Chapter 8: Tea Time with Lydia
Ruri traveled down to the kitchen in sector one. She wanted to have some tea made to eat with the cake she bought for Lydia. Hearing her request, the cook asked if she’d like it served in a saucer instead of a teacup. Although it was their form of courtesy to make sure it was easy enough for a cat like Ruri to drink it, it still left Ruri in an awkward position. They also talked about cooling it to room temperature for her, so she had to scramble to tell them to serve it hot. The cook didn’t say anything aloud, but on the inside, their entire concept of a cat was probably crumbling before their eyes. It was an unavoidable consequence, however, since Ruri wasn’t actually a cat, meaning she didn’t have any innate aversion to hot things.
Ruri placed the tray with the prepared tea into her pocket space and hopped inside herself. As soon as she stepped inside, she saw Lydia, in her materialized form, placing that same tea tray on a table.
“Welcome back, Ruri,” Lydia greeted, flashing her usual gentle smile.
Ruri asked Lydia to take off the bracelet, and she reverted back to human form. Then, she took a seat at the table, where the cake she bought at the cafe was already set out.
“This cake is from a popular cafe in the capital. Try some.”
“Oh, I’m in for a treat, then.”
After watching Lydia take the first bite, Ruri dug into her own slice of cake. It was a different cake from the one she ate at the cafe, but it was still outstanding, living up to the shop’s stellar reputation.
Enraptured, Ruri asked Lydia, “So? How is it?”
“It’s so very good. Thank you, Ruri.”
Satisfied with that answer, Ruri decided to tell Lydia the recent news, the major events being Rin’s arrival and Euclase finding out her identity. Once she finished, Lydia smirked.
“You can be quite scatterbrained, Ruri. But this ‘Euclase’ person hasn’t changed their attitude now that they know you’re a human, have they?”
“They haven’t.”
“I don’t see the issue, then. I doubt that any dragonkin, who unlike humans can see spirits, would do anything to a Beloved in the first place. If they did, they would only upset the spirits. So even if they react unfavorably to learning you’re a human, you’ll be fine; I’ll protect you.”
“So you think I should speak up as soon as possible, too, Lydia?”
“I do. Keep it a secret for too long and you won’t be able to speak up when you need to. I mean, it’s already gotten too awkward for you to do so, hasn’t it?”
“You’d be right...”
Some time had passed since Ruri started living in the castle. Jade, his aides, and all of the people of the castle treated Ruri favorably. However, they seemed to look at her like they would a pet animal. It put her in a difficult place. If she were to suddenly come out as a human after all this time, the way they’d look at her would definitely change, and the way they interacted with her would get awkward.
She regretted not coming out with the truth from the start, but it was too little, too late.
“Unghh~” Ruri groaned, clutching her head.
“You’ll need to tell them eventually, so muster the courage.”
“I’ll take a trip to Chelsie-san’s and talk it over with her first.”
Ruri figured that if anyone knew the most about Claus, it would be Chelsie, his mother. She might even gain some insight behind what he meant when he said he was “glad she wasn’t a human.”
“...Oh, right. Lydia, did you know that Kotaro was a spirit? I was shocked when I heard the news from Rin,” Ruri said, abruptly changing the subject.
Lydia giggled to herself before answering. “But of course I knew. We’re both spirits of the highest level, after all.”
“You could have filled me in, you know.”
“Since we’re both spirits, we can understand each other’s intent non-verbally, but I can’t tell exactly what he is thinking at any given time. I just thought that the reason you didn’t know was because Wind wasn’t telling you on purpose. I never would have thought he was in an ill-fitting body and had lost his ability to speak completely. And seeing as how Wind wasn’t speaking up on his own, and since I can’t leave here, I don’t have a detailed knowledge of the goings-on in the outside world.”
Lydia chuckled. She was seeing Ruri in a new light, and she found her ditzy behavior endearing.
“By the way, I ended up naming Rin without knowing, but is that okay? She did come up to me practically begging for a name. But how was it for you? Oh, right. Your former contract-bearer was the First Dragon King, wasn’t it?” asked Ruri, remembering the portrait she saw in the castle’s treasure room. She looked around the space until she found the same portrait of the First Dragon King hanging on the wall.
“Yes, that’s right. But how did you find out? I don’t ever recall talking about that.”
“Someone filled me in after I noticed a similar portrait to that one hanging in the castle,” Ruri replied while pointing at the painting.
Lydia then looked off into the distance reflectively as she began to talk. “I don’t know how he came across in the Nation of the Dragon King, but he really didn’t have what you’d call a ‘king’s demeanor.’ He was mischievous and a practical jokester, like a big child,” explained Lydia, recalling the past with an extremely delighted expression on her face.
“Oh wow,” Ruri responded.
“He always wanted to give me a name, but I consistently turned him down. But he was pretty persistent. I found myself suckered in somewhere along the way, and I ended up spontaneously agreeing.”
Lured by how beautiful Lydia looked as she tenderly smiled, Ruri ended up asking her, “Did you love the Dragon King? Were you two in a romantic relationship of some kind?”
Lydia’s eyes opened wide and she smiled wryly. “We were never romantically involved on any level.”
“Really?” Given how she treated the portrait with such great care, and given her attitude recalling memories about him, Ruri had been convinced that they were. It seemed she had been wrong.
“But I could see...” Lydia started, but she stopped her sentence short.
However, Ruri had a feeling that Lydia’s smile held all the answers she needed.
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