~Chapter 04~
She skillfully avoided the merchants and the horse-drawn carriages and entered the shop called “The Young Lady’s Little Drawer.”
“Hello, Catherine.”
“It’s been a while, Lady Moora.”
Unlike El’s cheerful greeting, Catherine answered with her usual calm and expressionless face.
Her long brown hair was neatly tied up without a single strand out of place.
She adjusted her glasses and reached out her hand.
El carefully took the embroidered handkerchief from her basket and showed it to Catherine.
“How is it?”
“Hmm…”
Catherine carefully examined the embroidery on the handkerchief.
After she finished inspecting, she took off her glasses and neatly folded the handkerchief.
El watched her with a slightly nervous expression.
“It’s better than last time. I’ll give you 10 bronze coins.”
“That’s more than before. Thank you.”
“And here. This time, I’d like to give you two handkerchiefs to work on. Is that alright?”
“Two is even better. I’ll make them even nicer this time.”
After receiving her payment and the new handkerchiefs, El quickly looked around the shop.
The shop was filled with pretty and delicate items like silk handkerchiefs, socks, beautifully embroidered fans, and gloves.
Just looking at these lovely things made El smile.
Catherine spoke.
“Take your time looking around.”
“I will when I have time. See you next time, Catherine.”
El smiled and left the shop.
Even though she did housework and sold goods at the market square, El wasn’t any different from other young ladies.
She liked smooth silk handkerchiefs and cute socks.
She wanted such things too.
But with her situation, those were things she could only dream of.
“I should go read books at the library.”
After her father passed away and her family fell into poverty, reading was the only luxury she could afford.
The Biden Library, a national library, had thousands of books organized by category.
Anyone could visit and borrow books.
She had been using the library for seven years now, and she knew the place better than the librarians themselves.
She checked to see if there were any new books and sighed lightly.
“No new books. I guess I’ll go to the Rodiel Library.”
Because she had visited the Baiden Library for so long, she had read every book there at least five times.
But she had only recently started going to the Rodiel Library, which was only for nobles.
There were still plenty of books there that she hadn’t read.
Thanks to noble sponsorship, they also received new books every month.
The only problem was that it was limited to nobles.
At times like this, her noble status—even if it wasn’t worth much anymore—was still useful.
“I’m sorry, only those with a library card may enter.”
“I have a card.”
Seeing her shabby clothes, the staff tried to stop her.
El quickly showed her library card.
The staff appeared to have changed once more.
Every time someone started working there, this was a common scenario.
“Eloise Moora, daughter of the Baron?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
The staff looked at her suspiciously.
With no maid accompanying her and wearing worn-out clothes, El hardly looked like a noble lady.
However, the head of the library recognized the card she displayed as authentic.
The employees, however, appeared hesitant to admit her.
They might have assumed she had stolen it or picked it up somewhere.
Observing the suspicion of the staff, El pulled out the book she had brought.
“I’m here to return the book I borrowed last time.”
The book had the Rodiel Library’s stamp on it.
The staff, looking displeased, finally stepped aside.
“You may go in.”
“Thank you.”
Despite the unfair treatment by the staff…
Even though the library staff treated her unfairly, El still smiled.
Since her father passed away, she has faced countless cold stares.
She had even gone through much worse, so a suspicious look from a librarian didn’t bother her anymore.
“I wonder if the new volume of The Wizard Pilate has come out yet?”
Lately, her biggest interest was the latest book in the Wizard Pilate series.
It wasn’t supposed to be out yet, but she checked the new arrivals section just in case.
“Hm, as expected, not yet. I’ll read something else then.”
An hour later, completely absorbed in her book, El barely made it to her meeting spot on time with John.
Seeing her running and wiping sweat from her forehead, John smiled kindly.
“You’re coming from the library, right?”
“Huff, huff. Yes. I was reading the next book in the series I started last time. I borrowed the rest, too.”
“Three books… That means I’ll see you again in two days. Haha.”
“Thank you, Mr. John.”
John fully understood her reading habits, so he planned to come back to the market in two days.
By then, his cheese would also be ready, giving him another reason to come to the square.
“Let’s head back. Your mother must be waiting for you.”
“Yes.”
John looked at El as if she were his beloved daughter.
