Chapter 14: Tea Party

On this day, Mia was attending a tea party under invitation from the daughter of one of the Four Dukes of the Tearmoon Empire, Emeralda Etoile Greenmoon. For girls of the nobility, tea parties were a status symbol. The successful invitation of a prestigious guest was a statement of the host's influence. In that sense, Princess Mia was in particularly high demand.

The tea party took place in a corner of a spacious garden, where the daughters of a great number of noble houses had gathered. Among them was the host, Emeralda. Her viridian hair flowed behind her, gentle and wave-like, as she turned to Mia.

"Speaking of which, Miss Mia, that was quite the bold thing you did..."

"Oh? Whatever do you mean?"

Mia took a sip of her black tea as she gave Emeralda a curious look.

"The slums, of course. I heard about what happened the other day," replied the Duke's daughter before letting out that most lofty of laughs. "Ohoho. But tell me something. I believe you gave away your treasured hairpin for the sake of commoners, yes? Whyever did you do such a pointless thing? Even Father was thoroughly perplexed by the news."

"Ah, that's what you mean..."

"At first, I'd assumed it to be a flight of fancy, but I can't help but wonder if there was some deeper meaning, especially considering it was you, Miss Mia. I've thought ever so hard, but in the end, I simply can't conceive of a reason..." she said, leaning closer and closer as she spoke.

Frankly, Mia wasn't very fond of her. Despite her constantly proclaiming herself to be Mia's best friend to everyone around her, she'd jumped ship faster than anyone else at the first hint of revolution. That was the kind of thing that got in the way of friendships. If it was up to Mia, she wouldn't even be here, but the constraints of social propriety had made it difficult to turn down the invitation. Emeralda was, like it or not, the daughter of a powerful house that shared the emperor's blood. Consequently, Mia's goal for the day was to weather the proceedings using the least effort possible and to avoid stirring up any trouble. So she opted for a fairly perfunctory response.

"Whatever I did, I did following my heart. There's no deeper meaning to it than that."

Which was really just a more diplomatic version of, "What? I did it 'cause I wanted to. Got a problem with that, punk?"

Had she been speaking to Ludwig, it would have been necessary to choose her words more carefully. For just some young girls of the nobility, though, this was as much discretion as she was willing to spare.

"How splendid. You hold such compassion in your heart, Miss Mia."

"To be caring for even commoners... Such benevolence is beyond the likes of us."

As the girls at the table all took turns showering her with compliments, Mia mentally sighed to herself.

Oh, how I wish this would end already...

"It's been a long day, hasn't it, Milady Mia?" asked Anne as soon as they started heading home in their horse-drawn carriage.

"Indeed. My shoulders feel terribly stiff," answered Mia as she twisted her neck this way and that. Her joints crackled, eliciting a sympathetic look from her maid.

"I figured you wouldn't really feel at home in that kind of atmosphere... I was right, wasn't I?"

It wasn't that Mia didn't feel at home. If anything, that was home. She'd been brought up in that kind of atmosphere. As such, the question made her a little curious.

"You figured? What makes you think so?" asked Mia in a casual tone as she idly examined the various gifts she'd received.

"Because you're different, Princess Mia. You're not like those people."

Unprepared for the sudden gravity in Anne's voice, Mia's head was still filled with such frivolous thoughts as, "My, this is ice candy. I love these. They taste so terribly good!" while her maid's speech continued.

"I doubt people like them would ever bother to visit the homes of the poor, much less spare sympathy or give away their own belongings. They're nothing like you," she said in a passionate voice.

"I-Is that... so?" stammered Mia, unable to look Anne in the eyes — those sparkling eyes filled with such honest admiration. After all, altruism was not exactly the main driving force behind Mia's actions. In fact, not a single thing she'd ever done was out of pure goodwill. There was something terribly uncomfortable about being praised so lavishly for something she didn't do. Anne's innocent and heartfelt trust weighed heavily on her conscience. In the end, she cracked, and her guilt manifested as an overwhelming need to do something nice.

"...Well, since I'm so generous, I have decided to bestow upon you a gift. You may have these."

She held out the ice candies she'd received.

"Really? Are you sure? These look really expensive!"

"It's fine. They're not especially rare..."

"Wow! Thank you so much!"

For a moment, Anne giggled with glee, but she soon fell silent. Her expression turned a tad wistful.

"Is something the matter?"

"Oh, it's just that... I was thinking how nice it'd be if I could share these with my sisters..."

"Ah, good point. In that case, how about we pay a visit to your home right now?"

"...Huh?"

"We'd better hurry, then. They're ice candies, after all. We wouldn't want them to melt before your sisters can try them, would we?"

"What? B-But— You... You can't just go to a commoner's home like that, Princess Mia. There's no way that's allowed..."

"My, but I thought you knew. Haven't you heard that your princess is a most willful young lady?"

And with that, Mia turned to the driver, leaving Anne at a complete loss for words.