Hug Me and You'll Die

8: Noble ladies are not supposed to be gossiping about the pleasure quarters.

Under the light of the sun, the ruby inlaid on the ring shone brightly. As she closed one eye and inspected it, Desmia mused, "I wonder how much this thing is worth."

Six days had passed since Desmia had been to the summer festival and she had yet to hear from Ferris. This made her feel rather conflicted because although, she was glad to not have contact with the seventh prince's  reincarnation, since she knew that the more they saw each other, the more opportunities the God of Literature would have to meddle with their feelings, she also really wanted her compensation.

Why was he the only one to be reincarnated into a family that's wealthy anyways? It's so unfair!

Desmia pouted until she recalled a certain fact. Ah, but that's right...it's not that unfair...I may have to deal with being a pauper but he's the one who has to deal with constant discrimination. That might actually be much worse than what I have to deal with....

As she thought about Ferris' plight, her pout unconsciously shifted into a scowl. How could anyone believe that such a tiny weak crybaby was evil?..........Wait, am I...sympathizing with that bastard, right now?!

"Noooooo! This doesn't make any sense!"

"Did you say something, young mistress?" called out Kale as he worked on the garden beneath her. "It's hard to hear you when you're up there on that tree!"

Desmia glowered at him from the branch that she had been hanging upside down from. Kale! Now that I think about, the only reason why I ran into that Ice Block in the first place was because I had to look for you!

In one fluid motion, Desmia flipped backwards and landed on Kale's back. After wrapping her legs around his neck, she began to beat him with her little fists. "This is all your fault!"

Kale staggered and dropped the garden shears he had been holding onto. "What in heavens are you doing, young mistress?!"

"If you hadn't left on your own during the festival, we wouldn't be in this situation right now! Confess! Which area of the pleasure quarters did you enter!"

Kale appeared wronged. "P-p-pleasure quarters?! Young mistress, please! I did no such thing! Also, where did you even learn of that term?!!!"

"Hmph, don't try to feign innocence with me!" Desmia pulled Kale into a chokehold. "Was it the Whispering Gardens Pavilion? Was that where you went?!"

The Whispering Gardens Pavilion was the name of the most profitable brothel in the town of Elkan. From the various times that Marysol had been allowed into town, she had often heard its name being mentioned by interested parties.

"Ack! Young mistress, please calm down! While I'm not sure of the situation you're referring to, I would like to stress that I already explained my disappearance at the festival to you already!" Kale coughed. "When we went through that large crowd that day, someone pickpocketed us and I had to chase after them!"

"Couldn't you have caught them faster then?!"

"I tried, but they ran away really quickly! I was lucky to have managed to retrieve our money at all! More importantly, you're being reckless, young mistress! You can't just jump on me when I'm holding onto garden shears!" insisted Kale as he tried to safely set Desmia down. "What if you had gotten hurt or what my hands had slipped and I accidentally trimmed off too much from the rose bushes?!"