***

  Dear, Countess Marie Brent,

I hear the approaching footsteps of spring. Can you hear them too?

Traces of spring have appeared in my courtyard as it begins to turn green.

Along with the arrival of spring came a rare visitor.   

It was that witch—Spica.

Do you remember her?

How silly of me, of course you do. In fact, you get along with her better than me.

It seems that she came all the way from the Dhar Empire just to eat our kingdom"s omelet.

Well, that wasn"t the entirety of it. While in Dhar Empire, she has gotten her hands on their specialty—that is, their vegetables and especially, their spices. She told me she couldn"t wait any longer—she had to taste the mixture of flavors between Dhar"s vegetables and our kingdom"s omelet. Hence, she came.

She truly came with the vegetables; her pa.s.sion is astounding, if not entirely terrifying.

Ah, that reminds me. It"s about time for your cherished flower to bloom.

I pray that with the end of winter, it"ll bring warmth to your heart.

Gilbert Westin.

***

Dear, Duke Gilbert Westin,

I thank you wholeheartedly for the Spring greeting.

Right after I received your letter, Spica came to visit me. Truly, what a coincidences.

She brought the Dhar Empire"s vegetables with her.

I was mesmerized. Never had I seen such brightly colored vegetables before. Have you chanced the opportunity to see them as well?

The southern kingdoms seem to have many colorful plants like those.

I"ve made a new friend recently, and coincidentally, he"s also doing some businesses in the Dhar Empire. The two of us and Spica ended up talking about the Dhar Empire for the entire day.

There are a lots of vivid-colored clothes in the Dhar Empire. I"m jealous, although on the contrary, our faint-colored fabrics are also very popular there. The combination of bright and pale colors mix nicely.

Each kingdom has its respective strengths, and if they join together, they"ll create fantastic results.

I was again struck by the realization of how little I know.

Marie Brent.

***

"Spica, I"m heading up to the town."

While I did get a new perspective from the Knight Captain, I still didn"t have the slightest clue on what to do.

I thought that for a change, instead of trying to figure things out all the time, trying something I had never done before might lead to new discoveries.

It was unthinkable of me to visit the town.

To learn about their lifestyle, the civil servants" reports would suffice. I didn"t need to visit since I had already read and understood about them. Or so I thought.

In truth, the extent of my knowledge was limited to what was written on those reports.

Those reports were heavily influenced by the subjectivity of the people who auth.o.r.ed them.

Beyond that, I knew nothing. The feeling that I understood the whole thing was nothing but an illusion.

Hence, if I saw them directly, I might obtain something new—something different.

The same way Marie was inspired by the colorful plants of the Dhar Empire and arrived to that conclusion about the kingdoms.

"Whaa—!? Even though you have no reason to be there??" Naturally, Spica was appalled by my sudden decision. However, in the next moment, "Whelp, I guess I have no choice but to go with you, then. Wouldn"t want you to get lost~" She impishly laughed.

Upon hearing that, I was reminded of why we never get along.

She was unreasonable!

Most of the time, what she did was utterly incomprehensible to me. None of it seemed to benefit anyone, not even herself—yet she still did it, nevertheless, for the sake of doing it.

But now I had discovered something entirely new to her.

Not only was she irrational …but also kind.

All to continue watching over this King"s foolish brother without ever abandoning him…

***

Dear, Countess Marie Brent,

Today, at last, the gerberas bloomed.

To see them bloom under the blue sky was a rare sight for me, since I had only ever seen them bloom in my greenhouse.

Reading your letter the other day made me want to see the kingdom too.

The Dhar Empire is a curiosity, but first and foremost, I want to get a glimpse of my own kingdom.

I talked about our kingdom with Spica. But the tales she told me about it almost made me believe I was hearing story about another kingdom entirely. She truly knows a lot—the sounds, smells, forces—things that could never be described, not even by a thousand reports.

To not know a thing about my own kingdom, truly, an embarra.s.sment.

Before, I didn"t care about specialties. I didn"t know that taste differ from place to place. I never cared to learn about those things. Nor did I bother with the foods served on my table—their names, ingredients, etc…

…The sudden change of topic to food is bound to happen when conversing with Spica.

More importantly, I want to see the world with my very eyes. I intent to do that.

And I"ve already decided where to begin—my own kingdom, in which I should very well contribute myself fully.

It"s you who opened my eyes to this. Thank you.

Gilbert Westin.

***

Dear, Duke Gilbert Westin,

Even in my house, the gerberas have started to bloom.

Out of season, blooming in their lonesome at the greenhouse, the gerberas become a sight that comfort the mind. But the spring gerberas, blossoming under the bright sky, they felt like they wanted to share their lively spirit with me!

I also must confess, Sir Duke isn"t the only one who"s been in the mood to visit the city.

Recently, I too have often been going out.

Furthermore, instead of the aristocrat oriented shops, I actually walked around the market! It"s a bit unbecoming of a n.o.ble lady, don"t you think?

Just like Sir Duke, after hearing those stories of the Dhar Empire, I wondered about how the market of our kingdom faired.

Precisely at that moment, my new friend invited me to see the marketplace.

I quite liked my first experience visiting it.

Our marketplace isn"t only filled with a variety of things, but also life and energy!

My friend was also looking for goods to take to the Dhar Empire on his next visit, and my knowledge as a n.o.ble lady proved to be useful! I was so elated by that. Truly, I never thought it would be needed in that situation. I"m grateful all I"ve learned till now wasn"t a waste.

He thanked me a lot and said that my advice was a wonderful help. I couldn"t help but to be happy about that.

Something that you thought would be useless and wouldn"t matter in the slightest turning out to be a blessing for someone—it"s an amazing feeling, isn"t it?

Such hobby isn"t encouraged for a n.o.ble, but father seems to favor it rather than the idea of me going to the monastery. Thus, he condoned it.

It"s never too late to start doing something new.

Marie Brent.

***T/N: Maaan what a new, refreshing way of story telling, this translator approve.