Chapter 11 – In which Saf gives everyone little something

“Ah! My Lady!”

“My Lady, are you alright?!”

“Yes… I’m fine.”

Saffra let down her legs, which she propped against the edge of the bed while laying on the floor.

Her three ladies-in-waiting quickly helped her up.

“My Lady, what happened!?”

“Ah… I just had a lot of thoughts and somehow I ended up like this.”

She didn’t want to explain how she tried to exercise to build some muscle strength, but ended up overestimating the capabilities of her new body and wasn’t able to move for a few hours as a result.

And how she repeated the same mistake when she was able to finally move.

“... As expected, Lady’s thoughts are so profound they’re too heavy for the human body to bear…”

She seemed to hear Craya’s mumbling.

But it had to be her imagination.

After three ladies-in-waiting helped her dress and conquer her hair, she got to the main task of the day.

“As you know, the shi– I mean, lord Orche has a meeting today, so I have to check if everything is in order. I plan to start with the left hall first and then…”

Saffra briefly explained her today’s plan, but strangely enough, the more she spoke, the more tearful the girls became.

When it seemed that they would burst out crying at any moment, Saffra couldn’t help it and asked:

“What’s wrong?”

“My Lady… Are you planning to do all of that without breakfast?”

Saffra’s thoughts halted for a moment.

‘Wouldn’t I have to hear and see shit if I went to eat breakfast?’

Saffra made disgusted expression and said:

“Ah, I don’t feel like having breakfast.”

“My Lady…”

The three girls looked at her with desperation and sadness, and then exchanged glances.

It seemed that some secret communication was happening.

Then they nodded, their eyes filled with burning determination.

“My Lady.” One of the talkative girls started. “We understand if you don’t want to eat in the dining hall, but if you don’t mind accepting a small gift…”

At the same time, the second talkative girl and Craya produced wrapped boxes from somewhere.

Though, knowing Craya, she probably tied it to her legs again.

Saffra didn’t know where the second girl hid her box.

While she was distracted by the sudden appearances of boxes, the girls quickly unwrapped them and presented her with the content.

Apple flowers caught her eye.

Some beautiful and delicate, some a bit clumsy but still very cute.

There were not only apple flowers in the boxes.

Carrot, radish, persimmon, pomegranate, cucumber, peach, pepper, pumpkin…

All of them cut into shapes of different flowers.

There was also a small pouch of salt in the corner.

Saffra stared at the small garden in silence.

Unable to speak for a moment.

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“Our Lady looked a bit more nervous than usual yesterday so we wanted to prepare something to perk you up…”

“My Lady seemed to very enjoy the apples with salt yesterday, so that’s what we prepared… We added a few other things for variety and diet balance…”

The girls who got anxious because Saffra’s prolonged silence and started to mumble.

“Thank you.”

Saffra didn’t let them speak anymore.

She grabbed all three of them and put them in a big hug.

“Ack, My Lady!”

“Huh..?!”

“Sorry, that’s a habit.”

Suffra mumbled as she hugged them even more.

“Our Lady develops habits overnight…”

“Shut up! If you don’t like it, get out!”

“No, no. Develop new habits overnight, My Lady! Please!”

It was a bit warm when she kept someone this close, but it didn’t feel that bad.

Saffra could bear the discomfort.

After the hugging session, she enjoyed a splendid flower breakfast with her three ladies-in-waiting.

But she ended up having to redo her hair, which got messed up during the commotion.

*-*-*

“There is one more thing we have to do.”

Saffra finally got to the main task of the day.

She took out the suspicious bag she hid yesterday in her room and showed the girls the content inside.

Though Craya already knew what was inside.

“Whoa… Those flowers…”

“... Is that meat?”

Two birds chirped as they stared at the meat flowers with fascination.

The flowers were perfectly preserved and didn’t have any smell. If one didn’t look closely, they could be easily mistaken for real flowers.

And that was thanks to…

“Is that preservation magic?”

“Can Our Lady even cast spells? As expected of her.”

Saffra blinked, as she didn’t expect them to recognize it was magic this quickly.

Magic was very rare and valuable in Flavun, so not many had enough experience with it to recognize it at glance.

It was also heavily despised, especially after Rubrun instigated a war between Flavun and an enemy country.

One of the charges against the mother of Saffra’s older sister, Mimosa, was that she was a practitioner of magic.

With time, and with heavy political maneuvers carried out by Mimosa, the image of magic itself became a bit better, but it was still seen as something which had to be strictly controlled.

But thankfully, the girls’ gaze showed nothing but pure admiration.

A bit too pure admiration.

Saffra turned away her head, to avoid three burdensome gazes as she spoke:

“Yes, it's just a little trick I learned from someone.”

Saying that, she remembered Ver’s grumbling that for all her resourcefulness and hand skills, she wouldn’t last in the wilds alone for a week. Like really, what sane person could come up with the idea that tossing an unskinned rabbit and wild onions into fire is a viable cooking option?

