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Mrs. Brennan was wearing her usual imperial dress.
It was obvious that she was still staying in the palace, she always loved to wear her head maid’s robes with pride.
For a noblewoman of distinguished birth, but without a title to speak of, the position of Head Maid of the Imperial Palace was a prestigious one to put forth in front of others, and she genuinely preferred to serve as a maid at the palace to returning home to her troublesome husband.
“This—!” Mrs. Brennan’s brows immediately furrowed.
Erin looked at her impassively.
“You picked a fight first, remember?”
A faint hint of mockery crossed the faces of the ladies next to her.
“If you’ll excuse me, then.”
Erin nodded slightly and pushed past Mrs. Brennan, to continue walking down the hall.
She felt the stares of several of the ladies follow her.
When Erin turned to see what they were staring at, they all broke eye contact.
She then realized It was Einz, not Erin, who had caught their attention.
‘I see now that he’s quite popular with the ladies.’
Erin chuckled as Einz’s handsome face flashed back at him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
When they reached the door to the parlor, they were greeted by a maid who immediately stepped out.
“My lady is expecting you.”
The parlor of Count Florence’s mansion was a stylish, and bright room.
The garden-side wall was gently curved into a semicircle, with a large grayish pink paned window taking up the entire wall.
Wavy, ivory curtains also hung between the light-filled panes.
“Welcome, Lady Erin.”
As Erin and Einz looked around the room, a young lady in a navy blue dress appeared from the side of the parlor.
She bowed gracefully to them.
“Thank you for visiting my manor.”
‘That must be the Countess Florence.’
Red lips with a smudged lipstick.
Clear skin with a hint of brown.
Eyes so deep and delicate they could have been painted with ink.
It was a beautiful face with a hint of an exotic feeling to it.
Her ebony hair was gently brushed back from her smooth forehead.
Her dress was gorgeous.
‘Wow, she’s quite a beauty up close.’
Erin had never had the chance to examine her this closely before.
She remembered meeting her in greeting in the hustle and bustle of an imperial event, but she hadn’t gotten a good look at her face because she was wearing a thin veil.
The countess stepped in front of them, and she spoke to Einz in a friendly manner.
“I see you’re here too, Mr. Levnin, thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for the invitation, Countess.”
Erin held up the invitation and asked,
“By the way, are we late? We got here a little earlier than the time on the invitation, and it looked like everyone else was already on their way out—.”
The Countess smiled and replied.
“No, no. You are actually early. I wanted to see Lady Erin alone, so I invited you at a different time.”
Erin immediately realized what was going on.
The young countess had deliberately invited her later than the scheduled time of the tea party.
‘Why didn’t she just ask me to meet her some other time? Why did she invite me today?’
The countess then added with a slight smile, as if she was able to sense her confusion,
“As a matter of fact, I will be leaving this evening to accompany the Count to his villa in the west.”
“Oh, you’re going to a villa?”
“Yes, we will be out of the capital for the next two weeks, and I will not have the time to receive you except today, so I have been forced to commit to the rudeness of inviting you so abruptly.”
‘Ah. So that’s why she asked me to meet her today.’
She said, after suddenly understanding the reason for the sudden invitation.
“No, it’s alright.”
Erin said, while holding out the basket she’d brought.
“I brought you some madeleines and a cake, and I thought you might like them.”
“Oh, thank you so much. I was hoping to try some of Lady Erin’s desserts, from the rumors.”
‘Did the Rumors spread—-?’
Well if you think about it, it would be odd if it didn’t, given that it all happened at the ball.
The Countess had her maid take the basket and led Erin and Einz to a table by the window.
A moment later, the maid brought out a tea set with hot tea and a plate with madeleines and slices of cake.
The parlor was beautiful, but so were the tea set’s deep purple teacups, which were engraved with magnolias.
It was dazzlingly opulent, but not at all tacky.
It was all to the taste of the hostess—- the countess.
A saucer engraved with white magnolias held a modest slice of madeleine and milk crepe cakes that Erin had brought.
The Countess tasted a slice of cake and marveled.
“Oh my god! It’s so good!”
“I’m so glad you like it.”
“It’s so delicious, it seems to melt inside my mouth.”
The Countess suddenly changed the subject, and her eyes were shining,
“I heard that Lady Erin brought a unique and delicious cake to the ball yesterday.”
“Oh… it wasn’t that special.”
It was just melted chocolate, spread thin, and rolled into flowers before it hardened.
Erin hadn’t invented anything special.
“When I heard that, I really wanted to ask Lady Erin, do you mind if I ask you to make a dessert for me?”
“A dessert?”
“Yes. I’m having a party at the mansion in three weeks, it’s my birthday, and I’d love to have something unique for the guests.”
‘I guessed it would be something along these lines.’
The only reason a lady she barely knew would invite her out of the blue after she left the palace would be for shop business, but she thought she’d ask her to make her a plain old cake like Lady Caterina or Serena.
This turned out to be more difficult than she expected.
“What kind of dessert do you have in mind—-?”
‘Cake? Pie? Sorbet? Blancmange?’
Erin was trying to figure out what she wanted to order when the words came out of the Countess’s mouth unexpectedly,
“I’d like to request a dessert that I had in the South.”
“A southern dessert?”
Erin had never been to the South.
She couldn’t.
The Empire was in the center of the continent.
The southern part of the continent, including the southern seas, belonged to the Kingdom of Artheon.
“What kind of dessert do they eat in the south?”
The Countess gestured to her maid, who brought her a small glass vial.
“I got this a few days ago.”
The countess placed the vial on the table, and it was filled with dried flower petals.
The Countess explained the flowers inside the vial.
“They were imported from the South some time ago. I had a hard time finding them for sale at the import store.”
The vial, about the size of a finger, was filled with dried, light yellow flowers.
They had changed color as they dried, but she suspects that they were originally white.
‘Are they used as tea leaves, or as a flavoring or potpourri for food?’
Erin couldn’t tell because they were inside a glass jar.
“What kind of flowers are these?”
Erin asked, while examining the vial carefully.
“It’s jasmine.”
“Jasmine. That’s a pretty name.”
It’s not a flower commonly found in the Empire.
In fact, she has never heard of it before.
The Countess fiddled with the glass vial on the table with one hand.
There was a wistful, and affectionate gaze in her clear eyes.
“I don’t know if you know, but my mother is a noblewoman of the Kingdom of Artheon.”
“Oh, I see.”
Erin was a little surprised to hear that it was a noble from Artheon, even though she had heard it was a foreign noble.
The Kingdom of Artheon, which occupied the southern part of the continent, had long been an enemy of the Empire.
“Yes, although she officially claimed to be a noble from another southern continent to avoid prying eyes.”
Erin nodded stiffly.
It wasn’t forbidden to marry a foreign noble, but it certainly wouldn’t do anyone any good to know that she was from Artheon.
Perhaps that was why Erin hadn’t seen much of this countess in the palace.
The Countess also continued,
“It’s a shame, but there were times when I was a teenage girl that I suffered because of my mother’s identity. Although my mother died when I was very young.”
A bittersweet smile tugged at her beautiful face.
Erin felt a pang of familiarity at the thought of being in a similar situation.
Her mother hadn’t been born to an enemy country of the empire, but she’d always been looked down upon as a person born by someone from a northern ethnic minority.
The Countess set down her glass and confessed,
“When I was a teenager, I was troubled by people and started wandering around. There were times when I ran away from home and went to the southern coast of Artheon on a whim.”