“I thought I told you that I would use a servant from the Lester family?”

“…..”

“So are you going to keep standing there?”

Giselle asked again with a gentle smile in her eyes.

Sched looked at his clever fiancée and thought.

It was obvious why Giselle had called Riana in.

“Riana. Go out.”

Sched ordered coldly.

Then Giselle smiled beyond Sched.

“Go out and bring some more tea and cake. I have nothing to serve Lord Lester.”

“Giselle Marlhein.”

“Sit down, Lord Lester.”

The air in the small office became stifling.

Riana thought about how to conduct herself in that gap.

“I’ll prepare it, Grand Priest.”

Riana bowed lightly and took a step.

She felt Sched’s piercing gaze on her back as she left the office.

She escaped from that gaze and sorted out her emotions for a moment.

A cool breeze gently brushed her cheeks along the corridor connected to the courtyard.

Only then did it seem like she could breathe a little.

Thanks to the construction on one side for the temple restoration, there were no sacred objects, angel statues, or paintings of angels stabbing demons to death in the corridor.

There was only a rough stone path under her feet.

And in the cracks of that stone path, a plain dandelion was blooming.

Yes. Riana was such an existence.

It announces the coming of spring for a moment, but it’s just a brief feast for the eyes that blooms and withers.

An existence that can’t even decorate the garden, and rather is treated as a weed.

Swallowing a bitter smile, she moved her steps avoiding the dandelion.

She boiled water and scooped sugar in the kitchen.

And she put the lemon meringue tart that the maids had prepared earlier on a plate.

When she went out to the corridor with expensive tea and tart, the dandelion caught her eye again.

Riana stopped for a moment in front of the dandelion and then moved on.

The dandelion was trampled under her old shoes with worn heels.

That’s what dandelions are.

A common and trivial existence that can be stepped on and passed by even if it catches the eye.

Also an existence that will soon be forgotten.

The trampled dandelion, pretending to have a calm expression, opened the door after a light knock.

As she entered, Sched’s brow furrowed at the sight of her return. As if he had hoped she wouldn’t come back.

Riana calmly placed the refreshments she had brought on the table despite his gaze.

She skillfully brewed tea, filled the cups of the two people, and stepped back far away.

“You’ve taught that child well, my lord? Her tea brewing skills are excellent…”

Giselle said, taking a sip of the tea Riana had poured.

“Did you personally want that child, Grand Priest?”

“Yes. Among the Lester family’s maids, that child caught my eye at first glance.”

“Caught your eye?”

“Such a pretty face is bound to stand out.”

When Giselle laughed, Sched’s face hardened coldly.

“I didn’t know the Grand Priest could give such compliments.”

“It’s not so much a compliment as an objective assessment, isn’t it? Don’t you think so too, Lord Lester?”

The golden gaze turned to Riana and then back to Sched sitting in front of her.

Sched spoke in a low voice without touching the refreshments.

“…It seems you’ve become quite close to the maid in the meantime.”

“She was a good conversationalist.”

Giselle smiled sweetly at the displeasure on his face.

Her fiancé was holding his head up more stiffly than usual.

His lips were also stubbornly closed.

It made him look more intimidating, but Giselle knew.

That stiff posture meant that Sched Lester was nervous.

“What reason would the noble Grand Priest have to make such a maid her conversationalist?”

Sched said, narrowing his eyes.

Giselle has maids.

Even if not maids, there are plenty of people who can be suitable conversationalists.

Yet she chooses Riana as a conversationalist?

“Because the temple is open to everyone. We need to talk to various people to understand the true appearance of the world that God intended.”

Sched looked at his fiancée answering in a gentle voice.

‘It seems Riana bothered you quite a bit.’

That proud and haughty Grand Priest, to set up such a petty trap and pretend not to while probing like this.

It was unlike Giselle Marlhein.

“So why did you call me today? Do you intend to preach about the true appearance of the world you discovered from that maid?”

“Of course not.”

Giselle raised her eyebrows slightly and smiled at Sched’s sharp words.

“The temple renovation will be finished soon, so I was thinking of holding a festival as the temple reopens.”

“A festival?”

“The Great Holy Day is approaching as well.”

Giselle handed him a proposal for the Great Holy Day festival.

Sched looked at Giselle with a hardened face.

“Do you think Paradel is in a situation to hold a festival, Grand Priest?”

Outside, heretics were rampant, and inside, work was in full swing for people’s settlement.

They were busy just with the work needed to control the people who had flocked in all at once.

