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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Snowmen and Ancient Ruins
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Before I could even call out, Rose turned to look at me.
“Cheria?”
“Rose, are you still shoveling snow? Aren't your hands cold?”
“I can do this all day and be fine.”
Rose gazed at the old tree.
“This tree will have a hard time surviving the winter. If it were important, Kivrin would save it, though.”
Forgetting what the maids had said, my eyes widened.
“The Young Lord can do that?”
“Yes. That’s why, in our past lives and now, anyone who isn't human generally likes Kivrin. I'm actually the unusual one.”
I asked, full of anticipation.
“Then what about me? I mean, who liked Del?”
Suddenly, Rose’s eyes trembled violently.
“Well… Kivrin liked you, of course! So did I! And that guy you met yesterday!”
“Is that all?”
That’s a pretty thin list.
Besides Kivrin, there was no one normal?
When my voice dripped with disappointment, Rose clutched his head.
“Ah, and there was the prophet. How about that? That’s four people already.”
“...Still pretty thin. You mean the person who prophesied I would come to the ducal estate?”
Rose nodded.
“She’s probably dead now, but that woman followed Del around a lot.”
My mind started racing.
In , my sister was the only one who could see the future.
The novel explained several times that it was her unique ability, though she could only see fragmented events of the future related to herself.
Therefore, no other prophets could exist; they would all be liars.
So who is this prophet Rose is talking about?
Since I became the Young Lord’s wife, she couldn’t have been a liar, right?
Just as a question mark formed in my mind, a maid approached us.
“Um… Little Madam.”
“Yes?”
She squeezed her eyes shut and held out a flat box to me.
“Please have this!”
It was a beautifully wrapped box of chocolates.
But even after I took the chocolates, she hesitated.
Aha.
I asked.
“Do you have business with Rose, too?”
She immediately nodded and offered something to Rose as well.
“Sir Rose, it’s cold out. Please have this while you work.”
“Get that away— no, I don’t need it.”
Rose sent the maid away with a sharp refusal.
Once again, I failed to control my expression, and Rose looked aggrieved.
“Why are you looking at me like I’m disgusting? I never asked for it. She just offered, so I refused.”
“Well, I don’t know… For some reason, I got goosebumps and the shivers…”
I rubbed my shoulders.
It seemed everyone thought Rose was a handsome, prickly man.
In reality, he was just a kid who threatened to run away from home.
Rose grumbled.
“You’re the strange one for treating me like a child left by the water’s edge. It’s been a thousand years since I met Del, so I’ve lived a pretty long time, you know?”
It was an unfathomably long time, but I asked anyway.
“What did you do for a thousand years?”
“I played, slept, and ate with the other spirits in the home Del made for us. For about 990 years?”
My jaw dropped.
“If all you did was play, sleep, and eat, then you are a kid! And who told you to wait that long!”
Seeing my expression, Rose flinched.
“Waiting for Del was my main goal, but I was doing fine. I even made a list of all the guys who bothered you so I could tattle on them later.”
I asked enthusiastically.
“Where’s that list? Bring it to me! I’ll get rid of them all!”
“...Your eyes just flashed. Calm down before the sealing spell we worked so hard to maintain shatters. Get back to your childlike innocence, quickly.”
He said the same thing yesterday. What’s wrong with my eyes?
Rose sat me down on a pile of snow he had neatly stacked up.
I tilted my head, but unable to resist Rose’s urging, I decided to build a snowman.
It was surprisingly fun.
I focused and completed two snowmen and one round bird.
Then I showed them off to Rose.
“What do you think? This is me, this is the Young Lord, and this is you.”
Rose looked disgruntled.
“Why is that shapeless lump supposed to be me?”
“Isn’t it just like your true form?”
Rose vehemently denied it.
“It doesn’t have legs. Or wings. And most importantly, I’m not white.”
“...It’s made of snow, so of course it’s white. What did you expect?”
