How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 18

The Caparoni Children and the Prince

At the Caparoni house, the Prince and the three Caparoni children were gathered in the salon.

The heir to the Marquess, Leonardo with his elfish beauty; the flower of high society, Alessia; the frail ephemeral princess Miriam (misunderstanding), and the First Prince who was always overshadowed by his close aide, Emilio (tragedy).

The tea party of two exceedingly good looking, and two slightly normal looking people had created a restless atmosphere.

‘These two probably don’t get along?’

Miriam, unable to feel relaxed, sipped tea from her tea cup. For some reason, her sister Alessia and Prince Emilio had been giving off sparks since earlier.

“So? Exactly what business did you have here, Your Highness? Could you please tell us once again?”

“No, as I said, I was curious to see if Miss Miriam was in good health…”

Emilio shrank back at Alessia’s full-fledged cold glare.

“For what reason? There is no need to ask after a lady you’re not even going to marry. And that’s not all. Please refrain from such actions such as calling Miriam by her name. It will only create useless misunderstandings.”

Emilio couldn’t defend himself with Alessia’s constant barrage. Miriam watched them nervously while Leonardo watched the two with a grin.

“About that, she is like a friend who is hard to come by. That’s why I wanted to ask after her well being.”

“So what? A friend who is hard to come by? Please don’t put my sister into such an ambiguous role.”

Alessia sipped her tea with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Ah, sister, about calling me by my name, His Highness asked me for permission first, and I gave it. So he is not at fault here.”

“Please call me Emilio, not Your Highness, Miss Miriam,” Emilio said, grabbing the hand of Miriam who’d come to his rescue, and planted a kiss on it.

As soon as he’d done so, Leonardo wedged himself in between them with great force, and Alessia wiped Miriam’s hand with her handkerchief.

“First you forced her to let you call her by her name then you planted a kiss on her hand! How shameless! It’s deplorable!”

“Can you not spoil my cute Millie!”

Emilio flinched as the two chastised him mercilessly.

“Hey! Just whose side are you on, Leo?!”

“Even if the whole world becomes my enemy I’ll take Sia and Millie’s side!”

“Then why did you even bring me here!?”

Emilio hounded his friend. He’d invited him to his house himself, but his personality did a complete flip when Emilio tried to talk to his sister.

“B-brother, sister! You’re being too disrespectful!”

Miriam quickly got up to assuage her brother and sister who had started a fight for some reason. This time, she was the one who wedged herself between Leonardo and Emilio.

“Ah! You really are my friend! You’re the only one who takes my side, Miriam!”

Feeling moved, Emilio grabbed Miriam’s hand while calling her name without any honorific.

“Your Highness! My hand…”

“It’s Emilio. Call me Emilio!”

“E-Emilio…”

Miriam blushed and looked down as embarrassment at her hand being held, and being called by her name set in. Seeing this, Leonardo and Alessia got up as if to pull them apart again. At this moment, a dawn coloured magic circle suddenly enveloped them, and Miriam and Emilio disappeared in an instant. It was teleportation magic.

“Miriam!? Brother, Miriam disappeared!”

Alessia, who had never seen teleportation magic before, was shocked to see her sister disappear in front of her eyes.

Leonardo had guessed it was Beatrice from the colour of the magic circle. He assumed she probably wanted to summon Emilio, and Miriam got pulled in as well.

“Calm down, Sia. That was a teleportation spell from the Witch of the Capital.”

“The Witch of the Capital? But why did she teleport Miriam?”

“She probably wanted to summon Emilio. Millie must have been summoned as well since they were holding hands. Something must have happened at the palace so I’m also going to have a look. When I find Millie, I’ll send her back immediately. Can you inform mother and father?”

Leonardo felt it must have something to do with the report about the person from another world. Seeing his face, Alessia also gathered that something unexpected must have happened and nodded in assent.

“I understand. Then I’ll leave Miriam to you. Then, I’ll go let mother and father know. Take care, brother.”

“Don’t worry, leave it to me.”

Saying so, the two set about on their tasks.

…………………

A few minutes earlier. The three Grand Witches, and Robin, were sitting around the round table in Beatrice’s mansion.

“Robin, do you like it? Oh, you’ve got some on your face. Hahaha.”

“Thank you, sister Reece*.”

(TN: *Beatrice’s nickname)

Robin smiled widely and thanked Beatrice who finished wiping his face.

“So cute! So cuuute! Eat a lot, okay?”

Ignoring Beatrice, who was mesmerised by young Robin, Valeria and Eleonora talked about the time warp incident.

“Hmm, a magic circle for space-time teleportation and a group wearing red robes… I wish we had more information.”

“Robin’s memory is blurry at that part. It’s because that memory has been manipulated so he won’t remember anything.”

“What do you think they’re after?”

At Eleonora’s question, Valeria closed her eyes and thought about it.

‘What had the person in the red robe said?’

“It’s just a kid… and a boy at that.”

‘They hadn’t wanted a child, and it looks like they didn’t expect a boy? So they were expecting a girl?’

‘So what they wanted was probably a girl above a certain age? Maybe they wanted to use someone convenient who wouldn’t remember the past…’

‘But if that was the case then there’s no need to go to the trouble of space-time teleportation. So, from the start, they were aiming for a girl from another world…?’

Valeria slowly opened her eyes and sipped her tea.

“They probably wanted a girl from another world. I don’t know for what purpose though.” Eleonora wondered while stroking her chin.

“It would be impossible to use space-time teleportation magic correctly without the complete knowledge about it. And it also requires a large amount of magic power. Some of the culprits must be quite familiar with magic. And they must have quite a few of them in their ranks.”

“All of them were wearing red robes. Do you know of any such group?”

“We should ask the person who deals with organisations. We should also call over the person who handles cases of people from another world. Do you know of anyone?”

“Yeah, the one in charge of both is Emilio!” Beatrice, who it seemed had been listening to their conversation, joined in.

“Then I’m gonna call him!”

“Yes, yes. We’ll leave it to you.”

Beatrice pulled out her wand and made a large circle pointing it towards an empty space.

A dawn coloured magic circle appeared. As the light faded, they saw Emilio and Miriam holding each other’s hands appear in its place. For a second, the three blinked in surprise when they saw the two. But then, the next moment, they were grinning and exchanging knowing looks with each other.

“What, you guys were having a secret meeting?”

“Pfft, it’s nice to be young.”

“Sorryyy, we interrupted you both, right?”

Flustered at the Witches’ pestering, Emilio and Miriam quickly let go of their hands.

“Ah, you’re wrong! We weren’t having a secret meeting!”

“Yes! We were just having tea at my house!”

The three got even more interested after seeing them make these excuses.

“Oooh, to have tea at Millie’s house… you guys must be really close?”

“You were just drinking tea? While holding hands?”

“So friendly, huh.”

“My brother and sister were also there!”

“Okay, okay, let’s go along with that.”

“It’s a misunderstanding!” Miriam screamed.

Seeing this, Beatrice laughingly told her they were just teasing. Once things had calmed down, they finally got down to business.

TN: hey guys I’m taking a break for a week since I’m traveling out of town. Will start posting daily in a week!