WTBFCY Chapter 5

Clop-clop, clop-clop.

A week later, the carriage carrying Regina and Emma was heading toward the Jenkins estate again.

Emma looked at the small glass bottle Regina was holding to her chest like treasure as she sat across from her.

That glass bottle, which Regina wouldn't let go of as if it were precious, contained valuable water she'd obtained by barely sleeping for a full week.

"My lady, are you sure you don't want me to hold it? Or you could put it in your bag."

"No, I'll carry it. I feel safer holding it in my hand."

Regina answered, rubbing her eyes as drowsiness pressed in. To obtain this water, she'd placed a glass of water and ginger cookies by the window every night and moved the glass to where moonlight fell once every three hours.

'Will this really work?'

Honestly, she herself was skeptical, but she couldn't just sit around doing nothing.

'If that man really is a black faerie, Margaret is in danger.'

Regina bit her lower lip and gripped the small water bottle tightly. First, she needed to confirm it herself.

"Emma, don't forget to mix this into the fingerbowls at dinner. It's important, understand?"

Regina planned to mix the faerie water into the water where dinner guests washed their hands. If it really worked, wouldn't she be able to reveal that man's identity?

Regina requested this of Emma with a serious expression, thinking it would be fortunate if this turned out to be her delusion.

"Yes, I understand, my lady. This is water where a faerie bathed, right? Can I try some beforehand?"

When Emma smiled and held out both hands, Regina carefully opened the glass bottle and dropped a few drops onto Emma's palm. Then she dabbed some on her own hands and around her eyes too.

"Emma, don't look at me like I'm a child. It's not like I'm doing this because I want to."

"Oh my, when did I do that, my lady? I didn't."

When Regina made a sulky expression and scolded Emma, Emma's bright smile vanished and she straightened her face.

At that, Regina went "hmph" and pursed her lips, but still poured a bit more water onto Emma's hands.

Whinny!

"We must be here already, my lady."

The carriage stopped while Emma was patting the water Regina had given her onto her hands and eyes. At the sound of the horse, Emma opened the curtain covering the window and looked outside.

Beyond the fields where the evening sunset spread red, the Jenkins estate was showing itself in the distance.

"...Right. We're here."

Regina looked out the window, swallowing dry spit.

Her shoulders trembled without her meaning them to at the thought of meeting that platinum-haired man again. But she gathered her resolve and gripped her dress hem tightly.

As the sunset light slanted into the carriage, a shadow fell on Regina's back. Emma, watching this, rubbed her eyes when she saw something strange appear faintly.

"...?"

After blinking several times and looking forward again, the dark shadow on Regina's back had vanished cleanly.

Emma tilted her head in puzzlement, then shrugged and gathered her mistress's luggage.

"Regina, welcome!"

"Margaret! It's been so long!"

When Regina got out of the carriage, Margaret, who'd been waiting in front of the estate, hurried over to greet her.

Regina smiled brightly at her friend's warm welcome and clasped both of Margaret's hands.

The two rejoiced as if they were meeting after ten years rather than one week, walking toward the estate. The maids who'd been standing silently beside Margaret followed them quietly.

"Oh, let's go together!"

Emma also quickly joined the Jenkins estate maids after the coachman handed down her mistress's luggage.

When she staggered under the weight of the bags, one of the maids walking beside her held out a hand.

"I'll carry one of the bags for you."

"Ah, thank you."

"Not at all."

The maid, who'd put her hair up neatly under a cap, smiled prettily. Emma smiled back, thinking the maid had a strangely eye-catching appearance.

"Ah, wait a moment."

Then Emma noticed something like black ash on the maid's back and lightly brushed it off with her hand.

"...?"

"You had something black on your back."

The maid flinched at the sudden touch, and Emma lowered her hand with an awkward smile. She'd definitely seen something dark just a moment ago, but now it was clean again, which left Emma inwardly flustered.

"...Oh, I see. Thank you."

"Huh, looking again now, it's clean. I'm sorry. I must have seen wrong."

Emma apologized quickly, feeling unnecessarily embarrassed. But the maid was looking at Emma with an unreadable expression.

"...Did you see something black on my back?"

After a moment of silence, the maid spoke in a lowered voice, and Emma's eyes widened.

"What? Oh, well..."

Emma was about to answer the maid's question when Regina, who'd been walking ahead, suddenly stopped and turned to look back at her.

"Emma, don't forget what I just told you!"

"Ah, yes! My lady. Don't worry."

As people's attention focused on Emma, the maid quietly closed her mouth. Emma answered firmly, then nodded a greeting to the maid beside her before moving her steps ahead first.

The maid's eyes were quite sharp as she silently watched Emma's retreating figure, but Emma, with her back turned, didn't notice.

"What? What did you ask her to do?"

