fluvia 82: Fluvia and the Capital Estate

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Chapter 82: Fluvia and the Capital Estate

The only bad thing about the debut season is that it starts off at the end of the rainy season.

Although the rainy days have become less frequent, it was inevitable that we had a few rainy days on the two week journey to the Capital.

Even with a rain-repel spell … thing on the exterior of the carriages and some sort of magical version of temperature control on the interior, it was still fairly miserable to be traveling in the rain.

In the first place, there’s no real air conditioning, so even if we warmed up the interior, it’s still pretty muggy due to the humidity.

Thankfully, it’s not as humid in this part of the country as compared to Japan, but it’s still miserable.

Although the laboratory in Roseat is great at progressing science, it’s the Ministry of Magic and its Magic Academy in the Capital that are at the cutting edge of magic innovations.

I’m pretty sure that air conditioning units are out of our current scientific reach, so maybe I should propose the idea to Minister Wynchestor.

He enjoys that sort of thing.

Still, there’s one thing that’s nice about the rain.

And that’s the gardens of the Dellarose Capital Estate.

The gardens back at home are certainly grand, but the gardens in the Capital are … well, extremely wonderful.

Especially the Climbing Rose Pavilion.

The Climbing Rose Pavilion is already lovely in fair weather.

As its name suggests, it’s decked out in climbing roses and other such climbing vegetation, but if left alone, climbing plants can make a building or structure look overgrown, or even run down.

The Climbing Rose Pavilion, however, looks perfect.

The climbing roses, wisteria, and ivy are trained meticulously, pruned and arranged so that, although it may look like the plants are growing as they please due to the asymmetric amount on one side of the pavilion to the other, there’s no way they’d normally grow like that, unfurling their leaves and blossoms against the stonework.

Normally, they’d just get super bushy and start looking unkempt, completely drowning out the structure they’re on.

By the way, the pavilion has a lot of stone lattices and ornate carvings, with the floor decorated with inlaid marble designs.

In order to keep the pavilion from looking top-heavy, the gardeners surrounded it with wide flowerbeds, filled with vibrantly colored flowers of varying heights.

During the day, the Climbing Rose Pavilion is a flower fairy’s palace, offering a wonderful view of the garden’s ‘natural’ pond and creek overshadowed by a willow tree, all framed in the flowers of the pavilion.

During the night, the magi-stone lights mounted like sconces on the pillars can be adjusted so that it’s brightly lit, giving the feeling of being enclosed in a separate world.

Or you could adjust them to be dim, giving off a soft glow that transforms the pavilion into an ethereal garden of the moon, enjoying the various glowing and night-blooming flowers out in the gardens.

But… the Climbing Rose Pavilion truly displays its uniqueness in the rain.

First off, the roof of the pavilion has been made to reduce the noise of the rain beating on it so that the ladies and gentlemen underneath could still hear each other.

But after installing the rain repel enchantment, to keep the inside of the pavilion completely dry, and whatever the various enchantments were needed to dampen the sound of the rain, Trevor Gasterl, a roofer specialized in enchantments, was struck with inspiration.

Instead of redirecting all the water to the gutters, he redirected most of it to the side with the most climbing plants.

When it rains heavily, the north side of the pavilion becomes a curtain of rain, framed by hanging vines and flowers.

And, a little bit further inwards, was a box.

The box was fairly large, and inside were metal pipes of various sizes hung upright, covered by metal bars.

It was essentially a xylophone or marimba, or some sort of similar instrument.

Above the box was an opening in the roof, allowing rain to fall onto the metal bars and giving off light sounds as the rain hit the bars.

If that’s all it was, the rain chime would have just been an interesting toy for nobles… but Trevor Gasterl was possessed with the spirit that sometimes takes over ‘artistes’, and the Dellarose Estate’s rain chime earned the name the Song of the Sky.

Even if I had a pretty mediocre understanding of sciences back in Japan, I’m pretty sure there’s no academic way the rain chime should be able to give off such a beautiful melody.

It’s magic, definitely.

That kind of enchantment is Trevor Gasterl’s strong suit, after all, but even he can’t tell us exactly how the Song came into being.

“Ahaha… somehow, I wanted it to sound better here or there, and by trying many different things, the Song exists. It is my greatest masterpiece, and one I will be chasing from here on out.”

He was both depressed and excited that he had created a genius piece of work that even he was mystified about.

According to Minister Wynchestor, it must be some sort of resonance with the layered enchantments Mister Gasterl had used, but Mister Gasterl…

“Ah… I wasn’t keeping track… There were times where I tried using a bit of a resonance enchantment, then did a few other things, and then decided it needed more of a resonance enchantment…”

Despite such a vague explanation, Trevor Gasterl’s inspiration seemed to trigger more inspiration among the Magic Academy and Margot’s Sorceror’s Order, and so as much as science and production are booming in the Dellarose Earldom, that much more has been booming in the fields of magic study and magic engineering in both the Capital and the Margot Earldom.

In short… although the Dellarose Earldom is becoming a veritable powerhouse in Valed, we’re not actually growing at a pace that threatens the rest of the country.

Or rather, the rest of the country is just about keeping pace with us.

The Lillian Earldom, for example, benefits greatly as the trading hub of our country, in exports and imports, so the other Earldoms growing in industry will only bolster them.

They’re also a major producer of citrus and other warmer weather produce, as well as coastal specialties, and as demand rises from our Earldom, they profit off of it.

Anyway, the Voice of the Sky is a high-tier, one-of-a-kind piece de resistance.

… It actually might well be a national treasure.

