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Chapter 43.
“From now on, if you ever need it, just take my hand anytime. I’m fine with it, so anytime. Okay?”
That was what she kept emphasizing all morning before leaving. On the way out, Aletheia asked whether that counted as ‘permission,’ and Mio nodded. After all, she didn’t think lending a hand was such a big deal.
I said I had to go out, but Lete said she was sick again, so it was really hard to leave….
Still, if she stayed any longer, she felt like she might never manage to get out of the mansion at all, so Mio hurriedly turned on her heel. It seemed better to go out quickly and come back as early as possible.
Clink—!
The moment she opened the shop door and stepped inside, the distinctly changed atmosphere of the store was immediately apparent. The employee she had seen last time and a new staff member were busily carrying merchandise around.
“Welcome! Lady Mio!”
Count Duon, who had been standing at the counter wearing glasses and checking documents, made a loud clatter as he rushed over in a flurry. Lowering her voice, Mio asked,
“You brought back the item from yesterday’s auction safely, right?”
“Of course! Please, come this way!”
With an excited expression, the count led Mio into the inner waiting room.
“You look really busy. Did you win anything else at the auction besides Tararia yesterday?”
“Hehe. No, not that. You see, some famous person wore one of the dresses I brought in to a party last night. Thanks to that, I’ve already received ten orders.”
“A famous person…?”
When Mio asked again, not quite understanding, Count Duon bounced on his feet as he replied,
“Who else could it be! You wore the dress you took yesterday right away!”
“Oh, right. I did….”
So he meant that dress with all the strings attached.
“Actually, that was an item included in a brochure I made to secretly sell to noble ladies. I handed out maybe five copies? Back then, no one even replied. But now they’re suddenly contacting me, saying they saw the brochure and want to buy the other dresses shown in it!”
“Haha, that’s great. Sell a lot while you can. You need to fill the hole in your funds from the bail money.”
“Just what did it look like in person to cause such a commotion? Ah, if only I’d known, I would have watched you try it on myself.”
The count muttered in an overly excited voice. Crossing her arms, Mio replied,
“You should consider yourself lucky I bought it. The dress is pretty, sure, but those strings made it a bit of a problem to put on and take off.”
“Huh? What kind of problem?”
“Well, fine, it’s a dress you can’t put on by yourself. Everyone has a personal maid, so let’s let that slide. But when I tied the knots just once, everything came undone the moment they were pulled. I almost ended up stripped right in the middle of the banquet hall.”
“S-surely that kind of disaster didn’t actually happen, right?”
Count Duon stammered as he asked.
“I retied them tightly before that happened, so don’t worry. If something like that had really happened and my clothes had come off, do you think you’d be getting orders right now?”
“Haha, that’s true. Oh my heart….”
The count smiled as he pressed a hand to his chest. Sitting down on the waiting room sofa, Mio continued,
“The real problem was this. When I tied them so they wouldn’t come loose, they absolutely wouldn’t come undone later when I got home and tried to take the dress off. No matter what I did, they wouldn’t loosen, so in the end…”
“I-in the end…?”
“I had to cut off all the parts with knots using scissors.”
Rosa had burst into tears as she carefully cut each ribbon-tied string one by one. She cried bitterly, saying she had ruined the dress by attending to it poorly, thinking she must have accidentally tied the knots too tightly.
In reality, it was the exact opposite, though….
Even if Mio explained that they had been retied because they came undone too easily, it didn’t seem like it would change Rosa’s belief that she had “ruined the dress.” So Mio simply comforted the little fox, saying it was no big deal. She even went so far as to spout nonsense like how strings attached to dresses were meant to be cut off anyway.
After hearing the story, Count Duon trembled and said,
“You didn’t cut the dress itself, did you? That fabric is extremely expensive… It’s a rare textile found only on the eastern continent. I-I’ll take a look and see if there’s any part I can salvage! I can replace the strings with something else too….”
“Yeah. If it can be fixed, that would be good. Rosa was really crushed about it.”
She’d even come out that morning with her eyes all swollen. Mio had barely managed to make her rest by pushing her back into the lodgings when she insisted on coming along.
Right—this isn’t the time for idle chatter. I need to hurry back.
Rosa and Aletheia were probably waiting anxiously for Mio to return. Cutting the small talk short, Mio got to the point.
“Count, before that, bring out Tararia. I need to see it with my own eyes.”
“Ah! Yes!”
Turning the dial of the safe set up in one corner of the waiting room, Count Duon took out a case that looked extraordinary at a glance. The logo of the Elton Jewelry Auction House was boldly engraved on the top of the box.
“Now then, this is Tararia. Go on, open it. Hurry!”
Urged on by the count as he set the case on the table, Mio opened it. Amid gleaming gold fittings, a transparent gemstone about the size of an almond sparkled. At first glance, it looked less like a relic and more like a beautifully crafted luxury ornament.
They said the auction price went up because there were so many competitors. I can see why.
Even Mio, who normally had little interest in jewelry, found herself captivated by the gem’s mysterious glow. Watching the soft halo of light subtly change depending on the illumination, she felt like she could lose track of time entirely.
Lifting Tararia, Mio said,
“This is… a bracelet?”
“Oh, no. It’s an anklet. It’s fortunate it was modified to suit the name Tararia, isn’t it? Please hand it over. I’ll help you put it on.”
At some point, the count had already put on white gloves as he strode closer.
“Wait. You said this thing has a function, right? An item that lets you switch perspectives with someone else. Is it really okay to just put it on like this?”
Without any precautions or explanations, and in such a hurry? At Mio’s doubt, the count asked back with an even more puzzled expression,
“Isn’t the safe at your home? You’re going straight back, aren’t you?”
“…That’s true.”
“Alright. Right now, clasp your hands together and think of the person whose perspective you want to switch with. You need a strong desire to experience that person’s position. When the relic activates, the transparent diamond will turn red, so it’ll be easy to tell.”
A strong desire. Was that really all it took to use an ancient relic? It sounded a bit dubious, but considering the money she had spent, she had no choice but to believe it. Mio closed her eyes and began to think fervently of Aletheia.
Tararia. I want to take Aletheia’s position. It can’t be anyone else—it has to be Aletheia. Aletheia….
Becoming the owner of the safe was the most important thing, but honestly, she was also a little curious about what mind-reading abilities were like.
If it’s an item that switches perspectives, will it show me that too?
As she silently repeated Aletheia’s name over and over with that thought in mind, the count lifted Mio’s ankle and chanted a strange incantation.
“Then, pardon meee. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo~”
Click.
At the sound of a clasp locking around her ankle, Mio slowly opened her eyes.
“Wow, incredible! It’s even more beautiful than I imagined! For this accessory, it would be best to wear a dress that shows off the ankle. Knowing this, I prepared an amazing design in advance. Lady Mio, if you just make the payment—”
“Wait, wait.”
“Yes? What is it?”
Count Duon looked at Mio with a baffled expression.
“I don’t feel anything at all.”
“So… you’re still Lady Mio, right?”
the count asked cautiously.
“Yeah. It’s me. And the gem hasn’t changed color either.”
“Oh.”
He hurriedly bent down to inspect the gemstone. Leaving her ankle in his hands, Mio grumbled,
“By the way, what was that question about whether I was still me? I don’t get it.”
“Well, actually, we don’t know exactly how the relic works. There’s a chance your body could change, perhaps? Haha.”
“Oh, my body could ch—what?!”
Mio, who had been slumped into the sofa, shot to her feet. The count hunched himself up defensively as he protested,
“Calm down! It’s just a hypothetical!”
