The days kept passing by, and before I knew, three months had passed. By that point, I had become pretty accustomed to my newly found routine of taking care of the greenhouse’s plants. Of course, taking care of Violett was my priority. She needed to be feed every two hours or so, even at the middle of the night. I’m quite a light sleeper, so I would wake up whenever she started to make a fuss.

—You have to let us help you, Madame. This is not open to discussion.

Carmila had declared after I had told her I could do it by myself. All of the attendants, even Sophie agreed with her, so there was little I could do.

—Fine, each of you will have a turn each night.

I would still wake up whenever someone entered my room, but knowing it was one of my trusted maids helped me sleep soundly shortly after that, at least until the next turn. Once morning arrived, I bathed Violett with Sophie’s help, and took a bath myself. We ate breakfast together, and then went to work on the greenhouse. I had planted lots of flowers and plants of all sorts, following the indications of Victor of course, but I only had tiny sprouts. We had built a pretty improvised composter, and it was already producing fertilizer from our food scraps and fallen leaves. I had immediately and impulsively applied it to all of the pots, so I didn’t know if they were growing especially fast. I would have liked to leave one plant without it, but I couldn’t choose which to “neglect”.

—And this is the pot where I planted the Rose Nymph —I told Violet as I watered said point—, with any luck, it will grow up into something beautiful by the time you can appreciate it… I hope.

I had remembered reading somewhere that talking to babies helped their cognitive development, so I tried to keep Violett at my side at any moment and describe her everything I was doing. I brought the stroller with me so I could put her there, but I liked to carry her on my arms as much as possible. The Rose Nymph, by the way, still hadn’t sprouted. Despite this, the Botanist still praised my work on every visit, though I was convinced he was just being kind and polite. He also has been helping me take care of the plants, and after that we chatted over some tea under the gazebo. After work was done, during the first hours of the afternoon, I would have my lunch. Then it would be “play time” with Violett, I would either read her a book or sang to her. I occasionally also gave her massages, though I had practically no idea what I was doing.

At dusk, we would take a nap, have dinner, take another bath, and maybe read a bit more before going to sleep. Anna, Marcus, and their grandpa visited us every so often, and helped with whatever they could, even if it wasn’t a work meant for an adventurer. They were the ones that build the composter. Nora took an interest in the swordswoman, and they started to have spares and train together. I was surprised to find out the maid was the one with the upper hand most of the time. While seeing their train, it occurred to me to ask Marcus about magic.

—Are you perhaps interested in learning how to use it? —he asked.

—Not exactly, I have no aptitude for it, so I resigned to never been able to use it —I said—, but I’m intrigued by it, from an entirely academic point of view.

He faintly smiled, and proceeded to spew a lot of undiluted information about the topic, as if a dam had broken. I somehow managed to understand the basics, but as expected, I couldn’t replicate it at all. That didn’t seem to lower his motivation, as he was more into teaching it than getting me to actually cast a spell.

Finally, my last recurrent guest was the good Doctor, Maxwell Conrad. He came every two weeks or so to check up on both Violett’s and my own health. Thankfully, she was in perfect health every visit. As for me…

—Take a deep breath —he said, but it was pretty difficult to do so with Sylphie’s cold skin touching my back.

I sat on a corner of my bed, with my back uncovered so he could “hear” my lungs. I was regretting mentioning him that my throat had been a bit sore for a couple of days, which prompted him to give me a very meticulous and thoroughly exam.

—I don’t think it’s anything serious —he said, without apologizing for the unnecessary tests—, I’ll give you something for your throat, but if it still sore after three days, or it gets worse, call me immediately.

—Sure, sure —I said, readjusting my blouse.

—By the way, have you stayed in contact with the Queen? —he casually asked.

I raised my eyebrows. Showing interest in such trivial matters was very uncharacteristically of him, more so asking so openly. Then again, for someone with as poor bedside manners as him, it wasn’t as strange that he would be so bluntly.

—Y-yes, we have been exchanging letters —I said.

