Bonus Short Stories

Mary

“Make sure you report on everything that your brother Jeord does,” I ordered my fiancé.

“Sure, Mary,” he replied hesitantly.

“Let’s meet again when the time comes, then.”

“Okay.”

I told him goodbye, then rode in the carriage that would bring me back home.

As soon as it was decided that we would be accompanying Katarina on one of her outings, I used all of my high-society connections to keep Jeord from knowing anything about it. I could not prevent Keith from joining the excursion as he was Katarina’s brother, nor Nicol, as his sister Sophia was also coming with us, but those two posed little threat anyway. The problem was Jeord. He would no doubt try to take her all for himself.

He would definitely try to ride in the same carriage as her, and he might even go as far as preparing one just for the two of them. I was ready to put up a fight to stop him, of course, but I knew how difficult that could prove. The easier option was to go without him, but asking him to refrain from coming would be of no use, and so I had no choice but to leave him in the dark.

Unfair as that was to him, the love in a lady’s heart knows no rules. This would be my first opportunity to see Katarina in quite a while, and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible. That was why I had asked my fiancé Alan to spy on his brother Jeord. As payment for his spying services, I would allow him to join us and Katarina.

Alan and I had been engaged to each other for a few years now. Despite this engagement being nothing more than a formality, we were on very good terms. If anything, we had become closer friends than we were before. Alan was a simple man, which made him easy to manipulate as well as pleasant to spend time with. Even when asking him to spy on his brother, he agreed without a single complaint.

Jeord would never agree so easily to a proposal of mine. Whenever we were in the same room, the two of us were always arguing. Maybe we hated each other so much because of how similar we were, and this made me very glad to have Alan as my fiancé.

My carriage reached its destination. As I stepped out of it, I was already excited at the idea of going out with Katarina in a few days. Maria was probably going to bring her sweets, and Sophia was going to bring her books. I thought of what I could bring her to make her happy, and I eventually settled on some fine tea. My heart was brimming with anticipation.

Sophia

I, Sophia Ascart, was beside myself with anticipation. The reason for this was that, for the first time in what felt like forever, I was to enjoy an outing with my beloved Katarina. Since she had started her work at the Magical Ministry, such occasions had become extremely rare.

I filled my bag with some carefully chosen novels to show her, and then, with the help of my maids, I selected an outfit that would not make me stand out too much, as I was supposed to dress as a common merchant.

I was very excited for this rare opportunity, so much so that I doubted I would be getting any sleep on the night prior to the outing. If my dear brother, serious as he always is, knew about this, he would certainly tell me to calm down.

I was also anticipating being able to spend time with him, something that had become increasingly difficult ever since he had graduated from the academy and had started training under father to learn about his work.

Indeed, I had asked him to schedule a day off as soon as I knew that we would be accompanying Katarina. I wanted him to see her too. I knew well that he had had feelings for Katarina since they both were little children, but he had never expressed these feelings in any way, for Katarina was already betrothed to Prince Jeord.

However, despite their engagement, Jeord’s love for his fiancée was completely unrequited, which made me believe that, as long as my brother was able to win her over, there would be no problem whatsoever. After all, that was how father came to be married to mother; big brother, however, had not known of this until I told him.

Big brother’s incredible beauty was enough to captivate anyone, man and woman alike, and he was as kind and intelligent as he was handsome. A man as perfect as he was would have no problem capturing Katarina’s heart.

How could I help him become more active in the pursuit of his love? I asked myself, losing what little sleepiness I still had. At this rate, I would remain awake until dawn and wind up drowsy for the whole following day.

I decided to drink some warm milk to aid my sleep. As the maids, having helped me with the choice of outfit, had already left for their chambers, I went to the kitchen myself. I thought that even if none of the servants was there, surely I would be able to warm up some milk. I could not cook, but warming milk hardly counted as cooking.

Then again, if only I could cook as well as Maria, I could offer Katarina the treats she loved so much. Unfortunately, noble ladies were not educated in the ways of pans and pots.

Maybe it is not too late to start learning, even if I can never reach Maria’s level... I thought as I walked through the hallway. I was relieved to see some light coming out of the kitchen’s door, telling me that there still was someone inside.

“Excuse me,” I called, expecting a servant to answer, but the person I found inside surprised me.

“Big brother?!” I asked.

“Sophia?” he answered. He had a knife in his hand. I could not understand what I was seeing.

“What are you doing...?”

He hesitated. “I’m preparing food for tomorrow,” he explained, blushing.

“Food? You are preparing it?” I asked, and he nodded in reply. I remembered that, just after dinner, he had mentioned that we could use a light meal during the long carriage trip we were going to sit through the next day.

I thought that he would ask the servants to prepare something, but I certainly never imagined that he would be cooking himself. Actually, I never imagined that he could even cook in the first place! Then again, perfect as he was, the fact that he also possessed this skill should not have been that much of a surprise.

“You must be very excited about tomorrow,” I observed, seeing how he was staying up this late to prepare.

“I guess I must be,” he replied after a pause, now completely red in the face.

He usually was so calm and collected that such displays of excitement were incredibly rare. He would normally be the one telling me to calm down.

“Heh heh, you will be seeing Lady Katarina for the first time in a while, after all,” I said.

“Of course that is part of it, but I’m also looking forward to spending some time with everyone,” he replied, awkwardly trying to hide his smile.

His normally unyielding facial expression made it hard to realize, but big brother loved spending time with his friends.

“I will help you,” I announced, rolling up my sleeves.

“I appreciate it, but you should go to sleep. It is late and you risk not being able to wake up on time tomorrow.”

I pouted my lips, annoyed that he would say that despite being anything but an early bird himself. Nonetheless, he quickly warmed up some milk for me and sent me back to my room.

The warmth of the milk big brother had given me made me quickly forget my annoyance, and sent me drifting into sleep.

The following morning, as I got up, I found him already awake, with all kinds of delicious-looking foods ready by his side.

Truly, big brother is an incredible man.