The outer casing is actually simple; a subtle grey marble with basic ornamentation and some silver and pearl decorations (… yes, I know, my money sense is getting messed up, but for something on par with a national treasure, the outer casing really is simple), but in a rain storm against a backdrop of a curtain of rain and flowers, with enchanting songs welling up from it – the Voice of the Sky is breathtaking.

Being invited to a tea party at the Dellarose Estate in the rainy season is the absolute highest honor for many nobles, right now.

But even so… …

“I wonder why we have such high profile guests the very day we returned to the Capital.”

The rain is falling steadily on the Capital, and I am currently having tea in the Climbing Rose Pavilion with some rather high-ranking guests.

Just so you know, we only arrived a few hours ago.

The Cornewall Barondom have their own estate in the Capital, so they have already departed to settle into their own home despite the wet, and yet… upon OUR arrival to OUR estate, we were suddenly surprised with the a notice for the visitation of Queen Ria and Lady Priscilla!

It’s not like we’re not ready for them; we have a full staff stationed at the Estate all the time, since Father and Edgar come to the Capital for business at all times of the year, and Mother has to come for the three major social seasons.

It’s good to have reliable staff here for an emergency, too, like when Queen Ria announced she was pregnant with the Flos-Valed-Regna family’s third child and Mother was pronounced as her godmother and, due to etiquette, Mother had to throw a grand soiree to celebrate the pregnancy.

By the way, yes.

The Crown Family had another child three years ago.

A little girl.

I can’t recall whether the Crown had any other children than the two princes in Yabukoi, but I can’t shake the distinct feeling that we might have deviated from the story…

Speaking of young children, Lady Priscilla is also looking a little heavy in the stomach lately.

It hasn’t been announced, but I believe the Minister of Magic’s relationship with his wife is doing well lately.

I wonder if it will be a boy or girl…

At any rate, Queen Ria, Mother, and Lady Priscilla are happily cooing over the little princess, currently being held in Mother’s arms.

To be honest, I also want to go over there, but…

Queen Ria and Lady Priscilla didn’t come over to visit alone.

At a little table a bit removed from the mothers was… well, us.

“It’s an honor to be visited by the Royal Family, no?”

Prince Anthony tilted his head back with a smirk, responding to my mild complaints.

Oh dear.

Over these three years, ‘the boys,’ (Prince Anthony, Prince Alexander, Brother, and Young Sir Mattias) have grown by quite a lot.

After all, children mature quickly, and even more so when talking about the children of nobles in high positions.

Still…

I get that 8-year-old boys naturally tend to develop a sense of self-importance as they try to work out where their place is in the world, but if our country’s First Prince continues to be so arrogant, I wonder if things will go well in the future…

Although that’s just an idle thought in my mind.

I’m actually not that worried.

As for why…

“Haah?! Aren’t you thinking too much of yourself? Even though Her Majesty and Princess Alette are always welcome, do you think we’d bother entertaining you if you weren’t with them?!”

“Dear Brother, even if we are the Royal Family, common courtesy should still be observed.”

“Indeed. Rather than saying it’s an honor for Fluvia and the Dellarose House for the Royal Family to come calling without prior warning, isn’t it more like it’s the honor for the Crown to be the first to hear the Voice of the Sky during the Debut Season?”

As Brother, Prince Alexander, and Young Sir Mattias rebuke him, Prince Anthony got red in the face, merely turning his head to the side in a huff.

Despite his self-important tone, Prince Anthony IS self-aware of how he sounds, after all.

The other three boys would never let him live it down if he wasn’t.

“Well, well. It’s fine. If we look at it another way, it’s quite the honor that the Royal Family is willing to change their schedules for us.”

I say, trying to gloss over the situation.

Even if we’re close enough to just say what we mean, Prince Anthony IS the First Prince, after all.

“It might not rain tomorrow, after all. Honestly, to think we’re so desperate to hear the Voice first this season…”

Prince Alexander said matter-of-factly.

“Nonsense. It’s out of courtesy to Lady Estella. If her closest friends weren’t the first invited to have tea and listen to the Voice, it would be a bit of an insult.”

Prince Anthony rebuked Prince Alexander.

Despite his often childish temper and tsun-tsun tendencies, our First Prince is still the son of Queen Ria and King Laurence.

It’s inevitable that he possesses the abilitiy to see through the truth of the matter.

Indeed, although Mother’s circle grown by quite a bit, she is still closest to Queen Ria and Lady Priscilla.

By taking that into consideration, her two closest friends made sure that she could start off the debut season right by showing off her closest ties.

It’s a noble thing that I’m still not that comfortable with emulating, but displaying your relationships isn’t just about showing off who you know; it’s also to show proof of your feelings.

It’s complicated, but when in Rome…

“You say that, but if that’s the case, you didn’t need to come along as well. Isn’t it because you wanted to see Young Lady Fluvia and Young Lord Fedor too?”

… Mattias, there are some things that are better off left unsaid.

Prince Anthony turns bright red, saying,

“O-of course not! I just felt like accompanying Mother today.”

“Hmm…”

Mattias just conceals a sly grin behind his teacup as he enjoy pushing our First Prince’s buttons.

Haa…

These children.

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Extra

Due to his more traumatic experiences, Prince Anthony was not even remotely a tsundere in Yabukoi, the two Princes didn’t have a close enough relationship to tease each other, Mattias wasn’t a friend of theirs until Academy, and Fedor was someone everyone actively avoided unless they had business or ulterior motives with him.

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<a/n: Welp, the boys will start getting a bit more characterization from now on. It’s their debut in more than one facet, lol>