She passes her hand through the black sleeve.

She doesn’t know how many times she has tried on that dress already.

Tien is driven out of the room that’s temporarily been allocated for sewing, and only the seamstress and Mona are watching Roze.

The ceremony is approaching.

That is the final check.

The seamstress has perfectly sewn the dress using outstanding techniques, proven by how seamlessly it fits on Roze’s thin body.

Out of consideration towards the difference in height between Roze and Harij, her shoes have high heels.

In such a cramped dress she isn’t unused to, and in such unreliable heels, she finds it hard to even walk straight.

After the seamstress has returned, Roze is sitting on the sofa.

“It seems that you’re really exhausted.”

Roze sits firmly again—it’s a courtesy to the sweets.

While Mona prepares the sweets brought by Tien, Roze’s body shakes gently.

A beautiful cake is served on the plate. Even at a mere glance, she can tell its delicious.

“You’ve acquired quite an unusual cake… this apple turns red when boiled…”

The confectionary, which is made by hardening the jam, has a beautiful shape. It shines like a red ball. Tien tells her that it’s because the apple’s pulp was boiled down before being sprinkled with sugar.

It’s beautiful when put on the plate, but when Roze picks it up and holds it over the light, the beauty is so exceptional, she feels proud. Light gathers on the transparent flesh—it truly gleams like a jewel.

It is Roze’s first time seeing that red confection. Just by looking, she’s already salivating.

Roze’s eyes shine as bright as the confection when she takes a bite.

The confectionery is soft and firm enough to be called chewy.

What an incredibly deep apple flavor! The taste of the rich juice is overflowing!

The sweet and sour scent of apple spreads in her mouth.

Grains of sugar stick to Roze’s her lips, and she licks them with her tongue.

“That’s right, Roze, do you know what this is?”

While sipping tea, Tien takes out a small vial from his bags. The decoration is intricate, it looks like something only noble would possess.

Roze doesn’t recognize it.

Roze tries to pick it up while biting the snack. However, she’s quite hesitant because her hands are sticky with sugar. Mona offers her a damp cloth.

She gratefully receives it and wipes her fingertips. This time, she properly receives the vial.

“What… is this?”

“Want me to tell you about it?”

Tien leans forward and approaches her face. He’s akin to a boy who wants to boast about his newly-built secret base.

Due to the nature of his job, Tien has a lot of information, but also because of his job, he can’t just share it to anyone. Not even to his real father.

But Roze is a witch.

Witches don’t tell on their customers. In the first place, they aren’t interested in anything worldly.

For a long time now, she’s been the prime target of Tien’s talkativeness.

“I obtained it from a certain source. It seems to be a very popular potion—albeit secretly—among people who have nothing to do recently.”

“Hee… this is a potion?”

She is interested in anything related to potion. She runs a pharmacy-like business, after all.

“Remember when I told you about those fainting people?”

“Yes.”

“There seems to be a rumor that it’s because of this medicine—it’s called the, ‘Witch’s love potion.’”

Mona, who’s trying to dampen the cloth, trembles. Her hand hits the plate, and the sweets fall to the floor.

Looking at the fallen plate and the confectionary, Mona’s face turns blue.

“I, I’m terribly sorry!”

“Don’t sweat it, right, Roze?”

Roze can’t shake her head. The sugar that has fallen off the cake… it’s as if the confection itself is shedding tears…

“Roze, I’ll give you my portion, Roze.”

When asked to lift her face, Roze reluctantly looks away from the confectionary.

Roze then says to the anxious Mona,

“P, please wash it, later, I’ll eat it in the kitchen…”

“Roze.”

Tien raises his voice sternly, waving his hand to Mona to carry away the confection. Remorsefully, Mona bows and takes away the fallen cake.

“If you insist upon eating that, it might be bad for your stomach, you know…” Although his tone is stunned, his face betrays happiness. Roze is embarrassed, thus turns away.

“This all happened because of your mean nature, Tien.”

“Eh? Me, mean? Why?”

“Because even though you knew Mona was close, you keep talking in a normal voice. You intended for her to hear it, right?”

Ever since he noticed Mona’s stiff expression upon the mentioning that aristocrats are involved, he must had been anticipating her reaction to the potion’s revelation.

Mona was also handing Roze a cloth at that time, there was no way for her to not see it. Could it be… he also especially choose that type of confection so that such a development would happen?

Tien squints his fox-like eyes.

“I had to make sure. The other day, when this topic was mentioned, didn’t Roze say something was wrong? Because Mona has just arrived here recently, I wanted to confirm if she has seen this vial in her previous master’s mansion…”

Tien glances down and stares behind Roze.

“—hey, so tell me, where have you seen this vial before?”

Mona has dutifully returned to the room to continue her job. But now, all she can muster to do is stand in the corner of the room with a pale blue face.

Mona replies, squeezing her voice.

“…I don’t know.”

“It’s fine. I won’t tell anyone that I heard it from you.”

“…is this… an order?”

For those who serve the mansion, the Master’s guests must be respected like the Master himself. Offending his guest is akin to offending the Master himself. Mona’s voice trembles.

“Hey.”

Roze smiles and whacks Tien’s head, saying nothing.

“This is Harij’s house, let’s not get too intimate.”

Tien stares at Roze with a stunned face, but the corners of his mouth quickly rise.

“Ugh, not even my own father has hit my head these days…”

Roze requests Mona to reheat the cold tea and Mona goes to the kitchen holding the teapot with a relieved expression.

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***T/N: …anyone know the name of the sweet??? *drools

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