3. A Lunch Date with Noel

The next day, I received a formal invitation to a luncheon meeting at Marquis Wisteria’s villa in the capital.

“Marquis Wisteria’s family is just as old as the Forium family, and was where Chronowize’s princess of two generations ago married into,” explained Gina as she unfolded the invitation.

Because of the princess’s marriage, the security around the Wisteria family was strengthened. On top of that, they apparently had a large botanical garden due to Her Majesty’s hobbies.

“Also, thanks to catering to Her Majesty’s selective palate, the food at the Wisteria Manor is delicious!” Martha said, wrapping the explanation up.

A huge botanical garden, and delicious food... I actually might want to go...

“If it’s in a week, it’ll overlap with Chelsea’s kitchen renovation too~”

“Ah, that’s right! The renovation will be loud, so if you’d like, going out that day may be a great idea, Lady Chelsea,” murmured Martha in response to Miss Micah’s comment.

If it was the same time as my kitchen renovation, then it would be better for me to be outside of my room so I don’t get in the way. I could just spend the day in my lab at the Research Institute, but since Lady Noel invited me...

“I’d like to accept the invitation,” I told the three after thinking a bit. They all smiled, so I probably didn’t make the wrong choice.

“Well then, let’s write up a letter in response later.”

I nodded at Gina’s suggestion.

“If Lady Chelsea is accepting, then we’ll have to decide who will be accompanying her.”

For young lords and ladies who were still minors, they needed to either bring a family member of the same gender or an adult maid or butler along when visiting other nobles’ manors. Though Brother Marx was family, he wouldn’t be able to come because of his gender, which meant I’d need to take one of my personal maids.

“On renovation day, Gina will need to supervise as head maid, and Micah should be there too, since she’ll be the one using the kitchen the most. Which means...I’ll go!” said Martha, raising her hand.

“I figured it’d be you~” muttered Miss Micah with a strained smile.

And so, it was decided that Martha would accompany me that day.

＋＋＋

A week later, I was polished up all nice in the morning (as always) and dressed in a frilly dress. When we left the lodging house after I was finished, there was a carriage bearing Marquis Wisteria’s crest stopped nearby.

“They’ve sent a carriage to fetch you, just as the invitation stated they would,” said Gina, getting a nod back from me.

“The renovation should be done after noon~” Miss Micah told me, tail wagging. “I’ll be making your dinner in your brand new kitchen~!”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I replied with a smile, with both Miss Micah and Gina giving me bright smiles in response.

Martha and I climbed into the carriage. Peeking my head out the little window, I said, “We’ll be leaving now.”

The carriage drove through the southern gate of the citadel towards the nobles quarter, before passing through a huge gate surrounded with especially tall walls. Once we were through, we were surrounded by trees, making it seem as if we’d entered a forest.

After following the road for a while, I saw a big manor. The carriage stopped in front of the entrance, and both Martha and I disembarked.

“Welcome, and thank you for coming, milady.” The first person to greet us was a butler with graying blue hair.

“Lady Noel will be with you shortly,” said the maid standing behind him, just before Lady Noel ran towards us.

“L-Lady Chelsea! Thank you so much for coming!” she cried, out of breath, but still smiling brightly. The memory of mother telling me that a lady should never run in front of other people flashed through my mind, but I decided not to worry about it, since not all ladies were the same.

“Thank you so much for inviting me today.” I greeted her as elegantly as I could. Since I was invited as a friend, I dropped my tone from ladylike to just polite.

With a great smile, Lady Noel pointed towards the garden. “It’s not time for lunch yet, so I’ll give you a tour of our pride and joy, the gardens!”

Before I could even respond, she grabbed my right hand and started walking. I didn’t think we’d be walking hand in hand so suddenly...! Despite my shock, I let her take me away. Martha, as my chaperone, fell into step a few strides behind us.

As we walked from the entrance down a stone pathway along the villa’s walls, the smell of herbs gradually intensified. When we turned by the corner of the building, I could see a huge garden and a big greenhouse.

“These are my family’s wonderful gardens!” Lady Noel told me, spreading her right arm wide.

There were shockingly few flowers in the Wisteria Botanical Gardens.

“Most of the plants great-grandmother gathered for her hobby aren’t flowers!” she told me, looking happily at the plants around us. She must have some good memories of them.

