Chapter: 07
“Lady Vally, is this enough?”
Edel returned from the flower market carrying a large basket piled high with wilted flowers.
“It’s more than enough. Thank you, Edel.”
“Not at all. If you need anything else, just tell me anytime. I’ll take care of everything.”
“Then I also need an hourglass. I want to train while measuring the time. And prepare some snacks that will keep me full.”
“Snacks?”
“Yes. Eating well is important if I want to do this properly.”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Edel covered her mouth with both hands.
“Oh my goodness, our Lady Vally actually asked for food first……! You always said you had no appetite. I’m so happy right now!”
Her eyes sparkled with emotion, and soon Edel’s face was filled with enthusiasm.
“What would you like to eat? Should I prepare sandwiches, soup, steak, and even dessert?!”
“That much isn’t necessary. Something simple that I can eat easily is enough.”
“Just wait a moment. I’ll make it right away!”
Edel left the bedroom as though she were about to prepare an entire buffet.
Vally watched her with a smile before examining the wilted flowers Edel had brought.
“When the Duke held it, it was even drier than these, so I need to practice filling them with even more moisture.”
She figured she would need to revive five wilted flowers to equal the one flower Wayne had burned.
Vally turned the basket upside down, spilling the flowers onto the floor, and began her serious training.
“Phew…… I still can’t revive a flower before all the sand in the hourglass runs out……”
Half a day after beginning her training, Vally was sitting on the bedroom floor, reviving flowers one after another. With a long sigh, she eventually lay flat on her back.
All around her were flowers that had regained only part of their moisture.
The time Wayne had given her was two minutes.
But it took Vally three minutes and thirty seconds to revive a single flower.
Tomorrow would be the third and final day of the time limit they had agreed upon, yet it still took her more than three minutes.
Her eyes were closing because she had barely slept, but anxiety kept her restless.
Just as she pressed firmly against her eyelids to drive away the fatigue while thinking about how she could shorten the time—
“Oh my, Lady Vally. You’ve already revived this many flowers?”
Edel, who was entering the bedroom with her third snack of the day, looked at all the flowers surrounding Vally and exclaimed in admiration.
“The more I look at them, the more amazing it is. How do you revive wilted flowers like this?”
“I’m still hopeless compared to Rina……”
“To an ordinary person like me who can’t use magic, even what you’re doing is incredible, Lady Vally.”
Edel placed the snack tray in front of Vally and gathered the revived flowers. Then she began arranging them in a vase on the table.
Her hands moved smoothly without hesitation, and the arrangement soon looked as though the flowers might begin growing at any moment.
“How is it? If I arrange them like this, don’t the flowers you revived look even fresher?”
“Yes, they’re really beautiful…… I think Edel is even more amazing.”
“Me?”
“Even without magical power, you can make flowers come alive with just a few movements of your hands.”
Wanting to take a closer look, Vally stood up and approached.
Edel had woven the flowers vertically around the center of the narrow vase to keep them balanced, then decorated the surrounding area with flowers of different colors.
“I find decorating flower beds easy, but arranging flowers is difficult.”
“Maybe that’s because you’re good at using large spaces. I like adding points of interest to small spaces.”
“Do you first imagine how you’re going to decorate it and then move your hands?”
“Hmm, rather than thinking about the overall framework, I think about the central part first. I find it more difficult when I plan everything from the beginning before decorating.”
At Edel’s words, Vally felt as though her complicated thoughts had suddenly become clear.
Until now, she had been obsessed with the idea that she had to revive the flower perfectly in order to pass Wayne’s test.
Vally returned to her place, turned over the hourglass, and picked up a wilted flower.
She focused on reviving the thick stem, the flower’s stamen, and the petals, carefully letting her magical power flow into them.
“…Done.”
She had used less magical power than before, yet the flower had revived sufficiently.
Moreover, once she revived the thick stem, the magical power naturally spread slowly throughout the flower, restoring its vitality.
