✤
After that, we visited a whole lot of different salons and asked each one if they wanted to recruit Lady Sakura. None of them did.
“That’s pretty much all of them, right?” Kirara said.
It wasn’t quite all of them, though. There was one we hadn’t been to yet. It was possible she was intentionally blocking it out.
In a subdued tone, I murmured, “Except the Mauve Manor.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot.” Her face darkened. “We have to go and see Lady Shion as well, don’t we?”
“Yeah. I guess we do. I doubt she’ll want Lady Sakura to join, but there’s no way to avoid visiting her.”
“You’re right. This means I can leave this one up to you though, right?”
“Oh, uh, sure. I suppose so.” I nodded weakly. “I’ll handle it.”
Kirara gave me an encouraging clap on the shoulder. “I believe in you!”
✦ ✦ ✦
✤
We passed under several arches made of bluish purple roses and emerged into a slightly open space. “Hello?”
The garden made for even more of a spectacular display than when I’d last been there. It looked like this was just the right time for the roses to be in full bloom. Fences entwined with them stood several layers deep in a maze-like arrangement.
As I stood there, enchanted by the flowers, Aoi’s voice came from somewhere nearby. “Oh, welcome.”
Her face peeked out from a corner of the maze. In her hands, she held some sort of garden tool, while her head was covered by a straw sun hat.
“Misaki, it’s you. Welcome back to the Mauve Manor. Apologies for my appearance. If I don’t tend to everything just right, there will be bugs everywhere. It’s that time of year.”
“Don’t worry about it!”
There was surely no way Aoi was maintaining a garden of this size all on her own, but given how beautiful the result was, the work had to be more intense than I could ever imagine.
“Are you here to see Lady Shion about something?” she asked, smiling as she took off her hat.
“Yes, if that’s all right,” I replied. The nerves were starting to hit me. This is it. It’s finally happening.
We wended our way through the maze of a garden. There, at the end, was Lady Shion.
I was pretty sure this was the same place I’d met her before, but the additional walls of roses that had been layered around her gave it a totally different impression.
“Misaki is here to see you, milady.”
“How unusual!” Her eyes glinted as she pierced me with her gaze. “I had the impression you didn’t like me.”
“No! Not at all!”
Despite the warm summer sun shining down on me, I was shivering, overcome with cold as icy as the dead of winter.
“Either way, I’ll gladly show you my hospitality. I’d like to know how Himeko’s doing, for one thing. Sit. Aoi, bring her some rose tea.”
“Certainly, milady.”
If I were to make an obsequious comment about how unworthy I was of sitting at the same table as her, I suspected a gale of thorns would come raining down on me. All I could do was be a good little girl and sit down. Plus, I was fairly sure the rose tea would be their own homemade creation, and I was a little curious to taste it.
Once I was seated, Lady Shion showed a satisfied smile. “So, what brought you here today?”
“Well, I have some questions for you, if you don’t mind.”
“How intriguing. Go ahead.”
Her grin was absolutely terrifying. If she had given Lady Rosalie the information, that meant she knew exactly what our team was thinking and was responding with cool confidence.
“The first question is about Lady Sakura, the new student from abroad who joined the Societal Arts program as a first year yesterday. Do you have any plans to invite her to join the Mauve Manor?”
“I see. Is it safe to assume, then, that there is a plan to ask her to join the Sky Salon?”
She wore a look of feigned ignorance—a truly spine-chilling poker face. There’s no way she hadn’t figured that out on her own. No way at all.
“Yes. The Sky Salon wants to recruit Lady Sakura, so today we’ve been checking with every other salon to find out if they have similar intentions.”
“Fair enough.” She cast her eyes down and spoke in a measured tone. “Well, I don’t really know anything about this Sakura girl, and I wouldn’t decide to invite her just because you’ve mentioned her now. When it comes to recruiting a new salon member, the early bird catches the worm, right? If I didn’t have the information before now, I’m not really in a position to invite her.”
I desperately wanted to make a comment about her still playing innocent, but I held it in.
Just then, Aoi returned with the rose tea. “Sorry about the wait.”
This thankfully calmed me down a little. As soon as I lifted the cup to my mouth, the rich scent of roses wafted into my nose. “Wow, it smells incredible!”
It almost seemed a waste to drink it. I held it there for a moment longer just to enjoy the aroma.
“It uses a variety called the damask rose. You can extract rose oil from it as well. I can give you some if you’d like.”
“Oh, you don’t need to do that. Although if you’re offering, I can hardly refuse!”
“Excellent. Then you shall have some to take away.” Lady Shion chuckled and took a sip of her tea. “Incidentally, are there any other salons trying to bring Sakura into their folds?”
You’re the one asking me?! It did occur to me, though, that Lady Shion might have been trying to figure out how much we knew. That said, I’d come here to question her directly, so there wasn’t much point in hiding anything. In fact, if anything I said made her flinch, even slightly, that could be valuable information to support Himeko’s theory.
I gulped, then answered her question. “We’ve confirmed that two other salons are interested: the Paradise Palace and the salon led by Sari Tsuyuki—Lady Rosalie—the Gloriana Guesthouse.”
I stared intently at her face, but her expression didn’t change one whisker. Somehow, I was starting to think Lady Shion really didn’t know anything. Himeko seemed so sure, though. She has to be right.
“I know all about the Paradise Palace, of course, but the Gloriana Guesthouse was set up only recently, I believe.”
Yep, that’s right! And you can drop the sweet and innocent act! You don’t have to pretend you’ve barely even heard of it!
Clearly, her poker face was more resilient than I expected. It looked like there was no choice but to go for the direct approach, even if that was a little scary. Incredibly scary, in fact.
“Erm, there is one other thing I’d like to ask you, Lady Shion. If you don’t mind.” My voice was quivering, but I had to do this.
She gave me a teasing stare, her eyes wide. “Whatever could it be?”
“Why did you give information about Lady Sakura to Sari Tsuyuki?”
I said it. I actually said it. In a state of panic, I hung my head to avoid her glare. I couldn’t bear to see her face right now.
And yet...
“Information about Lady Sakura? What do you mean?”
When I glanced up at her again, Lady Shion had cocked her head to the side. Her expression was completely unchanged.
“You really didn’t do it?” I asked.
She bared her fangs in a meaningful grin. “You’re being awfully direct. I hope you realize that if you’re wrong, you’ll be facing consequences from me along with Himeko for leveling false accusations. Are you okay with that?”
This thought was enough to make my blood run cold, but I couldn’t let her put me off. Whatever happened, Himeko would be with me.
“Absolutely. Lady Himeko is prepared for that.”
Silence fell between us for a few moments.