“It is what it is,” Lady Rosalie concluded. “So am I right in understanding that your mistress wants Sakura for her salon as well?”
“Yes,” Kirara replied. “She’s decided to officially invite Lady Sakura to join the Sky Salon. That’s why we’re going around to all the other salons to find out if any of them have the same intention. If there are multiple salons who want her, Lady Kagura decided it’ll reduce the burden on Lady Sakura if we all ask her together.”
“Ah, I see. She could have approached Lady Sakura herself, but she chose not to. That’s the kind of care and concern it takes to run the Sky Salon, I suppose.” She nodded. “All right, then. I want to win over Lady Sakura, but I want to do it fair and square if possible. I’m happy to go along with what your mistress says.”
Hearing this, Kirara patted her chest in relief. “Thank you so much.”
“Incidentally, are there any other salons who want her to join?”
“So far, we only know of one.”
“I could probably hazard a guess,” Lady Rosalie began.
“I’m pretty sure your guess is correct,” Kirara told her.
No one needed to say it. If Lady Rosalie had read Lady Sakura’s profile, it would be obvious that Mei would be desperate to have her.
We all fell into an awkward silence, which was eventually broken by Marie.
“It’s fair enough that we’ll all do it together, but how will we actually decide? What kind of method will we use?”
“First of all, we’re thinking that Lady Sakura will need to visit each of the relevant salons and see what it’s like inside. She needs to meet the leader, talk to the members, and get a feel for the atmosphere.”
“True. The key factor there will be grabbing her interest.”
Lady Rosalie nodded. “Right, yeah.”
“After that we’ll have a combined tea party where Lady Sakura is served the best sweets the salons can prepare, and then she can make her final decision. That’s what Lady Kagura is proposing.”
“Right, I see. She’ll get a thorough picture of what the salons are like and what kind of treats they serve. This is going to be a tough battle. When it comes to location and members, the Sky Salon is one step ahead. Having said that, our interior decorating is nothing to sneeze at. I think Sakura will take a liking to it. The harder part will be the sweets. Is there a fixed number of items we’re allowed to serve? We’ll have to devise our strategy based on that.”
“It hasn’t been decided yet. If you have a preference, I can pass it on to my mistress.”
“Hmm, let me think. If the number’s too high, she’ll have trouble eating them all. It’s not a straightforward choice.” She grasped her Seraph’s hand. “What do you think, Marie? Your opinion is the most important, since you’ll be the one making it.”
Does Marie have a talent for making delicious desserts as well?
“One would be enough for me. There are rumors that Mei’s sweets are on the level of a professional patissier, so if we have to serve lots of different things, we’ll lose for sure.”
“Really? But yours are delicious too.”
“Thank you for saying so. Still, it’s undeniable that I’m at a disadvantage. But if it was just one dessert, I could really pour everything I had into it—do you see what I mean?”
“I do. In that case, our request is for each salon to serve one thing.”
“Got it,” Kirara replied with a polite nod. “I’ll tell Lady Kagura. To be honest, I think that would be better for us as well. Before coming here, we went to the Paradise Palace and tasted something Mei had made.”
“Goodness,” Lady Rosalie muttered.
“How was it?” Marie asked.
“It was too delicious to express in words. To begin with, I thought they had bought it from an ultra-high-end store. That’s how good it was.”
“So Mei really is as skilled as we’ve heard,” Lady Rosalie said.
While Lady Rosalie was our rival as well, she seemed to agree with our judgment that Mei was the one who seemed the most formidable at present.
She continued, “It might not be ideal for her, but perhaps we can overrule her with a majority vote.”
Maybe that is the best way. If we let Mei go wild and make too many things, we won’t stand a chance against her.
“I’ll have to report everything to Lady Kagura first,” Kirara replied, “and then she’ll probably ask me to spread the word about the extra rules. I’ll do what I can, though.”
“That’s perfect. Thank you.”
“Anyway, we’ll be going now. Thank you for your time.”
“Thank you, Lady Rosalie,” I added. “Goodbye!”
Since we’d gotten the agreement we needed, we left the Gloriana Guesthouse. Lady Rosalie definitely had someone feeding her information—that much was certain. That aside, though, she was sweet, very open, and sincere.
Marie seems like a nice, warmhearted person as well. I hope we can form good relationships with the people from the Gloriana Guesthouse. We’ll see!
“That’s a big part of our task out of the way,” Kirara said. “We’ve gotten an agreement from the two salons we know want Lady Sakura to join them.”
“Right. Yeah, that’s true.”
After our visits to the Paradise Palace and the Gloriana Guesthouse, Kirara’s job was almost over. All that was left was going to the other salons and confirming that they didn’t have any interest in the new arrival. It was pretty unlikely that they did. I doubted any of them would be like, We weren’t planning on it before, but since you’re asking, why not? From what I’d heard, jumping on the bandwagon like that could impact a salon’s reputation. There were so many unwritten rules and unspoken agreements at this school.
In other words, I could see why Kirara was relieved. Sadly, my work was just beginning, and it was not going to be easy. I had to go to the Mauve Manor and ask Lady Shion if she was the one who was feeding information to Lady Rosalie.
What happened to all the joy I was feeling just now? My stomach’s tying itself in knots!
Walking behind Kirara, I played the scene in my mind again and again. My face-off with Lady Shion never went well no matter how many times I imagined it. Every single time, it ended with her flying into a rage. The more I thought about it, the worse I felt.