"Hey, how come none of you answered my calls at your door last night? Are you two purposely ignoring me?" Edya asked, as the trio strided toward the bathroom.

"You know, you should really stop knocking on people’s doors in the middle of the night like that," Ana remarked, trying to cover up the fact that it happened when she was no longer in her room.

"I agree with Lizzie on this one. It’s annoying. I could barely sleep because of the banging you made at my door."

"It’s because you refuse to open the door for me."

"Yeah? Well, the next time you do that to me, I promise I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

"Yaaaaaaah! Scary," Edya laughed, before shielding herself behind Ana. "You saw that, Lizzie. Ina said she would hurt me."

"Trust me, I will too if you pull that on me," Ana added, with a smile.

"You too?" she pouted, teasingly.

"Yeah, me too."

By the time she spoke, the three girls had arrived at the large room that was the bathroom. The large door was opened for the trio by one of the two guards standing at the doorstep.

The room was warm, misty, and flower-scented, filled with girly chatter, that echoed chuckles along with the sound of water being poured, splashed, and splattered.

Just as the door was, the room was humongous, especially for what was supposed to be a bathroom, but there was a special reason behind its size.

Unlike any other bathroom Ana has ever visited in her life, this one was not for only one person to bathe in but rather for a large group of people to bathe together. And, while the prospect of being naked, let alone cleaning herself in front of so many unknown faces, was initially unsettling for Ana, she had no choice but to silently suck it up.

As it didn’t take her long to notice how this was no big deal to the two other girls, she was forced to suck it in and pretend as though it was not much of a deal. Bathing together appears to be something common in popular culture, Ana concluded.

Curious glances were thrown at the trio, yet they calmly proceeded to a pool they had been using for the past two days. There were already more than a dozen girls, either sitting or swimming by the pool, but from how crowded this place could be, Ana understood that, by experience, the pool was by no means full.

"If it isn’t our youngest sisters?" said a girl swimming inside the pool, smiling, upon noticing Ana and others.

Ana had once met the girl, but wasn’t particularly sure of what her name was; thankfully for her, someone among them did remember.

"Good morning, Sister Coral, good morning, sisters," the gregarious Edya stepped in for Ana and Edya. "How have you been doing?"

"Great. Drop the overly polite act; it’s silly to hear, don’t you girls agree?"

All the girls by the pool nodded.

"See… no need for the sister; we’re all flowers here, aren’t we?"

"Yeah." followed once again by the other girls.

"So… will you three join us, or will you three stand there covered, leering at us?"

Taking it as an invitation, Ana and Edya finally took off their towels and entered the pool; only Ina didn't, as she seemed somewhat hesitant, which prompted the girl, Coral, to ask, "a problem?"

She took a circular glance at her surroundings before removing her towel, and simply said, "None," before revealing how well-defined most, if not all, of the muscles were.

It was not Ana’s first time noticing how impressively shaped Ina was. She wasn't what one could call bulky, but her body certainly belonged to an athlete.

It took Ana and the other pool girls a few moments to take their gaze away from Ina; they only did so because they were joined by another girl.

"Mind if I join in?" She asked.

"Rubi."

"Yes," Coral agreed with a smile, even though Rubi, without waiting for a signal, entered the pool.

"Hi, you three."

"Hi Rubi," the trio greeted. "How have you been doing?"

Upon being asked that question, Rubi ventured her gaze at Ana before simply answering, "I’ve been doing great. I hope it is so for you three too. Today was the day you were supposed to visit the garden, right?"

"Yes, it was today, but we were told this morning it would be canceled for some reason, somehow," Edya explained.

"Well, that’s strange."

"I heard the change was made because of the blue-haired prince."

"The blue-haired prince," Ana asked, despite knowing very well who that person could be.

"Now that I think of it, none of the three of you have had the opportunity to meet him yet. Well, long story short, he’s working with Lady Orchid and the Matronne. He’s a protector of some sort for us, flowers. Well, I'm saying that, but the truth is that he doesn't appear particularly tough, but I kind of like the idea of being under the protection of a noble," she smirked mischievously.