I have been forcing myself to break my old customs, and write more than the bare minimum on my replies. It was hard for me to come up with anything to write on them, though. I eventually just started to write about Violett’s care and daily activities, and suddenly the page was already full. This had the unexpected effect of making Erzi send letters more frequently, and writing more in each one.

—So you surely have heard about her second son’s birth.

—Ah, yes! —I said, a bit too excited—I was very worried when Erzi told me the birth was expected to happen that same week, and then she didn’t write back for two more days! But thankfully, both her and Prince Julius are healthy.

He had been born two months after Violett, just like his bio on the game said.

—Hmm, I’m glad to hear about it, I’m pretty sure the doctor that attended her was one of the greatest —Maxwell said.

—Yeah —I half mindedly agreed, until I came to certain realization—, wait, you were that doctor!

—So? I didn’t said anything wrong.

I wanted to retort his claim, but choose not. It was thanks to her that both Erzi and I have gone through delivery safely, so I was willing to give him a bit of credit.

—Putting that aside… have you seen Prince Gaius? —I asked, still a bit worried about him.

—Hmm? Yes, he was with his mother every time I visited, and he seems to be doing better.

I let out a sigh of relief, Erzi had told me the same thing on her letters, but it was nice to have someone impartial backing it up. Without his tutor guiding him to the path of destruction, he would most likely avoid a terrible bad ending.

—By the way, the queen told me something interesting last time I visited her —the doctor said—, kids can get jealous of their younger siblings for getting all the attention, but if you involve the older kids with simple chores, the risk of this diminishes. So she has been asking young Prince Gaius to help her even before his brother was born, with things like keeping her company and holding her hand when she had to walk. It is a very interesting approach, and it seems to have a good effect of the young prince, but I can’t say I have heard about it before. Do you happen to know where she would get such fantastic idea?

The dry and interrogating tone of his words didn’t match their literal meaning.

—W-who knows, the Queen probably has access to more information than any of us —I said.

I feel like admitting I had been the one who had suggested that to Erzi would be the wrong answer.

—Is that so? —he said, sounding like he wasn’t convinced at all—, well, I think it could interest you, since you are getting really involved in your child’s care. I suppose you can ask her on your next letter, or ask her directly at the party.

—Hmm? What party?

—You haven’t received your invitation already? She was saying she wanted to make a party to celebrate the birth of her son. I would have though you would be the first to be informed of it, since you and the Queen are so close.

That was unexpected, since she didn’t do one when Gaius was born. She did sent me a letter at the time, telling me she and the baby were healthy, but nothing else.

—You seem to be under a misunderstanding —I said—, Erzi and I are childhood friends and pen pals, but that’s the extent of our relationship. A celebration such as this should only be attended by the crème of society. If I’m relevant to this nation at all, it is because of my family story, nothing more.

—I see. To be frank, that’s a bit disappointing.

—Disappointing? What part?

He smiled and buffed a bit of air, as if mocking my ignorance. Then he looked at his pocket watch and made a disgruntled noise.

—Never mind, I’ll have to see another patient. We’ll continue this conversation later, maybe even at the party —he said, hurriedly leaving the room.

—I already told you, I’m not going to be invited —I loudly proclaimed.

But surely, as if it was a bad joke from the destiny, just a few hours later, I had the invitation to the celebration right on my hand. My name was right there, so it isn’t like it had been sent to me by error.

—W-what am I going to do? —I asked, looking around at my attendants for help.

Instead, I only saw Carmila with an eerie smile on her face.

—Isn’t it great, Madame? —she said—it is the perfect opportunity to win the respect of the other nobles, isn’t it?

—Th-that’s too much pressure, can’t I fake being sick?

—That’s out of the discussion —Carmila said, forcing herself to smile even more—, you are going, even if you really got sick.

I turned towards Sophie, who was also smiling, but in a truly kind way.

—Don’t worry Madame —she said—, I’ll help you to pick up a dress that will suit you and let everyone else impressed!

—…Thank you, I’m leaving it to you —was the only thing I could say, as I resigned to my doom.