Chapter 17 : Meeting The Master

After eating the cookies, Mylia and Chloe harvested high-quality lavender and returned home.

「Mylia, let's go home.」(Chloe)

「Un!」(Chloe)

Mylia and Chloe held hands and walked home through the lavender field.

When they got home, Robin stood in front of the door while crossing her arms.

She seemed to be waiting for them.

（Geh! Robin!）

Mylia squeezed Chloe's hand tightly.

「Mylia! Chloe! The villagers told me they saw both of you on the north side. Why did you go that far!? Answer me!」(Robin)

（Uhh… why is she always finding fault with us…? It will be bad if she finds out that I went to the northern forest and became a disciple of an elf who lives there…）

Mylia looked down at the ground to hide her face because she wasn't good at making a poker face.

After looking at Chloe's lavender basket, Robin slapped Chloe's shoulder.

「Ukh!?」(Chloe)

「What the heck is that!? Why did you only pick a few lavender!? You skipped work, didn't you!?」(Robin)

（Onee-chan!….. Khh! This woman!）

Unable to control her emotion, Mylia prepared herself to use magic.

However, Chloe squeezed Mylia's hand and shook her head at Mylia.

Mylia then remembered that Chloe told her not to use magic in front of anyone until she can enter the royal girls' academy safely.

Chloe released Mylia's hand and picked up the lavender that spilled from her basket when Robin hit her shoulder.

「Robin onee-sama, as you know, it's quite hard to find high quality lavender on the last day of harvest. But I've been collecting a lot of high quality lavender these days, and it should be enough to make this year's lavender jams. Am I wrong?」(Chloe)

（Chloe onee-chan, that's a good excuse!）

「…Tsk!」(Robin)

At a loss for words, Robin then looked at Mylia.

「Oh, Mylia, look at your dress! You get it dirty again! I'll clean it for you!」(Robin)

（Hiiy! She's gonna play tambourine with my butt again!）

As Robin stretched her arm toward Mylia, Chloe quickly pulled Mylia's hand.

「Robin onee-sama, it's about time for dinner. We will wash our hands on the backyard.」(Chloe)

Chloe literally saved Mylia's butt this time.

While being pulled by Chloe, Mylia looked back and saw Robin glaring at her coldly.

（Uwaa… I don't think she looks at me as a family member… I'm getting worried imagining my life here when Chloe onee-chan is gone…）

Robin then entered the house as Chloe and Mylia headed for the backyard.

◯◯◯

The next morning, the workshop at the Atwood mansion was noisy because people were busy making high-quality lavender jams.

On days like this, Aaron and Alex skipped hunting and helped make the jam.

While around ten helper villagers were busy moving around the garden; Ella, Bonnie, Robin, Jasmine, and Penelope arranged the lavender one by one neatly on rectangular boards.

It seemed that they would be selecting the lavender again to make sure that only the high-quality ones would be processed.

Chloe was also busy moving around with several baskets containing lavender in both of her hands.

Meanwhile, Mylia wasー

（Eh? I can feel magical power coming out from those lavender…）

ーwatching everyone working from behind the workshop.

Actually, high-quality lavender picked in the Atwood territory contained a little bit of magical power.

It was because the Atwood territory was a special environment where the two kinds of magic powers from human territory and monster territory come into contact with each other.

Actually, the first lord of the Atwood family, Galaxia Atwood, was taught by Titania a method to select high-quality lavender that even people with no magical power could do.

Then, the method was passed down from generation to generation in the Atwood family.

However, the Atwood family also taught this method to several villagers who had been selected to be the family's harvesters.

Those villagers, who were allowed to harvest high-quality lavender, were respected in the village.

The ten villagers who came to help today were exactly those selected villagers.

（Now that everyone is busy, I think I can get out of the house secretly and go to Master's house. I want to go with Chloe onee-chan, but… she said not to mind her and just go… Guess I'll go alone, then…）

Mylia walked away from the workshop secretly, heading for the northern forest.

After drinking water from a beautiful pond north to the village, Mylia continued walking and reached the entrance to the forest.

（I wonder why there are only a few houses on this side… Perhaps the first lord made the villagers' living space concentrated in the east, west, and south so that Master could live peacefully on the north side of the village? Hmm…）

Actually, Mylia was right.

Thanks to that, none of the villagers knew of Titania's existence until now.

As soon as Mylia felt the "Fairy's Warning" on her nape, she suddenly floated in the air.

「Eh? Eeeehh!?」

And then, she flew into the forest.

「Hiiiiiiyyyyyyー! This agaaaaaaiinnー!?」

After flying with intense speed for a couple of minutes, Mylia arrived at the forest house.

And then, her Master greeted her with a smile from the front door.

「Welcome~ I'm tired of waiting, you know? You're still young so why didn't you walk faster?」(Titania)

「I'm sorry, but I have various reasons for this…」(Mylia)

「After watching your house, I can tell somehow, but please tell me in detail. Humans' time is limited, so you can't waste even a second.」(Titania)

（Master… Despite being an elf, why is she so impatient?）

Mylia found it a little funny after hearing such words came out from an elf who had done nothing but sleep for 150 years.