The tea had been prepared, and a faint sweetness, almost like vanilla, drifted through the room.
Normally, once Aina finished making the tea, she would remain waiting by the wall, but today, at Celine's suggestion, she had taken a seat with them instead.
Celine took a sip of tea, then said it with the casual ease of idle small talk.
"Aina, why don't you join my lord husband's harem too?"
"Pffft!"
Yuri sputtered, spraying out the tea he had been in the middle of drinking, then immediately grabbed the cloth on the table and wiped his mouth.
"Gross, nyah."
Kokuyou, who had been drinking milk at Yuri's feet, looked up in displeasure.
Before Yuri could hurry to apologize, Aina moved swiftly, knelt on the floor, and began wiping up the spilled tea.
"I'm sorry, Aina. Thank you."
"No, it's quite all right. This is my job."
Yuri spoke apologetically, but Aina answered with her usual calm expression.
I'm glad I wasn't actually drinking my tea...
Lieselotte quietly set her cup back onto its saucer and shot Celine—who was smiling brightly and clearly enjoying Yuri's flustered reaction—a slightly flat look.
Even in a situation like this, she's still having fun... That really is like Mother.
"Mother, that's going too far for a joke."
She said it with mild reproach, but Celine showed no sign of minding it and only laughed more cheerfully.
"Hehe, I'm sorry. But I never imagined you'd all be quite this shocked."
There was not the faintest trace of malice in her smile.
Lieselotte let out a sigh. She could do nothing but admire her mother's formidable shrewdness.
Honestly... I should have expected as much. Mother didn't survive the harem for nothing.
Celine's smile and lightly playful words had been the strongest weapon she possessed in the harem—subtly shaking the women who were forever looking for a chance to trip her up, parrying their attacks while securing the upper hand for herself.
No matter the situation, she threw others off balance at her own pace and ended up taking command of the room.
Impressed in spite of herself, Lieselotte sighed once more.
Then, suddenly, Yuri's voice reached her ears.
"Wait, are we already on the full-steam-ahead plan?"
When Lieselotte saw the bewildered expression on his face, a quiet sense of sympathy welled up in her chest.
No wonder... It's only the first day, and this makes the second one. Anyone would be shocked.
Remembering how thoroughly Celine had kept her spinning in circles over the years, Lieselotte silently offered Yuri her heartfelt condolences.
He would have no choice but to grow used to Mother's pace from now on.
And yet, even as she thought that, there was something faintly endearing about the way he looked so lost.
"Aina is practically family already. And she herself has agreed to it."
As Celine continued with a smile, Aina—who had returned to her seat—rose slowly to her feet and looked straight at Yuri.
There was a powerful seriousness in her eyes—direct, unwavering, and utterly free of hesitation.
"If you would have me, I would like to be of service to you, my lord husband."
She gave a modest bow, inclining herself slightly in one fluid motion.
Her pale aqua hair fluttered softly, and tied up in twin ponytails as it was, it only made her look even cuter.
Lieselotte gazed at her in silence, once again struck by Aina's beauty.
She really is beautiful...
Her skin was smooth and luminous, like porcelain. Even to another woman, her features were polished enough to inspire envy.
Her large emerald-green eyes were as clear as the surface of a quiet lake, and there was something reassuring about them.
The maid dress she wore was trimmed with plenty of frills, with the ribbon at her chest and the black ribbon of her apron serving as tasteful accents.
The way it cinched at the waist only heightened her neat, graceful beauty.
"Uh... well..."
Yuri's gaze wandered from place to place, and he blinked over and over in obvious distress.
Whether he wanted to refuse or was simply overwhelmed, one thing was clear—he was torn.
And yet, once he finally met the earnest seriousness in Aina's eyes, he ended up giving a small nod anyway.
It's an order from the ruler. It's not as if he can refuse...
Lieselotte sighed inwardly, feeling a flicker of irritation at his indecisiveness.
And yet at the same time, she could also feel her heart warm at his sincerity.
"...Thank you. I'm glad you said that. But don't push yourself too hard, all right?"
The moment Yuri smiled gently and said that to Aina, something in the depths of Lieselotte's chest leapt—and then a tight, aching sensation spread through it.
Why... do I feel like this?
Unable to make sense of her own feelings, Lieselotte lowered her gaze and quietly reached for her teacup.
The leaves came from the precious kōkasō tea herb, harvested only in a few secluded places in the kingdom's northwestern mountains.
As the tea touched her lips, its sweet, mellow scent—softly reminiscent of vanilla—spread slowly through her chest, gently wrapping around her unease and confusion.
The warmth of the tea soothed Lieselotte's heart little by little.
"Could you tell us a little more about your Gift, my lord husband? From what I can tell just by looking at Kokuyou, it doesn't seem like an ordinary Merchant Gift."
Celine asked Yuri that in the same light tone she'd use for casual conversation, voicing the exact question that had been on Lieselotte's mind.
A merchant's Gift might improve one's mental arithmetic or memory at most.
That it could allow someone to form a contract with a star spirit was utterly beyond belief.
A merchant contracting with a star spirit... I've never even heard of such a thing. And Kokuyou isn't just any star spirit. He's a high-ranking star spirit. There's no way an ordinary Merchant Gift could explain that.
Lieselotte glanced at Kokuyou, who was happily drinking milk beside Yuri.
At first glance, he looked harmless—adorable, even.
But the very existence of star spirits was extraordinary.
And not just a star spirit, either. A high-ranking one.
