Westalia and Paige had entered the Archaites Empire. It was much richer than Westalia had imagined. The Kingdom of Lhumzia was exhausted now after several years of epidemics, but this country was disease-free, its people healthy, and its economy in good condition. The Kingdom of Slidd, where Paige was from, had been plagued by frequent conflicts and was not safe, making Archaites the most stable of the three neighboring countries.
Various stores lined the sides of the streets.
“Hey there! You newlyweds! How would you like some fresh-picked vegetables? You two beauties make a good match,” a woman at a vegetable stall called out to Westalia and Paige in a lilting voice.
“No, we’re not a married couple. She’s a woman,” Westalia replied, smiling at the woman and pointing at Paige.
“Really?! She’s got such handsome features. If I didn’t know she was a woman, I woulda almost fallen in love with her!”
Paige smiled bewitchingly and moved in close to the woman. “Well, I don’t mind if you fall in love with me anyway.”
“W-Well...” The woman’s cheeks flushed and she looked entranced.
Westalia noticed that the young girl standing at the woman’s side had the lower half of her face covered with a cloth. The girl was looking down and not making eye contact with anyone. Her eyes looked very similar to the woman’s, so Westalia guessed she was the woman’s daughter. At that moment, the wind blew and the cloth covering the girl’s face fluttered up, exposing her mouth, which was covered with a rash.
I see, so you don’t want other people to see that.
The girl hastily covered her mouth again. “I’m sorry to show you something so unsightly. It’s a condition,” she said, embarrassed.
“The chameleon plant is good for that,” Westalia said.
“Huh?”
“Look, growing in that garden and along the side of the road there. Chameleon plant is an anti-inflammatory, so if you put some on your face it should make it better. It’s quite simple, so I’d be happy to show you how to make a liquid medicine from it,” Westalia explained.
“Thank you! Please do!” The young girl’s face lit up, making Westalia happy as well. After all, any weed could be useful to someone and have a chance to shine.
Westalia sold off the rest of the jewelry she’d brought with her and then went through the several steps required of her in order to purchase real estate in the imperial capital. In this country, buying expensive real estate was one way to obtain citizenship, so the two of them were now, on paper, citizens of the Archaites Empire. With this, Westalia had cleared the minimum requirement needed to participate in the empress selection.
They now owned a mansion that was way too large for the two of them. Tension drifted through the dining room. Westalia sat on a sofa, with her elbows propped up on a table and her hands folded. Her natural poise took Paige’s breath away.
Westalia smiled, resting her chin on her hands, and broke the silence. “Paige. I’ve run out of money and I’m in a lot of debt. I don’t even have enough money for us to eat today.”
“Don’t say something so depressing with a smile like that on your face!”
The jewelry Westalia had brought from her grave wasn’t enough to cover buying such a huge mansion, so she’d had to shadily borrow shady money from an even shadier financial institution. Even before that, she’d spent a fortune to get Paige out of slavery. Purchasing the best female gladiator had been more expensive than purchasing the mansion.
This was the first time in Westalia’s life that she’d been in poverty. Until now, she’d been able to get whatever she wanted simply by commanding it, and she’d never had to work to earn money. But there was no use in worrying about it.
“What are you going to do? We’ll starve to death before you even come remotely close to becoming empress.”
“You’re right. Do you think it would be a good idea to find part-time jobs?” Westalia smiled cheerfully, and she pulled out an illustrated field guide in one hand and a weed from the garden in the other and placed them both on the table. The plant had a strange shape, with wavy, tangled stems.
“Look, I think you can eat this weed!”
“Do you want to eat that?”
Westalia silently handed over the weed to Paige, who took the totally unappetizing piece of foliage with a sigh.
The illustrated book listed edible wild plants and mushrooms, and the pair decided to go out later to pick some.
“I should tell you that I’ve never worked or ever done any housework, including cooking, laundry, and cleaning,” Westalia said, smiling.
