Episode 192

The weather was warming up and I went out for a walk in town once a day. When Elisha came down to the first floor, the old lady who was knitting in the living room in front of the entrance stood up.

“Are you going out to buy dinner tonight?”

“Yes. Ma'am.”

Elisha replied. The old lady's name was Mrs. Seton.

She was the housekeeper of the bachelorette mansion. At that time, mansions sold mainly to single women of the aristocracy or middle class or higher were accompanied by a maid, and their status and background were thoroughly investigated when entering.

And there was an old caretaker-resident like Mrs. Seton. Mrs. Seton is an old lady widowed by a retired military officer, and she serves as chaperon for the ladies residing in this mansion wing, and she has kept the reputation of the ladies.

“I am Just pick her maid. Doesn't her husband send those things too?”

“Because I am recuperating alone. The maid is still here.”

Elisha gave a short answer. Lucerne sent me a fairly generous living cost. Picking her maid wasn't difficult…….

She said, 'I've been through so much that I'm afraid to do anything.'

Elisha thought.

“Hurry up and reconcile with your husband. There's nothing wrong with fighting when you're young. You'll wonder why we fought after we broke up when we got older like me.”

Mrs. Seton, she thought, was a young noblewoman whom Elisha had been hit with by a capital society, and she had become depressed, and she had been separated for a while.

Lucerne made sure she knew that Elisha was her married woman. Elisha told him calmly that she was a married woman, that she was separated when she moved in as he wanted.

She said, 'I have been through various things in the capital and my health has been deteriorating, so I decided to recuperate in a nearby city. This place is very quiet for a city, and the natural environment is good.'

Mrs. Seton nags her every time she sees Elisha. She seemed worried that her young and beautiful wife, Elisha, would divorce her husband forever after all these years. Anyway, unfortunately, the life of a divorced aristocratic woman is much more difficult than that of a divorced aristocratic man.

A small town where Elisha stays. Malaysia, called the city of roses, was a small and beautiful place.

It was a small planned city with a center where commercially wealthy middle classes and native aristocrats lived, and the homes of commoners surrounding it boasting picturesque roof colors.

The river through the center of the city continued to the capital. This was a prosperous city where trade was active through the capital and steamboats using magic stones.

In addition, it was one of the best places in the empire to be safe. It was a place where there was nothing lacking except for a small scale for a city.

“Welcome, no, are you here to buy meat? Today's freshly caught cow meat is very fresh. Or would you like pork ham?”

“Give me some ham.”

Every time the butcher saw Elisha, the young man greeted him exceptionally brightly. It was the first time that she had always walked around and said hello, but it was her first time buying something herself.

'He doesn't seem like someone who would do something like this.'

Elisha looked at the young butcher's clerk's face and thought. The young man who disappeared among the piles of fish has returned.

“This is the best ham in the store. I don't need money.”

“…… Yes?”

Elisha's eyebrows furrowed as the words were so burdensome that she couldn't understand her reason.

“This is Secret Agent 3 sent by the former general. Don't worry, if you have any difficulties, please come to me anytime. If there's a guy doing nonsense, I'll just swipe…….”

“…… Ham, please.”

The feeling is always right. Elisha cut off the young man's words. This was the problem.

Lucerne now said he would not lie about her relationship with her.

'…… It's a real joke, anyway. The man.'

It was really a problem keeping all those words. The street where Elisha lives. It was only the fifth time that Elisha had found Lucerne's agents near the 6th Avenue where the mansion was located.

'The first one I found was a cafe clerk in the building right next to the mansion.'

Whenever everyone sees Elisha, she treats her with excessive kindness, and openly confesses that she is an agent close to Elisha to escort her. She couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

Anyway, that's how Elisha's daily life went. One day she went to see a free performance at a small shrine near her house, and the other day she bought food ingredients from the market and ate them. One day she would doze off while reading a book.

'How long will we spend like this?'

Elisha was even afraid that this peace would be broken, and at the same time she felt strange that the daily life she had dreamed of was so trivial that it was put into her hands.

