5 — Raining in Le Pied

We stayed at the villa on the hill for another two days. I had Mr. Fisalis take me back to the cave again at a different time, but it seemed that our timing had been most perfect on that first day.

After that, we went back to the Le Cœur villa and stayed there for another three or so days—exploring the seaside, watching strange foreign boats, and enjoying the wonderful sunset before heading back to Le Pied.

We’d been graced with great weather for the first ten days, but unfortunately, it was raining today. You know what that means. Rain → Rohtas comes to invite me for dance lessons with a smile → Absolutely grueling training. That grim timeline of events sprung to the forefront of my mind.

I might’ve been on vacation with Mr. Fisalis, but Rohtas had come, too! There wasn’t a dance studio like back at our manor, but Rohtas would probably say something like, “You can dance anywhere,” so I wasn’t gonna say anything.

As I trembled with fear, waiting for him to come call me for lessons, it turned out that he’d been talking with Mr. Fisalis since morning and didn’t have time for dancing. I’m definitely not gonna bring it up! No way I’m poking the hornet’s nest!

But after a while, I was actually getting kind of bored. The men were in the living room, sifting through a mountain of paperwork and discussing things. I could hear them discussing stuff like Le Pied’s exports and quotas and whatnot, so they must have been talking about something to do with the territory. Having nothing better to do, I watched Mr. Fisalis and thought about how this must be what he’s like on duty, but I quickly got bored of that, too.

Usually, I’d just go roll around on my bed and cry about how bored I was, but I couldn’t do something like that in front of him. Since I couldn’t actually relax in the living room, I grabbed Stellaria and Rosa and snuck back up to our room.

“I dunno what they’re working on, but they looked busy. But I finally have some alone time~” Entering the bedroom that I’d claimed as my own, I flopped down on the bed. Ah, the cushy springs feel so nice! Since I’ve got some time to myself finally, I can lay around without worry! I mean, Stellaria and Rosa are here, but they know how I act normally, so I don’t have to worry about them.

“Yes. You’ve spent all of your time with the master since we arrived,” the maids laughed as they watched me stretch out on the bed.

“I’ve never spent so much time with him. Before we left on our trip, I’d been worried about what we’d even do to pass the time, but it’s actually been kind of nice. I’m actually pretty shocked by how many new things I’ve experienced. I guess I didn’t really think of it before now.”

“There are a lot of things you couldn’t see in Rozhe, after all.”

“Wasn’t the ocean fun?”

“Super fun! And the view was breathtaking,” I said, dreamily thinking back to all the stunning vistas I’d seen in Le Cœur. “But we can’t go anywhere with this weather. Usually on rainy days I’d have dance lessons with Rohtas or etiquette with Dahlia, or I’d just be mobbed by Mimosa’s spa squad, so I’d never get a chance to be bored. Actually, if I ever even suggested I was bored, they’d just dump more stuff to do on me. But since Rohtas is busy, I won’t have to have dance lessons today.”

Freedom from dance lessons tricked me into letting my guard down. As I blurted out the truth...

“Then in Rohtas and Dahlia’s stead, I’ll give you some lessons! You’re looking for something to do, aren’t you, madam?” Stellaria smiled at me with the enchanting smile she’d gotten from Cartham.

Ah, there was a hornet’s nest hiding here, too. Looks like I flipped some kinda switch! “Oh, no, no, no! I’m super busy! Being bored! Ohohoho!”

“You’re talking nonsense again, madam. But there’s not much I can do for you, since we’re not at the manor back in Rozhe.”

“...Really?”

“It’s barely anything at all.” Grin. There was no way I was gonna win against the pressure of that smile.

“O-okay, then...”

“Alright... Since you like moving, how about I give you some walking lessons?”

“Walking sounds great!” Walking was simple. It’d be fine. I jumped off the bed.

I had thought it’d be so easy to just walk, but...

“You’re wobbling. The book on your head is going to fall.”

“Huh!?”

Here we were, right smack in the middle of our walking lessons. I had a thick, heavy book on my head—just like you saw in pictures—with my back straight and a smile plastered on my face. Following Coach Stellaria’s instructions, I was walking from one end of the hall to the other, over and over again.

I was actually really trying, here... She really must be Dahlia’s daughter, because she’s just as hard on me. She said we couldn’t do much, but she’s not going easy on me at all. It was a trick! I complained to myself.

