Perhaps a short break was in order. I decided to invite Gabriel to chat over tea. Constance brewed a pot for us, and we shared it alongside a berry tart I’d baked last night. Since my head had cooled off, I thanked Wibble and placed it on my lap.
After enjoying the tea and tart, I explained the contents of the letters I’d received.
“And so, my mother and sister will be arriving a week before the wedding,” I concluded.
“That’s a surprise,” Gabriel said. He seemed a bit uncomfortable, perhaps because he regretted not being able to attend my sister’s wedding. “Meeting the Empire’s crown princess is nerve-racking enough as it is. The fact that she’s your older sister has me trembling with anxiety.”
“She’s a nice person, so you have nothing to worry about. Knowing her, she surely won’t be harboring any hard feelings about our absence from her wedding either. But to be honest, I still feel guilty about not being able to attend.”
“We couldn’t have predicted there would be a storm on the day of our departure.”
Incidentally, Gabriel’s teleportation magic only worked for locations he had been to before. It wasn’t an all-powerful spell.
“Once, when I was a student at the academy, I had an opportunity to study abroad in the Empire, but it was canceled a week before. My family found out that my father had absconded, and it was imperative I return to Triste from the capital. I still graduated after a temporary leave of absence, but I regret not studying abroad to this day, and missing your sister’s wedding only further compounded that feeling. If only I’d gone through with it anyway...”
Magic was more widespread in the Empire than it was in our country, and their magical tools were more advanced.
“I wanted to become someone’s apprentice there to benefit Triste’s future development, but I suppose if I had studied in the Empire, I wouldn’t have attended the soiree where I met you,” Gabriel added.
“We’ll have to thank the whims of fate for that.”
“Indeed.”
Since we hadn’t been able to go to my sister’s wedding, we had discussed visiting the Empire afterwards to pay our respects. However, my mother-in-law had advised us to wait a little longer because the period after a wedding was often quite busy. I had felt obligated to at least go before inviting her to my own wedding, but I simply hadn’t had the time.
“It’s not just the fact that I missed my sister’s wedding that’s worrisome but also that she found out that I’d been living in poverty in the old part of town,” I said.
“You didn’t tell her?”
“I kept quiet about it.” My mother and sister had thought that I had been living with my father in an estate that was smaller than our previous mansion but still the size of a secondary residence. They never would have imagined that I had been living like a commoner. “Either way, I have to see them at some point, so I’ll prepare myself.”
“I will too.”
“For now, I should include a gift with my reply. What would be good? I’m thinking either one of your slime inventions or a tableware set made by the craftsmen at the porcelain workshop. Something that represents Triste.”
“I think you should send them your homemade sweets.”
“Are you sure? There are plenty of delicious sweets in the Empire. My sister probably receives piles of them every day.”
“I think your pastries are a symbol of the hard work you put in when you lived in the old part of town. If you talk to your sister about your experiences and emotions after leaving the life of nobility, I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“You might be right.” Perhaps the upset tone I sensed from her letter stemmed from the fact that I had hidden the truth from her. I had the feeling that if she knew I’d been living in the old part of town by choice, she wouldn’t criticize me. “I’ll send her my sweets and attempt to explain everything in my letter.”
“Yes, I think that would be best.”
“Thank you, Gabriel. I’m glad I spoke with you.”
“I’m glad to have been of help.”
Without realizing it, I had probably stopped speaking with my sister because I didn’t want to bother her or make her worry, even though it was important for us to communicate our feelings.
“It’s strange that I would hesitate to talk to her when we grew up as family,” I mused.
“I understand how you feel. I used to hide all sorts of things from my mother because I didn’t want her to worry. But now, I consult with her about everything because you made me realize that I can rely on her more than I thought. And the more I talked to her, the more I wondered why I had avoided her for so long. I couldn’t believe how foolish I had been. Perhaps your relationship with your sister is similar. How do I say this? She’s your only sister in the world, so it’s a shame for there to be friction between you two.”
“You’re completely right.”
“I’m an only child, so I envy you for having a sister. What is it like to have a sibling?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure how to describe it. In my case, my older sister was a role model for me, so we probably weren’t the same as other sisters.”
I explained that my sister was a highly respectable lady—always noble and beautiful, never intimidated by adults. Normally, the royal family would marry royalty from other nations. Should a royal marry a mere noble, such a marriage would be morganatic. In our country’s long history, there hadn’t been a single case of a noblewoman assuming a royal title.
