IRGS 37

Chapter 37

No!

I quickly raised a hand and subtly covered my face.

Just then, the door to our private room closed, blocking Lady Enika’s line of sight. Perfect timing.

Mmm… the crisis had passed, but what should I do now?

Would it be better to tell the other two about Lady Enika? That someone from the capital was right outside, and they should be careful in case our identities were exposed?

Right then, Owen asked,

“What’s outside?”

“Um… nothing.”

After hesitating for a moment, I eventually decided against it.

First, Lady Enika had been wearing a cloak with the hood pulled low. She probably wanted to hide the fact that she was here, which meant that even if she recognized us, she likely wouldn’t approach us first.

Second, what were the odds of running into each other again in a place as huge as Cantalice? Besides, the place I planned to visit after the meal was, at this point in time, especially unknown. The chances of crossing paths with Lady Enika again were practically nonexistent.

And finally, I didn’t want to make Arne uncomfortable. If he found out she was hiding her identity, he would surely understand—but it might still hurt him.

Fortunately, by the time we finished eating and left the room, Lady Enika had already disappeared.

As we exited the restaurant, Arne practically bounced with happiness.

“It was really delicious. Let’s come again next time.”

“You liked it that much, Arne?”

“Yes!”

Regardless of my unease over Lady Enika, the meal truly had been excellent.

There were minced lamb meatballs seasoned with Noiden spices (köfte), spicy stir-fried mussels with rice, and eggplant purée topped with lamb and tomato stew.

Goodness, we’d only just left the restaurant, and I was already craving it again.

“Like Arne said, we should definitely come back sometime, Owen.”

“Sounds good.”

The man answered lightly before asking me,

“By the way, Sophia, didn’t you say there was somewhere you wanted to stop by?”

“Oh, right. It’s a place someone recommended to me in Cantalice…”

More accurately, it had been recommended by my future self.

I led the two of them through the streets.

Before my regression, whenever I visited Cantalice, there was always something I bought without fail.

Right around this corner here—ta-da. The bakery appeared.

One day before my regression, I’d arrived in Cantalice with no real plans and happened to stumble upon this place while wandering the alleys. After that, I became a regular customer. Even though it wasn’t easy to spot, the bakery was always crowded somehow.

I entered the spacious bakery and looked around eagerly, but the item I wanted wasn’t on display.

That’s strange. It was supposed to be this bakery’s signature product.

I stopped a passing employee and asked,

“Excuse me, have you sold out of the rose jam?”

“Huh? You can make jam out of roses…?”

The employee stared at me like I was the strange one.

What in the world?

I hurriedly explained. It was made by preserving whole rose petals, and people put it in black tea or spread it on scones.

Apparently word spread that there was a customer making bizarre requests, because the head baker personally came out from the kitchen.

“Um, customer, if you don’t mind… could you explain this rose jam to me in more detail?”

…and that was how I ended up teaching the recipe for rose jam to the very person who would invent it in the future.

After experiencing the future once, all sorts of strange things really did happen.

The baker even brought out a notebook and eagerly wrote everything down with great interest.

“The next time you visit, we’ll have the rose jam ready.”

“Well, that sounds nice. I’ll look forward to it.”

And somehow, I ended up receiving raspberry jam as a gift. Honestly.

“So there’s such a thing as rose jam. I’ve never heard of it either.”

Taking the raspberry jam from me, Owen asked,

“But Sophia, how did you know that bakery sold rose jam?”

“I think Elouise told me about it once. Maybe I got it mixed up with somewhere abroad. Ellie travels so often, after all.”

I brushed it off vaguely.

Thankfully, Owen seemed willing to let it slide.

The next place we visited was a pottery workshop that wasn’t very large.

Well, not yet, anyway.

But I knew that in the future this place would grow enormously and even expand into the capital. The catalyst, surprisingly enough, had been Her Majesty the Empress’s birthday banquet.

Coincidentally, every empress in history had been born in early spring, so the empress’s birthday celebration was regarded as the first grand event that marked the start of high society’s social season.

But to be precise, the real beginning of the banquet came even earlier.

