“With this on my tree, it will look like it has a flower even in the middle of winter.”

The center of Ios’s territory was always green, but its outer parts, where his powers couldn’t fully reach, were affected by the seasons.

He had been so sad every time he saw trees without any leaves and flowers in winter.

“I must go right away to put this one.”

Ios snatched the ribbon from Rubica’s hand and opened the window.

“I’ll make you a few more!”

Before she could finish saying that, he disappeared. He had come like the wind, and now he left like the wind.

It really felt like Rubica had a troublemaking little brother now, a little brother who had just turned five.

“He will come back, right?”

“No.”

Minos shook his head.

“He will put that on one of his trees, and then he will realize he has forgotten to water his plants because of what happened last night. He will probably spend the rest of the day watering them.”

“I see. Then I will make some ribbons for him when I get home. How much would he need?”

Edgar held her hand. Her small and delicate hands were full of wounds. Two of her fingernails had been broken. She had been through a lot last night.

“You shouldn’t do them yourself. Look at your hands. Do you know how much I was surprised when you made that ribbon?”

“I’m still the only one who can make that ribbon.”

“Just show our seamstresses how to make it. If they can’t learn that much, they shouldn’t deserve to be paid by Claymore.”

Although he was saying that, he just didn’t like that Ios was about to get ribbons made by her.

Even if she made ribbons after they got home, he was going to tell the seamstresses to hide the sample she would make to show them and bring it to him later.

“Well, my hands do hurt…”

Rubica didn’t know what he was thinking, she just liked that he was worried about her and blushed.

She hadn’t even known her hands were so full of wounds. For how long was he worried about it?

Thinking about it now, there were many things she hadn’t thought of, instead of that shallow wound on her ankle.

She couldn’t even look at Edgar and just grabbed her skirt. Then, she suddenly yelled, “Oh, the carriage must have arrived by now. I’ll go and ask Carl!”

Then she ran out of the room. She looked so innocent that it was hard to believe she had just been tempting him, saying his numb legs weren’t a problem for what they both wanted to do.

Edgar’s middle part started to feel heavy again, and he had to desperately try to calm it down.

“Oh, right.”

However, all that effort didn’t mean anything when Rubica opened the door and stuck her head in.

She was so cute. Oh, why did she keep doing that? Edgar felt like asking if she was trying to make him faint.

“And Minos, shouldn’t you go back now?”

“Of course. Oh, and I will take this jar of tea.”

Minos realized she was too embarrassed to come in again, so he helped her.

Rubica was grateful for his kindness, but Edgar wasn’t.

“Rubica.”

He called her, trying not to clench his teeth.

“Have Minos ask Carl when the mana stone carriage will arrive and come in.”

“But Minos is our banker, not our servant. We shouldn’t give orders to him,” she solemnly replied and closed the door.

Edgar’s face turned red and Minos sensed danger. Therefore, he flew with the jar before Edgar could let out his anger on him. Edgar, who was left alone, threw a pillow away, cursing. Then he regretted it immediately as he had no way to retrieve it.

“How did this fall here? The wind isn’t that strong…”

A boy, who came in shortly after to serve him, couldn’t even imagine he had thrown the pillow because of his reputation, which was the only thing that consoled him.

***

Carl almost fainted when Minos handed him the jar of tea. He looked like he couldn’t even dare to look at what was inside it.

“I don’t know how to thank you enough…”

“I didn’t do anything. It was all Her Grace’s doing.”

Minos replied, looking around. Everyone, the guard knights and the children who lived at the presbytery, were quite curious about the dragon.

However, that curiosity wasn’t all positive. People tended to find goblins unpleasant. Edgar and Rubica, who had no prejudice about him, were rather abnormal.

“I should go back now.”

“Already? But you must be hungry…”

“No, I should leave as I’ve done what I came for.”

Rubica tried to stop him, but he just shook his head. Having people know she was friends with a goblin wouldn’t do any good to her.

“Um, and Your Grace, may I ask you to not tell anyone where this tea comes from?”

Befriending a goblin was dangerous, but friendship with a dragon was even more dangerous. Humans and dragons had been enemies for a long time, after all.

Thankfully, Rubica realized what he meant by it. Ios was being somewhat cute for now, but he was a brutal and fierce dragon.

“I’ll just tell them we’ve found a new tea dealer.”

“I won’t worry much as the duke is with you.”

Carl offered him a horse, but he said he preferred traveling through the ground and asked to be taken to the nearest field.

Carl didn’t think it would be good to let one of the knights take Minos, so he decided to go himself.

“And the carriage will be here in 30 minutes?”

“Yes, and the doctor and your lady-in-waiting will come on it.”

That lady-in-waiting had to be Ann. Rubica thought the place was about to get quite noisy.

She decided it would be better to bring something to eat to Edgar, so she asked to be guided to the kitchen.

“Madam?”

In there, a priest was kneading bread with children. As it was a small presbytery, they didn’t have a cook.

“I came to see if there’s anything for the duke.”

“As you can see, we have no food, so we’re baking bread now.”

He pointed to an oven that had loaves of bread being baked in it. Rubica then looked around the small kitchen.

There wasn’t enough food for all the children there, and they lacked working hands as well. Rubica rolled up her sleeves. It just felt like she was at the abbey again.

“I’ll help.”

“Oh.”

But now, she was a different person. The priest, instead, looked at her thin arms and white face.

She was a noble lady, and there was no way she had kneaded bread before as it required a lot of strength.

At most, noble ladies made delicate dishes that didn’t require much strength.

The priest’s prejudice let him conclude that Rubica’s help would only slow down the process.

“Could you rather play with the children?”

As soon as he said that, a five-year-old boy came out under the table and yelled, “Can we do that, father?”

“She hasn’t said yes, Jeff.”

The priest kindly chided, but Jeff couldn’t hear him. He went to Rubica, grabbed her skirt, and smiled.

More than half of the children, who had been bothering the cooking priest, moved to Rubica.

The beautiful lady who had just shown up was enough to interest them. It’s just that they were being careful as she was a noble lady of high rank.

“Could you help me? As you can see, my work will become much easier without these children.”

The children were at the kitchen saying they wanted to help, but they were actually disturbers. He had let them stay just because they missed the warmth and love they lacked.

“Of course.”

Rubica replied as she raised high a two-year-old toddler.

The priest was right. It would be better to take the children out than to stay and help.

“Oh, and could you…”

“I will send food for the duke right away.”

The priest was impressed at seeing Rubica was so kind and smiled.

The carriage was supposed to arrive in half an hour, anyway. She decided to play with the children during that short time.

“Who will take me to a tour around the yard?”

“I will!”

“Me! Me!”

“No, I can do it better!”

The children all eagerly ran out, almost in a running contest. It was good that Rubica didn’t have to force them to go outside.

‘They’re so bright.’

This wouldn’t be possible if the priests didn’t take care of them with love. Kind-hearted people were indeed everywhere.

She had suffered a lot, but she was happy that she got to learn about such a place. Therefore, she decided to donate money to the presbytery when the next festival day came around.

“Yayyy!”

When she went to the front yard, the children who had been playing there came to cling on her.

Her skirt turned dirty, but she didn’t mind. She instead took out a handkerchief to wipe their nose.

“We planted this flower last year.”

“And this flower tastes sweet.”

A child picked a sesame flower and offered it to her. She took it, but then she spotted a ribbon fluttering on her chest.