They needed homes to settle in, jobs to make a living, and a system to control conflicts and maintain order.

A festival in the midst of all this?

“The protective barrier is complete, and the safety inside Paradel is secured, so I don’t see why not.”

“A festival conducted in an unstable state will only intensify confusion, Grand Priest.”

Sched thought Giselle’s proposal was thoughtless.

If she had looked around this city, she wouldn’t have thought of proposing something like a festival.

At the Duke’s stubborn refusal, Giselle threw a glance at Riana, who was standing far away with her mouth shut.

“What do you think?”

At Giselle’s sudden question, Riana’s head lifted.

“This is not a matter to seek a maid’s opinion on.”

Sched cut off her question sharply, but Giselle calmly lifted her teacup.

“When deciding on matters of the domain, we should also hear the thoughts of the domain’s people.”

Giselle answered in a casual voice and took a sip of tea.

As if urging an answer, Giselle’s eyes stared at Riana over the teacup.

“How dare I add words to the affairs of my superiors?”

The wise maid bowed her head deeply.

Then, as if bored with such bickering, Giselle put down her fork and said.

“I told you. It’s important to listen to the words of people like you below us.”

A look that said she wouldn’t be satisfied unless she heard it.

Finally, Riana glanced at Sched once and carefully opened her mouth.

“It’s presumptuous for someone as lowly as me to dare say, but I think a festival is not simply a waste or luxury for pleasure.”

As Riana supported Giselle’s argument, Sched’s gaze fixed on her.

“Events like festivals bring rain to parched hearts.”

A festival was not simply an excuse to play.

It brings vitality to the region and brings scattered people together.

Perhaps the festival could be an opportunity to embrace people who have just gathered and are busy being wary and competing with each other.

“Moreover, the temple is currently the place people are looking forward to the most.”

As they gathered because of the protective barrier, there is great gratitude and expectation for the temple.

For such people, the temple is an important place.

“As it is a day commemorating the reopening of the temple on the Great Holy Day, I only hope that God’s mercy and grace will be abundant.”

It wasn’t simply about eating, drinking, scattering flower petals and fireworks, or holding a fancy ball.

A festival where dirty streets are cleaned to decorate the village with flowers, and where people share what each other needs.

An opportunity to thank God for His grace, pray for peace, and warmly care for each other.

Also, as the great saints did, it will be a day when the temple extends a hand to the poor with relief goods and to those in difficulty.

In other words, the Great Holy Day festival will be a day to purify and boost the still chaotic Paradel.

Giselle smiled at Riana’s words.

“Isn’t it admirable, Lord Lester? Even a maid thinks so deeply about the domain, how can we be lacking?”

Giselle laughed pointedly as if to say the maid was better than the duke.

Sched looked at Riana with cold eyes.

Riana met his gaze without flinching.

Of course, she thought Sched’s argument had merit too.

As a realistic lord’s judgment, Sched’s choice might be more correct.

But sometimes people need escapism.

The two stared at each other without avoiding each other’s gaze, as if in a tug-of-war.

Giselle’s eyes narrowed as she watched the two’s gazes intertwined in the air.

And then.

Splat.

The tart on the table fell to the floor at the tip of Giselle’s hand as she lifted her fork.

“Oh my.”

Giselle lightly frowned at the lemon meringue tart that had fallen onto her shoe.

The meringue was crushed on the white shoe and the lemon filling smeared.

Giselle’s eyelids, which had been directed at her own feet, gently lifted.

She looked at Riana, raising her long eyelashes.

Her golden eyes shone with a kind light as she looked at the maid once, then pointed with her eyes at the tart that had fallen on her foot.

Without saying a word, it was a more precise instruction than any language.

The role of a maid that Riana Serpens had to perform silently.

And as Giselle had believed, the smart maid knew how to fulfill her duty without needing to be ordered.

Riana took out the handkerchief she always carried with her, approached Giselle, and knelt down to lower her body.

Then more agitation spread in the Duke’s eyes.

Riana calmly cleaned the tart off Giselle’s shoes and wiped her shoes.

There was a time when she was infinitely ashamed to show such a side of herself in front of Sched.

But now that she had shown her very bottom, it didn’t matter anymore.

While Giselle’s shoes became clean, her hands became dirty, but the whole process seemed as natural as the order of the world.

At that moment.

“Stand up. Riana.”

A cold voice pierced her ear.

When she looked up, Sched was glaring at her with clenched teeth.