“There are a lot of herbs,” I commented as I looked at one corner of the garden. There were many edible plants that I’d seen before in my plant guide.

Lady Noel gave me a big smile. “Yep! From the edge, there’s mint, basil, thyme, rosemary, fennel...” she said, naming them all off. “Other people our age look at our gardens and just think it’s a bunch of grass... But I knew you’d know better! I’m so glad!”

I’ll keep the fact that I remembered edible herbs that could be used in cooking, and especially for tea, a secret...

As I looked around the gardens while we walked towards the greenhouse, I saw a plant I didn’t know. Letting go of Lady Noel’s hand, I moved closer to the unknown plant.

“What’s this one?” My skirt moved, and the hem touched what looked like the seeds. As it did, they stuck right to it. “Huh?!”

While I was shocked, I could hear Lady Noel holding back her laughter beside me. “That plant has a proper name, but great-grandmother called it ‘stickybug.’”

“Why is it called a bug when it’s a plant?” I asked while Martha rescued my skirt from the seeds.

“I asked her loads of times, but she just told me that was what it was called. She would never tell me why.”

I held the stickybug that Martha had pulled off in my palm. The outside of the seed was spiky, so I could tell it was easy for it to stick to clothing.

“Stickybugs don’t only cling to clothing, but animal fur too. Great-Grandmother said it grew that way to hitch a ride to other areas,” Lady Noel explained, telling me about different varieties.

If I made one part of the outer shell of an Aopo Seed like a stickybug so it would stick to fabric, it might be handy for carrying them around. You might even be able to hide them under your clothes... I kept thinking about things like that while she told me about the seeds.

“Let’s go to the greenhouse!” Lady Noel said, grabbing my right hand again and walking towards it.

The greenhouse was one or two times the size of the one in the citadel, and I could feel it was more humid than outside as we entered.

“There are some slightly dangerous plants inside the greenhouse, so please don’t touch them!” she told me, still smiling.

Dangerous plants?! I quickly nodded a few times in response. My hand tightened around hers naturally.

“Everything will be fine as long as you don’t touch them! So be very, very careful!” Lady Noel said, looking off into the distance.

“...Have you touched them before?” I asked, looking her in the face.

She smiled wryly, scratching her cheek. “When I was little, I touched them since I didn’t know which ones they were. I ended up with hives,” she confessed, shoulders drooping sadly. “It’d be terrible if it happened to you, so please, don’t touch them!”

“All right.”

She looked relieved when I nodded back. It was fun being with her, with all of her changing expressions. When I thought that, I naturally started smiling too.

There were a lot of stranger plants inside the greenhouse than out in the gardens.

“The plants around here are called carnivorous plants, and they eat bugs,” Lady Noel explained, telling me about the long pitcher plants—true to their name, and Venus flytraps with their little teeth-like spikes on the edges of the leaves.

They would lure bugs in with their sweet scents before closing, or trap the bugs in between their leaves. I’d thought that plants couldn’t move, but it seemed I was wrong.

Maybe I could make the plants I made with my [Seed Creation] Skill able to move too. If I make seeds for pitcher plants or Venus flytraps that grow bigger than normal, maybe they could be planted near where monsters appeared, to catch them easily...! But since there’s a chance they might accidentally catch people too, I’d have to make sure to wish for them to follow my commands.

Once her explanation was over, we moved again.

“The plants here are medicinal ones with various effects, but great-grandmother told me they should only be touched by people who have studied them.”

I nodded. My guide had medicinal plants in it too, and said that they could be used as either medicine or poison based on how they were used. Using a little bit of some might work as a painkiller, but a lot of it might just kill you instead.

It might be a good idea to make seeds for a plant that would work as a painkiller regardless of the amount used... For some reason, I was having lots of ideas for new seeds while I was here. It might have been easier to think them up after seeing plants in person rather than in a book.

The next section Lady Noel showed me to was a corner with peculiarly shaped, spiky plants. Since I’d never seen them before, I ended up staring for a bit.

One was round and about the size of my palm. Another was as thick around as my palm, but tall enough to nearly reach the ceiling. There was also one that was super thick, with leaves bigger than my head sprouting out in irregular patterns. They were all so strange...

“These are called ‘cacti,’ and they grow in deserts. My great-grandmother’s favorite was this one, called the ‘Queen of the Night,’” Lady Noel told me, pointing to one with long, thin leaves growing out of it.

