RS 07

Chapter 7

The fact that Anais had asked a question after opening it did not matter much to her. Dolores closed her book and beckoned with her finger, and Anais hurried over.

The letter Anais had brought was, more precisely, less of a letter and more of a card folded in half. There were signs that it had already been opened.

“Ana, you—”

“I didn’t open it first! Pablo just took it out of the mailbox and gave it to me exactly like this!”

Horrified, Anais quickly shifted the blame onto Pablo. Dolores lightly tapped her on the head and walked toward the bed.

“What is Pablo doing right now?”

“He’s in the yard.”

“The yard?”

“I don’t know. He seemed pretty excited about something.”

Dolores unfolded the mail.

The sender was Claudia.

The letter said that the party being held at Pierre’s villa in Azaria would essentially be her farewell party, so Dolores absolutely had to attend if she loved her. At the end, it said that an invitation was enclosed.

“Were you invited to Pierre Thomas’s party?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, I saw an interview with him in L’Esquisse recently. Apparently, Pierre Thomas’s grandfather is incredibly famous in Limoges for copper metalworking. Is it true that the jewelers of Narpon send that family their finest jewelry every year?”

Her younger sister had only recently begun taking an interest in high society and the opinions of outsiders, so she avidly read cheap magazines like L’Esquisse, which were devoid of both substance and meaning.

L’Esquisse had been founded as a daily newspaper with the purpose of covering the daily lives of the Langeins.

“You already have so many of them stuffed into your drawers that they’re lying around everywhere.”

“My drawer is only this big.”

Anais clasped her hands together and offered what she considered a reasonable excuse, but perhaps even she realized how feeble it sounded, because she quickly changed the subject.

“Sister, are you going? Claudia is really well-connected. I’m jealous. But did you hear? Her Hennessy fiancé, you know. Apparently, he’s really difficult to deal with.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“I have my own network of informants.”

Dolores snorted at Anais, who proudly stuck out her insignificant little nose, and naturally looked for what should have been there.

“So, Sister, Sister, are you going or not?”

“No.”

“Why? Dad is going to come home after drinking a ton today, so we could go take a look around together before then.”

Anais naturally slipped in the assumption that we could go together like a fox.

Dolores had not spent time with the friends she had made in Lange for quite some time. More precisely, not since she had injured her leg.

She hadn’t particularly wanted to attend Pierre’s party either, but the thought that it might be Claudia’s farewell party made her hesitate.

Dolores examined the letter front and back before speaking flatly.

“Make a confession of conscience. You really brought it exactly as you found it?”

“What are you talking about?”

Claudia had clearly written that she would send an invitation along with the letter, but there was only a card inside the envelope.

Dolores examined the envelope again and suddenly felt something was strange.

There was no postmark from the Lange Post Office anywhere on the envelope. There was no official marking, nor any indication that postage had been paid.

“I’m asking whether you really found it in the mailbox and brought it up exactly as it was.”

“I only delivered it. Pablo suddenly went outside and brought it back. He told me to give it to you.”

Come to think of it, it was strange. Their house was located a little outside the city, so the mail carriers usually only came at the beginning of the week. It was extremely unusual for a letter to arrive at noon on a weekend.

Dolores put on a thin cardigan and went downstairs with her cane.

She wanted to see if perhaps Pablo had left an invitation in the mailbox. Anais followed lazily behind her.

But what on earth was this?

In the front yard of the Artois family home—which was too small to be called a mansion, yet slightly too large to be called an ordinary house—an utterly unexpected scene was unfolding.

Creak, creak.

The old swing installed beneath the shade of a tree in front of the house creaked as though welcoming her.

Pablo was sitting on the swing, playing by kicking his legs back and forth energetically. He had already managed to dirty the clothes he had put on clean that morning.

“When will I grow as tall as you?”

Beside him stood a tall young man, casually pushing the swing with one hand.

Creeeak, creeeak.

“Pab, you’ve grown this much since I last saw you. Is there really any reason to rush?”

