Graves for the rich had words carved into the marker, but since few poor people could read, the nearby graves didn’t have any words on them—people would instead identify them based on the shape of the wood or where the medal had been stuck onto it. Myne’s grave, however, had the words “Our Beloved Daughter” beneath where the medal had been stuck.
With the burial finished, the funeral was complete. There would have been discussions of wills and succession had she been the head of a house, but none of that was necessary for Myne, since she had died so soon after her baptism.
Everyone returned to their daily lives the next day. Lutz was back to his normal schedule, too: he left his house, raced down the stairs, past the well, and then up another set of stairs, before knocking on a door. Tuuli answered, a curious look on her face.
“Morning, Lutz. Did something happen?”
“Did something...? Oh!” Now that Myne was Rozemyne, he wouldn’t be walking her to the temple anymore. He wouldn’t need to watch over her and stop her from wandering all over the place. He wouldn’t have to make sure she was staying healthy. He wouldn’t be making anything with her. He wouldn’t be hugging her whenever she needed it. He wouldn’t be there when she was in trouble and needed a shoulder to cry on. There was nothing for him here anymore.
“...Myne’s really gone, huh?” There was a part of him that had expected Myne to still be there, but as Rozemyne, she needed to live as the proper daughter of an archnoble. Myne was gone, and now that she was Rozemyne, would never again be the girl that Lutz had known and spent so much of his life with.
For the first time, Lutz truly understood that Myne was gone. He trembled, and the tears that hadn’t come out during the funeral suddenly burst forth. Tuuli gently stroked his head until he calmed down, just like she used to do with Myne.
“Lutz, you can still talk to Myne through work, can’t you?”
“...I can talk to her, but she’s not Myne anymore.”
“That’s true. But Myne said all the way till the end that even if she can’t talk to us like normal, she at least still wants to see us,” Tuuli murmured, thinking back on her last conversation with Myne. She couldn’t call them family, but Myne still wanted to see that they were doing okay. With that in mind, she would probably want to keep talking with Lutz, even if just about business.
“Well, Lutz, could you take me to the Gilberta Company today?”
“Huh? Why, Tuuli?”
“I want to keep my last promise to Myne,” Tuuli said before going to the bedroom. She came back with the tote basket Myne had always carried around, inside of which was the toy she had made for Renate and Myne’s diptych. “I promised to join Mrs. Corinna’s workshop, become a first-class seamstress, and make Myne’s clothes for her. I want to go meet Mrs. Corinna so I can make that happen. You made your own promises to Myne, didn’t you?”
Tuuli’s question made Lutz remember all of the things he had spoken to Myne about. He had promised to make and sell books together with her. He had promised to make all of the things she thought up.
“...Guess now’s not the time for me to be crying.” He had to make enough books that Myne could spend all day every day lazing around in her room reading them.
Lutz wiped his eyes and picked up his stuff, and with Tuuli beside him, opened the heavy door leading outside.
Freida—A Visit to the Noble’s Quarter
“Oh my, it’s already time.” I noticed while changing for bed that the color of one of the feystones on my bracelet was a little different. The bracelet had a bunch of tiny black feystones lined up along it, one of which was now no longer opaque.
As a Devouring sufferer signed with a noble, my master had given me this magic tool to contain my overflowing mana. Feystones changing color was a sign that the bracelet was getting full with mana, which meant that I needed to go see Lord Henrik, the noble I had signed with and my master.
“Grandfather, please request a meeting with Lord Henrik. The feystones have begun to change color,” I informed Grandfather the next morning. We needed special permission to enter the Noble’s Quarter, and as I was underage I would need him to accompany me there.
“That time already, hm?”
“Yes, indeed. Shall I bring some more pound cake as a gift?”
“That would be wise. He seemed to have quite liked it last time.”
“Very well, then. I shall bring pound cake mixed with rumtopf this time.”
We had invented a new form of pound cake last winter by thinly slicing the rumtopf Myne had taught us to make and mixing it into the cake batter. It took much trial and error to find the ideal amount of rumtopf to add, but thanks to Leise’s efforts, the cake ended up quite delicious. It had a strong alcoholic smell, which made it fairly popular among male nobles.
However, since the rumtopf itself had been made experimentally, there wasn’t enough for us to make too many pound cakes. Leise was determined to make much more rumtopf over the coming summer, though.
“I believe it is about time for us to expand our repertoire...” Grandfather said, sending a meaningful glance to the kitchen where Leise likely was. Both she and I were thinking the same thing.
“I will have to get hold of Myne again soon.”
That was easier said than done, however, given how thorough Benno was when it came to hiding her from the world. All of her Guild paperwork was delivered by the Gilberta Company, and even the yearly financial report that needed