Just how much power is hidden inside my lord husband's Gift...?
When she looked back at Yuri, he was still drinking his tea with that same innocent expression.
The fact that he seemed so utterly ordinary only made her more uneasy.
"Yes... to be honest, my Gift is kind of a cheat."
"A cheat? So you mean it isn't an ordinary Merchant Gift?"
When Celine narrowed her eyes and asked that, Yuri gave a quiet nod.
"As long as I have money, I can do just about anything."
Yuri's words echoed softly through the room, and everyone froze as though time itself had stopped.
Lieselotte was no exception.
She tried desperately to make sense of what he had said, but the harder she thought, the more tangled her thoughts became.
As long as he has money... he can do anything...? What is that even supposed to mean?
She repeated Yuri's words in her head over and over, but no answer came.
Across from him, even Celine was unable to hide her confusion.
"Um... what exactly do you mean by that...?"
Still wearing her usual smile, Celine asked him in a calm voice.
But the faint tension in her tone betrayed the bewilderment lying beneath that smile.
She, too, must have realized that Yuri's Gift possessed a power far outside common sense.
"I'm sorry. That was hard to understand, wasn't it? Put simply, I can freely procure food, weapons, sundries, clothes—things like that. And not just that. I can use magic too, and if I want them, I can even build facilities like fields and workshops."
Yuri said it all so casually, but what he described was so outrageously implausible that it went beyond the bounds of comprehension.
What? What does that even mean?
If it was true, then how much power did he really possess?
Even Celine seemed at a loss this time.
Her usual smile vanished.
Letting out a deep breath, she leaned back in her chair and rubbed at the space between her brows.
There was unmistakable bewilderment on her face.
It was rare enough to see her mother this shaken.
The woman who had smiled her way through every power struggle in the harem now looked thoroughly at a loss.
Even Mother is rattled by this...
"A person without a Gift suited to magic can use magic...? Is something like that really possible?"
Unable to suppress her disbelief, Lieselotte finally asked the question aloud.
Kokuyou, who had not missed a word of it, answered in an easy tone.
"It's true, nyah. Hard as it may be to believe, if you've got money, you can use magic and even wield divine power, nyah. Besides, he can teleport and use extra-dimensional storage without spending money at all, nyah."
Lieselotte could hardly believe her ears.
She could not imagine Kokuyou—a star spirit—telling a lie, but what he was saying was far too absurd.
If he has money, he can even wield divine power...? How could something like that possibly exist?
Her words caught in her throat, and she could not speak.
Celine, too, had gone still, open shock plain on her face.
"Spatial magic requires a higher-order elemental Gift, and enormous magical power besides. It shouldn't be something anyone can use..."
Aina let out her voice of surprise.
She too was clearly shaken by the unreal nature of Yuri's abilities.
"Well, it is a merchant's Gift, so I suppose they're just handy abilities for traveling merchants. You can get to town in an instant without carrying anything, and you can transport goods too."
Yuri answered with a light smile, as if it were all no big deal.
Handy for peddling...? Is that really all we're calling this?
No matter how one looked at it, this went far beyond merely being convenient.
It was power on a scale utterly outside the bounds of any merchant's Gift.
Even Aina seemed unsure how to respond.
"From a traveling merchant's point of view... yes, that certainly does sound like cheating."
She managed to murmur that much at last, though the confusion in her voice was impossible to miss.
Watching Aina's reaction from the corner of her eye, Lieselotte wanted to cry out from the bottom of her heart.
This is way beyond cheating!
Yuri was brushing off a power that shattered common sense as though it were simply convenient.
My lord husband... what does he actually intend to do with this power?
Lieselotte found herself staring again at Yuri's innocent expression.
He behaved as though the power he held were nothing remarkable at all.
That, too, only deepened her unease.
What if this immeasurable power proved more than even he himself could handle?
The thought made her chest tighten painfully.
She couldn't put what she wanted to say into words.
And yet she felt she couldn't let the moment pass in silence.
"My lord husband... how do you intend to use that power?"
It was less a question than a wary challenge.
If Yuri used that power for the sake of the territory, then it could truly make him its savior.
But if it turned in a darker direction, it could become the seed of a ruin no one would be able to stop.
For an instant, Yuri looked blankly taken aback. Then he smiled.
"If I can, I'd like to use it for trade or something like that and make the territory prosperous."
Hearing that, Lieselotte felt something inside her chest loosen just a little.
Kokuyou cut in from the side with his usual easy lightness.
"Nothing to worry about, nyah. My master may be a little scatterbrained—a bit of a hapless one, nyah—but what he feels for the three of you is real, nyah."
"Hey, Kokuyou, leave out the hapless part, would you?"
Yuri hurried to correct him, but Kokuyou looked utterly unconcerned.
Watching the exchange, Lieselotte felt the tension ease naturally from her shoulders.
The tight strain in the room softened a little, and the atmosphere lightened.
Her unease about his power had not vanished, but at least for now—
perhaps she could trust him.
"S-so... there is something I'd like to ask."
Quite suddenly, Celine spoke, her voice quiet.
There was nothing of her usual easy playfulness in it, and that alone made Lieselotte feel a flicker of unease.
Mother... what is she about to ask?
The instant Lieselotte turned her gaze toward her, the atmosphere in the room drew taut.
It felt as though something important were about to begin.
The quiet tension that filled the room was strong enough to drown out even the sweet scent of tea.
Everyone waited for the words that would come next, holding their breath—
the stillness before a storm.