Pouting, I went ahead and made snowmen of my parents-in-law as well.
As I was concentrating, I heard small, whispering voices.
“Cute, cute, cute…”
“The ducal estate doesn’t feel desolate at all anymore.”
“A fleece coat and pigtails, isn’t that just cheating?”
Huh?
Just then, I, who happened to be wearing a fleece coat and had my hair in pigtails, looked up.
I saw maids in the distance, their backs turned to me, silently going about their work.
Did I hear wrong?
I lowered my head again and focused on making snowmen.
I picked up the twigs the old tree had dropped and gave the snowmen arms.
Rose crossed his arms and critiqued them like a judge.
“You obviously put the most effort into your own snowman. Putting that aside, for the sake of realism, how about we smash one of the Duke’s snowman’s arms?”
“...”
It’s c-cold, maybe I should go inside…
My childlike innocence had vanished without a trace, but I heard more whispering behind me.
“I’ll go get a mage.”
“Hurry. It’ll be a disaster if they melt. We must protect them with magic!”
* * *
The fluffy snow that had been falling finally stopped completely the next afternoon.
Afterward, the weather stayed clear for several days, as if the blizzard had been a lie.
Still, the temperature dropped rapidly, and Kivrin, who used to just doze off, began taking long naps during the day.
Thanks to that, I grew bored and started having light tea times with Daniel, who came to see the leopard during the day.
He mentioned that, fitting for a history teacher, he was also very interested in historical ruins.
“The recently discovered underground ruin was especially a hot topic because His Highness the Crown Prince personally participated in the investigation. Though he only made it to the entrance before having to turn back.”
Daniel gave a wry smile.
He said that although the entrance to the underground ruin was clearly marked, it wouldn’t let anyone in.
Thoroughly irritated, the Crown Prince had apparently even suggested having mages blow up the entrance.
In , he was a character who was very well aware of his own greatness.
Even though he wasn’t a swordmaster yet, it was obvious how much the existence of an underground ruin that dared to deny him entry would annoy him.
“I’m worried the ruin might be damaged. If it was created a thousand years ago, as scholars predict, then the mages of today would never be able to open it. We’d be lucky if it doesn’t trigger some self-destruct mechanism to stop intruders.”
Listening to Daniel’s explanation, I recalled the history mentioned in the novel.
About a thousand years ago, transcendents were abundant.
Unbelievable things, like a florist being a swordmaster or a restaurant owner being a great mage, actually happened.
There was also a wide variety of supernatural abilities.
Like Cheshire’s Information Appraisal, for instance.
However, legend had it that a great natural disaster occurred, killing everyone except for a very small number of transcendents.
Now, the word ‘transcendent’ had become obsolete and was rarely used.
Moreover, the Cheshire in the novel never mentioned a single word about what happened back then.
It was literally ancient history, so even I, as a reader, only knew bits and pieces of what happened a thousand years ago.
Rose, who spent his time with spirits, probably wouldn’t know much either.
“Speaking of which, Little Madam, you’re heading to the marquisate tomorrow, aren’t you? The atmosphere was quite desolate the last time I was there. I wonder what it’s like now.”
“Desolate? Baron Dawson, do you know what happened?”
When my expression turned strange, Daniel began to censor himself.
“Oh, dear. I’ve misspoken. You’ll be fine with the Young Lord by your side.”
“I’m not scared at all!”
...As long as it’s not about ghosts!
Daniel offered a gentle smile.
“Is that so? You’re very brave, Little Madam.”
“Then will you tell me why it was so desolate…”
“My, look at the time. It was another very enjoyable tea time, Little Madam.”
“...”
The surprisingly firm Daniel left without giving me so much as a hint.
When I asked Kivrin about it after he woke up, I didn’t get much of an answer either.
“W-Well. There was nothing that could p-pose a threat to you, Cheria. As for anything else… it’s none of my business…”
“...”
My cute Kivrin just said it was none of his business…