In my sister’s case, her overwhelmingly strong potential to be a capable queen had been recognized ever since she was a child. That was why she had been chosen as Prince Mael’s fiancée over princesses from other countries. Of course, our mother being a former imperial princess might have factored into the decision, but it had probably been no more than an afterthought.
“Sometimes people ask me, ‘Wasn’t it hard to be compared to your brilliant sister?’ But our mindsets and the worlds we lived in were so different that I never once thought of putting myself in the same category as her.”
“I see. Siblings usually get compared to each other, don’t they?”
“It seems so.”
“If I had a brother or sister... I can’t even imagine it.”
“Oh, really?” I couldn’t help but see his conversations with Wibble as those of an older brother and younger sister. “I think you and Wibble are like real siblings.”
“Me and Wibble?”
“Yes. You’re like siblings or best friends.”
“If that’s how we appear, then as the older brother, I’ll have to act with more dignity.”
Wibble, who had been dozing off in my lap, opened its eyes and asked, “What’s ‘dignity’?”
“I was just talking about how I was going to show you that.”
“Oh. Okay, go ahead.”
It was a difficult request to handle out of the blue. Gabriel froze and coughed a few times.
“It’s not something you can do consciously, is it?” I asked.
“It really isn’t,” Gabriel said.
Wibble made a confused look and refilled Gabriel’s empty teacup. The discussion had gone far off track, but I felt better after consulting with Gabriel.
“For now, I’m going to bake sweets for my sister and write a letter expressing my honest feelings,” I said.
“I wish you the best,” Gabriel replied.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll be checking on the pearl cultivation at the lake. I think it’s going better than last time. The mussels have shiny surfaces, so they’re clearly in better condition.”
Maybe it’s okay to get my hopes up, I thought.
“Wibble, let’s go.”
“No! Wibble’s staying with Fra!”
“I knew you’d say that.” Gabriel heaved a sigh as he deployed his teleportation circle. “Don’t cause trouble for Fran, Wibble.”
“Wibble knows! Now go!”
“I can’t believe a tamed spirit is saying that,” he said with an exasperated look.
I waved to him and said, “Have a safe trip.”
“Thank you.”
As soon as Gabriel disappeared, I realized that I had been doing all of the talking in our discussion—I hadn’t had the mental leeway to listen to his troubles as well. Now that I’d confided in him my honest feelings, I felt refreshed. It was all thanks to Gabriel. He surely had his own worries too, so next time, it would be my turn to listen to him.
He probably won’t reveal them easily, but what matters is that I stay by his side and continue to support him.
I’d been focusing so much on work lately that I’d probably accumulated a lot of mental stress. Sometimes a change of pace was necessary.
“Maybe I should come up with something new for Adele.”
“Wibble will help!”
“Thank you. I’m counting on you.”
Wibble and I headed for the kitchen, filled with motivation.
Aside from the slime duke household’s main kitchen, there was another that Gabriel had installed just for me. Its white enameled countertops, bright-red brick oven, and elegant oaken food racks were mounted above a marble floor. I personally thought it was the most beautiful kitchen in the world. It was here that I was going to make a certain sweet from my and my sister’s past.
“Fra, what are you making today?” Wibble asked.
“Guimauves.”
I explained that years ago, my sister and I had made them at an orphanage. I had been seven or eight years old at the time—the age when I’d toddled after her like a duckling. When I tried to follow her on outings, my attendant had usually scolded me, but that day, my sister had given me permission to accompany her.
Our destination had been the orphanage where my sister had volunteered once a week. Residing within had been around fifty children, ranging from infants to teens. During our visit, my sister had completed the cleaning and laundry with practiced motions, but it’d been my first time tending to such chores. I remembered complaining incessantly about how the broom was too heavy and the well water too cold. Each time, my sister had gently reminded me, “This is what it’s like for the maids who work at our mansion.”
After finishing her tasks, my sister would typically make sweets—not for the children but for the church next to the orphanage. In exchange for her giving them sweets to sell, they would donate to the orphanage, and the money would be used to support the children.
That day, my sister had said she was going to make guimauves. They were one of the most popular sweets at the church, said to sell out in less than an hour. According to the nuns, the ones made by my sister were especially delicious and ran out the fastest.