Emp pondered about everything he had been told in Love"s temple very seriously but didn"t forget to stop at a florist shop on his way back. He needed to buy the two flowers Calla wanted and even Love told him this was important. He went straight to the chop keeper, some short and stocky woman and asked to buy all the royal lilacs and deep lavenders she had.Mable knew he was here to get flowers but that sort of request was excessive. She asked him what he wanted to do with all those with an air that seemed just as surprised as the chop keeper. This reminded him of how Galana kept complaining about how n.o.bles always asked for unreasonable things. Had he become one of those n.o.bles? He bought swords in bulk and now emptied a flower shop to please a girl.
Mable waited for his answer with great curiosity as she toyed with a large blue flower he didn"t know the name of. He answered her casually.
"I"m buying them for Calla, she asked me to get some for her."
"Who"s Calla?" Mable asked with her brows furrowed in puzzlement.
Thinking about it, he had never really talked about Calla to Mable or of Mable to Calla. In light of what he had discussed with Love all day, He should probably do so now.
"Calla is girl I met before you. She lives close to my mother, I like her as much as I like you."
"What!"
Mable was shocked, struck by lightning, frozen in place. Had he said something wrong again? He felt like it was a good and short summary of everything though.
The shopkeeper looked like she had just witnessed the worst mistake she would ever see. She fidgeted on the spot, looked away and hurriedly rushed to get the flowers without a word, eager to get away from what she seemed to think was a disaster.
"Wh-I... That"s unfair!"
At first, she fumbled to find her words and emotions but she finally settled for annoyance. Emp didn"t get what was wrong at all though.
"What is unfair?"
"All of it! I can"t believe what you just said or the way you said it! You can"t just dump that on me like that!"
Anger wasn"t the word to describe her current state but Emp didn"t know what was the word for it. It was like she herself couldn"t figure out if she was supposed to be angry or not.
He looked to Harriett to find some sort of hint on what he should do but he only got a pained wince in answer. Celtine didn"t even look and kept her eyes closed as if this was of no concern to her.
"I can"t know how I should answer if no one tells me what is wrong. Please tell me what is upsetting you."
"I can"t right now, I"m too fl.u.s.tered. Don"t talk to me anymore, just bring me back home."
With this, she crossed her arms and stayed silent until Emp had bought all his flowers and walked her back to her room.
The whole time he tried to make contact between their eyes and wracked his brain to find what was wrong but he simply couldn"t.
When they reached her door, he tried to ask her again why she was upset but only received a wronged gaze in return.
"Good night." She told him irritated as she closed the door in front of him.
Emp looked at it in confusion, what should he do now?
"Harriett, could you go get Aglaya and bring her to Mable? I don"t understand what is wrong but I"m sure Aglaya can help."
"Of course master."
"Will you tell me what you think is wrong after that please?"
"By your will, of course master."
It was in times like theses that Emp really wanted the old Harriett, the less stiff one, if only by a small margin.
*-*-*-*
Meanwhile, Emp in the village now had access to the flowers and after a quick recall back to the other him to share the new knowledge, he delivered them to the Champom.
On his way there, he came across Sophus. Now that the huntresses had left, he was the only magic user left in town.
Last time he met him, he had told Sophus what he really thought.
"Maybe if you tried to understand my mother better instead of messing with me you would be luckier. You"re just working against yourself right now."
The mage had been really angry about his words. He must know he was saying the truth right? Why was he so hateful towards him anyway?
Emp expected him to be just as unpleasant as always but he really looked in a better mood today. He was still not friendly towards Emp however. He snickered as if he had just heard a good joke and just left without saying a word.
Emp wasn"t bothered even if Sophus laughed at him. His opinion had no real value to him. Whatever he thought was funny about Emp, it had no meaning to him as long as he didn"t try to cause trouble with it. Emp had done nothing wrong anyway, Sophus had nothing to work with to bother him.
When he got to Calla"s house, he removed all the flowers from his bag and pilled them around the tub. The florist had so many that he now had to make many huge piles of flowers all over the place. Those kinds of flowers must have been popular to be in such high numbers. He had enough to fill five tubs like the one they had.
When Calla and Fiona saw them, they were really happy. Calla was very impressed but like usual, said nothing at all and her mother had to speak to thank him.
"Those are too much, I said less than the tub!" She said with a satisfied smile.
"But I emptied just one store. This much is nothing if its for Calla." He declared.
Calla turned deep red and hid her face with her hands which made her mother laugh.
Should he talk about Mable now? He still didn"t know what went wrong when he told her about Calla. He didn"t want to make the exact same mistake twice in a row like an idiot. He didn"t want to say something that would make her more nervous.
In the end, he decided to hold his tongue for now. It felt a bit as if he was lying but this course of action wasn"t wrong was it? Telling her about Mable before she admitted her feelings towards him would probably only serve to hide her thoughts forever. He reasoned that the best was to wait for her to say something and then tell her about the other and ask her if that was fine. His head said this was the best way but somehow, all of this made him very nervous.