“Come on, straighten your back! Your smile looks forced! Okay, turn! Be more elegant and lively!!”

“Waaaah...”

She was barking at me like a drill sergeant.

“Your stride is off.”

“Grr, I shouldn’t have worn a knee-length dress today! I would’ve been able to trick you in a long one~!” I wore knee-length dresses a lot because I liked them more, but that had worked against me today! But there’s no crying over spilt milk—life is full of regrets!

“Oh, but that dress looks lovely on you, madam. Is it not to your liking?” She said it with a pout, but she knew. Stellaria, you’re playing dumb, aren’t you?

“It’s not that! Kyaa!”

Thunk!

As I moved to retort, the book fell off of my head and right onto my foot! And it was a thick book, too, so it really hurt!

“OWW!!” I screeched, crouching down to rub my foot in pain.

“Oh, no! Madam, are you alright!?” Stellaria quickly pushed the book aside and removed my shoe.

“I’ll bring something to cool it down!” Rosa ran towards the kitchen.

“What was that scream? Did something happen, Viola?”

“Are you alright?”

Mr. Fisalis and Rohtas had flown upstairs, hearing my scream.

Tearing up at the pain, I explained, “I yelled because I dropped a book on my foot.”

“What? What were you even doing?”

“Walking lessons.”

“Ah, well, that explains it, then... Is your foot alright?”

“Probably.”

And so ended my hardcore walking lessons☆

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. I ate with Mr. Fisalis, since he’d finished his work for now, and then we lazed about in the living room.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your rest, Master, but the supervisor of the mine is here to see you. He is in the foyer.” Fennel walked in to announce this to Mr. Fisalis. Apparently, our guest didn’t have an appointment.

“What does he want?” Mr. Fisalis asked, silently setting his teacup back onto the saucer.

“He has brought some sample sapphires.”

“Alright. Let him in.”

Fennel bowed, before turning and leaving the living room. When he returned, a man I’d never seen before was following him. He was about Bellis’s age, tanned and manly.

“I’m Oregano, the mine’s supervisor. We’ve dug up the sapphires as you ordered, so I’ve come to show them to you.” He reached into his bag and carefully took out something bundled up in a silk cloth. Opening it, he showed us the gems inside.

Since they were samples, he’d brought several different ones, but... Wow, they’re massive!! It might’ve been because they weren’t cut yet, but every stone looked huge to me. I didn’t know anything about how gems were priced, but even I knew that big ones were probably expensive. I’d never seen any that size before.

“Huh, they’re quite large. The color isn’t too deep, nor is it too light, and I can’t see any defects at first glance,” Mr. Fisalis commented, picking each one up and looking at them as if all of this was totally normal.

“It’s true. They’re quite high quality,” Rohtas said, looking at them as well. So size isn’t the only thing that matters in pricing, huh?

“The sapphires we dig up are usually of reasonably high quality, but it’s rare that we see truly fine ones, much less top-class gems like these,” Oregano explained.

In my opinion, as someone who didn’t know much about the subject, they all looked like beautiful sapphires. As I looked at the sapphires in Mr. Fisalis’s hand, our eyes suddenly met. I tilted my head in confusion.

Mr. Fisalis just stared at me. Then looked back at the stone. Then back at me. He kept doing that for a while.

He’s done that before—when he named those ‘Viola Sapphires.’ I have a bad feeling about this. I had no idea why he was staring at me, but my face twitched, since I knew it couldn’t be good.

He suddenly smiled, turned to Rohtas, and said, “Okay. How about we name the top-class ones ‘Viola Eyes’?”

What the heck is this man saying!? Been a while since I’ve said that, huh... Wait, no. He just said he was naming the highest quality ones ‘Viola Eyes,’ didn’t he!? I already wanted him to stop calling them ‘Viola Sapphires’ because it hurt, and now this! I snapped back to reality once I understood what he said.

“N-n-n-n-no, you can’t! You can’t just name the highest quality gems something like ‘My Eyes’!!” Stuttering in a panic, I tried to stop him.

“Why? Your eyes are even more beautiful than these gems.”

Urk. I just vomited out some sugar. Don’t say something that sickeningly sweet with such an innocent face! Okay, yeah, my eyes might be blue-colored. But they’re nowhere near as pretty as those jewels! They’ve been dimmed by my hard life! I opened my mouth to argue again, but...

“That’s a wonderful name. Let’s call them that,” Rohtas said, a smile spreading across his face.