The shape was just as peculiar as the other ones. What makes it Her Majesty’s favorite? I thought as I tilted my head in confusion.

Lady Noel smiled. “It looks just like a normal plant, doesn’t it? But it blooms beautifully, and only at night. It blooms every year, but no matter how many times I see it, it’s still beautiful, and it smells great too,” she explained, looking spellbound as she reminisced.

Just around when I was starting to really feel the humid heat of the greenhouse, I heard someone enter. When I turned towards the door, a Wisteria family maid was walking towards us.

When she reached Lady Noel, she bowed towards me. “Lunch has been prepared, so please head to the terrace.”

“Let’s go!”

“Okay.” I nodded and we walked off, still hand in hand.

＋＋＋

There were seats prepared for us on the villa’s terrace. There were also all sorts of potted plants. They must have been from Lady Noel’s great-grandmother’s hobby too.

“This place gets the best sun in the manor. Great-Grandmother loved this terrace, and was always lounging on the sofa and looking over her gardens,” she explained, smiling happily again.

After that, I was urged to my chair, sitting across from Lady Noel. On top of the table was fluffy white bread and a small salad.

A maid entered, pushing a cart. On it were plates with green pasta and bowls of warm-looking soup full of vegetables.

“This is the Wisteria family’s special basil carbonara! Let’s eat while it’s still warm!” said Lady Noel after it was placed on the table.

After saying my prayers to the earth gods, we began eating. There was lots of cheese used in the basil-flavored carbonara, and it was delicious. I wonder if I could get Miss Micah to make this? It was just that delicious!

“My great-grandmother thought this dish up! And, of course, the basil used...”

“...Is from your garden?”

“Yep!”

We chatted as we ate, and...I ended up full. I could eat a lot more than I used to be able to, but the amount of food on the table was more than double what I usually ate.

I can’t finish it. I’m gonna end up leaving it...

While I was fretting about potential leftovers, my chaperone Martha whispered to me from her position diagonally behind me. “You can leave it. Nobles in the capital often serve more food than can be eaten.”

Mother hadn’t taught me that, so I nodded and left over half of the food on my plate. Looking closely, Lady Noel left food on hers as well.

When I placed my fork and spoon together on my plate, the maid judged that we were finished and collected the plates left on the table onto the cart. Once she was finished, another maid came pushing another cart. On top of that was warm tea, and chocolate cake for dessert.

I didn’t think we’d be having dessert! I love chocolate cake, so I really want to eat it if I can...!

While I was thinking that, Lady Noel started giggling from her spot sitting in front of me. “Shock, sadness... Your expression is always changing, Lady Chelsea. We’ve got lots of time, so we can eat dessert slowly!”

So everything I was thinking showed on my face... How embarrassing. I blushed, quietly agreeing.

After we took our time enjoying the cake and tea, we headed to Lady Noel’s room. Since it would be my first time visiting someone else’s room, my heart was pounding even more than whenever I felt excited. On our way, she still held my hand tight. It was somehow really embarrassing.

Climbing the staircase right in front of the entrance, Lady Noel stopped in front of the first wooden door we saw. “This is my room!” she announced, opening the door.

The first thing I saw were all of the houseplants everywhere. Not only were they in the corners of the room and beside the sofa, but they were also on top of chests, her desk, everywhere possible. My room back at the Sargent Margraviate—my late mother’s room—was really cute. The huge difference between them shocked me.

“Lady Noel, your room is like a garden in itself,” I murmured, looking around.

“Thanks to my great-grandmother’s influence, I’ve loved plants since I was little. Before I knew it, I’d even started decorating my own room with them, leading to this,” she said bashfully, gently caressing a leaf on a big plant beside the sofa. I could tell that she really loved them.

“I’m sorry for making you stand like this. Let’s sit on the sofa and chat,” she said, pulling me by the hand before we sat side by side. Martha stood by the wall, watching us with a tender look in her eyes.

“My mother died when I was little...” Lady Noel started, staring off into the distance. “I was raised by my great-grandmother. Everyone says she was selfish—but to me, she was kind, yet strict. I respect her deeply.”

I nodded along.

“When I became an adult though, she departed.”

