Esperanza picked up a picture book with a drawing of a man holding a gleaming scythe under the sunlight. The blade sparkling golden in the sunlight caught her attention. Is it okay to draw such harsh pictures in children's books?
"Have you read this before?"
"It's a famous myth. But I've never read it as a picture book."
Cider picked up two copies of the sa book and placed them on the clerk's arm. It didn't seem necessary to buy two copies.
"One is for you."
That didn't seem necessary either. Anyway, since he was buying it for her, she decided to accept it gratefully. Though she didn't know if she'd ever have a day to read it.
After passing music boxes and decorative items like snow globes, and even looking at a giant dollhouse, Esperanza bought a book with only pictures and a sand board where you could draw without paper and pen. She also picked up a candy tin. Just as she was about to leave after choosing all the gifts, a large sheep doll caught her eye.
"What stuffed animals are popular?"
It was definitely a sowhat strange question. Stuffed animals generally don't follow trends. Unless there were popular characters, but in this era with almost no content business, there was no such thing.
"What custors like most is this rabbit. You can even change its clothes. The detective rabbit set is especially an essential toy that every young lady must have. Young gentlen prefer this one, the magical engineer rabbit set."
Esperanza pointed to a fluffy gray rabbit doll wearing no clothes at all.
"What about that one?"
"Ah, that's also a popular product. Usually younger custors prefer it though."
It was definitely sales talk. It was a sowhat ugly doll for noble children to like. But even if dolls are a bit ugly, they're still cute. Esperanza hugged the rabbit.
"How about this?"
When she turned her head to ask the question, Cider was completely distracted. With his waist half bent, he was pulling out a light brown rabbit from among the rabbit dolls that was tucked away in one corner, tilting his head and observing it, so he didn't seem to hear Esperanza's words. What is it? Is it a magical tool?
The answer to the mystery was surprisingly simple.
"Esperanza. Doesn't this look like you?"
"......That thing?"
"Mm. It really does look like you."
It was a doll that looked so gentle it seed a bit sleepy. When compared side by side with Esperanza's face, which had the sa eye shape, both looked so unmotivated that it had the effect of making even the observer feel bothered by everything. But it was about a million tis cuter than the gray rabbit Esperanza was holding.
"But what were you saying?"
"How about this. As a gift."
When Esperanza lifted the gray rabbit doll to face level, Cider looked at the sight with an ambiguous expression and said.
"Do you want an honest answer?"
"No."
"It's very cute."
Esperanza frowned with dissatisfaction.
"Is it that bad? It is a bit ugly, but..."
The clerk who heard his product being insulted right in front of him gave an awkward smile.
Cider took the gray rabbit from Esperanza and instead placed the brown rabbit from his hand into her arms. After tilting his head in various directions and observing the sight, he said without being able to hide his laughter.
"Then let's do this. Give this as a gift."
After saying that while shaking the gray rabbit, he grabbed the brown rabbit by its ears and picked it up from Esperanza's arms.
"And you keep this one."
Suddenly? Esperanza blinked, unable to follow the unexpectedly flowing story.
"How about it?"
"Uh, it seems good?"
"Then is that it?"
Just as she was about to answer yes, Esperanza picked up the magical engineer rabbit set that was said to be popular among young gentlen.
"This too."
Now it was Cider's turn to frown. However, he soon recovered his smile.
"Then let's do that. Put everything under the Avondale na."
"Ah, understood. Avondale, Avondale... you're Count Avondale!"
The clerk muttered "But was Count Avondale married?" and ran off to find the ledger.
A celebrity was indeed a celebrity. Esperanza belatedly noticed that even in this noisy toy store, people had been glancing at Cider.
Curiosity without particular hostility, yet burdenso attention nonetheless. And a few persistently licking gazes.
However, no one had approached to talk to him during their almost complete tour of the toy store.
"Those people keep staring like that, so why don't they talk to you?"
Esperanza asked as they left the toy store.
"Because there's no one to introduce us. It would be rude to talk without an introduction, wouldn't it?"
"Still, there should be soone who would just charge in recklessly."
"That's true, but you're here beside ."
"Why ?"
Cider, who had handed the bag containing the toys to coachman Taylor, smiled brightly.
"They wouldn't want to interrupt a date with a lady and earn resentnt, would they?"