'How is that person doing?'

Often Elisha thought of Lucerne as she sat on her window sill at dusk. Will you still be lonely do you still love me

Do you still look so empty at times like a person who has nothing? When I think about that, my shoulders tremble and I feel empty inside. Elisha had to bury her face in her lap to cheer her up.

Maybe the fire hasn't been extinguished yet.

*​ *​ *​

Meanwhile, Elisha heard the news of Jacob's death.

'A day like this is really coming.'

Barefoot and tied to a rope, she recalled the day she was dragged by Jacob. Much of the suffering began when she was forced to be crowned and bound by her debts.

'Finally, all the people who bullied me are gone.'

As Elisha looked at her newspaper, she thought calmly. In Jacob's words, it was truly miserable. Jacob started a new business late last year. The business was a small business run under a borrowed name, through which it was exposed to trafficking in slaves and drugs from other continents.

Around that time, the Cartier family was suffering from so many things that they were in tatters. It was because there were more things about the family that Undine had exposed than expected, and all of them had grounds.

Moreover, Jacob became an illegitimate child overnight. The head of the family gave up on Jacob, and Jacob said that he jumped off the boat and died while fleeing abroad, having suffered numerous incidents involving the Cartier family.

“Did you hear? The bad guy is dead. It's fortunate that the general has succeeded the Cartier family.”

“Right. Now the family name will change a little. Aren't they very badass? How many crimes have you committed?”

“The woman who married the general is an incredibly lucky woman. She said that she was a contract bride who married for the identity business. The general said he never had an affair with her while he was married. I don't know how in the world such a thing could happen. You now have the entire Cartier family.”

“Well. No matter how much a man is a romantic, will he keep the marriage when my situation has changed like this? Word spreads throughout the capital that sooner or later news of the divorce will circulate. Well, it's obvious enough that even in the social circle the size of the palm of your hand in this town, the story circulates.”

“What kind of woman is that woman?”

“It's pretty, and it's said that it captivated the general at night. But other than that, there's nothing else to see, so what? Isn't that where the rumors stopped?”

Elisha was eating slowly at a nearby cafe in the evening when she heard the women talking at the table next to her. Elisha just smiled. She seemed to have gotten pretty big with the insubstantial rumors.

'I know. Divorce is the normal situation.'

Maybe if time goes by like this, we will slowly divorce. I thought so. But if the love that Lucerne speaks of doesn't fade…….

'But does that person's personality allow him to remarry?'

Are there people who are more picky about women than the men of the Cartier family? They were people who didn't even know the standard for liking a woman.

“Oh, what do you mean, ladies? It was rumored in the capital that the general loved his wife very much. Didn't you know?”

Then a familiar voice was heard. Elisha raised her head.

The noble ladies who sat next to Elisha and talked about her. Next to the noble ladies, someone was smiling and talking about various things.

“Okay? But she is that woman. She's such a strange woman that she doesn't even show up in public.”

“Ah, is it because birth is so precious to the madams? Let's be too naive. You can't see a man! A man like a general is rather single-minded. Besides, you are a person who runs around the battlefield all night. How healthy are you? A man like that is the real one!”

At that, the lady burst into laughter.

“But who are you to interrupt so rudely?”

She said that, but their lips were filled with laughter. She seemed to be joking. Elisha looked at the situation from the side of her eye.

“I am a clerk at the Sudo Chamber of Commerce. I do fetching goods from the capital. Get your business card here. If there's anything you want, I'll pick it up on my way down here.”

The woman was quite talkative. She said she was on her way back from the capital, and she skillfully put out various items and sold them to noble ladies she hadn't seen before. Elisha doubted her eyes for a moment.

“That woman…….”

If Elisha's memory is correct, she was definitely a familiar face.

Freckles.

She was a collateral working with Elisha at her mansion. Then Freckles found Elisha. And her eyes widened.

Oh, I met her eyes.

“Uh, Elisha…… ?”

Freckles said. Elisha remembered her name. Oh, right. She said her name was Lottie.