whether it was not the flower she could easily smell on the streets, she could smell the fresh, heavy fragrance from it.

"It smells so good. I don't think it's the usual smell of flowers. Where did you buy it?"

Aria asked, slowly blinking her eyelids full of eyelashes. Her beautiful face mingled with the flowers. Lane briefly looked into Aria's eyes with a faint frown in the middle of his forehead.

"... I bought it near the mansion."

Then he quickly turned his head to avoid her as if he had seen something wrong.

"If it's still this fresh, I guess it's from the capital, right? It's a lot closer than I thought."

"…"

Lane gave a look implying that he had made a mistake at the moment. Aria, who had fixed her gaze on him all the time, was able to catch that moment. Aria realized that his master was not a foreign aristocrat. He seemed to serve his master nearby, and it meant that his master was staying in the capital.

However, from the beginning, putting a foreign aristocrat on the list was simply a delusion. Lane's speech tone was a sample of the Imperial standard language. If he served a foreign aristocrat or came from a foreign country, he would not be able to speak such a clean standard language. It would be different somewhere. According to Aria's experience, it was so.

'Then who the hell is it? Don't tell me he is the Crown Prince.'

No way. He would marry Princess Frederick soon. There was no way he would pay attention to Mielle when there were already a lot of rumors about his engagement with Princess Frederick. In addition, Mielle was nothing but a person who was entangled with the family that his engagement talk was coming and going. If this absurd idea was true and not an imagination, it was clear that it would bring bloody wind to the Empire. He wouldn't do that if he had an idea.

Aria shook her head, saying that this would never be the case.

"I'm curious about other kinds of flowers, too. If you don't mind, could you tell me about the flower shop?"

"... I'll let you know later. Right now, a little… I'm in trouble."

"Yes, and whenever you change your mind, let me know."

"... I will."

Little by little, Lane's reply was becoming late, perhaps because he realized that he had leaked information about his master's identity. He glanced at her face, worried that Aria might have noticed the little information.

'It's a rare tulip, so if she looks it up, she'll find out where it was purchased.'

So Aria smiled brightly as if she knew nothing. Lane returned to his first expression once he realized that his opponent was only fifteen years old.

"Annie, would you put it in my room? Please keep it well so that it would not wither. And bring me the box I always carried with me."

"Yes, miss."

While a maid had gone to call for Mielle, Aria waited for Mielle in the lounge with Sarah and Lane. It took quite some time because she wasn't prepared to greet anyone at all.

In the meantime, the three remained silent for a while as there was no word to say. The room was silent, and the only thing they could hear was the sound of their teacups when they were putting them down. In the end, Sarah was the first to speak as she could not bear the silence anymore.

"So I'm late to say hello because I had no time to mind others. It's a great pleasure to meet you. I'm Sarah of the family of Viscount Lauren."

"Oh, my... I've been rude to a lady. I'm Pino Lane."

Lane got up from his seat and bowed politely. The two introduced each other with impeccably clean greetings.

"You must be busy at work."

"Yes, my master is very capricious."

"Well, because he has the ability, he seems to be capricious."

"I'm ashamed of you to say that."

Unlike when he was talking to Aria a while ago, gentle energy flowed out of him. It was like a leisurely conversation between nobles. In a subdued atmosphere, Sarah and Lane sometimes held jasmine tea in their mouths and enjoyed its relaxed flavor while continuing their conversation.

"When I see you visit like this, you have been close enough to Lady Mielle for so long."

"No, she was an acquaintance of my master, not me. I'm just delivering gifts to her and asking how she gets along."

"I see. I am sorry I was rude."

"No, I'm not hiding it. You are not even rude."

They didn't know his master's identity, but he didn't have anything to hide.

While Sarah and Lane were talking, Annie brought a box of the hourglass. Aria fiddled with a pocket watch on her neck. Her hands were shaking because she hadn't used it in the meantime.

Click. She opened the pocket watch and pressed the button. The first needle sped quickly into the future.

'Can I get information from him who pretends to be relaxed on the surface but is actually wary like a furry cat?'

Aria, who had a precious box next to her from Annie, turned toward Lane. As long as the hourglass was around her, it would be fine. No matter what she said, it was all over if she turned the hourglass over.

"Mr. Lane, why is your master interested in Mielle?"

Lane answered without hesitation because it was a question she had asked before.

"As I said before, she is intelligent and quickly gets information. My master noticed that she has an excellent ability, and my master would like to teach her how to make the right use of it."

'What kind of information did Mielle use?' Above all, she couldn't agree on the fact that Mielle had got information quickly.

'Could Mielle have achieved any great feat without realizing it?' If she had done it, she must have been bragging it all over town, and Aria couldn't understand why she didn't know that.

"You're saying she helped my father's business?"

"I can say yes. The count said she always gave advice to the business."

This was the story she had heard last time. 'Indeed, did the count make up his words by exaggeration?' Mielle's advice had not been accepted by the count, so she could only think of it like that. And at the thought of it, everything was consistent.

'Truly, a daughter and a father are so foolish.'

He might have said a few words to show off his daughter, but if someone took it lightly, there would not be any problems. But she couldn't imagine doing so to someone who paid all his attention to Mielle. She didn't think he was an ordinary aristocrat, but how could he handle it later?

Of course, if Oscar and Mielle married, the count would be at the pinnacle of power and wealth, so no one would easily confront him, but wouldn't he be ashamed? Everyone in the aristocracy was bluffing, but this time it was too much.

"Did you hear the details?"

Aria wondered what the count might have said. 'How will such an earnest person react when the facts turn out to be false and exaggerated?'

"Yes, I was particularly impressed by the advice Miss Mielle gave her father. This time she responded before the fashion."

"... did you say fashion?"

"The fur. I heard she noticed it before the princess led the fashion."

'Mielle?' Aria's fine hand that was holding the watch trembled. That was not what Mielle had said. That was what Aria had told the count. In return, Aria had even got a birthday present and a jewelry box! She couldn't understand why it had come to Mielle's accomplishment.

Aria was speechless for a moment. Even though she was not his own daughter, it was a little bit too much to take away her exploits by lying. Then, in wonder, Sarah, who called her name, managed to come to her senses.

"Did my father... say that? Mielle gave him advice on fur?"