∗ ∗ ∗
“...and that’s what happened about two weeks ago.”
“Dana can be surprisingly flashy sometimes. Brooks just does stuff like that unconsciously, but Dana seems to do it intentionally. Since she’s running a medical center now, considering what she wanted to do after our quest ended, maybe she showed off on purpose as a kind of advertisement.”
He was probably recalling one of the headaches she’d caused him as the party leader. Wayne, who had come by Plume Village for the first time in a while, groaned as he sat in his chair and sipped from his tea cup in a genteel manner.
“After that, the villagers barraged me with questions about how I knew the Saint of Light. Although they were placated after I told them that we’d gotten to know each other in the capital, like what I said to Allen.”
“So the Dawn Witch and Saint of Light are passing acquaintances, huh?” Wayne asked skeptically.
“It’s not a lie. Besides, the Dawn Witch is a mature woman with red hair. I’m a little runt who just happens to share her name.”
“What are you saying that for?”
“Nothing,” Lacey breathed curtly and faced away. Whenever Lacey imagined her ideal adult self, the discrepancy between that and her real self just made her depressed. She would be an adult in a little over two years. That might be enough time for even her to grow a little.
“‘Goodbye’ and ‘I’ll see you again.’ They’re different phrases, but they’re a bit similar. Maybe it’s best to choose the one that leaves a gentler feeling.”
“Hm?”
Lacey was thinking about when she’d seen Dana on her way. For some reason, it didn’t seem like a farewell. But still, she felt a little lonely too.
Seeing Lacey look so wistful, Wayne rubbed his shoulder. “In that case,” he said, “You won’t mind me saying ‘I’ll see you again’ next time I head out?”
“Huh? I don’t mind. I mean, you have your own room here and all. This mansion is lovely, but it’s a bit too big.”
“All right...” Wayne didn’t seem wholly satisfied by how casual her response was.
From Lacey’s perspective, Wayne was squandering all of his vacation time on visiting Plume Village. She wished that he could at least treat the mansion as a second home and relax a bit more.
“Enough about that. So why did Dana take so many insulated thermal bags back with her? She said it’d ‘come back around to her,’ right?”
“Oh, about that...”
Lacey had received an update from Dana later amounting to “I went ahead and borrowed your name.” With a knotty look, Lacey explained the contents of the letter to Wayne. In turn, Wayne’s naturally handsome face was marred by a twitch.
“That’s intrepid of her. She’s trying to catch two or three birds with one stone.”
“I guess. Yeah. I told the merchant who keeps coming around about it, and he was thrilled that the Aster mark was gaining renown.”
“He’s got his own thing going on.”
In short, Dana had hinted at the connection between her and Lacey to the nobles. She was a close friend of the much-discussed Aster.
She had implied that she could provide access to new products in advance, roundaboutly bragging to the nobles who came to her. Knowing Dana, she had calculated how to preclude any offense that might be taken and surreptitiously applied strong pressure. That was her forte. They could picture her laughing smugly.
She had given the nobles the impression that she was a pioneer of trends, thus flipping their relative positions so that she was superior. The ability to quickly obtain intel was one criteria by which the status of noble households was measured. That was why nobles were obsessed with trends.
Thus Dana had reaped her rewards and maintained her status as a holy woman. The nobles would pipe down with their unreasonable demands for a while.
The most recent letter from Dana lay in the desk drawer in Lacey’s room. In flowing handwriting, Dana cheerfully described how she’d gotten the upper hand over the nobles. Lacey had read the letter over and over.
Few people knew that the anything shop Starseeking was responsible for making the magic artifacts with the Aster mark. But from now on, Dana would share teaser information and act as PR to spread word of the Aster artifacts.
At the bottom of the letter was the phrase “See you.” Lacey repeated the words out loud. Their conversation would be carried on the backs of the postal dragons and delivered to each other.
And it would happen many more times in the future to come.