After that, he made her learn all kinds of useful survival magic tricks.

Though Am, on the side, told her that if she ever finds herself in a situation where she had to survive alone, she would be better off just praying for an angel's descent.

She shook off her thoughts and continued.

“That spell will run out in a few hours. I want you to help me redistribute them among the flower bouquets, especially around the hallway to the meeting hall.”

“... Is that really okay?”

Saffra smiled brightly.

“It’s not. That’s why we need to be sneaky about it.”

The three ladies-in-waiting were dazzled for a second and then nodded vigorously.

*-*-*

There was a little obstacle in her plan.

“Young Lady, I’ll be the one to accompany you today.”

As many guests visited the mansion today, a guard was assigned to Saffra, who would be moving around, serving her duties.

She already expected that, so most of the flowers were given to the girls, while she would be distracting the guard.

But there was something that bothered her.

“Sir, weren’t you the one who was on the day duty to guard my father and then on the night duty guarding my room?”

“Indeed. I didn’t expect Young Lady to remember that.”

‘Of course I remember, I suffered a traumatic experience!’

As Saffra recalled the devastating blow of lack of puppies in the mansion, she quickly examined the man before her.

It was the same knight, who yesterday accompanied her during her bloody dress parade and then stood at her doors at night.

He was unexpectedly on duty again.

‘Isn’t it too much? No matter how strong you’re, working for two days without rest is too much! Where are worker rights?’

Saffra decided she needs to have a serious talk with the knight captain when the occasion arises.

“Sir, can I know your name?”

“It’s Citrie, Young Lady.”

“Nice to meet you, Citrie. I’ll be in your care.”

“Of course, Young Lady. By the way, are you okay, Young Lady?”

Before she could answer, her talkative ladies-in-waiting cut in:

“Sir, are you implying Our Lady looks unwell?”

“Ah, that’s not it. Not now. But at night…”

“But. At. Night?”

The faces of three ladies-in-waiting harden and Citrie wisely closed his mouth.

Saffra flashed the knight reassuring smile, as she said, assisted by the powers of glares behind her:

“I’m fine. Thank you, Sir.”

After that, she moved to work.

Before her girls dispersed, they reassured her:

“Don’t worry, My Lady! If he dares to even look at My Lady at night, we are going to kill him.”

“Yes, yes. We are going to gouge his eyes and make them into flowers for Our Lady to admire.”

“... We’ll do it, My Lady.”

Saffra was pretty sure Citrie could hear everything, but she nodded along.

If something which wasn’t a cute puppy dared to look at her like this, she would be the first to take action, but her girls’ devotion was very touching.

They were a bit like puppies.

Maybe she should pet them later.

Behind them, Citrie was working hard to keep his expression straight.

*-*-*

The work was done amazingly quickly.

It would take some time for those flowers to fully bloom, but on such a hot day it wouldn’t take long.

Saffra was returning to her room in a good mood, while toying with a few imperfect flowers (not the meat ones, real ones).

Though imperfect and a bit crooked, those flowers were still beautiful.

Maybe being imperfect made them more beautiful.

“My Lady, what are you going to do with those flowers?”

“Hmm…”

Saffra smiled mysteriously and then stopped in the empty corridor.

“I’m going to return the kindness. Here are pretty flowers, for my pretty ladies.”

Saying that she put flowers in her three ladies-in-waiting’s hair.

Because the two talkative girls’ names were Apric and Tangeri, and they resembled sisters, even though they were not connected by blood, the flowers she chose were…

Red-crescent Marigold and Signet Marigold.

As for Craya.

She chose a Daffodil.

“My Lady…”

“...Ueukk…”

“....”

It seemed all three of them would cry.

Saffra quickly tossed them her tissue and turned around, pretending she saw nothing.

She met the gaze of Citrie, who observed the entire event with curious eyes.

The two of them stared at each other, pretending they knew nothing about the mess happening behind Saffra’s back.

“I don’t have a flower to give you…”

“Thank you, Young Lady. I think I’m good.”

“... So I took this for you.”

Saffra produced a stem with few leaves, without any flowers.

Citrie blinked, confused.

“Young Lady, what is that?”

“Catnip.”

Then as if something occurred to her, she asked:

“Sir, do you have a cat?”

“No. No, I don’t.”

“Weird.”

“Yes?”

“You look like someone who should have a cat, Sir.”

They stared at each other in silence for a moment.

“May I ask why you think so, Young Lady?”

“Hm…” Saffra tilted her head, as she thought about it. “Must be because cats feel suspicious. They suit suspicious people.”

Then she looked back at her girls and realized that giving all three of them one tissue maybe wasn’t a very bright idea.

Without checking on Citrie’s reaction, she hurriedly grabbed her ladies-in-waiting and dragged them to her room to get them fixed before they turned into a teary mess.

Citrie was left dumbfounded in the empty corridor, with a single stem of catnip.