Esperanza paused for a mont, then replied bluntly.
"Ah, yes."
Even to that insincere answer she'd heard about a million tis, Cider rather enjoyably asked back.
"You're not saying it's not a date?"
She was at a loss for words. Right, why hadn't she denied that? Esperanza stared at the sight of her hand in white silk gloves resting on Cider's arm.
'Well...'
There was no room for denial. To anyone watching, it was at least an outing between intimate gentleman and lady, and the clerk had even seen them as a married couple. Without a trace of doubt.
"I'll interpret it however I like. So, is there anywhere you want to go?"
"Well."
What was Mayton Hall like thirteen years later? It would have been more splendid than now, but she had no particular mory of it. Perhaps because she enjoyed Golden Claw purely as a dungeon conquest ga, the information she had was quite narrow despite playing for seven years. What she recalled in the end were things she had seen when she ca with Cordelia.
"The grocery shop seed interesting."
"Really?"
"It seed more chaotic than the toy store. The items, um... there were many curious things. Though there was nothing I wanted to buy."
"Everything on the market is like that. When you need sothing, you can just tell , can't you?"
Cider said casually while adjusting his hat. Esperanza asked back a beat later.
"Are you serious?"
"I'll make anything I can for you."
Certainly, from that day on, Cider's attitude had beco affectionate in ways both obvious and subtle. Though it was bewildering, Esperanza was realizing that she had been unconsciously hoping for such affection.
The kind of affection that might make her lt into this world completely.
She suddenly ca to her senses. Esperanza grumbled deliberately more and said.
"What are you thinking saying such things? Do you know what I might ask for?"
"Well. The thought that I know you better than you think I do?"
"......Really?"
At the sowhat untrustworthy words, Cider lowered his body under the brim of Esperanza's hat. His elegantly drawn face that had entered under the sa shadow was no longer smiling.
"Of course. I know well, your inner thoughts."
With his head tilted sideways, his quietly whispering voice from close enough for breath to touch was a bit lower than usual. Esperanza swallowed her breath. Cider straightened his body as if nothing had happened.
"In that sense, I'll try to guess sothing you'd like."
Leather workshop, luxury watch store, automaton specialty shop, bookstore, steam carriage showroom.
They quickly passed by shops that would still have nas thirteen years later. Cider, who had been passing by obviously high-end shops as if he couldn't see them, stopped at a small shop at the end of the corridor.
"Here?"
What kind of place is this? There were quite a few people. Children holding noble ladies' hands were stamping their feet. More children again. But this ti it wasn't just children. Gentlen and ladies of more diverse ages than expected were seated at tables outside the shop. And in their hands were...
"It's an ice cream shop. You know places like this too?"
"It's my first ti coming here."
That seed likely.
"It must be a famous shop."
There were more people than at the cafe they went to last ti. What Cider ordered for Esperanza was sherbet with crunching ice. The distinctive fragrance of tropical fruit spread in her mouth.
"Wow. Wooow..."
It was real tropical fruit flavor without any artificial scents. It was sour yet sticky-sweet in the aftertaste while simultaneously making her mouth cold. Befitting Mayton Hall where not just anyone could open a shop, even the ice cream shop was extraordinary.
"I don't need to ask if you like it."
Cider was propping his chin and staring intently at Esperanza eating. Even though his own ice cream was half-eaten and lting.
"Aren't you eating? You don't like it but ca here reluctantly?"
"How could that be? Am I that kind of person?"
No. Esperanza finished the sherbet completely without leaving a single spoonful. She didn't even know she wanted to eat sothing like this, but how did this man know?
"If I knew you'd like it this much, I should have brought out the freezer."
"You have a freezer? I've never seen you use it."
"It was cold."
That wasn't sothing to say in a mansion that ran heating equipnt powered by magic throughout. Avondale mansion mostly operated by human labor, but it generously used cutting-edge technology for parts that human hands couldn't reach.
"And even if there's a freezer, I'm alone, so what would I use frozen ice for? Sharing with the servants is only good once or twice."
Cider doesn't enjoy snacks like ice cream. He doesn't dislike them, but he wasn't the type to bring out the freezer from storage just to eat them. Did he even have any food he particularly enjoyed in the first place?
"But now you're here."
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