Chapter 144: Chapter 144
“Really?”
Elise thought it would be better to enjoy tea on its own, but she couldn’t insist as she didn’t know much about it.
“Yes, yes.”
Rubica was going to use the fact that very few knew about tea. Even Carl, who extremely loved the drink, admitted he had only read about tea meetings in books.
If he didn’t know much about it, then the others must know even less. So, Rubica was going to design the tea meeting as she wanted.
‘I can just say that’s how people do it in the East Empire.’
Then, even nobles wouldn’t be able to show their distaste for tea. After all, it was worth more than its weight in gold. Plus, Rubica was going to use delicious and pretty cakes to fascinate people.
“Elise, I think I should go to the training grounds tomorrow.”
“The training grounds?”
Rubica had heard the guard knights were going to train at the training ground in a corner of the mansion’s garden.
“I want to see the knights train. I’m curious as I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Elise, you should go with her. She will be lonely if she goes alone.”
Ann joined her, trying to sound natural.
Actually, they had made a list of knights who had decent rank and wealth to inherit before Elise came. Moreover, they picked the handsome men among them.
-Your Grace, um, I’ve done my best to pick good-looking men but, to be honest, I am quite old. I don’t know which type of men girls like these days.
-Neither do I.
Rubica nodded. Because of Edgar, her ability to detect handsome men had been failing. Even when she saw some quite good-looking guys, she kept comparing them with Edgar.
-What should we do? It would be bad if the girls don’t like the men we’ve picked.
Rubica was serious. Her hard work would be nothing if the tea meeting becomes something that must be avoided by the girls.
‘Handsome men! I need handsome men to draw everyone’s attention! And a lot of them.’
Sir Stephen wasn’t bad, but more flowers were always better. There had to be various flowers of all kinds so that every girl would be able to have a crush on one of them depending on her taste. When Rubica’s worry reached its height, Ann asked something.
-Why don’t we have Elise pick?
-What?
Rubica hadn’t thought of that.
-Well, she is a young girl.
She had a point. Plus, Elise had grown up with girls of her age at the annex before she was hired by Rubica. She knew more about the latest trend and taste of young people these days.
-But she is too shy… if I ask her to pick handsome men, she will refuse.
-There’s no reason to ask her that. Just take her to where the knights are training and ask her about her opinion of them. Even if she says nothing, her reaction will be her answer. If she blushes and looks down, the man is handsome, but if she says, ‘He is quite good-looking,’ he is only average. And if she just laughs when asked, you should erase the knight’s name from the list.
-Wow, that is a great idea.
Rubica and Ann really had good teamwork on such things. Ann had a problem of being overprotective when it came to her, but she was great at finding a way to get what Rubica wanted.
And now, they were working together to take Elise to the training grounds.
“You want to see the knights train?”
“Yes, I’ve always wondered about how it is, but I cannot go alone. It would be too embarrassing.”
Going to the training ground full of men was too embarrassing even for Ann. The knights sometimes took their shirt off while training, and Ann had to try really hard to not look at them when she had to get past them.
“Elise, I would go with her if I had the time, but I have something to do tomorrow.”
Ann apologetically looked at Elise while Rubica gave her a pleading look. The girl had no choice but to surrender to their joined attack.
“Then I’ll go instead.”
“Thank you, Elise.”
“You’re welcome.”
Elise smiled shyly at seeing Rubica delighted. She finished what she was doing and had a maid pack a mat and parasols for tomorrow. Ann looked at everything while being just as happy as Rubica.
‘It would be a good chance for her as well.’
Ann cared about Elise. At first, she had been clumsy and hadn’t known much, but she was a quick learner and Ann liked it.
It looked like she was gaining confidence through her work now, but Elise still didn’t believe in her own looks even though she was a young girl. Although Ann wasn’t saying this because she didn’t want to press on the girl, she did agree with Rubica. She wanted her to be prettier, too.
‘Maybe it will change if she falls in love.’
Having a good motive was always better than being forced to do something, so Ann really wished Elise would fall in love and change at least a bit.
“Oh, it will be so great.”
Rubica looked at the various sample invitation cards.
‘It would be better to use the same one for everyone.’
She wanted to send a unique invitation to each guest, but it wasn’t like this was a ball. She couldn’t do that much.
‘I’ll just use a simple one with the Claymore symbol.’
Instead, she decided to use a different ink for each guest and put dried flower petals in the envelope. Her heart was already beating fast.
‘What kind of dress will Countess Tangt wear?’
Sowing time had passed, and the peasants weren’t so busy, but it still wasn’t a good time for a splendid ball.
Therefore, Rubica was going to introduce her tea meeting to meditate, socialize, talk, and ask guests to not wear too many jewels or overly splendid dresses. Still, she was looking forward to it.
‘I heard Viscountess Chartle’s daughter is really pretty.’
She was so excited to meet the society’s celebrities of which she had only heard about. Even the scholars and knights that would be invited to the meeting weren’t going to be that excited.
“Madam, His Grace is here.”
A servant knocked on the door, and Ann and Elise quickly stood up. Rubica put down the papers in her hands and looked at the door.
“Edgar.”
Her lips curled up as soon as she saw his face. Before she could stand up and go to him, he walked to her first.
“What have you been doing?”
Edgar forgot to ask how she was and asked. He then paid attention to the pile of invitations on the table and wondered who were going to be the lucky ones to be invited.
“I’ve been trying to choose an invitation card to send to guests for my tea meeting.”
“Oh, tea meeting.”
Edgar had briefly heard about it from Carl. He sat down next to her and glanced at the invitations while feeling happy that she was going to host a tea meeting.
‘She must have started to like tea.’
Tea wasn’t an easy drink. At first, Edgar had found it strange and thought it was just tasteless.
However, when he drank it the second time, he thought it smelled good, and the third time, he felt like his body was being warmed.
And after that, he directly asked for it without Carl recommending it. A warm cup of tea was so pleasant. Had Rubica been fascinated by it, just like he had? He was glad when thinking that now he had one more thing he could share with her.
“Which one have you chosen?”
“This one.”
“It’s just right.”
Most of the guests that would be invited were Edgar’s friends. Ann had taken extreme care to choose people who only had a relationship with Claymore and excluded everyone who wasn’t favorable to the family.
“Edgar, what kind of person is Viscountess Tangt?”
Rubica had gotten basic information about them from Ann. However, that wasn’t enough to talk to them and befriend them. Edgar had to often go to the capital’s society and often interacted with celebrities, so Rubica wanted some advice from him.
“Viscountess Tangt…”
Edgar thought for some time and then turned to Ann.
“What does she look like?”
“She has red hair, often wears golden accessories, and has a mole under her right eye.”
“Oh, that talkative woman.”
Only then Edgar could barely manage to recall Viscountess Tangt.
“Well, how is she?”
“She’s loud and noisy. She keeps talking about things I don’t even want to know about, like the latest trend and goods from abroad…”
“Trend? What kind of trend did she talk about? And which good from abroad?”
Rubica’s eyes sparkled as she asked, but Edgar looked a little irritated and didn’t say anything for a moment.
‘Why is she paying attention to her?’
If she had time to wonder about Viscountess Tangt, he rather preferred she used that time to think about him. After all, she never asked about what he liked.
“I can’t remember.”
Actually, if only he wanted, he could wake up the memories slumbering in a corner of his brain and give her the answer she wanted. However, he was now sulky, so he crossed his legs and pretended to not remember.