The dingy carriage rocked back and forth as the smell of rot and mould filled the wooden compartment, assaulting the noses and dampening the spirits. The rain which had just passed made the humid enclosure even more disgusting and slimy, and the dreadfulness of the carriage was only overcome by the harsh metal on Din Mallory's bony wrists. Beside him, his plump wife, ill with sweat and fear, was crying and howling reprehensibly, bumping into him and pushing him around whenever the carriage rocked. The irritation was jarring, but Din Mallory was beyond hitting his wife now. He was angry, furious, enraged. Din Mallory's eyes hardened as he stared at the emptiness in front of him.
Oh dear Moon Spirit, if there ever was, I swear I will have my revenge on Libitina Merveille, or may your Grace cut my tongue and burn my soul.
…
Tea room in the Josephian House.
The several ladies in expensive but common fashion bounced up and greeted Libitina with excitement when she entered the room. This time, Elizabeth had decorated her according to the design of "Swan". She wore a gorgeous black dress with silver lace embroidery coupled with a black netting ensemble in her hair, with her lips painted maroon.
Her signature silver fan complemented her dress perfectly.
"Lady Merveille, you've come. My name is Rosemary, the second daughter of the Nathan House…"
"What a pleasure to meet you, I am the first daughter of the Fiera House…"
"Good day, Lady Merveille…"
Libitina nodded at the various ladies, her cold face immovable. She was now at Samantha's home, the mansion of Viscount Josephian. When she arrived with Sydney, the Viscount had personally welcomed them into the mansion. While Sydney has followed the Viscount to his study, Libitina was welcomed by Samantha to her tea party.
Unfortunately, Samantha probably did not consider that the ladies at the party would be overly enthusiastic to the extent of forgetting about the host of the party. In fact, her face was dark as she stood outside the swarm of young woman, and Libitina could imagine steam rising above her red hair.
Stifling a giggle, Libitina gave a small smile to the ladies.
"Ladies, please go to your seats, and let us have some tea," Samantha gave a generous smile and directed the women to the tables set up.
They started chatting about what happened in the capital Lefu and in the Josphian fief. The sales of magical tools were of immense interest to them, and many inquired about the type of magical tools they wanted to buy. Finally, before they left, Libitina took out several small charms as parting gifts.
"The jewel in the centre changes colours according to how you feel," Libitina explained.
"Oh, what a wonder!"
"Thank you, Lady Merveille!"
As Samantha saw off the haggle of bright-eyed women, all of them were chattering about their charms. At once, Samantha knew that Libitina's prestige amongst the lower nobilities was going to explode again. 'But she never really gets it, does she?' Samantha thought to herself as she returned to where Libitina was sitting.
"You know," she started, "You didn't have to give them those charms. They must be expensive."
"Not really," Libitina smiled at the young woman sitting opposite her. "There was no magic involved in the jewel, only in the chain. A small charm to sense temperature more acutely."
"What? Doesn't the charm react to how our emotions?"
"To a certain extent. I said that the jewel changes colours according to how you feel, and it does that by sensing your body temperature."
"If you say so, but even so, how can there be no magic in the jewel? How can a stone sense temperature and change colours without magic?"
"Guess."
"You know you have to give me one, right?" Samantha huffed, as she clumsily swiped the baby hairs off her face.
"Take it," Libitina threw the charm to her.
"Watch it, can't you be more careful?" Samantha barely caught the charm and complained. "Those ladies would cry themselves to sleep if they saw how careless you were with the charms they so treasured."
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they threw it away once they saw something more lovely at the Grayson's Zephyr franchise."
"Throw it away?" Samantha muttered under her breath. "Only if they dropped out of the Lina Merveille fanclub…"
"Did you say something?"
"Nope," Samantha answered swiftly. "Someone is here to see you, by the way. She's been waiting a long while."
Then, the door of the tea room slowly opened and a gorgeous young woman with grey hair entered. Her grey hair was modelled into two small netted cones on her head, and a veil was draped across her exquisite face but failed to hide her bright red lips. She wore a modest mint Edwardian dress, rather different from her usual style since she was incognito, but it still had several fashionable quirks such as a detailed embroidery on alternates and an large ribbon tied to the side of a waist.
"Sorcha!"
Second Princess Sorcha smiled gently at Libitina and Samantha as she glided across the floor towards them.
"Greetings, darlings. Libitina, I see you are wearing my ensemble, and it looks fabulous on you."