He had known her since she was twelve years old, even though they were socially different as nobles and commoners.
When he first saw her, she had just moved into an old, crumbling cottage that had been empty.
He didn’t think much of her back then.
Even though her family had fallen, she was still a noble.
Nobles had nothing to do with him—that’s what he thought.
But the day after she moved in, El had come to his door, her face covered in dirt.
In her small hands was an unknown wild plant.
“Excuse me. I know it’s rude since we’ve never met, but can I ask you something? Is this plant safe to eat?”
“What?”
“My mother isn’t feeling well. I need to prepare food, but I shouldn’t feed her just anything. I don’t know much about plants… Is this one okay to eat?”
The little lady spoke politely, worried that she might be rude.
Seeing her small, pale face and clear, innocent eyes, John gave her some bread, cheese, milk, and a cabbage from his home.
“Eat this. And as for the cabbage, just chop it up and eat it raw.”
“Thank you very much.”
El bowed deeply, holding the food with both hands.
As she wobbled away toward her house, she turned back to look at John.
Thinking she had something more to say, John looked down at her.
“I’m Eloise from the Moora Baron family. You can just call me El.”
Her dirt-covered face shone with a bright smile.
That little girl had now grown into a proper young lady of nineteen.
But to John, she still looked like the child who once stood there holding wild plants she couldn’t eat.
Since that day, with John’s help, young El had learned to farm her cabbage and sell it at the market herself.
For the past seven years, John had watched over El, so to him, she was like his own daughter.
When El climbed onto the cart with her empty basket, John picked up the reins.
“Let’s head home, James. Giddy up!”
The old horse started moving with slow, heavy steps.
***
El had said she would be back in time for tea, but the sun was already setting.
As she stepped inside the house, she raised her voice.
“Mother, I’m home! I’ll prepare dinner right away, so please wait just a moment!”
A short while later, Laura came out of her room, her face looking pale as if she might faint at any moment.
“You’re late.”
“You must be hungry. I’ll make dinner quickly. I wanted to come back in time for tea, but James is just too slow. There’s no way I could make it any faster.”
“Be like a lady.”
El quickly lowered her lively tone and spoke more gracefully.
“I’ll prepare dinner right away.”
She warmed the hard bread to soften it up, melted some cheese, and prepared a warm cup of rose tea.
With that, dinner was ready.
“Let’s eat.”
“Yes, let’s.”
Laura hardly touched her food, even though she claimed to.
El kept a wary eye on her mother.
Her mother was the only family she could rely on in this world.
‘If I ever lost her…’
It was something she couldn’t even imagine.
After the simple dinner, Laura lay down in bed and quickly fell asleep as if she had collapsed from exhaustion.
El’s eyes became moist as she looked at her frail mother, but she wiped them and forced a gentle smile.
“Sleep well.”
She kissed her mother’s thin cheek and quietly left the room for the kitchen.
Lighting a fire with well-dried pieces of bark, she brought out the handkerchief she had received earlier and a piece of charcoal sharpened to a point.
Because her embroidery skills weren’t particularly good, she needed to sketch a rough outline before sewing.
Using the sharp charcoal, she drew some faint lines on the corner of the handkerchief where she would embroider.
“Hm, what flower should I stitch this time? A rose or a lily? No, a daffodil. In Wizard Pilate, Pilate gave daffodils to women, didn’t he? I’m sure it’ll become popular soon.”
Her keen sense of style helped it sell well even though her embroidery wasn’t flawless.
El was well-informed about events in the Kingdom of Eneritten because of her extensive reading habits and the rumors she heard from the Baiden Square.
With her curious nature, she naturally remembered all kinds of information without even trying.
After sketching a rough daffodil on the handkerchief, she set it aside.
She planned to finish the embroidery early in the morning under the bright sunlight.
And late at night like this, there was something else she needed to do.
“Of course, nighttime is for reading.”
It was her only form of relaxation, her one luxury.
El looked proudly at the three books she had borrowed from the library.
If she read whenever she had time, she could finish them in two days, just as John had said.
“Well then, let’s start the next one.”
Pulling her legs up onto the chair, she quickly lost herself in the world of books.
She read until the birch wood lamp burnt out and the light went out on its own.
