Yuti-san’s Painful Mistake

In the mid-afternoon, I sat in my study facing a blank white sheet of stationery.

I had already finished all the work I needed to do for the day, so I was free now.

Normally, I would practice swordsmanship or take it easy, but today was a little different.

I was currently exchanging letters with Yuti-san.

“…Coffee, I guess.”

The question she had sent me was whether I preferred coffee, black tea, or tea.

I was surprised to suddenly hear from Yuti-san, and wondering why she was asking something like that, I added a question of my own.

I wrote, Is this about the place you wanted to talk at? and pressed the House Ark Gate crest three times.

After watching the letter disappear, I looked out the window.

“The weather is lovely again today.”

Tanya, who was assisting me in the room as usual, spoke to me, and I replied, “Yeah.”

For the past several days, there had been no rain at all, not even cloudy skies—just one clear day after another.

As I thought about that, I heard the sound of words being written onto the stationery on my desk. It was Yuti-san’s reply.

“…Let’s see.”

The message was rather long, but to summarize it, apparently it was still a secret for now.

Tanya, who had been reading the stationery from a short distance away, gave a wry smile.

“…It says, ‘It’s a secret.’ At this point, isn’t that practically the answer?”

“No, maybe not… probably.”

I had a feeling Tanya was right, but I smiled wryly, thinking there was no way someone as intelligent as Yuti-san would make such an obvious mistake.

Then again, she did seem surprisingly absentminded at times.

Still, nothing else appeared on the stationery, so that seemed to be the end of my exchange with Yuti-san.

“…Still, at this rate, it looks like the annual social gathering will go ahead without any problems this year too.”

“Ah, come to think of it, the weather is usually good for it every year, right?”

The social gathering was a gathering of nobles hosted by House Fols.

It was a large-scale party held once a year, supposedly intended to strengthen unity among the nobles of the south through the event.

The reason I sounded so vague about it was because I had never attended before.

“Apparently so. You may be invited this time, Danna-sama.”

“…True. Until now, I was just the third son, and a failure who couldn’t use Haki at that. But now I have Shia, and Father can’t exactly treat House Ark Gate lightly. Still, House Fols and Shia are fundamentally incompatible.”

I smiled wryly as I remembered Father’s pale face.

I could almost hear his inner scream that he personally did not want to invite her, but given her family’s standing, he had no choice.

“But starting this year, that monkey is the one planning it, isn’t he? Do you think he’ll invite you, Danna-sama?”

Just as Tanya said, Zeroad-aniue had taken full responsibility for preparing the social gathering starting this year.

That was also why he had been visiting Father’s manor so frequently.

He looked thoroughly fed up with the whole thing, though.

And among my family, Zeroad-aniue was one of the people who disliked me the most.

There was no way Tanya, who was so devoted to me, would like him either, so I could hardly blame her for saying that.

“Hmm, but even Zeroad-aniue probably can’t afford to slight Shia.”

Zeroad-aniue had seemed overwhelmingly imposing to me in the past, but lately, after seeing firsthand how extraordinary Shia and the rest of House Ark Gate were, I no longer felt that way.

I was sure even Zeroad-aniue understood that Shia possessed far greater power than he did.

“Personally, I think the best option would be for you to skip some House Fols social gathering entirely and simply spend your time happily with Madam.”

“Yeah, I think I agree with you there.”

I completely agreed with Tanya’s coldly delivered opinion.

Of course I would go if I was invited, but if the alternative was suddenly attending for the first time and spending hours bored out of my mind, I would much rather relax at the manor with Shia and Tanya.

“Then perhaps we should hold our own social gathering at this manor instead?”

I nodded at Tanya’s casual suggestion.

“Ah, that might actually be nice. We could invite Yuti-san, Aurora-chan, and everyone?”

“If you decide to do it, please leave the preparations to me, Tanya!”

“No, if anything, I’m the one who should be preparing it.”

“Then you and Madam can work on it together, with me providing support!”

For some reason, her enthusiasm had suddenly shot through the roof. Maybe she was the type who enjoyed preparing events like this.

Still, holding a social gathering at this manor actually sounded like a good idea.

There were plenty of people we were indebted to on a regular basis.

“But it really is a good idea. Obviously we can’t do it right away, but once things settle down a little, maybe Shia and I can plan one together.”

“Yes. I believe Madam would be delighted as well. And if the social gathering were personally organized by you, Danna-sama, I’m certain all the servants would be deeply moved.”

“Th-that much?”

She said it with sparkling eyes, and I found myself slightly overwhelmed.

I really wasn’t good at having people place expectations on me.

Just as I thought that, the sound of writing echoed through the room.

When I looked over, words were appearing on the stationery atop the desk.

This time, though, it was the pink stationery.

“Aurora-chan?”

I murmured the name of the person who had given it to me and pulled the stationery closer.

She was the person I exchanged letters with most often.

We wrote back and forth so much that I sometimes ran short on stationery, so she would give me more not only when I visited House Ark Gate, but sometimes through Shia as well.

That said, what we talked about was always completely trivial, and this time was no different—she had written about Grace-san’s grueling lessons and some amusing incident involving Lisa-san.

“She’ll probably be the happiest person of all once the stationery gets improved.”

“Probably…”

I agreed with Tanya as I looked at the letter, Aurora-chan’s excitement practically radiating from every part of her writing. Come to think of it, the prototype of the Gate device Shia had mentioned should be ready soon as well.

I wrote back with another casual reply and sent the letter to Aurora-chan.

After waiting a little while, more words appeared on the stationery.

“…………”

“…Oh dear.”

I was left speechless by what Aurora-chan had written, while Tanya, who had leaned over to read it, murmured with a wry smile.

Apparently, Yuti-san had just visited Aurora-chan’s room and asked her about several good cafés.

She had asked for somewhere with a nice atmosphere for two people to talk, so Aurora-chan had recommended a few suitable places.

“…Yuti-san, she told me everything.”

I could understand why Yuti-san, who spent most of her time shut away in her room and knew little about places outside, had gone to ask Aurora-chan.

That part had probably been the right decision.

Apparently, however, she had forgotten to ask her to keep it secret.

Everything Yuti-san had insisted was confidential had been innocently revealed through her little sister’s casual letter.