While He Was Away
“That makes sense too.”
Connie immediately abandoned her two-timing theory the moment she saw my expression growing darker.
She had done it only for my sake, though.
Cynthia’s assessment, coming from a colleague who kept things strictly professional, lacked the logical weight to explain Everett’s absence.
After a long silence, Connie offered one more hypothesis.
“What if he finished Mission One, returned, and was immediately given Mission Two? It must be something far more critical, so they can’t afford to keep it under wraps the way they did with the first one.”
Deciding this fit the situation best, Connie grew animated, her voice bright with excitement.
“This is it! This has to be it! My thirteen years of reading mystery novels are screaming that this is the correct answer.”
I forced myself to respond cheerfully, wanting to reward her effort.
“I suppose that must be it. I just hope it doesn’t take too long.”
But the words Connie had tossed out had already dropped like a stone into the calm surface of my heart, sending ripples across it.
Those waves refused to settle easily.
Still, I knew they would weaken as they spread outward and eventually disappear.
It was only one stone, after all, and I trusted Everett.
“We should head back too.”
Never suspecting that an even larger rock would soon crash into that same lake once it had grown still again.
I had occasionally gone several days without seeing him when work grew especially hectic, so I thought one or two weeks would be manageable.
But waiting with an end date and waiting without one were two entirely different kinds of hardship.
From the very next day after receiving Everett’s letter saying we wouldn’t be able to meet for a while, I had already begun missing him.
Once I used a touch of rank abuse and personal connections to confirm he hadn’t left the capital, the worry that had occupied my heart was completely replaced by longing.
When I was alone, an empty ache would sometimes settle in my chest.
Even though I knew letter contact would be difficult, I kept glancing toward the door, hoping the errand boy might appear with a message from Everett.
So this is why long-distance relationships are so hard.
The days without Everett passed quietly, yet agonizingly slowly.
I resolved to keep myself as busy as possible while he was gone.
After all, this was a place where work overflowed the moment you reached for it.
I threw myself into the mountain of tasks I’d taken on, and before I knew it, the twice-weekly ancient language lesson with Ivetta had arrived.
“Lina, please come in.”
“Hello.”
After seeing me teach Ivetta ancient language, Beth had grown interested and eventually joined the lessons as well.
It seems she’s more interested in spending extra time with Ivetta now that her class hours have increased so much.
Beth was a diligent student, and a bit of healthy competition tended to improve learning, so it was beneficial for both Ivetta and me.
After the roughly two-hour ancient language lesson, tea time followed.
In truth, all three of us looked forward to this part far more than the class itself.
The separate palace maids brought out crackers accompanied by rose jam and black tea.
As I poured tea for Ivetta and Beth, I asked, “What are you both planning to do this afternoon?”
Ivetta’s schedule had previously consisted only of lessons, but it had recently begun to change.
This was my way of gauging when she might need to return to office duties.
“I’ll be meeting the young ladies who are candidates to become my maids. Beth promised to stay with me.”
The maids assigned to the separate palace were lower-ranking attendants who handled general service.
It was time to secure higher-ranking maids who could serve as Ivetta’s close aides.
If Ivetta wasn’t going to be absorbed by the temple, she would need to participate in social activities like tea parties to some degree.
But is it all right for Beth to be there with her?
They got along well, so she could certainly rely on her, but Beth was still Beth.
Or perhaps it will actually be fine?
Since Ivetta had been forbidden from using her divine power, Beth was no longer receiving dozens of blessings and healings each day.
Some of the effects still lingered, however.
Beth remained healthier and more optimistic than she had been before.
I continued the conversation without revealing my concerns.
After all, Beth was still a minor who hadn’t yet had her coming-of-age birthday.
I can’t dampen the spirit of a growing teenager.
“I’m curious what sort of people they’ll be.”
Instead, I decided to learn more about the maid candidates.
It would be nice if they turn out to be the same young ladies who served as Ivetta’s maids in the original story.
They were all straightforward and considerate, perfectly suited to look after Ivetta and Beth, who were still unfamiliar with noble society.