Lady Noel was fifteen...so she had just become an adult. Does that mean her great-grandmother passed away recently...? When the old gardener who took care of me passed away, I was really sad.

I sat there solemnly, but then Lady Noel pouted. “She comes home with souvenirs sometimes, but it always seems like she’s having so much fun that she forgot about me!”

So she really just went on a journey?! I’m so glad I didn’t give my condolences...

“What’s your family like, Lady Chelsea?”

When she asked that, my days at the Eucharis Manor flashed through my mind. I gave my head a little shake before smiling and answering, “I was born to a baron, but my mother died giving birth to me...”

“Just the same as me, huh?”

I nodded. “A lot of things happened, and I was adopted by Margrave Sargent, my birth mother’s older brother.”

“So your new mother is also your aunt!”

“Yes. I call her mother now. She’s gentle and strict, just like your great-grandmother.”

During my six months of recuperation, my new adopted mother taught me lots of things so I’d be a lady worthy of Lord Glen. She was strict about manners, but she’d praise me when I did my assignments properly.

“She must be a great mother! I can tell from the look on your face!”

“Yes, I really look up to her.” My thoughts were apparently still showing on my face, but I nodded anyway.

After that, we started talking about our favorite sweets.

“I love flan. Jiggly, soft flan, slightly harder flan, charred flan, flan with slightly bitter caramel, they’re all so delicious...!” When I started getting heavy into talking about flan, Martha was covering her mouth, trying to stop herself from giggling from her spot by the wall. “What do you like, Lady Noel?”

“I like cheesecake!”

Before Lady Noel could elaborate any further, we heard the loud noise of something being smashed, and a man’s scream.

“Father?!”

It seemed that the scream came from Marquis Wisteria. Lady Noel shot to her feet, throwing open the door and running out into the hall before I could stop her. I heard lots of different sets of footsteps at the same time. Lady Noel immediately backtracked, closing the door again. She then ran over to the sofa where I was sitting in a panic.

“Wh-What should we do?! A lot of people I don’t know just came out of father’s room...”

The door opened again before she could even finish, and a thin man in black walked inside. I could see a few other people in black running through the hallway.

Martha quickly leapt up, standing in front of Lady Noel and me. Her maids, on the other hand, were shaking, paralyzed in fear.

“Looks like we’ve got some good hostages here.” The thin man in black’s deep voice echoed through the room. In response, two other men in black entered the room from the hallway.

The first one in, a plump man, looked around before his eyes locked on me. “Isn’t that girl the one that Our Lady, the Proxy spoke of?” he asked the tall man beside him.

I remember hearing of the Proxy back when I was in the Radzuel Empire.

“Pink hair and purple eyes... Yep, it’s her.” The plump man nodded as a smirk appeared on the tall man’s lips.

“How lucky are we?! Our Lady will be thrilled if we can kill the girl!”

Hearing the man’s exclamation, all of the men started closing in on me.

“N-No!” screamed Martha.

“Stay outta this!” cried the tall man, shoving her away with a single arm.

The hit sent her flying off to a corner of the room, twisting in pain. I’d experienced the same pain a number of times back at the barony, so I knew how bad it hurt. But in spite of it, Martha still glared at the men in black.

“We’ve only got business with this one,” said the tall man, drawing the sword from his hip as he moved in front of me with a smirk. Then he lifted the sword and slashed downwards at me.

I couldn’t make a sound, let alone move. I just closed my eyes tightly. I heard the sound of metal hitting something, but no pain. When I opened my eyes, the man’s sword had been knocked away by something before it reached me.

“Huh?! What the hell is this?!”

He tried slashing at me a few more times, but I was still unharmed. Then I realized the ring on my right ring finger was warm.

That’s right! The engagement ring Lord Glen gave me automatically casts defensive magic!

Realizing that he couldn’t hurt me, the man reached out towards me, but he was knocked away before he could touch me.

“Dammit, what the hell is with this?!” the tall man screeched in irritation.

The plump man spoke next. “If you can’t hurt her, leave her for later. We’ll take the other girls as hostages.”

The thin man, who had only been watching for what the plump man would do, began tying Martha—who’d been thrown to the wall; Lady Noel’s maids—who were still petrified in place; and Lady Noel herself—who was shaking in fear in front of the couch, all up with rope.

“If you don’t want them to get hurt, stay put here like a good girl,” he warned.

All I could do was nod.