6 — Two Families Under One Roof

6 — Two Families Under One Roof

A few days after our date:

Mr. Fisalis had left for the campaign in a great mood. Our outing must have recharged his batteries, because his motivation and drive were back at one hundred percent. I even made him something like two dozen embroidered handkerchiefs after he begged me for something ‘to boost his morale.’ I got a kink in my neck for my troubles, but that was no big deal if it would make it easier for him to do his job properly. And afterwards, of course, Mimosa massaged the stiffness right out of me.

It was decided that my in-laws would come to stay at the manor in Mr. Fisalis’s stead while he was away. Why, you ask? The reason given to me was that they ‘wanted to get away for a while.’

The Fisalis family’s primary territory was located near the capital, but they also had additional territories scattered about in other regions. The area containing the much-discussed hot spot along the southern border actually belonged to them. And that was how my father-in-law had ended up being appointed an unofficial margrave—someone in charge of looking after the border for the kingdom. I only learned it then because Mr. Fisalis and Rohtas had told me not to worry myself over politics or the Fisalis family rule. I had never been very good at politics anyway and hadn’t put in much effort to study it, much to my embarrassment.

My in-laws’ earlier surprise attack—I mean, visit—had been the result of an emergency summons regarding the current situation in the southern kingdom. Turns out it wasn’t just some trivial business in the capital after all.

This time around, I’d received prior notice from Mr. Fisalis of my in-laws’ intention to visit, so I had plenty of time to get ready. I wasn’t sure how long they planned to stay, but I hoped they would choose to stay in the cottage rather than the main house, so Dahlia, Mimosa, and a few other maids helped me prepare the cottage for their arrival. We hurried back and forth between the cottage and the main house changing the sheets, stocking the cutlery, and doing some laundry.

“I hope they’ll like it here in the cottage,” I wondered out loud to Dahlia, aware that the main house was probably more convenient.

“I get the impression that they enjoy their privacy...” she replied with something of a tired sigh.

Oh. I see. I couldn’t stop the faint smile that spread across my face at the thought of the two of them being all lovey-dovey in the cottage.

Lord and Lady Fisalis arrived loaded with gifts, just like they had last time, but other than that, they did not seem to have much luggage with them.

“Thank you for letting us stay here until things back there quiet down,” Lady Fisalis thanked me.

“Yes, thank you very much, Vi!” Lord Fisalis agreed.

My dapper father-in-law and my beautiful mother-in-law, who both very much resembled Mr. Fisalis, were all smiles. The both of them possessed a certain ageless charm. And then there was me, with my earnest but paltry twenty-dollar smile which was totally overshadowed by their beauty.

“It’s my pleasure! Please make yourselves at home here until the danger passes,” I said stiffly. My mother-in-law seemed to sense my stress because she followed up with:

“Don’t mind us, dear. You can go about everything as usual.” She punctuated this with a dazzling smile.

“...Yeahhh, that’s not going to be possible...” I muttered to myself.

“...That’s for sure...” Mimosa echoed, equally quiet.

“Ah, is something the matter?” Mother Fisalis asked us, with a cute tilt of her head, unable to make out what we were saying.

“Hm? Oh, nothing! Hee hee,” I fibbed.

“Thank you again for having us, Vi! I’d like to take you out and to go shopping, just the two of us, as thanks!”

Oh no. That sounds like another VIP shopping spree.

—

“Looks like I’ll have to hang you up for a little while until they go home,” I told my maids’ uniform through my tears. I was back in my room after showing my in-laws to the cottage.

“Really now, Madam. There’s no need for tears,” Dahlia said with a grim smile in the face of my theatrics.

“What do you think of this dress for tomorrow, Madam? I suspect it isn’t one of the three you regularly wear, so I was thinking we could mix and match to make seven outfits instead. We prepared a great many outfits for you, but I’m sure we can figure out a way for you to wear all of them,” Mimosa said cheerfully as she added a dress to my normal rotation and planned out the next day’s outfit in my dressing room. I pretended I didn’t hear the last part.

“Sure, that’s fine. I still don’t see why I can’t spend my days like I normally do, given they’re staying in the cottage...”

“It’s true that they’re not staying in the manor, but they will be eating their meals in the main dining room,” replied Dahlia, acknowledging what I’d said with an anxious crease in her brow.