Margaret asked curiously about their conversation, but Regina glossed over it and quickly changed the subject.

"No, it's nothing. Anyway, Margaret, thanks for inviting me to dinner! Next time you should definitely come visit our estate."

"You're being so formal all of a sudden. Come on, let's go in. I prepared lots of your favorite foods for tonight."

Led by Margaret's arm into the estate, Regina's shoulders stiffened with tension. She suppressed her anxiously pounding heart and glanced around, but didn't see the platinum-haired man anywhere.

"Margaret, where's your brother by any chance? Will he be joining us for dinner tonight?"

"Brother Noah?"

When Regina asked carefully, Margaret blinked, then shrugged.

"Well, won't he attend? I'm not sure. Brother's been acting a bit strange lately."

"What?! Why?! How is he strange? Don't tell me you got hurt somewhere?!"

"Huh? No. Why would I be hurt?"

Regina grabbed Margaret and spun her around to check for injuries, afraid the black faerie had already shown its true colors, but there were no visible wounds. Regina released her friend's shoulders with a sigh of relief.

"Phew. Never mind. I've been a bit sensitive about injuries lately. So? You said your brother is acting strange?"

Margaret, who'd been turned this way and that by Regina's hands, looked bewildered, then came to her senses at the follow-up question.

"Mm? Oh, right. He kept asking strange questions here and there for several days, then suddenly one day he had the servants dig up the entrance to the garden Mother treasures."

"The garden?"

Regina suddenly remembered that when she first saw the man, he'd been standing at the garden entrance.

"But amazingly, they found jewelry Mother and I had recently lost!"

"What?"

Regina, who'd been thinking about Noah, looked at Margaret in surprise at the unexpected words. Margaret nodded and glanced back, then cupped her hand to Regina's ear and whispered quietly so the maids wouldn't hear.

"The butler told me that after seeing the jewelry buried in the ground, Brother asked him to list everyone who'd taken leave in the past month, or anyone newly hired or temporarily employed within the past month. So is the thief who stole the jewelry among them? But why the condition of 'one month'?"

Regina's head spun in confusion at Margaret's whisper. She'd heard the superstition that black fairies eat people, but this was the first she'd heard of them catching thieves.

"Well, anyway, Brother's definitely absorbed in playing detective these days. He's not even at the estate now, you know? He probably won't come to tonight's dinner either."

Margaret grumbled quietly, seeming dissatisfied with Noah's attitude.

All strength drained from Regina's body at the news that Noah wasn't at the estate.

Though she'd steeled herself for this visit, she'd felt a suffocating fear just thinking about meeting him again, so she felt inwardly relieved. But at the same time, anxiety swept over her.

'...Then the faerie water I brought today will be useless.'

Regina bit her lower lip hard. She'd become a fool's errand today because she hadn't considered the possibility of not meeting Noah.

'What should I do...?'

Regina looked anxiously at Margaret, who was chattering as she walked. She was wondering whether she should make the faerie water again when a low, gentle voice suddenly came from behind Regina.

"Margaret?"

Her heart dropped with a thud at that voice. Regina stopped without meaning to, her mind going blank, as the man's footsteps gradually approached from behind.

"Oh my, Brother! When did you get back? I thought you weren't at the estate."

Margaret turned to Noah with delight. He seemed to have just returned from going out, dressed in a neat suit with white gloves on.

"I just got back. I had business in town."

Noah answered, handing the small box he was carrying to a servant beside him. Then he noticed Regina standing next to Margaret and offered a light greeting.

"Ah, Miss Regina. It's been a while."

"Oh dear, Brother. I told you in advance she'd be visiting today. Did you forget again?"

"Did you?"

Noah approached closer with a carefree laugh, and a sweet scent wafted over. Regina had barely parted her stiffened lips to answer his greeting when she wrinkled her brow sharply at the fragrance and stumbled back without meaning to.

"...!"

It was a sickeningly sweet scent like fruit preserved in sugar water. The smell alone created the illusion of thick honey flowing down onto her tongue and wrapping around it heavily. It was a sweet smell strong enough to make her gag.

"Regina?"

"...?"

When Noah and Margaret looked at Regina with confused faces, Regina came to her senses with a start.

She'd just covered her nose and mouth with her hand and stepped back. Realizing she'd committed an extremely rude act by anyone's standards, Regina hurriedly lowered her hand in alarm.

"N-no! I'm sorry. I just dislike sweet things a bit... It's definitely not because you smell strange, so please don't misunderstand."

"A smell? Regina, what smell are you talking about?"

"Huh? There's a really sweet fragrance... Like fruit preserved in honey or sugar...?"

Regina answered hesitantly at Margaret's question. At those words, Noah, who'd had an indifferent expression, paused, then looked back at Regina.