Chapter 58

"what a pleasant surprise to come across your highness!" Madame Zelda greeted, an entourage of handmaidensbehind her in four strictly straight lines. "how are you feeling now?"

"Hello...I am well."

"and is your foot better?" Madame Zelda asked worried.

"actually, it recovered instantly. Please deliver my gratitude to the doctors."

"I will, your highness. It was such an unfortunate accident, your highness, please do be careful next time."

"okay."

"I couldn't stop worrying about it when you...." she swallowed her words as the topic was a taboo and she could expect punishment from the emperor. "but I guessed you must have gotten better to run around energetically."

Madame Zelda had a gentle friendly personality, and did her job accurately, that's why the emperor gave her a high ranking job among the palace staff, and let her work close to him. And despite being in her late forties, her appearance was quite young and energetic. Amourora wasn't sure what happened to her, other than she had sacrificed her life to protect the emperor.

"if I may ask, where are you heading without your maids, your highness?"

"oh, actually I wanted to talk to mother about that. I only had the apprentice maids for the past week, and was wondering if it was an accident or a...punishment?"

Zelda gasped. "how could it be?! Your highness...I terribly apologize." she bowed deeply. "there must be some issues. I promise you that I will personally look into it, your highness. Please rest assured."

"well, if you say so, then I trust you." unlike Mal and her other maids, Zelda was a professional with more than twenty years of experience. Their work efficiency was the difference between the sky and the ground.

"your highness, why don't you choose some of these newly trained maids to temporarily serve you until the matter is resolved?"

"uh...who do you recommend?"

"oh, take Sarah and Joy."

"thank you, Madame Zelda!" Amourora left to her mother's quarters for tea. Actually, she also wanted to investigate her mother's strange illness in the pretense of having tea.

The relationships between her family members were not bad, but they were loose. If it wasn't because they were too far apart in the past, and only knew each other on the surface, would they have been killed one by one so easily? She had to do something about it, of course.

She already made sure the box will be delivered, so she had something else to worry about. Rather than agonizing over changing the future and getting a headache, she needed a good distraction. After she arrived with her entourage of knights and maids, the first thing she did was rush to her mother in the greenhouse and give her a big hug.

"mother!"

"ah!" her mother was quite surprised. "Amourora, what brings you here?"

"I wanted to enjoy the flowers with mother, can't I?" The smell of different exotic flowers blended well and wafted through the air in perfect harmony, so Amourora could understand why her mother loved spending her spare time here.

"oh, of course. Of course, anytime!" she quickly urged the maids to set tea and refreshments on the table. "I didn't know you were interested in flowers as well !"

She wasn't, but the empress liked them very much. In her green house were rare flowers from across the continent, all taken care of delicately.

"these flowers are from the Green lake rainforests, they need to be watered regularly, but not to the point of flooding them. You can see the soil is a bit dark and moist, but not muddy. People call them Needy Neddettes, because.... Did you know the person who..... "

"these rainbow flowers are from the foggy mountains of the east.....their petals change colors depending on the reflection of the sun, they are usually darkest during winter and have a translucent pink with red edges in the summer.... You must come have a look.... "

"these flowers are from the white mountains in the Cloud kingdom. They only bloom when the temperatures are extremely low, but since that will damage other plants, we can only see their buds. They are called 'Tears of blood' because they dye the snow around its roots in red.... "

Amourora didn't even have to uphold a conversation as the empress kept going on and on and on about each type of flowers, their colors, changes during the seasons, and which ones she likes most and why. Amourora never saw the empress talking so passionately about something, she looked like a little girl showing her favorite toys to her friends. Speaking of which, Maylea has yet to wake up, so she left her in the doll house.

While the empress was engrossed in her exciting explanations, Amourora took the time to look around for anything that might be suspicious, but nothing seemed out of place. The maids calm and attentive, the snacks and tea didn't taste unusual or strange, and even her mother seemed to be in good health. She actually looked a little bit more energetic than usual, if she wasn't paying close attention, she wouldn't have noticed.

'What could it possibly be...?'

"mother, you seem to read a lot of books!"

"oh, it's actually Edgar who tells me about them, the green house is his idea too." in the past, the green house caught fire after a few months from now, so it's good to see it intact and smell it's unique aroma.

"speaking of which...here he comes!"

"oh, Rosabella, you are here as well?"

She turned to the source of the sound. What brings him here? She never knew he was interested in plants and flowers in the past. She thought he preferred to spend most of his time reading indoors. Unlike Edmund, his skin was too pale from not receiving enough sunlight and his hands were soft and smooth, it made girls jealous.

"mother empress, I brought you a few things. Had I known Rosabella would be here, I would have brought her presents as well." the second prince always had a gentle air around him, and he always dressed in a nice calm manner, befitting his scholarly aura.

"oh, Edgar, I was telling Amourora about the flowers we planted recently." the empress smiled, pleased two of her children are willing to spend time with her. "please stay for lunch, it's already layed out on the table."

"it's... " he hesitated. "I would love to stay! "

"good, then let's move inside." her mother led the way.

Lunch was tasty, and she had a good conversation with her mother and brother. She didn't make any progress on the investigation, but her trip wasn't regrettable. Edgar offered to take her to the imperial library and her mother gave her more allowance. She didn't have access to the library, and she would need it if she wanted to be more knowledgeable. She didn't need extra allowance, but it was essential if she wanted to establish her own force.

She spent the rest of her time playing with Avyanna, but an interesting topic came up with the gossiping maids. They were standing a little far away, and thought they were out of earshot.

"the latest issue of 'Canary's Corner' is out! Did you see it yet?"

Canary's Corner is a magazine for a magazine for girls, issued once a week. Unlike newspaper, it's colorful and with different sections other than news, poems, embroidery, tea, the latest fashion trends, and more.

" no...are we allowed to chat during work?" one of her new maids asked cautiously.

"it's fine, the princesses allow it, but be careful around others. Anyway, it's our turn to read it now!"

"wait, really?! During the training we got to read it last." the other new maid seemed much more relaxed and easy going.

"well, it's exclusive. We all pitch in and buy three, then we take turns reading it. If we didn't, we'd have to wait until everyone else gets their turn, and by then the news aren't fresh."

"which one do you guys like more? 'Gossip Girls' or 'Madame Mystery'? "

"oh! I heard this week Madame Mystery replied to a man's letter! I'm excited to know what it's about!"

"I like the fashion section. I heard this fall, orange or green dresses are in fashion."

As they continued their chatter about the magazine, Amourora's thoughts were similar yet different.

'say, wouldn't it be beneficial to have them in my side?'