Argh! Figures. I can’t eat in the servants’ dining room, either. Can’t be sure when they’ll just waltz into the main house.

“...I hate being alone.” It was easy to imagine what was in store: eating all by myself in the obnoxiously massive main dining room. Just imagining it made me want to cry. Confronted with that option, I honestly preferred eating with Mr. Fisalis. Dinnertime conversation with him had been awkward at first, but as of late we’d both gotten used to eating together and that uncomfortable feeling had vanished. In fact, since Mr. Fisalis had so many interesting things to talk about, I came to rather enjoy dinner with him.

“It’s just a temporary inconvenience, Madam. I know you can get through it!” Mimosa assured me with a clenched fist and a determined look in her eyes. Her voice shook me out of my flight of fancy about dinner with Mr. Fisalis.

“We will be back to normal in no time,” Dahlia consoled me with a slightly stiff smile.

“Yeah, you’re right. It is what it is. There’s no point in complaining about it all day,” I replied, encouragingly, finally resigning myself to my fate. That’s right, Mother Fisalis did tell me I should just go about my day as usual! I’ll take her at her word!

The next day:

In the morning, I put on a neat and tidy dress and had Mimosa do my makeup au naturel, just like she did when Mr. Fisalis was there, before I headed down to breakfast. There was no deviation from how my mornings had usually gone since I’d started eating breakfast with Mr. Fisalis.

But that day was not like the others before it.

When I entered the main dining room with Dahlia and Mimosa, Rohtas was the only one there. Mr. Fisalis was not. Just Rohtas and the absurdly large dining table. I couldn’t help but feel a little sense of loss at the sight. There’s no ignoring how radiant Mr. Fisalis usually was in the morning.

“Good morning, Madam.”

“Good morning, Rohtas. I guess this is where it starts, huh?” I asked, crestfallen, as I took my seat in the chair he pulled out for me.

“I am afraid so. Please do your best to bear it. Perhaps you might appreciate a diversion—I can have the kitchen prepare you a servant’s breakfast.”

“Oh, yes, I would like that. I mean, I’d much rather prefer to eat in the servants’ dining room!” I lamented melodramatically, fork and knife in hand.

A short time later, the gentle clinking of silverware against china and glass on wood echoed through the open dining room.

Isn’t this familiar? It feels just like my first day here after I got married. Back then, I used some admittedly out-of-character methods to ‘un-alone’ myself. I wonder if they’d still work? Figuring I’d never know unless I tried, I put my head down; once I’d forced an ample amount of tears into my eyes, I looked toward Rohtas and...

“Madam. Please do not try that a second time.” Rohtas was staring straight at me.

“Curses! You caught me this time, but next time...” Honestly, I should have expected as much from him. We didn’t kid around with each other like this six months ago. To think he can totally see through me now! I guess I can’t pull one over on him anymore. I was only able to get my way back then because nobody knew me yet, and they stayed emotionally distant.

Curtly brushing aside my cunning strategy, Rohtas said, “You’ll have to try harder than that, Madam. Now then, make haste with your breakfast. Oh, yes,” he remembered something, prompting one of his usual kind smiles. “Bellis told me about the seedlings Mr. Fisalis had sent here during your excursion the other day,” he said, dangling a metaphorical carrot in front of me.

He means there’s some gardening waiting for me if I can get through this challenge of eating alone!

“Oh, boy! I nearly forgot about those! I had better hurry up and eat, then, so I can go see The Demon King, er, Bellis! Dahlia, Mimosa!” Mood improved considerably, I scarfed down my breakfast. I guess I fell for the ol’ carrot and stick routine.

When I’d finished eating my once-miserable-now-pleasant breakfast, I headed over to the greenhouse. Bellis was already there waiting for me so we could transplant the seedlings together.

“I bought these thinking I’d cut them up and make them into a bouquet, but now that I look at them, I think I’d rather plant them and enjoy them that way,” I told him as I picked up one of the pots. The seedling in this one had smallish, light pink flowers.

“I see. These bloom multiple times over the course of a year, so you’ll be able to admire them all year round,” he explained, picking up the other seedling.

“Ex-actly! Good thing we bought the seedlings and not the bouquet, then!”

“Yes.”

I didn’t think Mr. Fisalis had been aware of it, but he’d made an excellent choice!