Dolores’s heart slowed for the briefest moment.

It was Xavier.

He was dressed neatly in a luxurious beige shirt and dark gray vest. His tie had been carefully knotted.

The sight of sunlight slipping across his soft brown hair—right there in their front yard—felt almost like a dream.

“I want to grow up quickly. Studying is boring.”

“Once you grow up, you’ll probably realize that studying and everything else are pretty much the same.”

“Really? Then what did you study? I’ve only heard about Rudigen Academy, but it sounds like an incredible place. I heard just anyone can’t get in. Did you know? Even Sister really wanted to see—”

“Pablo!”

Dolores interrupted with a sharp yell. Startled, Pablo jumped off the swing and covered his mouth with both hands.

“Sister!”

“Go inside. Right now.”

Dolores’s face began turning bright red as she scolded him. Flustered, Pablo looked back and forth between Anais and Dolores.

“It’s been a long time.”

Anais greeted Xavier with a sullen expression, giving him a little wave.

Until a few years ago, Dolores had been close with Xavier, so Anais knew him well too. However, she did not like him nearly as much as Pablo did.

“Ana, you’ve grown so much too.”

“I’m at the age where I’m supposed to. You haven’t changed except for your height.”

“I’m at the age where I’m supposed to, too.”

His affectionate yet subtly crooked response earned a crooked smile from Anais in return. Then she grabbed Pablo by the wrist and said,

“We’re going to go clean the house.”

“Huh? No, wait, what?”

Caught in the quick-witted Anais’s grasp, Pablo was dragged away helplessly.

The clear calls of birds rang out overhead, pleasantly surrounding them.

The air was exceptionally clear today. A few white clouds were scattered across the blue sky.

Sitting sideways on the swing, Xavier looked up at the sky and said,

“I went on vacation to Deniro during the autumn break last year, partly to clear my head and partly so my father could introduce me to some people he knew. But even that place wasn’t the same as it used to be. It was probably because it was close to the center of the iron-mining industry, but the sky was always gray. I missed skies like that one so terribly.”

The corners of his lips curved gently upward, carrying a warmth that blended with the peaceful atmosphere of the little yard that could hardly even be called a garden.

It didn’t seem like Xavier had always smiled that way.

She couldn’t remember when it had changed, but the smile she remembered was that one.

“…I don’t care where you went on vacation last year. I asked what happened.”

“You received a letter, didn’t you?”

“You mean Claudia’s letter?”

“I accepted it so I could deliver it to you myself, since Clody said she was sending it to you.”

Xavier confessed simply.

He explained that because he wasn’t sure whether her father would be home, he had first given Pablo some spending money and asked him to deliver the letter.

It wasn’t difficult to understand. Her father generally disliked all of Dolores’s friends equally.

Dolores let out an irritated sigh.

“Father went out earlier. Didn’t Pablo tell you?”

“I had no idea. Pab isn’t exactly innocent, is he? When is your father coming back?”

“He said he had some business to take care of downtown, so he’ll be back before evening. I’ll have Pablo return the money you gave him. How many livres did you give him?”

Xavier waved his hand dismissively. A faint indentation was visible around the index finger of his left hand.

“It’s nothing. Forget about that. It’s actually perfect timing. Get ready and come with me. Let’s go to the party. Everyone will be waiting for you.”

“You’re the one who came back after such a long time. Why would they be waiting for me?”

“There were plenty of people who liked that nasty mouth of yours.”

Xavier joked as he placed his hand over the hand Dolores was using to turn her cane.

At the sudden warmth covering her hand, Dolores reflexively looked down at him.

“Does your leg hurt a lot?”

He asked.

“…Not enough to worry about, but enough that I can’t go to a party with you. Sorry about that.”

“You don’t need to apologize. At that level, I can just carry you around.”

“My father probably hates you more than any of my other friends. If news got out that I went around on your back, I’m sure he’d be delighted. I saw in yesterday’s newspaper that you’d returned.”