“Ah~ so peaceful~”
Ria was drinking some tea under a gazebo built in a garden.
Out of her usual character, she wore a dress. Because she liked her beautiful self, she didn’t particularly hate dresses. The problem was just that men approached her when she wore dresses.
As something else unusual, Carla was wearing also wearing a dress—a white one—and was joining her in the tea party.
The dress suited her, too. It complemented her dignified nature, but her womanly points were emphasized when she wore dresses. It could be called a beauty that was befitting for a saintess.
In addition to those two, Shizuna, Fio, and Guinevere were also wearing dresses. It was a noble’s tea party.
Although Guinevere was the only one there who wasn’t Ria’s bride, her relation to her would probably be as a sister through marriage soon enough.
Guinevere’s son was also Ria’s adopted son.
Immediately after Shizuna returned from Jaeburg, she participated in this tea party.
It appeared as though she told her parents a great many things, but Vargas gave his consent.
After that, Ria finished Cornada’s processing with Carla, returning to Manesh in a carriage.
Although Ria was worried about Carla’s mental state, since Matsukaze was sulking from her using a carriage and not him, she was the only one to return on horseback.
Carla was fully energized by the time they had returned to the capital… and so began document hell.
During her absence of just half a month, things that should have been dealt with had somehow piled up to about a full month’s amount.
Because of that, it was only a month later that she had some free time.
When she thought about talking about her conversation with the demon king Guinevere, unusually, Carla proposed that they have a tea party.
“Doing this every so often is good. Right here, relaxing under the sun.”
Everyone agreed with Ria’s leisurely remark. Basically, everyone other than Shizuna had a mountain of work to deal with.
By the way, in terms of interpersonal relationships, Guinevere was the one to laugh while being feared. Carla was the one to be liked by anyone. Ria was the husband, while there would be some discord between Fio and Shizuna.
However, today, those two didn’t have any problems.
“How is the taste?”
Carla had served some scones, but hadn’t had any herself. It’s not as though she’d poisoned them, though.
“They’re delicious. Did you make them, Carla-sama?”
Her mouth stuffed full, Shizuna asked. It was a bit shameless, but it wasn’t something that needed to pay too much attention to as Guinevere was doing the same thing.
“No, I asked for a cook from the palace to make them. It would have been somewhat inconvenient.”
It wasn’t that Carla was particularly unskilled in cooking. Ria had seen her cooking for herself in the dead of night before. It was just that she simply didn’t have the time.
“So, everyone, are your stomachs filled?”
Everyone nodded. Then, with an serious expression that matched her beauty—
“Let’s all have a chat.”
She was sitting straight up, looking each and every one of them in the eye.
Ria and the others instinctively straightened their backs as well.
“Originally, this is probably something that should be told to Ria alone first, but we are something like sisters, so…”
(Huh? This preface—)
“Therefore, I’ll say it here.”
For some reason, this felt like a breakup from a girl in Ria’s previous life.
Resolutely, Carla opened her mouth to speak.
“I am carrying a child.”
“Heh?”
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
“Who is?”