Admiring the result, Vally hurriedly turned her eyes toward the hourglass.
Not long after her gaze landed on it, all the sand ran out.
“I did it! Edel, I finally revived the flower within the time limit!”
After succeeding for the first time, Vally threw her arms around Edel and expressed her joy with her entire body.
“I kept failing, but I succeeded thanks to you, Edel! Thank you so much!”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.”
“No, thanks to you, I figured out how I should use my magical power.”
“I don’t really understand what happened, but if I was able to help you, then I’m happy too.”
For the remainder of the time, Vally repeatedly revived the flowers using the same method.
As she used her magical power more efficiently, the recovery time naturally became shorter as well.
Feeling as though she had finally found the perfect answer, a smile of success was already forming at the corners of Vally’s lips.
It was early dawn, before the sun had even risen.
Vally stood by the window, looking out at the dim violet sky.
In her hand was the last wilted flower, now completely restored and full of life.
“Lady Vally……? You’re already awake?”
Hearing the bedroom light and the sound of movement inside, Edel entered after knocking.
When she saw Vally’s reddened eyes, she hurried over.
“Lady Vally, surely you didn’t sleep at all?”
“Yes. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Isn’t it because you trained your magical power too much? You’ll hurt yourself if you keep this up.”
Edel took Vally’s hand and tried to lead her toward the bed.
But Vally remained where she was and refused to move.
“Lady Vally?”
Sensing something strange, Edel examined Vally’s expression.
“Edel, listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
Vally’s expression looked as though she had already made a firm decision, and Edel sensed the seriousness of the situation and focused her attention.
“Vatteri is coming this morning.”
“Your fiancé, the one who came while I was away?”
“Yes. And I’m going to leave the mansion before he arrives.”
“Are you going somewhere?”
“No. I’m leaving and I’m not coming back.”
Edel’s eyes widened.
“I don’t want to marry him. He’s a man who talks beautifully but has nothing of substance. I already know exactly what my life will be like if I marry Vatteri.”
Once was enough for her when it came to marrying Vatteri.
“What if you tell the Master that you don’t want to marry him?”
“Then my parents will find another young master and sell me off to him.”
“L-Lady Vally……”
“So I’m going to abandon this family first.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the Viterad Ducal Family.”
The name was completely unexpected, and Edel’s eyes widened in astonishment.
“What? The Viterad family? You mean the Duke of the Last Flame? Are you planning to marry him? You can’t, because the two of you have different attributes.”
“No. I’m not going to marry anyone. I’m going to Viterad so that I can pursue what I want to do.”
Edel listened in confusion for a while before eventually nodding.
“If it’s something you want to do, Lady Vally, then you should do it. I don’t want to watch you being mistreated here anymore either.”
Edel gently wrapped both of Vally’s hands in hers, as though giving her strength.
“What can I do?”
“Bring me a maid’s uniform identical to yours. I’m going to wear it when I leave.”
“You’re going to pretend to be a maid because you’re forbidden from leaving the mansion.”
“That’s right. And, Edel, may I make you one proposal?”
“Me?”
Vally looked directly at Edel with eyes more resolute than ever before.
“If I disappear, my parents will suspect you first because you’re my personal maid. They might beat you while demanding that you tell them where I went. So let’s leave this mansion together.”
“Me…… too?”
“I can’t take you directly to the Viterad estate right away, but I have enough money saved on my own to let you stay at an inn for about two months.”
Edel, who had been listening intently, blinked her eyes wide.
“Of course, you can refuse if you don’t want to. But I want you to come with me. You were the only person on my side in this place, Edel.”
“Lady Vally……”
“I’ll do my best to make sure we can be together as soon as possible, so will you run away with me?”
Before she knew it, tears had filled Edel’s eyes.
With an overwhelmed expression, she nodded.
“Yes! I want to go with you too, Lady Vally!”
