The Daughter of Evil - Volume 4 - Chapter 2.21

chapter 2, section 2-the sorceress and the forest; scene 1
Praefacio of Blue, page 85-88

♣ Yukina ~The Country of Marlon, “Freezis Estate/Dining Hall”~

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Marlon tea was still a gem. I’d enjoyed many local cuisines in my travels, but in tea alone I hadn’t found anything else quite so satisfying.

The servant waiting on us brought the tea set over on a tray. But he didn’t immediately pour the tea in the pot into the cups. He knew that the flavor of the superior quality tea leaves would become better when they were given adequate steaming time.

I put an ample amount of milk into the tea after it was poured following a suitable amount of time and mixed it in. I leisurely took a sip, and my morning listlessness cleared up in a flash. Yes, I would work hard today.

Today’s breakfast was crisp toast, piping hot scrambled eggs, moderately salty bacon, and mushrooms. Gumillia had been gone since that morning, so it was a meal for six. It was poor manners to eat too quickly. One ought to enjoy mealtimes leisurely and gracefully, and I would have to say that greedily scarfing down food like Germaine was doing before me was a big breach of etiquette.

My mother’s shoulders had tensed somewhat at Germaine’s eating style–bent forward and keeping her face close to her dishes–but my father gave no indication that he minded. He was, after all, not the sort of man to trouble himself with other people’s etiquette. When you were a merchant sometimes you had to involve yourself with people of humble birth, and at times like that you couldn’t look on them with disdain, even if they were a dog or a cat. If you didn’t always treat them as an equal, then the other person would be on guard against you–That was something I remembered my father telling me once before.

He was a kind man. But I knew that as that unconditional love was something he only directed at me and my family, around other people he would sometimes be cool-headed and calculating, and would hide his true nature under the mask of a smile. That observation was something that had become very clear to me from my experiences during my trip–the many encounters I had.

There wasn’t a single person alive who showed off everything there was to them. I had learned from this past year and a half that everyone kept some things inside, and everyone had secrets. There was probably a side to my father that even I, his daughter, didn’t know. That was the same for my mother, too.

That green onion in the storeroom–I still hadn’t figured out what that was. When I went there next, it hadn’t been there anymore. Mom had probably realized she’d left it there and gone back to get it later.

Perhaps she was hiding something. But I had no intention of asking her about it. If it was important I was sure she’d tell me, and I didn’t want her to think me an unreasonable and absurdly cross-examining daughter.

–Why was it that an unequaled “busybody” like me became so timid when it came to my own family?

“All this aside.” Right as our meal was mostly over, my father cut in. “Kyle still hasn’t come over.”

It had been one week since we came home, and King Kyle had yet to visit the Freezis mansion.

“Does he intend to ignore my invitation?”

Dad was smiling, but there was a vein sticking out on his forehead.

“Dear…Perhaps you ought to visit the castle yourself after all?” Mom proposed with a calm voice. “He is a king, so perhaps it was impolite in the first place to call him over here.”

“But I shouldn’t need to stand on ceremony with him by this point…”

“You both might think that, but it doesn’t look that way to those around you. It’s not like when you two were young–you each have your own station in life now. You have to be aware of that.”

My father closed his eyes and crossed his arms. And then after taking two, three deep breaths, he opened them again suddenly and raised his voice. “Summon Gerda.”

After a short while, the head maid who had been tidying up after breakfast in the kitchen came to the dining hall.

“Do you require something?”

Gerda was the oldest servant working in the Freezis mansion and the eldest, as well as probably the tallest, heaviest, and most ample of bosom and behind. Her face, which had hardly any makeup applied on her almond-shaped eyes, would turn into that of an ogre when she yelled, making new servants quake with fear. But her skin was very smooth for her age, and I thought on my own that if she dressed herself up a little more properly she would have been a very beautiful woman.

“I want to meet with King Kyle in Marlon Castle in three days. Get the appointment set up, please.”

Gerda looked displeased at my father’s order. A wrinkle showing her discontent stood out on her brow.

“…That’s all well and good sir, but perhaps you ought to send an official messenger instead of asking me…”

“It’ll get through much faster with you, won’t it? If you go through your ‘boyfriend’.”

Gerda’s face suddenly went bright red, and she left after spitting out, “Honestly, you’re such a slave-driving master!”

“Gerda has a boyfriend?” I asked.

My father replied, grinning and standing from his seat, “A few things happened while you were out on your journey, Yukina.”