No, wait! Rohtas! Stop him, you’re supposed to stop him!! No matter how dirty a glare I shot at him, he just kept smiling. And it wasn’t just him, either!

“I think so, too! Madam’s eyes are quite beautiful, after all, so I’m sure the gems would love being called that!”

Oi, Oregano!! ...Sorry, I’m getting really worked up right now. I’m besieged on all sides!

“Right? We should absolutely call the biggest and best colored ones ‘Viola Eyes.’”

“Alright. And the ones that are simply good quality will be called ‘Viola Sapphires.’”

“And how about we sell the impure or damaged ones wholesale to artisans for their crafts, and process the smaller ones that aren’t up to our standards at all into rubies like we’ve been doing up until now?”

“That’s a great idea.”

“We’ll work even harder to dig up quality gems!”

“I’m counting on you.”

While I was busy being overwhelmed, the men kept talking, and then it was too late to reverse the decision. Seriously? Please, someone, stop them! I could only sit there, listening to their conversation in a daze.

“But to think your affection for the Madam was so dazzling...” Oregano said to Mr. Fisalis once they were finished.

“You think so?”

OREGANO!! And don’t act so embarrassed, Mr. Fisalis!

After they talked a bit more about the processing and distribution of the gems, Oregano finally left. We would be taking the sapphires he brought for us back to the capital as samples.

“We’ve already got some jewelers looking to do business with us, after all,” Mr. Fisalis said carelessly. Wait, isn’t it way too soon for people to be asking after that kind of thing? It’s only been a few days since you’ve decided to start dealing in sapphires. You could just see the question marks flying off my head at this point.

“Ah, the day we decided to produce sapphires, we sent announcements to all the jewelers we’d worked with previously, telling them that we were going to start selling them,” he explained. Wow~ That’s fast!

“I see.”

“Yes! So when we get back to Rozhe, we’ll have these samples made into necklaces, earrings—lots of different things! We’ll have to show them off, after all. How about we hold a debut party at our manor? Or should we just be proactive and go to lots of different parties?” He was happily talking about all our future plans, but... You can’t just declare we’ll be going out in public more often like that! What’s wrong with how we’ve been doing it until now?

“H-huh? Uh, wasn’t being social an optional thing? Even if we don’t debut the sapphires, they’re beautiful enough to sell well on their own, right?”

“Oh, no. They’re going to sell highly because you’ll be wearing them yourself!”

“No, nope!” I was at my wit’s end dealing with him saying all these things—and with his trademark sparkling smile, to boot.

“Also, I’m thinking of selling the trash stones for crafting. You wanted to buy some small things from the general store in town as souvenirs for the people in the manor, didn’t you? Just think—if we sold those little accessories on a larger scale, as regional handicrafts, it would be good income for our citizens. If we had not just that one general store, but the orphanage and other places like that making them, we’d be able to produce even more. The proceeds would work as operating funds for our territories.” He went on to explain in more detail how he imagined the funds would be used.

“Oooh~!” That’s right. The shopkeeper said that the proceeds from their crafts would be going towards living costs for people with nowhere to go.

“Even though we consider them trash stones, their price should go up since they’re from the same ore as the Viola Sapphires, don’t you think?”

“...I do.”

“And if the price of Viola Sapphires rises, then the price of our crafts will rise too, won’t it?”

“...They will.”

“So what do you need to do?”

“...Do my best to advertise.”

“Good girl!”

Mr. Fisalis had really turned up the pressure and I had no choice but to agree. He was lavishing praise on me, so why didn’t I feel happy about it? But he was right. I’d have to do my best as the duchess!

...I hate going out in public, but it’s kind of my job.

“Once we get back to Rozhe, let’s get these made into necklaces and earrings.”

“...Okay.” I knew that was part of my job as duchess, too.

“Master, how about we ask our usual jeweler to do it?” Rohtas joined in the conversation gleefully.

“That’s right. Let’s go with that,” Mr. Fisalis said, agreeing.

“If you’ll be holding a debut party, then how about commissioning a new gown to match the jewelry?” Whoa, Stellaria joined the battle after vanishing into thin air up until now!

“That’s a good idea. Have Madame come in for measurements as soon as we get home.”

“As you wish,” Stellaria said, smiling.

This was all right after I’d been lectured about my role as Duchess, so I couldn’t say no. And I’d wanted to retire from social life, too...