“There’s Young Lady Harper Fabius of the Fabius baronetcy, Young Lady Rosina Marcos of Count Marcos’s household, and Young Lady Regia Amerot of the Amerot marquisate. Those three.”
Kylus’s choices were excellent this time as well.
Rosina Marcos and Regia Amerot had been Ivetta’s maids in the original work too.
Harper Fabius, on the other hand, is a miss.
She had been a minor villainess.
The Fabius baronet family itself belonged to the emperor’s faction, but Harper’s maternal uncle was a high-ranking priest in the temple.
On top of that, she had an ambitious personality and had viewed Ivetta—who had suddenly awakened divine power and skyrocketed in status—with displeasure.
Still, she eventually reformed after being moved by the saintess’s kind heart, so there was room to observe how things would unfold.
I’d like to check for myself.
This meeting was the occasion for Ivetta to choose which candidates she wanted as her personal maids.
I didn’t believe Ivetta would fail to notice anyone harboring hostility toward her.
Even so, I wanted to help her if I could.
Since they’ll be meeting in the garden, maybe I should take the long way around today?
I planned to watch from a distance, and if Young Lady Fabius crossed any lines, I would step in.
But it turned out to be an unnecessary worry.
Ivetta had Beth with her.
How could Lord Minos have chosen such an uncultured woman as his saintess?
Harper, who suffered from a touch of compulsive cleanliness, watched with clear disapproval as Ivetta clumsily used her knife and left crumbs scattered across her éclair. She barely managed to pull her gaze away.
Her half-sister Beth was equally inept at proper etiquette.
Harper forced herself to keep smiling brightly despite her discomfort, determined not to let it show.
To think I must become the maid of a woman like this.
Serving as a maid to a high-ranking noblewoman was a coveted position among unmarried young ladies of the aristocracy.
With only one member of the imperial family—the emperor—there were few other opportunities. Had it not been for the chance to serve the saintess, Harper doubted she would have come at all.
She tried to endure it, but the scraping sound of knives against plates grated on her unbearably.
Both Ivetta and Beth were clumsy with their knives, and their mismatched rhythms only made the noise worse.
“It seems the two of you need to study table manners a little more—mmph!”
She covered her mouth belatedly, but the damage was already done.
In the end, she had blurted it out.
The faces of her parents, who had lectured her nonstop on the way to the palace about making a good impression on the saintess and securing the maid position, flashed through her mind.
Realizing she had ruined everything, Harper’s face turned deathly pale.
Regia and Rosina, who had remained perfectly composed even while watching the pair essentially pulverize their éclairs, deliberately set their own knives down with a loud clack at Harper’s words.
They were calling out her rudeness.
“We are learning, but it’s not coming easily,” Beth sighed deeply, unperturbed.
Her innocent tone prompted Regia and Rosina to soothe her as though she were a child.
“We were clumsy when we first started learning too.”
“That’s right. You’ll improve with practice. We don’t mind at all, so please eat comfortably. Isn’t that so, Young Lady Fabius?”
Rosina had given Harper an opening.
“Y-yes, please eat comfortably. I only offered my advice because I thought it would be good for you to learn more in the future…”
Harper was not foolish enough to waste a generous opportunity.
If she had been, she never would have made it this far.
“Then is it all right if Ivetta and I eat with our hands?” Beth asked, as if she had just come up with a brilliant idea.
“What? How could you do something so unclean—mmph!”
Her obsession with cleanliness had not vanished, however.
The sight of Harper frantically covering her disgusted mouth must have been amusing, because Ivetta let out a bright laugh.
“What’s wrong with that? I sometimes eat cookies with my hands while sitting in bed.”
Regia smiled mischievously and reached for an éclair with her bare hand.
“Kyaaak!”
This time Harper couldn’t hold back and shrieked.
A wave of loud, cheerful laughter filled the garden.
“She’s surprisingly good at playing along.”
None of the people at the gathering realized that Lina, who had been watching from a short distance away, left feeling relieved.