The Divorcée’s Dessert Cafe
Chapter 4

“I’m going to open a dessert cafe.”

At first, Raymond wondered if Erin had lost her mind. Had the shock of the divorce done something to her brain? But upon second inspection, that didn’t seem to be the case. She apparently wasn’t joking about the dessert cafe. As soon as she signed the divorce document, Erin had ordered baking tools and ingredients and began looking into a spot for a cafe.

What was she thinking? Was this some kind of protest against being divorced? He wondered if she wanted the world to pity her for leaving without any alimony and being forced to make cakes for a living. Why else would a woman who’d been a duchess decide to sell cakes and coffee?

He was gazing out the window when, after a careful knock, the door opened.

“Your Highness.” His aide Mael walked inside and bowed.

“What is it?”

There was an anxious look in Mael’s gray eyes. Studying Raymond fearfully, he produced a small envelope and said nervously, “His Majesty has sent an urgent message. About your divorce, he is... He’s probably...”

Very upset. The man trailed off without finishing the sentence.

Four months ago, the emperor had gone south to attack the Arteon Kingdom. The war was close to being over, and he had gone there himself to handle the negotiations and the aftermath. While he was absent, Raymond had divorced Erin. He went ahead with it without even asking for His Majesty’s permission... Mael repressed a sigh. Arteon was very far away, but if it hadn’t been, the emperor would have returned immediately to the capital or summoned Raymond.

Raymond didn’t even bother to open the envelope.

“Your Highness... aren’t you going to read it?”

“It’s obvious what it will be about. What’s the need? No doubt, he commands me to withdraw the divorce and bring Erin back in, but in a polite, cultured, and indirect tone.”

Mael took up the letter again worriedly, seeing that Raymond didn’t seem willing to pick it up. Raymond had long been at odds with his grandfather. There were many reasons for the discord between them, but the biggest one, of course, was his lover, Serena. The way Mael saw it, the emperor was one of the major reasons that Raymond had disliked Erin. She was the woman the emperor had chosen himself to marry Raymond.

Even so, I didn’t know he’d divorce her while the emperor was away... He wondered what would happen next as the emperor would be back soon. While he was a generous, gentle man, he was still a force to be reckoned with.

An attendant knocked and entered the office, then put a plate on the desk. The plate, which featured a pattern of green leaves, held a cake that smelled refreshingly of lemon.

“It’s from Lady Serena, Your Highness.”

Raymond frowned. The sight of the sweet dessert on the plate suddenly made him irritable. Turning to his documents, he commanded coldly, “Get it out of my sight.”

* * *

Erin had packed her things and left the imperial palace, but she had nowhere to go right away. There was the mansion where she’d lived with her parents, but she’d sold it off as soon as her mother passed away. While she did have some pleasant memories there, she hadn’t wanted to return since it would remind her of her parents. As such, the first thing to do was find a place to stay.

She went to see a property broker with Melly as soon as she left the palace.

“I’d like a house with a shop attached, if possible.”

Her budget couldn’t support both a house and a shop. This was her first attempt at opening a business, so it wouldn’t do for the shop and the house to be too far apart either. She would be staying alone with Melly anyway, so she preferred a two-story house with the shop on the lower floor. The broker listened closely to Erin’s requirements and budget before saying he knew of a nice place that was for sale at the moment.

“There’s a two-story house with a shop attached on Biltrout Street.”

Biltrout Street was to the east of the capital and in an area where low-ranking officials with a commoner background or merchants with plenty of money usually lived. The street was peaceful and quiet, lined with cute shops or brick homes.

Erin and Melly went with the broker. The shop he showed them was at the far eastern end of the street. It had a sign out front featuring some neat cursive writing. The front, which faced the street, had a large window, and various merchandise was on display behind the glass for passersby to see.

It looked like an ordinary closed shop from the outside, but going inside revealed that the house wasn’t in a very good state. The shelves were stocked with glossy pomade bottles, but they were covered with dust, so it was hard to read the labels. Below them were some shovels and hoes about to rust. There were also bottles of insecticide and herbicide that rolled about on the floor. Next to the door were piles of various seeds, dried herbs, and roots. It was a very old, crude shop that was packed with dust. It doesn’t look like it did very well.

