Seeing Her Off.

The northern-native girl thought to herself. If she, who had lived her whole life in the north, had felt her spirits lift so much from one brief glimpse of the south’s colors — then what of the madam, who had lived her whole life in the south and was now exiled up here?

Could it be that the madam is… as sad right now as I am happy? Her friend left so suddenly, too.

A gloomy mood struck the young attendant.

《…You know, if we put this in the madam’s room — or the dummy’s — wouldn’t it suit the place better?》

《That boulder chunk? Well— hang on, where are you going? We’ve only just started cleaning!》

《My share’s done. I got rid of the hardest stain to scrub out, didn’t I.》

《Hey, wait a second——!》

Before the senior workers could get an answer, Star vanished in a bolt, as though running away.

The two of them looked around the storehouse their youngest had abandoned. Sure enough, the stain was gone. In its place was a crater in the stone floor that looked like a meteor had slammed into it, along with scattered heaps of stone dust.

“I’ll simply have to arrange the very best day possible….”

Aspara was deep in deliberation over the upcoming day out with the castle lord. Out of habit, her fingernail traced little marks along the wall.

She had just patched the dent in the wall with plaster. Since wallpaper couldn’t be hung until it had fully dried, the bare grey wall lay exposed, and it was quietly enjoyable to dig nail-grooves into the still-slightly-soft plaster and then smooth them away again.

The last festival was quite splendid, so if I don’t put in a decent effort of my own… I’m going to lose.

Strewn across the great bed were several romance novels she’d quietly borrowed from Jack’s room. A few were Volmo’s.

But that was hardly a problem. Regardless of subgenre, one element ran common to every successful courtship depicted in them.

Flaunting money!

Yes, the first step of a successful romance lay plainly right there. Gifting one’s beloved a jewel that exactly matched the color of their eyes, for instance, or hauling them to a dressmaker and making them try on one stunning outfit after another before declaring, “Everything they’ve just tried on,” and tossing down a purse of coin.

Money, hmm….

Jewels were out. She did have a small stash among the valuables she’d brought north as personal savings and ornaments. But the castle lord’s hair and eyes were a dull, uninteresting grey. A cottontail rabbit fresh from its first shed was cute in that color, but a grey gemstone? Hardly stunning.

And besides, if the point was simply to present him with an expensive item, she had given him the most precious gift imaginable not long ago, and he had yet to say a word about it.

That man — could he possibly not have read it…?

Aspara flinched at the suspicion, then shook her head firmly, forcing it down.

He’s not such a fool that he’d mount an envelope bearing the family crest in a frame and set it on display, is he? However barbarian they may be, they at least know what a house crest is… they must know.

Aspara squashed the flickering doubt. The atmosphere between them had markedly improved since that day; that was simply a fact. Their relationship had thawed, she firmly believed, thanks to the gift of succession rights.

“The overall strategic direction of a ‘gift offensive’ does seem correct, though….”

At that moment, a familiar percussive thud cut through her musings. The sound of a door flung open hard enough to slam into the wall. Not again?

It wasn’t an unusual occurrence, not by a long shot, but today the door-sound was rougher than usual. Almost as though it had been kicked open.

《Ah.》

Sure enough, the culprit of the door-sound was standing there awkwardly, the foot that had booted the door not yet drawn back in. Star.

She had kicked the door, it seemed, because of the enormous object she was clutching with both hands.

“….”

《— ——… ahem, “May I comm-in.”》

“Come in, please.”

《Hehe.》

Only then did Star step into the room.

The workers of this castle were extraordinarily busy. So even “the madam’s personal attendant” didn’t mean attending Aspara all day; it meant that three “attending the madam” slots were interleaved into the daily rotation.

Even so, Star often came by the room outside of her official hours. She’d drift in under the pretext of tidying an already-tidy room and then gaze at this or that curio, or ask to be allowed to play with Aspara’s hair, or come in hefting chunks of wood and bang them against the floor.

…Mm, honestly, Aspara had never really grasped what the wood-brandishing was about. Probably some peculiar northern thing.

At any rate, she was genuinely fond of the girl, who, had Aspara had a child young, could have passed for her daughter. What business had brought her by today?

“…Oh.”

《Isn’t it fine?》

“So it is.”

This short exchange, at least, the two of them understood perfectly. It was one of the sentences they traded most often.

Star stood the purple boulder she’d hauled in against the wall, uninvited, and then bustled about like a fussy architect, adjusting the angle with delicate care, stepping back for a distant view, and so on.

