“Well, what should I make?”

Elody spread her ingredients on the floor and lay on her stomach as she began studying the sequence of preparations for various magic drugs. There were many magic drugs she wanted to make, but the cost of ingredients was problematic. To make effective magic drugs, she needed to pay for expensive ingredients. If the greenhouse were completed, I would grow them myself. . .but she had no time for that now.

“Are there no good ingredients?” Elody said to herself.

Elody began her research by recalling herbs that were readily available in the fields nearby. However, she couldn't come up with any ideas for effective magic drugs from them. She lay down on her stomach and rolled around, agonizing over her worries. As time went by, it became more and more fun to just roll around.

“Oh, is it raining?” She was rolling around blankly for a long time, and she heard rain falling out of the window.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

She liked the sound of rain hitting the window. Elody carefully drew the curtains to prevent the cold wind from coming in, and to guard Caville against catching a cold. The sound of the rain also reached Caville.

In the dream, Caville was trapped in a narrow room and listening to the sound of rain.

It was a memory of a day that was not long ago. After a long time of shivering in the cold, the door opened, and a big shadow appeared.

You again got in trouble today?

Oh, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

Adults blamed him for the littlest things. Caville was smaller and slower in development than other children, so he easily became an object of anger among adults.

Caville begged, holding tears in his eyes to avoid crying. He couldn’t cry, if he did the adults would just get more angry. However, the intensity of the beatings he received were similar, whether he cried or not.

You're a waste! You're useless! That's why you've been abandoned!

The scene changed, and Elody appeared in Caville's dream.

Elody was his savior. However, Elody in the dream smiled and said, You'll be abandoned.

Unlike her warm expression, it was the voice of an adult that came out of Elody's mouth. It was the voice of the orphanage adults.

No, no, no!

At the same time as the sound of thunder, Caville got scared and opened his eyes. Caville slowly lifted himself up.

“Wife. . .?”

He did not see Elody. Didn’t she say she wouldn’t be far? Caville got out of bed wiping away his dripping tears.

“Huh? Caville, are you awake?” Caville heard Elody’s voice nearby, and ran towards her.

“Oh, did you have a nightmare, again?” Elody stretched out her arms toward Caville.

Caville, who hesitated for a moment in front of her, gently fell into her arms. they were warm. It was so warm that he couldn't hold back tears.

You shouldn't bother her.

You'll be abandoned.

He knew that, but now he couldn't get away from Elody. Elody patted Caville on the back, his face buried into her shoulder.

“You can cry. Cry until you feel better.” Elody sighed and hugged Caville. Sometimes Caville

Why is my wife so sweet to me? I'm a useless kid. Caville hugged Elody, the painful thoughts still on his mind.

After coming to the Duke's family, Caville had had trouble adapting to a new environment. He was afraid of all the adults he had never seen before. He felt like they were going to hit him like the adults in the orphanage. But one day, Elody appeared. Elody didn't force him to do anything. She didn’t act like a butler, either.

She just sat in front of Caville, who was sitting in the corner. Elody continued to watch him, not saying a word. Caville gradually began glancing at her. The two looked at each other.

Caville looked at Elody with curious eyes. Whenever she moved, her pink hair sparkled as if it were sprinkled with gold. Her turquoise eyes were as pretty as candy.

“Do you want me to read you a fairy tale?” She asked. Before he answered, Elody brought out a fairy tale book and began to read it. Elody tried to draw Caville's attention to the book, but Caville did not feel pressured at all. He yearned for friendly touch and affection but was afraid of adults. A few days later, Caville would open his heart to Elody. For the first time in his life, he would feel affection for someone.

“Shall we go back to sleep? Can't you fall asleep?” Elody wiped the tears off his cheeks when Caville stopped crying.

“Do you want me to play shadow?” She asked.

“What’s that?” Caville asked, his eyes full of curiosity.

“Wait a minute.”

Elody sat Caville down and brought out some candles. Caville flinched nervously whenever she moved, fearful that Elody might go somewhere. After turning off all the other lights, Elody began to make shadows with her fingers, making everything from dogs to butterflies, rabbits and birds, owls, swans. Caville's mouth opened with surprise at the images.