"Ouuh," commented one of the flowers, "Coral, you old pervert."

"Don’t get me wrong, girls. I just said he was cute, nothing else, you all know my heart is for Lord Mael and him alone."

Ana was taken aback by the sudden mention of his name; luckily, no one else noticed her reaction. Well, at least no one but Rubi.

"Lord Mael? Who is that?" Edya, curious, asked.

"Well, little sister, Lord Mael was the noble who, before Lord Arte, protected us. You’ve unfortunately joined us too late to see him around, but if you’d seen him, I’m sure you would’ve fallen head over heels for those blue eyes of his. With how tall and handsome he is, he is more my type than Lord Arte is."

"Are you his type, though?" One of the girls replied, causing the girls around her to burst into laughter.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"Hey, that’s mean," she reproached without looking at all offended.

"But that’s the truth, though."

"Well, if I’m not, then no one here is," Coral announced, puffing her chest.

"Are you sure about this?" one of the girls asked.

"Are you referring to that rumor?" a second girl interjected.

"What rumor?" Ana boldly ventured, but it seemed that amidst the chatter, no one was to notice how bold it was. No one but Rubi.

One of the girls leaned forward to Ana, as though to narrate the latest gossip in town, "There was a rumor, some time ago, going around claiming that Lord Mael had been sighted being all familiar with Uta."

"Uta… the one we know?"

"Yes, that, Uta. There’s only one. It is sai—"

"Quit spreading misinformation, you lying tattletale," Rubi intervened.

"I've got to agree with Sis Rubi on this one," Coral also intervened. "I, too, have heard these rumors, and I know for a fact that they all stemmed from Lord Mael being slightly close to Uta and nothing else. Sure she’s popular— like really popular, but it’s Lord Mael we’re talking about— that can’t be."

"Hum? Is that denial that I smell?"

"With a hint of jealousy."

"Shut up, you’all."

Ana was itching to ask the girls a lot of questions at the time, but she decided not to for fear of appearing suspicious.

"Say, Coral, is Uta really that popular?" Edya asked, raw as always, having none of Ana’s fear.

"Yeah, she is. Well maybe not in a sense where she’s that all-popular but she still remains one of the prominent names of the Rose Blanche, she’s even a permanent escort of an imperial prince."

At the mere mention of the words "imperial prince," Ana immediately understood the identity of that person. There was only one.

"An imperial prince…. permanent escort? What’s that?"

"You’re supposed to already know what it is, but since you don’t, You see, one of the things that makes this place special is that girls working here as flowers, unlike any other girl working in this very specific line of work, have, with the backup of the Rose Blanche, the right to choose the noble partner they deem appropriate."

"There are a few ways for us to be seen by our noble customers. There are, first, flowers like me and most of us who–you know, do the thing that flowers are mostly expected to do. Others, like Rubi, over there take on unusual but mildly modest service requests from customers."

"I don’t understand," Edya flatly confessed, prompting Rubi to intervene.

"As I mentioned the other day, not every noble comes here for the carnal stuff; some come here for agreeable company; others need girls to pose for what they call "nude art,"" Rubi explained, casting a sidelong glance at Ana.

"Delilah has a noble patronizing her, but all he asks of her every time they see each other is that she hold him in her arm and call him a good boy."

"Something along those lines. Do you now understand?"

"Not really sure, but I think I mostly do."

"Don't worry too much; you'll eventually understand," Coral reassured. "So, back to the subject at hand, there are also flowers who, like Uta, reserve themselves to a single noble alone. That may not seem like much, but being a permanent escort is the equivalent for us, flowers, of being a well-pampered mistress. So in this case, you can imagine Uta as being the mistress of a future emperor. Of course, this will not be the case in the long run, but for the time being, she is one of the few flowers in the Rose Blanche to be in a relationship with someone of such renown.

***

Once done with the chatter and her bath, Ana went to a corner to dry up herself and her hair. It was then that she was joined by Rubi, who came to her side to help her arrange her hair, seemingly an excuse to have a discreet discussion amidst all the people.

