Chapter 33 - Volume 2 (1/2)

The nightmare that visits me every night is unchanging, and I feel like it’s getting deeper day by day. At first I was half in doubt over it. But now, It occurred to me that 『What if it’s magic that’s causing it?』 I mean, it could be magic, right? Right from the start, this nightmare that kept bothering my peaceful sleep every night just seemed ‘unnatural’.

Just who would do it, and why? There are endless questions, but I decided as my top priority to first do something about the nightmare.

And now, it’s already been a few days since I started going to the national library for this. I’ll stop beating around the bush and say it upfront: I haven’t been able to find anything…… Not even a single thread of clarification about the source of this nightmare.

「To think I’ve come up empty handed today too…….」

Muttering that to no one in particular, I close the magical book in my hands with a thud. I’ve started feeling kind of pathetic.

I didn’t think I could easily figure it out from the start, but of course it’s depressing to keep blindly fumbling in the dark like this. It’s really quite troubling that my sleep deprivation is adding to it.

My body feel tensed from all this. Stifling my sigh, I reach out to the next magical book. What if I go for a book on light magic for a change? Even if the reason for my nightmare isn’t written in it, there may be something on how to improve the situation. Hoping for that, I opened the bulky book on light magic on the table. It was then that it happened.

「——Oh my.」

I hear bells chiming beautifully from outside the window, stopping my hand as it was about to turn the page. It’s the chimes of the clock tower that towers above all else in one corner of the palace. Ding-dong, ding-dong. That sound still echoed around even in the days when the nation’s people were terrified in the demon king’s shadows.

At that sound, I close the magical book and stand up. I return the books piled up on the table back to their original places. I get the basket and dress coat on the chair beside me, and also my parasol.

The bells indicate that it’s midday. In other words, it’s time to have lunch. Yes, today, I didn’t just come here only to find out more about the reason behind my nightmare. I have a proper, full-fledged reason I can say loudly, my chest puffed up with pride.

I lightly nod in greeting to the librarian; since I come here almost everyday, we became acquaintances before I realized it. Then I leave the library, stepping out into the corridor. I can easily slip by the guards I come across halfway through, by showing them the bracelet that man gave me.

It’s needless to say where I’m going. I’m going to that man’s place of work, the Black Lotus Court.

I know from experience the further I go inside, the less people there are. I look down at the basket in my hand. Inside are the sandwiches I made this morning. It must obvious who they’re for by now.

Since we eat breakfast and lunch together at home, I didn’t realize it for a while. But thanks to secret information I received from a certain cooperative person…… I.E., that man’s disciple, the young boy Widnichol, I found out that that man usually works without having lunch. Since then, I’ve been making him lunch like this.

I usually make sure to make something as simple as possible so he can take it along with him in the morning. However, since we overslept today, I couldn’t do that. There are many reasons why we overslept, like the typical reasons for newlyweds or because of the usual nightmares, but either way, that’s why I’m bringing him lunch today.

I know that he wants to hide not only our marriage, but also the fact that I exist. The Black Lotus Court isn’t a place I can freely waltz in like this. But even so, I want him to forgive me today. I’ve dropped by until here countless times, but today I came here especially.

「……It’s no good.」

The dream I saw last night was the most horrible one until now. It was a dream where as I kept hearing that crying voice, my feet felt like they were sinking down like in mud. I barely managed to wake myself up, but it makes me shudder to think about what would’ve happened if I hadn’t been able to wake up.

They do say that sleep is one of the big three desires of humans, but do we really get so helpless if we don’t get it? Judging from the common sense of the 『past』 『me』, a woman intruding upon her husband’s workplace is nothing but nuts. But thankfully, this world is rather easy-going when it comes to matters like that, so I freely take advantage of it.

His laboratory is located in the innermost depths of even the Black Lotus Court. There is a fixed route that goes straight through the Black Lotus Court. But it’s much more faster to go around the palace courtyard and to his medicinal plants garden. And on top of that, it’s not very visible to other people either, so it’s rather convenient.

Holding up my parasol, I go down into the courtyard from between the pillars, and in the blink of an eye I travel along a trackless path that I’m used to. Finally what comes into sight is the familiar scene I expected.

All kinds of plants are coming out in that medicinal plants garden; there is a young girl hard at work with the harvesting, her shears going snip, snip. An acquaintance, I called out to her from outside the garden.

「How do you do, Miss Arche?」

「Eh–oh, Lady Filmina!」

She shakes in surprise at my call, before raising her head and looking here. Her eyes are the color of black tea, open wide in surprise. When I wave at her, she hastily runs over here. Her walnut-colored hair is done up in a rather short ponytail, cheerfully shaking. It looks just like a puppy’s wagging tail, and I can’t help but relax at how charming it is.

Arche Mashie is the brave girl that whimsically accepted the unthinkable position of becoming that man’s gardener. When she reaches here, she quickly lowers her head. She’s just an ordinary cute girl, but she must be incredibly capable for that man to allow her to enter his garden, when he doesn’t accept compromise in work at all.

In reality, it seems the quality and harvest number of the plants and herbs here has greatly increased from when that man controlled the garden all by himself. I still remember when he unusually said, 「She’s not bad,」 even though he’s the type to seldom praise people.

I myself gratefully enjoy her blessings as well. One of them is how that man’s special blended medicinal plants tea has greatly increased in variety. Another is the delicious Delia nut I receive, once in fashion with the young girls but still popular even now. Yet another is that through that man, I got a chance to see those early-blooming white flowers, valuable as both herbs and flowers.