Winter came quickly, and soon there were only four months until our spring wedding. Needless to say, we were still without pearls. The other day, we had tried using Triste’s kaolin, but it had failed too. Gabriel hadn’t admitted defeat, but my mother-in-law was tired of waiting. She wanted to start decorating my wedding dress.
“Mother, we’re almost there,” Gabriel insisted.
“You say that, but it’s been months!”
Sparks flew as mother and son glared at each other.
“No fighting, you two!” Wibble intervened, but neither side was willing to listen. “Fighting won’t get you anywhere! It’s unproductive!”
“You’re completely right, Wibble,” I said.
“See?!”
I stepped between Gabriel and my mother-in-law and urged them to reconcile.
“Don’t stop me, Miss Francette!” my mother-in-law exclaimed. “When this boy is fixed on something, he won’t give up until he gets results, no matter how long it takes.”
“That may be true, but this time the research is for Fran!” Gabriel argued. “Well, I suppose that’s not exactly right. It’s for my desperate desire to see Fran in a wedding dress adorned with pearls. I refuse to stop when I’ve already come this far!”
Neither side was backing down. I had no choice but to propose a compromise.
“Let’s make the next trial the last one, then. If it fails, we’ll decorate the dress with slime crystals. Does that work?” I asked, the smile on my face pressuring them not to complain.
Gabriel and my mother-in-law nodded. I was relieved that they understood.
My mother-in-law pointed the end of her fan at Gabriel and declared, “You only have one more chance!” before leaving the room.
The door closed behind her with a clunk. Beginning to apologize, Gabriel said, “Fran, I’m sorry you had to see that unsightly display. I was just defending my opinion, and before I knew it, we’d gotten into a fight.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Arguing with a loved one is a way of understanding one another better, and it’s something not everyone can do.”
I’d never seen my family fight before. My mother hadn’t expected anything of my father and had turned a blind eye to everything he did. For his part, my father hadn’t cared about the family either. He’d left my and my sister’s upbringing to my mother, spending most of his time at his mistress’s villa and coming home sparingly, perhaps every few months. During my childhood, he’d probably had no knowledge of my activities.
My sister had been perfect and had never done anything that would’ve gotten her scolded. She had been the very picture of an honor student. As for me, I had been rather rowdy as a child. My nanny and attendant had mainly taken care of me, so most of the scolding I’d received had come from them.
“Rather, having no interest in your family would mean you’d never get angry with them to start with,” I said. “Fighting means that you care.”
“You may be right.”
However, things could become uncomfortable if they went too far while emotions were running high. As family members living in the same house, they needed to strike a compromise before the argument reached that point.
“If you hadn’t intervened, we would’ve kept arguing until we were essentially living separately in the same house,” Gabriel said.
“What does that mean?”
“There were times when, despite residing under the same roof, we didn’t talk to each other for about half a year. After my father left Triste, causing me to return from the capital, my mother and I fought a lot. I think that was when our relationship was at its worst.”
Gabriel had been forced to inherit the dukedom when his father absconded. The unexpected situation must have been mentally taxing on him and his mother.
“I was enrolled in the academy at the time, and I wanted to graduate first, but my mother insisted that I come back. I was upset about everything and lashed out at her for no good reason.”
“It must’ve been a difficult time.”
“Indeed, it was. That was definitely my rebellious phase. The problem was that my mother had been just as emotionally distraught as me. It is rather bizarre that she vented her anger in the same manner as her teenage son.”
“I’m sure she was just having her rebellious phase too.”
“It came awfully late for her, then. But perhaps because we were equally impassioned, we both felt sorry and never broke ties completely. I’m now grateful to my mother for fighting with me when I didn’t know how else to let off steam.”
Listening to Gabriel’s story, I couldn’t help but wonder if my sister would be angry with me. She had sent me many letters asking me to come to the Empire, but I had ignored them and continued to live in the old part of town. I’d never seen her have an emotional outburst before. Even when Prince Mael had broken off their engagement, she had handled the situation with the utmost calm, as if she had known it was going to happen.
When we meet again, she might ask me with a straight face why I didn’t listen to her. What am I to her? She must think I’m impossible to understand.
I found myself feeling slightly jealous of Gabriel, who was able to argue with his family. But this was not the time to dwell on that.
“Anyway, I’m sorry for deciding that the next trial would be the last, Gabriel,” I said.
“No, it’s fine. I’ve already run out of ideas, so I probably only would’ve been able to do one or two more either way.”
Pearl cultivation really was difficult. I never would’ve dreamed that we would struggle with it for so long. Emilie had visited Triste several more times since the day she had delivered the water sample, but we still hadn’t been able to find a solution. Though we’d trialed all sorts of hard materials that could only be found in Triste, the beautiful pearls were nowhere to be seen.
As if reflecting our emotions, rain began to fall from the sky. It started off as a drizzle but quickly grew in intensity.
“Even the weather is getting worse,” Gabriel said. “Now I know I’m unlucky.”
“It’s been raining a lot lately even though it’s not the rainy season,” I remarked.
“Indeed.”
The downpour was probably causing an increase in slime activity. I could only pray that they wouldn’t startle the tourists. Thankfully, the pearl-cultivation lake was being protected by Gabriel’s tamed slimes, so it would be fine.
“Still, I don’t know what else to use as a core at this point,” Gabriel mused. “Monster fangs, turtle shells, livestock horns, eggshells... I’ve run out of ideas.”
“The attempt with slime crystals didn’t go well either, so I don’t think there are any other hard materials we can—”
Suddenly, there was a flash of light outside, followed by the loud roar of thunder.
“This lightning storm might cull some of the slimes in the area,” Gabriel said.
“Oh, that’s right. Slimes are weak to lightning.”
Slimes hardened when they were hit by lightning attacks, and if you continued to attack them, they would die in that state. It was a mysterious trait that Gabriel had tried to find a use for, but—
“Oh!” I exclaimed.
“What is the matter, Fran?”
“Gabriel, there is something we can use for the core!”
“Wh-What is it?”
“Hardened slimes that were killed by lightning!”
“Oh!” Gabriel exclaimed, perfectly echoing my prior realization. “That never once occurred to me. I think it’s worth a try.”
“Thank goodness.” I didn’t know what I would’ve done if he’d said they were out of the question.
“They can’t be used as is, but if I drain a bit of their mana and purify them, it should be fine.”
Gabriel stood up, ready to get started. He scooped Wibble under his arm and left the room.
At this point, there was probably nothing I could do but trust in him.