“I wonder if they’ll bloom again when Mr. Fisalis comes home?” It didn’t seem likely that the current blooms would last for more than a month. I really wanted him to see them, since he had bought them for me.

“Once the current flowers wither away, the new ones will blossom.”

“They sure are blooming beautifully now! Let’s put our whole hearts into helping them stay beautiful so Master can see the flowers too,” Mimosa replied to me after Bellis.

Whether he got to see them or not, I was still very grateful to Mr. Fisalis for buying the flowers for me.

“Where should we plant them? The whole garden had already been planned out down to the last inch, so I don’t know if we can find anywhere to put these. It’s a packed house in the flowerbeds, and if we just plant them randomly around the garden, we’ll surely face Bellis’s icy wrath.”

I looked this way and that, potted seedling in hand, but I couldn’t find an acceptable spot. Bellis would rain fire and brimstone down on us if we even temporarily planted them in some corner of the garden. I shuddered at the thought of a vengeful Demon King.

“If I may, it wouldn’t do these flowers justice to simply shove them into a corner,” Mimosa pointed out as she racked her brains along with me. We both groaned, at a loss as to what we should do.

“Madam, why not plant them in your flowerbed?” Bellis suggested calmly.

He’s right! I completely forgot about that. The one place in this entire garden that’s allowed to be random! Yeah, why not go with my personal flowerbed?

“That’s a great idea! There’s still plenty of space there, and it would accentuate its natural simplicity.”

I could plant whatever I wanted in my personal flowerbed, so I had filled it with the nameless wildflowers I so loved. It looked just like the garden at my parents’ house. Mine was even more casual, though—in my opinion, anyway. Simplicity wins again! Once I had made up my mind, all the other pieces fell into place.

Mimosa and I followed Bellis as he carried the tray containing the seedlings to my flowerbed in a corner of the garden. While it was a corner, it wasn’t at all dark or soggy. The spot was surrounded by waist-high shrubs, and with no trees to block it off, it got excellent sunlight and very good air flow. The stream that fed into the pond by the cottage ran nearby, so watering was a breeze, too. Don’t ever look down on corners!

“Hmm, how about here?” I wondered aloud as I tried different positions for the seedlings.

I had three kinds of flowers to work with and five of each, making fifteen total plants. There was one kind with light pink blossoms, one with red, and one that had an abundance of tiny white blossoms. Arranging them as if he was making a bouquet, Bellis said, “These colors all harmonize well... This will look nice, I think.” Bellis gave me a compliment! Woohoo! To the untrained eye, nothing about his expression said ‘good job,’ but I could see how his eyes crinkled ever so slightly. This is evidence that he’s in a pleasant mood! It’s a very subtle change, no doubt, so it’s easy to overlook.

“Wooow, thank you, Bellis! It’s not every day the Demon King hands out compliments!”

“...Addressing me by my real name is also an effective way of showing gratitude.”

It was very rare... no, it was the first time Bellis had ever complimented me, and I was so overwhelmed by the unidentifiable emotion that poured over me like water that I could only stare at him in awe. Mimosa snickered as if to say, “Madam, chill out,” as she watched my back and forth with Bellis from where she stood beside me holding my parasol.

“Let’s get them planted, then!” I said, picking up a shovel and starting to dig with gusto into the soft soil.

“Ewww, worms!”

“Madam, please don’t fling the shovel to and fro. You narrowly avoided maiming Mimosa just now. Careful.”

“Madam, you have dirt on your face!”

“Huh? Where?”

“Ugh, everywhere! All the dirt from in that hole is all over you! I’ll do it! Stand over there and don’t get in my way!”

We were going on like that, the three of us, laughing, groaning, and generally acting like children playing in the dirt, when suddenly:

“Viola?”

“Vi?”

“Gah?!”

My in-laws appeared from the other side of a thicket. I was so startled that I jumped and then fell on my rear. And here I thought I might escape my regular embarrassment with Mr. Fisalis away.

“Father Fisalis, Mother Fisalis, you look well...?”

“Why did you phrase that like a question? Better yet, Viola, what in heaven’s name are you doing in a place like this?” Lord Fisalis asked. Clearly he meant in the dirt in a corner of the garden. Oh, yeahhh. We’re right by the cottage.

Whelp. Looks like my in-laws caught me red-handed... or maybe, green-thumbed?