92 Part 1

2．The Matters of Philiane

92

Aquasteed, who was inaugurated as a king from the crown prince status, shifted the office to a wider place. He did that as there are more people visiting his office now; he also increased the number of bookshelves to contain the documents.

Even so, the interior, with its relaxing atmosphere, remained the same and gives visitors a comfortable feeling being in his office.

The windows have a considerable height and Aquasteed’s table was positioned right in front of them. His leather chair was black and looked extremely comfortable.

There were also table and sofa for discussions. However, today, Tiararose was sitting there with a perplexed look.

“…?”

Aquasteed and Elliot were working but they looked at each other and tilted their heads with confusion.

Tiararose was usually very cheerful so it cannot be helped that they have a doubt… that she was probably plotting something again, seeing how engrossed she was in her thoughts.

“What’s wrong, Tiara? I hope you’d share with me if there’s anything.”

“Sir Aqua… Actually, it seems like Philiane is not feeling well.”

“Philiane? That’s indeed worrying.”

Aquasteed stood up from his seat; he headed towards the sofa Tiararose was sitting on, and sat down beside her.

Looking at Aquasteed, Tiararose leaned against his shoulder. She sighed softly and muttered ‘I’m worried.’

“Ah, perhaps… Elliot, have you heard of anything from Philiane?”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

Tiararose clapped her hands at the struck of that thought and shifted her gaze towards Elliot.

With kind eyes and soft orange-brownish hair, Elliot has a soft personality but he’s also an excellent aide of Aquasteed.

He’s also a colleague of Philiane so Tiararose thought that he might have heard something from Philiane.

Elliot tried to think about it and said “umm”, he then shook his head slightly to indicate that he doesn’t know anything.

“I think she’s the same as usual…”

“Is that so…? Philiane tends to try to solve problems by herself so it’s quite worrying.”

“That’s true. She’s indeed an independent person.”

He did not hear anything from her and it seemed to him that there was not much a big difference to her behavior.

Tiararose could not get any clue and was disappointed, but she thought that it’s quite expected given Philiane’s personality.

Or rather, it’s because they have been together for so long that she noticed the change in Philiane’s behavior recently.

-She looked like she’s occupied with something else in her mind.

She’s usually cheerful but she has started speaking lesser as of late.

However, it’s also hard to ask Philiane directly to tell her what’s going on.

“I will go and check her out for a bit!”

“Shall I go with you?”

“No, Sir Aqua, please continue with your work. I’m fine alone.”

“I got it.”

When Tiararose stood up, Aquasteed was worried and asked her if he should join. However, Tiararose has rejected his offer.

Indeed, it seemed inappropriate for a guy to butt into the conversations between women so Aquasteed accepted the situation as it is.

Afterwards, he just said ‘Take care’ and sent Tiararose off.

***

With a concerned look, Tiararose walked down the sparkling clean hallway which was free of dust from corner to corner.

-Should she ask Philiane directly ‘What happened?’ all of a sudden?

For now, she decided to take a look at how Philiane is doing first; Philiane is supposed to be resting at the anteroom right now.

In fact, Tiararose had prepared an anteroom that the maids can freely use. She opened the door, leaving a gap of a few inches and peeked inside.

Tiararose looked like a suspicious person, but fortunately, there’s no one around other than her.

At the corner of the anteroom… there was Philiane, who was sitting right beside the window and looking at something.

-There she is!

Philiane was looking at something so Tiararose narrowed her eyes to check it out. It seemed like a letter.

She looked depressed and that letter was probably the cause of her worries these days.

However, of course she could not see the content of the letter, and it’s not too good to peek at it secretly either.

-Should she call out to her?

However, Philiane might not want to share her worries.

Just like that, Tiararose was fretting about when her eyes met with that of Philiane all of a sudden.

“…Ah.”

Then, at the same time, she let out an utter of surprise.

Well, it cannot be helped since she was caught. Tiararose opened the door, openly entered the anteroom and sat down opposite to Philiane.

Philiane looked at Tiararose with surprise.

“Lady Tiararose? If you’ve called me, I would have gone to you…”

“It’s fine.”

She looked sorry and Tiararose smiled thinking that she’s too earnest.

“If you don’t wish to, you don’t have to tell me but… recently it seems like Philiane is not feeling well.”

“-!”

Philiane jumped back at Tiararose’s words. She probably felt sorry for worrying her master who has hit the mark.

Lowering her eyebrows, Philiane nodded with a look of resignation.

“It seems like I cannot keep things a secret from Lady Tiararose.”

“Philiane…”

While saying that, Philiane passed the letter in her hands to Tiararose.

Tiararose interpreted the action to mean that it’s fine for her to read its content. It seems like the letter was sent from Philiane’s hometown and she frowned at how one-sided the content was.

“As written, I was told by my parents to marry…”

Philiane gave a wry smile and uttered ‘because I’m already at the age to get married.’

As she has said, the letter content was about marriage.

Philiane has become 21-year-old so it’s about time she should get married. Philiane doesn’t normally talk about love so it didn’t occur to Tiararose that she’s worried about marriage matters.