How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 20

A Night in the Forest

In the middle of the forest, which was so dense you couldn’t even see the sky, the trees parted suddenly to form a small clearing.

It had a small cottage with a small garden. There were also several livestock, and a small well. 

Valeria’s house was completely different from Beatrice’s. 

Once you entered, instead of an entrance hall, you came directly to the living room and kitchen.

The inside had white walls with a large window attached to a window seat. The window seat had various exotic cushions in different sizes lined up on it. Similarly, exotic lamps were placed here and there in the room. A plush rug was placed on the solid wood floor, and that too had a big cushion on it. Cooking utensils such as pots and ladles were hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen that looked like it was used frequently.    

The living room had three doors which opened into a bathroom, a corridor that led to the bedroom and a guest room, and a study, respectively.

“You’ll have to take off your shoes in my house.”

“Huh? Take off my shoes!?”

It was generally considered improper to take off one’s shoes in front of others. Recently, such acts had become tolerable among commoners, but, for an aristocrat, it was inconceivable. Therefore, Miriam hesitated for a bit, but she had no choice but to obey the rules of the house. 

“I can’t bear to wear shoes even inside the house. Isn’t it too cramped.”

“Aaa, I can feel the cool air on my bare feet.”

“Are you alright, sister Millie? You look weird!”

Miriam, who was not used to walking in bare feet, felt a bit reluctant but, having no choice, resigned herself to it. 

Valeria took off her black robe and, hanging it on the wall, waved her wand over herself.

A lapis lazuli coloured magic circle slowly descended down her. As the light dispersed, Miriam saw her black dress had turned into a simple below-the-knee apron dress. 

It was a white dress with frills tied with a dark blue apron over the skirt. Although the length was too short, it looked surprisingly good on Valeria. If Valeria didn’t open her mouth she would look like a beautiful doll. 

“Oh, this is so cute… It looks good on you Lady Valeria.”

“I know.” Valeria replied with an expression that said ‘isn’t it obvious’ to Miriam’s praise. 

“Ok, so in order to eat in this house, you have to work! So, naturally, I have a bunch of tasks for you, Millie!”

“O-of course! Though I don’t know if I will be useful…”

…………………………………………

“I knew it but you really can’t do anything! It’s rather refreshing!” Valeria was looking at Miriam in amazement.

Miriam was supposed to help with dinner, but this was her first time doing anything of the kind so the result was rather sad.

Peeling was scrapped immediately as it looked like she would chop her fingers off with the knife. When she was told to peel the onion, she ended up peeling it to the last layer, and she almost caused an explosion when asked to make the bread instead. So she was asked to set the table but she dropped all the plates. Finally, Valeria asked her to fetch water from the well, but fearing she was going to fall in, told her to stop.

In the end, her task was to sit and wait since doing anything else was a hindrance to Valeria.

It turned out Robin used to help his mother in his own world so he took over Miriam’s tasks.

“I want to bury myself in a hole…”

“Sister Millie, you can set the forks and spoons on the table.” The seven year old suggested. 

While she was lining up the cutlery feeling miserable at herself, Valeria brought over a bowl of vegetable cream soup. 

Miriam’s stomach grumbled at the delicious scent wafting to her nose.

The spread consisted of freshly baked walnut bread. There was also a platter of steamed sausages and root vegetables topped with an egg and vinegar sauce. Then there was baked fish coated in flour and herbs, and topped with scented butter.

Lastly, a citrus salad made up of thinly cut leafy vegetables mixed with citrus fruits was brought out.

“L-lady Valeria, you cooked all this yourself? Without using magic? That’s amazing!”

“Well I’ve been living by myself for 800 years. It would be awkward if I can’t even do some cooking. Come, let’s eat!”

“Looks good! You’re amazing, sister Lea!”

They started eating after saying their prayers. It wasn’t a gourmet meal or anything, but Miriam felt her heart warm at the hearty meal.

“It’s delicious.”

“Really? That’s good. Hey, Robin, you’re spilling some. Ah, there’s some on your mouth too!”

“Waah, it’s really good! Almost as good as my mama’s cooking!”

Robin replied innocently to Valeria’s fussing. The dinner which had a slightly different feel to eating with family, was spent in pleasant company of each other. 

……………………………………　

After putting Robin to sleep, Valeria and Miriam sat down to have some tea before bed.

Miriam sat directly on the plush rug and sipped on the herb tea that’s supposed to help relax.

It was her first time to drink tea while sitting on the floor. She was a bit surprised at how relaxed she felt at this house whose aesthetic sense was completely different from that of a noble’s house.

“Sorry for bringing you along today. You never would have thought that you’d end up spending a night in the forest, right?” Valeria said while laughing.

“No need to worry, it was a wonderful experience for me. It’s become painfully clear to me how, so far, I’ve been living depending on other people.” 

“You even got a bump on your head.”

“Yeah, this too is a new experience for me.”

Miriam had slipped and hit her forehead on the ground when she had gone to fetch water from the well. This was the first time since she was born that she’d gotten a bump.

She felt a growing appreciation for her maid who fetched water for her. 

“Umm, can I ask you something?”

“What?”

Miriam wanted to ask about some questions she had regarding the ‘Space-time teleportation magic’ she had overheard about this afternoon.

If such a spell existed then shouldn’t there be a way to send Robin back to his own world, and even Valeria, for that matter… 

“It’s about space-time teleportation magic. I was wondering if you can use it to send Robin, and even yourself, back to your own world. Or is that not possible?”

Valeria took a sip of tea then answered Miriam’s question, “It is possible to transport yourself to another world. In theory, that is.”

“So if you want to go back, you can?”

“That’s out of the question. Or rather, it’s impossible.” Valeria readily rejected Miriam’s guess.

“Why is that? Ah… is it because your body has stopped aging?”

“That’s also the case but it’s not that big of a problem.” Valeria took another sip of her tea.

“Hey, Millie? In order to transfer to another world, you have to distort space-time and connect two dimensions together.” 

“… I see”

“Then, do you think there is only one other dimension? How can we just say this world and that world? That’s because there may be other dimensions out there! And we can’t be sure that the connection from our world to the other dimension will be on the same time axis. You might go back a 1000 years in the past, or 10,000 years in the future! Time is always moving forward, other than me whose time has been stopped. The present will slowly turn to the past. … It’s almost impossible to have a time warp to the same dimension at the same time…”

Miriam hung down her head in disappointment. She felt embarrassed at her misconception that if Valeria wanted to go back she could easily do so. 

Valeria let out a puff of air at Miriam’s look. “That’s why I’m against forceful summoning of people from another world against their wishes. I definitely won’t forgive them. I’ll feed the culprits to the beasts in this forest!”

Miriam glanced sideways at Valeria who looked magnificent with her lapis lazuli eyes frozen like ice as she muttered those words. But, wanting to confirm something, she interrupted the conversation as she spoke up.

“Umm, what about forcefully transferring a person in the same world without regarding their feelings?” 

“Well if it’s Millie and Emilio then it’s okay! Cuz it’s funny!”

Miriam sighed and stared into the distance at another selfish exclamation from Valeria.