Chapter 33
After a moment’s thought, the gardener recommended a suitable flower.
“Digitalis is a biennial plant anyway, so you have to buy seedlings each time. If you plant them now, you’ll see beautiful blooms at just the right time. It’s not really any extra trouble or loss.”
Flowers that would only look beautiful while I stayed here weren’t the answer. Judging from how things had been so far, once I left, this house would likely fall into neglect again.
So we needed to plant flowers that would bloom year after year.
“For something that lasts longer and keeps blooming, would roses be best?”
“They take time to grow, so you won’t be satisfied right away… but if you plant roses and fill the gaps with things like stonecrop, hyssop, portulaca, or golden lace, it’ll look harmonious enough without feeling empty.”
“Good idea. It’s hard to design an entire garden all at once anyway. Let’s plant flowers only where they’ll be seen and fill the surroundings with plants that will bloom next year.”
Fortunately, the gardener soon came up with a good plan. After deciding what to buy, I crossed the garden to return to the mansion—but frowned midway.
“…It’s still too vast. If we fill this whole area with just roses, it’ll end up monotonous and boring.”
At that, the butler, who had been quietly listening with a pleased look, finally spoke up.
“How about creating an herb garden in the center? We have some herbs growing in the greenhouse that can be transplanted right away.”
An herb garden! I hadn’t even thought of that. I clapped my hands together, smiling brightly.
“Herbs! That’s a wonderful idea.”
“An herb garden!”
The elderly gardener was even more excited than I was. His eyes sparkled like a child’s as he turned to the butler.
“Then we could make paths through the middle with volcanic stones, couldn’t we?”
“If the lady permits it.”
Both of them turned to me naturally. There was no reason to object.
“Then let’s start by hiring some workers.”
Digging the ground and laying volcanic stone was far too much work for the old gardener alone.
At my answer, the old gardener broke into a beaming smile and said in a loud voice:
“Please leave it to me, milady! I’ll put my all into making the masterpiece of my life!”
“Eh?”
I was startled by his sudden formal tone.
“Not ‘milady’ again… we were talking just fine, why suddenly change?”
He was so excited that no matter how I tried to correct him, it didn’t stick. In the end, I had to endure being called milady all the way back to the mansion with the butler.
The butler smiled, clearly pleased.
“It’s been ten years since I last saw the gardener so full of life.”
Soon enough, you’ll be full of life too, I thought with a smile as I looked at him.
“You have something to do as well, Mr. Butler.”
“Me, my lady?”
The gardener could handle the laborers to design the garden—but decorating the mansion’s interior would be even more demanding.
I smiled lightly.
“All the tableware is in storage, isn’t it? Would you show me?”
* * *
When Dante arrived in the capital, he was extremely busy. He was always busy, but lately things had grown even more turbulent. The Emperor lay sick in bed, his life hanging by a thread—and the throne was about to change hands.
No one knew better than the bedridden Emperor himself that such times were ripe for rebellion. After all, he too had seized the throne when the previous Emperor was bedridden.
So, all the commanders of the knightly orders were currently gathered in the capital, forbidden to move about with soldiers. One could say they were practically under house arrest to prevent any uprising.
“So this is why people say no one can live peacefully after committing a crime.”
In the midst of it all, Dante had managed to come and go from the capital freely, which of course raised suspicions. It had taken several rounds of identity checks and even having a magic-suppressing seal placed on him before he was finally granted limited freedom within the capital.
That process alone took three full days—three days of confinement doing nothing.
And even after being released, he wasn’t truly free. The backlog of work waiting for him crashed down all at once. Meetings, reports, assignments—it all passed in a blur of days.
“Ugh, how tedious.”
He’d rather have been out traveling and doing business with Rowan. Of course, few people knew that he secretly owned a trading company—so that wasn’t an option.
Seeing Dante’s irritation, his attendant tried to console him with a small smile.
“Please bear with it a little longer, my lord. I understand the frustration after being confined.”
“It’s not exactly that.”
The attendant thought Dante was trying to change the subject to avoid sounding ungrateful, but that wasn’t the case. Dante’s sluggishness came from something—or rather, someone—else entirely.
More precisely, from a certain woman who had taken up residence in his mind.
“I wonder if Yvonne is doing well.”
Yvonne.
He had thought that after some time apart, his heart would settle down again. Instead, it thrashed even harder. He wanted to run straight to her that instant.
Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw her face as she’d looked the last time they met in the carriage. He’d wanted to say so many things—but not a word came out. His throat had tightened, and all he’d managed to say was:
“…Then.”
“Why did I have to say goodbye like that?”
She had to stay alone in a strange mansion, in an unfamiliar capital, without a single person she knew—and he couldn’t even offer her a word of comfort?
“Why am I even worrying like this?”
After stewing over her for so long, what hit him next was disgust at himself for doing nothing but worry. Unable to do anything, he let out a sigh that his attendant immediately noticed.
“You don’t seem well today, sir. Why not retire early?”
“But…”
“It’s been a while since you’ve had real freedom. You must have felt stifled during your confinement. Go ride a horse, at least.”
“Maybe I will.”
In truth, he hadn’t felt particularly stifled—but Dante accepted the suggestion at once. Not because he planned to go riding, though.
“I can go anywhere in the capital now. I should visit the mansion.”
Everyone knew he rarely left the palace grounds anyway, so granting him “freedom” within the capital wasn’t really a risk. Even his attendant couldn’t imagine that Dante might be going to his private residence.
Let him think what he liked. Dante was determined to go home.
“It’s rude to leave a guest alone at my house for this long, after all.”
He told himself that, though in truth he hadn’t given the mansion a second thought until now.
Regardless, Dante quickened his pace toward home.
Just then—someone who had likely been dying to speak to him ever since Dante had entered the capital finally approached.
“Dante, my friend.”
Dante frowned and turned around.
“You do enjoy saying creepy things, don’t you?”
The man behind him chuckled—a tall figure with rich, gleaming golden hair. Crown Prince Bentley.
He spread his arms dramatically.
“Then what should I call you? My treasure? My faithful vassal? My splendid gift?”
“Call me whatever you like.”
“So cold, after so long apart. Come, let’s at least have some tea and catch up.”
“You have ten minutes.”
“Then I’ll have to drink it before it cools. I fear for your poor palate, Duke.”
Even as he replied curtly, Dante followed Bentley inside. Once he made sure no one else was listening, Bentley’s easygoing smile faded.
“Where is she?”
Of course, he meant Yvonne.
Since Bentley himself had ordered her to be found, it wasn’t surprising he asked about her right away—but for some reason, Dante found it deeply irritating.
“At my house,” Dante answered flatly.
“Did anyone see you bring her?”
“We minimized contact and rode straight through, so almost no one. Still, with her striking looks, I can’t say for sure.”
No matter how discreet they were, he couldn’t just keep her asleep in the carriage or feed her on the roadside. They’d had to stop at inns and eat occasionally, and under the sunlight, her silver hair shimmered so vividly that it drew attention anywhere.
Bentley raised an eyebrow, his voice amused.
“Is she beautiful?”
