4

Milling was a job that kept one fairly busy all year round, but the time it became especially busy was after the autumn harvest season.

The reason Beth had also decided in the first agreement that she would return before the autumn festival was partly because, during the preparations for winter after the autumn festival, the work of milling became busy.

In Beth’s countryside, harvested wheat and barley were milled into flour in preparation for winter, and that served as part of their winter preparations.

That was because no one would think of carrying heavy grain all the way to the edge of the forest when the snow was deep.

Once the autumn festival ended, Beth too was busy during this season preparing for winter, boiling jam and processing vegetables for preservation.

Beth’s country-style cookies, which had been well received in the greenhouse, were one of the recipes for preserved winter food from Beth’s countryside.

“Beth, then I’ll leave three sacks’ worth to you by tomorrow. And this is today’s mail.”

“Yes. I’ll get it done. Thank you as always.”

She immediately put the wheat entrusted to her by the postman into the millstone equipment.

After that, all she had to do was wait for the waterwheel to turn round and round and for the millstone to do its work.

After Noel repaired the parts of the waterwheel that had been on the verge of breaking with magic, her milling work had truly gone smoothly.

At the pulleys and gears that moved smoothly while making a steady sound, Beth remembered someone she had to forget, and her chest throbbed sharply.

Noel’s well-proportioned profile rose behind her eyelids.

(He was hasty, and arrogant.)

Noel’s magic had spread across the entire sky.

Noel had looked like a moon spirit reigning over the night, clad in pale-blue magic.

(Beautiful, cruel, and kind.)

The tips of Beth’s toes, where Noel had playfully lowered his lips, took on a burning heat.

Tears fell in large drops, wetting Beth’s knees.

Beth scrubbed her tears away with her apron, then slowly stood up and slapped her cheeks with a sharp smack!

—That magician-sama in the book also ended up together with a noble princess in the end, didn’t he?—

This was how things ought to be.

What Beth had been seeing was a midday dream.

Beth would mill flour, and Noel would be united with a noble princess as a brave magician. This was fine.

She had been allowed to dream, and a wonderfully lovely dream at that.

And as if telling herself so, she said in a loud voice,

“Now, work.”

Saying that, she gathered the flour that was being milled one after another.

Until all the flour had finished being milled, Beth’s time inside the hut was reading time.

She could have gone back to her adjoining home and read there, but inside the mill, the sound of the river water, the creaking sound of the waterwheel, the rustling sound of the leaves in the forest trees, and the grinding sound of the wheat all came together, and during reading time, it was very pleasant to the ears.

Since the mail had come today, it was not reading time, but time to read letters.

Beth cheerfully sat down in the best seat by the window of the mill and slowly opened the seal.

It was Beth’s favorite time of day.

Beth placed the leftover bread crumbs from breakfast by the window and, while watching the little birds come to play, sank her back deeply into her favorite cushion. She poured herbal tea to the brim into the large wooden cup her grandfather had carved for her long ago.

The clear morning light came beautifully in through the window.

(There are three letters today.)

Every letter was in a beautiful, high-quality envelope.

Beth looked at the names of the senders and felt warm inside.

One was from Rodney.

He wrote that he was lonely because Beth was not there, that he had grown quite a bit taller since then, and that the next time she came to the Royal Capital to visit, Rodney would surely be so handsome that Beth would no longer be able to tell who he was, and so on. It was his usual joking.

He had even drawn a clumsy portrait of himself.

Rodney had terrible handwriting, so when she wrote to complain that she always had trouble reading it, he had started drawing pictures.

Beth gave a soft smile.

The second letter was from Eloise.

She wrote that a new macaron shop had recently opened in the Royal Capital, so she wanted to send some to her, but macarons only lasted three days after they were made, so if Beth wanted to eat them, Beth would have no choice but to come to the Royal Capital.

Beth had no complaints about life in the countryside, but having learned the luxury called macarons, she thought she would like to somehow let Amy eat at least one.

As Eloise had first explained to Beth, they were magical sweets that made one happy when eaten.

The third letter was from Naranda.

It was a short letter like a telegram, with only the matter written in beautiful handwriting.

When she opened the seal, the same medicinal-herb scent as the greenhouse sofa rose up and tickled her nostrils, and Beth instinctively took a deep breath.

Pretending not to notice the feelings she had gone to such pains to shut away, feelings that made her want to cry out loud, beginning to rear their head, Beth focused on the letter.

“Dear Beth. I imagine you are doing well. By the way, this is sudden, but since I have felt like seeing your face for the first time in a while, I will come visit your hut the day after tomorrow?? The day after tomorrow means…”

Beth hurriedly checked the postmark. It would have been impossible in the Royal Capital, but in this countryside, the mail was terribly delayed.

“What? The day before yesterday! The day after tomorrow from the day before yesterday is… today!”

With a clatter, Beth brushed the flour from her clothes and hair and went outside, and then,

“Hello, Beth. I came to see you.”

There, a magician with beautiful long purple hair was smiling from atop a white horse.