Soon, all his fear was gone. The rain still fell outside the window. A long time later, Elody took the grinning Caville to the bed and fell asleep together. Elody gave Caville a hug, and he no longer felt afraid at the sound of rain. And the next day, it was alright that the two overslept.

***

“Oh, my God. Why do you look so sad?” Marie asked Elody, with her eyes open wide.

At Marie's words, other maids looked at Elody curiously.

“Oh, really? What's the matter with you?” The other maids asked.

The maids were knitting, making fabrics and chatting in the weaving room. Elody often visited the place where the maids worked and talked together. The maids felt that the young madam, who treated them with an easy familiarity, was interesting, unique, and cute.

“Nothing,” Elody said. It wasn't nothing. The maids exchanged glances and stared at Elody.

Elody sat among the maids, sighing, looking at a piece of paper containing information about medicinal herbs. She ended up falling asleep yesterday without discovering anything useful. Elody's face looked sullen. And behind Elody, on a widely spread blanket, Caville was taking a nap. The maids looked at Elody, who sighed cutely, and began to talk again, changing the subject.

“Tessie, you don't look good either. Are you sick?”

“Yeah, it’s no big deal, I just have a stomachache.”

“Oh, it's that day, isn't it?” Elody said.

The maids looked at Tessie with a sad look as if they all sympathized with her.

“If it hurts too much, go rest. It's a little better if you put something warm on your stomach.” Some of the maids said.

“Yes, I always do that, too.”

“Or do you want me to rip you some spirit grass?” The maid next to Anna said while wrinkling her face.

“Oh, I don't like it. It's too bitter.”

“Really? I've been eating it since I was a kid, so it's okay with me,” the maid said.

Elody, listening to the maids, asked out of curiosity, “What's spirit grass? Is it a medicinal herb?”

Anna blushed shamefully at Elody's question.

“Nothing, madam. I’d hesitate to call it a medicinal herb.”

“What is it?”

Well, if it were a proper herb, Anna would have explained it to me earlier. Still, Elody looked at Anna with desperate eyes.

“It's. . .you know the weeds we see every time we go to the field. It looks just like that weed, but in my town, we used it instead of painkillers.”

Most of the grasses used as painkillers were known. However, rather than being effective at just stopping pain, most of them had other side effects. And the reality was that herbs with good effects were very expensive.

“But the effect is really minimal and very bitter, it's not used most of the time.”

“That's right, it's really bitter.” The other maids nodded as if they agreed.

“Anna, where's the grass? Come with me right now!”

Elody jumped up and pushed Anna. Anna seemed embarrassed, but as Elody spoke to her, she jumped up. Elody carried Caville around her back and headed to the field with Anna. The remaining maids giggled at the sight.

“I think the more I see her, the cuter she seems,” said one of the maids.

“That's right, isn't it? Oh, she left this behind. I'll bring it to her later,” said one of the maids.

“What's that?” Marie took good care of the bundles of paper that Elody had left. Then the maid next looked at it curiously. The maid's eyes quickly grew bigger.

“Oh, isn't this an ancient language?” Marie said.

“Really?” another one of the maids responded. All the other maids began gathering around to look at the papers. Marie shrugged her shoulders.

“I told you! I think our madam really knows how to do magic.”

“Oh, I think it's true!”

“Is this an ancient language? I don't even know what ancient language is.”

“Aren't all weird-looking letters ancient?” The maids were all speaking over each other.

“You didn't even believe me when I told you!” Marie said as she quickly told the maids off, feeling proud.

“I thought she was just playing magician with the young lord.” The maids nodded along to Marie. Marie was surprised, and tried calming down but couldn't really. Of course, such a reaction was natural. Magicians were very rare across the continent.

***

“Anna, is this the spirit grass?”

“No, it's a weed. Madam.

Elody realized why spirit grass was so rarely used. It looked too much like a weed. Honestly, it was exactly the same.

“I get confused a lot, too. And my grandfather was the only one who used it in my small town in the first place,” Anna explained. Anna tore off a weed and chewed it slightly in her mouth. Her face wrinkled in an instant. “This is it, madam.”

Hmm. If we can distinguish it by taste, shouldn't we just taste the grass here and pick it accordingly? Without much thought, Elody chewed the grass that Anna had given her.

“Madam, if you eat that much. . .”

“Ugh. Ugh!” Elody lay in the field and made a painful noise.