“The owner of the shop moved away to the distant countryside on very short notice and put it up for sale. It’s a very nice place.”

With the dried-up vegetables in the boxes next to the counter, it seemed nobody had been interested in it since it had been listed. It wasn’t surprising, since it was in a quiet residential street. Homes with a shop attached probably didn’t sell very well.

Melly, who’d been looking around, found a door in the back. There was a little garden behind the shop.

“Lady Erin, there’s a garden out back,” she called.

Erin walked over to her and opened the door to step outside, only to stop short. Oh...

The shop had been dust-ridden, but there was an entirely different world outside the small back door. There were two buildings in the front and back respectively, with a small garden in between. High rock walls enclosed the garden, hiding the other buildings on either side. A small path led from the back door and passed through the center of the garden. On both sides of the path were rectangular patches of vegetables in a checkerboard pattern. They were leafy vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, and strawberry bushes. Some of them had withered, not having been cared for, but lush leaves covered the wizened fruits. The fresh leaves looked refreshing in the sunlight.

This is very nice. I feel at peace here.

By any means, it wasn’t a beautiful garden that had been intricately designed. However, such vegetable patches were difficult to find in the city. They created a peaceful, novel atmosphere. Beyond the small garden was a white brick house with a green roof. It was a tiny house that almost looked like a toy. Next to it was an apple tree with abundant leaves, stretching its branches over the chimney. The cute house, the rectangular vegetable patches, the flowerbeds with bunches of flowers, and the small chimney that poked out of the roof stood under the bright sunlight—it was a sight straight out of some fairy tale.

Melly marveled at it as well. “Wow... What a beautiful place.”

“You’re right.”

Behind the small two-story house were two lemon trees standing side by side. There was also a short white fence, and Erin could see a thick forest beyond it at the end of the street. It seemed more like a miniature park than a forest, but the glistening green leaves made for a beautiful sight under the sunlight.

Erin took her things and went up to the second floor, which featured two small bedrooms. They were frugally but neatly decorated rooms that must have belonged to an ordinary family. They had an old bed with white sheets, a wooden table and chair, a dressing table with worn corners, a wardrobe, and a wooden bookcase decorated with flower patterns. The floor carpet was frayed, and there wasn’t a single painting on the walls, but it had a cozy feeling about it, all the same.

“Can we use the furnishings here?” she asked.

“Yes. The owner put them up for sale with the house. It would take more money than they’re worth to take all of them so far away.”

I suppose he’s right. They were charming and small, but they were all quite old and not worth the cost of transporting them. It was probably better to just sell them along with the house.

The bedrooms were on the second floor, while the living room, dining room, and kitchen were on the first floor. Erin peered into the little kitchen.

“I guess we’ll have to do the baking here.”

The shop out front didn’t have a space they could use as a kitchen, so they had no choice. Both the store and the house were small, but upon closer inspection, she decided they would do.

“Lady Erin, I love this place,” Melly said, seemingly very taken with it as well. She happily looked around, only to belatedly ask with a look of worry on her face, “But will it be all right? It seems a little out of the way. It’ll probably be better to choose a place closer to the downtown area if we’re to run a shop...”

“We can’t afford one like that anyway, not with our current budget.”

Erin did not have that much money. The dowry she got back was smaller than expected, and the furniture in the imperial palace had been nine years old, which meant she’d been forced to sell them cheap. This was the capital of the empire, the heart of the city where many people wanted to live. It had high prices to match. Even if she used all of her money, she probably couldn’t buy a building downtown. She could just buy a shop, giving up on getting a house altogether, but even that was likely impossible.

We can’t handle a crowded location or a large building at the moment, anyway. She would have to prepare the shop with just Melly for the time being, and no matter how hard they would work, there would be a limit to how much they could accomplish. This size is perfect.

She only wanted a small cafe, where she could sell only as many desserts as she could make. It wouldn’t do for the place to be too big. She also liked that it was on a quiet street, not a crowded main street.

“I’ll buy the place.”

Erin used half of her money to buy a two-story house with a shop.