“How have you lived this long?!” Paige replied, utterly appalled at the sheltered life Westalia had lived. It was a valid question. Westalia was the daughter of a great aristocratic family and a former candidate for queen; she was a hardcore sheltered child. She had no life skills and really didn’t know anything about the world. “Well, there are a lot of things that can be confusing, but it’s not difficult. I can teach you how to do the housework, and you’ll be off and running in no time,” Paige said.
“Thank you, Paige.” At any rate, the two of them would have to work together to get by.
Thus the pair began their life in the Archaites Empire.
The pair immediately set out for a nearby mountain. With the field guide in hand, they harvested edible wild plants and mushrooms. In the evening, after getting a job recruitment form in town, they returned to the mansion and Paige adeptly made them a meal. She made a stir-fried dish of mushrooms and wild plants, along with a soup. There were no seasonings, so the ingredients retained their natural flavors.
As a former aristocrat, Paige was well-versed in table manners. She handled the knife with exemplary form and said, “It’s worse than I thought. I’ve never seen food explode before! This is beyond not having any life skills.”
“Oof.” For some reason, every vegetable that Westalia had fried came out charred black. She’d told herself over and over again that failure was part of learning something new, but Paige had casually dismissed her, stating that she herself had never turned anything to charcoal, even as a beginner.
Westalia had always been able to do everything with ease, whether it be studying, embroidery, or playing a musical instrument. However, she thought she might’ve finally found something she wasn’t all that good at.
“I think you should work somewhere other than in the culinary arts,” Paige said.
“Yeah.” To make a living, Westalia had to work. Paige said she would do manual labor because she was physically strong, but what about Westalia?
It would be nice if I could find a job as a tutor or an interpreter. Or somewhere where my knowledge of medicine would be useful, Westalia thought, even though her knowledge of medicines was really a knowledge of poisons.
Paige’s gaze caught on the long earring dangling from Westalia’s right ear. “You’re not gonna sell that? It looks expensive.”
“No way. This earring is insurance so we can live safely in this country.” The man Westalia had met that night had seemed to value this quite a bit. As long as she had this, no harm would come to her. She couldn’t give up this earring, no matter how impoverished she became.
Well, I probably won’t ever see him again anyway, she thought, gently stroking the earring. This country was huge. Finding a single person here would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
“And who was he, anyway?” Westalia asked. “He was quite well-dressed, and his pronunciation of the official language was beautiful.”
“I dunno. Maybe he was the son of some wealthy family,” Paige replied.
Even now that night—that moment she stared into eyes that were as green as the deep forest around them—was seared into Westalia’s mind. For some reason, it felt like this wasn’t the first time I’d met him...even though I was kept hidden away and not allowed to interact with anyone, she thought. Why did she feel nostalgia for that man when she could count on her fingers all the people she knew?
Westalia and Paige continued to talk as they finished eating.
After dinner, Westalia returned to her room and sat down at her desk. She took off the earring, shone a nearby lamp on it, and took a better look at it.
I wonder what this pattern is... An intricate pattern was carved into the blue stone. That man had pleaded with her so desperately to return it, but why on earth was he so obsessed with the trinket? The carving was too fine to make out clearly, so she took out a loupe and a piece of paper from the drawer and began copying the design down.
“I see. It’s a coat of arms.” A crown, a horse, a sword. And...a rose. The rose had to be the national flower of the Archaites Empire. Each aristocrat had their personal crest to show their house and status. Although each peerage had a specific pattern it was allowed to use on its coat of arms, Westalia wasn’t sure what level was allowed to use a crown, a horse, a sword, and a rose. Surely this was not just a meaningless pattern. It was a sign of that man’s status, which was why he had tried so hard to get it back. Was he in a position where he should not be known to others? There was also the possibility that he was an illegitimate child or the bastard son of a well-known aristocratic family. In any case, Westalia was not familiar with the family crests of the aristocrats in this country, so it would be worth looking into. Perhaps she would be able to find out his value too.
After a moment of thought, Westalia put away the loupe and paper in the drawer.