Haunted Duke’s Daughter

“I see.”

Said Lilia as she nodded, but she didn’t really feel so within. It only felt kind of plain to her. She felt a bit down thinking about having to walk around outside in the dress.

“Do I properly look like a commoner?”

When Lilia asked that, Alisa and the agent girl both averted their eyes.

“Eh?”

When Lilia stiffened, Alisa said in a fl.u.s.ter,

“It, it’s alright! It’s, not really like a commoner, but you do look like a rich lady going out incognito!”

“That’s right! At the very least you don’t seem like a duke’s daughter anymore!”

Should she really be rea.s.sured, or happy with that? Lilia couldn’t think of an answer, and could only give off a vague smile.

“Mistress Lilia. Please take this as well.”

She was handed a straw hat. It was in the box with the dress. When she put it on, the two girls watching on both nodded with satisfaction.

“Does it fit?”

“Yes. No problems.”

“You will be guarded no matter what happens so please rest a.s.sured.”

Would she really be protected by this girl? Lilia looked at her a little doubtfully. The girl probably noticed, as she quickly shook her head.

“If something were to happen I would not be able to handle it myself. After leaving the academy, Father shall be covertly following behind.”

“I see. It’s fine even if we walked together though.”

—Eh? Is that really fine? Lilia, just imagine it. Some well bred young lady walking together with some old

dude dressed up in all black.

—Calling him ‘some old dude’, really you…

Though she was admonishing her speech, Lilia did try imagining. Quickly, she came to the conclusion that it was no good, and shook her head.

“Sorry. Let me revise that. I want to walk alone.”

“Understood. I shall return then”

While smiling wryly, the girl gave a bow and left the cla.s.sroom. As she was watching her depart, she suddenly remembered.

“Now that I think about it, with that girl, and the other two as well, I still haven’t asked for their names huh.”

“It seems so. Shall I inform you their names now?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll ask them myself when I get the chance.”

Leaving that aside she needed to get a move on or she’ll be late in returning. As Lilia walked out the door, Alisa silently saw her out with a bow.

There were soldiers constantly stationed at the gates of the academy. Normally one would go through various procedures to pa.s.s through the gate. She was antic.i.p.ating just how she might talk her way past, or perhaps get them to let her through discreetly, but,

“Have a safe trip.”

They just let her though without saying much at all.

—What’s with that?

—Yup. Make sure you thank those agent people after. It seems they’d talked to them about it beforehand.

At those words, Lilia’s eyes widened. She hadn’t heard anything about this…

—There was that thing you did to them the other day, so they were probably

probably desperately trying to not earn your ire.

—I didn’t really intend to get that mad at them though.

—Nah you were plenty scary back there alright?

So it was like that, thought Lilia as she left the school grounds. Right outside the south end of the academy was a wide road running parallel across the exit to either side, as well as an even bigger street that ran straight south from there. With either of the roads, there were all sorts of stores lined up along them. Lilia took out the paper she received from Aira and started walking down the indicated route. However she quickly came to a stop.

—Sakura. Do you, understand this map?

—Yep. I can read it but… Ahh, I see. Only the basic points have been marked out here. I’ll guide you along.

Following Sakura’s instructions, Lilia set out into the south side town.

—You see, a hundred years ago there was a great sage in this country. The great sage taught many things to the country, but the of all things it seems what he’d put the most effort into was food. There wasn’t a single thing he enjoyed eating here, so he tried super hard to fix that. What a wonderful person! By the way Lilia, you’re not listening are you. Ah, make a right there.

—I’m listening. I just don’t have as much of an attachment to food as most n.o.bles.

Following Sakura’s directions, Lilia walked down onto a busy

a busy street by herself. The various people coming and going turned to look at her as they went by, but it was the same even in the academy so she paid it no mind. And so, she didn’t even really think about why she was garnering all this attention either.
As soon as Sakura began guiding Lilia along she had started to lecture about this country’s history. That said, it was mostly history related to food. She certainly had the desire to eat delicious things, but she wasn’t as caught up in such a thing as Sakura. She had no interest in something like the great sage who brought about some revolution in food.
Sakura should be aware of that as well, but even so she continued to talk. She even periodically confirmed if she was listening properly.

—Hey, don’t you find it odd, Lilia?

—About what.

—The method to make salt isn’t even known here, but it somehow became a common everyday item.

Lilia’s feet came to a stop.
There were various seasonings gathered in this country. Of course salt and sugar were among them. And they, with a magic formation and the spirits’ help, were created from raw materials while completely omitting the actual process of their creation.
Normally without knowing the actual process of making something you wouldn’t be able to create such a magic. Therefore, it seemed that there was someone who indeed knew the full process for creating them,for creating them, and yet the only known way of producing them currently was using magic formations. It seemed like something quite obvious, but only after it was pointed out did she notice the strangeness of it.

—Right? It really is strange.

At Sakura who gave a cheerful laugh, Lilia felt a slight chill. The way she spoke made it seem like she actually knew all about the creation processes mentioned. The way to create them without relying on a magic formation.

—Sakura. Could it be that you, were that great sage or something?

She asked with a tiny bit of conviction, but Sakura immediately denied it.

—However, I do think that Mr. Sage guy was someone who resembles me quite a bit. Though I don’t know if he’d also possessed someone like I did, eh? Ah, Lilia that store there! It’s strawberry daif.u.ku buy some buy some hey buy some!

—Just when I thought we were having a serious conversation… Please put a bit more effort into staying on track…

Voicing her complaints all the while, Lilia headed towards the store Sakura pointed out. The treats called ‘daif.u.ku’ were lined up on the counter, and the one called a strawberry daif.u.ku was in the middle of them, lined up so that they stood out prominently. Buy just one, she put it in her mouth on the spot.

—I see… So the strawberry itself was inside the thing…

—A strawberry daif.u.ku! It tastes like a strawberry daif.u.ku too!