"You told me none of those thing I’ve learned today, yesterday," Ana remarked.

"We didn’t have time yesterday, and also, to tell the truth since those are mostly rumors, I had already forgotten about most of them."

"I see…"

"Miss Ana—"

"It’s Lizzie, Rubi."

"... Lizzie, Lord Arte paid me a visit earlier this morning."

Ana’s gaze met Rubi's reproaching one.

"Sorry… I tried to keep your identity a secret, but he figured it out."

Rubi didn’t comment on the subject, "I like your blue floofy hair, Lizzie," she instead passed off as girls passed nearby, before casually resuming, "He asked me to help you with your investigation about the missing flowers."

"Oh, he did," Ana said, not surprised. "How did you respond to him?"

"What else did you expect me to say but yes?"

"You can still say no, you know. I really didn’t want to involve you in this, but it is what it is. Arte wants me to rely on you, and I want to, but if you don’t want to, I can only understand, after all, you didn’t ask for any of this."

Having arranged Ana's now braided-blue hair into a single bun, Rubi announced, "I already gave Lord Arte my words. I will give you my assistance in this matter even though I can’t understand how it came to this."

"To tell you the truth, Rubi, even I, don't know how it came to this."

***

Later that night, Ana, just like the night before, sneaked out of her room and made her way to the upper floor of the establishment. This time around, Ana no longer bothered to take the stairs, using magic, she flew straight to her destination, which was the place she and Arte talked the night before.

"Hi, Arte," Ana said as she entered the room, as he was already there waiting for him.

"Hi," Arte greeted, already sighing.

"What with this face?"

"Seriously, this is your third day as a flower, shouldn’t we put an end to this already?"

"Why? Don’t you wish for these flower’s abductions to stop?"

"Of course, I do. It’s just that… this—this whole affair doesn’t have anything to do with you."

"Now it does, I’m a flower now, do you remember? Meaning that this flower abduction’s case is as much my business as it is yours or any other flower's. Furthermore, I believe I have grown to appreciate almost every person I have met in this establishment over the course of the last few days."

From the shift in Arte’s expression, her words seemed to have carried its unique weight to his heart, as his next words were no longer dissuasive ones, but ones asking, "What do you think of the Rose Blanche?"

"Different than what I imagined it to be."

"In what sort?"

"I'm not sure— it's just very different from how I imagined this place to be at first."

""I too thought so when I first arrived," Arte confessed. "To be honest with you, in the days following my first time stepping inside these four walls, the first ones after what Mael did, I wanted to break the vow I made; I wanted nothing to do with this place anymore, but... I changed my mind on that decision after some time spent here around the people."

"Around the people, huh? You mean "her"?"

"It’s not… It’s not like that," Arte immediately denied, his face blushing red.

"Hum, is that so?" Ana was tempted to further tease Arte about the girl, but for reason she herself couldn’t comprehend, refrained herself

"In any case, Arte, I have reason to care for this establishment, or at the very least its people, and I also happen to care for you, which is why I will lend you a hand in resolving this case."

"As a flower?"

"Yes, Arte, as a flower. This is already the perfect cover; why would I throw it away?"

"Perhaps because of your presence in the Rose Blanche I had to temporarily get rid of two of the Rose Blanche’s flowers."

The flowers Arte was making reference to were flowers who, just like Rubi, knew of Ana, as they had once posed for Xavier’s nudist paintings. To make sure Ana, in her time, wouldn’t stumble upon them, Arte made sure they wouldn’t be around for the entirety of the week.

"That would be some vacation. Either way, they’ll thank us when we resolve this case."

"Ana," Arte gasped, "this is not a game."

"I know. Trust me, I really do. But, because the church will not intervene in this matter, I will do everything in my power to assist you in putting an end to these abduction cases by providing you with inside information. With the help of Rubi, tomorrow I'll try talking to the flowers near those who were abducted."

"I already asked them what they knew of their disappearances; they know nothing."

"That’s you, not me. I prefer collecting my data myself. Let me handle this my way, would you?"

"Well, why not, I suppose," Arte said, shrugging shoulders.