“Um? Ah… ah!”
It seemed Riley understood the question. Like Nainiae, Riley was rubbing his face which had bruises. He corrected himself and replied,
“It’s such a bother. I won’t.”
He had organized his mind which was in chaos. Unlike before, he now answered without hesitation. Watching Riley like this made Nainiae think about what had happened last spring at the Solia Castle. Nainiae snickered and smiled.
‘I’m telling you to leave me alone. Let me rest a bit.’
All this time, although he was agonizing over the things that happened in his past life, perhaps Riley’s answer had already been set since then.
“… Ugh. I wish I could eat a sweet bean soup.”
It was a dish that didn’t exist in this world. Riley muttered the name of a food that existed in the other world as he walked and worked up an appetite. Nainiae followed him and asked,
“Sweet bean soup? Ah, are you talking about that sweet soup?”
“Can you make it?”
“For the ingredients… sweet beans will be needed. I think I’ll be able to make it somehow.”
“Uh? Really?”
Perhaps because she had the memories of Riley’s past life, Nainiae said she thought that she could make food from the other world.
“In that case, try it.”
“Should I also try making that thing we ate during the summer too?”
“That thing?”
“What was it called? Ah! Flat fried dough!”
“No, we should eat that only when it is raining.”
* * *
At the Iphalleta mansion, shunned by Riley and Nainiae, a maid who ended up returning to her ordinary life stopped after sweeping the ground for a while. She sighed big.
“… Ugh.”
It was not because the work was tiring. She was just worried about the Young Master and the new maid who were both younger than her.
“Ugh…”
Sera heaved a big sigh again. There was a woman who was looking at Sera cleaning. The woman said,
“Sera, you are going to make the ground sink.”
“Still, I think I didn’t resolve what you were concerned about. That’s why...”
“Sera, what I asked you was to watch over the two. I didn’t mean you should resolve the concern. If it is those two, they will be fine.”
“Still…”
“Even if you don’t take it upon yourself to resolve it, they will be fine. Instead of worrying, don’t you think they would want you to trust them? Riley and Nainiae…”
“Ummm.”
Iris added that worrying so much will instead lead to problems that really warrant concern. Having heard her, Sera put a stop to her worries and continued sweeping the floor.
“In that case, it cannot be helped.”
“Huhu. Right? Actually, I said the same to Mr. Ian recently. I was concerned you might react the same way as him.”
Iris brought it up as she smiled. Sera peeked a smile, indicating she could imagine. She stopped sweeping for a moment and asked,
“Now that I think about it, Mr. Ian… I haven’t seen him in days? Does he not know that I have returned?”
After she came back, even when she was all excited and told everyone that Nainiae’s face had become unbelievably beautiful, she didn’t see Ian. Thinking about him, Sera tilted her head to the side.
“Did he go somewhere?”
“Um? Did nobody tell you?”
Iris was reading a book. However, noticing Sera tilting her head to the side, Iris casually turned her head toward Sera and asked back.
“What do you mean?”
It seemed she had no idea.
“Oh my. It completely slipped my mind… I forgot to tell you.”
After seeing Sera’s reaction, Iris covered her mouth with her hand. She looked surprised. She rushed and brought her hand to the drawer and picked up a piece of paper that was there.
“Here...”
It was neatly folded. It appeared to be a letter. Iris handed the letter to Sera and Sera put the broom against the wall and carefully took the letter. She opened it.
[I am worried about Young Master. I feel so anxious and I cannot take it anymore. I’ll go to find Young Master. I don’t think I can rest easy with just Sera. I’ll come back with Young Master.
- Ian]
Sera’s hand, which was holding the letter, flinched.
“What is this…”
Sera’s face was covered by the letter. She peeked from above the letter; Iris had an awkward look on her face. She roughly explained the situation regarding how she had received the letter.
“About that… On the morning of the day you returned to the mansion… Ian vanished. He left that letter.”
Sera’s mouth was opened vacantly.