Aspara didn’t pay it much mind and refocused on the date planning. Eccentricities of this order were a regular occurrence.

“…Ah, that’s right.”

To the girl happily playing at being an artist, Aspara called:

“You’re the one to ask. Let me put a single question to you.”

Draped across the cotton bed, unusually large for a single occupant’s furniture, lay a variety of garments and bolts of cloth. Aspara had the maid Star stand before them and gestured as she spoke.

“What do you think?”

《Hmmm—.》

Each scrap of fabric was bright in color and heavy with embroidery, but all of them carried the thick smell of dust.

“These clothes are what I’ll be wearing, and from these bolts I thought I might have men’s clothes made. Matched to each other, you see.”

Aspara made broad gestures as she spoke to Star, pointing at the cloth as she stressed ‘Gus,’ and at the dresses as she stressed ‘I.’ The big-framed girl grasped her meaning and nodded along.

She was preparing outfits for the upcoming outing. There was the gift aspect, yes, but in truth Aspara was also indulging a private wish. She had long harbored a desire to dress that man up in something stylish.

“A man with such a well-made build, wearing those baggy sack-clothes all the time — it’s a waste. And above all, the thing he’s been wearing constantly these days….”

Aspara pursed her lips for a moment, casting about for the least rude way to put it.

“…smells like dog.”

‘The thing he’s been wearing constantly these days’ meant the leather coat that had been purchased for the last trip to the southern banquet. Aspara remembered having politely praised it as suiting him, since it was new at the time.

After that, the castle lord had worn the thing once a week without fail. Every single week. Once every seven days. For reference, the people up here, who scarcely sweat at all, could wear a single garment four days running before swapping it out.

“However fond he is of a new piece of clothing, really, that man….”

《Pretty.》

Star broke into Aspara’s reverie. The girl, fascinated by the thin fabrics she’d never seen the likes of before, was fingering the most diaphanous of them.

“Does that cloth take your fancy? You’ve a good eye — that’s the most expensive one.”

What had caught her interest was a purple silk textile. A thin forty-count bolt. Star, who couldn’t understand a word but was quick to recognize praise, beamed.

The purple cloth had no pattern, but its luster alone gave it an air of nobility.

“To be honest, it was originally Miss Sebinya Gobir’s — I nick— I borrowed it on my way out here.”

《This— ——.》

“Hmm, but if we use this, it’ll be difficult to make matching outfits. I haven’t got a purple dress, and there isn’t enough of this cloth alone to make two sets.”

Star tilted her head.

“Not enough. See — men’s clothes, my clothes.”

Aspara waved her hand in sweeping arcs over the garments and the bolts.

《Hmm….》

“Pick something else. Brown, perhaps….”

Star understood in broad strokes; she fingered the purple cloth with a reluctant look. Then, a moment later, the young maid’s face lit up as if she’d realized something.

《…Ah, — —! That, ——!》

“Yes?”

The girl snatched up a plain, slightly yellowed undyed white dress, then pointed at the boulder she’d brought in earlier, miming. The purple stain soaked into the rock, so vivid inside the dim storehouse, had dissolved into the daylight and now looked a greyish blue.

“I can’t quite follow. Shall I send for Jack later?”

《Ngh, — —!》

Star whimpered like a frustrated puppy, then hoisted the white dress and enunciated, syllable by syllable, one of the very few phrases of the northern tongue Aspara could understand.

《Please. This. Please.》

“That one? How unusual. If you like it that much, do as you please.”

Aspara shrugged.

“Hold on — there should be a headband that matches it. Since you’re taking it, might as well….”

Oddly pleased, Aspara rummaged through a bag lying on the floor, hunting down some ornament that might pair with the white dress.

“Ah, here it is.”

But when she looked up, Star was no longer there.

Star crossed the floor in great strides, and yet astonishingly quietly.

After a long look at all those brightly dyed garments, it had come to her. That thing in the storehouse. Those purple marks!

《That was definitely a flower stain!》

Only now did the puzzle-pieces in her head snap into place. The stain on the floor, its color, the storehouse’s original purpose.

The young attendant ran, swept up in a curious, electric thrill, as though she’d just uncovered something enormous.

《Ah, wait.》

The girl, mid-sprint toward the storehouse, suddenly realized. There isn’t any more frostbloom herb in the storehouse. That idiot fellow went and burned it all up.