“Will this look good on them?”

“That? I’m sure they’ll viciously fight over it. Wow, are you planning to make them turn their back on each other so that they will destroy themselves?”

Rubica took that nonsense as a compliment in the form of a joke.

“Really? Then I should work even harder.”

She was delighted and started to move her needle fast, but Ios took a step back to see it.

‘I know nymphs are really smart and cold, but…’

She was even humming happily. It reminded him of her skill he had witnessed at Argot Street. Yes, it wasn’t a good idea to become a nymph’s enemy. Becoming her cousin had been the right choice.

‘But what if I make a mistake and offend her?’

Then, he would face what Iber’s underlings were about to face. He thought of Edgar’s angry face and the curses he muttered, plus how Minos had warned him to be careful as nymphs are extremely protective of their spouses…

Ios could feel cold sweat running down his back. Rubica had seen him fight with Edgar more than once already.

She appeared to be calm now, but his cousin was merciless enough to hum while making something that was about to cause an internal conflict.

“Ahhhhh!”

Rubica was really surprised to hear him scream so suddenly as she hadn’t known she would ever hear a dragon scream.

“I’ll be nice to Edgar!”

“What?”

“I’ll behave, I won’t fight!”

He suddenly yelled so and then looked at her nervously. Why was he doing that? Rubica didn’t know why, but he looked at her pleadingly as if he was begging for an answer.

“I thought… you two were on good terms already.”

“Of course!”

Ios affirmed it without much thought. If Edgar had seen it, he would have been outraged at his lie, but Rubica was truly happy to hear it.

“Oh, and Ios, could you take a look at this?”

“What? What?”

What kind of dangerous scheme was she planning now? Ios was really afraid, but what she showed him were sketches of various headdresses.

“I think I can give the hat to Blanco as she has no horns, and what do you think would be right for Snow and Shasha?”

She was making headdresses for the underlings she hadn’t met yet, but Minos wasn’t much help to it as he was a goblin and all goblins lacked a sense of beauty. She hoped Ios would be able to offer her some good opinions as he had an obsession with pretty flowers and probably knew to tell what beauty was.

However, when Ios took the sketches, he frowned really hard. Maybe none of them were going to match the underlings. Maybe it had been a mistake to trust Minos’s description.

“Weren’t you… going to destroy them all?”

“Destroy them?”

Was she trying to sound him out? Or was she just teasing him when she had been planning to really give out gifts? Trying to figure it out gave Ios a severe headache. He tended to avoid it when he encountered a hard problem instead of finding a solution.

“I forgot to add eggshells when giving fertilizer to my trees.”

“Ios, wait!”

But today, she wouldn’t let him leave like this. She looked quite solemn, so she was probably going to scold him for running away like that every time.

“You must choose among these for me before you leave.”

However, she just gave him the sketches again. His legs wobbled when freed from their fear. He felt like he had been a fool to be afraid, even for a short moment.

“Can’t you just choose whatever you want?”

“How can I do that? These will be their first headdresses. They will get to remember it forever, and I want to make a good memory for them.”

That much was enough to let even Ios realize she wasn’t making them to cause an internal conflict. She tended to give things out for free. Moreover, she had given Ios her roses and ribbons for free. It seemed she lacked one of the nymphs’ distinctive characteristics, cold-heartedness. Maybe she was…

‘Considered a stupid nymph.’

That could be why she had left the nymph’s island and married a human. Suddenly, Ios felt pity for her. Why had she chosen a creature that lives such a short life as her spouse? She was a being who would live an eternal life. Would she able to handle the pain when the short time with her lover ended?

Ios wished she could live happily and do what she wanted, even for a short while.

And what she liked the most was to make clothes for each of her friends, regardless of which species they were. Even the clothes Ios was wearing right now had been chosen by her. She had wanted to make clothes for him herself, but Edgar had strongly objected to it.

“Shasha has three horns on her head, she won’t be able to wear a hat.”

Ios changed his mind, sat down, and started to choose the designs carefully. He stayed at the mansion for two days to do it, and of course, Edgar wasn’t glad about it at all.

***

Rubica and Edgar could leave for Iber’s territory only after two weeks. A lot had happened in the meantime. For starters, the scandal of Christopher and Baron Jacob was published in The Little Bird’s News.

“Then I’ve been having a murderer make dresses for me?”

“I even let him measure my size with only one maid with us… if he hadn’t liked the price I offered then, he would have strangled me with his tapeline.”

His theft of others’ designs was one thing, but he had done several other things as well, so the news spread in no time. Soon ladies were talking about it whenever they met. The fact that he was a vicious criminal was shocking as he had usually been so elegant and neat.

“You know what? Christopher was wearing a corset when he was arrested by the peacekeepers.”

And there was a girl with a voice as clear as a canary’s singing who chimed in their conversations and delivered new information.

“He was wearing a corset?”

“Oh, to think about it, he was quite… pervert-like.”

“He was obsessed with thin waists.”

“Was it all because of his sense of inferiority?”

“He kept criticizing Madam Khanna, maybe it was because of that too…”

Unfortunately, Rubica couldn’t afford to join such entertaining conversations. She finished on her gifts for Iber’s underlings just before their time to depart.

While the king wasn’t stamping his seal on the permission for Edgar’s travel, Minos had succeeded in making Iber’s underlings agree on a few things.

First, they were going to meet at the entrance of the territory, not inside it. Claymore was also going to bring only the minimum number of attendants, and in turn, only Blanco, Shasha, and Snow were going to be there, just right for the number of headdresses Rubica had prepared.

“The northeast land is cold and moist, and Iber’s territory is the worst. Even though we are going to meet them at the entrance, we must be prepared.”

“Is it really that cold there? Most of the dresses I’ve sent to our shop there were for summer and autumn…”

Minos’s advice only concerned Rubica about something totally different. This woman loved making others pretty so much that it was a pity she had been born in a noble family.

“The underlings are not like humans. Iber’s underlings are especially not bothered by the cold. If they wear winter coats now, they will say it’s too hot for them. They put scarves around their necks only after the snow has piled until it reaches your height.”

“Snow piles up that high there?”

“Seritos’s winter is known to be severe, but that area’s winter is beyond anyone’s imagination.”

Rubica had been to many lands, but she had never been to Iber’s territory. Minos kept talking about how barren and scary the area was, but it couldn’t ruin Rubica’s good mood. It was her first trip with Edgar.

“Edgar, it’s snowing outside.”

They couldn’t go out. All they could do was to open the window to enjoy the scenery, but it was enough for her. Thinking she might be able to run in that snowy field under the brilliant sunlight on their way home gave her hopes.

“It’s cold.”

However, despite her excitement, Edgar just coldly closed the window and put gloves on her hands.