Before the dance officially started, the empress would invite a select number of noble young ladies for a private tea party.

A private gathering personally organized by the empress herself.

The desserts served there, the kinds of tea, the designs of the teacups—even the flowers decorating the table—every little detail became the talk of society and set the trends for that year.

And the teacups used at that royal tea party had been made right here.

In fact, the artisan herself apparently hadn’t even known her workshop’s products had been supplied to the imperial family. Preparations for the empress’s birthday banquet were conducted in extreme secrecy.

Which meant that at this point in time, only a tiny handful of people even knew this place existed.

“Welcome.”

A somewhat stern-looking elderly woman greeted us. She wore a headscarf and was painting designs onto something like a flower vase with an incredibly tiny pen.

Her hands moved astonishingly fast. She seemed to be making rough strokes, yet suddenly a daffodil bloomed across the pottery surface.

At a glance, she radiated the unmistakable aura of a true master artisan.

I quietly moved around so as not to disturb her. Teacups and flower vases were displayed carelessly without even proper lighting. Still, I examined each one carefully.

‘Just as I thought.’

Before long, I found a familiar teacup design.

It was the very same teacup I had seen at the birthday banquet.

Mixed among the others, yet to my eyes alone it practically glowed, shouting, “I’m over here!”

The rim where one’s lips touched was lined with gold, and the floral painting on it was so intricate it was hard to believe it had been painted by hand.

‘It’s really beautiful.’

If I were Her Majesty the Empress, I would have wanted to use these teacups at my tea party too.

But for some reason, Arne was already standing in front of them.

Looking closer, I realized he wasn’t looking at the teacup I’d found, but the one beside it.

It was a large flower vase in the Noiden style.

“Oh my, it’s beautiful. Do you want to buy it?”

Arne answered calmly.

“I just thought it would look nice in the house.”

The vase depicted Rente, the god of spring said to make flowers bloom, Echipar, the deity who protected family harmony, and countless flower fairies filling the empty spaces between them.

Arne had surprisingly good taste.

Owen strode over and rotated the vase halfway around.

On the opposite side, another deity had been painted.

I murmured,

“It’s Maesis.”

“Yes. A flower vase would feel incomplete without her.”

Maesis, the goddess of water and abundance. She was a gentle-looking goddess said to be involved in bringing forth all life.

Her long blue hair had been painted like flowing water, giving her an elegant appearance.

I had no idea what pigment had been used, but the hair seemed to shimmer brilliantly.

I liked the painting very much.

Apparently Owen did too, because he turned to the workshop owner and said,

“Madam, we’ll take this vase.”

The old woman didn’t even stand up. Instead, she kicked a bell fixed to the floor with her foot.

Ding-a-ling.

As the bell rang, a tiny sliding door in the corner opened, and a little girl popped out. Like the old woman, she wore a headscarf.

The child came scampering toward us.

The moment she drew closer, I realized something.

I’d seen this girl before—in the distant future before my regression, at the second branch of this pottery workshop in the capital.

Wow. Amazing.

I barely stopped myself from gaping.

The young lady who had existed in my future past now stood before us looking like a mischievous little rascal.

Owen pointed at the vase with one hand.

Snapping back to my senses, I hurriedly said,

“Um, Owen, there’s a teacup I want too.”

“Oh, feel free to keep looking, Sophia. I’m only paying for this first in case another customer buys it.”

Another customer?

There’s someone else here besides us?

Thinking that, I turned my head—and locked eyes with a woman.

At some point, she had been staring blankly in our direction.

Though hidden beneath a cloak, her pale lavender hair couldn’t be fully concealed.

Striking features. Long, graceful limbs.

Lady Enika!

“!”

I froze instantly.

So did she.

This was our first meeting in this life.

But the moment our eyes met, we both understood.

We recognized each other.

After a long silence, it was Enika, unable to suppress her curiosity, who finally spoke first.

“Um, Lady Bartoli, and… hmm, are you perhaps Young Duke Glentino? But then… why are the two of you here…?”

Then, to top it all off, Enika’s gaze drifted downward.

Toward Arne, who was tightly holding my hand.