Kays Translations

Chapter 114: Correspondence

My afternoons normally belonged to potion compounding, reading, or walking with Mira. From that day onward, however, I also had to manufacture hot-and-cold air blowers for the royal family.

Father had said to work only when I had time, but ignoring the commission entirely would be unacceptable.

I went to the new workshop Father had prepared for Rosalia and me. Rosalia was already inside.

Was she spending every free moment there? Mother would eventually object.

“What are you making?” I asked.

“Big brother! It’s unusual to see you here. Melissa asked me to make a chime after she saw ours.”

“I see.”

The chime was spreading steadily. Perhaps the time had come to sell the blueprints through the Magic Tool Guild, although the main customers would probably be nobles and wealthy merchants.

“Are you making something too?” Rosalia asked, her eyes sparkling. “Is it a new invention?”

I had drawn her into the depths of magic-tool creation, and there was no turning back now.

“No. I only came to check on you.”

Her shoulders drooped.

I couldn’t safely build the commissioned blowers beside her. If she discovered the scale of demand, she would insist on helping until she exhausted herself.

“Work carefully and don’t hurt yourself,” I said before retreating.

I asked a servant to bring the necessary materials to my room without telling Rosalia. Crate after crate arrived until even my large bedroom felt cramped.

“I should have specified the quantity.”

“Kyu!”

Mira happily climbed through the boxes as though I had constructed an indoor playground.

I began producing two blowers per day. The remainder of my time would stay reserved for magic pharmacology. I refused to spend the entire winter functioning as a royal appliance workshop.

Several days into the new routine, a letter arrived from Princess Chloe.

Was it truly acceptable for a princess to correspond so casually with a noble child? I hoped she wouldn’t create political complications for herself.

The message contained no urgent matter. She simply described life in the royal capital.

The poisoning crisis from the social season had quietened, although the mastermind remained unidentified. The royal castle still inspected food and drink with extreme care, and no new victims had been reported.

The greater danger might come the following year, after everyone relaxed. I needed to prepare additional Panaceas before then.

Chloe also wrote that she missed Mira and me. Without stating it directly, she revealed that she slept with the stuffed holy dragon I had given her.

An eight-year-old sleeping with a toy seemed perfectly normal to me, even if she was a princess. Court attendants might disagree, so I hoped no one embarrassed her over it.

She sounded exhausted by the continuous stream of noble visitors.

“That’s royalty for you,” I told Mira. “They hardly possess any time of their own. I’m glad I wasn’t born into the royal family.”

“Kyu?”

“I wasn’t talking about you.”

I had to reply, but many subjects were unsafe. I could hardly complain that Chloe’s father had commissioned me to build heaters, and mentioning the chime might prompt another royal order.

Instead, I described Mira’s recent adventures. Perhaps those stories would soothe Chloe’s tired heart.

Soon after I sent the reply, a letter arrived from Caro.

Had Chloe told her that she was writing to me? Perhaps Caro had answered competitively.

Caro’s letter described winter at the Mulan estate. She had returned home rather than remaining in the royal capital, so the suspicious timing of the two messages was unlikely to be coincidence.

She also wrote that she slept surrounded by the stuffed toys I had made.

That sounded heart-warming until I remembered that one of them was modelled after me.

Was Caro sleeping beside a doll resembling an unknown boy?

I hadn’t made the likeness exact, but anyone could see that the toy represented a young nobleman. I could only hope her friends never discovered it and began asking questions.

Correspondence was proving far more dangerous than I had expected.

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